This whole Jesus versus Religion thing is getting to me.  There’s been plenty of buzz of late about the whole mess.  I’m sure by now most of you have seen the viral video via YouTube or Facebook, “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word.”  If not here you go:

I’m not going to wade into a response or a critique of the video, or the response to the video, except to say 2 (perhaps 3) things:

1.  For a thorough-going reflection – pro, con, and otherwise – see Mike Morrell’s well researched post here – “Jesus and Religion’s Relationship Status: It’s Complicated”

2.  What I find most interesting is the response to the video.  It has become a pervasive reoccurring and persnickety meme.

3.  This isn’t new, nor is it a simple binary, black/white issue.

Let’s break that third bit down a bit.  The idea of a “Religionless Christianity” was, to my knowledge (which I admit is partial and incomplete) a unique contribution by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he sat awaiting death in a Nazi prison. John Wesley had some inklings about such things with his emphasis on being a “Real” or “True” Christian.  As I suspect Luther had some things to say about this as well. Bonhoeffer didn’t get to flesh out all his ideas about what a “religionless Christianity” would entail, but he left some intriguing notes that have been slowly making their way into the theological and (dare I say) religious discourse ever since.

About a month ago I got Peter Rollins’ new book, Insurrection: To Believe is Human To Doubt, Divine, in the mail.  I wrote some initial observations over here.  I quickly realized I need to get up to speed on some Bonhoeffer, so I read a basic overview of his life and work.  I also picked up Greg Boyd’s Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgement to the Love of God.

Boyd and Rollins share some particularly notable similarities and obvious differences.  But at the end of the day I find them complementary rather than oppositional (but not sure if they would hold the same opinion of the other or not).  They both emphasize the need for a thorough embrace of LOVE as the operative reality in God’s engagement with us – and ours with God and one another.

Religion is rightly critiqued, convicted and found deficient as a system of accessing God.  When religion is conceived as a construct that operates as a bounded-set that keeps certain people “out” and protects those who are “in,” then religion is ripe for deconstruction and a critical eye.  The image of Jesus in the Gospels, even more so God throughout scripture, is one of upsetting the status quo, of provoking the standard categories, of welcoming outsiders “in” by demolishing the (perceived) boundary.

At the end of the day, God’s relationality is affirmed.  How we interact with that kind of God – a relational one – is a perennially persistent problem (how’s that for an alliteration!).  Religion – as a system of behavioral constraints that mediate our access to the divine – majors on hurdles and hoops that require a certain kind of existential technology to “achieve.”  The relationality of God in Christ majors on grace, grace, grace.

The rub, of course, is how do you work that kind of thing out in practice.  It is one thing to say that our practices don’t determine our worthiness relative to God, it is quite another to live out a workable spirituality (i.e. our life with God).  My hunch is that it is the place of community of faith, the role of prophetic art and imagination, and the upturning of conscientious social do-gooding (i.e. service and communion with the poor and marginalized) that open us to the possibility of God-sans-religion.  Even if the result looks to those on the outside (of such a religiousless mindset) like religious activity.

Opening Night – Stations 1-7

Opening Night – Stations 8-14

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 flyer

(post updated 1/23/12 with new links)

Well, I’ll admit it.  I’m procrastinating.  I should be writing a seminary paper on podcasting.  But at the moment I’m pondering more about non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient music.

Yeah, I know.  You were thinking the exact. same. thing!

Specifically, I’m looking forward to Via Crucis :: Immerison 2010 that we’ll be creating this Spring. (if you want to play, let me know)  Every year we’ve had some kind of opening night event.  In 2006, Aradhna played a beautiful concert in the round.  In 2008, Isaac Karns (of the Pomegranates) conducted an ensemble of brilliant musicians who created a fantastic musical happening (I’ll repost the mp3s that we recorded soon.  I finally posted here them in 2012!).  In 2010, I’d love to push the envelope a bit further and create music together as a gathered body – but do it in a non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient way.  I’ll attempt to delineate deliberately in reverse:

Music

It matters.  As much as worship isn’t only music – a helpful corrective from folks like Lilly Lewin – music remains a powerful and visceral way we connect with God, the world around us (in a sonic, vibration sorta way), and one another.  There is something about music that quite literally rings in our ears and penetrates to the heart.

