Spiritual Hiccups - Unequal Partners

To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
   until he has mercy upon us.

Psalm 123:1-2

I was in an interesting discussion the other day about how Presbyterians are related to Scripture and to our tradition's faith statements.  I said something about entering into a conversation with both the Bible and our Book of Confessions, and spoke of being enriched by the give and take of this conversation.  But someone wondered about this image of a conversation with Scripture and tradition.  If I am a conversation partner, do my opinions carry the same weight as Scripture and tradition?  Do they speak to me with any "authority?"

That thought had not occurred to me.  In fact, I presumed that this "conversation" was not one among equals.  It is more like a student in conversation with a learned professor or novice speaking with a master craftsman.  It is akin to the relationship in today's psalm of servant to master.

But the person who wondered about my "conversation" imagery had good reason for concern.  It is quite typical for us to come to denominational teachings, and even to the Bible, as equals in the ensuing conversation.  We will listen, but we will also measure what we hear with what we think, and then we will dismiss what we don't agree with or do not like.  We all do this to some extent, cherry picking from the Bible - putting those passages we like in one basket and those passages we don't in another.  And then we store that second basked somewhere we seldom go.

But if God agrees with all my political stances and all my plans, that seems to me an almost certain indication that this is not God at all.  The God I meet in Jesus loves me where he finds me and embraces me even when others will not.  But he always calls me from that place to somewhere new.  And he calls me to become something new and different and more like him.  And while Jesus is happy to engage me in conversation over this, I do not think that conversation ever ends with Jesus saying, "You know, you're right.  Worry about yourself and let everyone else worry about themselves.  I did come so that you would be successful and happy, and if you accomplish that, I don't really care about any of that other stuff."

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