Yes, I'm still being a Chaesr of God.  Just haven't written anything lately.  So for all those who wrote me off here's a double scoop of Rocky Road Ice Cream for you to savor!

At [wildernesschild] we're continuing to discuss the concept of forgiveness.  Something that just jumped into my head today (probably because of my itunes selection) is a song that talks about forgiveness.  The band Muse released a song back in 2004 called "Sing for absolution" that deals, in many ways, with this concept.  In fact when I went back and listened to the rest of the songs, the whole alblum wrestles with the concept of forgiveness.  For those who are students of culture I'm sure you have pondered over the lyrics in these songs and asked yourself some hard questions.  Maybe you've never heard of Muse.  Maybe when you realize their a secular band you'll tune out and find another post to read... (maybe you haven't read this far).  If that's you I would ask you to listen up and take note.  I would ask you to step out of your Christian green house and wrestle with what these guys are trying to say.

My hope is to spark your curiousity to reconsider and bring some things back into public awareness that have been buried regarding forgiveness.  Maybe you don't think forgiveness is dead.  But let me ask you this, when's the last time you forgave someone or asked for someone's forgiveness?  If your theology doesn't translate into real life actions then it's really a dead theology.  We need to go and dig that casket up and ask the Lord to breath new life into our beings.  Some of you don't like dealing with corpses but I think there's some good here to be uncovered and even revived. 

In honor of our Monty Python boys from the BBC pretend that forgiveness is crying out, "I'm not dead yet!"

In the Christian world there seems to be a cancer that we've learned to accept as okay and uncurable.  It's one that claims the lives of countless "Christians" and even whole churches and denominations.  When we systematize our theology we tend to give it the lethal inject and put it to sleep and bury it in the grave never to be living again.  I don't mean we never talk about again but we talk about it in dead ways.  We can't interact with it anymore because it's dead - it's canonized and treated as Scripture and unchangable.  And yet we need it to be alive and we need to be interacting with it and we need to have it living in our communities of faith not buried with a nice tomb stone that reads: "Here lies forgiveness.  Born 33 AD Died (whenever your theology book was written).  Great concept may she always be remembered."

True theology is a living theology.  And it should infuse life into us (corporately).  It should bring about the character of God being manifested in our midst.  True theology will be the image of God being revealed in us as we live in community with each other.  I think this is the real point Paul was trying to get across when he was inspired to write Romans 12:1-2.  He was revealing that true theology will always be manifested in the midst of a community.

Through the process of people putting their theology into practice they find if what they believe in their mind is really true - and it is that truth lived out that sets them free!  There's two things that might be wrong here: wrong thinking or wrong living!  Either you don't know the truth and have believed a lie or you know the truth but have not fleshed it out authentically.  In Christ we have someone who perfectly manifested in community what the image of God should look like.

One of the great things about treating our theology this way is that when we do it wrong we have the ability to go back and reconsider the revelation that God has given us concerning the aspect at hand.  Very little of church today takes their theology practically.  And even fewer within the church today take their theology relationally.  Maybe it's because our theology is dead.  Maybe we should corporately visit the grave site and begin an excavation project of the things that we've buried.  A process that involves everyone corporately discovering together how the truth of Scripture should be incarnated.  Only then will theology become a very visible, living and powerful aspect to the Christian life.

Or we can join Muse in the last verse and sadly sing, "our wrongs remain unrectified and our souls won't be exhumed."  There is no other way for us to join Paul in saying, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God at work unto salvation." (emphasis mine) 

Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers [and sisters] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

• Do you think that Romans 12:1-2 is speaking to the individual or the community in regards to how they flesh out true theology?
• Consider what it would look like for God's people to take a concept like forgiveness and approach it through this kind of a model.  In other words, I [Paul] appeal to you [all] therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  [Regarding forgiveness] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you [all] may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Read the lyrics below.  What kinds of questions do we see "Muse" asking about life as it relates to forgiveness?
• How could their questions be answered in a community of believers who are living out Romans 12:1-2 in the manner I have described?

1. Absolve - to determine to be free of fault, guilt, or liability; to set free or release from some obligation or responsibility
2. Rectify - To set right; correct
3. Exhume - To remove from a grave

Currently Listening Absolution By Muse Sing for absolution see related