Comments on: From the Wilderness to Mount Tabor http://www.anamchara.com/2009/12/04/from-the-wilderness-to-mount-tabor/ Carl McColman ~ The Fullness of Joy is to Behold God in All Wed, 23 May 2012 13:15:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Carl McColman http://www.anamchara.com/2009/12/04/from-the-wilderness-to-mount-tabor/#comment-5230 Carl McColman Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:40:24 +0000 http://anamchara.com/?p=2640#comment-5230 Yes to Jesus as trickster! The parable of the unjust steward is my favorite here, and part of the fun is watching generations of Christians tie themselves up into knots trying to interpret it according to their tightly controlled, hermetically sealed notions of God. The prodigal son, to which I alluded in the post, is another one. The zinger there is the older brother, who exemplifies polite/mainstream religion beautifully. And while it is a problem that the mainstream tries to repress the trickster by projecting him onto Satan, that process can be reversed: recognizing Lucifer as a trickster can be the key to revealing all sorts of hidden-in-plain-sight treasures in the Christian tradition. Yes to Jesus as trickster! The parable of the unjust steward is my favorite here, and part of the fun is watching generations of Christians tie themselves up into knots trying to interpret it according to their tightly controlled, hermetically sealed notions of God. The prodigal son, to which I alluded in the post, is another one. The zinger there is the older brother, who exemplifies polite/mainstream religion beautifully. And while it is a problem that the mainstream tries to repress the trickster by projecting him onto Satan, that process can be reversed: recognizing Lucifer as a trickster can be the key to revealing all sorts of hidden-in-plain-sight treasures in the Christian tradition.

]]> By: God in the Gutter, Jesus in Disguise « Marmalade http://www.anamchara.com/2009/12/04/from-the-wilderness-to-mount-tabor/#comment-5229 God in the Gutter, Jesus in Disguise « Marmalade Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:03:55 +0000 http://anamchara.com/?p=2640#comment-5229 [...] From the Wilderness to Mount Tabor [...]  Steele is a fan of author Philip K. Dick, and has presented me with this concept of “God in the gutter” which derive’s from Dick’s work. It reminds me of a book I read many years ago called In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld: A Mystical Journey. It’s been years since I read it and so my memory may be less than stellar here, but I recall the book as an honest look at the lives of pimps and prostitutes, strippers and drag queens, and others who typically are not shown much hospitality by “polite” religion. The “mystical” bit in the subtitle doesn’t refer to contemplation so much as to the reality of God’s presence even when God is hidden — and, heaven knows, there are plenty of layers of hiddenness in the sexual underworld. And of course, grace happens, even in the lives of those who have been rejected by the mainstream, and that was the point of this book. But I suppose when we’re talking about grace, we have to be careful here. We can say “Yes, God is present in the lives of sex workers” and it has a rather paternalistic and maybe even smugly superior ring to it: the unstated other half of that sentiment being: “… and as soon as they clean up their act, they’ll be welcome at our church.” Which is just about what the older brother of the prodigal son would say.  [...] [...] [...] From the Wilderness to Mount Tabor [...]  Steele is a fan of author Philip K. Dick, and has presented me with this concept of “God in the gutter” which derive’s from Dick’s work. It reminds me of a book I read many years ago called In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld: A Mystical Journey. It’s been years since I read it and so my memory may be less than stellar here, but I recall the book as an honest look at the lives of pimps and prostitutes, strippers and drag queens, and others who typically are not shown much hospitality by “polite” religion. The “mystical” bit in the subtitle doesn’t refer to contemplation so much as to the reality of God’s presence even when God is hidden — and, heaven knows, there are plenty of layers of hiddenness in the sexual underworld. And of course, grace happens, even in the lives of those who have been rejected by the mainstream, and that was the point of this book. But I suppose when we’re talking about grace, we have to be careful here. We can say “Yes, God is present in the lives of sex workers” and it has a rather paternalistic and maybe even smugly superior ring to it: the unstated other half of that sentiment being: “… and as soon as they clean up their act, they’ll be welcome at our church.” Which is just about what the older brother of the prodigal son would say.  [...] [...]

