Archive for the 'faith' Category

Faith IV

Published
by
Ken
on October 24, 2008
in Uncategorized and faith
. 0 Comments

We now come to some of the most provocative passages dealing with faith: Matthew 17:14-21 in which Jesus casts out a demon his disciples are unable to cast out; Matthew 21:18-22 and Mark 11:12-14, 20-26 in which Jesus curses the fig tree; and Luke 17:5-6 in which the disciples ask for increased faith. In these passages, Jesus describes the sheer power available to those with the smallest amount of faith:

… if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. (Matthew 17:20)

… if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing,  you shall receive. (Matthew 21:21b,22)

Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you. (Mark 11:22b-24)

If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6)

One of the most interesting aspects of these accounts is the fact that Jesus does not qualify his statements. In two of the accounts all that is necessary is faith like (or as) a mustard seed. In the other two accounts one only need to believe (or have faith) and not doubt. Now, to many, these statements must necessarily be hyperbolic and most will add de facto constraints on Jesus’ statements. For example, the Ryrie Study Bible includes a footnote for the Matthew 17 passage stating, “The will of God, of course, governs all things, including this promise,” and for the Mark 11 passage: “This principle is qualified by Christ in other teaching (Matt. 6:10) and in His own life (Mark 14:36).” In the latter footnote the first reference is the Lord’s Prayer in which we are to pray for God’s will to be done and the second is Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his crucifixion in which he asks God to “remove this cup” but then defers to God’s will over his own.

But, in fact, Jesus does not qualify his statements to the disciples. If, as Ryrie’s footnote maintains, “the will of God, of course, governs all things,” then we have a few potential problems. The first is, of course, that God is responsible for evil since all things are governed by his will; but that is outside the scope of this article. The second is why tell us to pray that God’s will be done if God’s will governs all things? I shall return to this later. Lastly, Jesus is, to put it mildly, not being very fair. Imagine telling your daughter that she can have whatever she wants to eat but then deny her ice cream, cake, a lollipop, and a chocolate bar because you want her to have Brussels sprouts. If you already have in mind what she is going to eat, why give her the choice? If what happens is subjugated to God’s will then why tell us we can do whatever we want?

One way out of the last dilemma is simply to have your daughter ask for Brussels sprouts when that’s what you want her to have. In other words, have her desires coincide with your desires. It is precisely because there is no qualification that the desires of those having faith align with God’s desires that the desires of those having faith will, by definition, align with God’s desires. What Jesus is really telling us is what it takes to be like God: faith like a mustard seed, belief without doubt. Ram Dass takes this idea even further. In The Only Dance There Is, which is a transcription of two of his lectures, he says:

When Christ says “Had ye but faith, ye could move mountains,” he’s not putting you on. This is not some lovely metaphor saying it’s hard just to lead a good clean life. That isn’t what it’s about at all. He’s just telling you how it is: that were you at a certain level of consciousness you could move a mountain, literally. But the way it happens is very far out. It only happens when you have transcended that in you which is separate from the mountain, so that you are, in fact, the mountain, and then you move. … To the extent that you are the mountain that moves, you are also the being that put the mountain there in the first place. He neglected to say that could you move mountains, you probably wouldn’t because you put it there in the first place. (page 76, 77)

Not only are we like God, we are God. Faith puts us in a state where we realize that we are the one who put the mountain there in the first place. Either way, whether we have the same desires as God or we are God, this is a very powerful statement yet deceptively simple. “Have faith in God” and your desires will be those of God. “If you have faith like a mustard seed” you will realize that you are one with God. What could be more simple? Yet nothing could be harder for us to comprehend or achieve.

[ Parts I, II, III ]

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Faith III

Published
by
Ken
on September 9, 2008
in faith
. 2 Comments

[ This series starts here. I've revised the last paragraph in installment #2 and included it here. ]

In what do we have faith? The pat answer is that we have faith in God or Jesus. A clue to how Jesus may have answered the question is in Matthew 16:5-12:

