Mysterious Dimensions

by Paul T

My thoughts on faith in the past have been quite linear. Sure, we say that our faith is in Jesus Christ, things hoped for... not seen ( Heb 12: etc ). But what do you think that means, how do you envision that to help you live a life of faith ? We have Scripture that conveys a lot about it. But I think that due to various reasons we lose the impact and connotation that was obvious to the original readers. Sometimes I think we need the stories in Scripture to be re-DJ'd in a sense. Remixing familiar elements of our cultures, theologies, sciences, histories, and 21st century daily life. Use those elements to season Scripture and create new interesting juxtapositions of understanding and depth. The following are some non exhaustive postures or dimensions that I hope will inspire toward a more dynamic kinetic faith.

The first dimension has to do with our inner formation. Someone once said that, " in-' FORMATION ' is more important than assimilating data for later regurgitation ". One beautiful picture of that is Mary the mother of Jesus, the vessel of the incarnation. This is a great picture for both men and women because if we are the bride of Christ, then, as my friend Doug Farr postulates, " are we not all, in a sense, ' female ' in Christ " ? We have Mary who had Christ conceived in her, growing, changing, invading her space, rearranging her insides, creating times of periodic illness. Her body's chemistry fluctuating to accommodate a new life that would eventually be birthed. The term Christian means ' little Christ ' but I wonder if it would be useful also to think of ourselves as ' little Mary's ' ? Where Christ has been conceived in us, impregnating our lives with his goodness, rearranging, invading, fluctuating our inner regions, the womb of our being. Periodic times of dis-' ease ' is to be expected, vomiting out that which we don't need. It's not always comfortable but eventually comfort comes. What kind of Christ are we birthing in to the world ? Is it attractive, peaceful, vibrant, something that makes people pause with wonder ? or is it sickly, deformed, irritable, suffering from a kind of worldly withdrawal syndrome ? Spiritual fertility verses religious barrenness, do you know the difference ?

The next dimension has to do with community or as I like to convey ' biotic* community ', metaphorically speaking. I'm not talking so much about going to church, people do that all the time and are not necessarily experiencing community. I'm also not talking about being in a group that's ' circling the wagons ' adopting a defensive posture and creating a ' them ' and ' us ' thing - producing exclusive, conformative cliques. I'm exploring the idea of faith communities being more like tribal hunter gatherers as opposed to settled, castle building, compartmentalized suburba-rites. Tribal individuals grow (mature) from dependence to independence to interdependence as a goal in creating a healthy fluid society. Everyone has a role to play in the survival and well being of the community. They're always exploring and relying on what the environment will give accepting that danger is never far away. In contrast, suburban attitudes tend to seek its own space, security, and privacy. Where individual rights and rigid legal strata bylaws are more important than communal 'give and take' for the greater good. Where neighbourhoods can have a more exclusive nature than inclusive and independence is more the norm, in fact the goal. I'm intrigued more with the hunter gatherer's way of life when it comes to my understanding of faith community - Hunting for the truth and gathering those who are lost or just lonely. In the past we've talked about 'relationship' as being most important in Christianity. I think that we need to take it a step further where corporate words like 'accountability' and slogans like 'unity not uniformity' fade into communal intimacy ( in - to - me - see ) in our pursuit of Christ like tribalism. Does the idea of commonality scare you ? If so, are your communities of Faith more corporate/organized or biotic/kindred, Legal ( strata ) or fluidic, more suburban or tribal in nature ?

My final dimension has to do with journey. Faith is more about journey then it is about destination, In fact I would speculate that journey is the destination. It's more about asking questions than having the answers, taking risks than seeking security , exploring faith not squelching with inquisition - things hoped for but not seen...yet. When Bono of U2 sings out, ".... and I still haven't found what I'm looking for !" It resonates to me of faithful nomadic pilgrimage, not settling for the here and now but always understanding there's more to learn and re-learn, more to imagine. Let the pursuit of faith lead you to a kind of undiscovered country. New possibilities and perspectives, where the valleys lead us higher and the peaks make us a little deeper - the 'Terra Nova' that you didn't know about. Oh, by the way, I'm not explicitly talking about geographical movement or change but at the same time I'm not ruling it out as part of the Itinerary either.

So, we have Inner formation, authentic community and journey as destination. It's a kind of triune posture of being, they are interlocked or overlapping each other. Inner formation would be hard pressed to occur without the midwifery of authentic community. Community without journey would become stagnant, self centred, inbred. It would have a tendency to pollute its own environment. It must continue a nomadic life of hunting for truth, gathering the lost, gleaning from others and exploring new frontiers. And journey without a people incarnated with Christ would be more like a crusade motivated by fear, hatred, indifference and religious bigotry. So these are some of my ponderings that are more inspirational than directional. These thoughts don't give practical, formulaic, step by step applications. But are meant to inspire diverse expressions for people who embrace a life of Faith.

* n : (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other