I have been especially aware of patterns this week.
People all have a certain way of being in the world. A pattern.
There is a Muslim way of being in the world, a Mormon way, a Right-Wing-Fox-News way, a PC-liberal way, etc.
Some of these patterns are potent (Islam). Some are not so potent (mainline Presbyterianism). Some are on the rise (Hipster-ism), and some are on the decline (the “emerging” church).
I’ve done extensive live-in stints with:
Lutheranism
Action Sports World (surf/snowboard)
Theological Academia (22nd grade and a Fulbright Scholarship)
Pentecostalism (even wrote a book on it)
Each “-ism” has abundant self-serving circular reasoning and tribal litmus tests. They have buzzwords and enemy images. Perhaps they are even necessary–but none of them correspond perfectly to naked reality and truth.
It’s a trade off; you get security and you tolerate errors and inaccuracy when you “buy in” to any “-ism.”
I am about to be voted off the Lutheran island for good. Sad, because I have nothing against it, and, on better days, I consider myself one of its more intentionally constructive, original, and helpful thinkers. I appreciate the good in Lutheranism, my family of origin, but I don’t pretend that God depends on it, or that it is the highest possible way of being in the world.
I am increasingly troubled by the American liberal/conservative polarized political thinking. The left doesn’t understand the power and creativity of the free market and globalization, and the right doesn’t understand sustainable environmentalism, and the potency of collectivism for certain public endeavors (fire, utilities, roads, etc.). We are disintegrating into TV attack ads with stupid sound bites. We need an intellectual like Lincoln to come back, who sees deeper nuances.
In any case, these political “patterns” relieve everyone of the responsibility to think.
And the much of the world is just plain out-growing the need for religious patterns. Especially the overwhelming majority of non-fundamentalist global young people. If you don’t believe me, you’re not spending much time with them.
Let’s just have real conversations about who God really is. Let’s pray together. Let’s talk about Jesus and how his message is so different than that of the Buddha (see E Stanley Jones and his “Egg and the Bubble” analogy). Let’s talk about God’s preferred future, and include him in on the conversation, rather than argue about the merits and errors of competing eschatological “systems.”
Does God Almighty really care about the victory of Confessional Lutheranism or TULIP Calvinism? Is he secretly pulling for a return to a stricter Reformed theology? Is he really upset about the idea of married Catholic priests? Is he hoping we finally secure the Mexican border? Is he worried that Health Care Reform will ruin the world he created? Is Oprah his worst nightmare, wrecking his weekly Sabbath rest? Hardly.
Are we willing to set aside our patterns, even ones we love, to seek the truth? Look it right in the eye?
I have this crazy idea that God is real, and that he doesn’t report to a pattern.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Follow me on Twitter @RobinwoodChurch
Please forward the link to this essay to the leaders of your congregation: http://wp.me/pGQxY-8T Thanks!
19 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 21, 2010 at 3:15 am
Randy Wawrzyniak-Fry
I wonder if we are able to recognize our patterns. I think that I can recognize mine, but do I really know? Does my pattern blind me to the ability to see it? I see what I think is your pattern. Balance. The left gets this wrong and that right. The right gets this right and that wrong. Calvinists are right here and wrong here. Lutherans are right on this and wrong on that. I think back to your concept of the bowling alley. Extremes are bad, down the center is good.
Balance. You need it in surfing and snowboarding, but not in everything. God is real and He loves all of us. Some see that as perfect balance, but I wonder if that’s our own patterns getting in the way.
I’m interested in what others will have to say here. You are followed by those who are far wiser than I am. Or maybe they are just more passionate. Either way eventually I will tire of the discussion and of the same points being brought up, disputed, and brought up again. Eventually I will start to ignore the emails telling me that there is yet another comment posted on “Religious Patterns and God-Truth”.
That’s when I’ll take a deep breath.
Selah.
April 21, 2010 at 4:13 am
Steve Thorson
So, Dave, who is voting you off the Lutheran Island? I vote for you to stay.
