The Many Paths to God

By -=Bruce Berrien=-

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."    John 14:5-6.

Whether we are Atheist, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc., I believe that the aspect of God that we encounter when we die is the Word, God in action, no matter what we called or did not call the supreme being(s) in life. That is what John 14:6 tells us.  It is a statement of mechanism, not exclusivity.

I believe that Jesus is the highest revelation of God in human history and the best path to God. That is why I am a Christian.  I also believe that all faiths have God's truth.  I do not believe God condemns anyone because of their place of birth or faith or lack of faith, nor do I believe that Christians have an exclusive claim on God.

Conservative Christians are repelled by the possibility that their God and the God of Islam could be the same while they embrace the God of Judaism.  Muslims trace their ancestry through Ishmael, the son of Abraham by the slave girl, Hagar. Theirs is the God of Abraham whether conservative Christians like it or not. Just as the God of Judaism is the God of Abraham.  Even without the link through Abraham, I think that inherently all monotheists share the same God. 

Atheists do not believe in any Supreme Being, but are closer to God than the nominally religious.  To reject God you must first think about her.  Such thought puts an atheist closer to God than all those who are indifferent or oblivious, lost in their own daily lives. Atheists will be judged just as we all will be, on how we treat the least.

My personal belief is that everyone at some point will be confronted by God and know that God is real.  At that point whether before or after death, one can choose to be with God or not.

The immortal soul is a Greek concept, not Hebrew.  I believe that without God, there is no existence.  If a person rejects God, knowing God exists, then that person after death ceases to exist.  No hell, no eternal punishment, just ending.

The God of love that Jesus modeled desires to wrap us in her love forever, but the choice is always ours. 

Lectionary Musings for January 13, 2013

I have decided to bring a little discipline to my religious life.by musing on one of the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday.  Yes, I now belong to a church that follows a three year cycle of readings from the Bible. As a Southern Baptist reject, I have found these readings to be surprisingly comforting.  My musings today will be on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, labeled by commentators as the baptism of Jesus.

Why did Jesus have to be baptized?   I know scholars can provide answers.  I suspect that in the past I had explored the question either on my own or in a study group setting, but no glib answers spring to mind. 

We know some people were confused and thought John the Baptist was the Messiah.  Even John's own denial may not have stopped their belief in him. Jesus knew he was the Messiah, but he does not wish to announce it to the world.  He is content to let the confusion continue for a while.  This will give him time to call his disciples and begin the long, circuitous death march to Jerusalem.  I think with his baptism Jesus is announcing the beginning of his ministry to God.

One oddity in Luke's narrative is that John is arrested and thrown into jail before Jesus is baptized.  I had never noticed this because all the narratives of Jesus baptism have long since blurred into one preferred story in my mind.  A commentator called my attention to this strange glitch in Luke's story of Jesus' baptism.  If John is in jail, who baptizes Jesus?  God, the Creator.

By going to the place of baptism, Jesus announces his intention to become the God that has always been within, the God submerged within the human until this time. Now that divinity will be free and fully engaged in the world around him.  

Jesus prays, heaven opens and the "Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.""  Here for me is the Trinity: Creator, Holy Spirit, and Word.

In the beginning, the Trinity is one.  The Holy Spirit (Love) is the binder between Creator and Word as the universe is spoken into existence.  In choosing to be born of a woman, the bond was not severed, but I believe it must have been stretched.  How could it not have been as the Word of God was poured into a vessel as limited as a human being? 

At baptism, Jesus acknowledges who and what he is.  The Holy Spirit  descends and binds Creator and Word together.  The Trinity is whole.  Jesus will show us God in human form linked by Love to the Creator.

How does this passage speak to me?  It reminds me that Jesus made a conscious commitment to pursue the purpose God had set for him.  I believe that we are confronted at some point with existence of God, just as Jesus was confronted at his baptism by the Creator.  When does this happen?  At different times, in different ways, with different concepts of God.  Then and only then are we required to make a choice.  We can choose to become some small part of God's plan, God's being, or God's eternity, but it is our choice and I believe it comes for everyone on this planet. 

For me, this choice came at age 29.  I had received a doctorate in chemistry at age 25 and was actively engaged in science.  I was a confirmed deist, not attending any church and not interested in doing so. I had been told as a child by Sunday School teachers and ministers that Christians did not ask questions about God or about our faith.  Any faith that did not like questions was not for me. After age 13, I never attended a church of any kind again. 