And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus has two criticisms of his disciples: “Do you not yet understand or remember … ?” Their failure to understand is their misapprehension of his comment about leaven which is not a matter of faith. So, why did Jesus call them “men of little faith”? Because they saw him perform a miracle and doubted that he could do it again. To give them some benefit of the doubt, perhaps they saw this situation as different from the feeding of the five and four thousands. In those cases, they had some bread. Here they have none and see this situation as different and “harder.” One wonders what Jesus told his disciples of his temptation in the dessert. Had he shared what he went through, they would have known that he was able to turn stones into bread. But without this knowledge, this may have seemed an impossible situation. In any case, their lack of faith seems to be manifested in their doubt after seeing Jesus’ past miracles. At this point, even the disciples were not all convinced that Jesus was the Son of God so in what would they have anchored their faith other than Jesus’ past actions? The object of the faith is Jesus but the motivation for faith is in Jesus’ past actions. Is that also not the most logical reason for the actions of people we’ve discussed so far? Perhaps Jesus exuded some special pheromones or had a magnetic personality but it seems more likely that people saw his miracles and some had faith that he could do it again.

Indeed, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that faith is not “blind” but is based on past experience. In the part about being anxious, Jesus says that we should have faith because we see what God does for the birds and flowers:

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” (Matthew 6:30)

But it seems that simply seeing is not enough. As has been demonstrated in the miracles we’ve looked at so far, Jesus emphasizes the aspects of action and expectation in his sermon:

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)

The centurion, the men with their friend on the roof, and the hemorrhaging woman all acted in a way that demonstrated their expectation of a healing miracle. The disciples in the boat during the storm acted but without the expectation of the desired outcome and were not credited with having faith. James 6:26 says that “faith without works is dead” and Jesus said “Do this and all these things will be added to you.”

We now come to a miracle in which faith is conspicuously missing (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-42,49-56). The synagogue official, Jairus, who asked Jesus to heal his daughter seemed to be not much different than the others who demonstrated faith. He believed Jesus could heal but he is not credited with faith—in any of the three accounts. The subtle difference with Jairus’ approach is that he deferred to Jesus by saying “If it is your will …” He fully believed Jesus was able but questioned his willingness—just as the disciples questioned Jesus’ willingness to save them during the storm. Jairus did not presume the healing as did all the others we’ve looked at so far.

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Faith II

Published
by
Ken
on September 7, 2008
in faith
. 2 Comments

[ This series starts here ]

The next two miracles add to faith an aspect of action. They bring to mind platitudes such as, “Just do it” and “Leap and the net will appear.” These are the stories of the man lowered through the roof (Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, and Luke 5:18-20) and the woman with the hemorrhage (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48). In the former story, the narrative says that Jesus saw their faith. Now, putting aside any supernatural interpretation, what Jesus would have seen was their determination to get their friend in front of him—a determination demonstrated by destroying someone else’s property. Many, many people brought the sick to Jesus and they were healed (see Matthew 8:16). So, why was this group singled out as particularly faithful? Again, putting aside any notion of Jesus “seeing into their hearts” or “seeing their true nature,” we are only left with their deliberate action of putting the man in front of Jesus with the expectation of healing. They did not wait in line, they did not ask, they were essentially presumptuous that Jesus would heal if they got in his face. What about “make your requests made known unto God”?

The latter story of the hemorrhaging woman also indicates that faith is manifested by action. In this case, Jesus plays a passive role in the miracle and it is almost as if the woman heals herself. Again, we see presumption on the woman’s part: “If I only touch his garment I will be made well.” There is no notion of asking Jesus for healing or if it is his will. There is only “If I do … I will …” Now, many people were touching Jesus but only this one was healed because she knew she would be. It makes one wonder, did she have to touch Jesus’ garment to be healed? Could her faith not have healed her without doing that physical action? Or did she need to demonstrate her faith with a physical action?

In what do we have faith? The pat answer is that we have faith in God or Jesus. A clue to a more precise answer is in Matthew 16:5-12 where Jesus scolds the disciples about seeing his past miracles and not thinking he could do it again. So, the object of the faith is Jesus but the motivation for faith is in Jesus’ past actions. Is that not the most logical reason for the actions of people we’ve discussed so far? Perhaps Jesus exuded some special pheromones or had a magnetic personality but it seems more likely that people saw his miracles and some had faith that he could do it again. Obviously, not everyone held this opinion as our current story indicates with the disciples apparently forgetting that Jesus fed 5000 with five loves and two fishes. Indeed, in what else could these people possibly have had faith? It was not a foregone conclusion, at this stage, that Jesus was the Son of God so he would have been nothing more than another teacher; yet a teacher who was working miracles and teaching, perhaps, an offbeat message.

