The Dark Glass » Theology Notes

God’s Vulnerability

Anthony Velez — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:13:08 +0000

It is the fifth day of Christmas and I’ve been pondering a new section for my blog titled “Unspoken Sermons” wherein I would write posts that, just as the section states, would be brief sermons that are written instead of spoken. For the first sermon I was thinking of doing something on the vulnerability of God, which is fitting for Christmas, as a whole hearted embrace of the incarnation requires one to accept that God became as vulnerable and dependent as a baby. Of course pondering something and actually doing something are two different things, and as it turns out, sermon preparation is quite an endeavor. Yes, I can riff theologically off of the top of my head, and perhaps I can do that quite well, but when I think of a sermon I am thinking of a rhetorical endeavor that opens the scriptures by appealing to the heart, mind, and imagination and through all this presents Christ as a living and immediate reality. This kind of endeavor requires preparation and revision, and most importantly an open heart to what the Spirit is saying. So, given the depth of this project, I decided I would for now provide a theological riff, one that was inspired by my recent reading of Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel, a riff about the vulnerability of God, a vulnerability seen in the cross instead of the manger. In writing this, it strikes me as fitting that the book ends of Jesus’ paradoxical earthly ministry should be marked by such radical vulnerability. So, without further ado, a brief riff on the healing power of God’s vulnerability.

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There is a deep connection between the brutal marks engraved on the vulnerable and naked body of the Son of God and the brokenness and brutality of my heart long vulnerable to sin. It is in bearing this brutality to the shedding of his blood that Jesus claimed my brutal heart as his own. And now, what was once the house of the unholy has become the sacred ground of his advancing victory. I stand in awe of my God claimed brokenness and vulnerability, as his broken hands reaches forth to tame and heal that brutal beasts of my soul.

A Deeply Embedded Mystery

Anthony Velez — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:21:28 +0000

As humans we are beings in becoming, and what we will be is not yet revealed. Human essence is an eschatological reality that is fully realized in Jesus Christ, and is called forth in each one of us through him in whom humanity is fully realized. It is for this reason that human nature is notoriously difficult to define and profoundly amenable toward representation through a diversity of theoretical models. Being creatures whose essence is dynamic and inchoate we can be pressed into a variety of often competing models for rendering humanity intelligible. We are animals, the latest in a long line of evolutionary development; we are consumers, an economic being whose behavior collectively and individually can be predicted with an eye on market forces; we are social creatures constituted by institutional forces; we are angels fallen into flesh longing for transcendence and frustrated by physical limitations. What can’t be said about humankind? Certainly we are a mystery. But, we are a mystery deeply embedded in the mystery of Jesus Christ, who, as the first fruit of an eschatological harvest, has through resurrection power the authority to finally determine who we are and what we ought to be. In an essential way the final judgment is happening now in that we either find ourselves in his calling, or we utterly miss ourselves by turning a deaf ear to the call.

This Golgotha of Nuanced & Subtle Academic Theology

Anthony Velez — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:48:24 +0000

The following is an email I sent to my theology students for the Intro to Theology and Ethics class that I am teaching this semester. I sent this email because we just took a turn from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity to a text titled, The Essentials of Christian Theology, edited by William Placher, which is a bit more academic in tone.

Blessed Theologians,

Who may not be feeling so blessed right now, and who may yet be crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me on this Golgotha of nuanced and subtle academic theology!!” If this is so, I hope to give you a word of encouragement. To begin, just do your best to get through the reading and don’t worry too much about comprehension, as I consider it part of my job to help you decode some of the content and ideas that may not be familiar and may be somewhat challenging in the attempt to wrap your head around it. Along with this, questions are most welcome. In fact, they demonstrate your desire to learn and your engagement with the text. So, don’t be afraid to share your questions.

Also, keep in mind that there are a variety of voices across the theological spectrum represented in this anthology. So, it is alright to disagree, even to the point of thinking “Poppycock!” or perhaps words of a less savory nature, which would not be fitting to print in an email that will be transmitted via a Mennonite email server. Amidst disagreement, however, I would like you to try to both identify what the author’s concerns are even if you don’t like the author’s solution, and also try to find areas where you agree with the author. Keep in mind that your instructor tends to be quite irenic in spirit, and so he of course appreciates it when his students exhibit such qualities. Also, don’t let your instructor continue to refer to himself in the third person as it is a bit weird.

Finally, I hope there are points that excite you in this reading. I have certainly found it exciting, and in fact it is my intention to buy a couple of books by Stanley Grenz this weekend, particularly The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei, which in all geeky truth took my breath away when I read the title, as it spoke to ideas I have been long working out in my own thinking

The Lord be with you,
Anthony

Salvation in the Body of Jesus

Anthony Velez — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:36:26 +0000

Salvation is not an individual affair. It is not a direct line from God thrown to the individual soul. Our salvation is located in the body of Jesus, for he worked out our salvation in his body through utter reliance upon the Spirit. And through reliance upon this same Spirit we are incorporated into the body of Jesus: the Church, the sphere of salvation. By pressing into the lives of the other members of the body, according to the pattern of love that Jesus has given, we release the gifts the Spirit has sown into each member of the body, and through this we are all built up into the knowledge and stature of Jesus, the fount of our sonship and salvation.

Betray Him With A Kiss

Anthony Velez — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:35 +0000

The Church in the flesh can love God for her own reasons and in her own ways, but ultimately she will betray him with a kiss.

