Book Review: Together: United Methodists of Temple, Tabernacle, and Table

Together: United Methodists of Temple, Tabernacle, and Table. Stanley R. Copeland and Scott Gilliland. 2018. 190 pages. [Source: Borrowed]

First sentence: "Where are we going?"

Together is a book specifically written to address controversial issues facing the United Methodist denomination--specifically in terms of the 'way forward' or future vision. Should the denomination stay united or be divided over issues of human sexuality? Should the denomination--as a whole--decide matters decisively or should local churches within the denomination be allowed to follow their consciences--to be as conservative, as moderate, or as liberal as they please? Can we all agree to disagree?

Two authors--both pastors at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church--argue that it is important to be united--to stay united.

Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need ~ The Beatles

They argue that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are both fixed and free. In fact fixed and free is one of the mantras that is repeated--not only in this book but in the One Church Movement that they are advocating. But what does that mean exactly? Well, they use the example of how the Israelites had a FREE moving way to worship in the wilderness and a FIXED way to worship in the nation of Israel. Somehow the fact that one was made of cloth and one of stones is supposed to be a super-symbolic metaphor for how we are supposed to worship in the twenty-first century. I believe these three chapters showcase some mighty fine doublespeak.

God is God is God is God is God is God. God does not change, there is no fluctuation. He doesn't become more of this and less of that or more of that and less of this. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Israelites wandering in the desert weren't "free" to worship God as they saw fit. They weren't "free" to worship him on their own terms. They weren't "free" to reinterpret God's words to mean what they wanted them to mean. The rules and ceremonies regarding worship weren't more "fixed" and "absolute" and "determined" than they were in the desert. They weren't. The tabernacle was never a casual, free-and-easy, go-with-the-flow way to do church. One wasn't wearing jeans and flip-flops and the other wearing suit and tie. Both temple and tabernacle were holy and sacred, set apart. For at all times God was to be FEARED as the one, true God. God was holy, holy, holy no matter the outward appearance of the place of worship.

Sadly I am not even sure this is where the authors were going with all this "free" and "fixed" talk. Perhaps they are under the delusion that God is changeable and that he is changing all the time. Every single generation has the opportunity--the responsibility--to see where God is at now and what he's saying now. Where God was at ten generations ago--three generations ago--it doesn't matter. All that matters is what is God is saying now to you and me.

But the book goes beyond the "fixed" and "free" metaphor. That's only a tiny bit of what the book is about. The book is also about how we are to trust one another always. I am to trust that you are listening to the Holy Spirit in your life and you are to trust that I am listening to the Holy Spirit in my life. The same Spirit that is leading me to believe one way is also leading you to believe another way. But because we both love the same Jesus Christ it will all be okay. You are not to judge me and I am not to judge you. It doesn't really matter if we agree on this issue or that issue or even any issue so long as we agree that Jesus is great. The name of Jesus unites us all together and if there's one thing Jesus hates it's squabbling and fussing. Unity above all else. Love is all that matters.

Essentially the book seems to be arguing that there is no one right way to interpret any passage of Scripture. The Holy Spirit speaks to each one of us as individuals.

I can only imagine how much easier Paul's life would have been if he'd subscribed to this philosophy of doing church.

Hey brothers! How's it going?! I've been hearing some mighty strange stuff about you guys. But you know what? It's all good. All good, I tell you. No stress, no worries. Just sit back, relax, and keep rolling with the Spirit. Keep on keeping on! Aren't you glad that I'm no longer that judgmental guy who went around trying to force people to agree with me all the time?! But I've learned to relax and let go and let God! I'm cool, you're cool, we're all cool. Bye for now!

Paul could have avoided sending letters altogether and just sent postcards.

I won't address the issue of human sexuality here for the review. It's unnecessary. Their approach to interpreting any passage of Scripture--any practice or doctrine--is troubling enough without focusing in on one issue alone. The issue--as I see it--isn't about who you love or how you love.

