Welcome to Compass, Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. And this is a
podcast by United Methodist Communications. And it's where we
seek to build connections with spiritual seekers through stories and
insights revealing God's action in the world today.
I'm Ryan Dunn. I wanna wanna thank you for joining me in this episode. We're
diving into the topic of living out our faith in a complex
world. So with so much polarization and outrage around us,
how do we express our faith authentically
without adding to that polarization and
division. Over the weekend, the Olympics kicked off Friday in
Paris. Whoo. Alright.
But then there was instant controversy over
an opening number featuring drag performers that some people
said was a blasphemous take on da Vinci's painting, The Last
Supper. And see the opening ceremonies
completely blast theme and mock the Christian
faith with their interpretation of the last supper
was disgust. I thought it was a disgrace. I thought it was,
terrible. Such mockery is a deliberate attack on
Jesus Christ, And to sit here and let France mock the country, mock
your religion, make fun of every single thing you feel holy. This is the last
supper. This is everything holy about Christianity. All these clips have
come in reaction to the opening ceremonies of the
Olympics presented in Paris, France in 2024.
The assumption made by many was that a scene
of a number of people, some of them in drag around a long
table was a mockery of the
last supper scene specifically as it was
depicted in Leonardo Da Vinci's famous last supper painting.
The retort in what many of us understand is
that the scene was really a recreation of a completely different
painting depicting a Dionysian party, not the
last supper. And, actually, many of us aren't that
uncomfortable with the idea of people in drag being
seated with Jesus. It's funny to me,
about what some people choose to express
outrage over. I feel like there are so many
more outrageous things happening in the world. For example, we've
heard some outrage over the violence being committed in
Gaza, but it hasn't felt nearly as loud
as this outrage. At least not over the past couple of weeks as
the Olympics have been going on and still the
outrageous stuff in Gaza continues to happen. Or
was there a sense of outrage expressed over the amount of money invested
in these opening ceremonies? I mean, they were quite extravagant
and I think the old w w j d question, you know,
what would Jesus do would challenge us to consider using
much of the money differently for sure. The outrage we're
hearing again is in relation to a supposed recreation
of Leonardo da Vinci's depiction of the last supper.
I have to wonder if Jesus and the disciples would have felt any kind of
sense of outrage that da Vinci depicted them
as a bunch of European guys. Maybe that's outrageous
that we've whitewashed the whole Jesus
crew, but also even in the midst of
the misunderstanding of what the scene represented, what a
chance this was to break down some walls
instead of really investing in building them higher.
My point of view is that Jesus was like the ultimate
wall destroyer. The notion of the incarnation, this
notion that Jesus is God come to earth as
a human to experience that all humanity
experiences, that incarnation represents a
removal of any wall that would separate
humanity from God. This episode though, isn't
about explicitly really reacting to the ceremonies or
the evangelical outrage after those ceremonies.
Instead, I wanted to explore how to express our faith in a
way that fosters understanding and connection rather than
division. And hopefully, I'm gonna provide a couple examples. This is really
about identifying some helpful ways that we express our
faith in an age of outrage and polarization.
This podcast, the compass podcast itself is for people
who feel like spiritual seekers. It's for the people
who don't have all the answers, but we're curious about
finding out more is for the people who feel like we're on a
bit of a journey. I believe a majority of our
audience is probably uncomfortable with the
supposed, can I quote this Christian
response to the opening ceremonies? Because that response
reflects a closed off mindset that I don't think our
audience values much, probably because in our question
asking we would or have
found ourselves pushed towards the outside or
the margins of faith communities. I
think that closed mindset also makes us a
little uncomfortable in expressing our own faith
in the public forum because we might be lumped in with, you
know, the them, the loud voices who are
expressing a clear sense of judgmentalism
and partisanship. So this episode provides some
ideas for bringing our faith to the public forum without perhaps
adding some height or some depth to the walls
that divide us. I hope that what comes out of this
at least. So this is far from a checklist. You're not
gonna leave this episode with 5 action steps to undertake in order
to be a bridge builder or anything like that. It's more about
postures and attitudes and even providing a couple of
examples. Now, as I see it,
Jesus must have been pretty good at reading an
audience. At least in the stories that were given in the gospels,
Jesus is a debt at delivering a message for a
particular audience. His use of parables,
they turned complex teachings into relatable
tales. And I'm explicitly thinking of teachings like the parable of
the sower, which communicated this deep spiritual truth in
familiar terms of the agricultural
Jesus was again and again, accessible
and relatable. I have to wonder in our current age,
when we immediately resort to a default
reaction of outrage, who are we
actually considering the audience for
our outraged responses? Now, some people may
say, well, I don't do it for anybody. And for those who are saying that
they're not responding to anyone are in particular, then why
would you actually offer a public response at all?
