Reading The Bible and Faith Anew

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We believe in God ... The tradition and the early church got this one right. The Nicene Creed starts with "We believe in God ...". In a conversation between Marcus Borg and one of his students regarding an arguments between some students and Borg, there was the following conversation where the student was asking:... "You are saying that the Bible is like a lens through which we see God; and they are saying it is important to believe in the lens." I looked at him and said, "Yeah, that's what I am saying." The distinction between "seeing the Bible as a lens" and "believing in the lens" is crucial for the re-visioning I am suggesting. Many Christians have thought that being a Christian meant 'believing in the lens" in spite of rational reasons for not doing so. Christian faith began to mean "believing in the Christian tradition." The lens became the object of belief rather than a way of seeing. The Bible as a sacrament: within the discipline of the religious studies, a sacrament is a mediator of the sacred, a means by which God becomes present to us. The point is not to believe in the sacrament, but to let it do its work. a means whereby the Spirit of God continues to speak to us today. Seeing the Bible as a sacrament also enables us to understand what it means to say that the Bible is "the Word of God". To speak of the Bible as "the Word of God" is thus to affirm that it is a means whereby the Spirit continues to speak to us today. In short, as sacrament, the Bible is "Word of God" in its function, not in its origin. It leads to a relational understanding of the Christian life: at its center is the relationship with God as a meditated by the Christian tradition as a sacrament. Being a Christian is about living within the tradition, especially the Bible as its foundation, and letting it function as both lens and sacrament, a mediator of the sacred, a means whereby God speaks to us even now. Being Christian is about living within this tradition and letting it -its scriptures, its practices, its worship- perform its sacramental function of transforming us. Ultimately it seems to me, this understanding is both very simple and very orthodox. Abbreviated from: Re- visioning Christianity by Marcus j. Borg from: the Once and Future Jesus Pages: 45 - 62

"Home" ... Meditation by Eddie Askew Have you left home yet? It is a good question. "Home" is not so much a place as way of life. "Home" is habits, beliefs, prejudices, fixed way of thinking and doing. If we want God to work on us and in us then we have to leave home and go on pilgrimage with him. The way we walk with Jesus isn't geographical, it is a totally new life style, a new way of being. This is the point for all of us. That's what people need to see in us: a new creat...ion, a new being, men and women freed from fear, suspicion, prejudice. Liberated from "Homes" to be explorers, travelling joyfully and freely, not in a jet, but in the Spirit. Lord, I thank you for home. For those I love, and those who love me For family and friends ... For all in life that strengthen me ... Yet, sometimes, Lord, I cling to these things too much My life gets cluttered up with custom and repetition. I hold hard on habit. It's easier to do things the same old way. I practice religion, not faith ... Jesus stands at the door. Knocking, to come in? Yes, but also asking me to come out. Holding open a door to a new horizons. Unknown, limited only by my courage. Showing me the Kingdoms of his world. Offering the Joy of pilgrimage, of walking out, free, with him. Liberation, From fear. from all the anxieties and suspicions which hem my life around and breed new fears. Liberation, because he is with me. Wherever I go. Freedom, not from responsibility and obligations, but freedom from self. Freedom from all that holds me back from giving my love, myself, to others ... Lord, it's risky. There's so much space. But the real shelter is not in the walls I build. It's in you Abbreviated meditation from: Silence And A Shouting By: Eddie Askew pages: 44 - 45

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This is a response to the following comment by our friend Sanaa Nimer regarding Introduction to the gospel of John (2). Because it is such an important comment I’ve chosen to have a long detailed answer to what happens when reading some daring essays or encountering new studies about faith. Most of the times, when it comes to look again at a faith matter, and when coming across new materials or findings, it certainly requires a lot of courage to accept them. This response r...Continue reading