Pushing Back the Horizon

Atta boy Ryan!  Just keep tithing to the church and God will keep blessing you. 

That’s what my clients keeps telling me anyway. This particular individual happens to be the multi-millionaire owner of a large automotive company and lives in a large acreage home. He also has another expensive holiday residence in the foothills and recently bought a warehouse to store his classic cars, boats and other toys. Whenever he needs some painting done, he starts out the conversation by asking how business is going and I usually respond with, “Going great, business is good.”  After all, I do have a very popular and busy painting company. 

But it because of a quid pro quo arraignment that I have with the Almighty—like He’s some kind of mob boss?  

Is that what defines me as “blessed”?

It might be easy for me to think that having nice things equals being blessed. After all, by most peoples standards, I am a good person. Also, I recently built a beautiful house on a gorgeous acreage. I drive nice vehicles, have a career that I enjoy and enjoy a wonderful family at home. 

How do I deserve this?  Is it because I am such a good person?

You see, I was always taught, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly that if you live a godly life, and as my client insists—pay your tithe, God will bless you. And that always amounts to a comfortable life. 

The problem is, that one of the most godly people in my life is also one of the poorest and most disadvantaged men that I personally know. He is the birth father of my two adopted children. He lives in Port Au Prince, Haiti.  

I’ll never forget the first time I met him and his sweet wife. She was VERY pregnant at the time. My wife and I had invited them to join us for supper at the hotel we were staying at. I’m sure they had never been in a restaurant before—never mind a nice one like the one that we met at. After all, why would they have given up six of their ten children for adoption as they couldn’t feed them if they could enjoy the luxury of restaurants?  His name is Edner and he is a very skinny man.  Vinette, his pregnant wife quickly finished her meal by the time Edner was only a few bites into his. 

He saw that she had finished and slid his mostly full plate over to her so that she could eat it as well.

Tears well up in my eyes as I remember this selfless gesture. He obviously rarely had enough to eat and yet was willing to give up a nice restaurant meal for his wife. 

Over the years as we have kept in contact with our Haitian family, we have learned that this is how Edner has lived his life. Self sacrificing, other centred, other empowering love. 

Like Jesus—who was another poor man. 

That begs the questions:  How does Jesus define “blessed”?

In the beatitudes, the ones who are blessed are poor, the ones who mourn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted.  

People who have suffered

Do you know someone who has never had significant challenges?  Someone who was born into privilege and had everything go their way throughout their life?  People like that are always shallow and uninteresting. They simply cannot relate to regular people. They tend to lean towards narcissism. 

When you have experienced suffering and hardship, you are then able to help others who are going through the same thing, just as other people who have suffered have helped you. When suffering people get together and help each other heal, there is a kind of symbiosis. A holy unity, or in trinitarian language—perichoresis.  Where there is unity and symbiotic love, there can be nothing but peace. 

Maybe this is what Jesus meant by “blessed”. 

Why do I have nice things?  

I am lucky.

I was born a male with white skin in one of the richest nations on this planet (Canada) with a strong healthy body and above average intelligence. I happen to be an enneagram 3 which means that the economic system that I find myself in was designed by and for people just like me. 

What did I do to deserve these advantages?  Nothing. I’m just plain freaking lucky. 

Why am I blessed?  I have been through hardship. 

I have survived many friends who died before they turned 25. I burned out of my first and chosen career after less than 5 years. My wife and I wanted to have a large family, but were infertile after our first child. We went through hell in the process of adopting our second and third children and have had significant heart break as we raised our family. We have lost extended family members to cancer. We have lost our religious community as our faith evolved beyond their certitude. 

We have also had others help us in our healing and have been able to be a part of the lives of others, helping them to heal. This more than anything else has enriched our lives. Having nice things and comfort is great, but the relationships I’ve been able to share with others who have suffered is priceless. 

I am blessed. Lucky me!

“Is this your first time raising cattle?” was the rhetorical question my new neighbour asked me. 

