Church too negative? Awesome. Count me in.

How often have we heard that one of the downfalls of the liberal/progressive church is that it defines itself more by what it is not than by what it is? That it says more about what God isn't than about what God is. This is undoubtedly true. And it is undoubtedly true that this is an incredibly frustrating and difficult way of doing and living theology. People are desperate for absolute, positive truth. "Tell it to me straight!" they cry.

God on his throne. So close and yet - so far away.

But we can't, or we shouldn't. Why?

Because so much of the Bible is story after story, phrase after phrase, word after word, telling us about God through the negative:

• God is not Marduk or Tiamat
• God is not Gilgamesh or Enkidu
• God is not Pharaoh
• God is not a Golden Calf
• God is not Caesar

I've only been going at this for 3 months, but I tell ya - I've heard a lot more about what God is not from the ancient Israelites than about what God is. If there is something wrong with deconstructionist theology, then we are in a whole heap of trouble.

Heck! Those crazy Israelites built God a throne just so that it could sit there empty. They get nervous calling him by name. They really don't show us much about what God is. 

Why is that?

Because they get it. Saying what God is? That's risky business if you are not God - and I'll go out on a limb and say that none of us are. Creating an image of God is something that can be done with words and ideas just as well as by a sculptor's hand. Better to leave the creation of images to the real Potter instead of us playing that game. Too easily our attempts at images end up looking like us (or if we're in the ancient near east, weird animal bits all smooshed together - winged-bull-with-human-head anyone?)

Now we haven't gotten to the New Testament yet (that's next year), but I'm pretty sure a big lesson there is that whatever we think God is going to look like? Yeah...it's pretty much the opposite. 

So I'll take my deconstructionist theology, with a healthy side of grace, thank-you-very-much. Will this mean I'm tying myself to the sinking ship of progressive deconstructionism? Not if God has anything to do with it. While it's always easier to worship the ever-popular Golden Calf in our midst, I trust a prophet will come to set our eyes upon that mysterious empty throne again.

"Cut it Off!" Stopping the Incarnation of Hate in Ourselves

Last week's lectionary reading from the Gospel was perfectly timed for me. It opened a pathway to overcome the stereotypes and sinful assumptions I've been wrestling with at Candler. Here's the passage:

Mark 9: 38-50John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. 

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

I got to hear two sermons on this text - one at Candler and the other at church. Both were good, but both focused on the beginning of the text and its message of inclusion - not the latter part of the text and it's difficult message of self-correction.

My husband and I found the careful avoidance of the hellfire and self-mutilation unsatisfying. And I've been turning the passage over in my thoughts all week - trying to make sense of it. What's this bit about cutting off our limbs? What's this hellfire that's raging?

What's a core value and what's a prejudice?

Friends, I'm so glad I ended up at Candler for Divinity School. Part of the reason I knew Candler was the best place for me to grow was because I knew it would offer a much more culturally and theologically diverse student body than I would experience at Chicago, Harvard, of Yale. Not to say that those schools don't have their share of cultural diversity - in some ways they have more. But when it comes to theological diversity - including the Big 'C' for conservatism - I knew Candler would be the best place.

But now, what's that saying? Oh yes: "Be careful what you wish for."

Now, I'm only being facetious. I'm still glad I'm here. In fact, after the past few weeks I'm even more affirmed that Candler was the right choice. It's just that change and encounter is hard. Very hard.

If only prejudices always ended so romantically...

Until I went to college, I had never met an "Evangelical" Christian. Or really a Republican for that matter. I mean, some of my friends' parents I'm sure were Republicans but I had limited interaction with them and the only adults my parents were close to were very liberal Democrats. I knew that most of America was not like the Cape/South Shore of Massachusetts - where we moved church service start times in the summer to allow for the more important activity of the day: sailing - but I really didn't know how or in what ways other Americans varied.

I also knew that I carried a lot of prejudices that I needed to break down through experience. Some of them were broken in college - but honestly it sometimes felt like every other person at Chicago was a "Masshole" like me. (For Masshole definition, see "Romney, Mitt")

Enter: Candler School of Theology.

Who am I to do this work?

