PeaceBang

The Meaning of the Crucifixion

I’ve just started to read Elaine Pagels and Karen King’s book on the Gospel of Judas and I’m already getting lost in my own thoughts on every page. I’ll read like two paragraphs and get all snarled up in christological musings –because I’m such a DEEP GIRL and that’s the sort of thing I do — when I’m not reading celebrity gossip blogs and playing “psycho mousie under the covers” with my cat, that is.

No, seriously.

Today, after having attended a two-hour worship service at a local American Baptist church, I was thinking about how little they actually taught about Jesus even though the two hours were full of enthusiastic, percussion-heavy shout-outs to him. The basic assumption was that you came into the church already having established a very personal relationship with Jesus. There was no need to dwell on the Bible stories about him, to focus specifically on his sayings or actions, or to analyze him in any way.

Of course this is light years’ difference from the way we treat the J-Man in the UU church. If we mention him at all, we have to carefully set the context and explain the heck out of our analysis because we assume that either (a) people are wigged-out former Christians whose hair stands up on the backs of their necks when they hear his very name or (b) our listeners don’t give a fig about Jesus, so you’d better make this interesting and smart or (c) we have to make sure to make this clear to the unchurched, who may have no Biblical knowledge whatsoever.
The end result is that there’s very little enthusiasm involved in talking ’bout Jesus. We’re very bookish, little owls blinking behind our pages of research.

Which is all rather a shame, of course, because a good number of our UU seekers these days have lots of good feeling about Jesus and come assuming that we do, too. They’d like to learn about his spiritual philosophy beyond the basics and they don’t understand why we walk on eggshells around the Christian tradition.

Part of why we walk on eggshells, of course, is that a whole bunch of us have no acquaintance whatsoever with Unitarian and Universalist christology and assume that to be Christian — or even to talk about Christianity as an insider — means to believe that Christ died on the Cross as a human sacrifice for our sins. Which is abusive, sick nonsense, they say, and what kind of irrational, credulous ninny would put their faith in a God who makes this necessary?

Conversation over!

So I’m reading The Gospel of Judas this afternoon and I’m thinking there are so many deep ways to consider the meaning of the crucifixion of Christ. I’m so sorry that so many of my co-religionists reject the entire tradition because they can’t move beyond the orthodox treatments of this event.

I would think, in fact, that a religious humanist would potentially be very drawn to this story because it’s such an incredible tale of the human struggle. Take God the Father and what He might be doing out of the picture and it’s still a breathtaking story: one courageous itinerant preacher of healing and justice being nabbed by the authorities, brutally beaten and then crucified. A community of friends and disciples running away in horror, and shame. A reappearance of the dead man: who knows how? Communal psychotic break? Something funny in the wine? Who knows! And then a subsequent passionate re-emergence by the formerly traumatized community of friends who then proclaim that the love will overcome violence, that the world has totally misunderstood the nature and uses of power, and rushing off to spread the good news and to get decapitated for their trouble.

Fast forward to 2000 years later and the story is still going strong! Wow, what’s going on here? Are all those billions of people just crazy, nutso, just plain dumb? Wouldn’t any respectful student of the human history of meaning-making delight in digging into this story, and this figure? Doesn’t he beckon in a personal way, this cipher? Haven’t we figured out by now that purely academic study of whether Jesus was a real dude or not, or whether or not he actually said certain phrases is kind of fruitless?

I’m sorry that so many people who are secretly thirsting for living waters of Christian life are still living in the arid desert of the Jesus Seminars. I mean, it’s a great place to start reading if you’re tentative about Jesus, but I wouldn’t stay there. Current theological offerings are much richer than that, anyhow.

Someone asked me recently what I thought it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus. For me it means (1) to seek instruction by him through studying the most reliable reports of his life and teachings and (2)to agree to be part of the “you” he was talking about when he said, “I will be with you always.” The former commitment is about being a disciple of Jesus the living man. The latter commitment is about embracing the cosmic Christ as a spirit that manifests in the world through a combination of the grace of God and human willingness to have faith in its reality. To have a personal relationship with Jesus is to say to him, “I am going to look for you today out there. I am going to try to be more influenced by you than by Madison Avenue or the Rupert Murdoch empire.”

To have a personal relationship with Jesus is to stand where he stood — even in those terrible moments under the Cross — and to ask myself, “What does this mean? How can I live with this? What am I supposed to do about it?” Even if I had no belief in a transcendent God whatsoever, I believe I would still be drawn to the Jesus event in much the same way. I ask myself now and then how we as a human community would react even today to someone who rejects the things we all tacitly agree matter most (home, family, possessions, worldly goals), who breaks down barriers of class, gender, race in an impolite and even disdainful fashion, and who dares to insist that no matter how popular they become and how amazingly they influence people for the better, they have no agenda but to bring about a new world order based on peace and love. I’m thinking the slammer, the psych ward or an assassination.

