out of control

What does "control" mean for we humans? For some it means to have the appearance of everything in deceny and order (as the Presbyterians are wont to say). But then Leonard Sweet wrote his Out of Control Disciple which encourages what we talk about around Fairlawn-West as "letting go and letting God." But that feels too trite for some folks. They prefer to work hard at being in control (which for too many of us really means that we are in denial of the pain that we feel emotionally and over the years that becomes the pain of our bodies.

Church then becomes part of the conspiracy of denial and control. We use the trappings of Christianity reduced down to a "religion" to help us to keep maintaining the facade of righteousness and self-justification for our life. This is what Jesus confronted in the religious folks in his short ministry. He invited people to let go of their lives and try to live by following him. For those who had so much to let go of, that made no sense. That's what leads Jesus to say that those who keep trying to keep their life will lose it. Because they are holding on to themselves instead of taking the first or second step of journey of faith in living fully with God. None of us can do that day to day. That is, we can't keep up that journey of faith. But Jesus keeps forgiving us so we can keep on the path.

Walt Brueggemann 1st

Walt Brueggemann, Emergent, Atlanta, Sept 14, 2004

-everybody lives by a script
-we have it whether we know it or not
-the predominant script in the western world/US is techno, therapeutic (my goal is to be happy) consumer militarism
(power to control others)
-It promises us we will be happy
-That script has failed, but we still believe it
-Our “health” depends disengaging from that script
-ministry is to descript that script, enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer/never really existed
-ministry is steady, patient, articulation of an alternative script that we proclaim can make us truly happy and safe
-That alternative script is rooted in the Bible, and in the tradition of the church, it is a counter meta-narrative
- This alternative script is distinctive, the God of the Bible who is Father, Son and Spirit
-It is not monolithic, one dimensional, or seamless; it is ragged,...written by “committees” (the various authors edited into the singular story of the Pentateuch and the four gospels), it has a key character - God
- It is a ragged, disjunctive, inhoherent counter script/story, it cannot be made smooth or seamless; when we try to make that ragged script to make sense in the terms of the world it gets flattened & becomes a weakened image of dominant cultural script (techno, therapeutic, consumer militarism).
-It is not about certitude (our wanting to have certainty in our life), we need to let God be God's irascible self
- The adherents of the predominant Christian script which they have allowed to become a poor weakened shadow of itself, can quarrel among themselves in ways that detract from the alternative script, and they debilitate it
- The entry point into the counter script is baptism, "do you now renounce the power of evil." (which we then ask again at confirmation or when someone joins the church…that is to say, to you let go of this world and choose to live in the empire of God’s world?)
- To share this alternative script in the face of all the powers that seek to deny it is the work of ministry
- Most of us are ambiguous about this alternative script, most of us are not at the deepest places of choosing between dominant and alternate script
- The ambivalence between scripts is the primary venue for the power of the Holy spirit to enter our live, ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence
- Ministry is to manage ambivalence, generate faithful ways to help relinquish old script
- work of ministry is essential in our society because there is no one other than church/synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and manage our way through it

ministry is urgent, wondrous and difficult


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we all have a hunger for certitude, the Gospel is not about certitude, it is about fidelity
in the church we try to transpose fidelity into certitude
all the certitudes in the world will not make the quality of life better, because what we need is fidelity

In the Reformation Calvin and Luther tried to out science science for certitude by offering answers of explanation
Rather its like having a teenager in the house, it is settled for three minutes and then you have to renegotiate the relationship all over again
The promise of certitude is a phony promise = Way of the Cross confronts that, Jesus never makes any of his disciples certain e.g. parables & statements that make us try to figure it out

The arts are always in tension with moralism
arts speak to open up our lives and to live in ambiguity. Walt’s book "Finally comes the Poet" is where he finally acknowledged this in his own life.
poetic rhetoric - as listener you still get to decide what it means

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preacher is not responsible for whole arc of "communication", preacher is responsible for 70% and help/allow the congregation to do the last 30%


The church is really to be equipping little communities of obedience, that's what Jesus did; these obedient communities were still surrounded by the great "Jewish" communities of certitude which presented a false script from God; "We are not in the growth business. We are in the business of developing communities of obedience in a world seeking certainty (which cannot be found)."
This isurgent, because the forces of certitude are going to bring us to death very quickly

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There is a “Big Story” in scripture, but it is plural, if the Big Story doesn't move and change it will become an idol
There are no un-interpreted, unimagined facts!, you only live in facts that are imagined

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Why do Christians keep trying to bring things to closure? To explain and fix everything (certainty)?
The Jeiwsh form of midrash assumes that the Text has many meanings. That is our tradition too. It is the western enlightenment that turned this ancient scripture into trying to have it all fit nice and neat to be one voice and to make sense.

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Sabbath is not a day of rest from the work of the other six days. The other six days are to be preparation for the Sabbath!!!!

anticipation

I am leaving later this morning for Atlanta for three days of conversation with Walt Brueggemann and Brian McLarren with other folks through emergent. Here are some other links for Walt: "Biblical Authority: A Personal Reflection" , a collection of articles from "The Other Side" magazine, another collection of articles by Walt. Walt was my professor of Old Testament at Eden Seminary in the early '70's. Brian I have come to know in the past two years. He spent three days with us at Fairlawn-West UCC in March of '04. They come from different ends of my present faith journey and personally they come from very different backgrounds. Yet, this conversation with them and others is the coming of full circle. Brian comes from a very fundamentalist tradition and is at the forefront of reflecting on the church in the emerging culture. Walt is one of the best reflectors on Biblical theology, the story of God's people, and how we function as children of God.

I will be writing here during my stay in Atlanta. If you would like to read updates, come and visit.