I Wonder

On last week's blog, Tiffany posted about the seeming loss of mystery within legalism. She said it so well that I want to quote it here:

I think one of the most tragic aspects of our legalism is the loss of mystery. We seem to want to learn enough so that we can explain God. How dare we try to claim that we can ever fully understand Him? When we lose our sense of His mystery, He becomes nothing more than a scientifically explainable phenomenon, something we can comprehend and therefore control. Or at least we fool ourselves into thinking so.

I think she has hit something on the head. As a part of my heritage in an Enlightenment-born faith, one of the great pursuits has been for knowledge. We have tried to figured out all of the aspects of religion and to put it into a nice little box, whether it's the Trinity or grace or any of the great mysteries of faith.

One of the things that I'm figuring out as I go through life is that God is so much bigger than I ever imagined. It's like my parents getting smarter the older I get. There is a mystery to God that if I try to figure it out, there's something deeply profound lost there. Mystery is a fact of faith. Without mystery, there is almost no faith. It's only knowledge.

And the truth of the matter is, as much as I'm starting to recognize that God is bigger and more mysterious than I have imagined, so is the Gospel. The Gospel is the love of God that fills me with wonder and calls me to action. It reminds me of something that I heard Todd Hunter say once. When we have reduced the Gospel to a bumper sticker, we have lost the mystery. And the implications of that statement are profound.

It means that the Gospel is not spread in drive-by evangelism. Bringing someone to church as the primary means of "conversion" is not something that holds value. If the Gospel is more than a bumper sticker, or 5 steps, or getting every jot and tittle right, then what is it?

It's relationship. It's loving someone no matter his or her condition, spiritual, physical, or whatever. It's being willing to sacrifice ourselves at the altar of others' needs. It's showing the love of Christ in our words and our actions.

But it takes us as believers to recognize the wonder of the mystery of God. If we lose that wonder, how can we pass it on? If our faith is reduced to knowledge or mentally assenting to a predetermined set of issues, where is the wonder? That child-like awe that comes from recognizing that there is mystery, that there is more than we know, and more than we could ever know.

The Poetry of the Trinity

The post today is an altered version of a talk I gave at Otter Creek's contemplative service on Wednesday night. Judy Thomas told me I had to post it, and well, I always listen to my blogmom.

The Scriptures I refer to are Exodus 3:1-6, Romans 8:12-17, and John 3:1-16 That'll help with some of the context.

The Scriptures above are all ones intended to cast our minds toward the Trinity, as this coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday according to the High Church Calendar.

Because of this, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Trinity and how it seems to work both in our theology and our practice. Ever since the doctrine of the Trinity was officially recognized in 381 by the Council of Constantinople, I think that Christianity has looked at it as the final call on the matter, which I believe it is. Although historically some churches, including some churches of Christ, have not deemed it so. For instance, the song Holy, Holy, Holy has had lyrics changed in some of our hymnals from to "God over all, and blest eternally" from "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity," which is especially peculiar considering that Holy, Holy, Holy was written specifically for Trinity Sunday, but…

What I would like to bring up is how we think about the Trinity. As I stated before, I think that we’ve thought about the Trinity as the final answer on the nature of God. He exists simultaneously as the overall Creator God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, the Comforter who remains with us in this time before eternity. I had the book 3 in 1 as a kid, that used an apple with the peel, the meat, and the core to illustrate the Trinity. Good as far as it goes, but even comparisons like that can break down.

However, this can sometimes be a very cold way to think about God. We split him up into pieces and parts and relegate each part with a function and everything fits into its nice and neat section. But honestly, I don’t think the Trinity works that way. I think the Trinity works like poetry.

Have any of you ever wondered why there is so much poetry in Scripture? I don’t know this for sure, but I would imagine that anywhere from 30 to 40% of the Bible is poetry, mainly in sections that we skip over like the prophets and the longer Psalms, but if we think about it, poetry must have some meaning for it to be so prominent in our Scripture.

In a section of his book, Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller talks about the use of poetry in Scripture. One of his assertions is that poetry allows God through the writers to express ideas and feelings and emotions that cannot be expressed any other way. He says:

I began to wonder if the ancient Hebrews would have understood this intrinsically, if they would have sat around watching plays and reading poems knowing this is where real truth lies, and if our age, affected by the Renaissance and later by the Industrial Revolution, by Darwin and the worship of science, hasn't lost a certain understanding of truth that was more whole. If you have a girlfriend and you list some specifics about her on a piece of paper—her eye color, her hair color, how tall she is—and then give her this list over a candlelight dinner, I doubt it will make her swoon. But if you quote these ideas to her in a poem:

She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes …

… she is more likely to understand the meaning, the value inferred by your taking notice of her features. The same ideas, expressed in poetry, contain a completely different meaning. She would understand you were captivated by a certain mystery in her aspect, in her eyes and her stride and the features perfectly met upon her face. And while our earlier conceived list of features might have been accurate, it certainly wouldn't have been meaningful.

