Dale Fincher

Living with Questions – best price for Christmas (book and audio version!)

Dec 11

Posted by Bill in Uncategorized | No Comments

I thought you’d like to know this!

Yesterday I discovered that Amazon has my book on sale at a bargain price of $1.86 (and it qualifies for free shipping if you have Prime or a $25 order). Get a copy for the students in your life or for people wanting to grow deeper in their faith but don’t know how. These make great stocking stuffers, an extra present under the tree, an easy thing to mail as a gift (media rate mailing is cheap!), or to buy a stack of them to give away or start a small group discussion.

I don’t know why the bargain price, but take advantage while you can!!

If you haven’t discovered or read Living with Questions, it’s one of the best intro to apologetics books you’ll find, easy, accessible, conversational (not the typical abstract stuff that apologetics has become associated with).

And it’s a one-of-a-kind book for students (high school and college) on having the tools to answer today’s hard questions, the kind that keep you awake at night. Gathered from thousands of questions from students across the nation, I put together the seven hottest questions, framed them with stories and a personal conversational style, to equip readers to carry their faith with confidence in the 21st century.

See the comments section for Living with Questions on Amazon too.

Also, if you like audio books, Living with Questions was released as an audio book last month. I narrate the book and bring my own reading style (not your average dead-pan book reading–which usually puts me to sleep). Oh, yes, over 6 hours of fun!

Story of Surgery – Skin Cancer

Dec 8

Posted by Bill in Uncategorized | No Comments

In September I went to the dermatologist for a bump under my eyebrow. The visit was as ordinary as the one I made the year before over a similar bump in the same place. That year they blasted it with liquid nitrogen and I was done. A tiny bit grew back. So that was the purpose of this visit–to take off the tiny bump that had grown a little.

Only this time the doctor took a biopsy. Small shot and a cut. As is my usual custom, I had a vasovagal episode: cold sweats, low blood pressure, pale face. The biopsy lasted two minutes. My response lasted another 20.

I was confident the biopsy was just procedural and of no concern. I was convinced of that before I went to the doctor that morning. I was told the results would be available in a week.

Ten days later I got a voicemail that the results were in. I called the doctor but had to leave a message. Two days pass, so I tried calling again. I found out this is the “nurses” line and they are not always available. So I called several times until someone picked up the one.

In a very candid voice, “Oh, yes, your biopsy returned. You have cancer.”

That word “cancer” is like saying AIDS. Everything stood still for me at that word. Yet the word, I’ve learned, is more nuanced than AIDS, applies to different kinds. I asked a couple of questions. I was told I’d undergo a MOHS procedure in early November and that literature was being dropped in the mail for me.

I called back two more times with questions that day. Processing. The kind of skin cancer I had can spread to other organs, I was told, could cause the removal of my eye, could spread to the lungs.

My mother died of breast cancer that went to her lungs. But breast cancer is a different kind of cancer than skin cancer. Yet, still, I started to think about what I was leaving behind should this cancer spread: wife, baby boy, Soulation, too many unwritten words.

One thing that kept coming to mind was my story with fundamentalism… how it had to be written. I didn’t want to die without writing that. People need to know, I thought. People need to know how its poison effects most evangelical churches in various forms. People need to know. Just like people needed to know about the Gulag. If I had a year to live, would I write that?

Funny the things that come to mind if you think you’ve not much time left to live. Reassurance flooded me that human life was good, appropriate human life intended by our Maker, though it’s funny how hard you have to wrestle with humans sometimes to remember and believe it.

I debated finding a doctor that would put me under general anesthetic. I didn’t want a HUGE vasovagal episode during a longer surgery. As I explored, I decided to just do the MOHS and the local anesthetic and listen to the knife and scissors and feel the needles and the cuts. This would be the most dramatic physical manipulation I’ve consciously had. [I was knocked out for my wisdom teeth procedure when I was 21.]

I shared all these fears (confessing of sins?) with my house church. They encouraged and prayed for me. Our Soulation prayer team did the same. Many of my readers knew I was going in for surgery of some kind, though without specifics.

The day came. The waiting room was filled with others getting the same procedure that day. All of them older than I. The doctor said I’m young to have this procedure, but all this Welsch skin in Florida and California sun does not a friendship make. I’ll have regular examinations the rest of my life, the surgeon said, and 50% chance another procedure in the future. We caught it early and the chance of spreading is slim.

That day in the doctor’s chair was miraculous. I don’t use that special word very often. But with prayers and Jonalyn’s sticking with me through the whole procedure, I had no vasovagal response. I was even talking to the doctors as they sewed me up (15 stitches, maybe more). Jonalyn even had to sit down for the sight of my eyebrow flayed open. I kept squeezing her hand through my fears and uneasiness and inviting Jesus to be my peace. The God of Israel held me.

