Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christianity Rediscovered

I found this on a blog by someone named Solidaridad at
http://marydaly.blogspot.com/2006/07/christianity-rediscovered_27.html

I was on the plane reading Christianity Rediscovered when I read something so enlightening that for about five minutes I had to resist the urge to start a theological conversation with the strangers seated next to me...lucky for them I was able to resist myself, although it was very hard! But now I can share what I read with you...

Vincent J. Donovan was a Catholic missionary in Tazania and a member of the Holy Ghost order...bear with me. After some years of working in the schools and hospitals that served the people of the Masai tribe, he received permission to meet directly with a gathering of interested Masai people and their chief to speak to them solely about the good news of Christianity - Jesus' gospel and the God he spoke about. Donovan met weekly with them in the early morning - a time that would not interfere with their daily activities and work - and began by bringing up a topic or theme each week, asking about their thoughts on the topic and then offering his. Their first climactic moment came at the end of their discussions on God: Donovan ended the God discussions by comparing their understanding and beliefs about God with Abraham's understanding and beliefs about God (of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible).

Donovan explained that like them, Abraham had also believed that God blessed him and his family in a special and unique way - that his God loved and blessed him above all others. Donovan explained that like the Masai, Abraham tried to restrict God to his tribe and his land and so made God less of a God than God really was (pg. 34). Donovan told them that the God they believed in who loves rich people and hates poor people, who loves good people and hates evil people – who loves some over others – does not exist (pg. 35)! Donovan said, "There is no God like that. There is only the God who loves us no matter how good or how evil we are, the God you have worshipped without really knowing [it], the truly unknown God – the High God" (pg. 35). He told them the High God is really the only God.

With the silence that followed Donovan became nervous that maybe he had gone too far – had he offended the Masai by saying that their tribal God whose love they restricted to themselves and to their land did not exist? Then suddenly someone asked Donovan, "This story of Abraham – does it only speak to the Masai? Or does it speak also to you? Has your tribe found the High God? Have you known Him [sic]?" (pg. 35).

"Has your tribe found the High God?"

Donovan caught himself and realized the question required serious consideration...he thought to himself, "suddenly I remembered that since the time of Joan of Arc, if not before, the French have conceived of God as being rather exclusively and intimately associated with their quest for glory. I wonder what god they prayed to? Americans have some kind of certainty that 'almighty God' will always be on their side in all their wars. Hitler never failed to call on the help of 'Gott, der Allächtige' in all his speeches; in all his adventures…I have been to many parishes in America where they prayed for victory in war. I recognized the God they were praying to – the tribal God. And what about the God who loves good people, industrious people, clean people, rich people, [add your own bias here; married people, church-going people, etc.] and punishes bad people, lazy people, dirty people, thieving people, people without jobs and on welfare [gay people, conservative people, etc.]? Which God is that?" (pg. 35-36)

Finally Donovan realized that he, we, are no different than the Masai – we also only worship a tribal God – who blesses and loves those that are basically more like ourselves. Donovan, humbled before the Masai said, "No, we have not found the High God. My tribe has not known Him [sic]. For us, too, He [sic] is the unknown God. But we are searching… I have come a long, long distance to invite you to search for [God] with us. Let us search for [God] together. Maybe, together, we will find [God]" (pg. 36).

Maybe, together, we will find God – the High God.

Donovan first went to the Masai to speak to them about the good news, about the God and the gospel of Jesus Christ; to tell them that God is above all tribes and clans, nation and race, and that God loves us all; that the world is sacred and full of unlimited possibilities and expectant hope; that the human race is all one – we are all one brother/sisterhood – that we are all sons and daughters of a common parent – that we are all of equal value and importance. Donovan first went to the Masai to offer them Jesus' good news and Jesus' God, but soon realized that he also came from a people – a tribe – that does not believe in the good news or know the High God of whom Jesus spoke: the God who loves and values all people equally; the good news that say we no longer have to live our lives with "the burning hatred, hostility, and prejudice of one race or tribe toward another" that causes us to tear each other and the earth apart (pg. 40) and instead declares that we live in a sacred world of endless possibilities and expectant hope (pg. 38).
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After reading this part of the book I was overwhelmed with the need to extrovert and talk about this revelation from Donovan's book that became my own revelation. I thought about the way I had just heard a relative speak about how "the devil tricks people into thinking that homosexuality is ok with God"…does this relative's god only love heterosexual/straight people? I thought about our country's rhetoric against "those terrorists – our enemies,"…does the god of the United States only love "Americans" and not Iraqis or Palestinians?

