Zen Christianity
I want to address what I believe is a terrible bit of theology. It is the tried and true belief that is still so present in Christian circles: the sacrificial Atonement of Jesus Christ. It says that to appease God's wrath against man, Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross. You still hear it in so many songs we sing on Sunday mornings about the blood (Jesus's blood) covering our sins. And so we are made clean - "white as snow" so the songs go. But many pastors worth their salt, in my opinion, have distanced themselves from this theology. Of the four pastors in my life, I know three don't hold this view. The fourth I have simply not gotten to know yet.
The idea of the sacrificial atonement came out of the old Jewish system of sin and sacrifice. Many, perhaps the majority, of Christians believe that Jesus was a sacrifice like the flawless lambs that were offered for a sin offering in the Jewish religion of his day. In the early church a link was made between Jesus's perfection and his horrible suffering and death on the cross. For what purpose could he have been killed? And how does it fit into God's plan? To answer these questions the Sacrificial Atonement theory grew in the church. It can be seen in the later Gospels (Matthew, Luke and John) but especially the Gospel of John. It credits Jesus with a sinless life, but also paints a horrible picture of a wrathful God who has to be appeased through blood sacrifice. The idea goes back to Abraham taking his son, Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed. As the story goes, Abraham was called by God to sacrifice his son. He took him up to a mountain to do so, and at the last minute, God provided a ram instead and spared Isaac's life. The reader is meant to understand, that it was because of Abraham's obedience that God spared his son. What a horrible misunderstanding of God. Through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, it is said that God never changes. But, I believe, what did change was our understanding of God. I believe that this change is the only way to reconcile the God of the early Old Testament with the God of Jesus - the God Jesus called "daddy" (Abba).
But the Sacrificial Atonement is the reason many Christians believe that Christianity stands apart from the other world religions. Jesus's death made us right with God so there is nothing we have to do to "earn" our salvation. I have heard it said that in all other religions you have to walk the path up to God, where in Christianity, God came down to us and did something himself that would make us right with him: offering his son as a sacrifice. In other religions you have to pray facing the city of Mecca five times a day (Islam) or offer sacrifice and keep holy days (Judaism), or obtain enlightenment through meditation (Zen Buddhism) or convert a certain number of souls (Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses). But in Christianity there is nothing you have to do. God did it for you.
But I argue that there is something you have to do to attain salvation in Christianity. (Salvation in my mind does not mean where you go when you die, but the state of your heart now and forever). You do have to do something. You have to change your mind. You have turn your attention to God and stop living for the world (die to the world as Paul puts it). Then you start living for God. You give up chasing the things of this world like money and power and a lust for material possessions or sex. And instead you chase after God. You accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. What does this mean? It is really simple: just pursue God and all the other stuff will fall away. In 12 step you focus on what you can do (service and meetings) and not on what you don't want to do (use). I believe that if you pursue God it will consume you and everything else will fall away. Everything including your old self. I believe this with all of my heart. God is the most important thing in my life. He supersedes my job and my passions and even my wife and child. The pursuit of God brings inner peace. Like Zen Buddhism, the path to inner peace means turning away from the things of this world. You could call this Zen Christianity. But unlike Buddhism, you turn your attention to God. The result is the same: you forget your self.
But in Christianity you forget your self by turning your attention not inward, but outward - towards God and towards others. Not by emptying your self, but by filling yourself up with God. Try something for me: don't think of a pink elephant. You just did it, didn't you? People are wired to fill ourselves - to think on things, not to NOT think of anything, or pursue emptiness. Something would rush in to fill the void. I think God wired us this way on purpose and this is a very Christian idea. We are empty vessels waiting to be filled with God who is love. If you think on God and pursue him, you forget your self. And you find God in the natural world: nature, God's creations, and God's crowning achievement: people.
You are awash in a sea of community in your church and in your ministries. You, together with others, care for the downtrodden, broken-hearted, fellow desperate people of this world. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells several parables about the coming of the Kingdom of God. He tried to explain to his disciples what it would look like. And he tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the parable, the King [Jesus in the end times] says, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.’" In doing so we become the "poor in spirit" Jesus blesses in the beatitudes. The humble. Those who seek God first and trust him to provide for them. And out of that abundance they provide for others.
This is a foundation of Christianity. It's why Christians reach out through ministries. Because helping other people (or animals or the natural world) is helping God. And it brings us closer to him. Acts of service are not done to earn our place in heaven. We already have a place in heaven. But I argue that this place is not reserved for us because Jesus died, but because he LIVED. This is actually the oldest theory of atonement: Moral Atonement. Moral Atonement says that we are saved through Jesus' life and teachings. Much like Christus Victor Theory says his saving work defeated sin and death and evil. He lived to teach and to show by example what a right relationship with God and others looks like. That is salvation. And so if we study Jesus and the background for him that is the scriptures, we can be shaped into what Jesus was: a man more close to God than any man or woman before or since.
I don't think my salvation comes from Jesus's death. And I don't believe salvation means I am going to sit with angels inside Saint Peter's pearly gates. I believe I am saved through Jesus's life and teachings. By following his path. Salvation for me is not preparation for life after death. It means living my life right now in communion with God and with others and with Creation. I and no one else living knows if there is life after death. Incidentally, I believe life after death happens the split second our sense of time circuits go offline when our brain is shutting down at death: we are in eternity. But regardless of if there is life after death, salvation means living a God-centered life. Now and into whatever comes next. I think the best way to do this is to learn all we can about Jesus, the humble model of life with God. Learn to love him for who he was. And be like him. That is salvation.