A week later the stitches were removed. Those were a monument of a time God met me and I went through the waters unharmed. I wore them proudly. The scar continues to fade (the doctor said there likely won’t be one when it fully heals). But the memory lives on. Now I have to wear hats in the sunshine… another monument, though less rugged as a scar above the eye. You’ll see more hats in future pictures on our facebook fan page, I’m sure…

That’s the story.

Pondering Streets of Gold (and an opportunity)

Nov 3

Posted by Dale Fincher in Uncategorized | No Comments

This is today’s fledge (going out later this morning)… I wanted to give you a sneak peak at pondering beauty in sacred space as well as sharing with you an opporutunity.

Pondering Streets of Gold

[All photos, but the golden driveway, copyright Jeff LeFever]

We rounded the corner of our driveway and caught a rare a glimpse of heaven: a street of gold. Aspen covered the drive, leaving a sheet of yellow. Sunset seemed to emit light from the road as well as from the sky.

We drove slowly over the carpet of leaves, windows down, catching our breath, watching the extravagant show of God littering a world preparing for winter.

These little moments are sacred. They feel set apart, remembered. While some moments call us in whispers to pay attention these extraordinary sights may be missed only by the blind. Yet even the blind may smell it in the air.

The God of Israel described his city as having streets of gold. The shimmer, the opulence, the purity all come to mind. God may be giving us a picture of what sacred space looks like, moments where we have to pause to catch our breath, to relish the visual pleasure, to let the smile freely curl upon our faces.

Beauty does this to us. And while beauty cannot be described as easily as many of our theological doctrines and apologetic arguments, it is as important to our souls as daily bread. It draws us in, slows us down, reminds us that more is going on than meets the eye, and points us in transcendent directions.

Sometimes we merely look at beauty, sometimes we are in it. Sometimes we look at the aspen, like a postcard. Sometimes we are in a forest of them on a hike. Most man-made sacred spaces are created for such an experience. Cathedral domes. Steeples. Gold leaf. Paintings by the masters. Hard stone floors cut from mountains. Light perfectly positioned through impenetrable architecture, depending on the time of day. A place to pray. To kneel. To remember. Outside, the “world.” Inside, something special, deliberate, set apart, beautiful like a street of gold.

Our friend and Soulation teammate, Jeff Lefever, has embodied this to us more than anyone in our lives. He’s concerned we remember sacred space, not only in our churches but in our surrounding culture. He hears the whispers in the beauty of brokenness as he captures people sitting on a curb, a child playing with ice cream, a woman in full Muslim dress walking the beach. He notes graffiti and the ways we express ourselves through retail shop windows. He captures the bones of an abandoned bridge. He reveals the pictures rainbowed in stained-glass. And he brings these things home.

Jeff is currently working on capturing the sacred spaces in many well-known cities. Last winter, he spent several weeks in Prague, which was the third city for his body of work (United States and France were previous). He posted an ongoing blog of his photos and reflections, the disappointment with closed churches, the architecture of people at prayer, the snow falling on once-noticed statues around the city.

We now have four prints from his last trip. One sits above our mantle, reminiscent of the dutch landscape painters, large sky, village below, cathedral dominating the horizon, a farmer harvesting food in the foreground like a biblical parable. Another captures the entry way to the side door of a Jewish synagogue, the edge of the building meeting a leafless tree stretching to the sky as a metaphor of life. While our cathedrals and sacred spaces are decaying and in disrepair, Jeff has brought them home, bottled them in print for us, our generation, for the world. And we’re reminded daily of the God of Israel who comes near to us in beauty, architecture, and the in weighty privilege of prayer.

As our personal photographer, Jeff believes in the work of Soulation like few others. And it is my honor to present his work to you and an opportunity to join in a community of voices that says “Beauty matters! I will relish and defend it for the world!”

You get participate in sending Jeff to Israel this December. As you know, Israel is the hotbed of sacred space, the epicenter of religion and cultural upheaval. Jeff is, in many ways, going behind enemy lines find the sacred among all the violence and show the peace that the God of Israel promised to his people.

We’ll be giving to this project too. This project benefits us by sharing the awareness and experience of sacred space. The more we share them, the more we learn to “see” beauty, the more it helps us and our community to be appropriately human.

The added benefit is choosing a professional print from Jeff that I can put on my walls, to share that story, to draw others into this food for hungry souls. In many ways, Jeff’s photography is an apologetic: showing the world what God is like with pictures, light, and space. Your gift would be a simple way to see a profound thing happen.

People often ask where are the artists today speaking into our culture? They ask, where are the fresh voices our world needs to hear? Jeff Lefever is among those unsung fresh voices. In a world of high-tech fundraising, mega-marketing, and media-hype, where the most “popular” voice gets to be heard over many of the other worthwhile voices, I’m glad to call Jeff a friend. He’s uninterested in collecting money to serve him. He wants a community to help serve the work. He’s interested in taking you along, to find meaning in the mundane and beauty in the brokenness. See his work at www.lefever.com.