As we had just finally moved onto our acreage after purchasing it 2 years previous, we had decided to—while building a house, make use of the two large corrals which are on our property and raise a couple of yearling heifers for beef. Should be easy…right?  My fences and gates were tight and strong. Just load them into the north corral and let them graze until October. All ya gotta do is to alternate pasture and keep them watered. Cheap, easy (and healthy) beef. Except for one thing…

They didn’t stay on my property.  Not for more than three minutes anyway. Those two demon cows broke through my fences like they weren’t even there. One decided to move in with the previously mentioned neighbours horses. The other one I finally located 3 weeks later. It had found some donkeys to hang out with about 3 kilometres south of us. 

The problem wasn’t my fences. The problem was a lack of knowledge on my part. These yearlings were used to being in a herd. Fences didn’t keep them in.  The herd did. I had removed them from their herd and they didn’t know that barbed wire fences were supposed to contain them. 

What were the consequences of my ignorance?  Well, I learned what not to do if I decide to raise cattle again. I suffered some stress, embarrassment and cold wet feet as I chased those dumb animals for hours that chilly evening until it was too dark to see them. In the end, I found a buyer for both animals. I also got to make friends with a whole bunch of helpful new neighbours that I might not have otherwise met for years. 

A while ago in a podcast, author and speaker Rob Bell posed the question, “Is this your first time being a human?”  “Did you expect to get it right the first time?”

Great questions.

I grew up in a religion which taught me that I got it wrong just by being born—before I even made any mistakes, because of some dude called “Adam”. Also, there was an angry, all powerful being who would punish me forever if I didn’t give intellectual assent to certain, very specific religious ideologies before I die.  

Seems harsh. 

Interestingly enough, we got the idea of ”original sin” from a 5th century theologian named Augustine of Hippo and the concept of finite crime being infinitely punishable because it is committed against someone infinitely higher than us in status from a man called Anselm of Canterbury.  His only reference point for a concept of “justice” was medieval justice. Makes sense since he did live in the 11th century. Too bad the modern church is slow to upgrade its operating software. It’s all historically traceable folks. These ideas did not come from Jesus, though they did make it into the bible from biased translators who reflected the thinking of Augustine and Anselm (Also in later editions, Calvin and Darby). 

Have you made mistakes?  Hurt others…hurt yourself?  Have you been told that God hates you and is angry with you and you are probable going to hell?  

Wait…Is this your first time being a human?  Did you expect to get it right on your first try?

Here’s the good news. God knows very well what you are going through and has nothing but love and compassion for you. Kind of like when your first child was learning to walk and kept falling down. 

You are the realization of a dream God has had for countless millennia. God has been excitedly waiting for you to pop into existence forever—not so that God could punish you, but so that there could be relationship!

Do your mistakes have consequence.  Oh yes. But they are temporary. Will you have to make amends for the people you hurt?  Yes.  In the end, you learn from your mistakes. Might even make some new friends because of them. After all, it’s all about relationship. 

Just keep learning and growing and getting better at being a human and know that God is on your side, rooting for you, and walking along beside you.  

After all…

It’s your first time.

Our house is for sale and as such, we are preparing to move. For the last couple of weeks I have been taking stuff that we won’t be needing right away into temporary storage. One such thing I moved recently was an art easel. It brought back memories. 

My oldest daughter is a talented artist and many years ago asked me to make her this easel. After all, she was only a young teenager and had no idea how to build such a thing. 

I told her that I wouldn’t build it for her.

I would rather build it with her. 

Isn’t that the way all of us tend to think though?  Whenever we run across a problem, or want something that we can’t have, we look to someone more powerful, more knowledgeable than us to fix it or get it for us. 

We even created a god like that. 

We gave him (yes, apparently he’s male) attributes like “omnipotent”. He’s above us and far removed from us and every once in a while—if we are good and if we ask enough through petitionary prayer, he will intervene and with great power and might do all sorts of stuff for us. This god can also be like a powerful CEO who picks up a phone and orders his underlings to get things done for him so that he doesn’t have to leave the comfort of his corner office and actually get his hands dirty. 

I could have built an easel for my daughter, but would have missed an opportunity for relationship. Spending time with her. Turns out that my youngest daughter also joined in the fun and all three of us created a precious memory, building this easel together. 

