U2-egesis: Unknown Caller

"Unknown Caller" from No Line on the Horizon

Sunshine, sunshine
Sunshine, sunshine

(song starts with birds singing, gives the impression of early morning- dawn, a fresh start, new creation?)

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
I was lost between the midnight and the dawning

(sleeping during the night...)

In a place of no consequence or company

(that half-conscious dream state, not really sure where you are, etc)

3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face

(3:33 is a common U2 reference to Jerimiah 33:3, "call on me and i will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know". See the cover of ATYCLB, the airport terminal marquee has the J 333 lit up. In numerous interviews Bono referred to this as "God's calling card". ) 

Speed dialing with no signal at all

(The repeated attempts of the Spirit to get his attention?)

Go, shout it out, rise up

( 'Shout it out' , a refrain from the Psalter, is another frequent reference in U2's corpus. See for example “With a Shout” from October (1981) )  

Oh, oh
Escape yourself, and gravity
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak

(the 'I' is certainly God, telling Bono to shut up, to listen, instead of babbling on...)

Shush now
Oh, oh
Force quit and move to trash

(Brilliant imagery- in Mac speak, 'force quit' is what you have to do when the OS or program locks up...similar to windows CRTL+ALT+DEL but much more poetic. In this case, it’s the writers life course, the current path, or direction, that they must confront and alter...)

I was right there at the top of the bottom

(in other words, things were bad, but had the potential of getting worse...)

On the edge of the known universe where I wanted to be

(time of uncertainty, questioning.... fear? ) 

I had driven to the scene of the accident
And I sat there waiting for me

(the writer could see where his life direction was heading -to an 'accident'. He could see that the results of the decisions he was making would not be good. It is a futuristic vision, as he was 'waiting for me'...)

Restart and re-boot yourself
You're free to go

(HOWEVER GOD is offering the chance to avoid the accident, to change the path one's on, to 'alter the future as it were...) 

Oh, oh
Shout for joy if you get the chance
Password, you, enter here, right now

(After the choice is made to change [force quit/move to trash has been done - REPENTANCE ] now the fresh start, reboot )

Oh, oh
You know your name so punch it in

(the login, with the "password, YOU > enter here..right now" not a request, more like a command from God- )

Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak
Shush now
Oh, oh
Then don't move or say a thing

(again, the command to 'be still , and know that i am God..." )

This is an amazing picture of repentance and renewal. The song begins with an instrumental that builds the impression of dawn- birds signing, and starts the theme of fresh starts, renewal, creation. In the early morning hours, the character in the story gets a call from the "unknown caller" > God. Unknown perhaps because he had been ignoring previous calls....not wanting to answer...what is the "unknown" that comes up on caller ID? Usually someone you don't want to talk to- ex. a bill collector, or a salesperson.

Regardless, here is a picture of how we can get stuck when we know we SHOULD be turning to God for comfort or repentance, but we choose not to.


3:33, a play on words, the reference to Jeremiah 33:3 "Call on me and I will answer you..." . The Spirit tells me to 'shush now' - not to talk or complain to God, but to be quiet, and listen for a change.
“Driven to the scene of an accident waiting for me”, the character (Bono, you, me..) can "see" or knows what the current trajectory of his life will lead to- an "accident". We often know, as the Spirit convicts us of sin and the need for repentance, that how we are living our life at the moment isn't working, and the end result if we continue in this trajectory will be very, very, bad. Nonetheless, if often takes something significant for us to be willing to see this, and then change our direction.

The offer, or command, from God, is freedom- grace, the ability to leave our failing and hopelessly broken program ("force quit, and move to trash") and start fresh again. ("your free to go")
The result?

Fellowship, God's presence, freedom from guilt and shame, and hearing his voice that drives out confusion, fear and despair.

an orbital centered-set spirituality?

Something i have been pondering for some time…

  Having been in ministry for a long time, and seeing lots of models of sanctification in teaching and in operation... it seems that people really don't change all that much. ok, i said it. maybe it's because of my evangelical cessationist, heavily "not-yet" upbringing that i lean this way. But it seems that spiritual transform is often, slow, non-linear, two steps forward one step back kinda process. we make progress in one area, other areas falter. I get my lust life in check, and my anger seems to get the upper hand. I find myself loving those I previously thought it was ok to ignore, but at the same time still harbor elitist and judgmental attitudes. Egads, what a wreck I am sometimes!

