Apology

Technically speaking, an “apology” has nothing to do with saying you're sorry. The word “apology” comes from ancient Greek and means the argument you use to defend yourself in court. This is why Plato's dialogue of Socrates' defense at his trial in Athens is called “The Apology.” So, I suppose this is the best description I can come up with for this piece.

I've been debating about how to write this or address this subject. Recently I read a blog post written by a friend of my wife's who is a missionary in Eastern Europe. In it he talked about his struggle with a genetic disorder he and his son suffer from which causes extreme sensitivity to chemicals. As a result, he is in almost constant pain and can only barely take a personal part in the mission he is leading. And yet through his suffering the Lord is working great things.

My biggest concern is that in sharing my own suffering, it will be misunderstood and ridiculed or worse. I suppose it shouldn't matter, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier. Unlike my wife's friend, my suffering really has little to do with physical problems, but rather with my lack of paying employment, or means to get and keep a stable income. If I had a nickel for every time a friend or family member looked down their nose at me and told me to just get a job with their eyes if not their mouths we certainly wouldn't be hurting financially as bad as we are. It was even one of the issues raised by my former bishop when he suspended me from active ministry.

There are times when I feel like everyone I know is judging me. Whether this is true or not I don't know. I haven't had a regular job since I became sick with a bad lung infection in April of 2009 and had to quit the one I had. The Lord let us know after I lost my job at the children's home in January of 2011 that neither Heidi nor I would have a regular paying job again. We thought that would mean we needed to become self-employed, and so we tried to go that route making and selling things. No, it didn't work out.

In spite of this, the Lord has pulled off some pretty amazing things in our lives and demonstrated repeatedly that He has been with us and behind us the entire time. I have chronicled those events enough in both my blog and my Facebook account to where I shouldn't have to repeat them here.

What I can't seem to convince anyone of is that this isn't the way I wanted it or want it to be. No matter how hard I try, no matter how many applications I fill out, I can't get anyone to hire me to save my life. And, recently, the two jobs which have hired me on only lasted a matter of days; all the days combined totaled about a week or two. From when we lived in Tennessee, Idaho, Arizona, and now having broken down in Arkansas since last September (it is now the end of May) I have lost count of how many application forms both paper and online which I have filled out, taken tests for, sent away for transcripts and other paperwork, and prayed over. My wife and I have even tried to start a business. I collected and published my online blog posts into a book, hoping to get some income that way. All of which was to no avail.

There are those who have told me that I should lie on my resumes or applications. That I should omit things, or invent things to say to make an employer more likely to hire me. They may be perfectly able to do that. I'm not. For one, I'm a horrible liar. I haven't done it since I was a kid, nor do I want to start again. Even when I just try to keep things to myself I eventually end up telling the person concerned anyway. For two, I still have to answer to the Lord for what I do, and I can't justify lying for any reason

My most recent employment at a chicken processing plant in Oklahoma lasted a little less than two weeks. I knew going into it that it likely wouldn't last long. It was an hour and a half away in Oklahoma and my only ride was my cousin, who doesn't have a great employment track record himself. Sure enough, my third night of work my cousin calls and lets me know he can't make it home to get me in time to make it to work. The next week, he has to leave two hours early to make it to a test for work, and encourages me to call in. When I say I'll go with him anyway and sit, he comes back later and lets me know that he has to run his girlfriend to the hospital and I still have to call in. The next few days after that I come down with a bad cold and when I call to let them know, they tell me I can't return to work without a doctor's note. Before I even get the chance to try and work out how to acquire one, my cousin's car dies completely and he sells it for scrap, so then neither of us have either a job or a way to go get one.

Here's the thing, I hate this. Let me repeat it so that no one has any misunderstanding. I am not dancing for joy about it. I am not coming up with ways to avoid work. I am not going to the government to see how much money I can get out of them so I don't have to work. I HATE this, and I always have. I hate having to just sit and wait to see who is going to feel sorry for us next. I hate not being able to pay my debts. I hate having to have periods where all my family and I have to eat are rice and beans. I hate having to live off of the charity of others. But no matter how much I hate these things, no matter how many people condemn me for them, no matter how many people turn their backs on us because they don't believe the Lord could possibly have anything to do with it, there is nothing I can do about it. No matter how hard I fight against it, I cannot change it.

