Real Live Preacher
It's not easy being what I'll appallingly simplify as a "liberal Christian." Mainline denominations are struggling because, when confronted by the contradictions and mysteries of the faith, many church member either tune out entirely (choosing another faith or permanently sleeping in on Sundays) or decide that there are no contradictions or mysteries, going fundamentalistic.
I was reading Bible stories from a picture book to Will last night: one of those that condensed Adam and Eve into one paragraph (stopping before they bit the apple, which was the whole point of the myth). Noah's Ark got one paragraph too, but this one included a line about God creating the rainbow to "promise he wouldn't destroy the world again." At that point I quit; time to find another set of Bible stories that are more appropriate for a two-year old!
Appropriateness is in the eye of the beholder, of course. And, honetly, I'm still trying to figure out what appropriateness is in my spiritual life. I have some decidedly unorthodox beliefs, and yet I believe each word of the Apostles' Creed. It's a struggle.
All this is a roundabout way of getting to how much I appreciate Real Live Preacher, a blog that my friend Lex referred me to months ago. Whenever I go there, I'm always impressed by this "liberal" Texas preacher who writes dramatized Bible stories where Jesus says the s-word, talks about real (and difficult) acts of ministering to people, and expounds on the joys of vacuuming a house with a shop-vac -- "The vacuum cleaner is okay for a speck of lint, a little dust, and the crumbs from your Hors D'Oeuvres. If you have ever found an entire sandwich under your couch, you might want to consider a shop-vac."
He's a quite gifted, affecting writer who doesn't let the things he's unsure of interfere with the things he's sure of -- at least most of the time.
Why we love to sail toward something that can never be found is one of life's great mysteries. It's the way we are made, I believe, and I take comfort in that.
Word.