Question Everything, Love God, Love Neighbor
Ask Me Anything
Week 1: Question Everything, Love God, Love Neighbor
The Neighborhood is different from any church or ministry I have been a part of previously. One thing I appreciate about this space is that we are transparent about our beliefs. By clearly stating our beliefs up front, you have the opportunity to decide if this is a good fit for you. So, before we go much further, I want to share our views on a few things. We believe that all people are welcomed into our group and can participate in leadership in the church regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race and ability. Meaning, I don’t want anyone to feel that you cannot exist here without compromising or minimizing a part of your identity. In this space we also believe that the Bible is inspired. Meaning we believe God inspired the authors of each book of the bible to write about spiritual truths. We do not believe that the Bible is to be taken literally. There is a lot of context that we need to keep in mind, and we have to be careful in the ways that we interpret and find truth and comfort for our lives today. If you have more questions about our beliefs on inclusion, Biblical interpretation, or anything else. I would love to sit down and talk more about it. I don’t expect you to agree with every word out of my mouth, and I don’t expect us to agree as a group all of the time, but there is room for us to have our various perspectives about God, and also respect one another in this space.
Luke 10:25-37
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?" He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
A lot of our identity as the Neighborhood comes from this verse. In the Neighborhood, our mission is to, "Question Everything, Love God and Love Neighbor." This verse hits on Loving God and Neighbor, and though Jesus doesn't say, "the way to eternal life is through questioning everything," I am struck by the fact that the man asks Jesus multiple questions throughout the story, and Jesus asks them back. Tonight we are going to center on those 3 parts of our mission, Question Everything, Love God and Love Neighbor.
Question Everything
The ability to question every aspect of life and faith is one of the reasons I love this space. Often times, faith spaces seek to provide answers, which I can't blame us for. We desperately want to know how to make sense of the world, and many people rely on the church to provide answers to their existential or moral questions. My dad is a retired Methodist pastor, and I feel very fortunate that both of my parents were really big on expressing our doubts and questions in church. However, after high school I had a lot of very negative church experiences. The common thread was the inability to question. Whether it was a spoken rule or not, I needed to silence my questions and blindly obey the person in the pulpit. To question them, meant questioning God, and that just shouldn’t be done. These types of ministries and churches are far too common. They create this rigid space where we have to lay a lot of our doubts at the door. The first thing listed in our mission is Question Everything. Now I wasn't a part of creating this mission, or the order that they are listed. But I like to think there was some intentionality in the placement. I don't think they are ranked from most important to least important, but I do think It is rare that we have been encouraged to openly ask questions in a faith space. But it is so important. Faith can get dangerous when we all check our intuition and critical thinking at the door. When we allow room to question, we are allowing room for creativity and renewal. I believe true transformation happens in the questions. This conversation around asking questions is also very closely tied to faith deconstruction, which we will be talking more about next week.
Love God
Our view of God affects our love of God, so to really break down what it means to love God, we need to address what we mean by God. We tend to talk about God with cataphatic language. Cataphatic means "the knowledge of God obtained through affirmation." For example, God is love or God is good. We are describing what and who God is. In many ways this is incomplete, because in the truest sense God is mystery. We can never truly put language to who and what God is. One of my current favorite faith tools is the Deconstructionists Playbook. I will reference it a lot in this space. There are some really lovely devotionals and stories deconstructing and reconstructing how we can approach faith. It is usually floating around the crew room or somewhere on my desk and you are welcome to take some time to read through it. Chapter 4 and 11 are about God. From the devotion, Christ & the Church, author Cindy Wang Brandt, talk about how we can’t separate God from community. Brandt writes "We do not have faith in a vacuum; our faith is in the context of community. This is why we can't easy separate God from people's ideas about God," (Deconstructionists Playbook, 43). Brandt explains, "People are capable of inflicting terrible pain, but they are also vessels for the greatest love. I have never experienced the love of God than through some ridiculous people who are overly kind and far too generous, with the most tender sensitivity. They insist on believing when all evidence points otherwise and pursue dignity and respect for others at the cost of their own," (Deconstructionists Playbook, 44.) When we take the time to realize that we are trying to define the mystery of Godself, we give ourselves more room to imagine. Instead of viewing God as some regal old white man in the sky, we can view god as so much more. As a mother, as the wind, as ideals such as love, hope and justice. I would encourage you to begin to think about the way you approach God. Our connection with the divine is the source that I believe feeds our love for Godself, for us and for the world (and neighbors) around us. At the end of the crew guide I have two Spotify links that I encourage you to check out. They are by the Liturgists, which is a collective of some people who do music, meditations and podcasts about faith. The first Spotify link is some background on apophatic practice, which is the knowledge of God obtained through negation. The second link is an apophatic meditation, which has been a resource I come back to frequently to help broaden my view of God.
Love Neighbor
Most churches would describe themselves as welcoming. Many churches say "all are welcome!" Or "come as you are!" The intention there is good, and I would argue that most churches would describe themselves as welcoming. It is a tenant of Christianity that hasn't faded over the years, though the words may ring hollow. Here, I want those words to ring true. Christianity has a history of diversity in belief, we also have a history of othering those who don't believe like us, look like us, or act like us. That to me is appalling. When we say all are welcome in the Neighborhood, I mean all. At the beginning, we read a passage from Luke 10. The Good Samaritan has always stuck with me, in the way so many pass him by, including the priest. Jesus's command is to show mercy. It's also important to note that the passage says "to love our neighbor as ourself". In my mind, this links the love of ourselves with love of our neighbor. Have you ever heard the phrase "you can’t love others until you love yourself"? I don’t think this is completely true. I do think we love others better as we learn to love ourselves, but if we wait until we love ourselves to try and love others, we are going to be living in a bleak world. Love of God, love of Neighbor, love of world and love of ourselves are all woven together. Love begets love. When we extend mercy and humanity upon our neighbor we are extending our love of God. I don't believe we can love God without loving our Neighbor, and I don't believe we can do any of that without being curious and questioning what we mean by God, what we mean by love and how can we do that well. I read books from a lot of liberation theologians. Liberation theology is the idea that God always sides with the oppressed throughout history, and our work as humans is to partner with God in liberating all of creation and to see creation flourish. This, to me, is what it is all about. Partnering with God, in love to bring about flourishing and justice wherever we are. There may be times when we disagree or have other points of view, but I always want this to be a space where we are seeing the humanity and goodness in all, and making a commitment to treat everyone with love, dignity and respect, both in these walls and outside.
In this space we seek to Question Everything, Love God and Love Neighbor. You are accepted in this place to show up exactly as you are. You should never feel like you have to compromise a piece of your identity, beliefs, dreams or doubts in order to be "acceptable" in this community. There are days when I still have crushing doubts about God and faith. I promise to show up honestly where I am and would ask you to partner with me in doing the same.
Resources:
The Liturgists - Apophatic Introduction
The Liturgists - Apophatic Meditation
Our Bible App - The Deconstructionists Playbook
Discussion Questions:
What were your past experiences with respect to asking questions around faith in a religious setting, if any?
How did you view "Love God and love your neighbor"? Has your perspective on it changed after today's conversation in any way?