Do I think that my god only loves those who are "open-minded," have feminist ideals and support gay rights?

I realized that from now on, when I catch others and I try to box, limit, and define who God is and whom God loves, I can think of Abraham. I can remind myself and others that Abraham was called by God to leave behind his assumptions about whom God loves and blesses, and to leave behind his tribe and his nation and his land so that all the nations will be blessed. Because when we make such assumptions, when we restrict god to our way of thinking – to what we think is good, true and right – we are indeed only worshiping a tribal god – a god who is less that the High God who called Abraham out of his tribe – and we cannot and should not claim that this tribal god of ours is the God of the good news, the God of Christianity, or the God about whom Jesus came to share.
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I have yet to finish Donovan's book – but already it has given me much food for thought – and at this point what I can say about the God of Christianity and the good news of Jesus Christ is that, "Indeed, we have not found the High God. My tribe has not known God. For us, too, the High God is unknown. But we are searching for God…let us search for God together. Maybe, together, we will find God…and rediscover Christianity."

11 comments:

Joseph Holbrook said...

this is good Sarah...thanks for posting it (actually, Ruth suggested asking you to post it).

I like the distinction between a tribal god, and the High God of heaven and earth... also, Abraham is a revered figure and father to 3 major world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Maybe we can find some common ground there...

Joseph Holbrook said...
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Joseph Holbrook said...
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John M. said...

Sarah,

What you shared is a prophetic word to us all. I could easily focus on the culture at large, but as the scriptures say judgment begins with those who claim to be God-followers.

I need to allow this word to judge me first. It reminds me of a book written in the post war era by J. B. Phillips called "Your God is too Small" (still relevant to the issue, b,t,w).

It also reminds me of what Alan Hirsch calls "Jesus-Shaped Monotheism" in his book "The Forgotten Ways". He does not deny the trinity, but emphasizes the absolute necessity of having no other gods before the High God.

Mary Christmas to you and your family! To you also, Ruth, I'm sure you're lurking out there somewhere. :)

Michael Tomko said...

Great post. In many ways our journey and the journey of the unsaved is not very different. If the church understood this, they would see those without Christ in a different light.

Joseph Holbrook said...

I agree Michael...this book is an excellent book, hope you will have a chance to read it.

I have been meditating recently on a lot of scriptures that are inclusive or universal in nature, such as the rain on the just and unjust, and in James where it says "if ANY man (person) lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to ALL MEN (all people) abundantly... and others in the bok of John and 1John.

I'm starting to think that Evangelicals have placed the boundary between lostness and salvation a little too firmly in single moment in time, an event built around intellectual assent or personal experience, rather than a life-long journey toward God. If we view salvation as a journey (we are BEING saved), then there is no concrete wall between the unchurched and unbelieving and believing church people...we are all travelors at different points on the same journey.

Brian Emmet said...

I must confess to more than a little inner wincing when I come across anything with Mary Daly's name on it, but I did enjoy Sarah's post. I've not read Donovan's book, so I'm flailing a bit here... but I'm conflicted about this discussion (tells you more about me than about the discussion!) I'm all for taking a posture of "co-learning" (as opposed to dictating, imposing, coercing, etc.)in our engagement with those around us, but wonder if we feel like we have anything to offer. It's part of my problem with the more inclusivist thinking, that there is no salvation apart from the work of Jesus, but that people may be "saved" (however we define that) without needing to know him. It's starting to feel like we're going to relativize everything, including Jesus, behind a conception of the High God who is beyond knowing.

I'm with Joseph in wanting to move away from an event-based, or sinner's-prayer-based understanding of salvation, one that moves too quickly and too confidently towards drawing clear lines between who's in and who's out... but don't we want to invite people to follow Jesus and obey his commands, and communicate to them that it really makes an eternal difference how they respond to his (not our) invitation.

