Obituary: Rachel Held Evans

mkgal1

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Prayer. That's something I've been uncomfortable with for a while now (I had a very dear friend pass away in the same way RHE did - and that was a turning point for me, one that led me to being unsure of the "how" of prayer). I appreciate (and relate to) how this is written:

From the article by Mike Morrell------>
Why did she of all people have to leave us, God? What about all that prayer?

I wasn’t alone in asking this question. My friend Chris Boeskool asked it, even before she passed away, and I was annoyed at the time:

"It feels to me like these prayers for healing paint a picture of a God on a throne… A God who has plenty of water for a kid dying of thirst, but who is like, “Sorry, you didn’t say PLEASE.” It feels like a physician who has the cure for a deadly disease, but requires the sick person to get 10,000 signatures first. Or to get a hashtag trending. It feels like being back at that Holy Spirity, charismatic church, and having to listen to people talk about “Storming the Gates of Heaven,” or “Holding God to his promises.”

It feels like “Everything happens for a reason” and “All part of God’s plan” and “God never gives us more than we can handle.” And if I’m being honest, it feels like the reason I can’t go to church anymore.

It feels like what led me to read Rachel’s work in the first place."​

But I got it. Even Rachel has expressed similar wrestlings:

"I became a stranger to the busy, avuncular God who arranged parking spaces for my friends and took prayer requests for weather and election outcomes while leaving thirty thousand children to die each day from preventable disease." (In her amazing Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church.) ~ If you’re sad about Rachel Held Evans (and other un-answered prayers).
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IIRC, Richard Rohr had written something a while ago very similar to what Tripp Fuller is quoted as saying in the interview with RHE - that God isn't omnipotent or else we'd have to attribute all the evil in the world to God and His plan as well (but I haven't been able to locate that article).

Personally - as of right now - I do see God as being omnipotent in the large scheme of things. That His greater plan won't be deterred by human limitations....and that His irresistible love WILL win out (in the end).

.....but that's one thing about death - it sure brings us to wrestle with what we believe and how those beliefs actually work when exercised in reality.

 
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FireDragon76

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Prayer. That's something I've been uncomfortable with for a while now (I had a very dear friend pass away in the same way RHE did - and that was a turning point for me, one that led me to being unsure of the "how" of prayer). I appreciate (and relate to) how this is written:

From the article by Mike Morrell------>
Why did she of all people have to leave us, God? What about all that prayer?

It's ironic, because a similar situation happened at church recently and it's actually made me take prayer more seriously. I think the logic of Lutheranism mitigates against this sort of disappointment. Life is supposed to be mysterious and topsy turvy, it's not going to ever be ironed out in the way we want in this life. But I have discovered in the midst of suffering that God indeed is there, hidden within it.
 
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FireDragon76

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I've been leaning towards viewing prayer as a form of shared suffering with God.

That's why I like having my crucifix on my wall. I think its something most Protestants don't understand. They look at Jesus death as a strictly past event, having a very modern view of time, and they think of it in strictly juridical or sentimental (moral influence) categories.

There was a saying I read years ago, by a medieval mystic I believe, "That hands that hold the world are pierced with frightful nails".
 
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mkgal1

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I've been leaning towards viewing prayer as a form of shared suffering with God.
That resonates with me. That seems to be what makes sense.


God indeed is there, hidden within it.
Yes! This is the one piece I'm not willing to ever let go of (I hope!). This much I believe is true.
 
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mkgal1

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Its disgusting to see that people uses someone's death as "proof" of God's judgement against _______ :(
YES! That's absolutely disgusting. I only saw that was happening yesterday. I loved a response I saw posted, however - that God is a resurrection God, He is the giver of life - not the taker, and that death is the antithesis to who Christ is, and we hope because Jesus lives.

The people that have formed a god that hates the people they disagree with have missed the plot of the Bible. I don't see any room for us to hate. We are to love even our enemies (but I'm sure they've distorted what "love" means as well).
 
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FireDragon76

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YES! That's absolutely disgusting. I only saw that was happening yesterday. I loved a response I saw posted, however - that God is a resurrection God, He is the giver of life - not the taker, and that death is the antithesis to who Christ is, and we hope because Jesus lives.

The people that have formed a god that hates the people they disagree with have missed the plot of the Bible. I don't see any room for us to hate. We are to love even our enemies (but I'm sure they've distorted what "love" means as well).

It doesn't really surprise me. I've lived long enough to know how twisted the self-proclaimed protectors of piety can be.