In the case of the Olympics, I have yet to see an outraged response that
was really about building some kind of dialogue with
the supposed transgressors. Instead, the
audience of those public outrage responses are people who
are already inclined to believe or
agree with the outrage. So they are
those who are behind the proverbial wall
already. This public facing response is
not meant to be a bridge. It's meant to, gas
enclosed or encircle the wagons around
the, the faithful community already. Now, maybe
this is an opportune time to talk about
what sin is in the United Methodist church,
that religious tradition that I'm a part of, we're often accused
of neglecting sin that like, we just don't preach about
it enough. And the assumption goes with this, that we just have this, anything
goes attitude and there is no sin or the assumption
is made that it's too uncomfortable to talk about sin. So we just kind of
sweep it under the rug. I think that those criticisms
come from a place of divergent perspectives
about sin. Now Jesus ministry certainly
brought up sin. It's revealing though, as to what kind of
sins Jesus really condemned people for note
that the woman caught in adultery. We get this story in John chapter
8. She was not condemned embezzling tax collectors
like Matthew and Zacchaeus were not condemned, but those who
wanted to gate, keep access to the community of faith,
they received the harsh words. They received some
condemnation. And in Matthew 23, Jesus really lays
it out there. He calls these, these gatekeepers, children of
hell, and he calls them blind fools explicitly.
He notes that these religious leaders quote, crush people
with unbearable religious demands and never lift a
finger to ease the burden and quote consistently.
Those on the outside were treated with a conciliatory
attitude and those on the inside got the
harsh stuff when assuming the roles of
gatekeepers. So what does this have to do with sin? It would
seem that sin is not just a condition of being a rule
breaker. So, you know, God said it, therefore we have to do it. And if
we don't, then we're breaking the rules and committing sin. Instead, sin
is the state in which people are destroying their relationships
with one another and with God. That's what I believe
in a nutshell. And I'll say it again. Sin is the state in which
people are destroying their relationships with one another
and with God. And I need to note that I can't
speak for the entirety of United Methodism on
that. I can offer that this is an acceptable
view in United Methodism. And that actually probably needs
to be said in a lot of United Methodist theology as
a denomination with a pretty open and wide spanning
theology. It's hard to say, here's what United Methodist
believe without someone else saying, well, that's not what I
believe, but we can surely say
this is a widely held view in United Methodism.
Now my view of sin certainly falls into that category. So someone who
is legitimately United Methodist is saying, I disagree
with Ryan on that, but also it is an acceptable view in
the United Methodist church. Anyways, this relates to
how we live out our faith in a complex world, because there's a
vein of Christianity that views condemnation of
sin as a vital way of living out
faith in the public arena. And the harshest example of this would
be like the street corner preachers who want to let
all passers by know that they're going to hell. A more common
example is what we're seeing right now in response to
the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, that outrage that is
being expressed. Now, the flip side of this public
display is to go to an extreme to say that
faith is a private matter in one doesn't need to bring their faith
into the public sphere. And in some degrees, there's a little bit of wisdom
to that. I don't believe it's respectful to others to like throw our faith in
their faces. And to others to like throw our faith in their
faces. And that might look like being
invited to something like a bachelor party at a strip club
and responding with a statement like I'm
Christian and I don't do that now as a person of
conscience and a person of faith. I also don't feel like it's the
right thing for me to go to a strict club,
but a more compassionate response, maybe to say something
like, I can't do something like that without objectifying
to performers and that weighs on my conscience. So, that tends to
work my mind a little bit. So I'm going to pass on that
invite. Now that's not the best example, but it does
hint at the way in which faith and
conscience inform our public lives. This is this public action.
