Summertime and the Living is Easy
There are many great things about summertime: daylilies, swimming, grilling out hamburgers, fireworks, frogs, sleeping-in, capri-pants, popsicles, the ice-cream truck, etc. But to me, the best thing about summer is that it affords me time to do two things that sometimes I don't have time for: reading and thinking. So this summer before I start graduate school, I have tried to cram in as much reading and thinking as I can.
Updates:
1. Reading
A. Don't read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler unless you really like Jane Austen, you have read all of her books recently, and you like books that wear a liberal agenda like a blanket. I like Jane, but I don't love her, I haven't read her in a bit, and I don't mind liberality, but . . . In short, I didn't like this book.
B. If you enjoy tear-jerkers and you like love stories, read The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I stayed-up literally all night reading this novel (another thing I love about summer, as so eloquently put by Slaughter, "up all night, sleep all day!" Of course, I think Slaughter was speaking of participating in activities other than reading.). At 5 a.m. right after I finished the book, Brad came in to our bedroom after he had finished making incredibly important trades in his baseball Xbox game (he also agrees with Slaughter). He saw me crying, and assuming that something horribly traumatic had happened, ran towards me, enveloped me in his arms and said, "What is wrong? It's O.K. Did I do something? What happened?" I was sobbing so hard that I could not talk; I could only mumble, "(intake of breath) Hhhhhhh (intake of breath) diiiiiiiiiiiiii (another long intake of breath)." Then I was so amused by the ridiculousness of the situation and the incredibly concerned and scared look on Brad's face that I began to laugh; however, when you laugh after you have been crying hard for an hour, it does not look like laughter. To Brad, it looked like his coming into the room only escalated my sadness. It took awhile before I could finally pull myself together enough to tell him that I was crying because of the book, not because of some horrible, awful event that he had missed while he was callously fictitiously making trades.
2. Thinking
Our preacher Jody Vickery's sermon a couple of Sunday's ago on worship has really channeled my thoughts about what I think being a Christian means. Most of my life, being a Christian has meant not doing the following things: drinking, dancing, using crude language, swimming with boys, revealing my navel, my upper thighs, or too much of my clavicle or upper back, wearing my clothing tight, having more than acquaintance with those outside "the brotherhood," missing Sunday night or Wednesday night church, allowing Christian lyrics to mingle with unholy instruments, associating with Democrats, wearing white shoes after labor day, speaking in church, speaking too loudly or brashly in any circumstance, smoking, watching PG-13 or R rated movies, watching _Golden Girls_, wearing "loud" jewelry or clothing, saying the word "pregnant" or discussing menstruation in "mixed" company, clapping or being too joyful or expressive during worship, watching Soap Operas, listening to rap or heavy metal music-- You get the picture.
As I have gotten older, I have begun to realize that some of these things might not have anything to do with Christianity. And I know that there are absolutes and that some of my "do nots" are probably absolutes,
But. . . When I realized that Jesus really did drink wine and his first miracle was to turn water to wine . . .When I went dancing for the first time and realized that it was fun and not "lude or lascivious". . . When I learned that most "cuss" words are considered "cuss" words so that we can as a society can easily judge class based on word choice. . . When I experienced a worship service with musical instruments and realized that maybe there are more ways to worship God than just using voices and maybe the verses I had been taught aren't as air-tight as they had been made to seem. . .When I began to read the passages about how women are to behave in the church and associate them with context. . .
Thus the post-modern dilemma. How do you find absolutes when your list of absolutes has been riddled with holes? Having a list of "do nots" makes everything so easy. It is easy to be right; it is easy to judge who is right and who is wrong; it is easy to feel safe. But. . . isn't Christianity more than just being right? Isn't it more than just being safe? And isn't Christ really anti-judgment? Should we ascribe to lists that allow us to easily categorize others? I don't think so. So I am analyzing my "do nots" this summer. I am also focusing on my "do's." What makes me a Christian? What makes me a church of Christ member? Is being a member of the c of C just about not worshipping with musical instruments, not allowing women prominent roles, not drinking, smoking, or voting Democrat, or is it something more? I sure hope it is something deeper. Deeper even than baptism and taking the Lord Supper every Sunday. What makes members of the c of C as a collective different, unique, special? If you take away the "do nots," what do we have? So, fans out in blogland, what is being a member of the c of C to you? How is it different/similar to being a Christian?
Well, there was going to be more, but this is where my writing landed.
