No One Owns God

May 13, 2013 — 3 Comments
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This tweet from Richard Rohr says God is accessible to every person on the planet, that no one owns God, regardless of religion or lack thereof. What does it mean to believe no one owns God?

Once upon a time, there was no writing. There was no printing press. There were no books. There was, however, God — moving and working in history and in human lives. I don’t know any Christian who would deny this. Without religion, without writing, books, and certainly without churches and theology, this God made himself known in the world and was available to those who called on him (unless you believe God has been asleep at the wheel for 99.999% of all history, in which case you are more Deist than Christian). We see in the New Testament that Jesus complimented the faith of non-Jews, people considered to be godless, and probably incapable of real faith. Indeed, we see in the words of the Bible itself that it is not primarily through knowledge of that book, nor the procedures, beliefs, and systems it lays out, but rather through faith, that we are able to know God. The Apostle Paul affirms that we actually live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). This is to say, our journey forward in God is made up primarily of what we do not know.

That means everything that comes after faith is “extra.” This, then, naturally includes all that we can and do know. That is not to say that some of these extras do not serve very important purposes. If I believed they were unimportant I could not find any reason to be a pastor in a particular denomination and religion. They are important, perhaps extremely so in some cases, but they are, in fact, extra, because they come after faith itself.

Think of God as a big, juicy steak on a plate. The extras are everything — absolutely everything — that is on and around the plate. This includes healthy vegetables (important doctrines such as the Trinity, without which our understanding of God cannot be fully whole), the silverware (understood as the most elegant means by which we can enjoy the steak), steak sauce (particular denominational flavors we add to the steak), refreshing drinks (the type of preaching that helps us get the steak down without choking on it), even the manner in which the steak is served (religion itself). The steak is central, it is “the reason,” so to speak (John 1:1). Everything else in the meal is there to serve the steak, to complement it, to make it more enjoyable, or richer, or to help us get it down better. “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). God was accessible and available from the start.

This is what I believer Rohr means by this tweet. God is moving everywhere. God cannot be restricted to one religion. God is even active in the lives of some people who don’t consciously believe in God, yet whose lives regularly manifest the beautiful fruit religious people already know is fruit of God’s Spirit. Don’t you think it’s pretty valuable to know this? That’s why religion matters, and why our particular choice of religion is important. Formal religious instruction helps us identify characteristic ways God may work in our lives. But Rohr again is correct, in that no religion/denomination will prescribe for God how he MUST move. If we think it does, we’re drinking the steak sauce straight, and leaving out the steak!  No one owns God, or will prescribe to him what he must do and what rules he must follow. Indeed, I believe the meaning of this parable of Jesus’ is that no one owns God, that he will give his grace to absolutely anyone he pleases, at any time, and under whatever conditions he chooses.

As a Christian pastor, I believe the Christian religion helps us understand God in ways no other religion does. Without those contributions we would be impoverished in our thinking about God. There are a few particularly potent ideas Christianity brings to the table, and I will discuss those in my next post.

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The Church’s Schizophrenia

April 30, 2013
the church's schizophrenia

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What is Schizophenia

Before I talk about the church’s schizophrenia, I want to make sure you are clear on what schizophrenia actually is.

Schizophrenia is a severe thought disorder that affects every aspect of the suffer’s life. It causes them to perceive themselves and the world incorrectly, to see things, hear things, perhaps even smell things that are not real. They will often attribute devious motives to people. Delusions of reference are common, where they believe random events are personal messages, or have personal significance.

Continue Reading… «The Church’s Schizophrenia»

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“No man’s really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be; till he’s realized how much right he has to all this talk of “criminals,” as if they were apes in a forest ten thousand miles away; till he’s got rid of all the dirty self-deception of talking about low types and deficient skills; till he’s squeezed out the last drop of the oil of the Pharisees; till his only hope is somehow or other to have captured one criminal, and kept him safe under his own hat.” – G. K. Chesterton, in The Secret of Father Brown

The Criminal Under Your Hat

Posted on April 25, 2013 In CHURCH/SPIRITUALITY ,
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[Guest-Posted Elsewhere]: Your Gift to the World

April 23, 2013 
Below is an excerpt from a guest post I wrote. View the full piece at 
scott-williams.ca

A great deal of my work is in premarital counseling, mostly with people who have never been married before. The main work I do in premarital counseling is help couples understand the often unreasonable expectations they have of each other, and of what marriage will be. They naively think the most important thing they’ll do in marriage is take care of each other. My work is to get each partner to understand that a healthy relationship, by definition, consists of two healthy individuals. This means the single most important gift spouses can give each other is for each of them to get their own act together, to deal honestly with their own issues.

Five Reasons Why Getting Your Act Together Is An Awesome Gift To Give Someone Else:

1. The more deeply and honestly you deal with your own issues, the less inclined your spouse will be to bring them up.

Let’s face it, most arguments between couples consist of each of them telling the other what is wrong with them. The faults of others are easy to see. “You’re so stubborn.” “Yeah, well you’re so critical.” If stubborn lady works on her stubbornness, and critical guy works on being less critical, and they are open with one another about it, they will each be less likely to use those things as ammo in an argument. The best thing you can do is admit them and work on them…

...Read the other four reasons at scott-williams.ca
In MENTAL HEALTH/COUNSELING
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What My Perfect Post Would Say

April 21, 2013
my perfect post -- notebook

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I realized today that my obsession with blogging is actually a search for the perfect post. I want to write a post that can heal the wounds of all who read it, that can turn a selfish reader into a selfless one, that can convince every reader that they don’t have to worry about their lives and the world, that could somehow convince every person who reads it to lay down their burdens and live in peace.

I know it’s naive, and I haven’t even gotten started. I want to write a post that can help people see God, that can help them heal their relationships, forgive those who have hurt them, and feel like it’s okay to be human, to be vulnerable, to not know the answers to every question, to drop their defenses, to stick their necks out a little.

Of course what I’ve written so far is in itself impossible, but the perfect post would do so much more. It would eradicate fear and hatred from our world, and then teach people how to live in the fearless, completely loving world that would be left. It would convince people once and for all of the absolute, objective value of learning to meditate, of not fearing one’s own company, of becoming comfortable in silence and seeking it out more often, of learning — whatever it takes — to be much less reactive and much more proactive.

Continue Reading… «What My Perfect Post Would Say»

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