Ethics As Unveiling

Anthony Velez — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:45:50 +0000

Throughout this summer I have been primarily reading in the field of Christian Ethics in preparation for a class I will be teaching in the fall. In doing research for this class I was excited to discover a new anthology edited by noted theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, which is described as “an innovative exposition of Christian ethics, seen through the lens of Christian worship.” This particularly excited me as it has been my developing conviction that Christian ethics is intimately connected to Christian spirituality, both of which should be centered upon and emerge from the worshiping life of the Church. In the academy, however, all of these fields are generally treated as separate fields of academic inquiry, which no doubt reflects our Enlightenment heritage through which knowledge was primarily constructed through rational analysis (analysis being that mode of understanding through which domains of inquiry are broken down, sorted, and categorized). This is a contrary method to more organic forms of knowledge which begins with the conviction that there exists in the whole of things features that cannot be properly understood when discretely analyzed. Anyways, given the thrust of my convictions about the organic relationship between these aspects of the Christian life, I found it fitting and perhaps providential to stumble across the following entry written perhaps ten or more years ago in a personal journal of ideas that I periodically carry around. And so…

In the Christian faith ethics is not based upon some rational principle nor ideological construct. Rather it is grounded upon worship at the heart of which is sacrifice. First, and by far foremost, is the sacrifice of the One-and-Only sent from the bosom of the Father in the power of the Spirit. Upon this is our own sacrifice, which is first a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and second a sacrificial lifestyle where again and again we offer ourselves to the rhythm of crucifixion and resurrection in Christ. This rhythm is the heart beat of discipleship in union with Christ. In this light, Christian ethics is properly denoted a mystery since it is the product of a believer’s incorporation into Christ by the Spirit, whose life becomes an unveiling of the one to whom they are united.

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“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The Flesh

Anthony Velez — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:38:36 +0000

The flesh is a big sucking vacuum of rapacious desire guided by a giant mass of proud stupidity.

Confessions of a Theological Elitist

Anthony Velez — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:09:16 +0000

Aren’t you all entitled to your half-assed musings on the Divine. You’ve thought about eternity for twenty five minutes and think you’ve come to some interesting conclusions. Well let me tell you, I stand with 2,000 years of darkness, and bafflement, and hunger behind me. My kind have harvested the souls of a million peasants, and I couldn’t give a ha’penny jizz for your Internet assembled philosophy.

I’ve recently discovered Mitchell & Webb, and I have a colleague to thank and blame for that. Whether this discovery will bode well for either her or I on judgment day is yet to be seen, but nonetheless, I find these guys absolutely hilarious. This post, however, is not a Mitchell and Webb endorsement. Although, if I was to endorse them, I would do so with qualification, knowing that out of the ten of you who read my blog, seven, or maybe just six, might be a little disturbed by my endorsement, as these guys are a bit bawdy at times. My only justification for this is that Chaucer, another Englishman, was quite bawdy himself, and he is an iconic figure within Western society. And no, I am not sure how evoking Chaucer justifies this, but honestly, I am equally not sure if justification is needed.

Anyways, as I said, this post is not a Mitchell and Webb endorsement, but rather my confession that I am something of a theological elitist. Why do I make this confession? Because, when I first heard the above quote in a skit, I thought to myself, “You know, I don’t completely disagree with this guy’s sentiments.” This “guy” was a priest who was talking to a couple who were making a friendly visit to check out the local church, and this priest’s response to their visit was far less than welcoming, and nowhere near embodied the love to which Christ calls his disciples. However, I totally get his response to people’s “half-assed musings on the Divine” in that when I talk to people about God, I often pick up an undercurrent that views all people’s opinions as equal, because, well, it’s about God, and so, what else is there to say but our opinions, because, apparently God is an empty concept that is begging to be funded however we want. I disagree with this current.

Just in case my elitism is still in question, I have another quote to share that receives my full endorsement. This quote is from Stanley Hauerwas, whose provocative words I have previously featured on my blog, and the quote is…

Theology is a minor practice in the total life of the church, but in times as strange as ours even theologians must try, through our awkward art, to change lives by forming the imagination by faithful speech. Thus, I tell my students that I do not want them to learn to “make up their minds,” since most of them do not have minds worth making up until I have trained them. Rather, by the time I have finished with them, I want them to think just like me.

What am I attracted to in these quotes? I am not sure except to say that I am having some kind of visceral reaction against the confluence of anti-authoritarian free thought, bourgeois individualism, and pluralistic ideology. It’s not that I want to embrace dogmatism, or absolutism, or any ism for that matter, but it bugs me that people seem to think that the ability to talk intelligently and knowingly about the divine requires nothing more than the ability to draw upon the same resources and methods one might utilize when talking about what shows are cool on TV. The truth is, if there is a God, and that God is transcendent, as the monotheistic traditions conceive him, then we are not just talking about some entity in the world, but rather an entity upon which everything in the world depends for its very existence. And so, if the world is complex and not easy to get our heads around, how much more is that which exceeds the world.

Of course, having said all this, I am compelled to acknowledge that Jesus said that unless one coverts and becomes as a little child, one will not see the Kingdom of Heaven. Along with this, I oppose the academic monopolizing of theological discourse, as theology is the discourse that most properly emerges from the Church’s proclamation and worship of the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. This revealing means that God has drawn so very near, and often this nearness is discovered precisely by those who are not wise according to worldly standards. So, maybe my confession needs to lead to repentance. Be that as it may, I will close by asserting that “half-assed musings on the Divine” should not be equated with the child-likeness that Jesus affirmed. So there!

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Two All-Too-Typical Spiritual Errors

Anthony Velez — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:12:36 +0000

Here are two all-too-typical spiritual errors. The first is to absolutize that which is provisional and relative. The second is to relativise that which is absolute. Conservatives are prone to the first error, and liberals the latter.

Recapitulating the Original Sin

Anthony Velez — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:17:26 +0000

In the Genesis narrative the original sin happened when Adam and Eve believed, each in their own way, that they had to look after themselves because God was holding out on them. We recapitulate this sin when, in various ways, we act out of the same belief.