Is God powerful?  Yes. But that power is in invitation for participation with the end goal of relationship. We tend to have this imagery of a God who’s power is revealed in big flashy stuff like creating the universe. God snaps his fingers and POW! The universe is made—in 6 days no less!  Or maybe in the resurrection. God intercedes to bring Jesus back to life and like the CEO, sends an angel to casually toss the large, heavy stone aside so that Jesus can make His dramatic exit from the tomb. 

But I think that God’s power is most dramatically revealed in the crucifixion of Jesus. This is where we see the clearest and fullest revelation of God. He does not observe suffering from a distance, but takes part in it.  It’s the culmination of His entire earthly life. Chastising those in religious and political positions with coercive power, actively loving and accepting the least and lowest of society. Experiencing pain, hunger, rejection and sorrow with us. Jesus showed us the way of love. The only way to truly live. He didn’t just tell His followers to live like that either, He invited them to participate with Him. He said, follow me and do likewise. 

You cannot have a relationship with a CEO type god who does things for you, but remains aloof in his world of extravagance. But you can with the one who participates with you. The one who lives life on your level and builds things with you. 

The One who lives in, through and as you. 

John R.W. Stott once said:

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ is God’s only self-justification in such a world as ours.’”

What kind of world would you like God to build?  Are you asking for peace, equality, restorative justice and healing in this world?  

Good. 

Now how will you participate with God to make these things happen?

The little baby bird is comfortable and safe within its shell. It has everything it needs—food, shelter and a watchful, though unseen mother nearby. 

     It is a healthy bird and does what all healthy things do. 

          It grows.  

Before long, the shell becomes confining. This safe and comfortable environment has become a stifling place and if it doesn’t leave, it will certainly die. And so, it pecks away at the shell from within. Challenging the only structure that it has ever known. 

A crack forms. 

It keeps pecking until there is light.  And how beautiful is that light! The little bird can see beauty through the hole in the shell it could not have previously imagined.  Quickened by the sight and the fresh air, the pecking intensifies until it is free and steps out onto the ground. Soon, the bird will learn to fly—its horizon ever expanding. Exploring new skies, living life to the full as a bird should. 

It could have stayed safe and sound in the shell. Complacent within a comfortable paradigm. Never growing. But it never would have discovered what it meant to be a bird. 

In some ways I’m glad that I grew up in the church. It gave me a sense of safety in community. A place where I belonged, could be nurtured and grow. Like an egg, the church, as an organization should be thought of as a temporary place to be.  A place of incubation.  It isn’t a place of permanence. 

That shell served its purpose for a time, but like the bird, I am healthy. And all healthy things need to grow. The shell became confining and I did indeed push against the confines—challenging its ridged structure. 

Truth can always withstand scrutiny no matter how violent the assault. The shell I was surrounded by did not survive my questioning and pieces began to fall away. 

-Biblical literalism (particularly using the Bible as a science textbook pertaining to such things as young earth creationism)

-Biblical inerrancy  

-Belief in Hell

-Violent atonement theory (penal substitutionary atonement)

-Complementarianism

-Dispensational Eschatology

…to name a few

And as they did, I saw the beauty of what the church had been trying to articulate, but just couldn’t as they could not see past the same shell that blocked my vision. I stepped out of that restrictive shell and am enjoying the fresh air, the sunshine—learning to fly. Becoming who I was meant to be. 

If you are still in a church environment, dependant on your pastor and your “worship time” for your spiritual growth, that’s ok. You might need still need it. Maybe you aren’t ready to leave the egg. Don’t stay there forever though. I know that I stayed too long and that any longer would have been detrimental to me. 

You will know when it is time to leave. You will feel the pressure that is created when your doubts and questions push against that shell. You may even discover that your acceptance in the church community is contingent upon your agreement with the groupthink. 

Richard Rohr shares some good indications of what it looks like to be spiritually mature in his book, “The Universal Christ”:  “A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail you, always demand more of you, and give you no reasons to fight, exclude, or reject anyone. Isn’t that ironic? The point of the Christian life is not to distinguish one’s self from the ungodly, but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything else. This is the full, final, and intended effect of the incarnation, symbolized by its finality in the cross, which is God’s great act of solidarity instead of judgment.”