Jeff has many other benefits for those who give. Check out his Kickstarter page at www.kickstarter.com and help him reach beyond his goal. And if you want a tax-deductible receipt, you can send your check to Jeff and ask him for one as his work is under a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Write him for more info if you’d like to give that way (lefever@lefever.com).

As we all learn to “see” beauty better in this world, our Streets of Gold moments will grow more numerous and the meaning God has poured into this world more blessed. Our souls will grow sturdier and our commission to shine light into the world more creative.

What do typical Halloweeners celebrate this time of year?

Oct 23

Posted by Dale Fincher in Uncategorized | No Comments

This was my question on my facebook wall a couple of days ago. Many responded and one added I should blog on it (Jodi, you know who you are!).

I’m rather perplexed by this “holiday” and have some ideas of my own. But, first, questions for you:

Is Halloween a “satanic” holiday? It its purpose to celebrate death, evil and suffering?
Does the origin of a holiday mean we celebrate it the same way today? Does it matter?
Is Halloween just an excuse to costume ourselves? Is there something wrong with this? Why this holiday?
What’s with all the candy?
What has our culture turned Halloween into that it’s become the second most lucrative holiday of the year? Is this holiday really just a marketing ploy by large corporations?
Do Americans “celebrate” Halloween? Or are we “celebrating” something else that we just happen to call “Halloween”?

Take any or all questions or add your own question… give me your thoughtful ideas as to what’s going on here.

"Church"? …A Way Forward!

Oct 9

Posted by Dale Fincher in christianity, church, emergent | No Comments

Part 1 of this discussion.
Part 2 of this discussion.

As we continue to discuss “church,” many believe the organized structure we call “church” is lacking. Often, it causes people to feel disenfranchised, floating, and maybe even an outcast. Even people who love Jesus may struggle with the tension between being faithful to Jesus and being faithful to an organized “church” that constantly identifies itself as THE way the people of God commune.

Add to this the further complications of denominations and distinctions of various organizations. Also, the drive to be relevant to a demographic, to market and brand, to be friendly to outsiders, to tailor to families, to hit the general audience of infotainment who are not habituated toward stimulating cultural conversation and intellectual stretching. The mix becomes more complicated and the way forward less clear.

We cannot just wipe the slate clean and start over. The 19^th century proved that becomes a hotbed of cults and strange new “organizations,” usually creating more faction than unity.

However, we can step back and get a bigger picture, allow for the various expressions of the “church” and then give ourselves the freedom to be responsible for ourselves without decrying that some people don’t like “church.” We have to be okay with their leaving the “church” is not a bad thing. If denominations dwindle their influence and power, if fewer “churches” are being planted, we have to be okay with that not being a bad thing. If our friends, family, or children do not want to be affiliated with “church,” we have to be okay with that not being a bad thing.

Where do we step back? Some have spoken for the need to be Scriptural and not just cater to our frustrations. Duly noted. The way forward must coincide with God’s larger story as revealed through Scripture. Some have spoken that we need to be relevant to today’s needs. Also duly noted. The Scripture gives plenty of space for cultural context, not requiring we all wear togas, eat kosher, and quote Plato before we can engage healthy spirituality.

So what is “church”? I raise the question this way because unless we know what we are, we cannot proceed forward. And I think this is part of the identity that has been lost, like the guy who wanted to start a company to make chocolate and got so involved in accounting and marketing he forgot his love for chocolate.

It is important when we look up the meaning of “church” in the Scripture, we don’t just see how Strong’s defines “ekklesia” in Greek. We have to note how this word is used in different contexts. For example, “church” cannot mean the building on the corner when mentioned in Matthew 18 as a place for discipline. There was no “church” of that kind. So we have to wonder at what Jesus is referring to and if the same meaning can be brought forward. Or take Acts 7 when Stephen talks about the people of Israel at Sinai. The KJV actually translates them as the “church” of Israel. Other translations call it the “assembly” of Israel. This also is not the building on the corner as we know it.

“Assembly” is the plain definition of “church.” And, throughout the Scripture, it seems to refer to either a local gathering or the identity of a larger group of people. You might say you have an assembly in Ephesus or an assembly on the earth. The assembly of Ephesus is part of the assembly on earth. When we say “church” it has these different meanings depending on where you stand, though they are tightly connected as a concept for people under the same banner.

Another thing to note about “ekklesia” in the New Testament is how it is used in the Greek Old Testament. In the Old Testament it refers to the “Assembly of Israel.” In fact, the Hebrew word behind “ekklesia” is the word “kahal” which is the “House or Commonwealth of Israel.”