As I said, this tells you more about me...

Joseph Holbrook said...

hi Brian,

neither Sarah nor I know anything about Mary Daley. Sarah found her comments on the web. However, I think you would like "Christianity Rediscovered" ... it is much more Christ-centered than you might think from Daley's comments.

The High God is basically the God of heaven and earth rather than the god of the U.S.A., or the god of liberal democracy, or the god of the Massai tribe. The God who "really is" and is bigger than our tribal concerns rather than a god of our own imagination who is available to be manipulated on behalf of our own politics.

Thanks for visiting...I just left my comment on Covenant Thinklings...

Brian Emmet said...

I'm not sure that Mary Daly wrote the link...the Mary Daly I had in mind was an ur-feminist theologian from the 70's. She was way, way, way out there theologiclly and spiritually, and became even more so over the course of her life... originally a Catholic, I think, but she left that communion (perhaps under some pressure?) and eventually moved beyond the faith altogether. But all this may have nothing to do with Sarah's post.

I'll plan to pick up the Donovan book. I'm interested to learn more about finding a good balance between authentic confidence ("I am not ashamed of the gospel [because] it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes") and an appropriately humble co-learning posture towards those "outside" the faith that exposes my/our own tribalisms. But I don't want to reduce everything to tribalism--if the High God really has become one of us and one with us in Jesus, then we really do have something wonderful and necessary to propose to the world. We don't need to support/defend God--he is not an idol we need to carry around--but we have been sent as ambassadors. As ambassadors (not the only metaphor the NT uses!), we're not called to represent ourselves, or the people we're sent among, but to represent our King who is also the King.

Ruth Hillary said...

"I'm with Joseph in wanting to move away from an event-based, or sinner's-prayer-based understanding of salvation, one that moves too quickly and too confidently towards drawing clear lines between who's in and who's out..."

Hi Brian =)

Please don't take this as me blasting u, but herein lies the rub imho. Mainly the last part. Its not the thought of someone moving to quickly towards salvation, but more so the part about "drawing clear lines between who's in and who's out" that gets to me. I don't know if it was your intent that it come out that way, but that is almost exactly what the topic is about.

Yes I believe that through Jesus we receive salvation, but it just seems to me that a person can have a divine experience with the Father before the Son ever enters the picture. I don't know really how to express my feelings right now. hmm...

ok this is my best stab at it. I work in an atmosphere that has a large variation of personalities and extreems in beliefs, lifestyles, music, sexuality.....among other things. I work around and with people who are straight, bisexaul, homosexual, on drugs, alcoholics, clean (not in a body odor kinda way), rich, poor, manipulative, permiscuous.....u get the point. All of these people are my friends. I love them all (well my friends, not all my customers per say lol) wholeheartedly. I don't think I have ever once looked at one of them and thought....they aren't children of God, or more importantly, they aren't Christian.

And to be quiet honest I would be upset if anyone came into my bar and asked me which ones were children of God and which weren't.

So, I guess if I can love all of them like that, and see them like that....how much more does God love all of them? And how much less does he draw lines? I can't honestly believe that Father looks at the two homosexual married guys that I've come to love over the last year and thinks....they are over on that side of the line. Or looks at me and thinks, Oh my daughter, she believes in me and my son, she is definately "in".

I struggle with that kind of thought. Do people really think that God is like that? And the church wonders why so many people reject it? Who wants to feel that kind of judgment and feel that it not only comes from the people in the church....but if the are God's ambassadors...and they are representing Him....He must judge us like that too.....

Casten said...

Hello, I just wandered over here randomly - hope you all don't mind!

But as an FYI: In terms of the Mary Daly confusion and whether she wrote the post; I clicked on the link of the blog from which Sarah copied and pasted the "Christianity Rediscovered" post (she didn't write it) and it was obviously completely written by the author of the "Solidaridad" blog. You can click on her profile link and read about her. Her blog 's name is "Solidaridad," but the blog address is marydaly(dot)blogspot(dot)com. So Mary Daly did not write the post, the blog author "Xochitl" did - who must be a fan of Daly's apparently.