Peter Rollins and The God-Shaped Hole
After the post on the origins of the “It’s Pentecost” video went up, my creative partner-in-crime Ben Cieslik directed me to the actual Pete Rollins quote that inspired our work. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d seen this video, so I’ve probably been misquoting him second-hand for years!
In any event, I thought I’d post the video below. As is often the case when I listen to Pete, I have two reactions. The dominant one is a sense of gratitude and appreciation for how he regularly frames the message of the gospel in a compelling and surprising way that therefore not only gets my attention and but stays with me. Often he does this by taking an element of the faith that I thought I understood and turning it a bit upside down, forcing me to call into question my assumptions and leading me to re-appropriate this part of my faith in a new and dynamic way. He is thoughtful, edgy, and oh-so-much-cooler than I could ever dream of being. 🙂
At the same time, I also often think that he makes his point by going to the other extreme, grabbing a metaphor that perhaps ends up being equally outrageous when held in isolation. Perhaps this is simply the cost of being provocative. Or maybe it’s needing to live a little more, a little longer, and being willing to live into the tensions of actual life as well as those of theological thought.
So when I read his The Fidelity of Betrayal
In this video I love the idea that the encounter with God creates greater desire for God. And I totally agree that we can make faith, and even our relationship with God, mechanistic, even instrumental, when we simply want God to solve our problems. When God becomes largely an answer to our questions and needs, then finally our faith is all about us, not a response to the wild and unpredictable mercy of God.
So, yes, God doesn’t just fill the holes we have, God often creates bigger ones. That’s what inspired us to do the “It’s Pentecost” video and I’m grateful for the way Pete got us going.
At the same time, I’ve always been captivated by the sentiment expressed by the seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal in his book Pensees
Moreover, precisely because we sense that hole but don’t know God alone can fill it, we are open to having our need exploited. In a chapter on sin and the fall in Making Sense of the Christian Faith
So there it is: God both creates holes and fills them. And we can mistakenly try to fill those holes by acquiring more stuff – whether the stuff be sneakers and laptops, wealth and power, or fame and fans or whatever. And we can turn our relationship with God into one more way to meet our (mis)perceived needs and mistake the nature and purpose of faith altogether. Because faith, ultimately, doesn’t bring the world to heel or stop all the instability and chaos that’s going on around. Rather, faith gives us the ability to keep our feet amid the tremors, to keep moving forward even when assumptions and misperceptions are crashing down around us, and to hold onto the promises of God because we believe God is first holding onto us.
But enough from me, let’s give Pete his due with another word of thanks for his provocatively faithful and faithfully provocative voice. And after you’ve watched, let me know what you think. Hole or no hole? God-filled or God-created? Both, neither, something in between? I’d love to hear your stories.
Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.
2) 200 Dollar Conversations is another great video by The Work of the People – gosh I like their stuff! 🙂
I’m reminded of a couple of lines from Jackson Browne’s “Looking East”
…there’s a God sized hunger living underneath the laughing and the rage.
…there’s a God sized hunger underneath the questions of the age
I RE-ENTERED THE GOOD NEWS THRU THE GOSPEL OF Jackson Browne WHEN I WAS AN ACTIVE ALCOHOLIC. ANOTHER GREAT LINE THAT GOT THRU THE ALCOHOLIC FOG;’PAGES TURNING, PAGES WE WERE YEARS FROM LEARNING STRAIGHT INTO THE NIGHT OUR HEARTS WERE FLUNG. YOU GOT TO BRING YOUR OWN REDEMPTION WHEN YOU COME’. THIS IS FROM ‘THE BARRICADES OF HEAVEN’ A SONG ON’LOOKING EAST’.
As far as the Desire-for-a-child thing goes, the essential distinction is between the desire for A child and the desire for THE child one recieves. On the one hand some people do not experience what they would call a desire to have a child but once they meet their child – so often at birth – they fall in love. I watched this happen to my brother. On the other hand I always did desire a child AND came to desire my child at birth. The distinction is key to making his point. Many people do have a God shaped hole, as many desire A child. But do they upon meeting the God we know in Jesus Christ and Salvation History of Israel allow that hole to be reshaped as a parent’s desire for A child is reshaped by THE child they receive? As shamful as it can be to admit, gender, athletic or scholastic aptitude, or sexual orientation can be challenges to a parent’s love; much as many people are challenged by the offense of the cross or the theodicy dilemma.
i’m somewhat enamored with Rollins’ work as of late. Fidelity of Betrayal was fabulous. at least, i think it was. one think that has stuck with me is his use of story and parable.
i love the fact that after reading the book, i feel as though i have more questions. isn’t this the point? aren’t we supposed to walk away from books, classes, sermons, asking more questions – searching for meaning? as Rollins says in How (Not)To Speak of God, “Jesus made his conversations salty – that people would thirst for more.” that’s good right there.
the bible, as it has been preached and taught might be preached and taught by a corporation as a guidebook to new employees about how to conduct themselves on the job in a meritocracy.