The Idolatry of God

ESR student and Raysville Friends pastor Michael Sherman offers a reflection on Peter Rollins’ new book, The Idolatry of God. Rollins will be on campus at ESR as the keynote speaker for our annual Willson Lectures on April 8. 

A friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook the day after the shootings at Sandy Hook a month ago.  “The tragedy that happened yesterday has solidified my disbelief in an all knowing and all powerful entity.  Either your god isn't all-powerful and couldn't stop it or he is and sat idle while they screamed, probably for him.  Either way, I am firmer than ever.”

My friend went on to ask: “so, Biblically we are taught to believe that there was a divine plan that even though god could save the day and end the crucifixion at any point, that in order to fulfill the prophecy and save our souls that Christ had to die?”  This concept of God is fairly prevalent in mainstream Christianity.  It is, however, an idolatry of God.  It is a creation of an idea of God which isn’t true.  God’s presence or the acceptance of Christ into one’s heart does not change our reality.  We still suffer pain and loss.  God is not some talisman we can claim forcing all our enemies and travails to lay down before us.  An all-powerful, all-loving God is a beautiful picture but those terms and our understanding of them are laced with our human understanding of powerful and loving.  Personally I'm not ready to drop 'all powerful' but I wonder if God's all powerful is different than our understanding or wish for God's power.   It’s nice to have logical, reasoned answers but sometimes there are none for us to have, sometimes there is only mystery. 

Peter Rollins’ new book The Idolatry of God; Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction speaks directly to this topic.  Rollins has written and spoken about many of these ideas before.  In this book he ties many of his previous thoughts from his other books Insurrection and How to (Not) Speak of God together building a framework and foundation for moving faith forward. 

The starting point is Rollins’ definition of ‘Original Sin’ and its entanglement with the Law and subsequent construction of various idols.  He places the origin of sin in the moment as infants when the ego begins to form.  Initially an infant has no boundaries.  It is essentially, by perception, one with the world.  At some point a realization grows, identifying itself and the other.  It is a picture of separation.  Once separation is realized and we feel something is missing the awareness that something is lacking builds.  It is this perception of lack and our pursuit to fill a void that is not really there which is ‘Original Sin’. 

In the next move Rollins demonstrates the Christian Church’s use of the pursuit of God/Christ as the fulfillment of our lacking.  If you just had this one thing you’d be better - it will fix all your problems.  In using God/Christ the church never addresses the problem of our perceived lacking; it uses and preys upon our sin to sell itself, thus creating an idol of God/Christ.  If we just did all this Christian stuff better or prayed more or read more Scriptures then…but all of that falls apart.  There is no amount of prayer or reading which can bring us closer to a God who is already at hand.  The truth is there is no separation.  Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is at hand”, right here at our fingertips.  We cannot move ourselves to reach it, because it is already here.

Rollins closes his counter observation of the crucifixion with this statement:

The Crucifixion bears witness to a form of life that is free from our obsessive drive for the Idol, a form of life which our zombie nature (unthinking all consuming drive) is cured.  For to lose the Idol means to be freed from that drive that prevents us from fully embracing our life and taking pleasure in it.  It means giving up our desire for ultimate satisfaction and then, in that act, discovering a deeper, more beautiful satisfaction, one that is not constantly deferred but that can be grasped here and now.  Not one that promises to make us whole and remove our suffering but one that promises joy in the midst of our brokenness and new life in the very embrace of our pain (97).

Rollins’ understanding of the Crucifixion isn’t comfortable or comforting, but it is definitely freeing for both us and God.  It allows us to be honest.  It is this honesty which is at the heart of Jesus’ statement in the Sermon on the Mount:  For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20, HCSB).  The scribes and Pharisees were slaves to perception.  The picture they illustrated did not match the truth of their hearts.  Jesus wasn’t calling the disciples to be more ‘Law’ abiding than the scribes and Pharisees, but to be more honest about who they are and the truth of their hearts sharing both triumph and struggle.

New student introduction

We're excited to introduce to you some of our new students joining us for the spring semester of  the 2012-13 school year. Today's featured student is Michelle Wood, who is an MDiv student from New Castle, IN.

I’m so excited that God has guided me to Earlham School of Religion to pursue a Masters of Divinity degree.  I currently have a Masters Degree in Special Education and teach special ed in New Castle, Indiana.  I have a heart for the students that other teachers don’t want, the emotional disabled and students that just can’t make it at the regular school for various reasons.  My husband, Greg, of just under two years is a school principal at the alternative school in New Castle.  He is very supportive of me following God’s leading.  My 23 year old son, Josh, works in Indianapolis and my 20 year old daughter, Emily, is a pre-med student at Taylor University.  She is currently on a missions trip in Indonesia.  I have 19 year old twin step sons, Cody and Alec, at I.U. East in Richmond.  My home is filled with the pitter patter of five furry friends of both the canine and feline variety – Abby, Sadie, Simba, Petey, and Jack. 

