For the last month, each of us chaplain residents have been working to write out and articulate our pastoral theology. This is the theology (ordered thought about God) which informs and is at the foundation of how we are when visiting patients.Questions to consider: Does the God that I believe in cause me to be more compassionate or less? Does Jesus stand at a distance from sick people when talking to them or does he come close, kneel down and look you in the eye? Did you ever think that your theology can be communicated through your body language? When confronted with someone's emotional pain and intense acute grief, does Spirit run from it and pretend like everything's "okay" or move toward the pain giving the person permission to cry and wail as long as needed?
These questions and others like them are what connect our beliefs to our practice, and it is those beliefs that I have had to expound on recently. Below are some of the highlights from my own pastoral theology paper. Enjoy.
In my understanding, sin is but one of many ways to describe the human condition, the problem with humanity. “Sin” is but one way to articulate that there is something wrong. I understand sin to mean “to miss the mark,” to wrong someone or fall short. A relatively broad word, sin has levels of meaning ranging from an archer missing her target to a felon committing an act of murder. Jesus continually demonstrated in the gospel narrative that God’s response to sin is forgiveness. However, sin, in my theological vocabulary, is not the catch-all term for our need for God’s grace. If I am in exile, forgiveness is not what I need from my relationship with God but rather a way home. If spiritual blindness ails me then I need sight; if I am in bondage, I need to be set free. Being lost calls for my need to be found, having a hardened heart calls for gentleness, and hunger calls for food.
In this way, salvation is the way, the freedom from bondage, food for the hungry, healing, recovery of sight for the blind and, yes, forgiveness of sins. Jesus both embodied and pointed us toward a God, who is in the business of all of these and more, and it is in that same embodiment and reminder of God that Jesus offers salvation to broken humanity.
I must be careful here not to apply salvation as a band aid and God as “divine-fixer” of all life’s problems. No, my faith system is not in place in order to avoid any and all pain and suffering. Rather, it is an admission that there is already ample pain and suffering in our world. Rather, Jesus lived and taught a way that stimulates a community which will support one
another as we live life experiencing joy, peace as well as suffering and struggle and pain.
Quite frankly, my theological drinking well for reconciling the problem of a loving, powerful God with evil in the world has run dry. I have come to adopt a Forrest Gump approach to the question of theodicy: “Sometimes…shit happens.” It is not up to me to try and assign blame or reason to bad things in our world or to try and explain God’s role in the matter. If God is anywhere in suffering then God must be on the side that strives for life. And if God is in the business of life then it seems fair to say that God has some amount of solidarity with the suffering. I have come to realize that death is not the opposite of life but merely a part of life. Instead, the opposite of life is something more like loneliness, isolation. And if loneliness is the antithesis of life then this sheds light on the affect of God’s presence, because presence, by definition, is the opposite of loneliness. By simply being present with those in isolation God is love. And what better way for us to feel God’s love which staves away our isolation than when a dear friend is simply with us.
If God is in me, then by offering my whole and authentic self to others I am offering God.
This description of grace is quite distant from that of my religious tradition (upbringing); however, I believe that in being different I do not move away from my religious heritage but rather, I add to it.
In this way, salvation is the way, the freedom from bondage, food for the hungry, healing, recovery of sight for the blind and, yes, forgiveness of sins. Jesus both embodied and pointed us toward a God, who is in the business of all of these and more, and it is in that same embodiment and reminder of God that Jesus offers salvation to broken humanity.
I must be careful here not to apply salvation as a band aid and God as “divine-fixer” of all life’s problems. No, my faith system is not in place in order to avoid any and all pain and suffering. Rather, it is an admission that there is already ample pain and suffering in our world. Rather, Jesus lived and taught a way that stimulates a community which will support one
another as we live life experiencing joy, peace as well as suffering and struggle and pain.
Quite frankly, my theological drinking well for reconciling the problem of a loving, powerful God with evil in the world has run dry. I have come to adopt a Forrest Gump approach to the question of theodicy: “Sometimes…shit happens.” It is not up to me to try and assign blame or reason to bad things in our world or to try and explain God’s role in the matter. If God is anywhere in suffering then God must be on the side that strives for life. And if God is in the business of life then it seems fair to say that God has some amount of solidarity with the suffering. I have come to realize that death is not the opposite of life but merely a part of life. Instead, the opposite of life is something more like loneliness, isolation. And if loneliness is the antithesis of life then this sheds light on the affect of God’s presence, because presence, by definition, is the opposite of loneliness. By simply being present with those in isolation God is love. And what better way for us to feel God’s love which staves away our isolation than when a dear friend is simply with us.
If God is in me, then by offering my whole and authentic self to others I am offering God.
This description of grace is quite distant from that of my religious tradition (upbringing); however, I believe that in being different I do not move away from my religious heritage but rather, I add to it.
Questions - Comments - Concerns?
1 comment:
good questions and genius idea to post part of your paper on your blog! I take full credit for that one. You did fail to mention that after reading your paper your supervisor wept aloud and became a christian!
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