]]> By: Benjamin Steele http://www.anamchara.com/2009/12/04/from-the-wilderness-to-mount-tabor/#comment-5228 Benjamin Steele Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:45:40 +0000 http://anamchara.com/?p=2640#comment-5228 I'm reminded of various stories of God in disguise. The moral of the story being we should treat every person even those we deem lowly because they may be more than their appearance. Often in the story, the person who does good for the humble is rewarded, but reward isn't the reason to good. I prefer phrasing as PKD does with his "God in the gutter". There is nothing to be gained by realizing God is in the gutter besides the realization itself. Seeing God is it's own reward, but God often seems only glimpsed in our periphery. The moment we try to grasp the divine it's gone. All the forms of religion can just end up as more idols to be falsely worshipped. I see God at the edge of where moral judgements aren't so clear. For this reason, I sometimes think the Trickster is more helpful in understanding the divine. Many stories of Jesus and other saviors show elements of the Trickster and I think that is a key to understanding the nature of the divine. Scatalogical humor along with reversals are very common in Trickster stories. However, in mainstream Christianity, the Trickster elements have been purged from Jesus and projected onto the Devil or else simply exclusded. The Trickster stories tell us about suffering and ignorance, and so they touch very closely upon our everyday experience. Jesus doesn't simply pull us up from our misery. Jesus took physical form to meet us on our level. In fact, some stories claim that Jesus went even further down and entered Hell. Many saviors descend to the underworld. If God would descend to Hell, he surely would be present amongst those exluded form "polite" society. Isn't that one of the most central teachings of Jesus' message? I’m reminded of various stories of God in disguise. The moral of the story being we should treat every person even those we deem lowly because they may be more than their appearance. Often in the story, the person who does good for the humble is rewarded, but reward isn’t the reason to good.

I prefer phrasing as PKD does with his “God in the gutter”. There is nothing to be gained by realizing God is in the gutter besides the realization itself. Seeing God is it’s own reward, but God often seems only glimpsed in our periphery. The moment we try to grasp the divine it’s gone. All the forms of religion can just end up as more idols to be falsely worshipped.

I see God at the edge of where moral judgements aren’t so clear. For this reason, I sometimes think the Trickster is more helpful in understanding the divine. Many stories of Jesus and other saviors show elements of the Trickster and I think that is a key to understanding the nature of the divine. Scatalogical humor along with reversals are very common in Trickster stories.

However, in mainstream Christianity, the Trickster elements have been purged from Jesus and projected onto the Devil or else simply exclusded. The Trickster stories tell us about suffering and ignorance, and so they touch very closely upon our everyday experience.

Jesus doesn’t simply pull us up from our misery. Jesus took physical form to meet us on our level. In fact, some stories claim that Jesus went even further down and entered Hell. Many saviors descend to the underworld. If God would descend to Hell, he surely would be present amongst those exluded form “polite” society.

Isn’t that one of the most central teachings of Jesus’ message?

]]> By: Julia Bolton Holloway http://www.anamchara.com/2009/12/04/from-the-wilderness-to-mount-tabor/#comment-5227 Julia Bolton Holloway Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:26:33 +0000 http://anamchara.com/?p=2640#comment-5227 Yes, God is in the wildest places. I'm remembering Hedera telling me 'He was so poor he was born in a shack, with the animals, with the horses, and the people were hungry and he gave them bread and fishes and potatoes, and the envious killed him'. She is illiterate, was living then herself in a shack, a Roma from Romania begging in the streets of Florence. Nursing her baby she wouldn't drink milk on Friday. Her people, the slaves of the monasteries and the nobles from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century when Uncle Tom's Cabin got translated into Romanian. I have come to love these highly-skilled family-centered people. We do work/study projects, when we are allowed to, but if we are found to be illegal under Berlusconi's new security law it is prison for us as well as for them. Yes, God is in the wildest places. I’m remembering Hedera telling me ‘He was so poor he was born in a shack, with the animals, with the horses, and the people were hungry and he gave them bread and fishes and potatoes, and the envious killed him’. She is illiterate, was living then herself in a shack, a Roma from Romania begging in the streets of Florence. Nursing her baby she wouldn’t drink milk on Friday. Her people, the slaves of the monasteries and the nobles from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century when Uncle Tom’s Cabin got translated into Romanian. I have come to love these highly-skilled family-centered people. We do work/study projects, when we are allowed to, but if we are found to be illegal under Berlusconi’s new security law it is prison for us as well as for them.

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