As the years passed,  I did feel I was missing something in my life.  I began a totally unsystematic study of various faiths minus Christianity, of course.  I also made random attempts at finding some volunteer opportunities (none religious) where I could be of service. Nothing seemed to fit. 

I was a voracious reader.  I had enjoyed C. S. Lewis' Narnia series as a child.  Now, I read his science fiction trilogy.  I was a little put off by the obvious religious overtones, but I enjoyed all three books.  Looking for more by him, I read The Screwtape Letters.  Suddenly, there was more to Christianity than I had believed.  I decided perhaps I should see if there was an intellectual side to Christianity afterall.

I made a choice and joined a liberal Baptist church with an engaging minister who presented short messages that challenged you to think.  At the same time, I joined a study group led by a doctoral candidate in philosophy.  Both the minister and the study group made me realize that Christianity was a faith of the intellect as well as the soul.  I could ask all the questions I wanted.  So when I was asked to be a deacon, I said yes to serving and yes to God.  My choice was to believe. 

As a Christian I met a God who revealed herself in the Bible as Creator, Love and Word.  Now that Love came to me as the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.  There was no speaking in tongues, no tongues of fire. no overwhelming emotion.  Just a quiet assurance that I had found my way.  

Jesus was a year older than I was when he made his choice.  Perhaps the message of his baptism is that even if one committed oneself to God as a child (remember Jesus in the temple at 12), adulthood demands a fresh decision. Choose.
 





 

Barack Obama: Closeted Non-Believer?

The title of this entry comes from a Huffington Post blog by Ali R. Rizvi.  To read it click on the title. I do not agree with the author. I believe President Obama is a man of faith and I do believe that matters.  I take President Barack Obama at his word; he is a Christian.

His 2004 interview about his faith is being used by fundamentalists and evangelicals to discredit his beliefs.  President Obama did not use code words such as "born-again" and "the Bible is the Word of God."  His failure to use the code and familiar references means that fundamentalists and evangelicals do not believe he is one of them, a Christian.

The problem, of course, is that President Obama is neither a fundamentalist nor an evangelical Christian.  Just as I am not one, even though  I was baptized in a Southern Baptist Church and am an ordained deacon in a church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.  Neither of us approaches faith from the believe it or leave it approach. Neither are we non-believers.

In President Obama's 2004 interview, I recognize an intellectual approach to Christianity that is scorned by fundamentalist Christians.  I grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist Church and was baptized at the age of 11.  I believe that I committed as much as I could at that time to Jesus Christ.  At 13, I left, pushed out by the refusal of adults to answer questions and my mother's insanity.  When Mom had her first psychotic break, the church blamed her and did not reach out to help.  Former church friends disappeared.  The minister did not visit.  The church made her insanity my mother's fault.  I would come to learn that Mom was schizophrenic, not exactly something she could prevent.  I returned to the church at the age of 28.  In those years between, I studied many faiths and through the writings of C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and others found the intellectual basis for my faith and in the church the community of Christians I needed.

I found that Christianity is as much an intellectual challenge as one of faith.  Fundamentalists make all the issues depend on the Bible.  Yet, fundamentalists tell you that your personal relationship with Christ is all important.  That personal relationship is key for me.  Because I am over-educated, I approached my search for faith from an intellectual viewpoint.  I wanted questions answered, not brushed off.  I found that my questions were often answered with another question, but they were never brushed off.  Great minds have struggled with the meaning of Christianity for two thousand years. That does not mean I believe that an intellectual approach is the only way to true faith.  I believe there are many approaches to faith, all valid.

Baptist believe in the priesthood of the believer which means we can each have a direct relationship with God.  We do not need a minister or priest to intercede with or to bring us to God.  I fully embrace that philosophy.  I may not have all the answers, just as President Obama does not supply pat answers about his faith, but I know that God is real.  That his truest representation is in Jesus Christ. That I can have a personal relationship with God.   I know the God I worship is Love in its purest sense.  Love that does not care what you call her.

Keeping faith, losing religion - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

Ann Rice started this by saying she was leaving Christianity, not Christ. Leonard Pitts echoes her concerns in the title document. What I say is that the media and popular culture have defined Christianity as something very unpalatable. To read Leonard Pitts article, click on the title of this entry.