Ambient

I’m thinking here of the musical genre, which our friend Wikipedia defines thusly:

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an “atmospheric”, “visual” or “unobtrusive” quality.

As such, this would be building on the work and thought of Brian Eno.  Deep resonances and earthy electronica that evoke (and perhaps, provoke) more than they instruct, lead, or demand.  Allowing the space between to be attended to as much, if not more, than the actual notes, sounds, or chords.

Participatory

One of the bones to pick with typical “worship music” – be that “traditional” (hymns, organs, choirs) or “contemporary” (bands, guitars, drums) is how non-participatory it actually is.  In both cases we watch the professionals/experts on the stage conduct us to minimally participate at the lowest common denominator.  Sure, we may sing – or some do – but that’s it.  Deciding what we sing, when we sing, how we sing and the notes to which we sing – that’s the expert’s job.  So, what if Via Crucis :: Immersion was a deeply participatory event?  Not just those who create the stations and engage the stations – but what if the music that is generated on opening night is fully participatory.  What if what existed that night would not exist if not for each person gathered – not merely in the spiritual presence sense – but in the actual live creation of music.  I’m thinking here of an Aural Event – that resonates from our the soles of our shoes to souls of our brains.  Sort of like a musical wiki.

Emergent

Imagine an aural event of ambient music created together by active, live participation that EMERGES out of a set of simple rules that everyone follows.  I’m thinking here of the complex behavior of ant colonies or bee hives.  All created by leaderless systems of autonomous individuals following specific behavioral codes.  This music would be birthed out of people following a simple set of guidelines.  Nothing pre-ordained, no sheet music, no conductor.  Rather when the gathered assemble we would instruct them of 3 rules about how, what, and when they can play (this might be vocal or instrumental) – out of this social matrix (something that is intentional and crafted) the musical aural event would emerge.  Think fractals.  See also emergence on Wikipedia.

non-linear

- This would not be a 1, 2, 3 process.  Sure, the Stations of the Cross are linear – they follow a path that leads from point A (Jesus’ condemnation) to point B (Jesus in the tomb).  And the music event would have a beginning and an end (though you could debate that to an extent).  But within the (parenthetical) confines of the Aural Event the music would follow it’s own path – not one that we predetermined.  It would be the Worship Music equivalent of a Spirit-led walk in the woods.

So, what do you think?  How could we pull this off?  What would we need to pull this off?

Quite possibly, this is who I want to be when I grow up!  Click above and read.

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 is over. Really it is. You’ve probably moved on into new and exciting (or same-old and boring) things, as have I. But we need to put Via Crucis 2008 to rest and to do so I wanted to share some reflections and illicit yours. Check out these blog posts and quotes…

Blog Posts:
http://hopehasreturned.blogspot.com/2008/03/via-crucis.html
http://www.captivethoughts.net/?p=1736
http://thewholepeace.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/

The reflections of one of my students:
“It was amazing to see what something so simple as this event could do to bring together different denominations, and people who otherwise would probably not meet, or be friends with each other. It was a chance to lay aside stupid technicalities and minute differences in belief, and take up one uniform task of bringing the passion and love of Christ to people in a different light than usual. …. An event like Via Crucis really brings into grasp the audacity of Christ. This is far more powerful an experience than drinking half and ounce of juice and eating a piece of stale bread. Overall Via Crucis was an amazing experience, from planning and not really knowing what it was about, to it being done and knowing on a more personal level of what Christ went through for each and every one of us.”

The reflections of a youth pastor:
“I took a drive down to Norwood today to experience via crucis immersion 2008 with two of my 8th grade students. As we left the church and began to process the experience one girl stated that she now understood what Easter was all about. Wow! We were all deeply moved by sharing together in the journey.”

