Killing Cain

For many years now I occasionally ask other Christians a simple question, "Why is the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible? What is it meant to teach us?" Most often the response is something like the following, "It teaches us that killing is wrong." Others in the conversation often agree and then look at me and say, "I'm guessing you disagree." I have always been amazed at this little story. It is the only story that we have of Cain or Abel. We learning nothing more about them in the Scriptures. The NT makes some passing references to Cain being evil and to the blood of innocent Abel, but that is it.

The amazing aspect of the story is not murder, it is not about jealousy, and it is not about right sacrifices and offerings to God. Instead it is about our God. Cain murders Abel. God does not kill Cain. Cain is angry and thirsts for blood. God is angry but forgives. God not only forgives but goes even farther to putting a mark on Cain in order to protect him from the revenge of the human community.

Right here at the beginning of our bibles is this phenomenal story about forgiveness, peace, and the way forward for fallen humanity. Why don't we pay more attention to it?

Post-Missional?

So I saw an advertisement today for a whole new way of being church that is both post-modern and post-missional! Really? I mean, really? I am certainly someone who has defended the use of the "post-" reality world, but are we really going to talk about being post-missional? Isn't that akin to being post-purposeful or post-worshipful? I guess the "missional" seminars and cookie-programs have run their course, so to sell new seminars and books we had to create a "post-missional" mandate.

And Darkness Was Over The Face of the Deep

Darkness.

Abyss.

Nothingness.

Ignorance.

The unknown shrouded in mystery.

The universe is shrouded in a perpetual darkness. The more we see, the more we don't see. The more we learn and know, the more we realize just how much we are ignorant. We expand farther and farther outward gazing at the cosmos, while examining deeper and deeper discovering every quark or nuance of matter and energy. Each step brings with it a revelation of a much larger world, a whole existence that we are unaware, a reality that is at once close and yet so distant. In the midst of such darkness, God breathed. Revelation occurred. Life emerged. Light broke forth.

Abysmal Life-Giving Knowledge

"Revelation is not somethign that confirms what we already know. Basically, it has to do with knowledge of God and ourselves that is utterly surprising and disturbing. It is an event that shakes us to the core. Although it comes as a gift, offering us a glimpse of 'the very heart of mystery,' it si resisted because it is so threatening and frightening. The knowledge it conveys is an 'abysmal life-giving knowledge,' but it also demands a kind of death because it turns upside down the lives of people who receive it. Revelation compels momentous decisions about who God is and how we are to understand the world and ourselves."

-- Excerpted from p21 of Faith Seeking Understanding by Daniel Migliore

Blessed Dishonesty

I am continually amazed at the Holy Scriptures and the worlds apart they are from our modern day American culture and American Christianity. Living on a Christian college campus again brings up all of the contradictory and complicated aspects of evangelical college student's faith lives.

Exodus 1 is one of those chapters that throws a wrench in our nice spinning wheel. In this chapter, the king of Egypt issues and edict to have all of the infant males of the Hebrew people drowned in the Nile. Despite this ruling, the midwives of the Hebrew people refuse to kill the infant males-- in direct defiance of the king. The king even catches on and asks them why they are not killing the babies to which the midwives specifically lie to the king-- they create a very dishonest tall tale.

A few verses later, Exodus 1 clearly endorses the midwives dishonesty! Not only is there a blanketed endorsement, the text goes on to say that God blessed the midwives for their actions and gave them children of their own.

I love this story because it is such a shift from our Puritan ethics in American Christianity. The Old Testament does not have these neatly defined understandings of ethics. It always stands on the side of the people God is favoring-- almost always the oppressed people under the domination of some empire or corrupt authority. In each instance, some behavior that would be considered questionable or outright wrong in our current systems is used and endorsed by the Scriptures.

What scripture text like Exodus 1 tell us is that there are horrible atrocities going on in the world and that there must be some who are willing to stand up and stand against it. We cannot hide behind our quaint systems of morals and ethics. We must stand against oppression because God hears the cries of the people!

Bumping Into God

Occasionally my dog gets excited enough to run across the room, try to make a corner, misses and runs into the wall... something that is both very sad and very funny! The wall, of course, does not give at all, it has no way of responding or cushioning or shifting. However, when my dog runs and jumps on me, I move, cushion, and shift in order to take the impact.

Is God a wall that does not move, respond, or cushion? For some, the immutable, unmovable God is a comfort. For some, if God changes or is moved, then there entire system of theology begins to crumble.