  

My life’s passion is missions work.  I like to encourage everyone to go on at least one missions trip.  It is life changing; at least it changed my life.  I have a strong desire to bring joy to the hopeless and Christ’s light to a dark world.  I have spent time in China, Ukraine, and Pine Ridge Reservation.  My students like to hear my story about being on the run from the Chinese police.  They think it is cool that their teacher was a rebel but I believe in standing up for what is right, in a nonviolent manner of course, and the human rights violations in China are not right. 

One of the great things about a missions trip is learning about another culture.  I learned a lot about Native American culture while I was on Pine Ridge Reservation.  I learned how distrusting they still are of the white man, and I don’t blame them.  I spent time building a relationship with them and earning their trust.  A matter of fact, they trusted me enough to invite me to a sun dance.  This was such a privilege because it is not open to visitors or white men.  It was as if I was one of them now.  The sun dance is a highly religious ceremony and I felt honored to be included.  God may be leading me back to Pine Ridge permanently when I finish my degree but I know things change as time goes by so I am keeping an open mind and will try to discern God’s purpose for me throughout my education at ESR.

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.

New student introduction

We're excited to introduce to you some of our new students joining us for the spring semester of  the 2012-13 school year. Today's featured student is Marshall Jones, who is an MA student from Phoenix, Arizona.

My name is Marshall Jones and my Wife, Cathy, and I live and work in Phoenix, Arizona.  Thank you for giving me an opportunity to introduce myself!  I am excited about continuing my formal education by seeking the MA in Religion degree at ESR.  In the first half of life, I received an undergraduate degree in Business (Major: Healthcare Administration) from Oklahoma Baptist University and a MS in Management from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.  I think of this as practicing educational ecumenism!  

To say that I’m old may be a slight exaggeration but you should know that when I was in school, using a tablet was a reference to the Big Chief Writing Tablet!  Informed in those days by science fiction writers like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, I envisioned a future in which technology (aka, gadgets) would gradually dominate a heretofore analog world (see picture below).  In fact, it is this technological evolution that allows me to do the largest proportion of my studies as an ESR Access Student.  Happily, though, I still enjoy pen and paper, books with binding and the personal company of others in community.

At the heart of my personal community is my Wife of 33 years and our 3 wonderful children, Braden, Ryan and Garrett.  Our faith community has always been important and is formed within our lifelong United Methodist connection.  Cathy’s and my work in healthcare (she is a Registered Nurse/Certified Diabetes Educator) is both faith and mission dominated so community and service are central even in our professional roles.

Entering seminary at ESR in this season of life is wondrous.  While I, like others here, always felt a leading to pursue formal vocations in ministry, I don’t regret for a moment the time of preparation, wandering and growing that preceded this particular moment.  I am certain that God in God’s wisdom had a calendar notation that Marshall would enter seminary in 2013!  I am excited about beginning this chapter of life with my fellow ESR seminarians, professors and staff.  I am anxious to learn from all of you and hope to contribute positively to our collective experience as students and friends on the journey.

For the record, I have a tablet-device, a laptop, a Kindle, an endless supply of Moleskins and way too many bags to carry everything in! 

Reflections on being on the ESR Board of Advisors

Earlham School of Religion Board of Advisors member Dwight L. Wilson shares his thoughts on being a Friend, coming to know ESR, and his decision to join the board:

 

One of my earliest memories is of being in kindergarten in 1953 when the teacher said, “Let’s all sing Jesus Loves Me This I Know, for the Bible Tells Me So.” I loved my teacher but immediately thought, ‘This is silly. I don’t need the Bible to tell me Jesus loves me.’  Because this incident is so powerful among my foundation stories, I posit that I’ve been a Christian virtually all of my conscious life.  Thus, I was unmoved when, at age 21, a theology professor was offended that Friends feel no need for a human intermediary to shepherd us to the Truth.  He called me “a heretic” to my face.  Here was a Protestant labeling a Protestant to the Protestants as unfaithful to a vision that George Fox and our other spiritual foreparents rejected: no minister should lead by lording. 

True blasphemy lies in saying or even thinking, “My people.”  Even those who are little less than angels, are a lot less than the Holy One.  We affirm that all have equal access to the Holy One even if all do not equally listen and obey.

Shortly after being selected General Secretary of Friends General Conference, an exasperated mortgage officer said, “Make up your mind, Dwight.  Are you a general or a secretary?”  I pondered his question then replied, “I’m a general who acts like a secretary.  My rank is general but my function is to support even the least among us.”  He may not have been converted but he gave me the loan.

My understanding of Earlham School of Religion’s mission is that the institution is called to “value…listening and discerning God’s call into ministry” by lifting up “integrity, equality, and peace.”  I first stepped on campus in 1978 while serving as FGC General Secretary.  Today many of the students who were in that initial assembly are, like me, grandparents!  Time has passed but the mission continues. 

When in 2010 I was asked to join the Board of Advisors I accepted without hesitation.  Any opportunity to pursue a deeper spirituality is welcomed but when it also offers a way to bring healing within our various denominations—yes Quakers have denominations—it should be seized.  My colleagues on the Board of Advisors are more than healers they are also cheerleaders in the Lamb’s War, seekers of peaceful ways which will bring us infinitely closer to the will of God than our world has drifted. 

