I really like what one member of the Church has referred to as our 21st Century version of First Century Christianity; each of us pitches in to enable our church to function and put on Sunday services, music and all! Today, it’s my turn to reflect!
Very recently we heard one of us Reflectors say: “Christians are touched, not by ideas or philosophies, not by humanitarianism and ethics, but by God’s own personality and loveliness.”
I have studied today’s readings, and it seems to me that they reflect that same mysterious God, and remind me that, no matter how hard I might have tried during my life, I have never been able to believe that there is no God.
The readings are about “faith” that God is greater than we are, and they suggest that we need God’s grace and love. They also tell us that we must acknowledge these needs, and then take the suggested action, even if we don’t really understand all the hows and whys of God’s direction.
With Isaiah, he gets the Old Testament’s “tough love,” by having a live coal touch his mouth, which results in having his sin “atoned for,” and his guilt for being “a man of unclean lips” and “liv[ing] among a people of unclean lips” taken away. Thus, he volunteers for the tough job of carrying God’s searing message of death and destruction to “those who call evil good and good evil.”
In Corinthians, Paul addresses Christian believers who thought that they had achieved a level of what we might today call “spirituality,” which had resulted in their rejecting Christian morality. They had put their trust elsewhere, and Paul wanted them to return to their lives in Jesus Christ.
To make his point, he addresses Jesus’ resurrection by reminding them that it is by the “good news” that they are being saved, and that if they fail to “hold firmly” to the message, they will have “believed in vain.”
Paul also reminds them that Christ died for our sins “in accordance with the scriptures,” and then reappeared to many brothers and sisters, including Paul, who said of himself: “I worked harder than any of them — though it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim, and so you have come to believe.”
Most versions of this passage that I found in my research use the phrase “according to the scriptures,” rather than “in accordance with the scriptures.” The former directs us to the origins of the prophesy, whereas the latter suggests the resurrection as fact, because it is spoken of in the scriptures. More on this to come.
In Luke’s Gospel, the fishermen follow Jesus’ directions by trying something they knew wouldn’t work, which then reaps them rewards beyond their wildest dreams!
They had fished all night and caught nothing. When Jesus finished preaching to the crowd and they had gone home, he asked Simon to “put out into deepwater” and “let your nets down for a catch.” Simon told Jesus that they’d tried all night, and there was no point doing what was suggested.
But Simon nevertheless rowed out to the deeper water and put their nets down. When they did that, they were engulfed by so many fish that their nets began to break; there were so many fish that their friends were able to also fill their boat with fish, almost to the point of sinking it!
When Simon said that he didn’t deserve this bounty, Jesus told him that he’d just witnessed how to “catch people;” don’t be afraid to reach out – go beyond the familiar and you will be amazed.
Why did Simon Peter agree to do what Jesus suggested, even when he was certain it wouldn’t work? Perhaps because he was willing to take a “leap of faith?”
I continue to be reminded that if I keep only to myself and rely on only my own thinking, I’ll only keep getting what I’ve been getting. But if I am willing to follow suggestions that have worked for others, I will probably get results similar to what they got. That’s called “faith,” guided by “trust.”
A friend of mine likes to give this example of the difference between “faith” and “trust”: You are at the circus, and the person up on the high wire is preparing to push a wheelbarrow along the wire. You have “faith” that they will make it safely, but if you “trust” you’ll go up and get in the wheelbarrow!
Another friend likes to call those words “verbs,” because they are calls to action, not thinking or feeling. And the required action is sometimes “fearless;” that is, it’s taken in spite of inevitable fear.
As I said previously, I cannot honestly say there is no God, and I have also come to believe that I, as a finite and imperfect human, cannot fully know God. So, I like to say that the only thing I can truly know about God is that I’m not it!
But I must also acknowledge that other people I have come to know and trust, and who have what I want, are living happy and productive lives by trying to do God’s will. The truth seems to be that if I do what they do, I’ll likely get what they’re getting!
But that’s not all of it; because in retrospect my colleagues and I must sometimes humbly admit that at any given time, our apparent use to God may have been by being a bad example, so others can learn from our mistakes. It’s progress not perfection in this life.
Like the Corinthians, I have sought refuge in practices that could be called “spiritual,” which at least temporarily made me “feel good,” but which ultimately took me in an unhealthy direction, and away from doing what Jesus preached.
So in conclusion, I return to the “according to the scriptures”/ “in accordance with the scriptures” dichotomy, because I believe it may be a small example of a larger problem that is contributing to some of our current “troubles,” as the late Queen Elizabeth II used to call such things; specifically, Christian fundamentalism, which seems to focus on who is right and who is wrong, rather than Jesus’ teachings.
I believe that some Christians may have unwittingly become more “fundamental” as a result of our efforts to “modernize” the words used in our literature to express how and what we believe. In the eyes of many we have become more exclusive because we have hardened our boundaries, rather than welcoming all who come to the door by remaining open to the mystery of God manifest in Jesus’ teaching.
Here’s a personal experience: Long ago, when I was confirmed, the Nicene Creed used the phrase “according to the scriptures” when referring to Jesus’ resurrection. Now it says that Jesus rose again: “in accordance with the scriptures.” That change suggests that Jesus’ resurrection is confirmed by its inclusion in the scriptures, as opposed to “according to the scriptures,” which directs readers to the scriptures to determine for themselves whether Jesus rose from the dead.
Maybe that is for many a distinction without a difference, but “according to the scriptures” allowed me to feel that I was being honest when reciting the Nicene Creed, even though, perhaps like Doubting Thomas, I was not absolutely certain that Jesus rose from the dead. It also allowed me the time I needed to accept the mystery, in the same way that I now believe that the only two things I know FOR SURE are that there is a God, and it’s not me.
My thinking went like this: the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 was an effort to reach consensus among divided Christian bishops on the nature of Jesus, and that to do that, a certain amount of what we today refer to as “mediation” must have been necessary.
Describing Jesus’ resurrection as “according to the scriptures” is part of how the bishops reached their consensus on the new creed, and perhaps they adopted that language because it would allow their existing and potential followers room and time to decide whether they could believe in the miraculous.
I see “according to the scriptures” as potentially more inclusive, because it allowed this sinner, who is still sometimes unsure of his beliefs and on the fence about some of the church’s doctrine, to come to worship and fully participate; eventually and in his own way, coming to believe.
My suggestion is that we try to grow the church by being attractive, practicing what Jesus preached, and, wherever possible, doing so without promoting ourselves.
