Spiritualizing Away

I originally drafted this on 8/8/06. I'm probably wrong about it all, but have rarely found a dialogue with anyone about it except for with Dave Bland and Jordan Coss. I've talked with Shawn Griffith about it, too. And Nicole has heard me preach on about it. Anyway, I hope you don't get bogged down in me tediousness, but that you'll have something to comment. I won't take offense if you don't. :-)

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I heard the phrase again recently (I think it was in a book or something):

"Don't spiritualize it away!"

This applies in the context of Jesus feeding a whole crowd of people (two occasions of which are recorded and at least one of them has been recorded multiple times although I don't think the Da Vinci Code or the Judas' writing even refer to these crowd feedings). Jesus feeds people physical, tangible, edible food. I think it was usually bread and fish. I don't know any other details. But usually church people call the crowd stupid for not realizing that the food was really merely spiritual. Stupid crowd? Not this time. They were actually cared for physically, tangibly, and edibly. And Jesus probably taught them with words, too. I know at least one account records that.

But was the crowd stupid for not recognizing "the spiritual"? I don't know what to think of this. I think I must be more backward than the crowd. The crowd at least recognized that Jesus had fed them. I usually 1) ignore the fact that Jesus actually fed them with tangible nourishment, and 2) contradict my confession that Jesus lives within me. If he is alive in me, wouldn't the poor in spirit be coming to me? I have yet to see crowds of people coming to me to be fed and taught.

I have to confess that we have enough wealth to feed crowds. Honest. I haven't examined our budget lately, but I know it's true that we spend less money on food than we do most anything else. I wouldn't give up our travelling expenses to see family and friends. But what if we sacrificed some of our possessions and freedoms? What if we opened up our home to homeless people to come over any time to get food. At first, our capacity to feed others would run out after about two or three weeks, after probably hundreds of homeless and poor people would have come to receive. By then, I bet some wealthy folks would see what was going on and try to stop us before we become poor, too. But, really, has anyone ever gone poor that way? (I heard Willie Nelson did, but besides him, no one.) I think the wealthy folks would start supplying us with food to aid in our ministry to the hungry. I'm sure God would be so happy to see that. He loves cheerful givers, both physically and spiritually.

Then, inevitably, some Gnostics like Dan Brown or maybe a local Christian would come by and say, "You're physicalizing away the Good News by what you're doing!"

I think, though, that the Good News is spiritual and physical. If it was one or the other, it wouldn't be *good* news.

At least not to me. Unlike many other Christians, I feel hungry sometimes (for up to 30 minutes at a time). I'm pretty sure God created me that way and gets pleasure out of seeing my stomach and brain, etc. do their work. I also wonder about the unseen direction of my life--am I going toward Satan or God? I hope that he has a plan to redeem not just the unseen parts of life, but the seen parts as well. He created both. I think he has purpose for both. At least, that makes sense to me right now.

Don't get me wrong. I want to grow spiritually as well as physically (in the sense of *healthy* not *obesity*). But, if somehow the scientists proved that all we are is chemicals, I would say, "Praise God! God is the only one who can create chemicals from nothing and raise them from the dead after they've been dead and decomposing." I think the promise of resurrection is a greater one than the gnostic one: " . . . like a bird from prison bars has flown . . . I'll fly away." I would rather see God redeem the world he created, resurrect the creation after it dies, re-create it after it decays. Wouldn't that be better than escaping as a spirit into another "immaterial" world that doesn't remember this one?

If the gnostic promise is better, then Jesus was being deceptive when he healed people of mental and physical diseases and when he fed the hungry. I've heard people say, "We have to meet their physical needs so we can get to spiritual needs," but I don't feel comfortable saying that; maybe I should. If I should be eager to leave this body to enter a spirit world, should I assume that God made flesh by mistake or in order to deceive us? I look forward to eating with Jesus someday in the new creation. So I won't spiritualize him away.