I have prayed, and I have complained, and I have railed at God about it. Recently, I was loudly and vociferously doing just this while I was walking down the road only to realize that some neighbors were staring at me from their front yard as though I was insane. I quickly walked down the road and out of their sight.

God answers my prayers, He just doesn't say “yes” to the ones I pray about this. And when He does, it only seems to be to prove a point, like with the aforementioned chicken plant. When I ask that we would all have a good day, He provides a good day for all of us. When I ask for more food, He provides more food in one way or another. When I ask Him to protect us from everything which would harm us, He does so dramatically at times. When I pray for other people, I can sometimes track their progress by the days when I pray for them and when I don't. When I ask for some kind of a steady income, or to be able to pay back our debts, or a paying job, He says “no.”

We are without income from employment. We are without a supportive home church. I was suspended from my diocese. And we have watched as one by one, those friends who seemed to be supportive of us at first have dropped away as things didn't go the way they thought they should have. Lately, I haven't even been able to post on my blog on any kind of a regular basis, and have had to just post thoughts and random tidbits on Facebook. If we are making any kind of a difference or being useful to Him in this fashion, we aren't allowed to see the fruit of it.

Oddly enough, in spite of all of this, our children seem to be doing well, both socially and academically. Our family is close, and we enjoy each other's company. Our marriage is strong. As much as we can, when we can we try to help those around us that we can. God is indeed protecting us in spite of the circumstances. We've jumped off of metaphorical cliff after metaphorical cliff each time the Lord has said “jump!” And we are still here. Shaken up maybe, but still here.

I wish I could see what God is using us for, or what He is doing through us. But He won't let us see it, so I have nothing positive in this respect to report about. I suppose if I did, it would be a source or temptation to pride, which would explain why He keeps it from us. I'm not the strongest of men when it comes to temptation. I'm certainly not a Saint, and I keep that in mind daily. But I have to believe that there is a purpose to all of this, and that His promises of a future and a hope for us are not empty regardless of how hard it becomes for us.

The suffering God has us go through to glorify Himself isn't always what we think it should be. Nor is it always recognizable for what it is. I pray, and I read the Scriptures, and the passages the Lord keeps bringing to my attention are those in which Paul says things like he has become the offscouring of the world, and he is shamed but the church to whom he's writing is honored. The Lord continuously reminds me of the suffering of those who followed Him in the Scriptures, and how bad it was, not to mention the suffering of His Saints throughout the centuries.

But their suffering always seemed different. They always seemed to be suffering for the Lord, suffering for their work or their mission. There always seemed to be a noble purpose to it. Maybe that's just twenty-twenty hindsight. I'm not sure how noble St. Ignatius of Loyola felt when he was thrown in prison for vagrancy or verbally abused by a local priest because of his choice to live as a beggar.

I hate living off of the charity of others. I don't want to be the one to receive, but the one to give. It offends me. I feel like a failure as a father, and as a husband. It certainly offends my pride and makes me feel less than. But then, maybe that's the whole point behind it.

So, such as it is, this is my apology.

A Ramble about Renunciation

I wish I had some clever story or some clever allusion to a sci-fi movie or television show for this one. But I don't. I'm sure that one exists somewhere, but I can't think of one right now, and that's not what engendered this line of thought. Now that I think about why I started writing this down, there really wasn't a straight path to it.

I started off by reading a short work from the Philokalia by St. Gregory Palamas from the fourteenth century. Then on a sudden inspiration, I looked again at Acts 2:42-47 (in English even, go figure), and came to realize something about the Acts 2 Church. The Acts 2 Church practiced what the Orthodox monks of the mountains and the deserts wrote about in the various works of the Philokalia; namely regular Sacraments, voluntary poverty, self-control, and obedience to the Apostolic teaching. And then I came to see something that I know I've seen before in passing as though out of the corner of my eye (and even wrote about). This time it slapped me upside the head. Besides the Sacraments, everything they practiced was a form of renunciation.