April 21, 2010 at 9:03 am
Frank Guerra
how exactly does one get voted off?
April 21, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Per Nilsen
Great question, Dave.
My 2 cents:
Throughout scripture religious patterns are established to honor God. (Jewish festivals, the sabbath, Christians regularly meeting together) Those “patterns” were not only established as a way to Honor God, but as a tool for self-identification and for teaching the faith. (Frankly, God established some of those patterns to honor Himself.)
The problem with patterns is that the pattern itself can become the “high water mark”.
Patterns have the propensity to create limitations. How many times have we heard the battle cry, “This is the way it’s always been done.” When that occurs the “law” is focused more on letter than on Spirit. Rarely does anything productive come out of that understanding of “patterns.”
I would agree, Dave, that most unchurched people don’t grasp the patterns Christians follow. They do, however, hold some patterns in higher esteem than others. (Compare the public perception of Christians following Jesus’ pattern of caring for the poor to any pattern of mandated confession.) That should signal to us that “patterns” in and of themselves aren’t looked upon with disdain, but there is a great deal of question surrounding the value of any given pattern.
Let me close with two general comments:
1) Ritual behavior (pattern) has an important place in faith development.
2) Ritual behavior (pattern) must be guided by the movement of the Holy Spirit and the freedom the Spirit brings.
I look forward to hearing from others.
Living for Jesus!
Per
April 21, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Lindsey Trego
I once heard the quote, “Religion can kill you, Jesus can save you.”
Religious patterns (and even some religions) have come and gone throughout time, yet Jesus has remained constant. These patterns help differentiate what people believe, yet they don’t ever stay the same. They also cause some people to be more focused on the religion than God himself. Which leads me to wonder, that if religion is only helping set parameters for what we believe (not who we believe in), how have denominations lasted so long?
And, how is it that you are getting kicked out of the Lutheran church. Don’t they know it’s stupid to get rid of the coolest guy in town?
April 21, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Bob Rognlien
Dave,
You have a gift for recognizing patterns rather than being bound by them. Life is a series of patterns, whether we recognize them or not. I believe God is in the process of creating the ultimate Pattern, the Pattern that subsumes all other patterns. The question is not whether we are part of a pattern, the question is whether our pattern is part of the grand Pattern that God is weaving in creation and through history.
Jesus’ invitation to enter into his new Covenant and follow him into the coming Kingdom was a call to particpate with the Holy Spirit in forming the grand Kingdom pattern, God’s will being done on earth as it is heaven. The only way we will be able to contribute to the grand pattern is by following Jesus together with others in the power of the Spirit. Jesus gave us a concrete example of how to participate in the grand Pattern. He conquered sin and death to free us from the patterns of this world that have held us captive. By his Spirit now he will form us into Covenant community and fill us with the Kingdom authority and power to move the grand Pattern forward.
I want to live my life in Covenant with Jesus and people like you who are contributing to the grand Pattern by the power of the Spirit!
And just a reminder: the ELCA does not constitute the “Lutheran Island,” so don’t leave the island, come and be part of developing a new mission outpost on the other side of the island!
Easter joy and power,
Bob
April 21, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Katie
First of all – apparently this is something God wants me thinking about right now, as last night I came across this article about being a plain ‘ol Christian…
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/its-ok-to-just-be-a-christian
Second, here are my thoughts: God cares about/blesses “The Confessions”/religious patterns, etc… insofar as they bring people to faith and to a deeper relationship with Him. Because really, that’s what He’s about.
Personally, I think God cringes a little bit when anybody whispers “Limited Atonement” to a repentant, guilt-ridden soul. And when Lutherans unwittingly (or wittingly) preach “justification by coma”. Or anything else that can legitimately be criticized from any tradition.