The important link for us to consider (and this is the part that many people refuse to entertain) is that the New Testament was written by Jews who wrote with Hebrew concepts behind their word choices. So when they say “ekklesia,” they are thinking of the same way they use “ekklesia” as Jews. They aren’t creating a new concept. To the New Testament writers, “Ekklesia” is the “House of Israel.” As one Jewish scholar notes, “There is no ‘church’ in the Scripture!” He, of course, means no “church” as we usually define it. The identity of believers of the God of Israel are part of the House of Israel. Read Romans 9-11 and see how Gentiles are grafted into the Jewish story. If we really want to be organic and “big picture” we have to cast our identity in with Israel for there is no other identity for the people of God but through them and their Messiah, Jesus.

Okay, that’s big picture. The “church” wasn’t invented 2000 years ago. It was created and chosen by God. Beginning with Abraham, the nations are being reconciled to God through Abraham’s people and all who will be part of that story.

That big picture, if we really sit in it, will affect everything else we think about theology, our identity, and our purpose. The Catholic Church believed (and still does) that the Jews are replaced by Christians, hence all the Jewish temple imagery imported into cathedrals. The Temple has been rebuilt, complete with sacrifice on the alter at every Mass. The Reformers also carried this idea forward, believing they replaced the Jews. Notice how many reformed theologians and preachers (some of whom are a household name for church-folk) will quote the Old Testament and replace “Israel” with their own view of “church” as inheritors of promise. A variety of Protestant churches still call the front of their church the “alter” and have “alter calls” as the “mercy seat.” This is all Temple talk as if something in our church and our gathering has replaced God’s real Temple and the Jewish people.

I do not believe the Gentile church has replaced the Jews. I think we’re part of them as younger siblings. This is how we are very different from the Abrahamic faith of Islam which continues the replacement tradition, replacing the Jews, then the Christians. Rather, the Christian story is the Jewish story. It’s one story.

If I had one guess why today’s “churches” are covered in criticism, it is because God is moving among us. He’s gently pointing out that our idea of church has missed the larger picture of his work in the world. Until we see Israel as the center people of the story, we will miss what is going on. While this may raise just as many questions as it answers, we have to press forward. The fragmentation of “church” as we know it, may not be a bad thing.

So what about that building on the corner? This has been the larger puzzle for me. I can’t say that I’m totally confident in my view on this yet. I haven’t heard others talk about it, so that always leaves me cautious. However, this won’t be the first time I’ve stumbled on some ideas and found out later that it was a clearer path.

The building on the corner we affectionately call “church” is actually a community center. Just as my little town of Steamboat has a community center, so the “church” in Steamboat has a variety of community centers. These centers have names like “Baptist,” “Methodist,” “Christian” in the titles. But they are not the church. The church is believers in the Messiah of Israel who are part of the House of Israel.

These believers create all sorts of community benefits: community centers (formerly called “churches”), hospitals, universities, shelters, pregnancy care clinics, non-profits, etc. When believers want to create a building in which to meet, that is their choice. The sad part is when people feel guilted into going to the community center every week to be part of “church.”

This is where I differ from many church critics. I do not want us to abolish community centers (formerly called “churches”). If people want to run them as a place to meet others, for non-believers to investigate biblical questions, for weddings and funerals, for therapy, then that is their prerogative. I don’t see any Biblical reason why this should not be so.

Many may agree with this and find this a normal way to think about the building organization. But I invite you to watch your language and see how you speak about the community center. Do you call it the “Lord’s house?” Do you call it the place of worship? Do you speak of going to the center as “going to church”? Are you frustrated when the numbers and down which triggers a feeling that fewer people love God today? These are all evidence that we really have identified the church as the organization on the corner.

I find it interesting when Paul speaks of the church in Ephesus. Think of the House of Israel in Ephesus, the gentiles included. Think of the people assembling together, in homes, or however they gathered to worship and share. While people together will organize, this does not mean people together automatically become an “organization” as we see it today. This wasn’t an organization with large offerings for the local community centers. This wasn’t an organization complete with pastors, elders, deacons in every gathering running the show. Each assembly may well not have had their own elders, as each assembly may not be that large or may have people coming and going to different gatherings around the town.

This may be why many people feeling more connected through their coworkers are their work, through coffee shop conversations, through informal get-togethers with friends. It may be that we are being a community by living in community. The community center called “church” moves away from the center of our attention to the periphery. Just like there is more to Steamboat than our community center, so most of our identity as God’s community needs to take place outside of any community center, indeed, even without one.