You see, once you leave the confines of the institutional church, it is much easier to see that the true church is so much larger.  Wherever I go, I am at church. When I recognize Christ in everyone around me, everyone becomes my teacher. My growth becomes exponential. I feel God’s presence much more powerfully while sitting around a campfire with friends, riding my motorcycle or kayaking across the lake than I ever did sitting in a church pew, staring at the back of someone else’s head while listening to bad theology coming from the pulpit. 

Go ahead. Break that shell. Enjoy the freedom of becoming who you are meant to be. 

Spread your wings and learn to fly!

I know a father and son team who own a local Chevy dealership. I’ve bought a number of vehicles from them in the past, but I switched to Ford about eleven years ago. 

As much as it grates on them—I have that freedom.  Every time I see them, they insist that they will get my butt into a Chevy again one day. And it’s possible. But right now, I’m quite enjoying my Fords. You see, both companies make some pretty great vehicles and also some real pieces of junk. I’m not overly invested in either auto maker, so I have the benefit of objectivity and make my vehicle choices by merit of functionality, reliability and price point. 

Sometimes I wonder, as I drive my Ford superduty 4X4 with its 6.7L diesel twin turbo which produces a whopping 925 foot/lbs of torque…Does Doug (the Chevy guy) wish he could own a fine pick up like this?  After all, everyone knows that Ford makes a better truck than Chevy!

I can say that, because I have driven both trucks, plus, I am opinionated 😁

I also wonder if the Ford guy wishes he could own one of those sweet 2020 mid-engine corvettes?  Now THAT is a fine sports car!  No Shelby cobra mustang ever made can touch it!

But the Ford guy can’t drive a Chevy. And the Chevy guy can’t drive a Ford. Why?  They’re ENTIRELY invested in their respective brand. Their livelihood—even their identity is conflated with their kind of car.  

Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it—until I ask you what political party you affiliate with and if you would ever consider voting for the other party!  What would happen if I asked you what your religious affiliation is and if you would consider switching to a different one?

We all do it. We form our very identities around our family, country, brands, religious and political ideas—everything except who we really are.  We feel the need to assume that we are on the “right” team and everyone else is wrong—and we defend our position to the bitter end because if I’m proven wrong…well then, who am I?

Ever notice how someone of a particular political ideology will just dig in deeper into the defence of their party the more you show them just how empirically corrupt their leader and party is?  Ever had a conversation with a religious fundamentalist and explained to them the historical origin story of how their particular denomination developed its ideas and how it is indeed far removed from the actual teachings of Jesus?  How did that go?  I’ll bet they got pretty defensive and dug in further. Probably even unfriended you on facebook. 

Aristotle—one of the great greek philosophers gave us this idea of dualism. That all of reality consists of competing opposites. In other words, everything has two sides—like a coin.  Heads or tails. Good or evil. Right or wrong. Black or white. Republican or Democrat. Ford or Chevy. 

Nothing in between. 

Maybe he was wrong. Perhaps ultimate reality is more like a sphere. Perhaps there doesn’t have to be sides. Maybe democrats can embrace some of the ideals of the republicans and vice versa. Maybe Christians can learn from Buddhist’s, Hindus and Muslims. 

Who are we really?  My friend, Steve McVey puts it this way:  “Know this: You are a person of great worth. Not because of what you do or know or possess. You have value because of who you are. You are a container and conduit of Divine Life. You are a sharer in the Divine Nature. You are Love in human form. Know that and you’ll be free from trying to milk love, acceptance and value from others. See yourself as you are seen by your Creator and find freedom from being a people pleaser. You already are loved. You are accepted. You are valued.”

Maybe we can escape the prison we’ve put ourselves into and discover that we are free to not pretend we are all of the labels we have given ourselves. We are more united than we have allowed ourselves to be.  Maybe we can learn to have conversations with people who think differently from us again one day. 

Maybe Doug can even drive a Ford pickup.

I’ve always wished that someone would invent teleportation technology like they have in Star Trek. It would really make my morning commute to work a whole lot quicker!  Unfortunately, it remains a theoretical concept.  

There are two main disciplines of science. On one side, you have theoretical science. This is usually associated with with theoretical physics and quantum theory. It is the exploration of how reality works at the smallest levels. These scientists are not necessarily looking for practical application in the immediate future. They are just trying to understand the building blocks of what we perceive to be reality.

On the other side, we have applied science. This is the practical stuff. These are scientists who take what is already known and understood and put it to everyday use. All of the gadgets you have from your iphone to your car are the result of applied science.

You wouldn’t have applied science if it weren’t for the theoretical scientists. They are the ones who first discovered how stuff works so that others could figure out how to make it useful and make our lives better. 

One example of this is the study of electricity and magnetism. They were once thought to be unrelated forces.  That is, until James Clerk Maxwell, working from what Michael Faraday had discovered, figured out electromagnetism. This ultimately led to the development of electric motors, generators and a safe electrical grid. From this basic discovery, which came from theoretical science, we have applied science to give us the countless practical applications that most of us feel we couldn’t live without!

I love theology and have been a student of it for most of my life. I think it would be fair to say that theology or faith, like science also has the same two categories—theoretical and applied. 

The study of theology is solidly in the theoretical realm as nothing about God can be empirically proven. Is it important to study?  Absolutely!  It is essential to come to some understanding about what God must be like and what God wants with humanity. Why?  So that we as people can live to our full potential. So our lives can have true meaning.  It is not enough to have a theology which ignores the problems of here and now because we can supposedly just escape to some theoretical “heaven” someday.  What good is it if I know all of the atonement theories and can tell you what “hypostatic union” and “theosis” mean, but don’t allow that knowledge to affect my daily life?  The end result of my faith or theology must lead to tangible and positive change for myself and everyone around me if it’s going to be worth having.   

Theology, like science is one of those disciplines which can lead to either good or bad results. The fruits of theoretical science have led us to both medical breakthroughs which have given us a better quality of life, but also weapons of mass destruction which have brought destruction, fear and pain to humanity and our planet. 

Your theology can result in harm or good. From the crusades and the holocaust, to Mother Theresa caring for the poor in India, all of this practical action came from the theoretical discipline of theology.  I guess it just depends on whether you understand God’s highest attribute to be holiness, which needs to be defended…or love which defends all.  

In James 2:14-17, the brother of Jesus ponders, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

What does your faith—your theology look like in practical application?  Does it teach you a mindset of scarcity where you can blithely observe the needy and not do anything to help?  Does it lead you to protect your rights? Vote for and support political leaders (on both sides) who are compulsive liars and actively disadvantage and dehumanized other people?  Does it allow you to think that true justice is retributive?

Or, does your faith—your theology lead you to love others?  To involve yourself in restorative justice?  Does it lead you to live generously?  Does it bring you a sense of peace?  Do you find yourself naturally wanting to care for those around you because your faith has revealed to you that this is who you are?  

Mother Theresa once said that “we are God’s hands and feet.”  She didn’t just say it either. She lived it!  Too many “people of faith” use their theoretical theology to pass the buck onto God.  I constantly hear religious people pray that God will do this or that.  We even blame the devil for all sorts of evil, but we fail to take responsibility for our own actions. In some ways, I wonder if atheists have better insight for healthy living than religious people. They seem to realize that if they want the world to be a better place, they just have to engage in that activity themselves.

Imagine what would happen if we would all realize that perhaps God is love, that the universe is a safe and generous place, that we are all born of God, that perhaps God lives and experiences life in, though and as us, that the way God acts in this world IS though you and I!

Healthy theology with healing application. Sounds like the “kingdom of God” to me.  I want to continue being a student, I also need to be an active participant. How about you?

Right now we live in a world where everything—and rightly so, needs to be sanitized. Our hands need to be washed, surfaces cleaned, etc., all to keep a virus from spreading. 

Some things however, should never be sanitized, as doing so keeps peace on earth and goodwill to all from spreading like a pandemic of healing. The Christmas story is one such thing.

If you live in North America, you have been told the Christmas story countless times and have an image in your mind of a happy new family in a clean stable with nice groomed farm animals close by. Of course, they are visited by some nice, respectable shepherds and three wise men who bear neatly gift wrapped presents. It is night time and there is a beautiful star shining above them. 

Everything is peaceful, shiny and sanitized. Little baby Jesus doesn’t even cry.

Have you ever witnessed the birth of a child?  It is anything but peaceful. Imagine a scared 14-15 year old girl giving birth to her first child. In the first century C.E. there is a high mortality rate for mother and child. They are not in a clean hospital surrounded by highly trained medical professionals. 

It’s just Mary and Joseph in an unsanitized cave with dirty animals nearby. 

After hours of agonizing labour, Mary screams and with a final push, a baby slides out of her vagina covered with blood and slime. Joseph catches the child and quickly cleans him off the best he can with whatever he has at hand before letting him nurse for the first time at the breast of a teenaged girl.  

The first visitors they have are the “untouchables” of that society. The shepherds. This is not a job that anyone aspires to have. It’s something you end up doing when you are shunned from society. When you come into town to buy or sell with your meagre resources, everyone knows you are one of those nasty shepherds by your smell. Your low class is carried ahead of you on the wind wherever you go. Announcing that you are a nobody, that you are to be avoided, not trusted.

Those were the first visitors the Son of God had.

Jesus birth was scandalous. Everyone knows that human gestation is nine months. They knew that Joseph was a man of honour who would not violate the purity code of their day. They knew that Jesus gestation was suspiciously short.

They would whisper slurs behind his back like “mamzer”. Or in our language—“bastard”. His mother would have been spit upon in their village and called a “zona”—a whore—especially after Josephs untimely death with nobody to protect them.  They had no honour or standing in the community. 

Jesus followed in Josephs footsteps as a “tekton”—a common labourer who built things with wood and stone.  It was a living for those who did not own land. Something the poorest of society would do. Maybe a step or two above being a shepherd. His first followers included uneducated fishermen, violent zealots, a traitor to Israel who sold out to and worked for the empire (tax collector).  

The message of Christmas is not the narrative of an all powerful, all controlling god coming to earth to set up a political kingdom which will force a system of morality on humanity by punishing wrongdoers and rewarding those who hold to “correct theological beliefs”. 

If the message of Christmas is anything, it is a revelation that “Emmanuel”, or God with us has always been a reality and it is being shown to us in a most dramatic way. God does not come with pomp and ceremony with minstrels announcing His coming as He enters on a majestic war horse, brandishing a sword and demanding fealty. He enters physical reality quite humbly as we all do. Growing inside of another human, completely dependant upon creation. Growing up impoverished, hungry and undignified, with a subversive message, inviting us to participate in a new-to-us reality. 

God is all-vulnerable which makes God perfectly relational and above all, perfect love. 

The message of Christmas is that God affirms us. We called Him the “Son of God” because we recognized the divine in Him.

Jesus called Himself the “Son of man”, because He saw the divine in us. He wanted us to know that we are just like He is. We too are expressions of God. We too are complete, lacking nothing, created blameless and unconditionally loved. 

I wonder if we envisioned God as a king—someone powerful who we ask to do our bidding for us so we could then “pass the buck” of responsibility?  After all, when the divine calls Himself the “Son of man”—that tells me that we have the power and responsibility to make real, tangible and positive change on this earth. It is up to us to do good. We must do more than just pray to an unseen god to do things for us. 

We are the hands and feet of God!

Despite an undignified beginning of life, Jesus was convinced of who He was and lived out of that reality perfectly. That’s what makes Him so unique. That’s what makes Jesus worth following. 

Each of us needs to look past the lies we’ve been told about ourselves. Religion has told us that we were born sinful—just like Jesus’ society told Him. We have been told that we are not good enough—like others who saw Jesus as a common bastard labourer. 

You were brought into existence for relationship with pure love. You are the very expression of God and have the power to change the world around you. 

Perhaps the Christmas message is simply this:  You have never been in need of sanitizing. You have never been dirty in God’s eyes. You have always been complete. You have always been loved and accepted. The Christmas story is not a narrative which makes this possible contingent upon your belief—it is a revelation of what has always been, but you just didn’t know it!

Merry Christmas!

I would imagine that most of you would be shocked to find out that I have become an atheist. 

Most professing atheists (people who deny the existence of God) will delight in telling you why they have embraced atheism. Their polemic is predictably full of well thought out paradoxes which nullify the possibility of the existence of God in this reality. I’m more interested in telling you how I’m an atheist and how you could be one as well. 