The idea of the sacrificial atonement came out of the old Jewish system of sin and sacrifice. Many, perhaps the majority, of Christians believe that Jesus was a sacrifice like the flawless lambs that were offered for a sin offering in the Jewish religion of his day. In the early church a link was made between Jesus's perfection and his horrible suffering and death on the cross. For what purpose could he have been killed? And how does it fit into God's plan? To answer these questions the Sacrificial Atonement theory grew in the church. It can be seen in the later Gospels (Matthew, Luke and John) but especially the Gospel of John. It credits Jesus with a sinless life, but also paints a horrible picture of a wrathful God who has to be appeased through blood sacrifice. The idea goes back to Abraham taking his son, Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed. As the story goes, Abraham was called by God to sacrifice his son. He took him up to a mountain to do so, and at the last minute, God provided a ram instead and spared Isaac's life. The reader is meant to understand, that it was because of Abraham's obedience that God spared his son. What a horrible misunderstanding of God. Through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, it is said that God never changes. But, I believe, what did change was our understanding of God. I believe that this change is the only way to reconcile the God of the early Old Testament with the God of Jesus - the God Jesus called "daddy" (Abba).
But the Sacrificial Atonement is the reason many Christians believe that Christianity stands apart from the other world religions. Jesus's death made us right with God so there is nothing we have to do to "earn" our salvation. I have heard it said that in all other religions you have to walk the path up to God, where in Christianity, God came down to us and did something himself that would make us right with him: offering his son as a sacrifice. In other religions you have to pray facing the city of Mecca five times a day (Islam) or offer sacrifice and keep holy days (Judaism), or obtain enlightenment through meditation (Zen Buddhism) or convert a certain number of souls (Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses). But in Christianity there is nothing you have to do. God did it for you.
But I argue that there is something you have to do to attain salvation in Christianity. (Salvation in my mind does not mean where you go when you die, but the state of your heart now and forever). You do have to do something. You have to change your mind. You have turn your attention to God and stop living for the world (die to the world as Paul puts it). Then you start living for God. You give up chasing the things of this world like money and power and a lust for material possessions or sex. And instead you chase after God. You accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. What does this mean? It is really simple: just pursue God and all the other stuff will fall away. In 12 step you focus on what you can do (service and meetings) and not on what you don't want to do (use). I believe that if you pursue God it will consume you and everything else will fall away. Everything including your old self. I believe this with all of my heart. God is the most important thing in my life. He supersedes my job and my passions and even my wife and child. The pursuit of God brings inner peace. Like Zen Buddhism, the path to inner peace means turning away from the things of this world. You could call this Zen Christianity. But unlike Buddhism, you turn your attention to God. The result is the same: you forget your self.
But in Christianity you forget your self by turning your attention not inward, but outward - towards God and towards others. Not by emptying your self, but by filling yourself up with God. Try something for me: don't think of a pink elephant. You just did it, didn't you? People are wired to fill ourselves - to think on things, not to NOT think of anything, or pursue emptiness. Something would rush in to fill the void. I think God wired us this way on purpose and this is a very Christian idea. We are empty vessels waiting to be filled with God who is love. If you think on God and pursue him, you forget your self. And you find God in the natural world: nature, God's creations, and God's crowning achievement: people.
You are awash in a sea of community in your church and in your ministries. You, together with others, care for the downtrodden, broken-hearted, fellow desperate people of this world. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells several parables about the coming of the Kingdom of God. He tried to explain to his disciples what it would look like. And he tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the parable, the King [Jesus in the end times] says, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.’" In doing so we become the "poor in spirit" Jesus blesses in the beatitudes. The humble. Those who seek God first and trust him to provide for them. And out of that abundance they provide for others.
This is a foundation of Christianity. It's why Christians reach out through ministries. Because helping other people (or animals or the natural world) is helping God. And it brings us closer to him. Acts of service are not done to earn our place in heaven. We already have a place in heaven. But I argue that this place is not reserved for us because Jesus died, but because he LIVED. This is actually the oldest theory of atonement: Moral Atonement. Moral Atonement says that we are saved through Jesus' life and teachings. Much like Christus Victor Theory says his saving work defeated sin and death and evil. He lived to teach and to show by example what a right relationship with God and others looks like. That is salvation. And so if we study Jesus and the background for him that is the scriptures, we can be shaped into what Jesus was: a man more close to God than any man or woman before or since.
I don't think my salvation comes from Jesus's death. And I don't believe salvation means I am going to sit with angels inside Saint Peter's pearly gates. I believe I am saved through Jesus's life and teachings. By following his path. Salvation for me is not preparation for life after death. It means living my life right now in communion with God and with others and with Creation. I and no one else living knows if there is life after death. Incidentally, I believe life after death happens the split second our sense of time circuits go offline when our brain is shutting down at death: we are in eternity. But regardless of if there is life after death, salvation means living a God-centered life. Now and into whatever comes next. I think the best way to do this is to learn all we can about Jesus, the humble model of life with God. Learn to love him for who he was. And be like him. That is salvation.