BTW, I do believe in hell. I am convinced some of Jesus biggest self-proclaimed fans will be there. Even C.S. Lewis writes something about this in his addendum to Screwtape Letters, about those whose true creed was spite and malice.
 
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Alot of profound Christian spirituality comes from suffering and death. One of my favorite hymns, "Abide with Me", was written by an Anglican priest while he was dying from tuberculosis.
 
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mkgal1

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Alot of profound Christian spirituality comes from suffering and death. One of my favorite hymns, "Abide with Me", was written by an Anglican priest while he was dying from tuberculosis.
True.

My Bible study group leader sang that yesterday morning....it's beautiful (and, like you said, profound). I'd never heard it until yesterday (and then you mentioned it the next day!).

There's also Julian of Norwich's revelations of divine love (that I've only read quotes from). I need to read the entire collection some day.
 
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FireDragon76

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True.

My Bible study group leader sang that yesterday morning....it's beautiful (and, like you said, profound).

There's also Julian of Norwich's revelations of divine love (that I've only read quotes from). I need to read the entire collection some day.

That's worth reading, too, but it's more steeped in medieval spirituality. There's an excellent video lecture on youtube by a former Episcopalian monk, Robert Freuwirth, on Julian's spirituality, and he really unpacks it and interprets it through his own spiritual life in a monastery.

It's interesting you mention that in the context of a discussion of the hymn, Abide with Me. One of the lines in the hymn, "Hold forth thy Cross before my closing eyes", is a reference to the last rites, where a crucifix would be held in front of the dying, and this was believed to be a means of grace or to have salvific significance. This is also how Julian's description of her spiritual experience begins.

Here's a link to the video on Julian of Norwich:




I began reading Revelations of Divine Love during Lent a few years ago. I actually found alot of similarities between what Robert says in the video, and Lutheran spirituality, in its dialectic between sin and grace. It's not surprising since Luther was steeped in medieval mysticism and subjectivity.
 
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bekkilyn

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Grieving and Celebrating Rachel Held Evans

From the article:

When I started reading Rachel Held Evans’ blog years ago, I disagreed with her on most things. Today, as I try to comprehend the news of her death, I realize I agree with her on most things. It was the combination of her kindness and her questions that made the difference.

Rachel was one of the first Christian feminists I encountered, and, more broadly, one of the first Christian progressives. I grew up very conservative, just like she did, and we’re the same age—both 37 this year. But she started asking questions before I did, so that by the time I was facing the deconstruction of my faith in my late 20s, she was ready to be a guide to me.

She was relentlessly kind and thoughtful. She loved God and loved people. She engaged the Bible with respect, curiosity, and enthusiasm. The good fruit of her life gave the lie to the false stereotypes I had been taught about liberals. Though her beliefs on many theological subjects were different than mine, I couldn’t deny that she loved and followed Jesus. This was weird for me. I thought people who weren’t “likeminded” or didn’t have the same “worldview” as the fundamentalist evangelical subculture I was a part of weren’t good Christians…or maybe weren’t even Christians at all.

Rachel’s questions about American Christian beliefs helped me question things I had never even considered before, like what kind of person was I to be okay with believing in God-ordained genocide of Canaanite women and children? She broadened and deepened my view of the church. Followers of Jesus can be quite different from each other, unified only in him, and diverse in other perspectives. Followers of Jesus could believe in evolution or even—gasp—be Democrats!
 
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mkgal1

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Her legacy = (from the article)"People are thanking her for saving their faith, and others for literally saving their lives. Tyler Huckabee tweeted, “The sheer number of people on here crediting RHE with keeping their faith alive is just staggering. What a gift.” Nate Pyle replied, “For all the accusations, the fruit is making the case of her faithfulness.”
 
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Dave-W

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I know this is now old news. I was familiar with RHE only a little from reading her blog once in a while of the last few years. I never actually read one of her books. But on hearing of her passing and the outpouring here, last week I decided to get the kindle version of her last book “Inspired.”

I am about 20% thru the book according to my e-reader. I find her struggle and journey to be similar to my own. Had it been written 20 or 25 years earlier, I could have used it as somewhat of a guide book. We ended up with some of the same sources and conclusions. But she, being an accomplished writer, expressed it so much better than I could ever do.

She read many of the same Jewish sources I did that led me into Messianic Judaism. I especially appreciated her analysis of the evangelical christian approach to scripture as opposed to the Jewish approach:

“While Christians tend to turn to Scripture to end a conversation, Jews turn to Scripture to start a conversation.”

I will thank God often for her and mourn her passing. And I would encourage you all to get that book and read it.
 
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Dave-W

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