[Sorry this is posting late. We've had some connection issues today...]
I just received my copy of writer John Pavlovitz’ newest book. Pavlovitz is one of my favorite writers on spirituality and the state of the church these days. He’s blunt and honest and I like his work.
This book is so new I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but what I have done is to leaf through it and read a few tidbits here and there. Just to give an idea of how good I think it’s going to be, just on that first brief look through I found two statements that I found so interesting and provocative that I’d like to share them here today to see what you think about them.
The first one comes right at the beginning in Chapter One. Pavlovitz is here discussing his personal faith journey over the years --
Now to be honest, I have to say that I have felt this same way for a long time – that the boxes we call ‘church’ or ‘faith’ always turn out to be too small to hold the fullness of the One I call God.
I’ve been on my own spiritual journey for most of my adult life. I’m not going to bore you with the story of my journey, because that’s my journey and not what I’m here to talk about today. I will say that my journey has taken me to a lot of places – not geographically but intellectually and spiritually. I would try some new way to grow and expand my faith journey but after a while that ‘new’ way would start to become boxed in by ever more strict rules that kept it from being anything but just another box.
I understand Pavlovitz’ frustration – especially as he puts it here. For him, organized religion has been an exercise in “diminishing returns with God getting progressively bigger, while the space he’d once created to contain that God grew more and more restrictive”. That’s why I myself am a hybrid mix of Christian Church: Disciples of Christ, and United Church of Christ. Both these denominations not only allow me to find my own answers, they encourage it.
So where do you stand here? Is your faith comfortable in a box with strict rules laid out as to what is and what is not, what can be, and what cannot? Where exactly does God exist? What were you taught when you were a child about where God lives and does the God you know today still live there?
In the ancient years it was generally believed that the gods lived in specific places in nature – mountain tops, deep caves, holy springs and there they were worshiped. Even as the Hebrew religion was forming into the faith Jesus was born into, there was often an overlay of nature religion still within the new faith. But with the coming of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple built by David and Solomon, God moved indoors, to take up residence in a literal box -- the Holy of Holies, deep in the heart of the massive Temple -- a god in a box -- no longer free in the world but enclosed inside and only to be approached at rare moments by the High Priest.
My usual practice with these messages recently has been to start with an interesting quote and then move to scripture for verses and stories that amplify the message of the quote. I’m not doing that today, simply because there is an endless list of verses about where and how God exists and all of them are different. We today have a such a multitude of places where various people believe God “lives,” and we could find a bible verse or two or three to support any idea out there so I’m going to pass on the verses today. Except for one.
Many will confidently tell us that God lives in ‘heaven” while not being able to explain just where or what Heaven is. If we insist on a Bible verse, I myself prefer the one found in John 15:4: Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you.
Aside from where God is, many of our current manifestations of Christianity still want to keep god in their own little boxes – the ones that let them feel they have control of their own faith journey – the ones where they know all the rules. The problem with that, in my eyes, and apparently in Pavlovitz’ as well, is that the smaller the box, the smaller the God.
We would do well to remember what Aslan said in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – “I am not a Tame Lion!” And God is not a tame God to live in some small box hedged round by man-made rules – liking all the people we like, comfortable wherever we are comfortable.
When I started here I said I had two quotes from Pavlovitz’ book so I don’t want to forget the second quote, because it is a real thought-provoker itself. This one comes in Chapter Four, I believe:
Again, what do you think or believe about this statement? Are you content to let your journey be a little messy and unorganized or do you need it to be tied up in a neat package with “facts” and figures?
For me, a tightly organized faith is usually one that is packed neatly into its box. When I was younger I thought I knew all about God and church and faith. I knew the right boxes. It turns out that the older I grow, the less I’m willing to claim I actually “know.”
The orthodoxy, the canonicity of a faith statement interests me less and less as my journey progresses and as my theologian husband can attest, I am bored witless by systematic theology.
I want to know and believe in a God who is bigger than me. One that my human limitations will not allow me to fully grasp or understand. I am comfortable within that mystery.
I want to know what my journey with God means here and now, in the work I do in this world, in this time. What difference, if any, do my choices make in the world right now?
If you’d like to ponder these questions a little deeper I’ll be posting the text for this message on our Facebook page and our website, so you can find the two quotes there. I hope this leaves you with some questions and that you might be nudged to think about them some more and seek some answers for yourself. Maybe even get to know your God better.
Oh, yes, and the title of the new book is If God is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk, with the sub-title, Finding a Faith that Makes Us Better Humans. The author is John Pavlovitz and it’s published by Westminster John Knox Press. I recommend it. There’s a lot to think about in there.
I just received my copy of writer John Pavlovitz’ newest book. Pavlovitz is one of my favorite writers on spirituality and the state of the church these days. He’s blunt and honest and I like his work.