Indeed, there are statements in Scripture that seem to paint God as an immovable wall, one who does not change and remains the same no matter what circumstance comes along. There are verses that describe God as knowing all things, having every detail of human history already worked out in advance, foreknown, and chosen.

Yet, much of the Bible describes God in very different language than this. Many scriptures describe a very movable God-- A God who repents, relents, is suprised, and regrets. When I read the story of Moses interceding on behalf Israel in Exodus 32 and God "repents of the evil he was about to do", I am overwhelmed by such a God who would respond to the passionate pleas of a human being. I am overcome with emotion at a God who takes the time to listen and shift perspective and change action. This is a God who is so powerful that vulnerability is not seen as a weakness but the hope of creation. This is a God who allows the dog to jump and cushions the blow. This is a God that is in relationship-- a true relationship, a give and take relationship.

Let us stop striving to create bomb-proof systematic theologies and allow each scripture text to move us as it sees fit. When in Exodus 32, let us fall in love with a God who could be moved. When in James 1, let us feel strong that we have a God who does not shift like shadows. Both are true and both have something very amazing to teach us.

Naked before God

"Prayer is exposure.  Prayer changes us. It leads somewhere specific and is not just an aimless wandering with no discernible purpose in mind.  Its purpose is exposure to everything that is in us and the willingness to receive the inevitable changes that come as a result."

-- Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer by Ann & Barry Ulanov

Twitter @ Church

Check out this story at Time Mag online.  I am certainly interested in both the positive and negative consequences of such a shift in church worship and ministry.  When I was in Fresno, teens would often text me while I was teaching... offering questions they did not want to ask out loud, offering contributive thoughts, etc.  I loved it.  However, I can also see a hyper-consumerist side to all of this too.  What do you think?

Does God Have A Big Toe?

The following is an excerpt from the children's book Does God Have A Big Toe?

When God first made the world, nothing turned out right, so God decided to start all over again. When the animals heard about hti, they were frightened. They decided to ask God not to end the world. But none of them knew where God lived, so they all flew and flopped, rolled and ran, jerked and jumped, crept and crawled, slithered and slid to the different places they thought God lived.

The elephant said, "I am the biggest animal, but God must be bigger than I. Surely I will find God in the biggest thing."

The elephant came to a mountain. "This is the biggest thing around, so it must be God!" And the elephant asked the mountain not to end the world.

The eagle said, "I can fly higher than any animal, but God must fly higher than I. Surely I will find God in the highest thing." The eagle flew higher and higher-- far higher than any bird had ever flown before.

The ealge saw a fluffy white could that was even higher than he. "This is the highest thing, so it must be God." And the eagle asked the cloud not to end the world.

The lion said, "My roar is the loudest animal sound, but God must be louder than I. Surely I will find God in the loudest thing!" SO the lion roared and roared and roared and roared.

Suddenly the clouds gathered together, turned black, and sent out thunder and lightning. "This is the loudest thing, so it must be God." And the lion asked the thunder not to end the world.

Soon the elephant realized that the mountain wasn't God because it didn't answer him.

Soon the eagle realized that the cloud wasn't God because it blew away.

Soon the lion realized that the thunder wasn't God because it stopped.

Soon all the animals were yelling, "We have to find God or we're done for!"

Then the fish spoke up. "In the oceans and sea and rivers and lakes where we live, water is everywhere. There is water all around. If the water is everywhere, God must be everywhere too."

When God heard what the fish said, the whole world shone and the black clouds blew away. Then God said to the animals, "When I end the world, I will save two of each kind of animal so that when the world starts over, you can start over too. But as for the fish... I will save all of them, because only they knew where to find God.

Monotheism and Literacy

As one looks down the halls of history at the various religions that have existed, it is easy to see that monotheism arises as literacy spreads across a culture.  The ability to read and write fundamentally changes an individual's existence.  The way they think, reason, perceive, and understand after gaining the ability to read and write is fundamentally different than before these skills were acquired.  Reading and writing create a type of logical reasoning that cannot be comprehended without those skills.  

A community before the advent of widespread literacy is dependent upon story and symbolism.  In such a pre-literate world, the mind is subject to the mythical-- the sun is a force, a tree decides to sprout leaves in spring, the sea is a god, etc.  

The skills of reading and writing provide a person and a community the tools to begin the journey of rationally considering the once mythical elements.  More importantly, they allow thoughts to be analyzed and ideas to be processed.  Finally, in a literate world, a person is no longer fully dependent on another for mediation between self and the divine.  In the literate world, I can communicate with God and God with me.