When the wheels in my head started grinding to life and began smoking from disuse, it dawned on me that almost everything which Jesus taught and the Apostles taught and practiced could in fact be distilled down to this single concept: renunciation. The letting go or abandonment of the things you hold on to. It doesn't have to mean physically separating yourself from them as much as it means they no longer have a hold over you. Think of it this way, an alcoholic, in order to become healthy must renounce his alcohol because it stands in the way of his health (among other things). A drug addict must renounce his drugs. A mortally obese person must renounce his gluttony (assuming there is no genetic problem). And so on. Jesus told us to go further than this because we have addictions and dependencies which stand in the way of a healthy growth towards union with God, and we are so inebriated with them that we don't even know that they are there. Renunciation colors and covers everything in the Christian practice which Jesus and His Apostles taught.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things will be placed before you,” means to renounce everything else, all of one's addictions, desires, and everything to which one clings. Only when you are no longer ruled by such things can they be safely placed in front of you. Jesus promised that if we asked anything in His Name He would do it, but God can't safely put anything in front of us that we would cling to or abuse any more than a responsible friend would offer a glass of wine or even Listerine to a severe alcoholic (Listerine is 40 proof or so). We have to renounce our dependence on them first. We must seek union with God through renunciation first.

God loves us and is on our side, but we feel like He is cruel and mean just like the addict feels like the person withholding the onject of his addiction is cruel and mean. God knows it will do us no good to give us what we crave. We must first detox and renounce our dependencies and addictions. Only then can God place anything in front of us safely. This is why what weakens us makes us stronger, because it faciliatates renunciation.

This applies to forgiveness as well. We must renounce those things owed us before He will renounce what we owe Him. Jesus said as much again and again, but directly and even addressing parables to it in the Gospels, even within the same Gospel. Let's face it, holding grudges can be an addiction, and we can even draw our identity from the person whom we hold grudges against. Jesus tells us to renounce those grudges.

The Kingdom of Heaven/God is entered through renunciation. This is why it is only with difficulty a rich person may enter. The more possessions you hold on to, the harder it is to renounce them. Everything He said pertaining to the Kingdom in His parables involved renouncing something; personal possessions, relationships, grudges, one's own psyche, etc. Poverty, self-control, and obedience are all forms of renunciation. With voluntary poverty we renounce personal possessions. With self-control we renounce gluttony and all forms of unchaste or intemperate behavior as it pertains to bodily needs or desires. With obedience we renounce our own self-esteem to follow the rule of another. Without renunciation, there is no Christian practice or discipleship. Crucifying one's own psyche along with the passions and desires means total renunciation of everything in one's life. It's the renunciation of everything which makes you “you.”

Even love, agape, itself is a form of renunciation because when we practice agape we are in fact renouncing all judgment against that person. We are renouncing all animosity towards that person. We are renouncing whatever resources which may be in our possession in order to assist that person. Ultimately when we practice agape we are renouncing our very selves and self-centeredness in favor of what is best for the other person.

Renunciation doesn't require isolating oneself in the desert or on a mountain, though this might certainly facilitate renunciation. It requires keeping one's focus on Jesus Christ, and on everything about Him. Remembering one's death and judgment by Him will facilitate this as well.

Renunciation will look different for each person, because each person has different addictions and dependencies. One person may need to go off alone in the desert in order to fully renounce everything. Another may be able to be surrounded by wealth and not have it touch him, but may instead fall prey to some other addiction. It depends on the person, and so there is no one model which will work for everyone. Rather, one's renunciation can be determined by the fruit which he produces, not by the trash which surrounds him. If his life begins to look like Jesus' life then that person is in fact remaining in Him just as John said he would (1 John 2:6).

Finally, and for this reason, renunciation is not, nor was ever intended to be popular. Jesus lived His entire life, according to the Gospels, in renunciation. He was homeless. He and His disciples were provided for by the charity of three women rather than good jobs or investments. Most of the time, those He preached to had no idea what He was talking about, and of those that did fewer still actually followed His teaching. His renunciation cost Him everything from this world which we would hold on to. His disciples fared no better, and neither did the saints throughout history. Think of St. Francis of Assisi, or Ignatius of Loyola for example. Read their biographies. Picking up the cross and following Him means renunciation and all that goes with it.