Me not going to that club without faith,
being a barrier to our relationships with others, and maybe without a
sense of judgmental gatekeeping on that as well. And in
this example, faith is a personal thing, but it's
affecting public behavior. So yes, faith is personal,
but it's also a little bit public. And that's why the
incarnation of Jesus is important because it
shows publicly a better way. It's a very
public display of what God is doing in the
world. Jesus revealed the possibilities
of a life with God. And on the flip of that, Jesus did not
come to inflict a life with God,
but instead came to exemplify a life with God. And
that example based mindset is something missing in much of
the discourse around Christian discourse.
And it is certainly missing when we stretch the truth around public
events in order to create a sense of outrage.
And this again is what has happened around the 2024 Olympics
opening ceremonies in Paris. The scene causing the outrage
was not, as we've noted, a mockery of the last supper, nor
was it even a mockery of Da Vinci's painting. I'm
not convinced that a portrayal of the last supper by people in
drag would be a mockery of anything. Instead. I think it would be
a commentary on the all encompassing love of God,
but that's beside the point nor were
later scenes in the opening ceremonies like scenes
with that mechanized horse at the end, nor was
that a mockery of 1 of the riders from revelation
rather than a life of faith being inflicted. The life of
faith is an invitation. Shane Claiborne, who's a friend of
this podcast from back on episode 45. He talks
about the irresistible pull of
the family of God or the kingdom of God or
kingdom of God enacted. And he writes
about this ideal extensively in both the
irresistible revolution and his book, Jesus for president,
noting that wherever we see people being lifted up, people
being included and finding joy, There's something
inviting to that. We all want to participate
in that kind of public action. It's not about coercion.
It's 1st and foremost about instead an attitude
of humility. What would it look like if
Christianity if Christianity's attitude towards
the world was marked by Christ centered humility
as opposed to a sense of outrage. Augustine
said that humility is the beginning of Christian discipleship. There's a
lot of wisdom there. It suggests that the beginning of growth
on our spiritual journey is to adopt a sense of
humility and to stay grounded then in that humility
throughout our journey. Outrage on the other hand, while that's not one
of the fruits of the spirit, it's something that turns people away. And I
think that there are these attitudes that we should
concentrate on in terms of living out a faith in
a complex world, because these are the attitudes through which life becomes a
bit simpler and becomes peace filled. These are
the irresistible attitudes. And I think Galatians 5,
what we call the fruits of the spirit sums it up very
well. Galatians 522 through 23 says this, the fruit of
the spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There
is no law against such things. I love that
little aside thrown in the end there. There's no law against such things.
And all of us want a piece of that, a piece of kindness, a piece
of patience, a piece of self control. That's the irresistible
invitation of faith Outrage? Well,
not so much. So is outrage ever
warranted? Well, Jesus got outraged. So I would
have to say yes, Times it is warranted. But again,
what outraged Jesus seemed to be acts of exclusion.
Those acts that told others that they had no access
to the love of God. There's a group in the United Methodist
Church called El Plan for Hispanic Latina Ministry.
El Plan strives to develop Hispanic slash
Latinx leaders in faith communities working as
partners, equal partners in decision making in
the broader church. In a recent newsletter, Al plan
executive director, Reverend Doctor. Lydia Munoz shared what
she's learning in participating in another collaborative
group with other Hispanic Latino leaders from different
denominations. And she wrote this. It's really well put.