To have a personal relationship with Jesus is to sit eating peanuts with him at the kitchen table, throwing the shells on the floor and saying Man, we are still so totally not ready for you. And when he says, “Well, stop eating peanuts then and GET ready,” you sigh and brush the shells off your lap and keep trying because you think he’s the most rightest person who ever was.

P.S. I’ll be away visiting MotherBang for a few days so don’t freak if your comment doesn’t show up right away. She has a dial-up connection and I won’t be online much. — xoxo PB
P.P.S. Please don’t yell at me for suggesting that you can have Christ without God. A lot of Unitarian Universalists don’t believe in God and I am trying to do what the preacher said to do this morning, which is to bring someone the gospel today. You dooz what you canz. I personally thought Jesus was the Way way before I believed in God, so I’m living proof that theological righty-osity doesn’t matter much to the Holy Spirit.

Rocking Out In a Kind of Michael Mooreish Way

SisterBang has something called a mog which is all about music, where groovy people who actually keep up with new artists review recordings and concerts and generally act a lot cooler than this Broadway tunes geek. Since most of my music collection runs to 80’s and 90’s rock, female jazz vocalists, gospel greats and the likes of Liza, Chita and Patti, I rely on the kindness of my sister or friends like Michael and Paul to introduce me to new (and just new-to-me) music. Like the White Stripes. And Amy Winehouse. Thanks, kids.

F’rinstance, SisterBang just sent me this song by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and I think you should hear it before you go out into your day. Pay attention to the lyrics ’cause there’s a surprise ending.

http://hypem.com/search/ah%20mary/1/

UUA.org “From the Minister’s Study”

Well, lookee here.

It’s always nice to get published somewhere. I like the column. And yes, it’s an absotootly 100% true story.

Friday Cat Blogging

Ladies and gentlemen, your very educational and highly cute Friday cat blogging.

I had never heard of cerebellar hypoplasia until SisterBang sent me this video. I love this little guy. He walks like a cowboy and he has the best STRIPES and white eyeliner!!

When he gives the leetle leeks to his other cat friend’s ear I totally lose it.

We loves the Charley. He is anorable.

Salvation Through Humor

I am just so excited. A UU from another congregation wrote me an absolutely wonderful letter wherein she not only remembered in great detail a Good Friday sermon I gave over two years ago (always a sobering honor when that happens) but invited me to join her congregation on retreat as a speaker on the subject of HUMOR!!

How fabulous is that!!??

It so happens that I have a deeply melancholic temperament but had the great good fortune to be raised by parents who both have really good senses of humor. Which means that as crazy as we ever got as a family — and believe me, we got crazy — there was always laughter and a sense of the absurdity of life. My dad’s “gift” was more for sarcasm (hilarious if you weren’t the object of his derision, devastating if you were), and my mom is clever and warmly funny. There was a lot of pointed wit among the extended family as well, especially my Dad’s side of the family (although my mother’s younger brother is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met). And then all that inimitable Jewish humor, of course.

I am so excited about this invitation that I have ants in my pants about it and probably can’t even sit still very long. The best thing that this woman wrote in her letter was that she is a shy and serious person who finds it hard to laugh easily, but that my blogs have made her laugh more often this past year than anything else she can remember.

You know how cats drop onto their backs and wriggle around and show their belly when they’re happy? That’s how I feel hearing that. Laughter heals. Genuine laughter for me is about love and appreication. There can be great reverence in a humorous outlook. I happen to think that the era of expecting clergy to be sombre, pious types is long over and good riddance. How can we endure the complexities of the modern age without humor?

So, readers, you can expect PeaceBang’s reflections on God and humor and Jesus and humor and humor within the religious community in coming months.

Here’s my favorite G-rated joke of recent years, by the way.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

The Interrupting Cow.

The Interrupt—

MOO!

If you tell it just right, I guarantee someone will be laughing to the point of tears. It’s that stupid. You have to say MOO very loudly and insistently with a straight face.

UU Christian Practices

Mama G has asked a really excellent question of Unitarian Universalist Christians that very rarely gets put to us: what do UU Christians do? I find this question refreshing because I’m getting a bit tired of the old, “How can you be a UU and be a Christian?” that constantly comes my way.

So, Mama G, thanks for asking. Christianity is for me a religion of practice, not just of thought and reflection. One of the key reasons I became a Christian is because Unitarian Universalism offers no clear direction about what a good UU “does” beside the same kind of thing that all good people do, namely works of mercy, justice and compassion. For spiritual practices we’re all over the place: you can jog, garden, quilt, write poetry, play the piano or make out checks to the ASPCA. Those are all worthy and good things, but they do not invite me into a disciplined transformation of my life (in a word, discipleship). Even more problematic for me, I have found that it is nearly impossible to create a compelling common language and sacred narrative for a community whose spiritual practices are so various and sundry.

So what do (UU) Christians do? Here is my own personal list.

1. Christians worship together in community. The Christian movement is all about the community of the faithful. It is not about kinship ties but spiritual ties. Christians need to be together to praise God according to Jesus’ model. Christians do not do this alone. This means that I need to make a commitment to worship in a Christian church or with UU Christians on a regular basis, and I do. This was a commitment I made when I was baptized, as I believe that one cannot be a Christian “solitary.”
I have learned the stories and the songs that bond me to Christians all over the world, and this has brought immeasurable depth and meaning to my life.

That said, Mama G, I like SC Universalists idea for your group.

2. Christians read and preach from the Bible when they are together. The Bible contains the sacred story for Christians and should be read and studied and marveled at and delved into by those who seek to know, and to live by, the spirit of Jesus.

3. Christians read and study the Bible when they are alone. I encourage all UU Christians to read the Bible (OT and NT) daily and to study the commentaries, both Jewish and Christian. I think that UU Christians have a special responsibility to affirm the sibling relationship that exists between Judaism and Christianity, and to acknowledge the latter’s debt to the former. UU Christians have a unique ability to keep reminding the Christian world that Jesus was a Jewish man ministering within a Jewish community. We can, and should be, bridge-builders between the two communities.

3. Pray as a Christian.
To pray as a Christian means to name God as the One who hears our prayers, who is actively involved in the world, and who loves us. To pray as a Christian means to ask for healing in the name of Christ, the healer. It means to learn the Lord’s Prayer and to develop a personal understanding and relationship with each of the phrases. To pray as a Christian means to pray for others and to assume that doing so is never an empty gesture. Christian UUs should be praying people and offer to pray for anyone who asks, including agnostics, skeptics, and anyone who thinks that maybe a prayer “couldn’t hurt.” We are not required to believe that prayer “works” but I think we are required to keep faith that prayer matters.

3. Christians share table fellowship.
Eat! Break bread together!

4. Christians should feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, etc., as per Jesus’ instructions. UU Christian groups will want to consider doing something along these lines together.

5. Christian UUs should become friends with the communion of saints from our tradition, and consider it their privilege and responsibility to know the religious teachings of our great Christian ministers (and lay men and women as you can find them).

SO, what DON’T UU Christians do?

1. UU Christians don’t proselytize or make claims that theirs is the one true faith. They just choose this path for themselves.

2. UU Christians don’t exclude people from fellowship for expressing doubts or irreverent thoughts about the Bible, Jesus or God.

3. UU Christians don’t worry about who’s going to hell and they don’t engage in competetive spiritual development.

4. UU Christians assume that all are capable of taking on leadership, and they share the responsibility of planning, setting up and cleaning up.

I’m sure my readers will have other ideas. Have at it, gang.

Map of Religions in the U.S.

Hey, this is kind of fascinating. The UUs even make it on the survey as “Unitarians.”

Honk Fest

Okay everyone. We are so totally going to this.

Friday Puppy Blogging

My family and I are kinda obsessed with this.

The little nibbly ears!
The little triangular muzzle!
The fact that his person can’t stop kissing him (notice stealth kiss at beginning and in middle of video).
The teeny smwoft paws!

Gettin’ All Theological Over At Philocrites

Since I’m not currently capable of reflecting on any topic more profound than the latest adventures of Spiderman and various mermaids, let me direct you to a terrific discussion on Isaac Newton, trinitarianism and UUism over at Philocrites’ blog. A whole bunch of smartypantses are weighing in, and you should have a look-see.

Hafidha Sofia writes more about it over at her place, in a way that I think is beautiful and sad and that opens conversation rather than presenting the typical “I don’t want to be Christian and you can’t make me” UU argument. She asks an incredibly pertinent question: what happens when a fairly new but devoted UU realizes that we really do have exclusively Christian roots but doesn’t feel in any way drawn to the Christian faith? Is she required to care? Is she remiss in some way if she chooses not to study Christian theological tradition?

Chutney says that the M.Divs (and that would include me) need to answer this question.

It is the very question that I am grappling with myself, and I can’t thank Hafidha Sofia for asking it in just that way (and for what it’s worth HS, I think that your reading of Riane Eisler’s books in preparation for her visit to your church is a great example of the kind of discipline you ask about that I think we’d all love to see in our congregations).

I just got home and am reading Jon Krakauer’s Under The Banner of Heaven while trying not to run the washer and dryer in such hot weather.