It makes you wonder if guys like John the Evangelist and Paul and Moses wouldn't look at our systematic theology charts, our lists and mathematical formulas, and scratch their heads to say, Well, it's technically true; it just isn't meaningful.

I think so many parts of our life work like this, and if we open ourselves to the poetry of life, we open ourselves to meaning and the joy and sadness and anger and energy that comes from all of that. Poetry is hard to understand. It takes thinking and considering and pondering. Many things that are not currently commodities we take the time for. That’s one of the reasons I love the music of Rich Mullins. He was someone in our time that I think could capture a bit of God with the lyrics and music that he made. Listen to the lyrics of the songs sometime and try to work in that. (From Sometimes By Step: Sometimes I think of Abraham/ And how one star he saw had been lit for me.... Or from The Color Green: And the moon is a sliver of silver/ Like a shaving that fell from the floor of a carpenter's shop....)

The Trinity is the same way. It’s not intended to be a systematic solution to the issue. It’s poetry. It’s the Father and the Son and the Spirit working together as one God. How? I don’t know, I don’t understand. But it’s not up to me to figure out how it works. It simply is. It’s poetry. It’s Love and that Love drives me to follow the Master and not simply espouse belief in him but do his teachings. It’s also a call to unity. For all of our disparate parts to come together in unity for the passionate pursuit of the Kingdom: Male, female; black, white, and every color in between; free thinking, anal; forceful, kind. For all of those to come together in a mission: the mission of sharing the love of God which is the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Trinity is our model for unity. May we strive to live out that poetry in our own lives.

So I ask you, gentle readers, what is the poetry in your lives? What do you do to try to find poetry in your lives?

Just for info: I got an article published at Allelon. It’s an old blogpost from here, but it’s kind of cool to be published on the same site as Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, and Adam Ellis. Well, maybe not that last guy.

So.

About two weeks ago, I finished reading Brian McLaren’s conclusion to the New Kind of Christian trilogy, The Last Word and the Word After That (I’d post links, but you can get them from the post previous to this one). It is a book that deconstructs the idea of Heaven and Hell in ways that I’m not entirely comfortable with, yet, and really causes me to question some of the basic fundamentals of the way I approach faith. For instance, if Christianity is NOT all about getting to Heaven at the end of life (whatever Heaven means), but it’s about recruiting participants in the Kingdom of God, have we gone about the whole evangelism thing wrong?

Also, have we made a mistake in overfocusing on Hell? In other words, if we focus on Hell, we’re going to scare people away from it, for certain, but in my experience, people are only going to adhere to Christianity as long as there is a fear of Hell. Once that fear is gone, so is the reason to stick with Christianity.

And what about salvation? Have I misdefined that? And what does Judgement mean? One idea I ran across in the book is that we are saved by grace through faith, but we’ll still be judged by what we do. Honestly, this was a spiritual earthquake to me. My whole adult spiritual life has been struggling against the idea of a works-based theology, but you know, as I read the Gospels, Jesus talks a heck of a lot more about what we do than what we believe. I know I’m saved by the grace of God, but that grace calls me to do something. If I don’t, do I really have faith?

I don’t know quite yet what all of this means theologically. I really don’t, but I do know what it is. I know it’s a call to action. It’s a call to get out of my comfort zone and share the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Without that, I’m a white-washed tomb. Without taking action, what’s the point of having a belief?

England Scotland Travelogue - 2005 Thoughts

So, it's been five years now since the trip to England. Honestly at this point in my life, I can say that it's my third best memory behind my wedding and the birth of Kinsey.

It truly is incredible to think that Sheryl and I walked in places that have been trod for at least 2000 years. The streets of London and seeing the Roman wall. The structures of Dunnottar Castle. Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We were really honored to be there and it's something that we will never ever forget.

I am really looking forward to going back there with Sheryl and Kinsey in October. One of the regrets of our trip is that we didn't have a chance to really interact with people. We were seeing the sites and visiting places and driving and all of that. We didn't get to talk to people and we're going to get to do that in October. We'll be in someone's house and we'll be talking and working beside people. That's what I'm really looking forward to.

Well, next week, I'm going back to my regular Friday schedule. I've just finished reading Brian McLaren's new book, The Last Word and the Word After That, which is the last book in the New Kind of Christian trilogy. The other book is The Story We Find Ourselves In. Anyway, The Last Word... has been giving me a lot of thoughts on Heaven and Hell and judgement and salvation that I'm going to try to work through here.

Thanks for indulging me on this travelogue. If you're here in Nashville and want to see pictures, we've got plenty of those to show as well.