It is simply this: what is truth? who determines truth? is truth absolute? is truth universal? does truth evolve and change? is truth determined person by person or by committee? who says what is true and what isn't true? is the Bible true? what do you mean if you say the Bible is true? do you mean my interpretation of the Bible is true and your interpretation of the Bible is false? do you mean that the Bible means exactly what God determines it means? do you mean that the meaning of the Bible changes, evolves, grows, expands over time as we do? do you read your interpretation into a passage? or do you draw your interpretation out of a passage? are you coming with a teachable spirit? are you willing to let the Spirit convict you--yes you--of sin? are you coming to the Bible looking to be justified? are you coming to the Bible looking for an argument? are you coming to the Bible with others in mind? are you looking for verses to shout at other people in arguments? are you willing to grow in the spirit even if it means countering culture? are you willing to let God be God? are you willing to allow that you may never understand or grasp God? is it up to us to keep the Word relevant? what is the gospel? what is sin? why did Jesus die? are we called to be holy? do doctrines ever matter?

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Stone for a Pillow

Stone for a Pillow. Madeleine L'Engle. 1986/2017. Convergent Books. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: In the late afternoon, when the long December night had already darkened the skies, we opened Christmas cards, taking turns, reading the messages, enjoying this once-a-year being in touch with far-flung friends. There, incongruously lying among the Christmas greetings, was an official-looking envelope addressed to me, with Clerk of Court, New York County, in the upper left-hand corner. A call to jury duty. Manhattan does not give its prospective jurors much notice. My call was for the first week in January. To the notice inside had been added the words, Must Serve.

Premise/plot: Stone for a Pillow is the second in the Genesis trilogy. The best way to describe the book is that it's reflective "theology" written in a stream of consciousness style. It is loosely-inspired by the middle of the book of Genesis--the chapters focusing on Jacob and Esau.

My thoughts: In my review of And It Was Good, I wrote that L'Engle's theology was dangerous. I would definitely say that is still the case. If anything, the years between 1983 and 1986 led L'Engle even further from the Christian path. The more I read, I more I realize that it's just not a misconception or misunderstanding on my part, but, that she did indeed believe some mighty strange, actually heretical things.

For example, this is L'Engle's writing on the topic of the atonement. She rejects the doctrine out and out.

In a vain attempt to make people see God as an avenging judge, theologians have even altered the meaning of words. Atonement, for instance. A bad word, if taken forensically. In forensic terms, the atonement means that Jesus had to die for us in order to atone for all our awful sins, so that God could forgive us. In forensic terms, it means that God cannot forgive us unless Jesus is crucified and by this sacrifice atones for all our wrongdoing. But that is not what the word means! I went to an etymological dictionary and looked it up. It means exactly what it says, at-one-ment. I double-checked it in a second dictionary. There is nothing about crime and punishment in the makeup of that word. It simply means to be at one with God. Jesus on the cross was so at-one with God that death died there on Golgotha, and was followed by the glorious celebration of the Resurrection… Sin, then, is discourtesy pushed to an extreme, and discourtesy is lack of at-one-ment.

She continues,

We are all going to face God’s judgment, but we will not receive forensic judgment from the throne of heaven. God is not going to abandon Creation, nor the people up for trial in criminal court, nor the Shiites nor the communists nor the warmongers, nor the greedy and corrupt people in high places, nor the dope pushers, nor you, nor me. Bitter tears of repentance may be shed before we can join the celebration, but it won’t be complete until we are all there. This is the God of Scripture, the God of forbearance, forgiveness, and unqualified love. We have been living in a world where we have viewed God and each other in a forensic way for too long, and it should be apparent that it is not working, and that it is not going to work. This forensic world is not a scriptural world, but a clever projection of the Tempter. Our only hope for peace, within our own hearts, and all over our small green earth, is for us to open ourselves to the judgment of God, that judgment that makes the waters and the hills to sing. For God’s judgment is atonement, at-one-ment, making us one with the Lord of love.

