Risen

Functional Atheism?

One day I want to identify as many of the elements that are toxic to a heathy spiritual as I can. So often they operate just like a very accomplished pickpocket in the subway. You don’t know that your wallet is missing until you get home. That’s what happens for me, for all of us spiritually, as we live in this flawed and broken world. One of those elements is something that one of my heroes, Parker Palmer, calls functional atheism. 

Functional atheism is verbally acknowledging belief in certain spiritual principles but in reality not manifesting it in our lives. Easter and the resurrection are great examples of this dangerous dynamic. Very often we sing powerful songs of triumph on Easter morning but fail to live out the astounding and seemingly absurd reality of the risen Christ. Living into the fact that this God Man actually rose from the dead is startling enough. But the promise that all of us can (and did) rise with him just takes my breath away. (See Romans 6:4-6) 

Really Risen?

We, and I gratefully include myself in that we, not only will rise with him but have already. That rising occurs when we accept the great gift of living the new life it is at the heart of the Christian faith.

“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! 

Romans 8:15 -17

I want to refer back to that great CS Lewis quote I have attached below… Just a reminder that this is not about religion or sounding religious. It’s about life and an outrageous opportunity for new life. We can RISE! I don’t want to mix metaphors; Scrooge and Easter don’t mix well generally. But in this case they do. When Scrooge cries out “I have a chance to change and I will not be the man I was!”  he is standing firmly at the heart of the Christian gospel. We can transcend all the wounds, failures, addictions, and selfishness by simply accepting the gift and getting out of God’s way.

Then the fun begins. We get to watch our lives and the lives of those around us change exponentially. Change that can’t be explained any other way other than God doing what God does. He transforms his children, if they will allow him to do so. He doesn’t impose such a great gift on his kids but he sure sits by with eager anticipation hoping they’ll open the present!

We can rise! We can rise with him! Let’s not buy into functional atheism. If we say that we believe something happened then let’s pour our hearts into that belief and experience the wonder of its reality. I’m pretty stoked about this in case you missed it. Thanks for joining me

Jon