Heaven

This came out of a discussion on CiC

1. The first questions I think we have to wrestle with on this subject is "what is it?"

As I hear people talk about heaven I hear two main themes: lots of things like "a better place" and also a reunion with loved ones.

In the better place language talk the assumption is more or less that the comparison is something like the difference between an exclusive vacation spot in Hawaii vs. a fox hole in Somalia or Afghanistan. In other words the difference is my experience based on an environment.

The reunion talk focuses more on undoing the wrongness of death with is the separation of loved ones and lost relationships.

What's interesting to note in both of these approaches is subtle assumption that we are the objects. We are the recipients of nice experiences or a nice environment or the company we keep. Whether we would describe a situation as pleasant or torturous is of course often determined by these factors in this life. This is not nonsense, it makes good sense, yet I think it is obviously insufficient.

CRC pruning

This was from a discussion on Voices on the death of smaller CRC churches.

If the denomination decides it wishes to see all pastors as equal and “worthy” of equal monetary compensation it would need to pay pastors from a centralized system and enforce specific requirements for entry and ongoing employment. It would by this system also tightly control (from the center) how many churches it would serve. It would likely in many places centrally close churches so as to group the people together according to the needs of the clergy “servicing” them. Ownership of facilities would also be held centrally so they could be centrally managed. It would be a very different system than ours. It would in a sense be a “single payer” system. Local congregations would be at the will of the central administration and “the church” would be the clergy. It would, in a sense, by fiscal necessity, undo the Reformation in practice.

Faith and the miraculous

I wrote this as a response to a discussion on a breakout of miracles in Indonesia

Why do you seek the miraculous? Do you seek it because you suppose it will somehow bring clarity? Faith? Belief? Vindication?

 I’m preaching through Luke now and I’m in chapter 4. The beginning of the chapter lays down Jesus’ circuit sermon from his redaction of Isaiah. Why doesn’t it end well in Nazareth. Then he goes to Capernaum where he is a big hit. He performs and exorcism right in the middle of the service and everyone loves his preaching. What do we suppose would be the result of these miracles?

Doubt and Love

The fashionable approach to differences today is doubt.

If I believe something and you believe something difference, the fashionable response to keep our difference from resulting in violence (actual or of spirit) is for each of us to hold our beliefs less tightly, for each of us to say our beliefs don’t matter. I believe this approach is both unworkable and dishonest. It artificially devalues the beliefs that are at heart most foundational (being therefore dishonest), and leads to a pragmatism which naturally lands us in a place where we use people and love things, the opposite of the way life is supposed to be. This approach, besides failing to result in what it promises in fact presupposes a metaphysical neutrality that does not exist and leads to despair. I propose that the only response to difference is love.

What's Wrong with Osteen?

Joel Osteen recently did an interview with 60 minutes. If you Google this interview you’ll find many takes on Osteen from bloggers. The complaints seem consistent from two groups.

Many who approach it from a secular perspective complain "it doesn’t work." It’s the old "positive thinking" trick that just always seems to have a following in every generation. It's a cousin to "The Secret" or the "Law of Attraction" where essentially positive thoughts or positive energy yield a positive outcome. Most would recognize that negative thoughts can in fact yield negative outcomes and to a degree positive thoughts can yield positive outcomes but effects are limited and uneven. Osteen brings God into the mix of course and the result seems to be positive thinking/health and wealth applied to seeker methodology.

How to value religious knowledge