2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
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Day One of the trip

England Scotland Travelogue - Post Trip Thoughts

2005 Note: Sheryl and I were so tired when we got back home to Nashville on June 3rd that I didn't write an entry in the travelogue. However, when I initially typed in this journal about 18 months later, I wrote this postlogue. I'll probably post one more time tomorrow on this trip and then get back to my regular Friday schedule.

Well, I intended to write a post-trip reaction about six months after we got back, but life managed to intervene as it always does and I’m only getting to it now. Things have changed for Sheryl and me. I’m no longer teaching, but working as a tech writer, and we now have a beautiful, six-month-old little girl, Kinsey Morgan. But this isn’t about her; it’s about extended reactions to our trip.

Well, I can honestly say that the part we cherish most is the part in Scotland. I think some of that has to do with our fascination with the land. Sheryl and I have joked that if our families didn’t live so close to us, we’d like to live there. What we’ve now decided is that when we get rich, we’ll have a home here in Nashville and one in Edinburgh.

We talk about driving a lot, mainly because it’s so different from here in America. The other joke we make is that if an American marriage can survive driving in Great Britain, it can survive anything. Probably vice versa on the nationalities.

This trip really was a life changer for Sheryl and me. Not in dramatic ways, but in the sense that it gave us a chance to view how others. That was also affected by the September 11 attacks. In watching some of the international coverage, when I saw the Guard at Buckingham played our National Anthem and saw that same song sung in St. Paul’s Cathedral, I felt an even stronger connection with that land.

That’s another one of the aftereffects of this trip. I love seeing places on TV that I’ve been. Seeing Buckingham, St. Paul’s, Parliament, Westminster, Edinburgh Castle, and all of the other places we saw, it just is a cool feeling to look over at Sheryl and say, "We were there." To look on a map and be able to say, "We were there. Our feet walked those streets" is an extraordinary feeling. 2005 Note: As happened in the Amazing Race on May 3rd, when the remaining four contestants took the Heathrow Express to Paddington and Sheryl and I saw the restaurant we ate at before seeing Les Miz.

We definitely want to go back and see some things we didn’t get to see, like Iona, York, and Glastonbury. We also want to spend more time in Scotland, because it was so beautiful there. Sheryl and I have talked about maybe doing a motorcycle tour, not that either of us knows how to ride. Or course with Kinsey now, we really want her to see all of the things that we saw. She will, too, one of these days.

2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day Ten
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Day Seven
Day Five
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Thirteen

Friday, 2 June 2000 London

Not a bad day at all. We went to the Globe Theater and got our tickets for the 2 pm Hamlet. We then wandered around and had some lunch. We got back there about 1:15 to stand in line. We talked to a couple of people and then got our "seats" as Groundlings. I say that because as Groundlings, we were on the floor in front of the stage. In fact, it was front row for Hamlet at the Globe theatre in London.

It was great. The acting was strong and you felt like you were there 400 years ago. We stood the whole time except intermission and then we couldn’t stretch out. They obviously cut some scenes out and one that I didn’t understand, like between Hamlet and the Norweigan Captain (Act IV, Scene 4) when Hamlet says that all his thoughts would be bloody. I’ve always considered that the turning point of the play. Anyway, we really enjoyed all three hours.

We then went back to Harrods and got Sheryl a bag and me an England Football cap. Then to Hyde Park to see Speaker’s Corner and then to the Barry. We had dinner at a nice little Italian place up the road from Paddington Station. Finally, home to pack and ready to go to our real home, Nashville.

Before the Globe, we went to Westminster Abbey again to get some shirts for family and on our way back, Westminster Station closed down because of a bomb threat. We didn’t know it at the time, so we weren’t scared, just curious. It turned out to be a false alarm, which was good, but I understand the precautions after the Hammersmith Bridge bomb yesterday.

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
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Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Twelve

Thursday, 1 June 2000 London

Well, we’re back here at Barry House. It’s a different room, bigger which is good, but it’s not great and for what we’re paying, I guess it’s for the location. Neither Sheryl nor I like it much.

Today, we got to Euston Square 45 minutes late and then rolled our luggage from the Square to Euston Station to avoid jumping Tubes. We rode to Paddington and had to go the long way to get here to Barry. Once we got settled, we went to the London Eye Ferris wheel to get tickets for tonight at 9:30, the last time round. We figured it would be dark then and we’d get good pics.

We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to tour and we really enjoyed the architecture. Sheryl and I climbed to the 2nd level and then I went on alone to the next 2 outer levels. Not bad, but the Eye ended up being better.

We went back to the Texas Embassy to eat, then journeyed back down to the Imperial War Museum. I wish we’d had more time there, because their WWII section was incredible and amazing. Uniforms, flags, pictures, memorabilia, all sorts of things were in this. Probably the highlights were seeing the actual maps that the Nazis were using to plan their invasion of Britain and this interactive experience that showed what the London Blitz was like. We spent two hours almost there, but then went to Harrods again, got a bear, saw the Diana-Dodi Memorial, big deal.

