A few weeks ago I had a "what if" post and now I want to try to flush out and clarify the idea...
The goal is not to deconstruct the service of worship but to reconstruct. It is easy to deconstruct anything; my daughter did it as she drove the car into the garage door when she first got her license. It is easy to deconstruct something if you had nothing to do with the original construction of it. It is easy to deconstruct something if you have no power or control in it. Reconstructing is taking it back to the essence of what it was in the beginning and trying to remove the patina and augmentation that has covered over the intent and purpose of it. It takes time and patience to uncover the original without damaging the beauty of that which it has righteously produced. It takes responsibility of oneself to it.
I do not want to turn my back on the good theology of the movement but to regain the theorelationalism that seems to have been lost as of late. (I made up that term - at least I think I did...) I think about my dad and my relationship with him grows as I spend time talking to him and listening to him. It grows when I look at his paintings and try to understand him and his heart and mind with each stroke of the brush and selection of color. I don't try to over analyze him but to let him become bigger and more complex in seeing him for who he is rather than just what I have heard about him. It is the same with God; I want to reread the stories as if a dear friend is sending me his eyewitness account of the activities of Jesus. As my friend Louis Evans would say, to marinate in them a while so that I can soak in the flavors and fragrances.
If we go with past theologians, "not that there is anything wrong with that," we get the aromas that they experienced rather than our own. We need to experience the text, let the text speak to us, be responsible for the Word in our lives, react righteously, and live a life of faith because of it.
We don't live lives of faith because we don't allow the stories of the Kingdom to have their place in our lives. When we experience the story first hand we become a virtual eyewitness to the event and it has an impact that causes our lives to make room for the story in the fabric of our life. When events take place, such as… the loss of a loved one, the meeting of a friend, the success of hard work, the failure of a project, the making of a gift, or the participation of a swim meet, we make memories, neurological publications, out of which we form opinions and beliefs about life. With these beliefs, we have a perception of reality that affects our behavior and with this behavior we tend to walk in a manner that we put our full weight on... and that is faith.
I do not believe that theologians are the problems, "not that there is anything wrong with them," but that we lack our theology that comes from our theorelationalisms. When we don't know Him, we tend to base our faith on those who do, this is not good theology. What we know from the Stories is that we can know Him, that He has given us His Spirit. We need to spend more time considering as Paul writes to Timothy... Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. 2 Timothy 2:7) We need to listen to the stories and allow the Spirit to give us understanding. Invest our time, minds, spirits, and lives in the stories so that we would know Him and walk in a manner worthy of the calling. We want the mind of the Spirit (Romans 8:6), we want to walk with minds renewed so we may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. (Ephesians 4:17, Romans 12:2)
This isn't about doing away with anything, rather beginning to reaffirm the Pentecost of promise.
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