This book is so new I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but what I have done is to leaf through it and read a few tidbits here and there. Just to give an idea of how good I think it’s going to be, just on that first brief look through I found two statements that I found so interesting and provocative that I’d like to share them here today to see what you think about them.
The first one comes right at the beginning in Chapter One. Pavlovitz is here discussing his personal faith journey over the years --
- “If I’m honest, the further I’ve walked into my adult life and the more open I’ve been to being surprised and to changing my mind and to considering better stories about spiritual things, the more organized religion has been an exercise in diminishing returns: God getting progressively bigger, while the space I’d once created to contain that God grows more and more restrictive, more and more suffocating.”
Now to be honest, I have to say that I have felt this same way for a long time – that the boxes we call ‘church’ or ‘faith’ always turn out to be too small to hold the fullness of the One I call God.
I’ve been on my own spiritual journey for most of my adult life. I’m not going to bore you with the story of my journey, because that’s my journey and not what I’m here to talk about today. I will say that my journey has taken me to a lot of places – not geographically but intellectually and spiritually. I would try some new way to grow and expand my faith journey but after a while that ‘new’ way would start to become boxed in by ever more strict rules that kept it from being anything but just another box.
I understand Pavlovitz’ frustration – especially as he puts it here. For him, organized religion has been an exercise in “diminishing returns with God getting progressively bigger, while the space he’d once created to contain that God grew more and more restrictive”. That’s why I myself am a hybrid mix of Christian Church: Disciples of Christ, and United Church of Christ. Both these denominations not only allow me to find my own answers, they encourage it.
So where do you stand here? Is your faith comfortable in a box with strict rules laid out as to what is and what is not, what can be, and what cannot? Where exactly does God exist? What were you taught when you were a child about where God lives and does the God you know today still live there?
In the ancient years it was generally believed that the gods lived in specific places in nature – mountain tops, deep caves, holy springs and there they were worshiped. Even as the Hebrew religion was forming into the faith Jesus was born into, there was often an overlay of nature religion still within the new faith. But with the coming of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple built by David and Solomon, God moved indoors, to take up residence in a literal box -- the Holy of Holies, deep in the heart of the massive Temple -- a god in a box -- no longer free in the world but enclosed inside and only to be approached at rare moments by the High Priest.
My usual practice with these messages recently has been to start with an interesting quote and then move to scripture for verses and stories that amplify the message of the quote. I’m not doing that today, simply because there is an endless list of verses about where and how God exists and all of them are different. We today have a such a multitude of places where various people believe God “lives,” and we could find a bible verse or two or three to support any idea out there so I’m going to pass on the verses today. Except for one.
Many will confidently tell us that God lives in ‘heaven” while not being able to explain just where or what Heaven is. If we insist on a Bible verse, I myself prefer the one found in John 15:4: Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you.
Aside from where God is, many of our current manifestations of Christianity still want to keep god in their own little boxes – the ones that let them feel they have control of their own faith journey – the ones where they know all the rules. The problem with that, in my eyes, and apparently in Pavlovitz’ as well, is that the smaller the box, the smaller the God.
We would do well to remember what Aslan said in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – “I am not a Tame Lion!” And God is not a tame God to live in some small box hedged round by man-made rules – liking all the people we like, comfortable wherever we are comfortable.
When I started here I said I had two quotes from Pavlovitz’ book so I don’t want to forget the second quote, because it is a real thought-provoker itself. This one comes in Chapter Four, I believe:
- “Faith isn’t about surety but about suspicions; it’s an aspirational orientation. A movement toward something just slightly out of reach, something that propels you to ask and seek and knock — because you don’t know it all yet. There is nothing organized or neat or easy about this.”
Again, what do you think or believe about this statement? Are you content to let your journey be a little messy and unorganized or do you need it to be tied up in a neat package with “facts” and figures?
For me, a tightly organized faith is usually one that is packed neatly into its box. When I was younger I thought I knew all about God and church and faith. I knew the right boxes. It turns out that the older I grow, the less I’m willing to claim I actually “know.”
The orthodoxy, the canonicity of a faith statement interests me less and less as my journey progresses and as my theologian husband can attest, I am bored witless by systematic theology.
I want to know and believe in a God who is bigger than me. One that my human limitations will not allow me to fully grasp or understand. I am comfortable within that mystery.
I want to know what my journey with God means here and now, in the work I do in this world, in this time. What difference, if any, do my choices make in the world right now?
If you’d like to ponder these questions a little deeper I’ll be posting the text for this message on our Facebook page and our website, so you can find the two quotes there. I hope this leaves you with some questions and that you might be nudged to think about them some more and seek some answers for yourself. Maybe even get to know your God better.
Oh, yes, and the title of the new book is If God is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk, with the sub-title, Finding a Faith that Makes Us Better Humans. The author is John Pavlovitz and it’s published by Westminster John Knox Press. I recommend it. There’s a lot to think about in there.
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