So where to the people God gifts with being pastor/teachers, elders, deacons, etc, fit in? I’m still unsure if these are “offices” as we use the term today. They may just be recognized gifted people just as the Jews saw their elders, teachers, and servants (the same titles of appointment are used for those who assisted Moses). They assist the larger church, sitting at the gates with the other Jewish elders, likely going to differing gatherings and participating in a larger community. I believe elders were over the whole city of people, not just over one street corner as we have it today. Notice when Paul commissions the elders of Ephesus in Acts; he doesn’t commission them to their local gatherings but over the “church of God,” the House of Israel in the area. Imagine that being the case today, where elders weren’t limited to a board of directors in a community center, were not “professional” ministers, but were considered watchdogs against abuse and harmful ideas in the larger body.

I can really see how positions of leadership in this kind of setting safeguards against the narcissism we see in many leaders today. They would be recognized by the people rather than appointed by a few. And if people didn’t see them as elders without the qualifications Paul lists in Timothy, then their authority would be unrecognized. It would be the people of the House of Israel who would recognize them, not the institution that put them on payroll.

What about membership? Membership means you’re part of the House of Israel. You can make a membership at the community center, just like you can if you started a Christian Golf Club. But the Scripture doesn’t speak of membership in those terms. It is always being a “member” of the organic body of Israel with the Jewish Messiah as the Head. Many members, one Body, with Jesus as the Head.

What about the disenfranchised people who struggle over leaving their community center and painfully believe they are leaving the “church”? We pray for them. We get involved in their lives. We do not pretend the community center is what unites us. We might even join them as they seek to implement the faith in fresh ways. And we start taking responsibility for ourselves with a bigger picture of who we are as the people of God.

Perhaps this could well answer Christian Smith’s call to adjust “church” for emerging adults, as he talked about in a recent interview.

“Lost in Translation” interview with Christian Smith,

Many churches are set up to cater to married couples with children. This is a well-known fact. And they may try to do something for teens and emerging adults. But trying to be more conscious and intentional about the language they use, the programs they offer, so those who are not married and don’t have children are not sidelined—that’s a start. But it probably will require more creative thinking about context—I don’t even want to say programs—but ways to form communities and places where people can connect and work out common interests beyond the standard worship service and Sunday school.

I like his reference to “context.” Yes, on my view, we need to place our whole paradigm within a different context.

I could be way off. I need to be convinced that I’m not. If this larger vision is what God is up to, reminding his people that they are not disconnected from the House of Israel, preparing the world for Messiah’s return, are we willing to step away from our religious loyalty to the community center and consider the wilder following of the Spirit in the broader House of God? Are we willing to gathering however the Spirit leads us in unity, engaging in spiritual growth, intelligent conversation, prayer, sharing, song, and teaching one another?

"Church"? … unraveling the crisis

Sep 26

Posted by Dale Fincher in christianity, church, emergent | No Comments

Continuing the theme of the previous post, I’ve appreciated several observations that I want to summarize.

1) Many Christians are discouraged with “church,” not just any “church,” but “church” in general, not only as irrelevant but unbiblical.

2) Pastors and elders tend to blame the lazy and complaining people in the congregation for many of these problems. These problems would be sorted out if people were hard-working, more submissive to leadership, and knew the Bible.
3) Some of these complaints are surface issues, symptoms of a deeper problem. These symptoms include, but are not limited to,

a general unfriendliness of fellow Christians in large group settings,

passivity, the masses listening to the few,

content control,

church is an entertainment production to attract a larger attendance,

the church mimics popular culture with appeal to instant gratification,

and an authoritarian approach where those at the top tell those under them what to think and believe without equipping them with good reasons or practice.

3) Some of the complaints are systematic, including, but not limited to,

a strict hierarchy (senior pastor at top, etc) of the church creates a more passive approach from the people,

the institution tends to focus on abstract beliefs and programs rather than relationships,

denomination create an environment unwilling to identity with other “churches,”

church services, pastoral “vision” and programs tend to leave out how the Spirit moves among a people with the Messiah as the real head,

leadership caters more to the masses than to individuals,

our evangelical churches overemphasis on Paul’s letters to the exclusion of the gospels and Old Testament.

What I want us to consider in this post as we search for the root of this issue (and I do believe some of the root is clearly knowable and that changes can be made) is to consider that many people EXPECT more out of the “church” (as we know it) than it seems able to give. Likewise, the “church” (as we know it), may be promising more than it can deliver. I feel these assumptions are themselves indicators of something deeper that needs definition.

We may find some helpful perspective in identifying what the “church” IS in general. The previous comments have made a distinction made between the people and the institution. This is an important distinction if we’re to unravel the larger crisis we see today.

Is the church both of them?
Is the organizing of a people an automatic institution as we know it?
Have we historically been thinking of the “offices” “format,” “government,” “membership” qualities of the institution in the right way (do we automatically use the verses to justify the positions and formats we have at our “church”?),
Do we identify ourselves more closely with the people or the institution?
Do we identify ourselves along denominational lines and part of a pastor’s flock OR do we more automatically identify ourselves with all Jesus followers in our town?
Does the “way we’ve always done it” cloud our reading of Scripture for what it really says?
Is there a new way to think about this distinction between people and institution we haven’t thought of before?

