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aaron klinefelter
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May 03, 2007
> 3:15 PM
wormholes and stuff > 2 Over the years that I have been in this whole Christian world/life/thing, I've noticed (in retrospect of course) that the majority view on what it's all about goes something like this: God created people. People were happy and God was happy because the people were behaving. People misbehaved. God got mad and kicked people out of His park. People got sad and pissed and started killing each other. God tried all kinds of ways to get them to behave again - they wouldn't - so He came down here, in the flesh and gave us an example. He then took the hit for how mad He was at us. Now, if we accept that He did that and admit that to Him, He calls off the dogs and lets us come back into His park, which has now moved to heaven, in the clouds somewhere - but only after we die. Let's see, did I forget anything? That may be about it. Yeah, admit that you screwed up and want back in, sign off on the requisite belief forms and, when you die, you get to live in the big cool heaven park forever. Now, you'd think it would be a bit of a different story between Catholics and Protestants, and between the various countries in the continent of Protestania, but really, it's not that much different, on the whole, "in the pews," among the common folk. Don't quote the Catechism to me. I know what that says. Don't tell me about the great mystical theologians of Monastic fame. I also know what they said. Even the contemporary prophets, theologians, writers and leaders - Benedict, Willard, Merton, Peterson, etc. That's all good stuff but think about how the general populace thinks about this deal. In my experience, the good stuff hasn't nearly spread out far enough. It hasn't been worked into the soil, as it were. This is a problem. You mean, all those poor common Christian folk aren't really Christians and will eventually go to hell when they die? Oh my, can we hit our collective head on a brick wall and wake up out of thought processes like that? Seriously. I'm not talking about "going to hell" or "going to heaven" for that matter. And not that this is anything new, but I don't really think that's what Jesus was here in the flesh to open up to us either. Didn't say there wasn't a heaven or a hell. Didn't I just talk about heaven? I'm saying that these things are NOT the big point of it all. And they're not. Why I'm saying this is a problem is that when we have a disconnect in how we understand what salvation and "being a Christian" is, then we will see evidence of this disconnect in how it plays out in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Short-circuits cause light bulbs not to function properly (even when the light bulb is in perfectly good shape). The juice doesn't get to it in order for it to get hot, start glowing and give off light. Less light, more darkness = a problem in the world. So what's the deal then? What is this thing and how does it work? Big questions. They obviously cannot be fully and completely answered in a setting like this, but something can be said I think. That divide I talked about yesterday is not just a moral separation. It's not just a divide in that God holds against us this crime and when the crime is acquitted, it's all good. Don't get me wrong, there are "crimes" in that way (in a sense). We're talking about the underneath, though, remember? The divide is deep - at the level of being and existence. It's fracture at the very level of the substance that makes up the Cosmos. Looking at is this way might help us to grasp the seriousness of what we're dealing with here. The fixing of such a problem, the healing of such a wound, is major, perhaps multi-part, surgery along with a long hospital stay and lots and lots of physical therapy. In other words, the brokenness in us is real and substantive, not just conceptual, not simply a matter of wrongs words spoken or even wrong things done that require other words to be spoken or things done to reverse them. This speaks to salvation as process, as transformation of being, which may be initiated in a moment, but which goes on and on until it's finished. It also speaks to salvation as not merely about you as an individual, but you as part of the whole broken mess, being set right and being a part of the whole thing being set right. So, this wormhole thing again - Jesus in the wormhole through which the Life of God enters into us and into the whole world. Sure, there's an initial connection with that Life - normally through Sacramental Baptism - but this an initiation into a process, not the whole process itself. The goal is that we be swallowed up in this New Life of God. And you know, this "New Life" is only "new" to us. It's nothing new at all, but rather, the original intent for Human Life on earth. We can either be open to the pouring through of His Life or we can be closed to it, even after initial connection. As we go along the days, weeks, months and years we are, at any given time, either constricting or helping to facilitate the flow of God's Life both into us and into the world. As much as we are open, we help to facilitate this flow and are, ourselves, transformed and at the same time act as conduits (in the One Conduit) through which everything around us is transformed, renewed, set right. Our salvation is this: that we fully open to and are eventually fully permeated and transformed by the very Life Essence of God. As this happens then, we are a part and a participant in the full and complete renewal and transformation of this dimension of reality. That's the whole deal. As I said before, the dissolution of the dimensional barrier. This is the coming, in fullness, of the "Kingdom of God" that is being talked about so much recently. The concept of a "King-dom" is an analogy, used so that we can get somewhat of a grasp on the underlying actuality. Even though it's a good and useful one, if we go too hog-wild with even that analogy, we miss some important distinctions. We could possibly end up living a truncated version of God's reality if we only look at things terms of God as King having a reign or rule over earth. That's a good start, but again, it goes much deeper than that - far past some kind of external agreement or even familial connection. If we don't get down into ontological identity, into actually who and what we are as inhabited by and merged with Who and What God IS, we never really get to the point. We will sail on the fascinatingly beautiful and unbelievably amazing surface of a 5 mile deep ocean. Time to put on the diving gear - better yet, it's eventually time to learn how to breath underwater. technorati tags > theology, heaven, spirituality, reality, philosophy, metaphysics, salvation, transformation, christian mysticism Labels: church, spiritual formation, theology 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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