Part III

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Faith I

Published
by
Ken
on September 7, 2008
in faith
. 3 Comments

[ I am working on an essay about Faith and will post it in several sections on my blog. I'm interested in any constructive criticisms you may have that will improve this piece. I will make the final essay available to anyone interested when it is completed. ]

Faith is one of the cornerstones of Christianity but what it means to have faith is open to interpretation. To the one extreme are those who take every precaution this world affords — life, health, disability, and dental insurance; retirement plans; consulting weather forecasts; etc. — and seem to leave little in the hands of faith. To the other extreme are those who avoid all medical care and rely totally and solely on God for healing. So, what is faith? What does it mean to “have” faith? Is there even an objective answer to these questions or is faith completely subjective? To shed some light on the matter of faith, I will look at the miracles which Jesus performed and attempt to find some common threads linking those which Jesus specifically attributes to faith. After establishing what Jesus constitutes as faith, I will look at how faith is portrayed elsewhere in the New Testament and what faith may mean for us today.

Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 relates the story of the centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant. The two accounts differ somewhat but the essential pieces of the story are that Jesus was asked to heal the servant and the centurion would not let Jesus come into his house but insisted that Jesus had the authority to perform the healing from afar. Being in the Roman army, the centurion claims that he knows something about and appreciates the power that comes with authority. This seems to be what constitutes his faith. It may also have something to do with the fact that the centurion attributed such authority to Jesus but it is not clear whether this was because he knew or believed Jesus to be the Son of God or because he simply recognized a man who possessed authority. In either case, the key seems to be the fact that the centurion knew that Jesus was able to heal his servant and acted on that knowledge by essentially telling Jesus that he had the authority (i.e. the power). The centurion further emphasized Jesus’ authority by not allowing Jesus to physically touch his servant but forced him to delegate, so to speak.

Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:36-41, and Luke 8:22-25 contain an example of a lack of faith with some similarities to the centurion story. This is the story of Jesus calming the storm after falling asleep in the boat with the disciples. The disciples had to wake him up to ask him to save them. Jesus calls them “timid” and “men of little faith.” But the reasoning is a bit confused in this story. If the disciples doubted Jesus’ power, his ability to save them, why did they bother asking him? Would they not have called out to some other god or attempt to save themselves? It seems that what the disciples doubted was Jesus’ desire to save them, hence is love for them, because they asked, “Do you not care that we perish?” This story comes after Jesus’ sermon in Matthew but before a similar discourse in Luke where he tells us to not be anxious for our everyday needs such as food, clothing, and by extension, not drowning in a stormy sea. Adding Jesus’ statements there to the equation, it seems that the disciples should have expected to be saved. Jesus, in his sermons, said, “And all these things shall be added to you.” The centurion told Jesus that he could heal the servant with the expectation that it would be done and this is what the disciples did not do.

So, faith, according to Jesus’ working definition, contains an aspect of expectation of the desired result.

Part II

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Quote of the year

Published
by
Ken
on August 27, 2008
in faith
. 0 Comments

One can be a person of faith without being an idiot.

“Faith and Science” by Mystical Seeker on Find and Ye Shall Seek

Your faith has made you well

Published
by
Ken
on October 6, 2007
in belief, faith, god and jesus
. 1 Comment

Of all the miracles in the gospels, there are only six where Jesus says “Your faith has made you well” (or something like that). What did Jesus mean by this rarely spoken phrase? Something about the people involved in these miracles was special, different from the rest.

I can imagine that the attitude of most of the people whom Jesus healed was similar to my attitude when I take Excedrin for a headache. It worked last time and the time before that and the time before that. It’ll work this time, too. I mean, when you see a man healing person after person of affliction after affliction day after day, how hard is it to believe that if you ask him to heal you he will be able to? Most of the people were in it for the physical healing and that’s it. They simply believed that this man called Jesus was able to heal. Now, that’s not to say that this type of healing is not life-altering. If I had been blind since birth or if I had just died and Jesus healed me, I’d be fairly likely to follow him around town as a convert to whatever he was teaching. Healing can be life changing, no doubt. But of the people whose faith was instrumental in their healing, not one of them is on record as becoming a devoted follower of Jesus.

