My practice of Zen has finally turned how I hear the ancient writings of Christianity. Many years ago my traditional interpretations of scripture were dismantled, but I wasn’t able to reformulate them. Rather, they were a jumbled mess of, “I don’t believe.” However, now, without really trying to see the texts in a new way, the new ways are revealing themselves.
Theology is not stagnant, it is something that must remain in flux, or it is not theology. I expect to be amazed at the new ways that I see the text, the symbols and even the rituals of Christianity. If I stop being amazed, I have stopped being Christian. See, as I walked through traditional Christianity (or rather slogged through it), there was so little that touched me and allowed me to see the magic that existed within the act of living. Yet, with a theology in motion, the magic never ceases.
As I’ve turned my practice toward a tradition that is not my own, I see the world differently. Not only are the cities different, the cars, the trees, the people eating pretzels in the mall, but Christianity is different. I’m beginning to not only see through the suppositions, the certainties and the beliefs, but I’m able to let them go to be owned by someone else. As they’ve floated away, like a released red balloon, I have been gifted incredible space in which to create something new.
The echo that hits me each time I speak into this space is that, “Christianity is not what you think. It is something completely different.” Yet, the strange thing, for me, is that there is relatively no anxiety within this newly found place. I see not only potential, but the absolute necessity that the time has come for me to add my voice to the New Reformation.