But I also think He cheers when parents bring their kids to church every week to hear the Gospel, and when they light Advent wreaths at home, and teach them the Lord’s Prayer and the Creeds and the 10 Commandments. I think He loves that for some people, rosaries or prayer beads help give structure and focus to their conversations with Him. And that the rituals and patterns and marks of the church, the “rules of religion” can provide loving, beautiful boundaries for people who never had any and have become burdened by their so-called freedom.
Heavens, yes, but the world is changing. (I actually cited your “Why Lutherans Can’t Evangelize” post in a paper I wrote for school.) But Christ is always with His Church, and it remains the Body of Christ. We are most certainly in a “post-denominational world” (most days I think that, anyway). But there are still many, many people/families/communities for whom “religion”, done well, remains a valid and effective way of transmitting the “faith once delivered.” We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, and we shouldn’t succumb to a temptation to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
April 21, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Randy Wawrzyniak-Fry
I think it’s time to clarify the “getting kicked off the island” comment. Inquiring minds want to know. The rest of us are just nosey.
April 22, 2010 at 2:19 am
David Housholder
The ELCA requires its rostered ordained pastors to be at least 1/2 time in a regular call in a loyal ELCA congregation.
My two calls (Robinwood and Hosanna!) are both very part time. And both churches are “fringe” ELCA to say the least.
I last held a call in a loyal ELCA congregation on 31 Dec 2007, thus, with the three year grace period, I will be erased from the “book of life” on 31 Dec 2010.
There are lots of exceptions, but only if you are PC.
I’ve never been accused of being PC.
I had five of the senior pastors of some of the very largest ELCA churches, the president of Luther Seminary, and the CEO of Augsburg Fortress, write personal letters to bishops last year to make an exception for me to stay on the roster. No go.
Never mind that I teach from time to time at Luther, wrote the official Galatians commentary for the ELCA Book of Faith series, etc.
No half time call–no rostering.
Not that it affects me all that much. I’m just sad for a system that is so rule-bound and not open to creativity and entrepreneurialism. Or from ordained leaders who don’t need a major paycheck from the offering plate.
There’s room in the ELCA for http://HerChurch.org nearly Wiccan stuff, but not for me, apparently. Room for Goddess Rosaries, but not for biblical inerrancy (which I have clearly and publicly stood for since the 80’s), or room for a little mission church like Robinwood that had 31 adult baptisms last year.
Odd times we live in. Not lamenting it. Just marveling at the oddness of it all.
It’s a post-denominational world anyway. And I am blessed to be a part of it.
April 22, 2010 at 3:10 am
Randy Wawrzyniak-Fry
I’m not lamenting or marveling, I just find it sad. Legal-ISM is the same as it was 2000, 3000, and 4000 years ago — a barrier between us and God. Jesus’ death tore the curtain, and for the last 2000 years the legalists have been working non-stop to sew it up again.
April 22, 2010 at 1:59 am
Luke Allison
According to dictionary.com religion= “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”
According to this definition, I don’t see how we CAN’T engage in some sort of religious patterns at some point.
Think about prayer: can anybody really understand how to pray without doing it consistently, even, perhaps, ritually?
Reading of Scripture? Never met anyone who read it once a month and knew anything about it.
Corporate worship? More often than not, the one who slowly stops attending some kind of corporate gathering is the one who just kind of disappears from the face of the Earth one day.
Like Pastor Per said, God made a lot of the religious ordinances of the day, and Christ certainly instituted some kind of remembrance in conjunction with the pre-existing feast of Passover (imagine a Lutheran church mentioning Passover being something we should probably consider celebrating).
If God truly knows the human heart better than anyone else (duh) then He knows what makes us tick. Clearly, patterns, rites, rituals, remembrances, all these things are the ways by which people attempt to go beyond themselves into something higher. It would seem as if the religious impulse is a natural part of Creation. So the question isn’t so much, “Are religious patterns bad”, as it is “What’s the point of those religious patterns?”
