The Wounded Memory

There is an old Jewish saying, “In memory lies redemption.”  In many ways this saying rings true.  But memory is not always redemptive.  Sometimes its wounds are old, lie within us and will not go away.  My parents survived the Holocaust, but their wounds accompanied them all their lives.  They wanted to forget but they could not forget. At night my father would scream out loud haunted by those days.


In a recent article in Christian Century, which I highly recommend, Shelly Rambo who teaches at the Boston University School of Theology wrote an important piece, “How Christian Theology and Practice are being shaped by trauma studies.”


In this article, Dr. Rambo is critical of theologies which glorify pain and suffering or use their existence as a way of explaining the will of God.  Her point is the wounds carried by the wounded are not so easily explained or wiped away by justifying theologies or theodicies.  Our job is not to do away with the wounds but to help people figure out how to live with them and through them.


In Jewish tradition we teach: Salvation does not come through suffering, evil or death.  To be saved from the power of sin, death and evil is to consciously and intentionally be honest about and defy these three.  Jews, Christians and Muslims each have their own way but not by theologically blessing the wounds, rather by facing the wounds caused by life and not submitting to their power. 

Can God Evolve?

We do not know much about the mysterious force at the heart of the universe we call God.   In the Book of Exodus, when Moses asks God his name, the Hebrew tells us the best but ambiguous translation is, “I will be what I will be.”


Maybe God is not some paternalistic stable entity sitting on a golden throne with a plan but a God who interacts with human beings constantly evolving to accomplish a particular purpose?  Humans have a certain measure of freedom.  They are constantly making decisions.  Perhaps God agrees or disagrees with these decisions.  Perhaps God is a spiritual energy force which keeps trying to influence our decision making.  Perhaps God is sometimes successful and sometimes not?


What if it’s all about physics?  What if the nature of nature and the nature of human nature is a constant interaction based on the principals of physics?  


It seems clear whatever power God possesses it is not being used to stop all the suffering and evil in the world.  Perhaps God’s commitment to human free will and to letting nature be nature means living on this planet has always been and will continue to be a precarious endeavor.
  

To paraphrase William James, philosophy is a peculiar stubborn obsession to think clearly.   Theology is a peculiar stubborn obsession to believe and speak honestly.  One of the things we can do to remain sane is to pursue these two obsessions with all we’ve got and hope for the best.

Is Anybody Driving the Bus?

We live in a time when increasing amounts of people are concluding there is no God.  More and more of my students are either agnostic or atheist in their religious affiliation.  When I first came to Augustana, most students were either Lutheran with a minority Roman Catholic.  Today, less than half are Lutheran, a quarter Roman Catholic and another quarter with little or no religious tradition.

What can we say about this phenomenon?   

The world is a chaotic place and each day the News media informs us of ongoing catastrophes and evil.  If your expectation is God is supposed to stop these terrible things from happening, then it makes sense to conclude that is no one in charge of driving the bus.  And the bus seems to be careening down the highway, no one at the wheel, with periodic crashes and tragedies.


When we say or pray the word God, what do we mean?  What image do we picture in our minds?  The image we possess determines our expectations or disappointments.  If we assume it is God’s job to keep the world orderly and civil, we will not be happy.
  

Some will argue God gave human beings “free will.”   Others speak of the mystery at the heart of the universe.  Some say there is a hidden plan or purpose which we cannot understand.

But the increasing numbers of atheists tells us the old defenses and explanations no longer work as well.  


Is anybody driving the bus?  Some say, they are convinced someone is there and God is real.  Others are equally convinced no one is there.  We will not know the truth until the day we die. 


Meanwhile, we ought not be frightened of the question.  Let’s admit we have never been sure of what is or is not there.  Is there anybody at the wheel?  

For people of faith this is nothing new.  We have always lived inside this tension.  We were always aware that faith is trusting without knowing for sure.  So it has been and so it will be.

Do Thinking and Religion Mix?

In all my years of teaching I have encouraged my students to think about and understand their religious faith and tradition.  I have urged, provoked, agitated and aggravated them buttressing my words with the quote from scripture, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your mind.”  


But there are times when I wonder if I am right.  The more I spend time thinking about parts of my own religious tradition, the more problematic that tradition becomes.  Many of us were brought up to think critically, to ask questions, to assume the authorities could be wrong.  But when we do this in the area of religion, it seems to create doubts, unbelief and abandonment of key parts of our religious tradition. Does thinking about religion work? Or does religion work best when we don’t ask too many questions?


I suppose it depends what we mean by the word, work.   If the goal of our thinking is to defend and support what our religion teaches, then, critical thinking can weaken what has been taught.  It raises questions about why we do what we do.  Did all this stuff come from God?  Or did people make it up and declare that it came from God? And is our tradition always right?


But, here’s the thing, religious traditions have always been mingled with puzzling mysteries, inconsistent stories, unreliable declarations, and allusive and elusive scriptures urging us to trust and act in particular ways. The easiest way to proceed is to bow our heads and believe, no critical thinking required.


