Superbad Christians

I have a confession. I have a soft spot for Judd Apatow produced comedies (Talladega Nights, 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked up etc). It has been a long couple of weeks that have left me tired and completely burned out on political discourse. So tonight Erin and I skipped the debate and rented the Apatow produced Superbad. Superbad is about a couple of disgruntled, unpopular, horny teenage boys who do what American teenage boys often do in an attempt to compensate for their feelings of isolation: they curse, talk a big game about their would be sexual exploits with women they secretly pine for affection from, and spend most of their time verbally assaulting and tearing each other down.

I have another confession. That is exactly how many of my friends and I talked to each other during my high school and early adult years. We foolishly thought that F bombs and and a rugged exterior could conceal the fact that we were just scared, often lonely disaffected boys. I may have been the worst at this, with my bandanna on backwards like Tupac, smoking Newports and cussing up a storm even within earshot of young children.

As is often the case with the thinly veiled social commentary of many teen exploitation films (think Alphadog) the adults come off as some of the most superficial and lost souls in the film. In Superbad SNL’s Bill Hader and film co-writer Seth Rogen play a couple of goof ball police officers who play along with a teenage boy with a fake ID – helping him to get into even more shenanigans – just so he will think they are cool. This is over the top hyperbole that makes for some of the film’s most laugh out loud moments. But it is also pretty honest social commentary: insecure superbad little boys often grow up to be insecure superbad men… er big boys. And its not just a male thing. Its a human being thing. Sometimes what we believe to be our best defenses are some of our worst qualities: our biting sarcasm, our exaggeration, or our tough exterior.

I have been reading Marcus’ Borg’s The Heart of Christianity. And tonight I was reminded of what Borg has this to say about the connection between acts of self preservation and broken human nature:

The birth of self conciseness is the birth of the separated self. When this happens, the natural result is self concern. The two go together: the separated self and the self centered self.

The birth of self-consciousness, of the separated self, is one of the central meanings of the Garden of Eden story. It is our story. Adam and Eve, living in a paradisiacal state, become conscious of opposites, of good and evil. The result is multifold: they cover themselves, no longer naked and unashamed; they experience life as toil and burden; they are expelled from paradise. The Genesis story ends with them (and us) living their lives (and ours) “east of Eden,” estranged and in exile.

Now, Borg and I part company on a lot of issues not the least of which is our divergent views on the importance of the historicity of the literal resurrection of Christ. I am not sure that Borg and I would even agree fully on all of the implications of the fall narrative in Genesis. However, what he provides in this passage can serve as a much needed corrective. Often we do miss the point of the garden story. It is not just a story about a man and a women disobeying by eating a piece of forbidden fruit. Nor is it merely a story about humanity rejecting God by sinning (though that is certainly a part of it). One traditional way of reading this passage is to see the man and woman’s ultimate sin as pride, something we are all guilty of. Pride, if not the tap root of all sin is at least a main root of our failure to love God and neighbor. Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky calls the actions of Adam and Eve in the fall narrative an attempt at “self divinization.”  And if experience teaches us anything, it surely teaches us the such hubris is often masking radical insecurity and often times even self loathing.

Super bad boys or men trying to mask their own feelings of isolation and angst with speech that is sexually degrading toward women and verbally abusive toward each other is quite sad. But even worse are men or women who use the language of religion to cloak what is more or less hate speech toward “non believers,” people of other religions, or sometimes even people of their own religion with diverging views.  All in the name of God. That is truly superbad. And such behavior must grieve the heart of God.

I have experienced my share of “superbad” Christians in my day. I have been guilty of being one myself at times. But I have never experienced this as much in the past as I have this political season. I have witnessed people using “God-talk” in an attempt to dismiss and destroy other Christians who might not share the same political convictions. Shame on us. Shame on us for confusing the kingdom of God with that of Caesar. But more than that, shame on us for ever verbally tearing down other human beings created in the image of God in a veiled attempt to mask our own nakedness.