Quote, what we all acknowledged was that our seminaries and
training have prepared us to have conversations inside the
church about the church and around the church in the public
square, but we've not learned the skills to engage as
participants in the conversation in the public
square as a partner with the public square,
not with a hidden agenda or to gain members, but because we
are disciples of Jesus with a sincere concern for the common
good of all people. She continues to say, when
we read about the church that began to take shape in acts 2, we
see a community of faith that didn't know what they were becoming.
All they knew was that they had experienced the power of God that
convened them together. I mean, together,
like all things in common together. That ends her
quote. And the characteristics of the acts 2 church that she talks
about were a sense of community and commonality.
Acts 2 that says that the church at that time held all things
in common. They worshiped together almost every day. Many met
daily for shared meals and they shared what they
had with those in need. I recently had a
Instagram conversation with another friend of this podcast,
Reverend Adam Baker. Adam was a guest alongside Krissy Reeves,
Pendergrass on episode 54 And Adam has
just visited 924 Gilman Street in
Berkeley, California. And 924 Gilman
is a music club, sort of. Now most clubs will hire
musical guests, and then they determine the price of entry and how
much they paying their musicians. And there'll be primarily
responsible for publicity and such, and, you know, therefore make
most of the profit on that as well. 924 Gilliaman
street, which is also known as the alternative music
foundation is a nonprofit collective. The
policy decisions of the collective are written up during bimonthly membership
meetings. Anybody can show up to those membership meetings. And these
membership meetings are at the core of the decision making process,
and they've been taking place since the nonprofit's origins in the late
19 eighties. The rules of the club, the rules of 9/24,
Gilman, are are pretty simple. They are to be all
ages. There's no racism, no sexism, no homophobia
it's volunteer run. So there's a very low barrier to
entry. And most of the time they just say, show
up, show up, and we'll give you a job. There are a few paid
positions like the security people, but mostly though it seems the
bands determine the details of their show, including how
much they charge for admission. Though, the paid staff normally
get 10% and then the rest is split between the bands and the
venue. It's almost as if they're offering this space
location, these resources, the sound system,
and inviting bands to come in and make use of it for the building of
community in that space. The Gilman community
reflects a posture that we seldom utilize in the church. It's
one that says we have this resource. How are
you going to use it to people outside of the church? That's
what they're saying. How are you going to use this resource? I don't see
evidence that 9 24 Gilman has ever existed
really for just the sake of perpetuating 9
24 Gilman. It exists for the sake of nurturing and
empowering a specific community of people.
This looks like an example of what Reverend Lydia calls
for in her email. So here's where all this comes
back to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.
The outraged response suggests a posture of, well,
we need to bend the world to our viewpoint or at least make the
world sympathetic to our viewpoint. I think the truly biblical
response counter to that is one that we
witness in the actions of Jesus and of the church
in acts. It's one that says, how do we share,
grace filled, justice minded viewpoint through our acts
of service to our communities? It's a posture that asks,
how do we give what we have? And our
outrage comes not when the world doesn't get what we're talking
about. It comes when we become
barriers to our own sharing in the grace and
justice of God. All right. So I, I think
that's, an affirmative type of action
that we can take within the world. And that's kind of cool. And that's
my story for this episode of compass. I want to thank
you for joining me today. If you found this episode helpful, please check
out more episodes of Compass Finding Spirituality in the Everyday.
Subscribe, rate, share this podcast with others,
follow us on social media through Rethink Church or visit our website, which
is umc.org/compass.
You can find show notes there and more resources.
Also give a listen to the episodes that I mentioned in this particular
episode. They're both from much earlier in our compass experience.
So it might be kind of a fun sojourn through the evolution
of this podcast. And again, those episodes were episode number
45 with Shane Claiborne and episode 54
with Adam bar Baker and a Barker. Adam Baker
and Krissi Reeves Pendergrass. That's a wrap here. It's been a
pleasure. Again, my name is Ryan Dunn and I'll chat at you again
in 2 weeks. Peace.