The one miracle of the six that I find most interesting was also found most interesting by 75% of the gospel writers. (I also find it very interesting that John does not record any of these six miracles nor does he record Jesus ever saying “Your faith has made you well.”) The miracle to which I refer is the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:24-34, Luke 8:42-48). To paraphrase, a woman who has been afflicted with an incurable hemorrhage for 12 years gets it into her head that if she merely touches Jesus’ clothes that she would be healed. I find this fascinating because this was not Jesus’ regular modus operandi. The laying on of hands was the usual healing method. Furthermore, this woman was not going to ask Jesus if she could touch his clothes — she was just going to do it. Now, the moment she decides to put her plan into action seems a most inopportune time. A crowd is around Jesus, pressing against him, so much so that no could figure out who it was that had touched him. So, imagine a woman who was most likely rather frail from being sick for 12 years pushing her way through a crowd, getting stepped on, elbowed in the ribs, pushed and bumped, all in order to do something she had never seen done before but which she is convinced will heal her. Why did she not just ask Jesus to heal her? Why did she choose that particular time? Who knows. All we know is that it worked!

But let’s look at how it worked. Jesus did not touch her. Jesus did not give his healing power to her. Instead, he felt that his power had gone out of him. Jesus didn’t give — she took — his power. Jesus, in this case, was more of a medium than a source of power. This woman transformed herself with God’s power and used Jesus as the conduit or medium to take that power. I think this particular miracle is the most illustrative of the phrase “your faith has made you well.” This was all her. Jesus was more of a bystander in this one. Yes, of course, it was his power that healed her and it was her touching his clothes that healed her and he knew all along who had touched him. But she did this with no precedent for her method and no sane reason to think it would work.

And so, I think this is what Jesus meant by faith. It’s not believing that something you’ve seen happen before will happen again. It’s not believing that Jesus has the power to heal physical afflictions — of course he does. It’s not believing that Jesus can use that power to heal — of course he can. That’s all belief and not faith — I believe that Excedrin will help my headaches. Faith is knowing that the power Jesus had is available to you for the taking and can transform your life.

This woman was constantly bleeding — her life-force had been ebbing away for 12 years. She needed to be transformed in order regain her life and her vitality and she knew exactly how to effect that transformation. This woman was going to touch Jesus’ clothes, be healed, and leave! She wasn’t planning on sticking around. Jesus, himself, was not what was important to her. The power of Jesus was what she wanted. The faith that made her well was not faith in Jesus but the faith that this transformation was possible; the faith that this mundane, life-force-sucking world is not all there is.

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Merton pegs Fundamentalism

Published
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Ken
on July 19, 2007
in christian fundamentalism, faith, fear, fundamentalism, judging others, theology and thomas merton
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Thomas Merton from Zen and the Birds of Appetite:

At the same time, Christian experience itself will be profoundly affected by the idea of revelation that the Christian himself will entertain. For example, if revelation is regarded simply as a system of truths about God and an explanation of how the universe came into existence, what will eventually happen to it, what is the purpose of Christian life, what are its moral norms, what will be the rewards of the virtuous, and so on, then Christianity is in effect reduced to a world view, at times a religious philosophy and little more, sustained by a more or less elaborate cult, by a moral discipline and a strict code of Law. Experience of the inner meaning of Christian revelation will necessarily be distorted and diminished in such a theological setting. What will such experience be? Not so much a living theological experience of the presence of God in the world and in mankind through the mystery of Christ, but rather a sense of security in one’s own correctness: a feeling of confidence that one has been saved, a confidence which is based on the reflex awareness that one holds the correct view of the creation and purpose of the world and that one’s behavior is of a kind to be rewarded in the next life. Or, perhaps, since few can attain this level of self-assurance, then the Christian experience becomes one of anxious hope—a struggle with occasional doubt of the “right answers,” a painful and constant effort to meet the severe demands of morality and law, and a somewhat desperate recourse to the sacraments which are there to help the weak who must constantly fall and rise again.

Is this Christian Fundamentalism or what! The Bible is “absolute truth” and we should be most concerned with who’s getting it right and who’s getting it wrong. Jesus is coming back any day now so screw the environment. Morality is dictated by God in the Bible and everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, should follow this moral “law.” Christians should focus on what they’ll get in heaven. The more they are persecuted on earth the greater their reward. This gives them a “license” to do whatever they want because they perceive all persecution (even that inflicted on them for being just plain jerks) as building up rewards in the hereafter. The Fundamentalist’s Christianity is a world view and nothing more. It is legalism at it’s finest.