“I’ve been hiding with this whole Battlestar Galactica thing,” I told my husband in an emotional heart to heart recently. It was the most shameful confession I’ve made in a long time. Not that there is anything wrong with the science fiction drama that’s beeninfiltrating the lives of countless hipsters of late. It wasn’t Battlestar Galatica’s fault. No, I can’t blame this one on Starbuck and Adama.

When I found out I was accepted to divinity school and made the decision to attend Candler, I was thrilled. That excitement carried me right through my wedding in May, the honeymoon, the squeaky newness of our marriage, and the lofty dreams of the next three years together. Life just kept getting better. Hooray! When the summer began, I had plans to read devotionally, work on my prayer life, and make my way through James Kugel’s How to Read the Bibleall before setting foot on Emory’s immaculate campus. Instead, this summer I’ve allowed my free time to be taken over by Cylon invasions and intergalactic love triangles. How did that happen? Read more...

My take on the Bible and Homosexuality

Friends, I don't often get a chance to dive into the Biblical basis for my support of gay rights and same-sex marriage, but a recent discussion with a Facebook friend got into the fundamentals of our different interpretations of Scripture. Interested in what y'all think!

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There are some Biblical passages that cast homosexuality, particularly male homosexuality, in a negative light.  (For some reason the Bible doesn't say as much about being a lesbian, my guess is that the writers were all male and didn't really think much about female sexuality at all, let alone female sexual orientations.)  I won't shut my eyes and pretend that the Bible says nothing about homosexuality - it obviously does. The reason that I don't take these passages on face value is because I believe that reading the Bible in a legalistic manner, without consideration for the culture to which each author was addressing, is an inherently flawed way of reading the Bible. Now, no one follows the Bible literally in all cases, it's just that fewer people will admit they don't. There are plenty of commandments in the new testament that we think are out moded today. Slavery being the most obvious. To me, condemnations of homosexuality will be the next area that we decide that the Bible does not directly speak to our cultural about. I don't read the homosexual passages as any more relevant to my path as a Christian in 2012 than I do passages promoting slavery or condemning women speaking in church.

Foundations for a Christian Marriage

When Andrew and I were planning our wedding, we took the selection of our vows very seriously. I had once visited a Quaker friend's home here in Atlanta whose parents were married by their meeting and had a beautiful wedding contract displayed in their entryway (It's like a ketubah that everyone signs). We both loved this idea and wanted our vows to be the sacred and intentional building blocks of our marriage - displayed for all who enter our home, and also to remind us daily of our covenant. So with the stakes set pretty high, we thought long and hard about our vows. We wanted them to reflect not only what we individually pledged to each other, but also what we, as one united in marriage, pledged to do in the world.

Here is where we landed:

Chick-fil-A vs. BSA: Don't waste all your energy on the easy haters

It seems that everyone in the social media world is up in arms around Chick-fil-A's unsurprising and offhand bigotry when it comes to LGBT marriage equality. Personally, I'm more saddened by the recent news that the Boy Scouts, after researching and deliberating the issue, have maintained their position on banning gay scouts and scout leaders from their ranks. But more people (at least in my social networks) are finding outrage in the political bent of a private corporation from whom we have come to rely on delivering a reliable chicken product, than are outraged over the deliberate discrimination from one of America's largest youth organizations, on whom we rely to help us raise our children with character, values, and morality.

Evil Corporate Chicken vs. Bigoted Character Education? With both stories hitting the press this week, it seems like we've decided to fight the fryer.

My first thought about this was, "Wow! We are some materialistic fatties if the moral ambiguity of buying fast food chicken is more upsetting than the depraved policies of an organization that is shaping tomorrow's leaders."

Across the Aisle

A thoughtless mistake leads to an interesting discussion of marriage equality with my new friend and fellow blogger, Kimberly Knight! Here's an excerpt from our conversation over on her blog Coming Out Christian on Patheos. Check it out:

So last week I was sitting in a church in Birmingham, Alabama with a new friend, Anna. Anna has just this year joined our church in Kirkwood, been baptized, secured a full ride to Candler School of Theology – and gotten married. We are so lucky and grateful to be sharing her journey and gifts for ministry. She has definitely brought a vibrant light to our community. As we were sitting in that Birmingham church, waiting for a denominational worship service to begin, she excitedly turned to our pastor and I and with a huge grin flashed us a picture on her phone. Her new husband had just sent a text with a picture of their wedding license which had arrived in the mail. It was official in a whole new way, the state had signed, sealed and delivered their own approval of the couple’s love and commitment to one another. 

