TODAY:  THE NATURE OF GOD

From the Church:  We believe that there is one true and living God, perfect in all attributes, one in essence, yet eternally existing in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) each equally deserving of devotion and worship. (Deuteronomy 6:4; John 20:28; Acts 5:3-4; Romans 11:36; Colossians 2:9).

My Take:  First, note the painting here, which is from Peru and dates to around 1750.  I am fascinated by the idea that until personal ownership of Bibles (plus the ability to read) became common well into the nineteenth century that key Biblical concepts were conveyed by art.  This image is unsettling yet is a sweet attempt to convey the triune (three in one) nature of God.   I love the fact that in art we are not necessarily told what we must think…rather it spurs us to contemplate that which is beyond our plane of understanding: that if Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are one, that they must also have been one within Jesus.  Because we can so easily identify with His humanity, it’s tempting to see Jesus as a seperate entity when He is much more.  This wrestling on just how God and Spirit and Flesh intermingle is the crux of the distinction between gnosticism and what became mainstream Christianity.  The Gnostics looked at Jesus and saw first God and Spirit; the winners of the third century war regarding the nature of Jesus won out on the idea that he was mostly human.  Of course neither side adequately grasped the mystery…primarily because they refused—especially the mainstreamers—to embrace the triune nature of God as mystery.  They sought to understand God with their minds through reason, when God is best understood through the heart in love.  Boy, did I jump ahead!   So here’s some key points on my view of the nature of God, and I’m basically going to go phrase by phrase on the statement from the church:

You know that every point here could be a book and probably is, right?

1. “one true and living God”   I first typed out here a somewhat lengthy theological discussion of the plural names of God used in the Bible and the whole jealous God thing…like, how can the jealousy mentioned in the ten commandments happen if there really aren’t any other gods?  Wouldn’t it be better to say, “Yo, I’m not jealous, but it ticks me off when you think other gods are real, cause they ain’t.”  (That’s my gangsta rap version of God, which is just as valid as the other cultures we create his identity within—wink.)   So, I erased all my scripture references to say this, which I do think is from the heart of God:  What’s the largest living organism on earth?   Birch trees.  I’ve been on a narrow gauge train ride at the Colorado border and seen the white bark of Birch trees for as far as the eye could see.  Guess what…they are not individual things; they are all connected at the root and are one being.  I think when we consider God as living and as one that we should remember the birch trees.

2. “perfect in all attributes”   Perfect? Seriously?  God admits to jealousy in the ten commandments and is allegedly ordering the violent killing of the babies of Samarian sinners (Hosea 13:16), and commanding Israelites to rape virgin girls and enslave them (Joshua 21).   Sorry, no one is supposed to tell you about those verses…don’t think about them long or your head will explode.  There’s no way in hell God had anything to do with that ugliness…even in the Bible stories themselves God is often co-opted by evil men as a justification for doing horrid things.  The Holy Spirit is seen in the movie “The Ten Commandments” racing through Egyptian villages and killing innocent first born folks; as a first born child I have a problem with that.  …and what of Jesus?  was He perfect?  did he ever have zits? was he really secure about his penis size?  We know that he ran off from his parents and disappeared for a few days.  As a parent I’ll tell you that is not an attribute of perfection, and somebody needed his holy butt popped.  Respectfully, God, as portrayed in the Bible, is not perfect.   God as love is perfect.

3. “one in essence”   Birch trees.  That’s all you need to know.

4. “yet eternally existing in three persons”   I still think they lose some folks with the one god in three persons thing.  The problem is the term “persons.”  That dog/god won’t hunt.  As soon as you try to make God be three people there’s just no way to make it work.  The triune nature of God can’t be defined…at least not adequately…in terms within our understanding.  By the way, the “eternally existing” thing implies that God has been looking at his Holy Calendar watching the days go by and wistfully missing the dinosaurs—at least when they were babies and still cute.  God is beyond eternal; God exists outside the dimension of time.  We’ll likely come back to that.

5. “(Father, Son and Holy Spirit”)   This is as good a place to stick this as any:  God, as exhibited in any of the three forms, moves fluidly within being male, female, in between and beyond.  (Don’t throw rocks at your computer screen….you’ll hurt yourself more than me.)  You likely get that when it says in Genesis: “and God (plural here) made man in his own image, male and female he made them” this indicates God’s image includes male and female.  The Holy Spirit is often referred to in the feminine, yet has very masculine attributes at times as well.  Jesus was certainly identified as male at birth, and frankly had to be male in that culture to heard, however if you read the Gospels looking for things Jesus did that were nurturing, empathic, sensitive, maternal…it’s a fascinating study.  You gotta love the imagery of Matthew 23:37 where Jesus speaks of wishing he could gather the people of Jerusalem to himself, just “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”  Read The Shack.