As Merton says, “experience of the inner meaning of Christian revelation will necessarily be distorted and diminished.” Despite their bully tactics and overall hubris, you really must feel sorry for these poor souls. They totally miss the point yet insist they are the point. But this insistence comes at a price: as a Christian, they are told that they should have “a feeling of confidence that one has been saved, a confidence which is based on the reflex awareness that one holds the correct view of the creation and purpose of the world and that one’s behavior is of a kind to be rewarded in the next life.” Yet, many cannot “attain this level of self-assurance” and it is precisely because it is out of their reach that they put on the show of confidence.

The code of conduct for the Fundamentalist is a bar set too high for it dictates not only overt actions but covert thoughts and motives which are damn near impossible to control yet extremely easy to fake. They truly are like the child who lashes out at others to compensate, in some futile way, for the abuse they receive at home. The Fundamentalist cannot live up to expectations and so points out others’ flaws to draw attention away from themselves.

And because they are focused on all this finger pointing and name calling, they miss the “living theological experience of the presence of God in the world and in mankind through the mystery of Christ.” God is too busy inflicting punishment on the sinners to be present in the world. Christ is not a mystery to them because they have him totally figured out and are able to weed out sinner from saint with their “x-ray” vision (which really doesn’t penetrate much past a person’s hair, tie, and Bible translation).

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Fast-acting AND long-lasting

Published
by
Ken
on July 17, 2007
in belief, christianity, faith, jesus and mysticism
. 2 Comments

So I’m reading Thomas Merton and D.T. Suzuki on Christian and Buddhist mysticism. I am really feeling a connection with mysticism and how it allows for more than one answer even when the multiple answers appear contradictory. But I’m also feeling very frustrated and … hopeless. I don’t have time for mysticism! I’ve got too little time to deal with my normal, everyday life let alone work on attaining enlightenment. I’m lucky if I get an hour of meditation in a day. It’s especially difficult because the only time I can really meditate is when my daughter takes a nap — late night meditation has not been going well lately. So I’ve got to be ready when she goes to sleep because she sometimes sleeps an hour or less. So, unless I’m “on the cushion” toot sweet, I have to stop “in the middle.” Plus, an hour a day seems trivial and worthless compared to the Desert Fathers who left society to find God. Most of them still had issues years later so how the hell am I supposed to get anywhere still immersed in society and meditating an hour a day?

Where is the get-it-now answer to my problem? Where is the infomercial that promises results before I can finish giving my credit card number? It’s right here, all around us. It’s called mainstream Christianity! The fast-acting and long-lasting solution. Get saved right now and you’re saved forever — and they really mean forever! This is the greatest delusion that Christianity perpetrates on the “lost” but it’s also why it’s so popular — it’s easy.

In a way, it’s too easy. But it’s also the most difficult thing. (paradox — love it!) It’s easy because all you have to do is “believe in Him” and you “shall not perish but have eternal life.” But, at least for me, it’s the most difficult thing because what I have to believe is unbelievable and amazingly incomplete! They make it sound simple. “Accept Jesus Christ into your heart.” In Billy Graham’s column, his answer to every single problem was to accept Jesus into your life. But what the hell does that mean??? No one tells you that. And that’s the great delusion — this one time act, according to them, which can be done in a moment of weakness or desperation or terror, is enough to counterbalance a lifetime of doing the most rotten, despicable, awful, repugnant, evil, vile things imaginable. Salvation, to them, is not a life-long process. It’s one single, solitary, isolated, independent act.

Sure, you’re supposed to grow in your Christian life but how much can you really grow going to church a couple hours a week? At least my parents drug us to church twice on Sundays plus Wednesday nights! And if you don’t make any progress well that’s ok, too, because God’s grace is sufficient and as long as you confess all your shortcomings and you really promise to try harder then it’s all hunky dory. All you really have to do is read your Bible and pray. Well, and look the part. That’s the most important thing — nice suit and tie on Sunday morning to cover up all that you don’t want the rest of them to see.

And there’s sermons on the fruits of the Spirit and how to have the faith-filled life and all that jazz. But those are offset by sermons on eternal security and how Paul even had trouble doing what was right. A little coaxing to keep moving and grow but a lot of reassurance if you just can’t quite do it.

