Sunday, April 6, 2008

"the bible didn't mention us..." - Regina Spektor

I'm wondering about the Samson lyrics on Begin to Hope. I've listened to it about 18 times this morning, and I still can't quite figure it out.

I'm also wondering about what it means to follow Jesus these days. Haven't figured out that one either. I've been wondering specifically about how it's okay in American culture to say that you love Jesus and then do nothing that would mean so.

Ingrid reminded me of this the other day when she quoted Wirzba on practical atheism. And living the Sabbath. Also, my Jewish friend S.T. has me pondering Sabbath, since he keeps it religiously. Bad pun intended. And then I was reading this interview with Lamin Senneh, who says some pretty intriguing things about what Christians can learn from Muslims.

My friend Dan keeps bringing up how important the Sabbath is and how we need to keep it. He's got lots of ideas for how to do this, but he's also really good at giving me the opportunity to think about what it means for me, as opposed to telling me how to do it in my life. But this might point to part of the problem with faith in American culture - we are so individualistic, and we have forgotten much of what it means to be in community. When people talk about Shane Claiborne as if he's some sort of radical, I wonder how much we have lost in our heritage of faith.

And it's that whole question of being in the world and not of it, or being apart from the world, setting yourselves apart. The Amish have done a pretty good job of isolating themselves, but they've also done a pretty good job of showing the world the power of forgiveness. I'm not trying to be idealistic and unrealistic here, but I do think we need more communities that strive to be faithful together, not as an isolated, individual pursuit of God, but as a communal one. I don't really know what that means, but I think we need it.

Mostly I'm thinking about how talk is cheap, and I'm tired of people talking about faith. I'd rather they just lived it.

2 comments:

april. said...

i am excited to hang out with you in the future. i get confused about these things.

Gretzky said...

me too!! both 1) to hang out with you and 2) to walk through some confusion