6. “each equally deserving of devotion and worship”  I’m likely going amend this later, however for now I’m really numb on the devotion and worship thing.   Is God really an insecure narcissist who needs or desires our praise?  I really don’t think so.  I believe the Bible and traditional Christianity  goes way too far in personifying God.  If God is truly omnipotent, and if he totally has his act together, he is really beyond the praise and worship thing.   So why does the Bible and the church talk about worship so much?  I suspect it’s US that needs to worship God, not God who needs to be worshipped.  Indeed we are the narcissists, and we’re not going to get past our whiny egos until we see who we are in perspective of the bigger reality, which is:   dude/sis…you’re a birch tree.

(I saw God smile with that last line.)

My Belief in Motion on the Nature of God:   God is a mystery, and we can best grasp God’s nature as we consider love and our interconnectedness.

Today…The Authority of the Bible:

From the church:  We believe that the Scriptures comprised of 66 books contain the only written revelation, given by the Holy Spirit to human authors. The Word of God is free from errors in the original manuscripts, constituting the only infallible and sufficient rule for life and godliness. (Psalm 19:7-9; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; 3:16)

My Take:  In that there are numerous lengthy books on the topic, all I can do is hit some highlights:

1.  Many moons ago I actually memorized each of the scriptures the church cites as authority.  The circular reasoning of “The Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true” would carry more weight if the Bible as we know it today existed when these verses were written.   When the Psalm passage was written the “Bible” consisted of the first five books of the Old Testament.  When the passages from Timothy and Peter were written the Old Testament had fleshed out a bit, however there was no recognized collection of works which were or were to become the New Testament.

2. There are over forty thousand denominations—-that’s forty thousand groups of folks who said their unique understanding of the Bible was so worth fighting for that they could not align with any other Christian group.   Even if the Bible were “infallible and sufficient,”  it is so very unclear that basing one’s Christian faith solely on the Bible can do as much damage as it does good.

3. Remember that for more than three quarters of Christian history, the average person had no access to “The Bible.”   There were significant splits on issues, however the church was much more cohesive and just as loved by God when Chritianity was shared by word of mouth and by art.

4  I love reading about the formation of the canon: the collection of books we now call “The Bible.”  It was done by a contentious democratic vote by misongynist men with religious and political agendas.  Read The Jesus Wars.     I don’t believe the men who created the canon were led solely by God, nor do I think they got it right.

5.  I was just about to toss out the whole Bible upon which I’d based my life when I discovered the books of Richard Rohr, D.E. Paulk, Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman, and others.  Father Rohr in particular showed me a non-dualistic approach to understanding the New Testament that helped me see the teaching from the mindset in which it was written.  This has given me a renewed respect for the Bible…although I still approach it with caution.

6.  There were dozens of other books, which thousands of Christians believed to be THE truth and Word of God, which were tossed out and destroyed seventeen hundred years or so ago when the 66 books of what we call the Bible were chosen.  I believe many of those books, particularly the Gnostic Gospels, have much to teach us about the nature of Jesus/God/Holy Spirit.  Because I believe the early fathers of the church and the Roman government systematically massaged the new testament books to exclude and reduce the importance Jesus intended regarding women, I tend to believe parts of the gnostic gospels are often closer to the truth than what we have in the established canon.

7.   Like the men who created the canon, the King James Version was shaped by a religious and political agenda which was not in alignment with the heart of God.  I don’t like it one bit.

8.  Last, and perhaps most important, I believe God is still speaking to people like you and me, and what we’re hearing is often as valid and true as anything in the traditional Bible.  When we read something in the Bible, or when a preacher states what something in the Bible means, and in our heart of hearts it doesn’t ring true….I think we must trust the voice within, and at least investigate further.

My current Statement of Belief regarding the Authority of The Bible:   The Bible is a fascinating historical record of people seeking to know and understand God which, put in its historical context and considered with other spiritual writings,  teaching, art, as well as God’s voice within us, has great value today as we pursue Divine revelation.

I asked Molly why she was leaving Albuquerque for Detroit. Her hackles raised and her countenance changed as she spewed about how there was no opportunity in Albuquerque, how the people here are rude and unwilling to accept outsiders, how the crime was bad and the drivers worse, and so on. I smiled and asked her about Detroit. She assured me it was the land of opportunity and that she could easily find both work and community there.

 Statistically the opportunity part of her story is simply not true. Numerous studies over the last couple of years have shown job opportunity and entrepreneurial opportunity in Albuquerque to be within the top ten cites in America. In those studies Detroit was near the bottom. Hopefully things are getting better, however Detroit has more foreclosures and higher unemployment than almost anywhere else. The part about the ability to make friends is harder to quantify in a rational manner. I will note that a recent census showed more lesbian couples living in my zip code than in any other zip code in America. Molly is a lesbian, and from my personal awareness, there was indeed much opportunity for friendship here. I think she’s a lovely person, except for this spew of negativity. Molly leaves for Detroit in two weeks, and I wish her well.

 I didn’t want to discount Molly’s story; it was true and precious to her, and perhaps against the odds her belief in opportunity in Detroit might make it work for her. What concerned me was her insistence that this reality for her was the absolute reality for all people in Albuquerque and all people in Detroit. I told her the story of Karla coming to Albuquerque in a u-haul, knowing no one except me, carless, without a license to practise her craft, and with very little money. In three years Karla’s created opportunity that includes a six figure income and a vibrant circle of friends. Karla says that even if I moved away that she would not leave Albuquerque…it’s now her home, presumably for life.  Now Karla’s experiences are unique and outside the norm, yet were offered as an example of a vastly different perceived reality.  Karla arrived with a story that she would be successful here.

