Jesus' Tomb?

With the supposed discovery of Jesus' family tomb in Jerusalem, it gives us opportunity to pause to consider the question, "What if Jesus did not rise from the dead?" There are already Christians who don't believe in even the possibility of Jesus rising from the dead, so this question is not exactly new. In fact, it has plagued the church for centuries.

First, let me say that I believe in at least the possibility of Jesus rising from the dead, not because I believe in "miracles" in an Enlightenment understanding, but because it fits very nicely into the sweep of the Biblical narrative. In other words, Biblically speaking, it is a viable stand to take. Of course, that doesn't automatically mean that it actually happened in an empirical sense. But given what we know about Biblical history it is quite possible.
With that said, what if it was proved beyond any doubt that Jesus didn't rise from the dead as recorded in the Gospel accounts? Would that mean that Christianity is discredited for good? I suppose that would depend on who you talked to. Frankly, I think that traditionally we Christians have been quite sloppy in our thinking about Jesus' entire life and ministry, and we are reaping the fruits of our sloppiness. We've taken the events of Jesus' life as recorded in the Gospels, placed them on the chopping block, and turned them into the isolated incidences in the life of a very interesting man from which we can derive benign and pious platitudes. With this approach, Jesus can only be a mascot for pet agendas.

Before we start haggling over whether Jesus rose from the dead or not, we need to rethink our approach to Biblical studies altogether. To date, the Bible has been used as a collection of sound bites and "proof passages" to bolster various systematic theologies. This will not do anymore. What the church needs are very creative people who can open up the world of the Bible and make the narrative jump off of the pages and give them life. Very few people are qualified to do this, but maybe this is something that all of us Christians can strive for. And I don't consider myself to be among the qualified.

But until this happens, I'm not interested in the upcoming squabble at all. The questions that will arise from this debate will be absolutely meaningless, and will just end up being one more exercise in missing the point. It's just going to be yet another manifestation of the liberal-conservative impasse, and it will go nowhere.

Wake me up when it's over. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Projecting and Judging

Your awareness of reality is nothing more and nothing less that a projection of your own thoughts. It's like you're watching your own movie. Shakespeare was onto something when he said that all the world is a stage.

This is all any of us know how to do. We can't do anything different. We project our own stories. We run into problems when we try to manipulate and change reality because reality isn't the problem. We think it is because we don't know any better. We have been led to believe that everything outside of ourselves is what's really wrong with the world. So we judge it and find it lacking.

That's it! We project and we judge the projection. But here's the deal-- when we judge others, what we're really doing is judging our own thoughts and stories, but without the awareness that that's what we're actually doing. See how that works? We haven't realized this because, until recently, no one has come along to point this out to us.

What this means is that others, or even God, are never your problem. When you're watching a movie in a theater, and the picture seems fuzzy, is the picture the problem? Of course not! The problem is the projector. It's out of focus. Fix the projector!

You can fix you, the projector, by questioning the thoughts and stories that tell you that something's really wrong with the world. Ask yourself if your stories are true and sit with that question. Don't force an answer. Let it just arise to meet the question.

Jesus, the "Other Than"

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Something occurred to me as I was on my walk this morning. I'm beginning to think that it's appropriate, and also necessary, to believe that these words describe not only Jesus, but us as well. Until we do this, Jesus will continue to appear to be a stranger to us and to others. Appropriating the words of Jesus to our own being would be nothing more and nothing less than the practice of the Real Presence.

A great shift in thinking and awakening would occur if we ceased to view Jesus as "other than". We are supposed to see Jesus in other people as commanded by our Lord in Matthew 25, but can we see Jesus in ourselves? I would go so far as to say that the latter must precede the former. Until we see ourselves as the way and the truth and the life, and demonstrate to others that they participate in this with us, no one will come to the Father at all.

Katie's Jesus

I hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws by doing this, but this is one of the most incredible things I have ever read. I present to you chapter 72 in its entirety. It's so clear and so true! It's from Byron Katie's newest book, "A Thousand Names for Joy". Any errors in this text are mine only.

When they lose their sense of awe, people turn to religion.-- Tao Te Ching

A Christian asked me if I had ever met Jesus. I'm a lover of God-- in other words, a lover of reality. I like to meet you there, which is here, now.

I don't know much about Jesus, except that he loved God. He was a man with a wonderful way that worked for him-- someone who truly lived it. I know what that is. I found a wonderful way, too, and I live it. And, of course, that's not true. "I" didn't find the way, it found me, when there wasn't even a me to find. The way is simply what it is. It doesn't bend to what anyone thinks it should be, it is its own integrity, it is infinitely intelligent and kind. To my mind, if Jesus is the way, I meet him in everyone, because the way is nothing more than a mirror image of my own thinking.

Christians say they love Jesus, but that's easy to believe when things are going your way. If Jesus walked into this room, everyone would love him, some whould even fall at his feet and worship him, until he said something that threatened their religion, which is the concept they're attached to in the moment. Then he'd become an enemy. "He's a radical. He's not what I thought he'd be. He hangs out with the wrong people. A spiritual teacher shouldn't be political. He's contradicting the scriptures. His head's in the clouds. He doesn't understand." People will write off even the clearest, most loving person in the world when he opposes their belief system. They will invalidate him, negate him, obliterate him, prove that he's wrong, he's a fraud, he's dangerous to society, so that they can protect what they really believe is important. They'd rather be right than free.

