Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Healing from and through Deconstruction - Felicia Murrell with Susan Carson

Thursday, October 27, 6:00 pm EST 
Susan Carson (Roots & Branches network)
will host a livestream fundraising event:

"Healing From and Through Our Deconstruction"
An evening with Dr. Bradley Jersak, Felicia Murrell and Wm. Paul Young"

CLICK HERE for Registration details

 

In preparation for this event, Susan Carson raised the following questions on deconstruction and the healing journey. Author, editor, and foodie extraordinaire, Felicia Murrell, responded beautifully, a great teaser for what we're in for:  

SUSAN: When we talk about deconstruction, what do we mean?

Felicia: I would say deconstruction means releasing our grip, attachment from ideas, beliefs and theories we once thought to be true; unknowing the things we’ve erected and built, dismantling all of our conceptual constructs. My teacher, Mirabai Starr would say, it’s “when the religious scaffolding crumbles and we are plunged into radical unknowing.”

My mind conjures images of Samson bracing the two middle pillars on which the house rested and bending with all his might, upending the house and all therein.[1] But for me, as it relates to deconstruction, the two middle pillars would be my pillars of arrogance and certainty upon which all my tenets of faith and belief and interpretations rested. For sure the image loses some of its relatability at the end because of the destruction, but I imagine for some, deconstruction may actually feel like a sort of catastrophic death.

SUSAN: In what ways have you experienced or observed deconstruction as destructive? 

Felicia: I think when we are as fundamental and certain about deconstruction as we are about religion, that can be destructive. Rene Girard spoke often about scapegoating, and when we find ourselves trapped in the need to blame our pain or our lived experience on someone, deconstruction can turn vengeful and destructive. But if we don’t understand this process as a path to infinite Love, we will lose ourselves in the terror and chaos of our unraveling which can be very harmful.

Paul: from Hardline Guardian to Slave of Christ - Fr. Sean Davidson

In first century Judea, most people thought they knew what was needed to make Israel great again: a strong Messiah who would rise up against Israel’s enemies, within and without, and rule the world with peace and justice from Jerusalem. That Jesus initially seemed like that person and then turned out to be something different is partly what got him crucified.

 

The disciples got caught up in this too. They were constantly misreading Jesus and even resisting him at points. But their encounter with him on that first Easter day altered perceptions completely—not that they now had all the answers, but they began to revise their understanding based on what happened, and Jesus’ life, ministry, teaching, and death took on a whole new meaning.

 

Coming away from that experience, the disciples had reason to be disillusioned with Israel’s leaders and the political and religious system that had shaped their misguided assumptions. But the answer to the disillusionment and feelings of betrayal wasn’t skeptical retreat or zealous activism. This is because they knew quite well that they had colluded in the system even as they were afflicted by it. And they learned that Jesus had defeated those powers at the cross. So they took up their crosses to follow Jesus—right where they were. This became the path to new life. Not a revolutionary movement, but a communal participation in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

Nowhere is this more powerfully exemplified than in the life of St. Paul, the one who thought that he had the answers only to realize that he had been working against God’s purposes all along. After his conversion, Paul gave strong pushback to strident guardians of the status quo, but he continued to express deep love for his people and held out hope for their salvation despite their idolatrous ways. Further, he cast himself as the “least of the apostles” and “worst of sinners” because of how he had actively colluded in the system that brought Jesus and followers like Stephen to death.

 

Paul had lived out the lies he was fed, and had reason for deep resentment, but he accepted his part in it and grieved and repented his way into new life with Jesus. So much so that he became free to think of himself as a slave/servant of Christ, rendering himself vulnerable to persecution at the hands of those who had been like him prior to his conversion.

 

He didn’t do this in a spirit of compromise, bowing to the system in shame. Rather it was an implication of carrying his cross unto new life and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. Again, he pushed against the party hardliners at times—people behaving like he once had—but this wasn’t a revolutionary power move. This too was an implication of servant-like gospel ministry, and in the midst of all, Paul continued to recognize that he barely had a right to Christian identity at all.

 

I’d suggest that we are in an analogous spot in relation to abusive powers in the church and secular state. These are the same sort of powers that the disciples confronted in their own day. What’s needed is not skeptical retreat or militant revolutionary action. We need to take up our crosses and follow Jesus into new life—right where we are …

 

Art: "The Conversion of Saint Paul" by Caravaggio (1600/01)

"Tribal Visions Beyond Zionism" - Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

Invitation from Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

 

Dear friends,

 

This year I am offering a once a month class called Jewish Tribal Visions Beyond Zionism. First class begins this Thursday at 6 PM PST on zoom. As we prepare for the high holidays, join me in the work of teshuvah for the harms of Jewish colonialism, as well as the beauty of our tribal ceremonial traditions which we still carry. What does it mean to carry our tradition forward to a Judaism beyond Zionism? 

 

Draw on the stories and art of the 12 tribes in pre-zionist torah, midrash and kabbalah to access Jewish wisdom in a non-colonial context. Tribal Visions for Judaism Beyond Zionism grows out of Lynn's work in solidarity with Indigenous Land Back Movements, including Palestinian & Native American land back movements, Black Reparations movements and Jewish anti-colonial communities of practice. Tribal Visions is part of Lynn's new book: Way of the Mishkan.

