is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
Psalm 146:5-7
I have to admit that I've bought into the consumerist gospel and think I'll be happy if I have a few more nice things. But "enough" is always just a bit beyond my reach which leads to typical "If only..." statements about winning the lottery or experiencing some other sort of financial windfall.
And like a lot of Americans, I long for political leadership that will fix things and make them better. Maybe this is our version of "trust in princes." We imagine there is someone who will do the trick. But things rarely work out as well as we hope, and so the political pendulum can swing quickly. We're often ready to fire our princes in the manner of football coaches who don't turn a losing team around fast enough.
Speaking of football coaches, Urban Meyer, the new coach here in Columbus, has sparked a few letters to the editor around his plans to offer optional Bible studies and chapel services for his players. I'm not really interested in the actual debate over this. I'm more interested in an understanding of Christian faith that I saw in one of those letters to the editor. The writer defended Myer's classes by saying, in part, "What's wrong with teaching young men not to steal, covet or lie, and to treat others as you would want to be treated?... Again, I ask, what is the progressives' problem with a dynamic role model, a coach, teaching moral principles based on the Bible?"
I know nothing about this fellow's religious beliefs, but I feel comfortable saying that many "Christians"understand faith along the lines of his letter. Faith means believing in God/Jesus and being more or less moral. And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with totally trusting your life to God/Jesus. Believing and being good is not at all what the psalm says leads to happiness or what Jesus says it means to follow him (self denial and taking up the cross for instance).
But while I go in for a little more serious version of faith than "believe and be good," we're talking a matter of degrees here. And when I find myself worrying about happiness, or success, or why a new initiative at the church hasn't turned out like we hoped, Jesus often isn't really involved in the conversation. It's all a matter of plans, strategy, abilities, technique, leadership, etc. Things work when such things are good, but fail when they are poor. And God doesn't seem to have a big role one way or another.
Jesus calls us to the difficult work of discipleship. He commands us to teach people to do all that he has commanded, so obviously it matters what we do. But he also promises to be with us, and to send the Spirit to strengthen and guide us. So why are a great many of us working and trying so hard yet feeling so anxious?
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What, in deed, IS the progressives' problem with a dynamic role model, a coach, teaching moral principles based on the Bible?" A great question, this, and I too grasp at clues to the answer. I'm less outraged than I am embarrassed by Mr. Tebow's grandstanding the faith he understands. Some important strands of Christ's teaching he and modern Christians seem to utterly miss, and it's no favor to others of us laboring here "in the vineyard." Tebow's and others' displays of pre-Christian "my god over your god" psychology passes, mostly un-noticed for the real deal.
ReplyDeleteMany are the metaphysical and linguistic hurdles to bringing about "The Kingdom" that Jesus spoke of. Religions' twinned roles in society, and congregants' lack of understanding of the sometimes competing values of 'social control' and 'spiritual transformation' is such a hurdle. We conflate "what is good for us", with "what is best for us"; with what is best in the grand scheme of things. Jesus embodied the fact that what is best for the most can be lethal for the one choosing. The 'consumerist gospel' [that telling phase], utterly defeats and subverts something that is at the heart of Jesus' transcendental message.
We believers, (of many faiths) employ texts as anchors in a wayward, forgetful, and anxious world. This is good, as far as it goes. Where texts serve more as "anchor" than "mast" it is time to look up from the book. We are so deeply, and subconsciously wired for survival, and the simplification of incoming information, that texts can as easily lead away from truth, as toward it. Jesus used parables to illuminate text, but ran opposed to political and worldly currents, not least his own earthly life.
Thank you James, for sharing your own personal wrestling matches. Like this one, again, I couldn't turn the page without jumping into the fray. The catchy expression, "...may have just found the problem", is a truly great hook.