When I was growing up in the 1980’s, one of my favourite shows to watch was “The Mighty Hercules”. Of course, it is based on Greek mythology and stars “Hercules” the half-god son of Zeus. I only watched the show until my very conservative Christian parents found out about it and then I was forbidden from watching this innocent children’s animation. Why? They were afraid of me picking up some strange and different ideas about God which would contradict what I learned in church and then lead me astray. 

Here’s the interesting thing about that; the concept of God that I was given in church and Sunday school was almost identical to the Greek god Zeus. 

Both are separate from and placed above humanity and all creation. Both are all powerful, deterministic and use coercion to control the outcomes of their desires. Both are capable of great love, but ultimately are vengeful and retributive if you don’t go along with their will. Both justify the use of violence and injustice for the supposed greater good. 

The big difference is that in the Christian narrative, you also have Jesus. The evangelical religion tries very hard to blend the person of Jesus with their Old Testament—very Zeus-like version of God. In the end, you get a god who is love, but will also hate you for eternity if you don’t believe quite right during your lifetime. You get a god who as Jesus, will unconditionally defend the poor and vulnerable and yet, the “father” is quite transactional. He will reward you for godly living, but inflict you with poverty,  dis-ease and suffering as a form of punishment. On one hand you have Jesus who insists that relationship is more important than individual rights while the Zeus like god insists that your religious rights must be defended, even with violence if necessary. 

In the evangelical Christian narrative, they don’t seem to understand that Jesus came to correct our false ideas about God. Instead, they end up with a very confused and mentally unstable deity. And I just can’t bring myself to believe in that god anymore. 

If that is your idea of what God is like, call me an atheist. 

See, that’s the thing.  If I tell you that I’m an atheist, you need to ask, “What idea of God does he NOT believe in?”  Any idea we have about what God is like, is just that.

Just an idea.  Not actually God.

What’s interesting to me is that most people are so very dogmatic as to what God is actually like. It’s almost like they have taken God and put God-self under a microscope, between two pieces of glass to study!  How ridiculous!  Of course, many will claim that God is such because the “Bible clearly says so”. This is equally laughable. The Bible (also which version are we talking about—Protestant, Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Ethiopian Coptic), which is a man-made compilation of ancient writings is IN FACT full of contradictions and historical inaccuracies and is not a reliable or even a univocal source for what God is like. That should be obvious to anyone who has made even a half-hearted attempt to study the Bible. 

Whenever we talk about God—or anything pertaining to the metaphysical for that matter, we must realize that nothing we believe is actually provable and embrace a posture of intellectual humility. 

Now, do I actually believe in God?  Oh yes, but not because of an inherited believe structure and certainly not based on the Bible. (I actually do place a high value on biblical scripture.  I just prefer to not give it a job for which it was never designed to handle)  I cannot help but to believe that God exists because of teleological evidence via the anthropic principle. (BTW, you really should google these terms if they are unfamiliar to you). Put simply, I understand that it is utterly impossible for this universe to exist, never mind produce life—especially intelligent life by mere chance. It is mathematically impossible!  Scientific discoveries strongly indicate that this universe was designed by someone and has a purpose. My life experience of observing beauty, giving and receiving selfless love—also seeing the same in other created beings leads me to believe that God is indeed love. Yes, the Bible tells us that, but that is meaningless unless I witness it myself. 

By faith, I believe that Jesus is the full revelation of what God is like. I can’t prove it, but I accept it as truth. Looking at the life of Jesus as recorded in biblical and extra-biblical sources, it just makes sense to me that He lived in a way in which—if everyone followed His example would inevitably lead to peace and good for all. If God is indeed relational love, this is exactly how He would be embodied!

I believe that God is relational, selfless, restorative, merciful, forever inviting us to participate in the ultimate reality of who God is—never giving up on anyone. I believe that everything that exists comes from the only source of anything in the universe—existence itself…God, and thus God experiences life as us and through us. I believe that to love God IS to love and care for those around me, even creation itself!

If God is like the one I learned about in church—the one who looks an awful lot like Zeus, we need to re-define the word “love”, for it would then be meaningless.  If that is the god you currently believe in, I would encourage you to become an atheist, just as I have. 

Have you ever watched a movie that was “based on a true story” and then become familiar with the original narrative on which the movie was based?  Ya, most of the time you realize that there were only a few small details of the real story which actually made it into the movie. The rest was heavily redacted and embellished. It’s always disappointing to me when that happens.  