Instantly the wrong emotion sprang up inside of me like a fetid troll under a bridge waiting for a gleeful couple to come skipping across. I was angry, I was jealous, I was bitter. In a flash I felt all these rancid feelings, and then guilt. First the tackiness – “well good for you honey, half the people sitting in these pews around you are denied that little piece of paper. Nice of you to share.” Just flat ugliness on my part. The guilt of my misplaced anger gave way to my truth – of course I am happy for her, of course I celebrate her joy. I believe in marriage and that means I believe it in for everyone, everyone, everyone. Not only do I believe in it, I celebrate it for anyone who finds that love and makes a covenant with that person, before God and community, to live out all of life’s journeys together. As it turns out, Anna is a blogger too – so I asked her to lunch the other day – first to claim my own ugliness and acknowledge that I am in fact very happy for her rather than the cranky lesbian from whom she could feel waves of bitterness rise like so much heat off Peachtree St. in August. I have asked Anna to share in a conversation with me here to talk about this thing marriage. Keep reading... 

Taking Evangelicalism seriously - the wake-up call

This week I discovered one more way in which I am hugely ignorant: I know next to nothing about Evangelical Christianity. Sure, I've been to a couple worships, seen a few documentaries, read some articles. I thought I had a good-enough idea of what it's all about. Who cares if I don't know all the details? Because truth be told, it's always felt like some random other thing - like NASCAR or scrapbooking - that millions of other people are into but I feel no real pressure to fully understand.

Could I be more stupid?

"Wait," you may be thinking, "I thought you were all into that emergent church thing-y. Isn't that an evangelical movement? How can you not know about evangelicalism?"

And you would be right to ask me that. You see, my friends, I was under the delusion that evangelicals, discovering the emergent church movement (a.k.a. what mainline Christianity has been preaching for a century) would all of a sudden come running to the United Church of Christ. They would see an awesome "God is still speaking" video I post on my Facebook and say, "Hey! I want to come to your church! I never knew there was such a progressive denomination out there!"

Going to Divinity School!

Friends, I wanted to fill you in on some recent changes in my life. And by changes, I don't mean that I've switched detergents or started P90X or anything.... I mean some serious changes. To be clear: I have taken it upon myself to change almost everything about my life in a matter of months. Woo-hooooo! Let me re-cap for you:

1. I switched religions. I was baptized a Christian in the United Church of Christ this past January after joining the fabulous community of Kirkwood United Church of Christ. While I have much to be thankful for in my Unitarian Universalist roots - I'm excited to begin my new life as a Christian.
2. I'm getting married. Going to become the future Mrs. Anna Flowers in just a few short weeks! Both Andrew and I are excited to take this step together and build a life of intention and awareness. (Check out our awesome engagement pics from Our Labor of Love!)
3. I'm becoming a minister. I'm not sure how common it is to switch religions at the same time that you are discerning to become a religious leader - but that's me. Yikes! Prayers are welcome.

Since I've blogged about #1 and #2 respectively - let me catch you up on #3.

My First Wedding! (to officiate)

Friends, this weekend I had the privilege of presiding over the wedding of one of my best friends and her now husband. I have to admit, I was intimidated by the task of joining two people I love so much together for the rest of their lives - but I did my best! Here's what I said on that beautiful evening in New Orleans:

Katie and Mike, today is one of the most memorable days of your life. Someday your children will want to hear about it. They’ll ask you questions and pour over pictures. They’ll want to know if the weather was fair, what color the flowers were, and how young you both looked on the day you created your family. They’ll want to know because in some small way they will feel like they were here, like they were a part of today’s celebrations.

And in a way they are. Your children, your grandchildren, the friends you have yet to meet, the places you will travel to, the songs you will hum together – all of it is somehow a part of today.

Because a wedding is a celebration of the future. It doesn’t gaze upon what is so much as it raises our eyes out towards what is to be. It’s an unapologetic announcement of hope - bringing the brilliance of your future into focus.

The Beauty of Service - Wedding Gifts from a Homeless Friend

Andrew and I are starting to receive our first wedding gifts. Among them are new sheets, bedding, and a fabulous apple green KitchenAid stand mixer (Oh, the joys of retro colors in a kitchen!). But I have to say, one of the best and most surprising gifts we've received was given to us last night at the Open Door Community.

