Whale Rider

Last Sunday Night I got to watch "Whale Rider" again. An absolutely extraordinary film that blends myth and reality beautifully. I was struck by the Gospel analogies in the story.
• There is a prophet who doesn't look like what people are expecting and doesn't do what they are expecting.
• There is a Death and Resurrection (of sorts) that is all about forgiveness
• There is a doubting Thomas
• And the prophet has a deep respect for the religion yet shakes it up as well.

Watching "Whale Rider" and seeing the Maori tradition started me yearning for some more tradition in Xn life. This is something that we have not passed on well. Evangelical churches don't really have this at all and the mainline churches seem to have traditions that, to me, seem to connect more with the medieval period. Having grown up evangelical I have a strong connection to New Testament expressions of faith – baptism, shared meal etc… Only because I have read about them rather than practiced them. I think we have lost these practices. In mainline churches Baptism has become infant baptism and a shared meal has become a wafer and sip of wine. In evangelical churches Baptism has become a prayer you say and communion has been down graded and seen as something too religious or ritualistic to make central to our Xn practice.

I guess that leaves me with a faith based on a series propositions free from ritual and religion. I get the feeling sometimes that my evangelical upbringing has handed me a bone devoid of meet and that mainline churches around me are offering me a bone wrapped in Tofu. Like many people who identify as “emerging church” types I’m starting the journey of playing with rituals and religious practices to put some meat on my spiritual bones.