And, most importantly, are we in a posture of humility, willing to change should we need to?

Continued on next post.

What Exactly is "Church"?

Sep 23

Posted by Dale Fincher in christianity, christians, church, emergent | No Comments

We’ve all witnessed the onslaught of recent publishing. We’ve read the articles that speak to so many people leaving church. We’ve seen the books by people disillusioned with church. We’re heard the statistics decrying that most students won’t even attend church by the time they are out of college. Many leaders are fretting over the dropped attendance as an indication of the spiritual maturity of the Christian population.

What exactly is going on here? Why are people discouraged with church? What is church that it isn’t meeting people’s needs? What is it about church that seems to be missing the point?

Many surface features come to mind: music, preaching, shifting more liberal or more conservative, trendy, laziness, etc. But there must be something more. Is there something intrinsic to today’s church that repels so many people who follow Jesus (and those who don’t!)?

I really want to know some what you’re observing where you are? What are you feeling about church that troubles you? What are people talking about? Have you heard some important insights? What is “church” and what should we do about it? Throw them into the comment section and let’s discuss!

Continued on next post.

Beyond the Border: The Mystery of Mystery

Sep 20

Posted by Dale Fincher in christianity, christianity today, emergent, mystery | No Comments

When I began to take my faith serious in my late teens, few things made me feel more alone among God’s so-called people than when my Christian community discouraged me from testing and pressing into my faith. They would say, “Don’t think too much!” or in more disguised positive ways like, “You just have to take it by faith,” or in ways that made me feel like I had a disease like, “Man, you’re deep!” Pressing into the so-called “deeper” things with thoughtful reflection was my life’s blood. If life itself was a meaningful as I sensed that it was, I couldn’t settle for pat answers, party-lines, and the insistent simpleness of the mob who fail to risk their reputation for freedom.

That was how I felt then, needing to push aside systems and people, including the church, in order to find light and truth. My quest continues. But the irresistible gnawing at my soul in those early years was unbearable, a real darkness, a kind of hell. A recent Christianity Today article moved this theme in me, “Reveling in the Mystery.” D.H. Williams, professor at Baylor College, explores the mystery of God. He writes, “As a result, Christianity has struggled since the 3rd century to avoid what theologian Jaroslav Pelikan called a “tyranny of epistemology” in its understanding of God and God’s revelation to us. Simply put, this tyranny occurs when Christians think of God as a great field of investigation, a problem to be solved.” I can affirm that some have treated God as a problem to be solved. Wrap God up in a pretty box with a bow on top and call it “Christianity.” In reality, these are seeking merely propositions about God, in part, because the more you know the more you can control. It is a tyranny both of the knower and for those around him. I find that people in this position are often insecure and afraid and need our patience.

Many in the Emergent movement have decried the tyranny of epistemology, sometimes overstating exactly what the tyranny is out of their own insecurity, but still bearing at the heart of it an insistence that when we act as though we have the special corner on truth, all parsed and dissected, we are actually farther than God in our arrogance than we ever were without our knowledge. In dissecting our theology too much, we something gets lost. The patient dies. I know some groups that denounced the Emergent church as heretical, yet I suspect that denouncement can only come from those who have both misunderstood as well as become tyrants themselves with a wooden view of God and the universe. Yet, the other spectrum is equally dangerous, that we can know very little and must revel in nebulous mystery if we’re going anywhere. Reveling in mystery can become wallowing in mystery. Some of the people of my growing up years were like this, taking “faith” to mean contentment in not knowing even basic ideas revealed to us by God—things that God seems very keen on us knowing.

Williams then takes the reader through several stages in the mystical journey of the Christian journey, drawn from Gregory of Nyssa who draws these ideas from Moses. The reading is very interesting, so I recommend going through the article (one of the better ones by CT). While I’m unsure of Gregory’s hermeneutic that Moses life is an outline for our own, I do think many of the mystical experiences in this article are common to those who press into God, bringing all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

In reading the article, I wondered how we can explain mystery more clearly, at least to me. What exactly is mystery? Where does mystery begin?

Paul often talks about the “mystery of time,” by which he means things we did not know and now do know. Jesus the Messiah being one such example of a revealed mystery. We did not know God would send THIS kind of Messiah! This is one of the pleasures of surprise in education: every day new knowledge comes to us. More mysteries revealed. With this kind of mystery, we go into the darkness of knowing that we don’t know. And, once illuminated, we now know.

Many of our questions in life are like this. We come to learn many things, just as the questioners Nicodemus and Thomas came to learn by simply asking their questions. And we continue to know as we grow. Like a child must have pureed vegetables, an adult gets to indulge in all the crispy pleasure of a ripened broccoli. We get to grow up in our knowledge too, taking in all that we are capable of. “When I became a man, I put away childish things.”

