Let The Earth Bear Witness

No more wire hangers.....

I'm sad....After 5 years of attending a church I was told I shouldn't come to a service. I was told it was because the bishop would be there and that would be awkward. I guess I said something a year or so ago that offended the bishop. He never said anything to me about it, I don't even know what it was but if I am to believe the Priest in Charge he is the type of person who wouldn't ever want to be in the same room with me. (My words not hers). She was also angry because I "refused" to meet with her. I refused to meet on her terms, which was at a time convenient only to her and without knowing what she wanted. I have left the last 3 "meetings" with her in tears. I asked her to tell me what it was about and she refused. I asked her to call me when I could answer the phone and not when she knew I was at work and she refused. So she left a message on my voice mail saying "I am sorry to leave this on your voice mail but you leave me no choice" Oh my god reminds me of the movie Mommy Dearest.

I look at all of the hard work I did and realize that it was wasted all of it.

God Save me from your people

flu

I think people today lack common sense, at first I thought they were just stupid but that doesn't seem to be the case. People of all walks of life are in a frenzy about the H1N1 flu. WHO says it is a "Pandemic" but who can define pandemic? It means it is wide spread not that it will kill you. People react so strongly to the media that it is frightening. I listen to the reports on my way to work to prepare myself for what I will be dealing with and I can tell what radio station people were listening to by the questions they ask.

I've been working long days doing my best to reassure people It is wearing me down. i want to yell "what the F@#$ is your problem?" but I can't so I tell them that if they want to come in with their hay fever symptoms and expose themselves to swine flu that is fine with me but it would be best for them and their family since they aren't sick for them to stay home. I am tired I am frustrated.

I am looking forward to the weekend because we have some rain coming in maybe several inches which means that the media will be off "flu" and on "storm watch"

Mad priest has the best cartoon ever http://revjph.blogspot.com/2009/04/its-here.html

out of the mouths of babes and cartoons

"We should focus on what Jesus taught and not how he was killed"
Stan Marsh from Southpark

ranting

I've always thought that Judas was set up. According to the Gospel of John Jesus knew who was going to betray him didn't stop him. One can only assume that Jesus washed even Judas' feet, and if as some commentators say the hands and feet have to do with actions in the washing of Judas' feet was Jesus cleansing his actions? I really don't know I am not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination.
This was prompted by a sermon I heard earlier this week on Jesus betrayal and "satan" entering Judas. One of those sermons designed to make us think of how we may allow satan in our lives and how we may betray Jesus.
Judas betrayed Jesus for silver, I suspect Judas saw Jesus as the messiah as the one who would overthrow the romans, and having seen so many miracles might have thought Jesus would get out of it. Maybe he thought the silver could be used to further the cause.....
Here is my question. Has the "church" betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver? In our quest to fill to pews to pay the bills have we put more importance getting people in the church than making disciples, giving people the tools to follow the teachings of Jesus? What are our priorities? Do we follow Jesus or do we follow our desire to get bigger? Has "satan" entered the "church"? Have we sold our souls for high average sunday attendance? Do we read book after book and run to conference after conference to learn how to follow Jesus and in doing so help others ? Or do we do it to increase "pledge units" ?

hell

Bishop Carlton Pearson a 'heretic" after my own heart. Go to the link check out some of the interviews. Could it be that the concept of hell was designed in part to keep people in bondage to a religious system? Would it be different today if people followed Christ out of love rather than out of fear? Again IDK, but something to think about

atonement rant revisited

Two years ago I was asked to be the crucifier on Good Friday at an Episcopal Church, thinking that I would be carrying the cross that leads the procession I agreed.  What a shock when I found out I would be carrying a wooden cross during one of the readings.  I was a little upset and told the priest that I wasn't going to carry her "f@#*ing cross"  I realized that the idea of substitutionary atonement had become repugnant to me, and couldn't possibly be true.  Something that had been drummed into me my entire life and I had accepted without question made no sense at all.  So I wrote "My Rant on the Atonement".  