When you revere a spiritual teacher, it's yourself that you're revering, because you can't project anything but yourself. And as long as there is something unhealed in you, you have to attach that to the teacher when you don't get your way or when your belief system is threatened. He says something, you put your meaning onto it, you think he's wrong or lacking, and you move out of reverence. What you're reacting to is not what he said, but what you heard. It's a fine thing to love Jesus, but until you can love the monster, the terrorist, the child molester, until you can meet your worst enemy without defense or justification, your reverence for Jesus isn't real, because each of these is just another of his forms. That's how you know when you are truly revering your spiritual teacher: when your reverence goes across the board.

If you think you're devoted to a spiritual teacher, that's a wonderful beginning; you get to see how your devotion could look when it's directed to all of us. Whatever disrespect, invalidation, or fear you project onto an enemy-- sooner or later, you'll project it onto your spiritual teacher. Everyone is your teacher, and the most powerful spiritual practice is to hang out with the people who criticize you. You don't even have to do that physically, since they live right here in your head. And when you think that you've grown beyond all your defensiveness and justifications, then hang out with your enemies physically, and see how lighthearted you are when they trash you. That's the real test.

To become aware without any spiritual teacher, without any scripture or tradition or authority, is to meet the teacher where you are. For me, the truth was right under my nose. Most amazing. It was sweet and simple, with nothing complicated about it. If it hadn't been so simple, I would have never found it.

Your Purpose in Life

If you want to know what your purpose in life is, start writing what you think your purpose is and keep listing things until you write one that makes you cry. The one that makes you cry is your purpose.

I might try that someday.

Thanks to Steve Pavlina for this idea!

This Might Be Original

A basic doctrine of many Christian denominations and confessions is original sin. Basically, it's the condition we've inherited from Adam and Eve when they sinned in the Garden of Eden, and is the explanation for the continuation of sin. We are sinful from birth and will remain so until death. So goes the doctrine of original sin.

I would like to formulate a new doctrine (even though it isn't very new at all, but maybe just forgotten)-- the doctrine of original innocence. I wonder why most Christians never talk about that. We always first confess how sinful we are and then talk about forgiveness and restoration. But restored to what?

So here's the doctrine of original innocence in a nutshell: the condition of the perfection of humanity prior to the Fall and which has been fully restored in Christ.

Nobody's perfect? Says who?

An Alternative Dictionary

Welcome to my dictionary.

hell (adj.)-- a term to describe the state of individuals who are knowingly or unknowingly engaged in the process of dehumanizing and destroying themselves and/or others. See Smith, Anna Nicole.

Smith, Anna Nicole (n.)-- an otherwise lovely woman who's life was hell.

And we all thought it was funny. Perhaps in dying she has opened our eyes to our own hellbent (as it were) ways.

I Have a New Blog

I've started another blog called This is My Brain on The Work. It's a chronicle of my experiences with The Work of Byron Katie. I did one on this blog a few days ago, but I'm going to devote those kinds of posts to the new blog. Here's the url:

http://psychorooter.blogspot.com

Challenges for Confessional Lutheranism

Christianity today is faced with many challenges, the greatest of which is the changing culture. Yesterday I was at the monthly Pastor's Conference and we heard a presentation by Dr. John Johnson, President of Concordia University, Chicago. Johnson's presentation centered on the question of being confessional Lutherans amidst these changes of epic proportion-- What should theological formation look like in our current post-modern context? There was one statement that he made that almost made me stand up and cheer (and I'm paraphrasing):

Theological formation and inquiry should connect with a person's existential needs.

Dr. Johnson said very eloquently something that I've been trying to say in my own clumsy fashion for quite some time now. It's time for the church to start addressing the ominous existential emptiness that many experience today. It will no longer do to use the Lutheran Confessions as, in the words of the late David Treumper, an electric fence to zap the masses or as a fundamentalistic litmus test of confessional integrity. It used to work back in the day when being Lutheran actually meant something to most Lutherans. Today we are reaping the results of such continued use-- the LCMS continues to decline in membership. We no longer capture the hearts of people. Our theological formation and practice doesn't connect with the existential needs of people.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, people by in large have lost their hearts. I believe this to be the greatest existential malady of our day. Not only are people disconnected from the church, they are disconnected from themselves. The church is not capturing hearts because it doesn't know how. And it will never know how as long as it continues to serve as a bridge to the 16th century. In the meantime, people will continue to flounder while scraping the bottom of dry-rotted barrels trying to find a morsel of significance or a drop of meaning. Let's not give them one more barrel to scrape.

A Good Commercial

Here's one of my all time favorite commercials. It's a 1982 ad for the Detroit Zoo. It sure beats the cruddy commercials we saw during the Super Bowl. Seriously, the only thing good about the Super Bowl this year was Prince. Anyway, enjoy!!

Democracy in the Middle East

Democracy will not work in Iraq, Iran, or any other Middle Eastern country. Here's why:

1) Democracy is a western idea. The only democracy in the Middle East is Israel because most Israelis are of European descent. Many who live in Israel today are descendants of Jewish people who fled from Nazi Germany during WW II. And even some of those who actually fled are still alive today. But they came to Israel with a western mindset and worldview.

2) Democracy is a product of the Enlightenment, which prizes and champions individual autonomy. It was purely a western phenomenon. The Middle East has not experienced movements such as the Enlightenment and Modernism. Middle Eastern cultures prize the collective. A person's identity is determined by the identity of the community, not by who he/she is or what he/she accomplishes. Exertion of any kind of individualism is taboo. Everything a person does is for the benefit of the collective, not the individual. This is why concepts such as human rights and equal opportunity are foreign to Middle Eastern people.

3) Many Middle Eastern people have noticed that western-type democracy has led to individual emptiness and meaninglessness. Middle Easterners live lives that are full of meaning and purpose because individuals are swept up in the mindset of the collective. In other words, they don't try to "make something of themselves". They are very content with who they already are.