2 Samuel 7: 1-11a
1 Corinthians 8: 1-3
The
Greatest Asset that We Have in the Church Today is our Doctrine. Without it, we would be lost and
twisting in the wind, our members wouldn’t know how to believe in anything and
basically we wouldn’t be ready to tangibly create more Christians by infusing
them with beliefs…. Without our doctrine, there would be but no hope for the
church because we simply wouldn’t have any tangible beliefs to talk about, any
way to identify God and any way to explain all the problems of the world
away…at least that’s what it says on this script…But this isn’t true
The greatest hindrance that we have to the Church today is our doctrine, the
rigid, cold, and 1600 years out of date formulas of belief that have plagued us
and kept us silent for hundreds of years.
The belief systems have gone from being a lens through which we view
God, a way to explain something of a mystery and instead have turned into
facts. The God of all history,
mystery, and creator of every single piece of sand and outstretched galaxy and
universe….we’ve got that God figured out completely because we know that he/she
is Trinitarian. We mere humans
understand completely salvation, why we have sacraments, we know exactly what
the Bible says is true, including the controversial parts and the parts that
contradict themselves. We evern
have identified ourselves everything that belongs in the bible and everything
that doesn’t. As a matter of fact,
some of us believe that the story is completely written and that there is never
meant to be an opening of the cannon every again. We have an outdated religion that’s based on facts (that we
have identified) rather than one of faith.
Christianity
is in a crisis. It’s membership
declining in steady numbers, many people are frustrated and confused about what
it means to actually be Christian, the rise of the “nones” has been in full
swing for about 20 years now (seems like the length of time for them ot make it
to college) and then general doctrine of the Church is being viewed with harsh
skeptisicm. Guess what… It’s time
for a revolution. A real one, but one that can cave the church from what it has
become…outdated and irrelevant.
Now you all wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think there was hope, but
this is not something that can be done through simple words and hopeful
dreams. We have to actually
challenge the doctrine of the church and find a way through our fear and into a
place of gracious behavior.
When
I started college, I had come from a mostly literalistic background, meaning
the Bible said what it said and it meant what it meant. And you know, I have never waivered
from that belief. I take the Bible
very seriously, because I see it as a lens. But when I started college, I saw it (unconsciously) as the
idol to which I worshipped. I saw
that if I opened the Bible to any particular page, I would somehow find the
answer to my problem. I was sure
the translation was correct and that all the answers were in this book. And I never questioned that the
doctrine of the church was set and that there was a certain way things came
into order and being…until I went to seminary.
And
there, the whole boat of Christianity, it gets turned upside down. The doctrine, wait, we’re going to
question the doctrine. YES WE
ARE. And we’re going to be serious
about it, but we’re not going to take it literally, just like we take our
Bible. And what happened was I
started to see the modernity in my belief systems.
The
ridigity of doctrine has been built over the past century by the
fundamentalists, a movement and wave that began in response to the industrial
revolution and scientific fact finding endeavors that had begun in the 1860s
and 1870s. One might even say
Darwin was the reason fundamentalism came into existence. Fundamentalists have a pillar system of
beliefs….
1.)
Inerrancy of Scripture
2.)
Second Coming of Christ
3.)
Virgin Birth
4.)
Physical
Resurrection of the Body
5.)
Substitutionary Atonement
6.)
Total Depravity of Man (original Sin)
These beliefs were meant to be a
response to science trying to change the nature of human beings as people had
already believed in. It was a
withdrawal from allowing for science to help solve any mystery. Instead, complete and utter rejection
was seen as appropriate. Phillip
Gulley has powerful words to say about this movement and the way we’ve treated
doctrine in this age.
“This aversion to modernity seems to be
unique to theology. If your doctor
rejected out of hand the medical advances of the past three hundred years, we
would quickly find a new doctor.
If the US president wished to place America under the rule of British
monarchy, he or she would be impeached.
But take an ancient doctrine, insist it originated from God, devise a
ritual that reinforces it, wrap it in a prayer, reward those who perpetuate it,
and condemn to hell those who don’t, and what you have is a significant portion
of today’s church”
We
see this in the scriptures today.
In the passage from Samuel, David has declared that he himself will
build God a create building where he will dwell for all time. David believes that his God deserves to
live in a place of her own, a place like David’s palace. And God has been dwelling in a tent and
resting his feet upon the ark of the covenant and traveling with the people for
a long time. It is in this moment when David has cast his vision that his
priestly advisor comes to him and asks if he really is to build the house in
which God will dwell. My seminary
professor says this is the place in the Bible where we have to decide if we are
going to put GOD IN A BOX, GOD IN A BOX, GOD IN A BOX. Personally, I wish to
avoid that.
The
passage from Corinthians is a quick reminder of the fate we risk when we claim
to know. When a pastor or a
spiritual director or anyone regarding religion is asked a question, if their
response is a simple “answer”, you should beware. We believe is a wonderful relief for many people, but it is
not necessarily correct. I believe
wholeheartedly that the trinity is a fine expression of God, but I do not
believe that God is truly limited as a 3-1 diagram. God is….and let me tell you what, if you figure that out,
you let me know.
Knowledge
puffs us up, makes up full our ourselves and ready to condemn others. But in the end, our knowledge of God
will not make the world better. It
is our behavior, our willingness to do something that actually changes things. A few of you who expressed how you “see
God” working in the world through the actions and the relationships. The church needs more of that. We don’t
need to put God in a box, or a doctrine, or a creed, but instead we need to see
God acting in the world through our works of graciousness and our unwillingness
to be bound by fears of hello having to say the right words in order to make it
to heaven. The reality is right
here and right now.
The
truth is, the church as it stands today is going to die. We have tried for too long to grasp on
to God as a statement or as a defined entity. We have allowed ourselves to become an institution that
believes that rocks we must build upon our words. But God told David that God would remain as a dweller in a
box. Until we built a house of
cedar, (as Solomon would later), the people were simply traveling along with
God. Now we don’t travel with God,
we stay away from God’s wrath or we pray to God to bring us resolution. Perhaps the gracious behavior we now
are called to live might see us in a stronger relationship with God, living
into mystery as we have to live in ministry with each other and allow God to
dwell among us.
There
is little doubt in my mind that doctrine has become the box or the fence or
whatever we would like to call it that we put God into. But if we as Christians can let go of
tangible creeds and instead embrace mystery, we might actually find meaning in
the traditions of the church because they will be spiritual but not
literal. If we can simply find a
way to live via way of gracious behavior and not worship like idols a book that
is contradictory at times, then we will truly find that loving our neighbor is
the most important thing and that providing mercy to all those in fear will be
more important than condemning others to hell. Maybe the institutions will change as well, because we
already know the Church, if it were Christian, would truly already be that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment