9. Expansive Christianity
So much has transpired in such a short amount of time. I have made new friends, networked myself professionally, and gotten very serious about the direction The Cathedral Project is taking, all while settling my family into our new hometown. We’re going hard.
You might have noticed there’s a new banner on the home page—“Expansive Christianity.”
I’ve made a decision that’s very on-brand for my own heart and my own outlook on how I want The Cathedral Project to take shape in the world. And as such, I’ve decided there is one word I want to de-emphasize (though it is still often part of the “expanded” Christian experience):
That word is Deconstruction.
I have seen and experienced firsthand just how much stigma is on this word. First of all, it carries a very obvious negative charge. If you are deconstructing something, you are taking a thing that appears whole and you are pulling it apart. While I am not at all offended or intimidated by that action in the context of Christianity (after all, I myself have issues with that label and with so much that flows from it), I’ve found that most people—including a number of folks I would call “good” Christians—actually are. I do not wish to appear to anyone as a person who ruffles feathers for fun or who takes himself overly seriously, wearing leather jackets and issuing unsolicited challenges like I’m part of some philosophical biker gang. I am a sensitive and loving dude, and my personality is naturally positive and adaptive. I am a firm believer that positive reinforcement works better and is much harder to employ, so what’s more badass then? Doing the harder thing, or pissing people off willy nilly? I’ll choose the former.
I want to instead focus attention—concentrated intention—on what I am calling Expansive Christianity.
Listen, I know “a thing that appears to be whole” sometimes just isn’t. And that’s what I know has gone awry in modern Christianity. The thing is so enormous, so far removed from its origins, and so multiplicitous that it is now unrecognizable, maimed, deformed. Real Christianity is essentially personal. A person who decides to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ should not just follow Christianity itself, de facto. The decision is individual, and it is Christ within a person who compels them to do this. This “thing” is supposed to be a practice, not a belief. Making the thing into a belief is exactly what robs it of its power. As our hard-nosed brother James said, “Faith without works is dead.” Lifeless. Concepts are fine, but practice is great.
If you “believe” you should turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies, bless those who curse you, care for “the least of these”, and pledge allegiance to the kingdom of heaven, there is still a degree of separation between your concept and your practice. If you bypass belief and simply make all of these your practices, the actions evidence a heart and mind both in submission to the rule of Christ within you. That, friends, is absolutely radical and absolutely revolutionary. It will catch on. But it starts with you.
As for the “expansive” part, it should be clear to all of us now that there is no separation between male and female, Jew and Gentile, atheist and priest, animal and human, atom and galaxy, stardust and earthdust, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Science is telling you as much. The Word of God doesn’t need you to pray a certain way for its all encompassing, fathomless power to soak into the very essence of every single thing in our universe. You are part of it whether you like it or not, and it is shot through all things, “holding them all together.” All truth is Christ. It’s a universal patent.
Given enough time, Christ’s teachings make enemies into friends and erase our curses; the truth that all are one in Christ sets humanity free.
Thank You, God our Father, Spirit our Mother, Christ our Brother, Universe our Sister, for this quantum era. May we be faithful with the knowledge we have received, and submit to the oneness you have weaved through our reality.
Amen.
-wjc