Molly, still very stuck in her story, retorted with reasons why Karla’s story is unique and not applicable to her or others. I elected not to argue further. What matters in this is to see how stories have shaped the path of the two women here. Then, perhaps, we need to ask ourselves about the stories that create our lives: are they true? (discerning and writing down our stories is essential to determining validity) do the stories limit us? or do our stories empower our future and our present reality?

 More than most of us realize, our stories, not our circumstances, shape our lives. We will usually find confirming circumstances that demonstrate that our stories are true. The “secret” to success then is intentionally reshaping who we are by choosing our stories rather than letting our stories choose us.

I worked for a long time with someone who was worth many millions of dollars and had everything the world claims is “success.”  Sadly, not only was he unhappy at his core, I occasionally heard people who knew him well remark that his mansion on the water was all the heaven he would ever see. 

As Americans we are in a war of values…the things the media tell us are what really matters rarely satisfy.  Like an addictive drug, one beautiful shirt or pair of shoes can soothe us briefly, yet we soon need another “fix.”  Many of us raised in the Christian faith have been taught that hardship and adversity…the lack of “success”…is of the devil, and that if we were really serving God properly we would indeed have a big screen TV just like our pastor.   With all due respect, this is nuts.  The life of Jesus and virtually every major player in the Bible is a demonstration of triumph through adversity.  Wisdom, grace and enlightment arises from the strife and struggles that we pray so hard to avoid.   Do we need to seek difficult times?  Not just no, but hell no.  At the same time we would do well when those times come to “allow the wound”—-to lean into it for its revelation, knowing that the mystery and grace of God is conspiring for our soul’s growth.   Our path to heaven rather than bugdom is often found in the crysalis of struggle. 

Albuquerque Divorce Mediator Kelly Vickers offers mediation, pastoral counseling and general peacemaking through MasterPeace.  For more information please see www.MasterPeaceDisputeSolutions.com

I’d like to write about this over a period of time.  It is key that we do not seek or choose our wound, yet when the wound occurs, and it will, that rather than relentlessly fighting it that we “allow” it….choose to BE with it, all the while seeking God for the message/hidden power of the wound, even when the idea of such a message seems outrageous.  It’s a bit counter-intuitive,  however I think this is really the only path for deliverance from pain.   When we choose to embrace the transformative power of the wound, we can then move on….to the next wound, or so it seems.

www.OperationBeautiful.com

This collection of true vignettes from my practicing law in the deep South is often shocking and occassionally hilarious.  Hit the link and go full screen above to read the first three stories. 

You can order directly from the publisher or contact me, and I’ll send a signed copy to you for $10 (which is less than the publisher charges for the book plus shipping).  PayPal is preferred.

Kelly Vickers, Author of Briefs from Redneckville,  Warrior Priest Press, 2010Briefs from Redneckville

Prevail!

 When you are operating within your destiny—doing what you were ordained to do from before the earth was formed—daily success and perfection are irrelevant. When you walk hand in hand with destiny all that really matters is showing up. —me

Spriritual Coaching by Kelly Vickers, J.D.  340-1107 Albuquerque

While I have a doctorate and decades of experience helping folks, the wisdom I impart in success coaching comes mostly from the lessons I learned from making lots of mistakes along the way. As a legal professional and as an ordained minister I am sworn to confidentiality, and I’ve seen folks at their worst. No matter what your story is, I’m not shocked. My response is always compassion, acceptance and a willingness to find new paths to help you knock down your barriers and the myths that restrain you.

I am passionate about this work. As an attorney folks paid me $225 an hour and up for my advice. I am offering Success Coaching for a limited time at $50 per 75 minute session. When I say limited time, please know that if you begin working with me by the end of March, 2010 your rate will always be $50 per hour, even when others are paying two or three times that. My professional office is conveniently located at 3924 Carlisle Blvd. NE and all are welcome. My greatest compassion is for folks who have been disenfranchised by society in some way: such as folks with weight issues or GBLT or faith paths contrary to their peers. I also do couples counseling; I work with several government entities as a mediator and can bring those skills to help referee and restore relationships.

Call me at 340-1107. Kelly Vickers, JD

Jesus is shockingly not upset with sinners! He is only upset with people who do not think they are sinners. In most of history, religion thought its mission was to somehow expel sin and evil. As if it could. After Jesus we find out that the real sin lies in the very act of expelling. Jesus knew there is no place to expel it to. It only hides underground.

Either we carry and transform the evil of human history as our own problem, or we increase its power by hating and punishing it “over there.” It will eventually come back to bite us. Jesus taught us how to hold, absorb, and transform the human situation, not to deny it, punish it, or project it elsewhere. He then dramatically illustrated this pattern on the cross, and it became resurrection.

Richard Rohr in Hope Against Darkness