 

Way of the Mishkan is a ceremonial guide for re-envisioning Jewish solidarity. The book includes frontlines stories, prayer, art and ceremonial recipes from the Torah of Nonviolence. Way of the Mishkan tells stories of witness and beautiful resistance from Palestine, Turtle Island, Iran, Honduras, New Mexico and more, and reflects Rabbi Lynn's love of illuminated manuscript as a pathway into Jewish imagination. Way of the Mishkan will be published this winter, pre-order to come!​

 

Class Fee includes 18% for reparations and land back movements. ​

 

Dates: 10 classes (once a month) on Thursdays, 6 P - 7 P PST, 9 - 10 PM EST, Sept 22, Oct 20, Nov 17, Dec 15, Jan 19, Feb 16, March 16, April 20, May 18, June 15.

 

To register: https://www.patreon.com/RabbiLynn?fan_landing=true 

 

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

Backyard Mishkan

www.rabbilynngottlieb.com 

 

 

The Wages vs. the Gift - Steve Robinson

"The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Romans 6:23

It's amazing how a "framework" can constrain how we understand a piece of text. For example, 2x4 is either 8 or a piece of lumber depending on whether you are a mathematician or a carpenter. The "juridical/accounting/transactional" framework always told me that St. Paul meant "Jesus paid the debt to God for our sins, and the zero balance of the ledger was our free gift from Christ." 

Over the years the "substitutionary" framework (as it is usually preached) made less and less sense of "the gospel" in light of what I read about God in the Gospels. One day, I read the text exactly as it is written: It said SIN pays the wage of death. Not God. God doesn't kill us because we sin. We serve sin and sin pays us what it promises: separation from God who is Life. We die apart from Life.

And yet God still offers a free gift—himself, Life—not "wages." He always has from the beginning. 

There is no death in God, only in us.

Gregory of Nazianzus said, "What is not assumed is not healed." When Jesus died in His human flesh, he assumed ALL that is within us, even death. He accepted sin's "wage" even though he didn't earn it by sinning.  

So, God didn't kill Jesus instead of us (John MacArthur's take on Good Friday). Christ accepted the wages from sin (not from God the Father) on our behalf and nailed the W-2 to the cross (Colossians 2:14). There will be no fear of an audit, no taxes due, no penalties for non-payment or back taxes. Free. 

In all the parables, the Master, Lord, King, Landowner forgave the debts of his crappy householders, borrowers, scammers, and negligent subjects with a Word. He NEVER extracted the due debt from an innocent third party then offer the zero-sum, paid off balance sheet to the debtors as a "gift." On the Cross, God absorbs death, the wages of sin, into himself because God is life and not even death can prevail before and within God. As Solomon said, "Love is stronger than death..."

As St. Paul says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" at the Cross (2 Cor. 5:19). He was not vicariously punishing Christ, exacting a penalty, or substituting Him for us in some cosmic juridical execution. It is why we celebrate "the Precious and Life-giving Cross" where death is slain through the power of love, not "the Horror of the Penalty God Demanded in His Righteousness."  

The Gospel is not about wages, books to be balanced, or penalties to be paid to a God who must pay himself off via his Son to satisfy his need for a balanced ledger or justice served. The gospel is about a benevolent King who just forgives because that is his nature, and takes all the crap and debt and death we can deal out into Himself for our sake's just because He loves us, because that is His nature.

I once held the former thing as "gospel" and it made sense to me until it didn't. Then I found the latter thing in the Parables. The longer I live the latter thing makes more and more sense to me. 

As if we can make sense of the horror of the Cross.
As if we can make sense of human, much less, divine Love.

Under Judgment with Jesus - Fr. Sean Davidson

Something really interesting about discipleship from its inception. Jesus doesn’t allow his followers to think of themselves as revolutionaries. Practically speaking, they are stuck with the consequences of Israel’s failures. This is the context of their life and ministry. They can’t wriggle free. Hence: “Take up your cross and follow me.” The disciples are saddled with Israel's legacy and fall under judgment.

The good news is that they fall under it with Jesus... And this means that judgment isn't the end of the story. Even as Jesus' followers join him in his death, they rise with him to new life. Still, the new life they experience, given from above (as John puts it), takes place within the space of the old rather than on an empty site (cf. Descartes).

This is true for disciples of every age. Those who would follow Jesus are granted new life but within the space of the old that suffers and dies under judgment. And this is an ongoing pattern rather than one-time event. As Paul puts it in one of his letters, "I die daily ..."

I'm speaking to my own tribe now: Friends, let's be careful that we don't get caught dreaming of lost power and privilege. Not only are we stuck with the consequences of Israel's failures, grafted in as we are, we are stuck with the failures of the church down through the centuries as well.   

There is no escape plan, no empty site on which to build, no means of transcendence. This can be hard to accept... Many of us long for a clean break—to get it right for once. But we are people under judgment with Jesus. This is who we are. This is the ground we stand on. And it's from here that we share in his mission—humbly, generously, serving in love among friends, strangers, and enemies alike.

We too will have scars to show in the resurrection...

For the Unity of One Church - David Goa, Abp Lazar Puhalo, Dr. Petros Vassiliados

In launching the new book, For the Unity of One Church, David Goa hosts a conversation with the editors, Abp Lazar Puhalo and Dr. Petros Vassiliados. They discuss key issues around church unity, the female diaconate, and the impact of the war in Ukraine. The video conversation is sponsored by Saint Macrina Orthodox Centre, based at the All Saints of North America Monastery in Dewdney, BC Canada. 

The book is an anthology of theology papers composed by theologians, clerics, and professors from across North America and Europe.  

For the Unity of One Church can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle:

https://www.amazon.ca/UNITY-ONE-CHURCH-CHRIST/dp/B0B7QRGXCP

https://www.amazon.com/UNITY-ONE-CHURCH-CHRIST/dp/B0B7QRGXCP