{"id":1604,"date":"2021-04-25T06:38:22","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T12:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedesertsanctuary\/?p=1604"},"modified":"2021-04-25T06:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T12:39:03","slug":"compost-and-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedesertsanctuary\/2021\/04\/compost-and-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"Compost and Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As I progress in my deconstruction and the subsequent journey, it seems that language becomes especially important and, sometimes, the old vernacular doesn\u2019t work for me anymore.\u00a0 I am constantly searching for new language to attach to my journey in an attempt to have a more authentic experience.\u00a0 For example, I now call my journey an evolution<\/em> instead of a reconstruction since I don\u2019t just want to rebuild something similar to the past\u2014I want to evolve to something entirely new.<\/p>\n

Two of the words that seem extremely relevant these days are compost<\/em> and communion<\/em>.\u00a0 The terms keep reemerging and surfacing in my podcasts at The Desert Sanctuary<\/a> and in conversations with people.<\/p>\n

I want to explain this as clearly and precisely as I can, so bear with me.\u00a0 These two terms mean so much to me right now and it may be difficult.<\/p>\n

Compost<\/strong><\/p>\n

Behind my house, near the garden, is my compost barrel.\u00a0 In the mud room of my house is a container with a lid where I capture all the plant scraps from our meals.\u00a0 This container holds vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and other assorted plant-based remnants.\u00a0 When it is full, I take it out the barrel and mix it with some leaves and yard waste.\u00a0 Add a little water, a little mixing and over time, and it becomes black gold<\/em> for my garden.<\/p>\n

To me, compost is a beautiful metaphor for death and new life.\u00a0 Composting happens naturally in nature but requires a little effort in our manicured gardens.\u00a0 I tried just tossing the scraps directly on the garden, but it gets a little messy that way and it attracts the local critters.<\/p>\n

So how does compost relate to my evolution?<\/p>\n

The first area it impacts is my feelings about Scripture<\/em>.\u00a0 Understand, like Pete Enns, I\u2019m not saying that Scripture is garbage.\u00a0 Like I said, compost is pure gold<\/em> and especially important.\u00a0 Like Paul said, \u201cIt is useful,\u201d but maybe we have made it something it was never intended to be.\u00a0 Enns quotes Walter Bruggeman in his article, The Bible: Cookbook or Compost Pile?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Bible is the\u00a0compost pile\u00a0that provides material for new life. I do not use this figure as an irreverent metaphor to suggest that the Bible is \u201cgarbage.\u201d Rather, I use it to suggest that the Bible itself is not the actual place of new growth. Our present life, when we undertake new growth, is often inadequate, arid, or even barren. It needs to be enriched, and for that enrichment, we go back to the deposits of old growth that have been discarded, but that continue to ferment and may contain resources for a way to new life.<\/em>\u00a0(Texts Under Negotiation<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0pp. 61-62)<\/em><\/p>\n

When we can see the Bible correctly, it becomes enrichment for our new life and creates fresh, vibrant soil for the journey ahead.<\/p>\n

But I also find myself applying the compost metaphor to religion.\u00a0 <\/em>In my estimation and in its simplest form, religion is an exercise to understand the Divine.\u00a0 When we assume we now understand parts of this mystery, we usually surround that new belief with practices and rituals that help us teach it to the future generations.\u00a0 But the example of Jesus was to take some of those old practices like temple worship and sacrifice and toss them on the compost pile.\u00a0 It is not that they weren\u2019t important or useful, they just were not the final answer.\u00a0 Similar to Scripture, they were important to new life, but they were not the life itself.<\/p>\n

Communion<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I may have already mentioned, many of the words of the past ring hollow for me.\u00a0 Sometimes that scares me\u2014sometimes it triggers me\u2014other times I sense I\u2019m on a worthwhile quest.\u00a0 I often inadvertently cause an argument on social media because I challenge these ancient, familiar words.<\/p>\n

One of those words is worship<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jesus was obviously somewhat religious, at least by tradition.\u00a0 But he blew up a lot of his religious upbringing when he challenged temple worship, sacrifices, and even the Hebrew Scriptures themselves.\u00a0 Because religion was prevalent, he entered that world and became somewhat subversive to it.<\/p>\n

I feel the same way especially about modern worship.\u00a0 I literally, am unsure about whether God even desires worship.\u00a0 I question whether the Divine would need<\/em> for someone to worship them and still be absolutely holy.\u00a0 Why would the creator need to be reassured of their greatness?\u00a0 It seems like worship is a collected idea from our religious past.\u00a0 Jesus said the new way would be \u201cspirit and truth\u201d and we have yet to discover what this actually means.<\/p>\n

For me, a lot of things make more sense when we use the word communion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Worship \u2013 instead of going somewhere to do something, I commune<\/em> with \u201cGod.\u201d\u00a0 It is much simpler and seems more authentic to me.<\/p>\n

Prayer \u2013 instead of asking for things or feeling obligated to recite to God, I simply connect \/ commune<\/em>.\u00a0 This practice of stillness is so much more rewarding and beneficial to me.<\/p>\n

Evangelism \/ Discipleship \u2013 instead of converting people, I live \/ commune<\/em> with them.\u00a0 This is enough and probably accomplishes more in the long run.<\/p>\n

I experience this most in stillness.<\/p>\n

And the benefit to these two words, compost and communion, is that they \u201cenhance\u201d each other.\u00a0 My communion with the Divine and others is enriched by the compost of Scripture and religion because the dying of old ideas brings new life to the present.\u00a0 This new life and communion become the nutrients for future life and evolution.<\/p>\n

It really is a circle of life, I guess.\u00a0 But it is a circle of life that spirals upward.\u00a0 I wish you well on your journey!<\/p>\n

Be where you are, Be who you are,<\/p>\n

Karl Forehand<\/p>\n

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As I progress in my deconstruction and the subsequent journey, it seems that language becomes especially important and, sometimes, the old vernacular doesn\u2019t work for me anymore.\u00a0 I am constantly searching for new language to attach to my journey in an attempt to have a more authentic experience.\u00a0 For example, I now call my journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":1610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,58],"tags":[73,907,904,283,901,145],"class_list":["post-1604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authenticty","category-being","tag-authenticity","tag-communion","tag-compost","tag-deconstruction","tag-new-life","tag-scripture"],"yoast_head":"\nCompost and Communion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I progress in my deconstruction and the subsequent journey, it seems that language becomes especially important and, sometimes, the old vernacular\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedesertsanctuary\/2021\/04\/compost-and-communion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compost and Communion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I progress in my deconstruction and the subsequent journey, it seems that language becomes especially important and, sometimes, the old vernacular\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedesertsanctuary\/2021\/04\/compost-and-communion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Desert Sanctuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-25T12:38:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-25T12:39:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1333\/2021\/04\/pexels-tima-miroshnichenko-6510851.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karl J. 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