So i wonder...is the straight line trajectory model of center set a realistic graphical representation of spiritual transformation? The center set model vs. bounded set has become vineyard orthodoxy. Lots of place on the web explain this, so I will defer. However, the basic graphic for a centered set looks something like the following:

                                                               

With the basic idea being, the center is defining as the goal, the highest good, as you will. For the sake of simplicity we shall call this “jesus”. The arrows represent people, seekers, persons in the world. The key idea is that is doesn’t matter where a person is in proximity to the center, what matters is the trajectory. Thus, a person far from the center, say person A, but who is directed exactly towards the center, is in a better place than someone who is in close proximity to the center, (person X) but whose trajectory is away from the center. Get it? If confused, take a look at the contrast with a bounded set model.

now, when it comes to describing doctrinal/confessional issues the model works just fine. However, use of the CS model in the vineyard especially, has been expanded- hence questions like "what does a center set spirituality look like?" have been raised. Here is the rub as it seems to me- and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a person that just thinks too much, or if there is something about the model that needs to be altered.

At least in terms of spiritual transformation (sanctification...maybe...depending on one's confessional tradition)  that is, who really knows EXACTLY WHAT the center demands of us? Isn't the walk of faith often composed of trying things out, believing at the time, that this is what god was asking us to do? In the spirit of Peterson’s  “a long obedience in the same direction” doesn’t the walk of faith take us to places where we would rather not go? Places where the guide himself seems lost, or, perhaps, not forthcoming with adequate directions?

What i am proposing is this: rather than a linear trajectory where either I am pointing directly towards the center OR NOT, what if we change the visual representation to be more like an orbit, or a vortex. I realize this may be quibbling, but i think it's more reflective of the provisional and conditional nature of our knowledge, loving and acting.  I am rarely in direct trajectory towards the center. The center does, however, have a certain pull, a gravitas, that I sometimes give in to, sometimes resist, and sometimes am unaware of.  Am I moving towards the center? Usually, but more in a spiral pattern, or a vortex. Perhaps my graphic would look something like this:

                                                                               

 

SO at times, I coming nearer to the center, and at other times, I’m fading away a bit, while my OVERALL trajectory is being pulled to the center by the weight, the love of jesus.

What do you think?

Reflections on the Blue Ocean Midwest Conference (the first)

“My faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice." Sheila's faith has some tenets beyond belief in God, though not many. In defining what she calls "my own Sheilaism," she said: "It's just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other. I think God would want us to take care of each other."
-habits of the heart

“I just thought it was funny to write a song that said today is the greatest day of your life because it can't get any worse…” Billy Corgan, smashing pumpkins, about ‘today’

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Midwest blue Ocean conference at Mercy Vineyard in Minneapolis, MN. If you unfamiliar with the “Blue Ocean Churches” folks you can find out more about them on their blog and website here. Essentially, the idea of blue ocean churches is borrowed from business and marketing concepts. In business, the ‘Red’ ocean is where all the people are fishing- it’s the traditional tried and true markets and products. In contrast, ‘blue ocean’ companies “fish” where no one else is fishing- that is to say, Blue ocean companies create new products, markets, and demand. The classic example of a “blue ocean” company, is, as you can probably guess Apple Computer. Steve J. & co took some pre-existing materials- (the Mp3 file format, and the internet) and created a whole new market. First, they created ITunes which allowed consumers to legally purchase and use copywrited music- unlike Napster. Then, they provided consumers a means, other than the PC or laptop, to take these downloaded music files with them- the IPod. Later came video, the IPhone, the IPad, and so on. Many other retailers and manufacturers have since entered this market in many sectors, (hence created more blood, more red if you will) however, Apple essentially created and exploited this market, and that gave them a huge competitive advantage- it forced Apple’s competitors to compete on Apple’s terms, at least for a while. Classic Blue Ocean Strategy.

In church talk then, “Blue ocean churches” attempt to fish where there’s fish…but few other fisher-people. Think of “traditionally underrepresented” groups that often seem to be outside the normal reach of your typical American evangelical protestant church. In other words, think of peoples and groups that are routinely identified as the enemies Of All That is True and Good and purveyors of filth and debauchery by self-proclaimed representatives of the American Protestant Taliban.

Blue Ocean churches are seeking to bring the kingdom of God to previously un-fished territories, and they are getting pretty good at it. This is at a time when according to researchers such as the Gallop poll and Barna research group, the fastest growing segment in American religious affiliation is “None” – no religious affiliation. In broad terms, BOC refer to this growing category as “the secular” as in “secular culture”, “secular society” etc. It’s important to note that in no way do BOC’s think of these titles “the secular” as being pejorative in any way- it’s a way to helpfully contrast secular culture with say, Southern “Bible belt” culture. It’s a term for classification that seems to be helpful, nothing more, nothing less.

SO in true BO strategy, BO Churches ask questions like: “Who are the un-fished, who are these none’s anyway?” What makes the “none’s” tick? Where do they live? What are they like? What do they see as the summum bonum of life? What do these “none’s” think about religion, faith, God, church, Christianity? What can we, as followers of Jesus, learn from the “none’s”?

