- You ask: "What is the style of preaching you have heard there?" The
answer is that, like you, I'm booked every Sunday, and thus I only hear my
own. I do yet want to get to Indonesian language liturgies, but I won't
really know what's going on. My (almost) total experience of church life
here is with my English-language crowd where a very un-Balinese
American-style fundamentalism shapes the spirituality. How that got to be
their ethos is something I'm trying to find out. I got some help at a
recent clergy seminar on "Living Together in [Indonesias] Pluralist Society."
One speaker pointed to "colonial theology," as the source, namely the Northern
European pietism that came with the missionaries, and is still regnant in
Indonesia. That makes sense to me. Whether its the whole ball of wax,
though, I wonder.
- You ask whether your wife's experience when she was in Nepal is
corroborated here, namely, that the Gospel of "a grace-filled Christ
connexion to a God of mercy, [is] something so good that it is hard to
believe as true." From what were learning, its true here too. Hinduism is
not a user-friendly religion/way of life. Besides the zillion (seems to
us) required sacrifices day in and day out, the ugly terror in the masks of the
deities who populate the Balinese dance dramas we view are hardly winsome.
And if the mask isn't enough, what these deities do to the human
participants on stage is dread-full. The gods are never satisfied. They
don't play fair.
You really cannot win. "Balance" between the bad ones and the good ones is
the most to be hoped for. Evil never gets conquered, so you go for
balance--manipulated as best you can in your favor with appropriate ritual
actions. Harmony (between the good and evil powers) is another English
word we frequently hear from Hindus, but it's not harmony as in music. Sounds
to us like this harmony is "balanced" music. Namely, generating enough good
noise to restrain, cover over, the bad noise so that you are not destroyed
by its deadly decibels.
One of the churchs "drivers" while taking us to a meeting, told us that
hearing about a Jesus who loves "bad people" was what prompted him to
switch. To my impious add-on, "bad people like you?" he just laughed. As I've
mentioned in other missives, Christ's plain power to counter the destroying
demons is a constant comment in Christians' confessions.
- To my musings about the rituals on Wall Street, you gently protested:
"It is not as if we have rituals to the gods before we trade and sell our
stock." Well, I wonder. Are you sure? What all was going on when that
day-trader back in our homeland (ritually?) sacrificed the "oppressors" in
his stock game plan? Im not in-the-know about the technical specs of ritual.
Liturgical types would know more. But Wall Street surely abounds in
salvation lingo, doesnt it? So can ritual be far behind? Savings and
losses. Gaining or getting wiped out. Earnings. Making a killing. And what
kind of animals "really" are that bull and that bear that mark the markets
yin and yang, its upside and downside? Is the growing wave of Lone Ranger
murders becoming a grass-roots ritual for our countrys "Hinduism,"
sacrifices to silence the Evil Spirits that people sense are killing them?
It is a grisly kind of balance, of course, some counter "noise" these Lone
Rangers choose "to silence the deadly decibels breaking my eardrums,
breaking my heart?"
OK, that's to your email of July 30. Now to the one from Aug. 2 with its
eleven (11!) question marks. I'll tackle a couple of them.
- When I tried to do some Christian crossings to the first cremation we
witnessed, I focused on two items: immortality of the soul and immutability
of karmas law that you get what you deserve. Thereupon you say: "Wait a
minute. Doesnt the Gospel too, and not just God's law, says no to
immortality of the soul?" Of course, it does. My point was to simplify
matters by assigning the "NO" word to the law--lex semper accusat and all
that--to signal that human souls are not death-proof (immune to God's
critique) any more than any other segment of a sinner is. Then for balance
(oops!) I assigned the "YES" word--Yes, karma can be broken--to the Gospel.
Doesn't Paul say somewhere that Christ is God's big Yes to us? Well, then.
I wasnt anticipating such analytical readers as you are.
- Your final set of questions addresses whether Christ's power over the
demons and disease points to a D-2 remedy, but doesnt go all the way to the
D-3 turf to remedy "our problem with God?" Ive thought about that too.
When is D-3 a genuine "God-problem?" Seems to me that if the focus is on a
sinner's "faith" in the demons, even the terrified faith called fear, then
that locates the matter in the human heart, D-2 turf. Whatever we "fear,
love, and trust," is what we "hang our hearts on," someone famous once
said. So FEAR of the demons is a "hang your heart" reality. All thats the
language of D-2.
But then again, if the focus is on our demons actually owning us, possessing
us as in the recent Gospel pericope of the Canaanite womans daughter, that
sounds like D-3 stuff, doesnt it? Namely, that dear daughters
disconnection from her Creator-owner, and already harvesting the
consequences. Is that "hell," or isnt it? And if so, isn't that a D-3
dilemma both for this Canaanite daughter and her mother too?
- 'Course, the D-2 and D-3 data are difficult to filter out cleanly from
the telescoped text of the pericope, since this feisty mother comes on so
strong as the gutsiest genuine disciple Christ ever had, and that right
from her opening words. She makes a pitch for "mercy," to the "Son of David"
[who implements Gods Davidic mercy covenant--see 2 Samuel 7--not the Mosaic
"other" one] and claims this one as her own "Lord" (=my owner). Shes
coming out of D-3, but by the time we meet her, she acts and speaks as
though her D-3 is already a "Yes, but...."
The God-problem me thinks is not just "Now, let's get to D-3 where we have
to confront God," but to ask in this text: Is this woman God-abandoned? Does
the text point that direction? When she accepts the "dog" designation,
isn't she "same-saying" a D-3 diagnosis? Of course. But at the very moment of
her same-saying this diagnosis comes her faiths feisty "But...." "Yes, the
diagnosis is all true, but nevertheless I trust that you, Master
['kyrios,' same term she used in her opening statement] supply crumbs for
just such dogs. So feed me. Are you Davids Son or arent you?"
I'll stop here. Now that I think about it, Tim, your feisty questions--deep
too--hint that this hero of the faith might just be somewhere back there in
your own family tree. Im glad I married into your clan.
Peace & Joy!
Uncle Ed
info@crossings.org