I would love to gather your reflections and thoughts (evaluations, critiques, or ideas for next time). Feel free to send me links to blog posts, email me, or call. I’m already getting ideas for 2010 Via Crucis :: Immersion and I would love for you all to be involved again! We have 2 films being created about Via Crucis and I will share those as they become available. The music is still available from Opening Night – http://www.viacrucisimmersion.com/music.html.

Blessing upon you all and Thank You for how you followed Jesus in the Via Crucis,
ak

Via Crucis 2008

Originally uploaded by **CRT**

Click this photo to view Cindy’s Flickr set of Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 images. Like DG she’s a great photographer and captured the event well. I love the warm colors of many of her photographs, which I think evoke the atmosphere of the event at night. I particularly like this photo of the crown of thorns… not sure I can describe it well, but Charlie Levine created it out of nail and glue and other “industrial-type” items. So, it’s kinda like a 21 Century dystopian crown of thorns… very cool.

Originally uploaded by D.G.Flickr

Click the photo to go to DG’s Flickr set of Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 photos. He has a great eye and sense of color. I think he captured the tone of the experience well.  Plus he played with some cool new featues on his camera, so there you go.

——

Here are DG’s words that he posted about this particular image:

“the most senses filled station, the Death of Christ. They had this cross on the floor and all around you was videos on each wall, and sound surrounding you. The video was filled with images and videos of Christ dieing and other painful events from all over the world. Amazing! I wanted to keep the color of the picture of the same as the time I took it (lots of blue in the videos being played above.”

Aradhna

There will be layers upon layers of meanings and messages, not all of them (or any of them) tied up neatly for “taking home”. Certainly, we hope that persons come away from this experienced changed and that that will likely mean that they “got something out of it”, but this will be a by-product of the experience. In fact, in many ways this experience – the Stations – stand alone as a sacramental event. They have the potential of being an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace (Thank you, John Wesley). The Stations exist not so that we can get something out of them, but so that we can put ourselves into them.

Hopefully, we won’t escape from something (our lives, our families, our communities) as much as we will escape into the sufferings of Christ. We will actively engage our own suffering and (even more?) actively engage in the world’s suffering.

We will be embraced into Christ’s reality – a kingdom realm – and in this way we will be transformed. Perhaps we will even be converted. Converted – changed – both to Christ and for the world. We will find life through the death. Resurrection is not merely a future reality; it is a present expectation of the kingdom breaking in. As much of Christ calls us away and unto himself, he likewise calls us into the world – to a solidarity with those on the margins. But these things are not up to us (we who would be so bold as to attempt these Stations), it is the Spirit who moves and who does the changing. We can only be faithful to his work within us – not passively, but with active anticipation of the change that he is doing in us. As we do this we will be privileged to witness his work within one another as well. This is what the Stations are – an opportunity to observe the Spirit’s working.

This may also be why the Stations make such a good setting for this kind of Holy Spirit work. The muck and the mire of our lives are laid bare as we identify with Jesus’ suffering. It is in the compost of our souls, the pain, the hurt, and the wounds that we see the Spirit active. It is in our brokenness that we can become whole.

Big Long Quote on Immersion

“The experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place is pleasurable in itself, regardless of the fantasy content. We refer to this experience as immersion. Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus. We enjoy the movement out of our familiar world, the feeling of alertness that comes from being in this new place, and the delight that comes from learning to move within it. Immersion can entail a mere flooding of the mind with sensation, the over flow of sensory stimulation experienced in the televisor parlor in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Many people listen to music in this way, as a pleasurable drowning of the verbal parts of the brain. But in a participatory medium, immersion implies learning to swim, to do the thing that the new environment makes possible.” pp.98-99

From – Murray, Janet B. 1998. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The MIT Press.

* Pine, Joseph B. and James H. Gilmore. 1999. The Experience Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. (link)