Andrew and I are both volunteers in the foot clinic at the Open Door Community in Atlanta. Armed with soap and scalpels, we get to work on the feet of our homeless guests every Wednesday evening in hopes of relieving the pain of corns, the itch of fungus and bacteria, and above all the feeling of shame that so many of our neighbors have about their ailing bodies. It is a blessing to serve there.

But last night I was reminded that the blessing of service is not mine alone to keep. Service is never a one-way street. And last night that hit home in a very literal way. One of our friends went out of his way to get Andrew and me matching wedding gifts - little frames from Bed Bath & Beyond with messages he inscribed for both of us. I cannot tell you how touched I was to imagine the thought that must have gone into them. It was truly a gift from God. I hope I never forget the look of pride on his face as he gave us these wonderful tokens of his best wishes.

Thanks be to God for moments that upset our expectations and remind us that the Kingdom of God truly is within us - within all of us.

Wild Goose 2012!

I'm hoping to be able to make it again to the Wild Goose Festival this year. There is a possibility I have a work conflict but I should be able to come at least for Saturday and Sunday. I know some wonderful folks who have already bought there tickets. Will you join us?!


The 2012 Wildgoose Festival from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

Called to the Water: My Baptism at Kirkwood United Church of Christ

I delivered this testimony to my new church family at Kirkwood United Church of Christ just before my baptism on Sunday, February 5, 2012 under the care of Rev. Susannah Davis.

Here at Kirkwood, I’ve been blessed to witness the baptisms of two babies. One actually happened the first time I visited this church – which I think was a sign from God that this was some place I should keep coming back to. Because baptisms here at Kirkwood are always so special. It’s not only a moment for us to welcome a little one into the church - acknowledging that unbelievably powerful love that God has for her life and her spirit, a life that we all promise to nurture in the way of Christ, but it’s also a time for us to remember our own baptisms – a time to remember the truth that we were brought into as we were cradled in our pastor’s arms long, long ago. That’s what we are always asked to do here on baptism Sundays – remember something deep in our souls that our newborn memories never captured.

Well my friends, I’m overjoyed to say that today I will be able to join with you at every future baptism Sunday in remembering today, the day that I knelt before you all and before God to acknowledge the truth that I too was brought into as a baby. A truth that has carried me through my life’s greatest joys and greatest depressions. A truth about God’s love for me and my spirit – which is as cleansing and forgiving as the fresh water you all will pour out for me in the moment I publicly affirm and acknowledge the truth of God’s love in my life.

Where Can Two Paths Meet? Any advice for newlyweds with differing faith journeys?

Friends and readers - I have some wonderful news that many of you probably already know - I got engaged! This is one of the reasons that it's been harder for me to post lately - dear Lord, why are weddings so stressful and complicated to plan?! It's all been a whirlwind and really very exciting to tell the truth. The wonderful man is my partner for the past four years, Mr. Andrew Flowers. And yes, I will be taking his name - mostly so I won't have to say, "Snow-in-bus, like rain-in-car" anymore...

After getting engaged in Savannah, GA

Speaking of changing your name, the thing about getting married is just how many gosh-darn decisions there are to make! And I'm not talking about china patterns and flowers. I'm talking about the serious work of taking two lives and weaving them into one covenant of marriage. It's really a spiritual task and I've been devoting much of my spiritual energy to it.

One of the things that Andrew and I are working on is how our faith will and will not play into our marriage. Andrew and I have really different stances on religion, which is nice in many ways and really complicated in others. I'm happily romping and rolling in the green pastures and not-so-still-waters of these stories about Jesus the Christ, while Andrew, having been raised a nondenominational evangelical Christian, is less enthused by the Jesus he grew up hearing about and takes each step on his journey with the precautions of one who has been burned in the past - with a blinding torch of calculated reason to guide him. I'm far too enamored with shadows, dim mirrors and impossibly true stories to walk beside him.

So my question to you, dear readers, is: what are your thoughts and experiences with how marriage affects the faith journeys for partners? How and where do two differing paths meet? Where is it most important to come together? Where can you diverge?

I'm hoping that y'all have some advice to share with two eager-to-be-newlyweds!