BETTER THAN RELIGION
09/09/23 10:03
Many years ago I found a very interesting book in a bookshop at Pacific Fair during my stay at the Gold Coast. This book was Original Blessing by Mathew Fox. I was attracted to the title because, since I was a kid I was put off by an assumed body of thought that defined pleasure as un-godly and inhibition in all things as an evidence of Godliness. I might say that I have known people who thought and spoke this way. We are talking about one of the effects of living in the dichotomised realm of the Knowledge of good and evil instead of living in God in Christ.
In the New Testament Christ is in us and it mediated to our living as we live incarnated with God. Thus, we are holy because God is holy and interwoven into our being. You have the benefit of being a living sacrament to Christ’s life in you. For some groups this means you now have a sabbath life instead of a sabbath day. So, no need to be a non-person ensconced in religiosity for one day of the week when Christ is your life in all of your life to make you and agent of His Spirit and life where you are.
SPLIT LIFE
Mind/body dualism is a feature of fundamentalisms with its mindset of compartments and bits and pieces ‘holiness,’ along with an avid obsession with not being inveigled into the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ as a travelator to becoming ‘lost’. With this view of life any pleasure might be seen as a danger – especially sex. But apparently not gluttony, legalism or killing the earth or ‘other gospeling’ yourself with deviant gospels.
MISGUIDED SIN MENTALITY
We did not begin in original sin. We are the progeny of God. Adam’s lineage is traced back to ‘Adam who was the son of God’. Since the cross the issue is not original sin and our sins - from which we have been saved, but our regeneration as new creation beings in the Person of Jesus who is our life, our way and our truth. ‘Sin management’ is not your inheritance. Christ your life is.
You are never alone. The history of our relationship with God after the fall is one of increasing intimacy.
CHRIST IN YOU AND WITH YOU
Danielle Shroyer writes, “In every conversation I have had with someone about spiritual things, I have never once wondered whether God is with that person. Does God approve of everything that person does? No. I tend to think God should have given humans some kind of disclaimer label: “The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the views of the Creator.” But the idea that someone is outside of God? Where would that outside be, exactly? If we go to the depths, God is there; if we rise to the heavens, God is there. Where can we go from God’s presence?
“God is sticking with it. God is sticking with us.
“Not in a neutral way, either. God is not just along for the ride, or ambivalent. God is with us, and that presence is at the heart of every good and perfect thing, every grace, every single breath of life.” (6)
GOD MADE PLEASURE
All the best things in life are expressions of God in people. Recently a young Prime Minster of Finland was criticised for singing and dancing at a party. Across the cultures there is an assumption by many, that the more important our role in society or religion, the more inhibited we have to be. Some Christian communities are the embodiment of stoicism and inhibition.
LIFE OF THE WORLD
The title of Shroyer’s book is “Original Blessing – Putting Sin in its right place.” She is correct about this. The core of our Christ life is not sinning versus not sinning. It’s being a manifestation of the Christ who is our life. Jesus is with us and in us to undo the theft of life and rid us of the baggage of lies - many of which come to us by bent religion.
Paul was right in his choice of words – that Christ is our life. He is all of it. A pastor was out on the lake with His son. Their catamaran was up on one keel, slicing through the water. Through the spray and the wind the son yelled, ‘Dad. Jesus would have enjoyed this!’ He was right about that.
(1) Danielle Shroyer. Original Blessing. 6.
In the New Testament Christ is in us and it mediated to our living as we live incarnated with God. Thus, we are holy because God is holy and interwoven into our being. You have the benefit of being a living sacrament to Christ’s life in you. For some groups this means you now have a sabbath life instead of a sabbath day. So, no need to be a non-person ensconced in religiosity for one day of the week when Christ is your life in all of your life to make you and agent of His Spirit and life where you are.
SPLIT LIFE
Mind/body dualism is a feature of fundamentalisms with its mindset of compartments and bits and pieces ‘holiness,’ along with an avid obsession with not being inveigled into the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ as a travelator to becoming ‘lost’. With this view of life any pleasure might be seen as a danger – especially sex. But apparently not gluttony, legalism or killing the earth or ‘other gospeling’ yourself with deviant gospels.
MISGUIDED SIN MENTALITY
We did not begin in original sin. We are the progeny of God. Adam’s lineage is traced back to ‘Adam who was the son of God’. Since the cross the issue is not original sin and our sins - from which we have been saved, but our regeneration as new creation beings in the Person of Jesus who is our life, our way and our truth. ‘Sin management’ is not your inheritance. Christ your life is.
You are never alone. The history of our relationship with God after the fall is one of increasing intimacy.
CHRIST IN YOU AND WITH YOU
Danielle Shroyer writes, “In every conversation I have had with someone about spiritual things, I have never once wondered whether God is with that person. Does God approve of everything that person does? No. I tend to think God should have given humans some kind of disclaimer label: “The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the views of the Creator.” But the idea that someone is outside of God? Where would that outside be, exactly? If we go to the depths, God is there; if we rise to the heavens, God is there. Where can we go from God’s presence?
“God is sticking with it. God is sticking with us.
“Not in a neutral way, either. God is not just along for the ride, or ambivalent. God is with us, and that presence is at the heart of every good and perfect thing, every grace, every single breath of life.” (6)
GOD MADE PLEASURE
All the best things in life are expressions of God in people. Recently a young Prime Minster of Finland was criticised for singing and dancing at a party. Across the cultures there is an assumption by many, that the more important our role in society or religion, the more inhibited we have to be. Some Christian communities are the embodiment of stoicism and inhibition.
LIFE OF THE WORLD
The title of Shroyer’s book is “Original Blessing – Putting Sin in its right place.” She is correct about this. The core of our Christ life is not sinning versus not sinning. It’s being a manifestation of the Christ who is our life. Jesus is with us and in us to undo the theft of life and rid us of the baggage of lies - many of which come to us by bent religion.
Paul was right in his choice of words – that Christ is our life. He is all of it. A pastor was out on the lake with His son. Their catamaran was up on one keel, slicing through the water. Through the spray and the wind the son yelled, ‘Dad. Jesus would have enjoyed this!’ He was right about that.
(1) Danielle Shroyer. Original Blessing. 6.