By way of explanation

I wanted to post a quick note and explain why I've been so silent for a couple of months. In short, my only internet access has been my cell phone. Normally, I would write out a Ramble on my laptop and copy and paste it to my blog when I was able. I haven't had the ability to get to a WiFi point with my laptop now since March. My family and I are pretty well stuck at my uncle's place in backwoods Arkansas without a vehicle for reasons that are beyond our control. We are currently praying to be able to move on from here and to continue in the purpose God had us set out from Arizona in the first place. We would appreciate your prayers in this as well.u right I appreciate the kind comments which have been posted, but. my phone isn't lettiing me replyrightnowmy. email address is teddybairs1@gmail.com if you would like a response to your questions. Thank you.

A Ramble About Unification

Have you ever had one of those eureka moments? One of those moments of insight which seems to bring everything together, and suddenly the problem which you've constantly had in the back of your head churning away just resolves itself, and then you wonder why, when the answer was so simple, that it didn't present itself to you before?

I kind of had a moment like that this morning as I was cooking breakfast. I was frying up some potatoes, onions and eggs in a wok, with the intent of adding rice and diced tomatoes. At the time I was thnking of a conversation I had just had with my daughter the night before. We were discussing a book which had been given to us by the church we had been attending, and now because of what that book revealed about the church's beliefs chose to no longer attend. I had told her that I didn't want her to read that book, and was now having to explain why. I very rarely forbid my kids from reading different books from different faiths, and so my forbidding her to do so was very out of place. As a result, we had a very long conversation.

I had told my kids last night a simple truth; being right isn't nearly as important as being compassionate. Loving one another is what Jesus taught and commanded His disciples to do. Throughout his epistles, St. Paul continuously hammers home the need for fellow disciples to keep their “knowledge” to themselves and be tolerant of differences of practice and opinion and to practice love for one another. One of the worst things in his mind was to see a local church torn apart by sectarianism and factions. “Is Christ divided?” He asks the Corinthians.

A divided church is the norm today. It's the rule and not the exception. In many ways, the rampant factionalism of different sects, denominations, and independent churches is the nightmare which St. Paul was trying to prevent in the Corinthian church. It's an embarrassment to Christ, and no movement, no new church or doctrine or theology has been able to slow it down, but only makes it worse.

The worse part about it is when the different churches and denominations refuse to accept fellow disciples from other churches or denominations as fellow disciples and Christians. It is a mockery of Jesus Christ when a fellow baptized believer comes into a church and is told that, not only may he not take part in the holy communion, but he is forever condemned to hell unless he repents and joins that church, not because of any specific sin or lack of devotion on his part, but because he was not originally baptized in that church. Such was the case with the aforementioned book which I wouldn't allow my daughter to read, and the reason why we no longer attend that church.

Why is the church so divided? In a nutshell, it's so I can be right, and you wrong, or vice-versa. It's because our sin disorder, the spiritual illness (as opposed to mental or physical) which we all share, feeds on “this is right and that is wrong” with those things being designated right and wrong often completely arbitrary and capricious. The most basic proof of this was that the first thing human beings decided was “morally wrong” was being naked in spite of the fact that every other creature on the planet was and remains naked and this is how God, who declared His creation good as it was, created us.

St. Paul wrote that “all things are lawful for me, but not all things are edifying. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” That is, nothing is “wrong” for him to do, but not everything is helpful and there are a great many things which are harmful, both to himself and to others. St. Paul knew and wrote in this passage and in Romans chapter seven that it is when we designate something “right” and something else “wrong” that the sin disorder becomes active. It feeds on it and becomes stronger. When we have to be “right”, we are actually feeding the disorder.

So, what was my eureka moment this morning? It is simply this, denominationalism and sectarianism will themselves cease and fail on their own if we adhere to the principle that being compassionate is more important than being right, and focus on our own discipleship instead of enforcing our theologies on others. When we all only focus on our own practice of faith and relationship with God through Christ, remembering that love is more important than being right, then the Church will be unified, and not before.