Updates:
1. Reading
A. Don't read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler unless you really like Jane Austen, you have read all of her books recently, and you like books that wear a liberal agenda like a blanket. I like Jane, but I don't love her, I haven't read her in a bit, and I don't mind liberality, but . . . In short, I didn't like this book.
B. If you enjoy tear-jerkers and you like love stories, read The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I stayed-up literally all night reading this novel (another thing I love about summer, as so eloquently put by Slaughter, "up all night, sleep all day!" Of course, I think Slaughter was speaking of participating in activities other than reading.). At 5 a.m. right after I finished the book, Brad came in to our bedroom after he had finished making incredibly important trades in his baseball Xbox game (he also agrees with Slaughter). He saw me crying, and assuming that something horribly traumatic had happened, ran towards me, enveloped me in his arms and said, "What is wrong? It's O.K. Did I do something? What happened?" I was sobbing so hard that I could not talk; I could only mumble, "(intake of breath) Hhhhhhh (intake of breath) diiiiiiiiiiiiii (another long intake of breath)." Then I was so amused by the ridiculousness of the situation and the incredibly concerned and scared look on Brad's face that I began to laugh; however, when you laugh after you have been crying hard for an hour, it does not look like laughter. To Brad, it looked like his coming into the room only escalated my sadness. It took awhile before I could finally pull myself together enough to tell him that I was crying because of the book, not because of some horrible, awful event that he had missed while he was callously fictitiously making trades.
2. Thinking
Our preacher Jody Vickery's sermon a couple of Sunday's ago on worship has really channeled my thoughts about what I think being a Christian means. Most of my life, being a Christian has meant not doing the following things: drinking, dancing, using crude language, swimming with boys, revealing my navel, my upper thighs, or too much of my clavicle or upper back, wearing my clothing tight, having more than acquaintance with those outside "the brotherhood," missing Sunday night or Wednesday night church, allowing Christian lyrics to mingle with unholy instruments, associating with Democrats, wearing white shoes after labor day, speaking in church, speaking too loudly or brashly in any circumstance, smoking, watching PG-13 or R rated movies, watching _Golden Girls_, wearing "loud" jewelry or clothing, saying the word "pregnant" or discussing menstruation in "mixed" company, clapping or being too joyful or expressive during worship, watching Soap Operas, listening to rap or heavy metal music-- You get the picture.
As I have gotten older, I have begun to realize that some of these things might not have anything to do with Christianity. And I know that there are absolutes and that some of my "do nots" are probably absolutes,
But. . . When I realized that Jesus really did drink wine and his first miracle was to turn water to wine . . .When I went dancing for the first time and realized that it was fun and not "lude or lascivious". . . When I learned that most "cuss" words are considered "cuss" words so that we can as a society can easily judge class based on word choice. . . When I experienced a worship service with musical instruments and realized that maybe there are more ways to worship God than just using voices and maybe the verses I had been taught aren't as air-tight as they had been made to seem. . .When I began to read the passages about how women are to behave in the church and associate them with context. . .
Thus the post-modern dilemma. How do you find absolutes when your list of absolutes has been riddled with holes? Having a list of "do nots" makes everything so easy. It is easy to be right; it is easy to judge who is right and who is wrong; it is easy to feel safe. But. . . isn't Christianity more than just being right? Isn't it more than just being safe? And isn't Christ really anti-judgment? Should we ascribe to lists that allow us to easily categorize others? I don't think so. So I am analyzing my "do nots" this summer. I am also focusing on my "do's." What makes me a Christian? What makes me a church of Christ member? Is being a member of the c of C just about not worshipping with musical instruments, not allowing women prominent roles, not drinking, smoking, or voting Democrat, or is it something more? I sure hope it is something deeper. Deeper even than baptism and taking the Lord Supper every Sunday. What makes members of the c of C as a collective different, unique, special? If you take away the "do nots," what do we have? So, fans out in blogland, what is being a member of the c of C to you? How is it different/similar to being a Christian?
Well, there was going to be more, but this is where my writing landed.
posted by Jami | 6:08 PM
1 Comments:
jami
Although I agree that there is Church of Christ baggage, the independent nature of our churches and the guidance of the Holy Spirit combined with the heritage of being a serious about the Bible Protestant (I say this in spite of the fact that my home congregation used to sport a tract entitled, "Nether Catholic, Protestant, nor Jew") but not necessarily Calvinistic, makes for some great theology and loving fellowship. It's the best of what we experience at GAC and many other places. We just don't talk about that theology much.
More later. Just a thought.
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