Mainstream Christianity does not have a voice on cable news or commentary. The only views given are those of the far right, a very mean-spirited, dying branch of Christianity. That many Christians find solace in so-called grace churches is ignored by media and politicians. Others follow different paths to an on-going relationship with God. Some still attend old-line churches whose messages of love and care for your fellow man echo through the ages. Others do find their path to God is a solitary one. I don't think God cares what brand of Christianity we choose  as long as we seek him and remember that the Creator is the great I AM, Jesus is God in Action, and that which binds Creator to Son is Love (sometimes called the Holy Spirit.  The Supreme Being I worship defines himself as "I AM Love in Action."

Some of the lack of diversity in the media is the result of a clever ploy by the Republican party to co-opt Christianity as a branch of the Republican party. Republicans did hoodwink the right-wing, anti-abortion crowd by putting anti-abortion in their party platform. These "Christians" are so focused on the single issue of abortion that they have ignored the other positions of the GOP that can only be characterized as hostile to the precepts of Christianity. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats,Matthew 25:31-46 "whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". The GOP characterizes "the least of these" as malingers, lazy bums, parasites, and generally scum that does not deserve to be helped. The success of the Republican party is only partly due to their own cleverness, most is due to the failure of mainstream Christianity to engage the right. Just as Muslims have been identified with their fringe, so have Christians.

My goal is to make it clear that the followers of Jesus of Nazareth form a vast church outside the confines of hierarchies, buildings and petty politics. Attendance is voluntary, but the closer to God you want to be, the more you must participate. Participation means reading the Bible, reading the works of great Christians and prayer. Yes, you do have to read the Bible, just not worship it. The writings of C.S. Lewis put me on the path to Christ as well as those of Dorothy Sayers and Thomas Merton.  I believe prayer is the key to knowing God - everything from your babble of problems and pain throughout the day to an always listening Creator to the deeply contemplative moments alone with the Comforter.  God is always near.

To both Ann Rice and Leonard Pitts I say,"Look around, churches come in all flavors. Find the one that nourishes you."  If none do, then seek God on your own. She is always there and always whispering "I am love in action."

Photo by Lel4nd

Praying for Our Enemies

Christ tells us to love our enemies and pray "for them that despitefully use you" in Matthew 5:44. Nowhere does he ever tell us to pray for ill to happen to an opponent. Yet, Senator Coburn asked that his supporters do that on the Senate floor before the vote on health care reform. Whatever your belief about the rightness of the bill, no Christian should pray for misfortune on another. That some did is horrible.

The evidence for that is the video above where a caller wants to know if his group's prayers for the death of Senator Byrd have backfired and killed Senator Inhofe. Senator Barrasso assures him that Senator Inhofe has not expired and simply missed the vote because he knew it was a lost cause. Senator Barrasso evidently thinks that it is normal to pray for an opponent's death since he takes the caller's comments in stride and responds only to the question as to the health of Senator Inhofe. He does not address the question as to how hard he prayed for Senator Byrd's demise. Altogether this exchange is spine chilling.

When we pray for our adversaries, we are to pray for the best to happen to them. This is difficult to do. C. S. Lewis wrote that one way to deal with our anger toward another who has wronged us is to pray for their well-being. I did this a number years ago. I don't know if the praying helped the one I prayed for, but I know that it extinguished any hatred and anger I had toward this person. There lies the answer. Christ's instruction leads to our own well-being.

Christians must never pervert prayer for an evil purpose. To do so denigrates God and eats away our souls. My prayer for those that wished ill for Senator Byrd is simple: "Please God, bathe them in your love. Amen."

Keith Olbermann and Dan Savage

"I’m sure they don’t want to hear this from me because I’m an avowed atheist but my dad was a Roman Catholic deacon and my mom was a minister and I went to the seminary and I was confirmed in the Catholic church. I’ve read the Bible backwards and forwards and there’s a lot in there, a lot that Jesus had to say about taking care of the sick, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, visiting, not executing the prisoner and nothing about capital gains tax cuts, nothing about denying health care coverage to American families and American children and nothing about this sort of insane opposition to a democratically elected president.

They really have hi-jacked Christianity and are giving it a bad name. The reason we see spikes I think in more and more people who no longer associate themselves with any religious faith or belief is because now to say you’re Christian in America means you are saying I am in the same boat, the same bat crap crazy boat with Michelle Bachmann. And a lot of even nominal Christians don’t want to say that any more or cultural Christians don’t want to say that any more."