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You can watch an interview of Dwight sharing his thoughts on Quaker Leadership here: http://ldr.esr.earlham.edu/video/wilson

Waking Up in Memphis

Below is an excerpt from ESR student Brent Walsh's devotional for LifeJourney Church on the theme of "Overcoming Our Fear of God's 'Disruption'" and the scripture passage Acts 8:1-4:

I woke up in a Memphis economy hotel with nothing but my wallet, a pack of cigarettes, and the clothes that were tossed carelessly over a chair. The morning sun peeked through the crack in the curtain and specks of dust hovered in the glow. I looked at my watch, pulled myself up and let my legs drop to the side of the bed. I stared at the dancing specks for a long moment as my mind replayed the recent events of my life.

Two weeks prior I had enrolled in an ex-gay ministry called Love in Action. This was my last resort. I thought maybe the experts could figure out what was wrong with me. The emotional hoops they put me through, however, were far more traumatic than helpful. It was supposed to be a two-year residential program, but last night, with little planning or forethought, I silently slipped out the door of the residence home and slid into my baby blue Olds Cutlass Supreme. The car was almost twenty years old, but it was my only friend that night.

The first place I went was a gas station where I bought a pack of Marlboro Menthols. I was planning my trip back home, back to Illinois where my family lived. It made sense. I didn’t know anyone in Memphis. I didn’t have a job or a place to live, so I might as well hit the highway that night and head north.

But there was uneasiness in my gut when I thought about going back to Illinois. I wanted to go back home — my heart was hurt and no one could fix a broken heart like my mother. I pushed myself off the hood of the car, flicked the butt of the cigarette, and slid back in the driver’s seat. Instead of the highway, I went in search for a motel.

Leaving the ex-gay ministry was terrifying because my departure was more than a personal decision about my sexual orientation; it was a statement about my religious beliefs concerning homosexuality. I had consciously switched sides from anti-gay to pro-gay. In the war between “us and them,” I had left “us” and joined “them.”

I called my father from the motel room in Memphis to tell him I had left the program, but I wasn’t coming home. My hands shook and my heart thumped like a tennis shoe in a dryer as I hung up the phone.

“Fine.” I stabbed the word in the air, my sacrifice of submission. It wasn’t pretty, but it was all God was getting. I stepped into the shower and peeled the paper wrapper off the complimentary bar of soap. “I guess you’ll have to take care of me.”

“Do you trust me?” God seemed to say from the other side of the shower curtain.

“No,” I answered bitterly. Then I started to cry, my tears getting lost in the flow of hot water down my face. “I don’t know.”

You can read the rest of Brent's devotional here: http://lifejourneychurch.cc/bestill/archives/9861.

Thanking God for the miracle of food

 ESR student Abbey Pratt-Harrington delivered this message during Worship on November 29: 

…Food is important to me and my family. It is where we get nourished and spiritually fed. And that’s wonderful.

Then I go to my supervised ministry at Open Arms where I encounter people who are poor. Poor like the widow in the story of Elijah who fed him from her last bit of flour and oil. These are people who do not always know where their next meal is coming from. They do have food stamps and food pantries. This is our countries way of taking care of the poor like God asked. However, these resources do not go that far.

I do not know why I never realized the poverty around me before I worked at Open Arms. I have worked in soup kitchens before and I have studied poverty. Maybe this realization came from actually sitting down with the clients who come through and looking at their finances with them; realizing that there really was no that they can move money around to find ways to feed themselves. This is a harsh reality.

So I have these two worlds. One where I cook free food for people who can probably afford to pay for it. And I truly take joy out of cooking it for them and marveling about the miracle of food. My other world is where I come face to face with people who do not have enough to eat. It started to make me question how this could be. How could I like with this dichotomy? Where was God in all of this?

I wish I could say that I have come up with great answers to give you but I haven’t. What I have come to is a way to live with these questions. It started when I came home from work one day and was standing in my kitchen trying to figure out what to eat. Mentally I was complaining about not wanting to eat anything that I had. I realized how terrible this was. I had food. Even if I didn’t want to eat it and I should be grateful for that. Then I remembered a passage from a book I read about a year ago. The book was called The Year of Living Biblically. In the passage the author was talking about how he had started saying grace. His prayers didn’t just say thank you for food, they said thank you to all the people who went into the process of bringing the food to his table. I thought I would try saying grace like that. Doing that has made all the difference.

Now when I eat, it does not matter what I’m eating. I can find ways to be grateful for the food. I think about and thank all the people who have touched this food. Some of those people could be the ones I help at Open Arms. By doing this I am not only more grateful but I feel connected to the wider world. Everything from the sun to the cashier in the grocery store is part of my breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is a way of inviting others to be with me and thank them. It does not solve the problem of my having food and others not, but it allows me to eat without feeling guilty and gives me strength to continue the work that I carry out. It reminds me of the miracle that is food and it reminds me that I have God to thank for that.