Why is this? Because denominationalism and sectarianism can only exist when we keep those barriers and divisions between ourselves. If we count them as no longer important enough to defend, then those borders and barriers will fall and so will the divisions between us if, and only if we place our care, tolerance, and compassion for one another as more important than whether or not we are “right” about things we can neither see nor touch nor hear. And this was exactly what St. Paul himself taught when he wrote to the Corinthians about the schisms which had grown up among them.

The divisions within the Church of Jesus Christ exist only so long as we want them to. When we no longer want them to, then, and only then will the Church be unified.

A Ramble About Jesus Christ

As I was looking at my Facebook news feeds lately, I saw several mentions of a new movie about the life of Christ called “Son of God.” I haven't seen it myself, but from what I've read, it is made up of extended clips from “The Bible” miniseries which aired on The History Channel not that long ago. I have heard this film being accused of everything from New Age teaching to outright heresy by those who haven't bothered to see it (hmm, sounds familiar from a number of things), and I have, myself defended its creators because I don't agree with denouncing something of this nature without at least seeing it for yourself. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with “The Bible” miniseries, and from a cinematic viewpoint don't understand why they thought it was a great idea to put the Gospel section of it into the theaters. I wouldn't have thought it was of sufficient quality to merit a theater release, not like Gibson's “Passion of the Christ” which is the de facto standard par excellence for movies about Jesus as far as I'm concerned. But that's my humble opinion. I suspect that it was because it only took 22 million to make, and even a modest showing in the theaters was guaranteed to make a profit. Yes, I'm just a little cynical when it comes to Hollywood and studio executives.

The chief complaint I saw on Facebook, after the critical parties saw the film in question was that it didn't do enough to evangelize people. That is, it didn't do enough to explain Jesus' death as a propitiary sacrifice for sins. For a Gospel film, it didn't present the Gospel as they understood it, instead only presenting the life, teachings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The flaw in this understanding is the belief that the Gospel only entails one aspect of one part of who and what Jesus Christ is. That our whole existence as Christians is limited to a specific doctrine about Him without understanding which we cannot truly be called Christians.

Jesus Christ our Lord does not just play a part in the Gospel. The Gospel is not about Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. He is our good news, and not just one part of His life. Not just one teaching about Him. All of Him. Everything about Him, and more; the Man Himself. He did not command us to remain or stay put in only one teaching about Him, He commanded us to remain in Him as branches remain on a vine. You cannot dissect Jesus Christ and say that only this part is important, or only that part is truly important. He is one Savior, one Lord, and one God through whom all of heaven and earth was created.

One of the greatest truths I've found whether in writing or preaching a homily is this: if I try to give my opinions on subjects, if I stray off to focus on this specific doctrine or that tidbit of speculation, anything I say loses its power and falls flat. It doesn't matter how well I prepare, or how much I study for it, or how much evidence I have to back up my claims. But if I focus on Jesus Christ, who He is and what He taught and did, then there is power behind it, not mine but His. And this is because the Gospel is the power of God to those who believe, and Jesus Christ Himself is the Gospel.

When we share the Gospel, we share Jesus Christ. When we preach the Gospel, we preach Jesus Christ. When we share or preach Catholic dogma or Reformation dogma or Evangelical Bible dogma we are not sharing or preaching the Gospel. We are not giving Jesus Christ to people. We are trying to make them Catholics or Protestants or Bible Evangelicals. In order to disciple people we must teach them Jesus, we must be Jesus for them, we must be connected to Him and allow Him to flow through us to them. Jesus Himself said as much when He said “without Me you can do nothing,” and “anyone not remaining in Me is cast out... and is dried up and thrown onto the fire where they are burned.”

Jesus Christ is the Gospel. He is the love of God made flesh, and the power of God for salvation to all who believe. Jesus Christ, not our endless speculations and theologies whose only purpose are to give our minds something to latch on to so that we can grasp the ungraspable. And it is all too easy to let go of Him in order to chase down some trivial piece of doctrine which may or may not reflect absolute reality which our human minds can't process to begin with.

Whatever its faults, this latest life of Christ movie has one thing going for it, as I understand it. It does nothing more or less than show the Gospel, Jesus Christ our Lord. And this, ultimately, is the most important thing it can do.

