Reconciliation and Redeeming Everything (thoughts on Galations and Ephesians)

an excerpt from my jounal on Sunday, June 21st:

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I’m reading through the Epistles of Paul and two things are striking me like never before: Paul’s 1) anti-religion rhetoric and 2) his talk of universal reconciliation.  That this strikes me as anything novel I suppose testifies to the hermeneutical glasses we bring to the table, based on where we are at in our lives.

First, the apostle is scathing with his anti-religion rhetoric.  Now it’s so cliché in Christianist world today to say “It’s not a religion; it’s a relationship.”  But almost always, the very same person who will say this will have set-in-stone rules for religion, hard political beliefs that tie into it, and very certain opinions about who is in and who is out.  It’s a “relationship” that at the very least indistinguishable from religion.  Secondly, Paul really flirts with language of “All things” being reconciled.  It’s even there in Ephesians 1, a clobber passage used by some to insist that God picks only some for salvation and excludes the rest from welcome.  And yet even with the apostle flirty with such loose all-things-reconciled language, I tensed up last night as I was polishing up a song I wrote with a line about God feeling alone when he alone believes both in himself and the salvation of the world (whereas Christians tend to believe only the first and agnostics only the latter).  I feel the same dissonance whenever I make even a quick comment about God reconciling everything.

I often wonder how long it will be until I speak more openly with such Biblical-yet-uncomfortable language.  Quoting the apostle Paul, without making all sorts of qualifications about what his rhetoric could mean, can quickly make people question your Christianity.

Libby just added that maybe the relation turmoil I’ve had recently, with several people I’ve loved and respected, has its way of showing me a religion in which there is no “right thing to do,” where rules for how to fix things break down.  And more importantly, it shows me what God feels when we firmly refuse to reconcile.  And in the same way that allowing interpersonal dissyncronization causes all sorts of unwanted things, maybe the Spirit’s judgment of disintegrating sin is simply letting us have our way like a child ostracized by peers because he insists on breaking everyone else’s toy.

It’s fitting that the word I’ve been camping on lately is “reconciliation,” which Paul sees as central to the Gospel.  But it’s not just reconciliation to God; we are terribly shortsighted when we stop at that.  It’s about reconciling to God, to others, to the earth/world, and to ourselves.  As much as I’d rather point this biting fact at anyone else, I have to turn it on myself and say that if there is any person I would refuse to reconcile with, I am not preaching a true Gospel.  And I need to repent to specific people of the way that I let anger stop me from reconciling when someone apologizes.  The ancient heresy of Gnosticism (which I say is very much alive in different form to this day) was rooted in the prioritizing of the spirit over the body, the sacred of the secular. Gospel calls for everything to move toward a state of reconciliation, and everything is sacred.

Grace and Peace

Busy weeks and finding rhythm

I’ve finished college and begun to join the adult world of working 8 to 5.  Hence, blogging takes a back seat to time with my fiancé and friends, as well as all the other things one has to accomplish with only 24 hours in a day.  I consider public writing to be a small but important part of my vocation in life, so I will have to figure out a better rhythm to my day if I am to continue writing prolifically, which I have every intention of doing.

Finding a rhythm to life has become a much more important thing to me as of late.  Putting aside time for deep, centering prayer, as well as other, more ancient monastic prayers is something that has become central to my spirituality.  Other spiritual practices like regular, weekly fasting have changed so much about how I feel the physical and the spiritual merging, as constant hunger pangs and intentional self-deprivation hold my constant attention on the Divine.  And then there are the rhythms to life like waking up earlier in the morning just to have coffee with Libby, or putting aside other important things to be with friends in the evening that make the day worth it all.  I’m trying to find the balance between letting a job and the tasks of the day rule my time on one side, and having a monotonous routine on the other.  They are both killers, so I guess finding rhythm is about developing only the loose routines that make you excited about the day.