Drug addicts, sex addicts (been there myself), alcoholics, adrenaline junkies, etc, are all looking to touch something higher than their mundane, fleshly existence. The fact that they destroy themselves along the way is a testament to our tendency towards the worship of “something”, even if that something is deadly. (See: Molech)
If, however, we refer to religion in the same way that most Evangelicals refer to it (legalistic, moralistic, therapeutic “works” that we think are justifying us and making us better than those other people), well, of course God hates that stuff. Of course, He also hates my tendency towards hating religious people, which would be my “religion”, I guess.
God is so much more valuable than we can ever imagine, and I want to tell Him that on a minute by minute basis, not just vocally, but religiously. The religious pattern is as natural as breathing for us. The question is, what’s the point?
April 22, 2010 at 2:34 am
Wendy Housholder
As long as a “pattern” brings us into the presence of God, it’s a good thing. If it becomes a barrier, it needs to be tossed. That’s all I have to say =]
April 24, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Mrs. Hume
We left the ELCA ten years ago because our pastor was pushing the gay acceptance thing with the youth. Obviously we have to accept sinners but the trend of gay pastors and gay unions is more like condoning than repenting. We ended up joining the local LCMS church because it was fairly close by and we were traumatized.
I really like this blog because you are a real thinker.
I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, but hey if it isn’t addressed there, I quickly retreat to my natural material rationalist self to think about stuff.
I like the idea of really communicating with people. However, ask yourself honestly if very intellectual emotionally stable people are drawn to the same types of discussions of their faith as people of more modest intellect and more limited emotional stability. If we really care about the needs of people, and we know God is there to meet those needs, we may realize that we are most effective communicating with people similar to ourselves and being open to the idea that not all patterns work for everyone, but Jesus does.
April 26, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Tim
Praying for grace so that you can stay on this particular Lutheran island.
Saint Benedict argued for stability.
Stick with your tribal group.
Grow there.
Deal with concrete, particular people over time.
Bonhoeffer said we relate to one another only through Jesus Christ
Not through ideal community or ideal church
We need you to stick here, even if we don’t agree
Especially if we don’t agree
Who is the bishop I should write to advocating for this?
From this truth and pattern angle, signing off,
Tim
April 27, 2010 at 9:18 pm
David Housholder
Stability with your family of origin is important.
April 27, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Randy Wawrzyniak-Fry
For me this raises more questions than it answers.
I’ve always had problems with “family of origin”. My family were/are non believers and I was raised as such, so the concept of “family of origin” when applied to faith strikes me somewhat like God the Father might sound to someone who grew up without a father, or with a mostly absent father.
April 27, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Tim
Amen, David. Hope the Christ bond keeps us together.
April 28, 2010 at 12:28 am
Tim
Randy also makes a good point. I wish this were a live rather than virtual conversation. What I’m thinking about is that stability in one’s faith community is often very important. There is a lot of consumer mobility when it comes to faith. You don’t like something, you move on. I know that there are other Christian faith traditions that speak to me besides Lutheran. Yet there is a treasure in being Lutheran. There is a gift to offer others by being Lutheran. Being Lutheran allows me to receive the blessing of other traditions while also being able to share a blessing. Giving and receiving, receiving and giving. I worry this is not making sense to other readers, yet it is crystal clear to me 🙂
Have a great night everyone.
May 2, 2010 at 1:57 pm
David Housholder
Lorraine: Why didn’t my two post make it in??
Me: Lorraine, it’s my blog.
I delete posts all the time. I can and will continue to do so.
Your tone was too suspicious. Except on controversial issues like Evolution and Abortion which are by nature “hot,” I delete that “talk radio” tone. Post without that tone, and you’re in.
There are whole blogs with negative, suspicious tones. A “looks fishy to me” vibe. Your last post confirms your suspicious tone, “I thought something like this might happen.”
This is not one of those blogs and no one else gets to vote on it.
If you’re out to dig up ulterior motives, I don’t have any. Galatians 5:22 ff.
Posting here is a privilege and not a right.