Theism, Atheism… Agnosticism?

Andrew Sullivan’s readers have been engaging in a wonderful little debate about what it means to believe in God and what it means to not believe in God. Check out this post to get you started (and follow the links). And below, I’ve posted a sample of the back and forth.

I, for one, cannot claim to be anything more than an agnostic (literally: “one without knowledge”). Contra the atheist below, I do believe in the existence of God, despite the lack of evidence, but I do not believe in any “claims that rely on the existence of God for their validity.” Rather, I believe in claims that I intuit to be true and helpful and beautiful and that bring joy to the world, but which I cannot prove.  And as the theist points out below, everyone must live according to such claims, claims they can never prove, whether or not belief in God is in play. Personally, my belief in God is bound up in all those necessary claims but is not the root of them. And I fully acknowledge–having (once upon a time) called myself an atheist–that  atheists are as engaged as any of us in the struggle to live and to live well. As the atheist puts it below, they simply do not believe in God.

I suspect that if we were all forced to be glaringly honest, we’d all have to admit that there are no true theists or atheists among us; that we’re all ultimately agnostics struggling to live and to live as best we can, some with and others without an abiding faith in an all good, all powerful, all knowing God.

Now, without further ado, here’s the theist:

Your atheist readers make the classic move of pretending to be the referee when in fact they are just another player on the field. They are treating it as an intellectual puzzle rather than what it actually is for every last of us: a lived commitment. This is why the term “Atheist” itself is so misleading. You’re an atheist, fine.  I’m an A-Vishnuist, and an A-Buddhist, and an A-Teapotist…

Meditating on the Mechanical and the Natural

Speaking of our strained relationship to the natural world and thereby, our strained relationship with God…

A friend sent along this link to the mechanized art of Arthur Ganson today. I particularly like the pieces that include a strikingly organic component, such as “Machine with Egg Shells,” and below, “Machine With Artichoke Petal #1.”

How does God call, text, IM, email us?

Tonight, Thursday, January 29, 6:30 – 9 pm, our Breaking Bread at Bede’s series continues with a presentation by the The Rev. Elaine Lindeman, entitled “How Do We Figure Out How God Is Calling Us?”

The Rev. Lindeman is an expert on the spiritual theology of St. Ignatius and his famed Spiritual Exercises, designed to help guide one to a deeper understanding of his or her role in the world as a disciple of Christ.

So come, enjoy dinner and fellowship, and learn something about Ignatian spirituality, and maybe get a better understanding of how you fit into the cosmos. (By the way: this is a question we also plan to take up at our next Seekers Dinner, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 7:30 – 9:30 pm.)

Sometimes I’m Bombaloo

A few weeks ago, volunteer Sunday School teacher, Laura Gable, introduced us to the wonderful children’s book, Sometimes I’m Bombaloo. It’s about a little girl dealing with getting upset when things don’t go her way and then learning how to re-connect to the good in her life despite her occasional outbursts of anger, hurt and frustration.

Check out the book here. And come to the Kids Lead service this Sunday, February 1 at 10:15 am, to hear more about what it means to be “Bombaloo.”

Bede’s Bog (not Blog, Bog)

Recently, we made an agreement with Park Rangers of the Palo Alto Baylands to adopt a portion of land located near the mouth of the San Francisquito Creek along the shore of San Francisco Bay. Click here to view a satellite image of Bede’s Bog–it’s the gray diagonal swath of land between the road and the ruddy red field.

Beginning Saturday, March 21, our parishioners, particularly our Sunday School and Youth Group members and their families as well as all others interested in the project, will work one Saturday morning per month to rehabilitate this swath of earth in an effort to do our part to keep our local eco-system happy and healthy.

We will be pulling out invasive weeds, planting grasses and bushes that promote biodiversity, and picking up trash. And in so doing, we will be learning a great deal about how we interact with the water and animals and plants we share space with on this planet. Taken another step, we will learn more about how God interacts with us through the water and animals and plants, and by engaging in this project of macro-gardening, we will learn more about our place as stewards of God’s creation.

Speaking of all that, Kitty preached on these questions of eco-theology last Sunday (see below) and mentioned the book, The World Without Us. Check out this video from the book’s website, which dramatizes how the earth eventually reclaims our houses after we relinquish them.

Sermon: State of the Parish

The sermon on the last Sunday of January each year is a combination of a sermon and an annual report, a state of the parish address. It reflects the resonance between scripture and our life lived by its instruction…

As we enter 2009, the dawn of the 21st century is a dim memory. Yet it’s a mere decade from the millennial New Year’s Eve Eucharist we held, as we clicked over without the feared Y2K computer crisis.

Soon we had a deadlier crisis on our hands, stunned by terror in one of our greatest and oldest cities. The first decade of the new millennium was overtaken by that tragedy. As the decade draws to a close, we are in perilous economic straits that demand our best navigation.

The grace may be that we have no other choice now but to do what is best. It may cut down on nonsense…

Shift happens. Flow happens. The world as we know it is ending. A new world is coming into being, arising from the ashes of what once was. God is calling us to get on board with what will be. Paul urges the new recruits to pay attention to whatever God enables moving forward, whatever God prompts, fosters, and sustains. The disorientation of future shock accompanies this calling…

We are to voice our prayers, our needs, our praise, our hopes. We are to converse with God about human experience. We are to acknowledge our longings, aloud and in public. Doing so instructs us and allows God more ways to be at work. Power belongs to God, says the psalm.

It is the power of love, more than a gazillion megawatts. Think of thundering Niagara Falls as an image of God’s love. St. Bede’s mission is to be a model of that relationship, of that renewable energy flowing into the world from its source…

[Click below for Kitty's complete sermon]

Kids Lead (not merely Superbowl) Sunday

In Sunday School the past few weeks, our Sunday School kids have been talking about Jesus as a healer, specifically talking about how Jesus helped others to open themselves up to possibility of love and joy and hope when their hearts were cold and hard, locked up tight with dread, anger and contempt.

This Sunday, February 1, during our Kids Lead Service at 10:15 am, the children will share their reflections during the sermon–along with their drawings depicting themselves when their hearts are hardened as well as when their hearts are open.

And as in every Kids Lead service, the kids will read scripture, lead the prayers and lead us in song.

Bede’s Blog is Back!

After two months in the dark, Bede’s Blog is happy to be back up and running.

(Bede’s Blog was otherwise disposed what with the birth of a new baby and the General Ordination Exams back-to-back.)

So please pardon the interruption. And stay tuned for a steady stream of news and ideas emanating from St. Bede’s Church in Menlo Park, California.