Is she a univeralist? You be the judge:

All will be redeemed in God’s fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.

If God created all of Creation, if God is the author of Buddhists and Hindus and Jains as well as those who have “accepted Jesus Christ as Lord,” how can we avoid a wishy-washy permissiveness? Not by retreating back into a closed system. Not by saying: Only those who believe exactly as I do can be saved. Not by insisting that only those whose god fits into the same box as my god will go to heaven. Not by returning to polytheism and proclaiming that our god is greater than the gods of other cultures. Paradoxically, it comes back to us, to our acceptance of ourselves as created by God, and loved by God, no matter how far we have fallen from God’s image in us. It is not a self-satisfied, self-indulgent acceptance, but a humble, holy, and wondrous one.

I don’t understand why the idea of emptying hell upsets some people so. To be upset about it is to think forensically, and while we all suffer from a touch of this, we can surely recognize our own lack of generosity.

When we set ourselves up as being the only people in Creation who have the truth and who will inherit the kingdom, we are worshipping the little god of our own pride.

She is more influenced by the theory of the butterfly effect than the words of Christ--or the Word of God. Here are a few of her statements about the Bible.

It is a living book, not a dead one. It urges us to go beyond its pages, not to stop with what we have read. It is a book not only of history, and of the prohibitions of the commandments and laws, but of poetry and song, of fantasy and paradox and mystery and contradiction. It is not the only book in which I will look for and find truth.

The Bible is a book which urges us to keep our concept of God open, to let our understanding grow and develop as we are illumined by new discoveries. If we stopped where Scripture leaves us, in the New Testament as well as the Old, we could still, with clear consciences, keep slaves.

What a passage says to us today may not be what the same passage will say when we next encounter it. We must strive to be open to the deeply mythic quality, expressing the longings and aspirations and searchings of the human race.

If we are willing to live by Scripture, we must be willing to live by paradox and contradiction and surprise.

Once I remarked that I read the Bible in much the same way that I read fairy tales, and received a shocked response. But fairy tales are not superficial stories. They spring from the depths of the human being. The world of the fairy tale is to some degree the world of the psyche. Like the heroes and heroines of fairy tales, we all start on our journey, our quest, sent out on it at our baptisms. We are, all of us, male and female, the younger brother, who succeeds in the quest because, unlike the elder brother, he knows he needs help; he cannot do it because he is strong and powerful. We are all, like it or not, the elder brother, arrogant and proud. We are all, male and female, the true princess who feels the pea of injustice under all those mattresses of indifference. And we all have to come to terms with the happy ending, and this may be the most difficult part of all. Never confuse fairy tale with untruth. Alas, Lucifer, how plausible you can be, confusing us into thinking that to speak of the Bible as myth is blasphemy.

Though she ridicules people who make God into their own image instead of looking for the image of God within them. She seems to have no problem defining God herself throughout the book. She doesn't use the revealed Word of God as a primary source--but herself, her instincts, her insights, her biases.

I shudder at the once widely-accepted theory that God preordained us all before we were born for either heaven or hell, and nothing we did would change this predestination. What kind of god would predetermine part of his creation to eternal damnation? This is surely not consistent with God’s creation in the early chapters of Genesis, when Elohim looked at all that had been made and called it good, very good. And yet this brutal theology used to be widely accepted and taught, a kind of spiritual terrorism.

That being said, there were still some good statements--sentences. (Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. But a ticking-working clock set to the wrong time, is never going to be right.)

It is not a simple thing to accept God’s love, because if we do, we must return love.

Fiction draws us into participating in other lives, other countries, other ways of life or thinking.

It was a sad moment when I had to admit to myself that I was not going to be able to read, in this lifetime, all the books I need to read!