The above quote is from Countdown on MSNBC on September 1, 2009. The speaker is Dan Savage. I agreed with most of his statements that evening, but totally disagree with his statement that "to say you're a Christian in America means you are saying I am in the same boat, the same bat crap crazy boat with Michelle Bachman." I am a Christian. I have no problem saying that because I and the majority of Christians know that our faith is not the same as Michelle Bachman's.

I believe Mr. Savage and the media would like the statement to be true because it reinforces a stereotype of Christianity that the media perpetuates and that atheists prefer. The stereotype of the anti-intellectual, the Bible-is-literally-true Christian. A stereotype that is easy to ridicule.

Mr. Olbermann loves to ridicule the religious right and too many times all Christians. His views of Christians seems to always portray them as right wing loonies with equally strange religious beliefs. Of course, I admit there are plenty of examples to support his remarks, but these are not the majority of Christians. Mr. Olbermann seldom if ever offers a more sane view of Christians.

Mr. Olbermann is not entirely to blame for his one-sided view of Christians. Most of the media portrays Christians as far right zealots. Interview after interview is conducted with those Christians who will produce the most audience-grabbing sound bites, people on the fringes of the faith, not those in the solid core of the faith.

I have a Ph.D. in Chemistry and a scientist's view of the world. I believe in evolution and stem cell research. I am an left of center independent who supported Hilliary Clinton. I believe in Christ as the truest manifestation of God in our world, but not the exclusive manifestation. I am a Christian. I believe in God the "I am", the Creator, God as love, the Comforter , and God in action, Jesus Christ. Three in one: "I am love in action."

I would challenge Olbermann and other commentators to interview a mainstream Christian, not an atheist, to discuss what Christians think about issues of the day and the far right of our faith. No one can hi-jack Christianity. The media can portray only a sliver of what the truth is, but the great center continues. God does not need us, we need God.

Those of the left make a mistake when they ridicule Christianity as a whole. Rather the center of the faith should be allowed to speak, to reassure those who do not understand what it means to be a Christian. Christ made it very simple to understand: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He did not say it would be easy to do.

Easter Alone

I chose not to go to church on Easter Sunday, even though, I am a born again Christian. I belong to a large church whose services have become a farce. As one of my friends told me after attending one of the three Easter services, "We need to pray for the hearing of those who attended." The music is so loud that it actually hurts. The words of the music are unintelligible in the din. Ninety percent of the music is new with the same forgettable lyrics and melody. All in all, Easter services are uncomfortable experiences.

I did think about attending a small church in my neighborhood, but stayed home instead. I have long had mixed feelings about corporate worship. I know that these services reach people, bring them to God. However, I find them to often to be mass entertainment events. Perhaps, that is necessary in the light of our modern society. I don't know. I do know that we must not let corporate worship replace are own individual witness.

I don't mean buttonholing some poor soul and haranguing them about God. No, I mean leading your life so that it is a model of God's love. Not that I do that. I pray about my failings, but have trouble changing. I don't always give to those that ask. I seldom turn the other cheek.

Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, Christ's command. I even have trouble loving God as I struggle to find money to buy groceries, to pay the doctor, to fix my car. How can God make things so difficult? I suspect that these things happen because of God's larger plan, but would it hurt God to bestow a small blessing on me? I pray and continue on. I hope that someday I will have a glimmer of understanding.

And has God really paid attention to the kind of neighbors I have? Drunken college students, urinating bar patrons? How lovable are they? How about the man that let his dogs run and they killed my cat? I received an answer on that one. The man paid part of my vet's fees when Abner died of a crushed chest from his dog's bite. The money was not the answer.

A short time after Abner died the man approached me. "I'm going to prison. My brother will take the dogs, but I have my mother's cat. I can't find anyone to take her. Will you?"

I wanted to say no. Why should I solve his problem? Let him suffer the consequences of his actions. I had trouble meeting my expenses now. I did not need an elderly cat.

"I will take care of her while you are in prison," I heard myself say. With that I became the owner of an elderly Persian cat. You notice I said owner. The man is out of jail after serving more than two years in jail, but he doesn't have a place for the cat. I am sure she is mine forever.

I can only hope that I did a little of God's will when I took the cat. Maybe that is the answer. We model Christ best, not in grand gestures, but in simple, unthinking, kindnesses to others.

Photo by eva101