But for many of us the old days of just believing without thinking are over.  Thinking and religion do mix if you think and trust that real and truthful religion is not frightened of questions and integrity. Maybe thinking does not support the most naïve faith but it does support and endorse the most honest faith.  


Having said all that, I remember being in India and asking a Hindu holy man, where he thinks the notion of reincarnation came from.  He looked at me with a wry smile and with a certain mellow wisdom in his voice, said, “That is a very Western question.  It will not bring you to the truth.”  For him reincarnation just is and that is all he needs to know.


So, are we Westerners asking the wrong questions?  If we want our religious faith and tradition to have integrity, what else can we do?  For us thinking and religion must and do mix whether such thinking bolsters our faith or not! 

The Complexity of Faith

Sometimes we are given the impression that faith is a simple thing.  Just close your eyes, trust, sing a hymn, and you’re done.  God is at work and nothing bad will ever happen to you.  Trust in the reliability and promises of God and your life will go well.  Everything happens for a reason.  Heaven is waiting.  Faith is simple.  Keep singing the old hymns.  Every day brings new hope.


But it’s not true.  Faith is complicated.  It has to do with trusting without knowing for sure and trusting when trusting makes no sense.  

We have five senses by which we comprehend and decode reality.  Theology, talk about an invisible God, is not simple.  It is complex and it becomes extremely complex when we are living through chaos.  Chaos is the feeling of being out of control or forced to live with little or no order in our lives.


In the scriptures God is pictured as constantly wrestling with chaos, the chaos of nature and the chaos of human nature.  Sometimes God succeeds and sometimes God fails.  Chaos is chaotic and hard to control. It is an inexorable part of life.


Sometimes we need to ask ourselves what it is we are trusting God to do.  Some will assert, God gives us the strength to survive the chaos.  But that is not always true.  Some people do not survive the craziness of life and are swallowed up in its tumult.


All I’m saying is trusting in the providence of God is not easy.  Atheists and agnostics have a point we ought not ignore.  Trusting in God is a risk we take, hoping against hope, God is there and cares about us.


Faith is complex because it occurs despite the chaos of life, in spite of the chaos of life, and to spite the chaos of life.  Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin.  And there will be times when the doubt side of the coin makes the most sense.


I am not against faith.  I am a person of faith.  But our faith needs to be honest and steeped in integrity.  Faith is not simple.  Faith is complex.

Religions are Fine But Not Divine

Why is there religion and where did it come from?   The world’s religions did not drop down from the sky.  Religions were invented by human beings because they responded to certain vital questions and experiences.


Since human creatures have been wandering on the earth, they have wondered how did we get here, what are we doing here, how shall we live our lives, is there a God or gods, is there life after life?  Great spiritual minds wrestled with these questions. 


These great minds had faith they had received certain true revelations from the beyond in the here and now.  They came to believe the invisible is more important than the visible.  That what does not meet the eye is greater than what meets the eye.  And if you believe you will see the truth.


Stories, rituals, holy people came to articulate the revealed truths.  And from there, religions, scriptures, liturgies, creeds and traditions developed. 


What and if God had anything to do with all of this is hard to say.  Each of us within our respective religions believe our revelation has the truth or at least a proper glimpse of the truth.


Religions are fine but they are not necessarily divine.  If anything, the major religions of the world may be a glimpse of the truth.  But there is so much extraneous material in each religion, it’s difficult to figure out what is true and what is not.


The religious questions which began all this are still with us.  How and if God interacts with these different religious traditions and believers is impossible to say.


Let’s all then be humble and honest about what we trust and remember we could be wrong.  Another religious tradition may be right.  Since our religious knowledge is tentative at best, believe what you want to believe, defend it to the hilt, but respectfully disagree with those who differ.  This seems the better part of wisdom.

The Secret and Mystery of the Shofar

Soon, it will happen again.  In a few days during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the shofar will be blown.  It is always a special and holy moment when the shofar or ram’s horn is blown.


As a boy I remember being mesmerized by the beautiful sacred haunting sound.  It was part of the majesty and mystery of the high holy days.


The Rabbis teach us many reasons for the blowing of the shofar.  Some say it stems from the ram caught in the thicket which Abraham offered instead of his son, Isaac.  Others say it is a cry of repentance on the part of the Jewish people.   Still others say it is reminiscent of the shofar being blown during the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.  And there are many other reasons . . .


The one I appreciate the most: the shofar creates the sounds of the victims throughout history wailing their pain, struggle and faith in a desperate attempt to awaken God from his slumber. The shofar is a plea of hope and sanity.  It is a sigh, a cry, and a prayer too great for words.


More than anything the shofar brings Jews across the world together again.  If there is anything Jewish in your soul, you will come to hear its sound.


This year, Rosh Hashanah (literally head of the year), is the Jewish New Year 5780.  It begins a ten day period of introspection and reconciliation with those you have hurt during the past year, leading to the holiday of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when Jews as a community ask God for forgiveness and implicitly forgive God for his silence in their suffering.


Soon, it will happen again. The shofar will sound its eerie notes encouraging us to trust against trust and imploring God to act like God.  It is indeed a holy moment.