The interest surrounding the existence and knowability of God has seems to have taken on new life – thanks to the resurgence of rockstar atheists like Richard Dawkins, or the late Christopher Hitchens – their argument basically being this: If you can’t rationally prove that God exists, then it’s absurd to talk about his knowability.
Now keep in mind, these are Western scientists trained to think in a linear way. Western scientists thought the sun revolved around the earth at one time.
It reminds me of Thomas Kuhn’s book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science, professor at MIT, who introduced the term “paradigm shift.”
Kuhn has made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic “paradigm shifts” rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way; that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding that scientists would never have considered valid before; and that the notion of scientific truth, at any given moment, cannot be established solely by objective criteria. Thus, our comprehension of science can never rely on full “objectivity”; we must account for subjective perspectives as well.
What’s humbling about his thesis is that the final authority rests outside of us. That’s a jagged pill to swallow.
Humanity struggles with the need to be in control – to be the final authority, i.e., “Creator” – when it comes it its relationship with nature, with spirituality, and with his/her fellow kind.
Again Paul: Rom 1:21, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but … exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images…”
It’s not enough being “a god,” we want to be “the god.” And if I can’t be the god, nobody can be. In other words if I can’t decide what’s Truth, then Truth doesn’t exist = atheism. Or, if I can’t decide what’s Truth, nobody else can = agnosticism.
So where does that leave us? Truth is relative and up for grabs for the ubermenschen – “superman” – whoever is louder, stronger as Nietzsche would argue. Now that’s an even more jagged pill to swallow. Take for instance the Holocaust. Six million Jews exterminated. Can we truly really be agnostic when it comes to the Truth of its evil? Shall we let the strong man decide?
What if Truth decided to make an appearance despite all our squabbling? The Apostle John writes 1 John 1:2, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.”
This is where Christianity separates from mainstream religions. It’s a paradigm shift. We don’t find truth. It finds us. Truth appears. Truth isn’t a construct of our imagination that we can deconstruct. Truth comes from the outside. And apparently, it has chosen a band of people (Apostles) to testify to it.
What do we do with that? Maybe it’s better that no one gets the “truth cookie.” That way no one will get hurt or jealous. But according to scripture, somebody has.
Can you think of anything more insanely hopeful and terrifying than this?
~Ed
 I’ve invited Anu Orebiyi to the table this morning. I’m having her share with us the Christ in her and in all of us. She and I will be talking through the passage in Ezekiel on the Valley of Dry Bones and it’s intersection in her life and ours. Anu is a graduate of The Seattle School. We’ll try our best to intersect the text, the soul and culture.
 Exodus 20:3-6
(3) “You shall have no other gods before me.
(4) “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (5) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, (6) but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
One of the ways we avoid intimacy is by masking ourselves. Another way is by masking the one we are trying to have a relationship with. Take for instance God. Last Sunday I had Randall Ajimine come and converse with us on this subject. Here are two of his blog entries which we referred to. Take a look.
Part 1 - http://lonetomato808.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/363-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-god/
Part 2 - http://lonetomato808.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/364-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-god-part-two/
~ Pastor Ed.
 Text: Genesis 3:5 – “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Parents are like mirrors to their children. In healthy parenting, parents will reflect back a child’s emotions in an encouraging, safe, affirming way, thus validating the various parts of a child’s personality. This is how a kid develops a sense of self. Often times many children grow up in the shadow of immature and needy parents who are so erratic, absent or angry that they have to portray themselves in a certain way, denying or distorting parts of their humanity, in order to win their parents’ approval or to simply feel safe. They pick the forbidden fruit. In other words, they try to become more than they are, as opposed to settling with all that they are. Children can grow up stuck with skewed views of reality, boundaries, self-esteem, dependency, and spirituality. Intimacy becomes next to impossible or superficial at best.
Children become adults. And though we may know conceptually in our head that it is okay to be human, we don’t believe it in our heart. We’ve been taught on the deity of Christ, but not enough on the humanity of Christ. We’ve been shamed into being incredible, but not incredibly human as Christ was. We run from our humanity as Adam did. Christ, however, ran from his divinity. “Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” (Phil 2:6)
How do we embrace our humanity when it has been unsafe or dangerous to do so?
Someone needs to re-parent us. Jesus perfectly mirrors all that we truly are. As we read Scripture, he mirrors for us our emotions, feelings, and beliefs that our earthly parents were not able to handle – extreme joy, extreme sorrow, extreme anger, rage, jealously, happiness, ecstasy, joy, feelings of injustice – emotions that you may have difficulty expressing as an adult because it wasn’t mirrored to you as a child. Our earthly parents though well-intentioned were often too needy and weak and self-absorbed, too proud.
Christ on the other hand, “…emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Crazy, stupid, mirrored love.
Let Christ perfectly reflect, validate and affirm your humanity in ways you never thought possible, so that you can be vulnerable in ways you never dreamed.
~ Pastor Ed.
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Our Story 
At our core we are a community driven by a common conviction and story. What is that story?
The world is not what it ought to be. The problem is my substituting God with myself, resulting in disharmony and disintegration. High ethical standards, good intentions, profound intellectual insights, and unleashed creativity are not enough to heal our world. We need to be rescued. God did so by substituting Man with Himself in the person of Jesus thereby restoring the cosmic relationship between Creation and its Creator on the basis of His work and record – not ours. Christ died the death we deserved. Christ earned the acceptance that we could never earn. You can say that we are more sinful than we can dare to imagine and yet through Christ we are more loved and accepted than we can dare hope for.
This classic Christian message called “the Gospel,” is what Sanctuary attempts to spread – first through ourselves, and then through the city – in word, deed, and community. When we trust it – it begins to transform us from the inside out.
I invite you to come and join us one of these Sundays. This website can explain to you what we are, but it can’t tell you who we are. So come check us out. We meet in the back room of a pizza joint in Capitol Hill. There’s plenty of parking. The teaching is more discussion-based than lecture. We try to keep it real, honest and our hearts and minds open.
Blessings,
Pastor Ed
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