Shalom,
Wayne

Who is this?

The more familiar I become with the Old Testament, the clearer New Testament references to Jesus as Hashem (Y—-h) become. In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul quite clearly identifies the risen Jesus with Hashem by borrowing from the language of the prophet Zechariah. In verse 11 Paul clearly makes a distinction between the Father and the Lord Jesus. And then speaking of Jesus, Paul continues, “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” Paul is invoking the same language that the prophet Zechariah used to speak of Hashem: “Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him” (Zech 14:5). This idea continues to develop in subsequent Pauline epistles as Jesus continues to be identified as the God of Hebrew scriptures and with the coming day of the Lord that the prophets anticipated.

In the gospels, the historical Jesus is also identified as Hashem. The gospel of Mark, the earliest of the synoptic gospels, is no exception. My favorite example of this is in the fourth chapter when Jesus calms the storm. I have written here before about Jesus’ followers worshiping him after the account of Jesus walking on the water in Matthew’s gospel. Likewise in Mark, Jesus exhibits power over the elements of the earth. This passage not only depicts Jesus as doing that which only God can do in a Hebraic understanding but also reminds the reader of Old Testament examples of sailors turning to Hashem when in danger because of a storm. The Psalmist depicts merchants on the mighty waters that “cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress” (Psalm 107:23-28). One is also reminded of the narrative in the first chapter of Jonah. Jonah is running from God and God sends a mighty storm. When the sailors cry out to the Lord and relieve themselves of Jonah, the Lord calms the storm and “the men greatly feared the Lord” (Jonah 1:16). Likewise, when Jesus calms the storm in Mark the disciples “were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”” (Mark 4:41).

Indeed that is the question.
Shalom,
Wayne

Don’t Throw Me Away

I am sorry I have not updated much lately. When I do get a chance to write lately, I have been putting more of that time an effort into my poetry blog.

Erin and I celebrated our five year anniversary a week or so ago. It was a fabulous day. We didn’t have a ton of money. So we spent the day in Grand Rapids. We went to good will and other consignment shops. At good will we purchased a maxell 90 min blank tape with Michael Jackson’s Thriller dubbed onto one side (from vinyl). We road around and listened to Beat It and Billie Jean and then to some kids who recorded over part of it with their band instruments probably about 20 years ago. It was great fun. While we were consignment shopping though, I couldn’t help but think a bit about how much we consume and quickly cast aside in this country. I perused through the fashions of yesteryear that someone just had to have at one time. Now Tommy, Calvin Klein and Wrangler jeans sit side by side in the bargain bin. 27 inch t.v.s the size of the one I spent $300 on a few years ago (and still use) sat on the floor with price tags reading $20 because everyone is converting to digital receivers and hi-def screens.

But what really got under my skin was a mix cd with a homemade cover that read “Matthew and Coleen July 12, 2003.” By the playlist and the picture of a floral bouquet featuring sunflowers on the front it was in all likelihood a wedding mix for Matthew and Coleen. It has bothered me ever since. What has happened to Matthew and Coleen? Did they throw their love aside like a pair of Tommy jeans. How did their wedding mix cd end up on the shelf with a homemade copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I asked Erin to tell me a story – a happy story – about how the cd found its way to good will. The story was Matthew and Coleen made extra copies as their gift to their wedding guest and it was one of them who donated the cd. Matthew and Coleen are still happily married and just celebrated their 5 year anniversary a few weeks before we did. That was the story. And it helped.

But I still have that sick feeling in the pit of my gut just thinking about it and tonight I am praying for Matthew and Coleen whoever they are, wherever they are.

Shalom,
Wayne

Where Was God in the Tsunami?