So, go ahead and buy into their delusion if you want to. Convince yourself that going to church on Sunday morning and reading the “feel-good” passages in the Bible are enough. Keep a stiff upper lip during the really bad times so no one knows you have doubts. But that’s not what I’m doing. And I may not get very far in this lifetime but at least I’m trying to do something that means something — to me, at least.

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Christianity is like working for the government

Published
by
Ken
on June 21, 2007
in belief, christian fundamentalism, christianity, faith and mysticism
. 0 Comments

Well, it’s like what working for the government used to be. And it’s like what being a tenured professor used to be. In other words, you couldn’t get fired. The ultimate job security. You could sit around and do enough to just get by. And nobody cared a whole lot.

And that’s what Christianity is like. Once you “accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your own personal savior” you’re on easy street. Sure you should go to church and you should read your Bible and you should pray. But, hey, it’s not works that save you. It’s God’s grace. You don’t deserve anything at all from God so going to church or not going to church isn’t going to change anything. Yeah, yeah there’s all that talk about the Fruits of the Spirit and your faith is demonstrated by your works. But really, in the end, all you have to do is “accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your own personal savior.”

Most Christians who do go to church and read their Bibles just end up listening. They listen to the “feel good about yourself and your life” sermons and they listen to encouraging words and rationalizations for why they’re believe what they’re told to believe. How much do they really work at their salvation? How much do they really grow in their relationship with Jesus?

And this is what I was whining about in my last post. Mainstream and Fundamentalist Christianity is all about getting people to believe. What happens after that doesn’t matter because all you have to do is believe. It’s so freakin’ easy that anyone can do it! Which is the attraction. You don’t have to be a monk or in a convent or work at it full time. You don’t have to quit your day job and all your extra curricular activities. Go to church on Sunday morning and you’re good to go. A Wednesday evening prayer meeting (does anyone do that anymore?) once in a while for a little extra credit. From day one, you’re good to go. Accept Jesus Christ one minute, die the next, and you’re being ushered past the pearly gates into your own private mansion on your own private cul-de-sac of gold.

But what about the mystical versions of religions? The mystics have to work. And work hard! A lifetime of meditation, contemplation, introspection. And what happens if a mystic dies the day after she takes up mysticism? Well, she gets to start all over again next time around. Meditation — training the mind — is extremely difficult. But that’s how the mystic encounters God. It’s not an instant conversion type experience.

But there are those of us for whom the easy way out does not work. We desire a much more intimate relationship with God — more intimate than hearing about him while sitting in church on Sunday. More intimate than just reading what he’s said in the past. More intimate than talking to the wall and pretending he’s listening. And so, because we desire more, we must work more. And so, I’ll get back on “the cushion” tomorrow and meditate again. Take the good days with the bad. I’ll think about true mystics like Suzuki, Merton, Eckhart, Wilber, etc. who were/are much further along the path than I’ll ever be in this lifetime and I’ll be envious of them. I’ll even bitch and moan a little bit about it but I’ll still get back on the cushion tomorrow.

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That’s just not freakin’ fair

Published
by
Ken
on June 18, 2007
in belief, christian fundamentalism, christianity, faith, jesus and mysticism
. 2 Comments

So, I’m trying to meditate again. And it’s hard work! Lately I’ve been fighting my body more than my mind. I get fidgety and I just can’t talk myself into staying still. I’m not giving up — no matter what — but it’s still frustrating some most days.

And then I start thinking about how I have a lifetime of meditation ahead of me. A lifetime of sitting and working on quieting my mind. A lifetime of working hard to focus and try and reach the next level, get past the next koan. A lifetime with no assurance of achieving kensho. I read what some of the Christian mystics write and they don’t see themselves very far along the path and that’s all they do! How can I, a non-monk regular working Dad, supposed to make any progress?

And then I start thinking about fundamentalist, evangelical, literalist Christians. Believe in Jesus and you get into heaven. Live a 100% sinful, evil life and repent at the last moment and get into heaven. Simply accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior and get into heaven. It just takes one act of simple belief and your problems are solved. Sure you need to live your life in a certain way but the act of believing seals your fate. It’s so simple a caveman could do it. After you “do it,” even if you fail and sin and stumble, a simple confession makes it all right as rain again. Read your Bible, pray, go to church and you maintain your status of “saved.”

It’s all so simple and all so unfair that I cannot “simply” believe.

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