A Ramble About My Religion

When my kids were little and we were living with my mom in Southern California, a couple of Mormon missionaries came to the door one day. It was a really hot day, and they had been out “on patrol” riding their trademark bikes in their trademark white shirts and black ties. Mormons may be accused of many things, but they will always be snappy dressers. They were sweating profusely and obviously hot, so I invited them in for something to drink. I think I gave them either water or lemonade, and if nothing else I figured they could use some time in air conditioning, otherwise they might have dropped from heat exhaustion. After allowing them to give their normal schpiel, and politely refusing to inquire more—I had, by that point in time already, studied out the Book of Mormon and the Mormon Church quite thoroughly—they finished their drinks, cooled down a bit, and we parted on friendly terms.

Does this shock you? Why? This is nothing less than what Jesus taught. In some ways, this action of hospitality to missionaries of a known heretical sect brings us to the core of what Jesus taught and what the path of Jesus Christ is all about. And yet, I know for a fact that my action would be considered both shocking and offensive to many “Christians” and probably denounced as “giving aid to the enemy.” At one time, I would have been the one doing the denouncing.

The word “religion” comes from a Latin word meaning “to bind” and as such can be defined as “that practice of faith with which one binds oneself” regardless of the theology underlying that practice of faith. I have said, or at least inferred before that regardless of the denomination, we as Christians are not all different religions. We are different denominations of the same religion, that which follows Jesus Christ. What I am coming to understand though, is that while we all profess to be Christian, we are not all of the same religion. There are in fact, two distinctly different religions which occur across denominations which lay claim to the name Christian, though it is clear to me that only one can rightfully do so.

In no particular order, the first is a religion to which being right and holding fast to the “truth” is the most important thing. It is a religion which holds fast to its own theologies and liturgical practices and makes the rigid claim that one can only have the hope of heaven through its strictures, and its strictures alone. Those who hold to this religion will go to any lengths to convert people to it, and make strict judgments about those who don't follow it to their specifications. In my experience, this religion destroys all those who either don't make the grade, or challenges the “truths” which it holds so dear. I don't need to mention a denominational name, because there are just as many Baptists as there are Catholics, just as many Evangelicals as there are Church of Christ members, just as many Eastern Orthodox as there are Anglicans who belong to this religion, as I shamefully once did.

The second is a religion which, though holding to its theological principles, is more concerned with being compassionate and showing lovingkindness to others than it is about forcing them to accept its own version of the truth. This religion holds no opinions about who is and who is not going to hell, leaving those judgments to God. This religion is about loving others as Christ loved us and commanded us to do. This religion is willing to accept another professing Christian of a different set of theologies as a brother or sister, even if the person disagrees on many points, based solely on their mutual belief in Jesus Christ and practice of His teachings. This religion refuses to be judgmental. Again, denominational names are not important, as there are just as many of us who belong to this religion in one flavor of Christianity as there are in another.

I suppose I should also throw in a third religion, that of the chronic pew warmer who comes to church, whichever denomination it may be, listens to the sermon, figures he's put in his time and does whatever he likes during the week. No, this person really can't be called “Christian”, but then he can't really be called anything because he doesn't actually bother to learn enough about the teachings of the denomination he's chosen to honestly say he believes it. These tend to make up the bulk of most churches in the United States, and it is largely for these folks that pastors tend to lose heart and leave the ministry, believe it or not.

The fact of the matter is that those who practice the first religion are not in fact practicing the faith of Jesus Christ, but are instead directly disobeying or ignoring what He taught. These cannot be called Christians in any proper sense of the word because they are not Christlike in the slightest. Rather than adding people to the Church and building them up in the faith they are taking those who inquire and either make them twice the sons of hell that they are, or they destroy them as a threat to their own version of the “truth.” Those who practice the second religion are often under attack by those who practice the first as being too liberal or wishy washy. Somehow they are too shallow, or don't really understand the faith at all.

This is nonsense.