Good Questions Lynette. I just finished reading The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? by David Bentley Hart. I highly, highly recommend this book. Short but quite dense, this little book is a breath of fresh air. Don’t let the length fool you (about 100 pages) it is a difficult but very rewarding read. It is hands down the best thing I’ve ever read about the problem of evil and suffering. Calvinist will have a hard time with his critique of the the Reformed tradition and the traditional Calvinistic understanding of God’s Sovereignty. Open theists will have a difficult time with Hart defending the classic divine attributes and the way he relies heavily on the important distinction between what God wills and what God permits. Conservative and liberal modernists alike will most likely have a hard time with how serious Hart is about the cosmological view of the New Testament and and the reality of evil principalities. This should be required seminary reading. I wont tell you too much more than that because I my hope is you will check it out for yourself.

Shalom,
Wayne

Dead Again Christian

So lately I have been listening to copious amounts of Type O Negative. I mentioned them not to long ago in another post. If you are unfamiliar with Type O, they are a Brooklyn based goth rock four piece that continue to blow my mind every time that I listen to them. It seems on almost each album they churn out at least a couple of nearly ten minute epics. These tunes typically tend to defy neat genre specifications, but are often ballads that include elements of everything from thrash metal to melodic pop melodies. The four and a half minute video clip above is a shortened version of their nearly eight minute song “Everything Dies.” Death has been a theme that has found much prominence in the lyrics of Type O front man Peter Steele. This was especially the case on the band’s 1999 album World Coming Down.

Anther theme that has also found expressions on some of the band’s past efforts is Steele’s professed atheism. So I was pleasantly surprised when I read recently that sometime in the four year break between the band’s last record and their most recent that Peter Steele has returned to the Catholic Church of his upbringing.

But it was this article that really blew me away. Peter comments:

…over the past couple of years I have learned from jail and rehab and being in a psychiatric institution, I’m still learning. But I think that I after my mothers death, I was born a roman catholic and I think that I have gone back to my faith. You know people ask me are you a born again Christian and I said no I am a dead again Christian I have always been dead.

This got me thinking about the controlling metaphors we often use to talk about the faith (especially in evangelical circles). Of course in the third chapter of John’s gospel we find our Lord instructing Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless we be born again. This is a beautiful image our Lord gives us and an indispensable reality of life in Christ. However, no matter how many times these words of our Lord get reduced to a catch phrase and offered as the summation of Christian teaching, this is but a partial picture of the Christian life.

Steele’s words also got me thinking about a conversation a few years ago between two friends of mine. One was Baptist and one was Catholic. Each side of the conversation remained nearly unintelligible to the other. One was talking almost exclusively about being “born again” and about “a personal relationship with Jesus” while the other was talking about the sacramental and communal life of the church. A lot of the communication barrier lies in the the different language and metaphors each used to talk about the Christian faith, shaped by a particular faith perspective. I say this not to reduce biblical language to mere metaphor or to argue for the simplicity or complexity of a gospel that is both-and. I simply mean to say that we often do a great deal of talking past each other because our God talk is simply not big enough.

This presents a problem especially for ecumenical relations between Protestants of various stripes and Catholic and Orthodox Christians. I don’t think I am at all interested in mere Christianity (I don’t mean the book but maybe?). I am not interested in a Christianity that is reducible to five points and a prayer. I need a robust Christianity in a wide and deep conversation with scripture as well as the church at all times an all places.

I think I like Pete’s explanation of being a “dead again Christian.” Perhaps because it sounds more liturgical to me. After all Paul reminds us that in baptism we die with Christ. As we cross over those waters we are in a sense buried alive (now that sounds like the stuff of a ten minute goth rock epic). Of course we die with Christ to walk in newness of life. But while we wait to be joined with him in a resurrection like his, the same Lord that instructs us to be born again also reminds us to daily pick up our cross and follow him. In describing himself as a “dead again Christian” Peter Steele says that he has always been dead. Similarly, Paul reminds us that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. In reality we die a thousand deaths as Jesus continues to resurrect us from the ashes of the messes we make of our lives, as we await the day we are united with him in a resurrection like his.

Until next time

Shalom,
Wayne