We came back to Barry and then to the Eye. We saw some great sights from above, hopefully got some great pictures and generally had a good time. We came back to Barry, which made us long for home. Tomorrow the Globe and Hamlet, then Saturday, Home!

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Eleven

Wednesday, 31 May 2000 Sleeper train from Inverness to London-Euston Station

You know, I don’t see how anyone who sees the Highlands couldn’t simply fall in love with them.

This morning, we left Bimini about 9:30 after having a great conversation with Collin, the host, and made our way across the country to Inverness. It is really difficult to put into words exactly how beautiful they were. We saw snowcapped mountains, rivers that created valleys, country roads, manor houses, and sometimes all together. It is always gratifying when a trip or better an area exceeds what you expect and Scotland has done that.

We stopped at the site of the Culloden battle field that Sheryl’s read about in the Outlander series. It was interesting to see the clan markers and the main monument, but it started pouring rain after a bit, so we ran back to the car.

We got to Inverness and shopped a bit. Sheryl drove for the first time in town and got to experience the nerve-wracking joy that is. We got turned around a couple of times and finally dropped the car off and walked to the Rail Station.

We stayed in a room for sleeper passengers for a couple of hours reading, met a 4 1/2 year old adorable boy named Oliver from "Hartfordshire in town called Trent" and boarded the train. We also met a family from Wisconsin who were on holiday and had been to Iona, a place we wished we’d been able to go. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Our accommodation makes Barry House look like the Ritz. Barely any room and even less with our luggage. It’s not the Orient Express. That’s for certain. But tomorrow, back to London for three more days.

2005 Thoughts
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Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Ten

Tuesday, 30 May 2000 Aberdeen

Never thought driving could be so stressful. We taxied out to the Edinburgh Airport, a 21-pound job, to ride for more time to get our rental car. It’s an Accord and very nice.

Driving in Britain is very tiring. Obviously you have the left side stuff, but that doesn’t feel too bad, because the driver side on the right. It’s little stuff, like I curbed the left side several times, mainly because I couldn’t see it well. Roundabouts are hard too. You have to look right first, always. You take whatever your first chance is. Also, the rearview mirror is on the left too, which is not instinctual. We only had one really close call, but that was mainly because it is apparently all right to park anywhere on the road in Britain.

At any rate, we left Edinburgh and went to Dundee, where I got an English National Football Team jersey for the best price I’ve seen. I wonder if that’s because it was in Scotland. Heh.

We left Dundee and headed south to St. Andrews, where we picked up some golfing things for family, and a gold Celtic pendant for me, and we had lunch. We then headed north toward Aberdeen and Dunnottar. We hit a couple of rain showers and saw a rainbow over the North Sea. It was brilliant, so we decided to stop and take a picture. We pulled into a parking lot and realized that we were looking at the ruins of Dunnottar and past that the rainbow.

It was amazing. We shot 1 1/2 rolls of film there, the 36 exposure kind. Sheryl was like a kid in a candy shop and I was too. We were running at many places, seeing new things everywhere. It was incredible. Then we got caught in the rain and another rainbow showed up. Amazing.

2005 Note: In reading this again, I realized there's no real context for why we visited Dunnottar. My grandmother on my mom's side is from the Keith Clan, which owned this castle for a long time and so there was a family tie there. Also, Sheryl and I are deeply interested in Scottish history and castles as well, so Dunnottar wrapped all of this up together. Easily one of our favorite things in the whole trip.

We finally headed out and after driving all the way through Aberdeen, because our directions were screwed. We finally got to Bimini House and after eating dinner, crashed here in the room.

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Nine

Monday, 29 May Edinburgh

What a great day. The best of the trip. We bussed down to the Edinburgh City Centre. Then we walked to the Royal Mile and up to Edinburgh Castle. Amazing. We did the tour and saw some really great stuff, like the room where James VI and I was born. We also saw the Honours of Scotland, the Crown Jewels, and the Stone of Destiny, which was just returned in 1996 after 700 years.

We then headed down the Royal Mile and pretty much went into every tartan shop, looking at a lot of different things. It was really nice and comfortable. Sheryl and I headed down to Holyrood House, Queen Elizabeth’s residence when she’s in Edinburgh. We snapped a couple of shots, then headed up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s a crag about 850 ft. above Edinburgh. We climbed up and got some great views. The wind was blowing and although the climb was difficult, it was more than worth it.

We walked backed down and hit some more stores. We dined of course at a fine restaurant, Pizza Hut. We finally headed back, taking the bus, which didn’t go all the way. So we walked the rest of the way and with our feet expanding from hitting the pavement multitudinous times, we ripped our shoes off in our room and hit the bed.

2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
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Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro