Maybe the biggest trouble for the fearful side of the Christian family is the topic of evolution. Those of you who have started the Awed Life curriculum have already read some material on this. Here are some thoughts that might help.
No, evolution is not covered in the Bible text. On the other hand, neither is any scientific field. Why would they be? The Bible is not offering us scientific data, but a life with God! Wouldn’t it be a bit off the subject if suddenly the Bible gave us the Table of Elements or the Laws of Thermodynamics?
The difficulty for the fear-based Christian communities might be most related to a misreading of Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 1 is a powerful theological argument that the creation is not scattered debris of a war between gods, as was the claim in the common myth of the Middle East in which Genesis was brought forth, called the Eneuma Elish. Genesis contends that the creation is one of extravagant kindness from a single lover that we can respond to without fear that other gods will be jealous and demand similar appreciation. But, fatefully, Genesis uses the scheme of the Eneuma Elish (seven cycles of creation) to tell its story.
The passage uses seven “days.” These are clearly used to argue for an orderly and intentional process, and a complete one, using the sane number seven of the Eneuma Elish, but with a different significance, since the Hebrews used the number seven to express complete and perfect. But did the Bible’s original authors and readers intend these days to be taken as 24-hour periods? In the passage, three of the days are before the creation of the sun, so there would have been no “day” possible in any technical sense at all!
Moreover, the Bible contains other creation stories that have different orders of what gets created, and none of these other passages uses days for a structure of the creation story at all. Examples can be found in Psalm 104, or Proverbs 8:22-31 [about the place of wisdom in the creation story]. In Jewish and historical Protestant and Catholic and Christian Orthodox churches’ intellectual communities, a sizeable majority of biblical scholars do not believe that the Bible teaches anything like a 6-day creation story. Why?
Not only for the reasons listed above, but for the persuasiveness of the emphatic Biblical argument that the creation speaks of the truth and glory of God! The Bible regularly asserts that the creation speaks the truth of Godl. I just looked up ten Psalms that have the point of view that the heavens and the earth speak God’s truth. The point is also made over and over in other books of scripture. When a scientist looks closely at a cell, a supernova, or a fossil, the creation speaks God’s truth.
This is not a point without nuance, since death is everywhere in the creation; God, from Genesis to Revelation is not a fan of death, and it too is a part of the world. But understanding that the creation is wounded, and therefore doesn’t speak with all the clarity we could long for does not negate is voice. The creation sings God’s truth. So evidence for the age of the universe in the stars or of the age of the earth in geology, or of the age and development of the species in anthropology and archaeology are the stuff of faith as well as the Word and reason and church.It is a crime that many people of faith keep their kids from learning science and “dumb down” the people whose faith could provide the most healing and positive influences in the scientific community!
Do not be afraid. The creation sings. So do you. Use you mind and your heart to listen and study the world God has given us.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
WHAT IF YOU STUMBLE?
What if You Stumble?
When we started the Church of the Joyful Healer, we sang a song two or three times called “What If I Stumble?” Its central question was “will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl, what if I stumble, what if I fall?”
About five years ago, a close friend of mine did something real stupid and it got in the papers where he lives. Oh, and it was ugly and scandalous. His church family abandoned him and left him isolated and humiliated. I am still angry … not over my friend’s stupid actions, but about a church of Jesus the Healer leaving a wounded one out in the cold.
I appreciate that in United Methodism, there are teams for dealing with a pastor who fails to keep his or her integrity. When someone fails themselves terribly, often that means many are hurt and wounded along with them. They are responsible for much pain. There are always consequences. You know this. When you fail people they hurt. We all do this and we all grieve when we cause others pain and heartbreak.
BUT we are in the business of healing. Our United Methodist Church family has a commitment to be about resolution and restitution. We have the agenda of reconciling and redeeming. We will have times as a local expression of these values when we will feel conflicted and horrified at the behavior of one of our church friends just like we will over our other friends, coworkers, and family.
As much as we can understand the question of responsibility and consequences, we will also be the people on the cusp of the question of redemption. That is our responsibility. We are about a daunting, and sometimes agonizing task: not just to empower the ready, but to welcome the wounded, to heal the broken, and to restore the damaged. Some days that will be you.
May we be as kind to others in their failings as we will want to be to each other in our missteps. I say this today in the luxury of the hypothetical. But today, remember who you are, so that tomorrow, you will be ready to do your work and your call. Christ heals. Sometimes, Christ heals through us.
Do well.
When we started the Church of the Joyful Healer, we sang a song two or three times called “What If I Stumble?” Its central question was “will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl, what if I stumble, what if I fall?”
About five years ago, a close friend of mine did something real stupid and it got in the papers where he lives. Oh, and it was ugly and scandalous. His church family abandoned him and left him isolated and humiliated. I am still angry … not over my friend’s stupid actions, but about a church of Jesus the Healer leaving a wounded one out in the cold.
I appreciate that in United Methodism, there are teams for dealing with a pastor who fails to keep his or her integrity. When someone fails themselves terribly, often that means many are hurt and wounded along with them. They are responsible for much pain. There are always consequences. You know this. When you fail people they hurt. We all do this and we all grieve when we cause others pain and heartbreak.
BUT we are in the business of healing. Our United Methodist Church family has a commitment to be about resolution and restitution. We have the agenda of reconciling and redeeming. We will have times as a local expression of these values when we will feel conflicted and horrified at the behavior of one of our church friends just like we will over our other friends, coworkers, and family.
As much as we can understand the question of responsibility and consequences, we will also be the people on the cusp of the question of redemption. That is our responsibility. We are about a daunting, and sometimes agonizing task: not just to empower the ready, but to welcome the wounded, to heal the broken, and to restore the damaged. Some days that will be you.
May we be as kind to others in their failings as we will want to be to each other in our missteps. I say this today in the luxury of the hypothetical. But today, remember who you are, so that tomorrow, you will be ready to do your work and your call. Christ heals. Sometimes, Christ heals through us.
Do well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)