As I understand it, Gallop, Barna, sociologists of religion, and others know a fair amount about the none’s. Quite often, none’s are highly edjumacated. (uh-oh..). They tend to be in highly populated urban areas that are culturally diverse. They often are employed in the fields of science, medicine, technology, or higher education. They have traveled a great deal outside of the U.S., and enjoy other cultures, countries, and ethnic expressions. Politically, they tend to vote liberal. “hot button” issues for secular none’s are things like global warming, global poverty, universal human rights, and freedom of expression. In the U.S. culture particularly, these concerns are often played out by an affirmation of things like Gay marriage, and broad rights for GLBT peoples, as an logical extension of the rights movements of the 60’s. A secularist none may be encouraged by the uncoupling of religion from American politics, and she may be somewhat mystified by attempts to inject religion into the scientific or medical fields. In many ways, none’s are a logical progression from the “Sheilaism” that Bellah discovered back in the 80’s. Only for a growing number of Sheila’s it’s become more authentic, more viable, to ditch the god talk altogether- they have discovered that god didn’t play all that big of a role in sheilaism anyway, so why bother with god talk at all? After all, it seems, if god isn’t necessary to build a fulfilled, meaningful life, why bother with a charade? We can do all that “loving yourself” and being excellent to each other without having to lean on a god fabrication to do so. If the cynics are correct, and god is just a projection of ourselves, or a psychological construction to help us deal with the crushing realities of existence, shouldn’t we look to other, less divisive, less “controversial” and more logical alternatives?

Because this group of folks that identify themselves as “none’s” and make up secular culture is growing, they represent a “blue ocean” of sorts. Very few churches or religious groups are having much success making the life and teachings of jesus compelling to this group. IF, that is, faith groups are even trying. Tragically, in many faith groups in America, secular culture is largely seen as the ENEMY of faith and All That is True and Noble, so little attempt has been made to enter into the world of the none’s, to understand secularity, and to find common ground and encourage dialogue.

This is exactly what Blue Ocean Churches are attempting to do.

I will post some more reflections on this in another post. For now, I’ll finish by asking a few questions. What do you think of this “Blue Ocean Faith” deal? Do you have friends, family members, co-workers etc. that identify themselves as “none”? If so, what type of conversations have you had with these folks regarding questions of meaning, hope, faith, significance, etc.?
de

What's a Stand Up Theology??

Why Stand Up theology?

The title has two sources. First, as some of you may know, I have somewhat of a U2 fan for the past three decades or so, since I first heard Gloria!  wayyyy back in high school.  In their latest album the preacher says this:
“I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I'm getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady” 

Which is an interesting observation about our late modern age, (“postmodern”  if you prefer) that has little consensus about what it means to have hope, faith, and love today. In an time when not only the traditional answers about Life’s Big Questions, but the very questions themselves,  are found to be insufficient,  can we learn to welcome and even embrace uncertainty? 

The other source for the title, is the wry observation by several of my graduate school professor’s that perhaps some form of stand up comedy, rather than academics, was my life’s calling.  The joke’s on them, as it were, as I probably wouldn’t have made it in comedy either. 

So in some sense, whilst this blog may tread on serious, weighty, and perhaps difficult topics from time to time, I shall also attempt to keep it entertaining. I think it was Dostoyevsky that observed that theology with irony is empty, or something to that effect. 

So there’s  this deep sense that humor can help us understand our fragility, and help to remind us of Kierkegaard’s “infinite qualitative distinction” between us and the infinite- god if you will.  Christian theology, perhaps, has now and again felt the need to take up the slack, to use a machete to clear the way for the divine. This blog is committed to the idea that the divine is doing just fine, thank you very much, and rather than “helping god across the street like a little old lady”, the voices here are going to let the divine carry it’s own weight.  In his brilliant book, “Denying and Disclosing God: the ambiguous progress of modern Atheism”  Michael Buckley argues that in its attempt to “defend” God, modern Christendom created the very circumstances that allowed Atheism to flourish. It’s a fascinating, and challenging read.

So one of my goals for this blog is to “stand up” for hope, faith, and love, while at the same time letting the divine do the heavy lifting. It makes sense, that if there is such a thing as the divine, that the divine should be able to take care of itself. And, if the divine is characterized by such things as love, while then, that love ought to be able to be experienced by the objects of this love. And if that’s true, then the divine isn’t so much a divine scorekeeper, or taskmaster, or tyrant, but the consummate lover and seducer. 

These are things on which my mind and spirit feed, but since I’m somewhat of a scattered personality, this thing is going to veer off into a number of completely different areas as well. So if you come on looking for some ridiculous, unsubstantiated and borderline heretical theological discussion and find yourself reading topics like “lake superior steelhead fly patterns”, “what the MN Wild needs via trade…NOW”, or “the surprising usefulness of Excel crosstab queries” the internets are not playing tricks on you…it’s just a reflection of my scattered interests. Thanks for joining me on this journey! 

de