The religion with which Jesus taught to bind ourselves is that of voluntary poverty, lovingkindness, self-sacrifice, non-judgment, and compassion for all others. One who binds himself with a religion of defending theologies and liturgical practices is not practicing the religion of Jesus Christ. Theological structures have their place in giving us something to work with in interacting with and experiencing God as He wants to be experienced by us. But they must be approached with the humility which says that the human mind is unable to know things it cannot sense or experience with absolute certainty. They must also be approached with the common sense that says details such as whether or not one uses liturgy, instruments, or acappella singing in worship is of absolutely no consequence to their eternal salvation. Obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His life, teachings, death, resurrection, and ascension, this is what matters to one's eternal salvation; not the structure of his worship service.

I hope that people would be able to say of me that my religion was of the second variety, at least in this latter portion of my life. Those of the first have destroyed too many people, members of my own family included.

A Ramble About the Matrix

I rewatched “Matrix” again tonight. Part of my reasoning was to see if my kids would be able to handle it yet (not yet). As a teaching tool for philosophical and even spiritual concepts, this particular movie is the gift that keeps on giving and wonderfully illustrates even some of the most difficult of such concepts to explain.

For those who have never seen it before, in the movie, human beings are grown in fields of pods from which they are never actually born, but their brains and senses are directly hooked into a computer generated world they believe to be reality. This world is called “the Matrix”. They do not know they are in this computer generated world. Their brains are being directly fed the sensory information which the machines and AI software wants them to experience, and the vast majority of these human beings never wake up to the real world. The exception is a small group of renegade humans who are awake and freed from the pods and the Matrix's control, and who use pirate computers to hack back into the Matrix in order to tell people the truth and wake them up, bringing them back to the all human city deep underground in the real world. (For all those in the know, yes this is an overly simplistic explanation, but it will suffice for now.)

On occasion, I go back through and do rough translations of different books and portions of the New Testament. I don't do it to publish anything, but rather for my own devotional practice. As I was translating through the last supper discourse in the Gospel of John recently, there was one, fairly common, average word which stuck out to me again and again. That word in Greek is “kosmos.” Where Bible translation is concerned, it is normally translated as “world.” But this isn't exactly the best translation. Most translations continue to render it this way because this is how it has been rendered in English since the beginning of English translations from Greek with Tyndale's work..

The word itself actually, literally means “an ordered system.” It can also mean “ornament,” but translating it as “ornament” in the New Testament would usually result in some weird readings. When used in the sense of the world, it means the world-system of people, rules, governments, etc. and how it all works together as an ordered system controlling those living within and under it. As I was doing the translation, and coming up on this word, do you know what it reminded me of this time?

Yep. The Matrix. Right down to the renegades that were woken up and disconnected from the main computers that controlled and policed the Matrix to keep everyone asleep. Jesus said that He was sent “into the world” (“eis ton kosmon”) by the Father. As Jesus was saying to His disciples that once they were “of the world” (“ek tou kosmou”), by analogy, they were once connected to the Matrix like everyone else; but Jesus came and selected them to be “not of the world” just as he was not of the world. He, being originally disconnected from the Matrix entered it in order to disconnect them from the Matrix and turn them into renegades with a mission of disconnecting others from it.

In the Matrix, many of the people who were connected to it were so dependent on it for their reality that they would fight to protect it, right alongside the “agents”, the computer programs that were responsible for rooting out the renegades and deleting them, keeping everyone asleep and oblivious. It was made clear in the movie many times that everyone who was still connected to the Matrix was a potential agent, as they were able to inhabit the conscious presences of those people still dependent on it. This, in many respects, is a good picture of the world-system which Jesus disconnected His disciples from, although He taught us to have a very different response to these potential threats than the violent one the renegades in the movie gave. He taught us to have compassion on them and forgive them for their offenses against us. Like in the movie, most of these still connected people are oblivious to what they're doing, but also like in the movie, each one has the potential to become an unwitting agent for the system they're dependent on.

Unlike in the movie, once disconnected His followers have to really fight to keep from being re-connected. In the movie, once you were out, there was no going back. And while that may be true to a large extent in terms of understanding, there are many professing Christians who act just as connected to the “kosmos” as those who are not professing Christians. There is an underlying observation in that...