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    Jesus Has Left the Building
    Jesus Has Left the Building
    Jesus Has Left the Building
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Jesus Has Left the Building

    By Peter Keese and Ward B. Ewing

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    About this ebook

    Contrary to what many church people (particularly church "professionals") say, God does not dwell in church, and church doesn't have the franchise on good news. Instead, author Peter Keese proposes the optimistic view that good news is much larger and more all-encompassing than any church can contain or convey, and that good news is everywhere to be found and experienced. In this imaginary dialogue between a traditionalist and his protagonist for a god-in-the-world perspective, Keese's sermons illustrate his conviction that God is out there, inviting us to join in and enjoy the riches of God's life and work. Indeed, as Keese writes, "Jesus has left the building--with all its strictures--and beckons us to come along where life in all its chaotic glory is to be experienced--and enjoyed!"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWipf and Stock
    Release dateSep 25, 2014
    ISBN9781630875022
    Jesus Has Left the Building
    Author

    Peter Keese

    Peter Keese, ThM, is a retired Episcopal priest and an actively retired supervisor certified by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. He served fifteen years at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and fifteen years as Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, TN. He has also served as a Pastoral Counselor with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. He and his wife live in Knoxville, TN.

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      Book preview

      Jesus Has Left the Building - Peter Keese

      Jesus Has Left the Building

      Peter Keese

      Foreword by Ward B. Ewing

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      Jesus Has Left The Building

      Copyright ©

      2014

      Peter Keese. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

      199

      W.

      8

      th Ave., Suite

      3

      , Eugene, OR

      97401

      .

      Wipf & Stock

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199

      W.

      8

      th Ave., Suite

      3

      Eugene, OR

      97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      isbn 13: 978-1-62564-973-7

      eisbn 13: 978-1-63087-502-2

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      To Helen, my life’s companion who has traveled with me through thick and thin and whose constancy and good humor sustain me; and to our children, William and Kate, and their children, all of who continue to delight and enlighten me. My siblings and their offspring and my in-laws and their spouses and offspring all have enriched my life and life experiences, as well. Though they are not blood kin, Helen’s younger brother, Allston, his wife, Dana, and their three children, are surely part of our immediate family. I am very fortunate to be in such a loving and supportive family, and I am grateful to them all. This book may explain some of my thinking to them, but, more importantly, even if they disagree, it may encourage them, as they have me, to think independently and to rejoice in all the rich colors of life fully lived.

      Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.

      Emily Dickinson

      Foreword

      Following the defeat of Licinius in 323, Constantine became the sole ruler of the Roman world. Now there was one emperor, one law, one citizenship for all free men. To Constantine’s essentially political mind, to complete the process of unification, there must be one religion, the Christianity he had already embraced, legalized, and officially supported. Unfortunately, from the Emperor’s perspective, the theological divisions in the church threatened this unity. To resolve the divisions, in 325 he called the first general council of the church in Nicaea.

      The establishment of Christianity as the official, privileged, state-supported religion is seen by many today as destructive to the spirituality of the early church which depended on commitment, sometimes even in the face of persecution, rather than conformity. The established church prospered, the position of the clergy was enhanced, and the institution became—for good or for ill—a major player in social and political issues. Today this position of privilege is declining, and many rejoice as the church must become more and more dependent on the committed.

      One area of religious life deeply affected by the establishment of Christianity was the assumption that theological conformity is essential to unity. Theological agreement was certainly not characteristic of the church in its first three hundred years; it has not been achievable since 1517 and the Reformation. What the church held in common (and what identified the church as Christian) was the story of Jesus, the resurrection, and the record of the spread of the early church; interpretation of the story varied. The push for theological uniformity in the church came not from the church but from the emperor Constantine. When Jesus prayed at the Last Supper for the unity of his followers (John 17), he speaks of relationships, of knowing and loving one another. He spoke of a new commandment—that we love one another as he loved (John 15)—and he gave an example by washing the disciples’ feet (John 13). Constantine, on the other hand, sought theological unity to serve his political agenda. One must ask how important agreement is to loving.

      The changes the church is presently undergoing are dramatic, and much has been written regarding the structural and social transformation that is occurring. Within this context of change, Peter Keese communicates his own thoughts, stories, insights, and wisdom that come from over fifty years as a priest in the Episcopal Church. He is not particularly concerned about church organization and structure. He seems unconcerned about membership decline or loss of prestige. Rather he shares freeing insights that renew our theology, our understanding of the church as community, and the joy of discovering God’s incarnate action. His thoughts are affirmative reflections based on a life of experience in the church without concern about whether or not the post-Christendom church is positive or negative. We are in a new age and new thinking is required.

      There is a natural tendency within religion to desire to know the truth and to impose it on others. Since religion is a fundamental foundation for life, knowing that the truth is true seems self-evidently important. However, if the truth is true, then the evidence should be convincing, so why the need to have others agree to our perception of truth, why the need to persecute those who differ? When does the alliance between the anxiety of human beings and the control needs of an institution become detrimental to relationships formed by servant loving?

      Religion has a tendency to want a clear demarcation of who is in and who is out. When does this need for clarity about the community come from loving service and when from fear and the institutional need to control? Perhaps the institutional needs of religion would have led the church to articulate the truth, impose it on others, and use it to mark clearly who is in and who is out; however, historically this assumption that agreement leads to unity comes from a Roman Emperor.

      In this very readable volume, Peter invites us to stretch our hearts and minds in this time of change. Writing out of a deep love for the life we receive as a gift of grace, he invites us to let go of the anxiety and fears surrounding the loss of membership and the decline in the prestige and privilege of the institutional church and consider what new thing God may be doing. He invites us to take off the blinders imposed by traditional teaching and consider more fully the understanding and impact of incarnation, bible stories, community, sin, salvation, saviors, and good news.

      Too often traditional teaching has been formed by the institutional church’s needs for certainty and control instead of by the rich and multifaceted insights into the ways of God. One can only wonder if part of the reason for the movement of people away from organized religion lies in an understanding of God that has been reduced to meet human needs rather than an understanding large enough to include all creation—earth’s deserts and seas, the sun, the moon, the stars and the galaxies

      From 1985 to 1998 I served as the Rector of Trinity Church in downtown Buffalo. Tom Heath, who had served as Rector some fifteen years previous, had a metaphor he used to describe his understanding about God—a metaphor that several parishioners shared with me which reflects how powerful this metaphor was for them.

      Tom had a summer cabin on Cape Cod. He shared about his cabin, "I know the Cape where my cabin is located. I know the tidal pools where I can find specimens at low tide. I know how the weather can roll in, when a nor’easter is approaching. I know the best time of day to fish and the changes each season brings. I know where I can swim and where the bottom is too rough or the waves too dangerous. But I cannot say that I know the Atlantic Ocean or all the oceans in the world. My knowledge ends a few hundred yards from my cabin.

      And he continued, "Such is my knowledge of God. I know something of God from my experience, but to

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