would appreciate any comments

my rant on the atonement

I've been struggling with the holy week scriptures and liturgies for the past several years. Up until 3 years ago everything I had been taught about Christ's death was vicarious atonement. God made rules (laws) that are impossible to keep. We have broken laws that are impossible to keep and we know we broke them cuz no one could keep them. Because we can't keep them then we shall be put to death because "the penalty for sin is death" God has to have a blood sacrifice because the law says so. Some one has to pay but it has to be someone who was perfect...so god thinks "hmmm.. maybe I'll kill my son to satisfy my legal need for blood." Now that Jesus is dead, God isn't mad at us for not doing what we can't do. So as long as we are grateful to god for his mercy we can live with him forever....if we say the right prayer or are baptized with the right words.
Divine child abuse.....
Some say that it is silly to refer to substitutional atonement as child abuse, I disagree. When my now almost 16 year old daughter was young, there was a "Christian" program for raising children which was very popular in evangelical circles. It taught that the parents must be in charge from the beginning. Parents were told to feed their children only on a schedule, when the child cried and it wasn't time to feed the parent wasn't supposed to pick the child up or feed it. The premise was that because God turned his back on Jesus when he cried out on the cross we should turn away from our children when they cried. As the child began to eat table food they were hit if they played with the food and had their faces flicked if they didn't look strait ahead.

Is that the nature of our all-loving God? The father/mother who we love because she/he first loved us? The God that loves us and calls us children? Jesus said (my paraphrase) "would a father give his child a stone instead of bread?' Would a parent turn their back on on a child's suffering?

Many of the children whose parents subscribed to the Growing Kids God's way program developed failure to thrive. They didn't get enough to eat as infants, the parents didn't know how to respond to their child's cues. Babies with failure to thrive (ftt) don't gain the weight they should they are unable to consume enough calories. A baby's brain grows as much in the first year as it will grow the rest of the child's life, often there are long term developmental problems. How many christians do we know who have growth failure? How many could never connect with God? How many young adults walk away because of divine child abuse?

Is there an alternative? Can we conceive of a non violent transforming model of the atonement? Was Jesus death on the cross the ultimate act of non violent resistance? Walter Wink says that when Jesus said to turn the other cheek he was saying that he refused to be humiliated. In that culture one could only hit someone lower than ones self with the back of the hand to turn the cheek would mean the person would either have to break some of the ritual purity rules and hit him with the back of the left hand or hit him with his palm or fist something that would never be done to someone not their equal. There are many more examples from Wink and others but to many for this short email

Christ came to show us how to live how to break the cycle of violence. We are taught that Christ reveals God to us. Jesus taught us non violent resistance, Jesus came to set the captives free....So it doesn't work for me God would use the violence that Jesus taught against to bring us redemption.

Jesus was faithful even to death on the cross, a death perpetrated by humans (for you trekkies I guess God had a prime directive of non interference with lower life forms) Through his life and death we have a pattern for our lives, through his resurrection we have hope We know that shit happens but God is able to turn it around.

So back to failure to thrive or growth failure. I wonder how many people who have been in church exhibit the signs of growth failure.
Lack of interest in surroundings
irritability
inability to walk in the knowledge of God's love

I wonder if it would be different if we got rid of the language we use, language we may not even believe but use because we always have. I wonder what would happen if we responded to the cues people give us rather than a formula given by the church. I wonder if we got rid of divine child abuse, would people be able to receive the nurture that they need to grow.
I'm rambling I need to come to terms with the fact that I taught substitutional atonement for years when I was an associate pastor in the charismatic church and when I taught in the evangelical church. I need to forgive myself

Maybe now is the time to repent to turn around to change the way we think. Maybe it is time to show radical love and non violence. Maybe it is time to move from the 12th century to the 21st.

With all of that said here are some books I have read recently

The Last Week by Borg and Crossan

Steve Chalke's book "The Lost message of Jesus

Who really killed jesus by John Dominic Crossan