As a kid growing up in a medium-sized Southern Baptist church, I was repeatedly warned of the dangers of not having my theology just "right." Mostly, these were terms used to address how important it was that everyone have correct theology and doctrine. We were told, "Without strong foundations for our faith, you will be thrown from your feet and your faith will crumble." The focus was on the "man who built his house on a rock," and descriptions of a house of cards that was so easy to topple over. There were classes and retreats that, in hindsight, were very heavy in theology and doctrine. Stories were told of how "secular society," said as if it were some snarling monster from the deep, would try and trick us with intricate arguments, difficult questions, and morally ambiguous situations. So, you can imagine that we were pretty good with understanding our theology.
When I got ready to leave for I was repeatedly warned about how "liberal professors" in "them big cities" would try and scramble my faith in God. In essence I was told the story of "God's Not Dead" while Kevin Sorbo was still staring in the "Hercules" TV series. Joking aside, the focus was on being right in how we thought about God. To think differently than the already accepted narrative was to not have faith at all. It wasn't that there was a different way to understand God. There was only one way and it had many facets. You had to accept them all just as they were presented to you of you weren't the same and therefore not a real Christian.
While in the throes of trying to be right about everything, my New Testament professor dropped some real enlightenment on my class. For his class, he advised us to just try reading the Biblical text, "like you would read a novel. Just go from the beginning, and don't stop until you get to the end. Stop trying to shift it down into small stories or just your favorite verses. Read the whole thing."
I decided to give it a shot, and so started reading the Gospel of Mark from beginning to the end. I sat in a quiet part of the library and read it in just a little over an hour. So, I decided that I should keep going. Before the night was over I was half-way through Luke and ready for bed. On that first day, after reading through most of the Gospel texts I got...nothing. I didn't have any great enlightenment or new perspective on how my faith should work. Honestly, true change takes a great deal of time and effort. It was never going to happen over night.
However, I have kept that practice. I have continued to read the Gospels through as whole books and not pick them apart into stories or sayings. Over time, I have come to learn some great things that make a real difference in my faith. For instance, I see the character of Jesus now, and not just the words. I see the arc of his personality and how the Gospel writers each tell that story a little differently. That character portrait is part of the message they are trying to communicate just as much as the setting or the words that come from the Messiah's mouth. Part of the power of the message is found in who the person of Jesus is on top of what that person says. The consequence being that I have fallen even more in love with Jesus.
Jesus is far more concerned with people who are suffering than he is with being right about how we talk about God.
Jesus is more concerned with people than how we talk about God.
Really, Jesus does not seem that concerned with how we talk about God as long as it means we are going toward hurting people.
In just these few days after the election, there are a lot of emotions in the air. Some are protesting, some are threatening, some are grieving, and some are cheering all because of these emotions. It seems as if the lines that divide us are only growing in the days following the election. It should be recognized that for the past few years we have all been worried about being right. No matter what what the issue was, we wanted to be right in how we responded to it. And now, some rejoice that they were vindicated through the results of the election and others feel real pain and fear because they do not like what tomorrow could bring.
Here is where the Church gets to decide its future. We can either stick with our struggle to be right; digging deep to make sure that we "rightly divine the word." Or we can decide to be follow the head of the body of Christ. One who was not so terribly worried about being right. One who forgave sins when others said he couldn't, touched those others said he shouldn't, and died for those others wouldn't.
When I got ready to leave for I was repeatedly warned about how "liberal professors" in "them big cities" would try and scramble my faith in God. In essence I was told the story of "God's Not Dead" while Kevin Sorbo was still staring in the "Hercules" TV series. Joking aside, the focus was on being right in how we thought about God. To think differently than the already accepted narrative was to not have faith at all. It wasn't that there was a different way to understand God. There was only one way and it had many facets. You had to accept them all just as they were presented to you of you weren't the same and therefore not a real Christian.
While in the throes of trying to be right about everything, my New Testament professor dropped some real enlightenment on my class. For his class, he advised us to just try reading the Biblical text, "like you would read a novel. Just go from the beginning, and don't stop until you get to the end. Stop trying to shift it down into small stories or just your favorite verses. Read the whole thing."
I decided to give it a shot, and so started reading the Gospel of Mark from beginning to the end. I sat in a quiet part of the library and read it in just a little over an hour. So, I decided that I should keep going. Before the night was over I was half-way through Luke and ready for bed. On that first day, after reading through most of the Gospel texts I got...nothing. I didn't have any great enlightenment or new perspective on how my faith should work. Honestly, true change takes a great deal of time and effort. It was never going to happen over night.
However, I have kept that practice. I have continued to read the Gospels through as whole books and not pick them apart into stories or sayings. Over time, I have come to learn some great things that make a real difference in my faith. For instance, I see the character of Jesus now, and not just the words. I see the arc of his personality and how the Gospel writers each tell that story a little differently. That character portrait is part of the message they are trying to communicate just as much as the setting or the words that come from the Messiah's mouth. Part of the power of the message is found in who the person of Jesus is on top of what that person says. The consequence being that I have fallen even more in love with Jesus.
Jesus is far more concerned with people who are suffering than he is with being right about how we talk about God.
Jesus is more concerned with people than how we talk about God.
Really, Jesus does not seem that concerned with how we talk about God as long as it means we are going toward hurting people.
In just these few days after the election, there are a lot of emotions in the air. Some are protesting, some are threatening, some are grieving, and some are cheering all because of these emotions. It seems as if the lines that divide us are only growing in the days following the election. It should be recognized that for the past few years we have all been worried about being right. No matter what what the issue was, we wanted to be right in how we responded to it. And now, some rejoice that they were vindicated through the results of the election and others feel real pain and fear because they do not like what tomorrow could bring.
Here is where the Church gets to decide its future. We can either stick with our struggle to be right; digging deep to make sure that we "rightly divine the word." Or we can decide to be follow the head of the body of Christ. One who was not so terribly worried about being right. One who forgave sins when others said he couldn't, touched those others said he shouldn't, and died for those others wouldn't.
