Lyrics scroll through my head:
Theologians
They don't know nothing
About my soul
I'm an ocean
An abyss in motion
Slow motion
Inlitterati lumen fidei
God is with us everyday(Girard, C. Jorgensen M., 2004)
This morning I listen while sipping decaf chai
dressed in black,
baby bouncing in my womb.
I am smiling.
And that’s the answer to the crux.
Happiness.
Love.
The simple blissful fact that nothing else matters.
That word meanings don’t matter.
That intentional actions do.
That God is in me, around me, apart from and with me
always
in small and enormous moments.
Still I am lured to write,
for myself,
for my children,
for you.
Here we go.
I’m no theologian (specialist in the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially : the study of God and of God's relation to the world (Merriam Webster, 2012))
no master of dogma (a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church (Merriam Webster, 2012) )
Spirituality as researched and presented by a friend of mine makes the most sense to me: What is Sprituality?
The church as defined by Merriam Webster is
1. a building for public and especially Christian worship
2. the clergy or officialdom of a religious body
3. often capitalized : a body or organization of religious believers: as
a : the whole body of Christians
b : denomination
c : congregation
4. a public divine worship
6. the clerical profession
Christians give the Church definitions ranging from the established government (not religion) called the Kingdom of God on the Earth to the Church defined as group of people gathered with a common doctrine, not a building. Acts chapter 2 in the NIV Bible discusses a fellowship of believers.
This article most closely resembles the theology I was exposed to as a child in the Christian Church and expresses my understanding of the Christian Church.
What do other people say the church is? Here is an interesting article regarding the etymology of the word.
In my reasoning it may be impossible to take the word “church” literally from the text of the Christian Bible; because there are at least eight versions of what Jesus said and no one is alive to tell the tale first hand. Whose words do I take literally? Jesus? Merriam Webster? Mithras? anyone? It all boils down to what I believe to be true. And how do I decide that?
Faith
Faith makes a church.
I am part of a church.
We are a gathering of like minds. We are a hybrid, we may be new. We are still figuring it out. We all have faith. We have no doctrine, no teachers outside of one another, history, life, experience.We are seekers.
I am seeking a path that picks up where I was stalled 14 years ago. I have found the space to do that.
I defend that sacred space each time I recognize the light in me.
I “attend” church every instance I experience spirituality, every time I meditate on the being part of the human being.
My church can be anywhere, it is not a building.
My God revealed in any: -one, -thing, idea.
My apostles are forests, mountains and skies, painters, wordsmiths, and explorers of internal landscapes.
My intuition and our reasoning.