If we refuse to take the risk of being vulnerable we are already half-dead. If we are half-dead we don’t have to starve with the people of Ethiopia. We don’t have to share the terrible living conditions of old people struggling to exist on dwindling social security payments in our overcrowded, hostile cities. We don’t have to smell the stench of filth, and disease, and hunger in the favelas and barrios.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Healed of Cancer

Healed of Cancer. Dodie Osteen. 1986/2003. Lakewood Church. 81 pages. [Source: Borrowed]

Do I believe that Dodie Osteen had liver cancer and was miraculously cured of that cancer? Yes, I don't call into question those (bare) facts at all. I do not even disagree with her decision to go home instead of to stay in the hospital, or, to not seek further medical treatment. In her case, it makes sense. She was told that without treatment, she would probably live two to three weeks, and, with chemotherapy she would probably live three to five weeks. The treatment options were almost nonexistent. For reference, this was in 1981, so quite a few decades ago!

Dodie Osteen was not going home to die, however, she was going home to live. She says her healing (practically) began the moment she left the hospital as she and her family--her immediate family, her extended family, her church family--began to pray for her healing. For the record, she does recognize a few vital facts: every type of cancer is different; some types of cancer can be treated (should be treated) the traditional way through medical treatment under the care of doctors and surgeons; that she is not advocating that every single person--no matter the diagnosis--refuse medical treatment. However, she does think every person has the right to refuse treatment so they can trust in God alone to heal them.

The book makes clear that the author took her healing seriously, as did her family. She refused to rest or to relax. She went so far as to say in this little booklet that taking a nap or "sleeping in" in the mornings would be a sign of unbelief or lack of faith. To her way of thinking, to show a lack of faith would be disastrous. How could God heal her if she admitted her weakness, her exhaustion, her pain?! The only way to be healed was to live as if the healing was a done deal, a finished matter. No taking it easy, no change of routine, no slackening in the work load, no asking for help, no allowing anyone to help, no admitting how her body--or her mind--was actually feeling. I want to make clear this was HER thinking, HER conclusion.

The premise of the book is simple: the author believes that she is alive only because of the Bible. That it was by claiming--confessing, professing, clinging--"healing verses" that saved her life. I too believe that there is life to be found in the Word of God, and that the Bible is a powerful, authoritative book--a book like no other. But there are differences of opinion. BIG differences of opinion.

The first section tells her story. It is the longest chapter in the book. The second chapter--or section--shares 40 verses (often taken out of context, though not always*) that she used to "win the battle over cancer." These are verses that she still prays daily to keep her cancer from coming back. She advocates believers speaking directly to the devil and also to the cancer cells in their bodies. Believers are to rebuke the cancer cells and claim their healing. The book prints out the healing verses, and each verse has a sentence or two of commentary by the author. The third chapter is composed of three statements by physicians all supporting two things: she had cancer; she now does not have cancer. The fourth chapter is frequently asked questions. In this section she reiterates again that every single person is different, that every type of cancer is different, that she is not saying that everyone should refuse medical treatment.

So. I mentioned there are some differences of opinion...

I believe that God can heal, that He is certainly more than capable of healing people. God is all-powerful, nothing is beyond Him, nothing is impossible for Him. But I do not believe, like the author, that when a person is not healed that it is a sign of either them "choosing to be sick" instead of "choosing to have abundant life." In other words, it is not a lack of faith--a sign of unbelief--if a believer is not healed or even dies. Christians can die of cancer; their death is not the result of their lack of faith. It is not the weakness of a believer's faith that leads to death. The author assumes that it is always, always, always the will of God for believers to live--to live a long, abundant, happy, free-from-pain-and-suffering life. That it couldn't possibly be within God's will for believers to die, to be sick, to suffer pain, to be weak. But is this true? Or is the author picking and choosing verses to back her up--to back her theological worldview?

I'll be happy to admit that every person with a theological worldview--which is essentially almost everyone in the faith--can be guilty of this. Some may be a lot guilty; some may be a little guilty. But I think the only way to live a life pleasing to God is to embrace ALL of Scripture, to embrace God's WHOLE revelation. Furthermore, it is crucial to read the Bible in context. Not just to pull a verse here and there. OR in the author's case half of a verse here and there. We are not to pack a verse full of the meaning we want it have, but to let the verse mean exactly what it means--no more, no less.