But there is another kind of mystery, one that is more interesting to me and more at the heart of this post. It is the “mystery of relationship.” Mike Mason wrote the only marriage book I recommend for anyone serious about getting married called, “The Mystery of Marriage.” Marriage is a mystery, because marriage is relational. Unlike the mystery of education, where we grow to know more as we study, the mystery of relationships involves mysteries we may never know as we have no capacity to get into the mind of the other. As much as we can show courtesy to see things from another’s perspective, we can never get inside their skin.

This is true with God as well. He reveals things to us, but we only know him as we get to know him. Because he is Creator and we are creaturely, many things about him I may never know, but can only experience. I’ve heard the verse abused, “His ways are higher than our ways,” to mean that that God is indescribable, past understanding. But that’s not the context of Isaiah (55:8). God is referring to his love, that quality so broad and deep, that we hardly approach understanding how much he cares about his creation and to what ends he goes to be with humans and redeem them. Who knows what he will do next? Who knows what his full feelings are for me? Who knows how far he is inviting me up his mountain? That is mysterious indeed.

Paul was getting at this kind of mystery in Ephesians, when he wrote, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:17-19). Love is a mystery. It is only known, not through propositions, but through experience. Like a rainbow, you can see love, but you cannot bottle it.

This morning I listened to the bull elks bugling in the forest around our cabin. The bulls are collecting harems, their mistresses of the rut. Their trumpeting bugle echoes off the canyon walls, inciting fights from other bulls and inviting cow elks to their bedroom chambers.

I hike into the 100 acres of aspen, pine, and gamble oak that we affectionately call the “White Woods”. I see the sign, the scraped trees, the scat on the ground. I smell the musk in the air. I even walked up on a bull last week. Within my boundaries, I can explore what the elk are doing, see the spike following the bull, see the cow a hundred yards to the south making her approach.

I think of the boundaries as the knowledge we grow into. And while there is still much to know, knowledge is available to me. Yet what goes on outside my boundaries? I can still hear bugling. But I cannot explore it. I cannot see the clashing of antlers between two mature bulls. I cannot count the number of heads in the herds. My boundaries are not limitless. Beyond my borders, mystery comes to me in sounds and hints, enough for my imagination to marvel at what lies beyond.

Most of each person lies beyond our borders: My wife, my friends, God, and even myself. I am closer to myself than anyone else in existence, yet I have depths I do not understand. My self-knowledge is limited. I gain some tools through therapy, unpacking my past, letting the Spirit search me, knowing myself and my desires, but I see a deep, dark well within me, one that I will never fully know. I explore what I can until I hit the border when I can go no further. I can grow in virtue, but it will require more than willpower to change myself. If I’m mysterious to me, if I have parts inaccessible by my own faculties, then all I can do is hear the faintest hints of who I am and what lies beneath and let my imagination marvel. “I am fearfully made.”

The mystery of mystery is that God’s generosity puts us in a world too big for us, inviting us to know all we can and marvel in what is beyond. We do this generosity a disservice when we use “mystery” to be lazy, as an excuse from pushing into love because our souls are weak and undisciplined. Only a mind awake takes the greatest pleasures in what is unknowable because it it knows its own limits, seeing mystery not as a hindrance nor as fearful, but a place filled with God’s love unfolding colors I can only dare to dream about.

One day we will see God’s face and I pray that we recognize it. Perhaps the only way forward is to take what God has revealed, press into its meaning as much as we can, and then allow the mysteries that lie beyond the border continue to sound off.

When America was Humble

Sep 15

Posted by Dale Fincher in humility, politics | No Comments

My cousin sent me this article today: High-Five Nation. The writer, David Brooks, reflects back on an earlier page in American culture–the day WW2 ended. Americans were sober, grateful, humble. I was encouraged to see a better time in American sentiment, when we didn’t think we were the best, when we just did what we could to get the right things done within our legitimate power.

This article invigorated me again that when we are humble, we are great. In light of the last post on our fear-mongering politics, this is a more positive attitude forward than insisting our status quo is the “right” and only way, using humility rather than majority power and slippery rhetoric to move forward.

Thoughts on 9/11 – Are we free?

Sep 11

Posted by Dale Fincher in freedom, sept 11 | No Comments

I was sitting in the kitchen of my soon-to-be fiance’s house in California… strangely enough I was living there, but that’s another story. (Eleven days later I would propose.) It was around 7am.

At the kitchen table on September 11, 2001, I was eating cereal (maybe with some toast), when Jonalyn’s grandmother stepped in from next door. “You won’t have heard about this yet, but the World Trade Center has been attacked.” She elaborated on what happened.

Any dramatic moment in our lives makes time slow, puts our sense on alert, our imagination spinning, “What does this mean?” We didn’t know. Two wars later, we may still not know.

We went to class. Jonalyn and I had the same class that morning on epistemology. How do you know what you know? Do you know what you know? What if we’re deceived and think we know but we only grasp to something false and hence do not know what we thought we knew? That’s the weird mind-bending stuff of epistemology. That was our first class that day. Fitting.

Our professor paused and asked the class what they thought of the events of the morning in NY. Many wanted to attack the perpetrators immediately (most of the students in the class were male, interestingly). Though the criminals were all dead and bound to no sovereign nation of origin, my fellow students were ready to shoot into the dark. I wasn’t ready to attack. I didn’t know what to do.

I had lunch with that same professor that day. Chinese food, I think. He took an interest in me. Normal guy behind all that brain. That’s when I caught the first images of what happened in NY. The television at the entrance of the restaurant replayed footage of the towers disintegrating like sand.

Just 21 months after the new millennium was SUPPOSED to be defined by Y2K, the world was redefined by primitive sabotage.

The world fixed its attention in this new era on hostiles. We allowed ourselves to be defined, not by what we love, but by what we fear.

And perhaps that is what has changed the American landscape most dramatically. It wasn’t being struck on native turf, but by how we responded and continue to respond as people who insist we have our fate in our hands and must manipulate to a predefined “American way” at all costs. All costs.

Most of history learns to live with such tragedy and are deepened by it. Nobody likes it, but then the better way to live is to not fear being afraid of it.

I’m reminded of this “American way” every time I air travel. Every time I go through security, wearing shoes to wear that slip on and off easily, pants that don’t require a belt, the pack that slides a laptop in and out in a flash, the empty water bottle to fill up in the terminal, the to be without toiletries should a plane be delayed, the misfortune of packing a week of clothing into a carry-on.

Every security point, every TSA worker that looks like they’ve been on shift with grumpy people one hour too long, every report in the terminals that the security alert that day is “orange” (it is always ORANGE!… it is so typically orange that the meaning of orange has worn on… why not just tell people to be alert instead of watering down the coloring system, giving us evidence that even when we’re under the scary color orange, life is normal?). All of this because we fear our enemies, all enforced by politicians who do not bear such inconveniences, making laws for the unsafe little people in our land, because we know our lawmakers are always safe, right?

And so the fear continues. Terrorists yesterday. Environment and health care today. We continue to be motivated, not by what we love, but by what we fear. We are afraid life will be dramatically altered if we don’t cash in our clunkers (a ‘rescue’ with a very misleading name), not wanting to preserve the earth because we love it, but because we fear our lifestyle will be changed.

Nobody is talking about reducing urban centers that choke out nature and community. I continue to see fancy commercials about reducing waste and saving the earth, only to see images and messages for these campaigns coming from urban centers where the earth has been demolished and people lack knowledge of farming, forest, fresh air, where “conveniences” rule the day, and anonymity is an option. We crave the sophistication of the city, women in their vulnerable high heals, men in their ties, none of which is very suitable to actually living in nature, all the dress code of a location where we pretend we are safe, where our ties won’t get caught on trees, where our heals will not require we know how to run. We’ve created a false world and now we want to preserve it.

The same can be said for the economy… for all we see in the media, we’re willing to sell our souls to let the government bail us out so our economy can grow. We’re willing to pick on minorities (our politicians appeal to the majority by using derogatory words for the minority, like “the rich” or “wealthy”) to ease our lives–much like we did with the minority in the years of slavery. Is that all we are, economic animals, scroungers? We need the economy to grow because we fear our enemies will outpace us, grow stronger than us, demolish us. A legitimate fear? Perhaps. But does it steal our freedom to fight it?

And then health care, with a myriad of voices all wanting reform (yes, let’s reform it! Let’s stop suing doctors for not being shamans and not raising the dead so that their insurance premiums can go down so we can pay decent prices!)… but nobody can agree with what reform we want or need. One hundred years ago, nobody had health care. We had less a problem with death because we knew life was more than the body. Today’s technology promises we can alleviate our fears of sickness so that we can…. wait, what exactly do we plan to do with all our health and life? Oh, yes, continue to live in fear over the environment, economy, and some rogues.

Or we can be free. As William Stuntz has pointed out, “Some might wish for an American future free of culture wars. I don’t. I think these battles are worth fighting, but I do wish for good wars, the kind [Martin Luther] King fought, the kind in which we love our enemies and fight for the chance to embrace them.” May the things we live for today be things worthy of our humanity, free of fear, reaching forward into what is hearty and good.

Edit 9/15: this article I think speaks into our present situation… allowing fear to rob of us freedom, wanting immediate “change” to overhaul our evils, surrendering our thoughtfulness to “experts,” and our resources to a few at the top.