Faithdigger

Ashes (or why Bean was the most visible christian this week)

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and we had explained to Bean how we were going to church and would have ashes put on our foreheads.  Both Orla and I love Ash Wednesday as its the day in the year christians make a visible public sign of their faith.

Orla chose St Ignatious Loyola Church nearby as they had advertised a 4pm kids event.  But we forgot it was the hard core bunch (jesuits) and after a long lecture to the kids by a rather frightening docent, they were told that only 7 +year olds could have ashes (can't remember the doctrinal reason) and the younger kids would get a blessing instead.

Bean was having none of that.  She'd been promised ashes on her forehead and a blessing just wasn't going to cut it.  How come the big girls get ashes and she can't, anyway if she couldn't get ashes rubbed on her head she wasn't going to accept a blessing.

So we left and walked literally next door (one block up) to the Park Avenue Church which is a non-denominational church that doubles as a synagogue on saturdays.   They had a walk-in all-day service.  Anyone who wanted to could get ashes, there were always two volunteers at the altar at the ready.   They asked you if you wanted to pray for anything and then held your hands, prayed with you,  and concluded with a blessing and administering the ashes (a cross on your forehead).

Bean was well pleased.  She asked for a prayer for her godfather Sam, got a blessing and got a black cross rubbed on her forhead.   I'm not sure there wasn't even some competition as coming out of church she looked at Orla and said "Mummy the lady that gave you ashes didn't do such a good job".  

However it was cold and wet so Beanie put her hat on !  Coming home she was distraught the ashes were gone ! Orla rubbed some off her forehead and mine - but no good.  Bean found a black marker pen and hey presto - she's the only girl I've seen who still has the mark of the ashes on her head two days later !

 

 

 

 

 

Where is my faith today

At 30,000 ft

1. I still subscribe to the mountain.  It's all one mountain - but with different paths - best to stick to one rather than constantly trying many.  Continuing that analogy: Some paths are easier than others.  Some lead the wrong way.  I can't comment on other paths unless I travel the same route.
2. I believe in constant revelation.  There is no 'seal' on the prophets or final word of god.  Our changing attitude to god, and the slow liberalisation of doctrines  (eg admission of women and gay ministers) is part of the revelation of god to us.  There is a moral direction in mankind's evolution and our changing view of god is itself an element of revelation
3. I am not an exclusive-ist.  God is not bound by reason.   There can be two incompatible truths.  Christ can be the manifestation of god on earth and just a prophet.   Two truths can be incompatible and equally true. God is not subject to the limitations of our logical reasoning.   Your truth is your truth, mine is mine, both are true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the horse

So almost 4 years to the day since I last posted I thought I'd go back to blogging about my faith

Same reasons as I laid out here.  Only my new thought is

• keep the posts shorter
• Use the blog in my role as a godfather and help me communicate the huge joy, satisfaction and peace I have from faith to my godchildren and maybe give them the opportunity to find the same.

 

are these hindu indulgences ?

hindu indulgences ?

how bean has changed my faith

I think she has crystallized some of my view about christianity - or rather made me realise re religion the power of the concepts

• god so loved the world gave his only son (real act of love on god's part) - I'm not sure it convices me of the absolute divinity of christ but what it does say as a "vision" or way of describing god's love, is that it paints it in very real to understand terms that one just instinctively reacts to
• also the concept of free will and wanting to create humans giving them free will and hope they love their creator - is just like having a kid (or wife) you really value the freely given love and its not something you can buy.  It requires free wil and if you believe love is the most valuable potent force and ultimate goal we all desire - then if you are the creator - love only happens with free will and you can't dictate it

tough to keep going

Wow - its tough to keep going with Bean and a start-up.  Haven't managed to go to church for a while either except for this morning when the usual gang were delighted to hear about Bean

harris vs prager

Dima sent me a great article around a face off about the existence of god - nothing too deep intellectualy but good tohought provoking stuff

End of Faith - Sam Harris

co-incidentally just stumbled across this review of Harris's "End of Faith" in the NY Times - an aetheist who argues that all religion is nuts and as a society we have a real problem in shying away from criticising religions directly - but here he is bashing the moderates !

Harris reserves particular ire for religious moderates, those who ‘’have taken the apparent high road of pluralism, asserting the equal validity of all faiths’’ and who ‘’imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others.’’ Religious moderates, he argues, are the ones who thwart all efforts to criticize religious literalism. By preaching tolerance, they become intolerant of any rational discussion of religion and ‘’betray faith and reason equally.’’

the problem of moderation

The problem I'm struggling with this morning is why is it so hard to be moderate.  Why do the evangelical churches and the RC churches pack in the numbers but the broad C of E or Episcopal church struggle.   In other parts of life the same thing is true too -  moderates get crushed in times of anarchy (see Iraq now and French Revolution - in fact just about all revolutions and times of conflict it pays the extremes to attack the middle ground to compel the large un-aligned majority to take sides)

From a doctrinal and belief view - it's so much more compelling in its relationship with the secular world .  Where we can't absolve ourselves of our responsibility to think and and justify our beliefs and morality.  It is so much easier to not believe (aetheist), to not think about it (agnostic) or to abandon one's consience to an absolute doctrine (fundamentalism). 

But there is something so right about the reasonableness of the  broad church and yet it's so vulnerable from both sides the unbeleivers who can punch holes in the strict rule of logic and the funadametals who can reject the logical compromises with the secular world we live in.

Like Jonathan Sachs struggle in The persistance of faith - he has a love of the middle ground and a belief he lays out in the book that the middle ground wins out - but I was left hoping not believing.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Just read about the Dead Sea Scrolls in wikipedia and then a brief synopsis here .  What i find interesting is the lack of mention of Christ even though the documents are dated from the first century and attrabuted to the Essene sect (which I presume John the baptist was connected / related to, and certainly Christ's wandering in the wilderness has reflections of). 

Does lead me a little to suspect that the theories that Paul mythologicized the Christian story might have a grain of truth, but then again - you can't ignore the growth of christianity and even if Christ was not a big event in the religious and civil life of the Jews at the time - it would still have figured in the scrolls had they reported on issues of the time.  In short I've just talked myslef round to saying they probably don't say anything about Christianity other than giving insight into the life of the time.

Doesn't really have a big effect on my faith - I'm not sure the historical story / truth is important to the message of Christ.  But it is another chip at the issue of the divinity of christ.