The more I’ve studied the origin story of the Christian religion, the more I’ve seen this kind of parallel. The movie really has little to do with the real thing. 

If you would have asked me fifteen years ago when was it that I become a Christian, I would have told you that it happened when I said the “sinners prayer” at the age of 5, sitting at the kitchen table with my mother. 

Just like a toggle switch. 

One moment, I was spiritually dead and bound for hell because of my sin and separation from God —at the tender age of five. And then, as soon as I said “amen”, I was magically transformed. Spiritually alive, forgiven and bound for eternal bliss in heaven. The whole purpose of being a “Christian” was to believe in the right things so that I could escape this world one day (especially Gods eternal wrath in hell). In the meanwhile, though, it was important that I live according to the rules of the faith so that I could prove by my life that the prayer really did take effect and I wasn’t just trying to buy fire insurance. 

If you ask me the same question nowadays, I would tell you that I probably haven’t fully  become a Christian yet.  I now see it less like a toggle switch and more like a dimmer switch. I no longer conflate “being a Christian” with giving mental assent to certain doctrinal commitments. I see being a “Christian” as living out of who I truly am as an expression of God’s creative energy…just as Jesus did and modelled for us to follow.  I was never “not right with God”. I was never separated from my source of life. I was never bound for some place called “hell”. Except for in my mind. 

Some days I’m more “Christian” than others. Sometimes I fluctuate from being more to less “Christian” in the course of minutes. For example, I can wake up in the morning fully aware of my union with God and recognizing the same in others, blessing and encouraging others…until I get on the highway and some idiot in a Buick is going 20kmh under the speed limit in MY PASSING  LANE!!!

Somehow, I just can’t picture Jesus giving that guy a close up look of the chrome grill on his Ford superduty 4X4 in the rear view mirror like I sometimes do.  

Becoming a Christian—a follower of the way of Christ is more about recognizing identity and authentic reality than anything else. It really has little to do with “going to heaven” someday (though I do believe in, not an afterlife, but rather a continuation of life immersed in and fully aware of perfect love) and more about how we participate in making this world a more loving and equitable place in the here and now. 

You see, when I recognize and understand that I am indeed an expression of God with divine nature and origin, it gives me pause. It causes me to behave differently.  When I recognize you as the same as me, it causes me to treat you with reverence. The problem for me is that I get so distracted by the things that people do and I conflate their behaviour (and sometimes their appearance) with their ontological reality. This is when I treat others poorly. This is when I assign less value to others than what God has already given them. 

That’s the beauty of the way of Jesus. He always saw past peoples actions and recognized the hurt that caused it in the first place. He saw the intrinsic value in everyone. Never once did He have an “altar call”, getting people to pray the “sinners prayer” after him so that they could become valuable and acceptable in God’s eyes. Rather, He introduced people to a new way of living. He invited us to participate in the reality where we have all been assigned the value of “priceless” and cannot be devalued. A reality where there is no lack of resources—or love.  He invited us to let go of our own egos, to risk our reputations, our wealth, our privilege so that others could benefit. 

On the surface, it does seem awfully risky until you realize that there really is no lack—that we live in a universe of abundance. That ultimate reality is indeed others-empowering, self emptying love. 

I think that one of the greatest Christians in modern time was a Hindu. Mahatma Ghandi. He was a man who did not embrace the “right beliefs” (according to your typical evangelical statement of faith), but read the beatitudes every day and let that narrative shape his life long praxis.  

What does it look like to become a Christian?   For me, it means not getting pissed off at the driver of the Buick, but recognizing him as an expression of God. It means not responding with or endorsing the use of retaliatory violence. It means working towards the restoration of relationships and shunning vindictive “justice” of any sort.  It means prioritizing my time with my wife and children. As a business owner, it means treating my employees with dignity and fairness, same with my customers. It means not voting for political systems and leaders who participate in and stand for corruption and the disempowerment of the vulnerable. 

Jesus, when asked about what the greatest commandment is, responded by saying “To love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength”—and then added “love your neighbour as yourself”. That to me, really sums up what it means to become a Christian. To love and to worship God IS to love those made in God’s image.  

Am I a Christian?  Not always, but I do aspire to become one.