There's a chance you think I might be exaggerating. I'll share some quotes so you know that I'm not exaggerating the author's position:

Many people suffer and die needlessly because they do not know what the Word of God says about healing. (p. 54, her "commentary" on 2 Corinthians 1:20)

When I was sick, I had to cast down imaginations concerning symptoms, and, you will too. Make your thoughts obey you. (p. 55, her "commentary" on 2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Then it lists the blessings and the curses. God tells us to diligently obey and observe carefully His commandments. That is when we receive from him. (p. 39, her "commentary" on Deuteronomy  28:1-2)

I prayed 'Father, I plead my case to You and I ask You to show me things that have been wrong in my life that I can correct. (p. 43, her "commentary" on Isaiah 43:25-26)

If you follow His commandments, forgiving others, tithing, obeying His commandments, then God will bless you. (p. 47, her "commentary" on Malachi 3:10)

It is God's will for you to be well. If you do not believe that, you need to change your thinking. It is not God who has made you sick, it's the devil." (p. 48, her "commentary" on Matthew 8:2-3)

You can personalize this verse and read it this way: "Whatever I stop on earth will be stopped in heaven, and whatever I permit and allow on earth will be permitted and allowed in heaven." (p. 49, her "commentary" on Matthew 18:18)

The Bible says we are snared by the words of our mouth (see Proverbs 6:2). So watch what you say. Confess, "I believe I am healed," and you will be. (p. 50, her "commentary" on Mark 11:22-23)

Believers should pray for healing. I am not saying that they shouldn't. But to assume--or to presume or demand--that the only possible answer to their prayer is complete healing is not quite right or sound.

God does teach through sickness, weakness, pain, suffering, affliction. God, I think makes it clear that he does use our pain, suffering, weakness, sickness to transform us into who he would have us to be. He is shaping us through our circumstances, and using us to bring glory to His name.  Our lives do have purpose. Being weak is not a sign of weak faith.

The author is adamant this is not so. That our sickness, our suffering, does not serve a purpose except to reveal our lack of faith or our disobedience which is "blocking" our healing.

God has never promised us a pain-free, affliction-free life! Just the opposite! In this world we will have trouble, we will suffer. We can choose to praise God through the trials and sufferings or choose to learn nothing and become angry, bitter, and ungrateful. God has promised to be with us, to comfort us, to walk with us no matter the circumstance. But we are to expect some groans in this life.

Here are some Bible verses that I would like to highlight.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalm 138:8

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. Psalm 130:5-6

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. Jeremiah 17:14

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:26-30

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:13-14

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. Psalm 28:7

*Exodus 15:26, Exodus 23:25, Deuteronomy 7:15; Deuteronomy 28:1-2, Deuteronomy 30:19, Joshua 21:45, 1 Kings 8:56b, Psalm 89:34, Psalm 91:16, Psalm 103:1-5, Psalm 105:37, Psalm 107:20, Psalm 118:17, Proverbs 4:20-22, Isaiah 41:10, 13; Isaiah 43:25-26, Isaiah 53:5; Jeremiah 1:12, Jeremiah 30:17, Hosea 4:6a, Joel 3:10b; Nahum 1:9b, Malachi 3:10; Matthew 8:2-3, Matthew 8:17, Matthew 18:18, Matthew 18:19, Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:22-23; Mark 11:24, Mark 16:17-18, Luke 10:19, John 9:31; John 10:10; Romans 4:19-21; Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Galatians 3:13-14, Ephesians 6:10-13, Philippians 2:13, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 4:12, Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 10:35, Hebrews 11:11, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:5, James 3:17, James 4:7-8, James 5:14-15, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 5:7-9; 1 John 3:21-22; 1 John 5:14-15, 3 John 2, Revelation 12:11

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible