Ask me if Jesus is the centre of my faith and I’ll say a resounding “yes!” If you observe my life you’ll see a different reality. In reality the Bible is often the centre of my faith. The Bible is what sermons get preached from, it’s what gets quoted to substantiate a position on almost everything apart which footy team I should to follow. If you come out of a more evangelical tradition like me, as long as someone could pull out a Bible verse or two to substantiate their position then there was no need to ask further questions. If, on the other hand, we ever heard someone say ‘Jesus was nice, so let’s do something that’s nice,’ we would recoil at what we perceived as a very wishy-washy theological basis for any idea or activity.
Of course things weren’t always as simple as quoting one proof text. Older texts could always be ‘trumped’ by newer ones. For example, if anyone ever suggested that we should adopt Old Testament purity laws. Then we could deliver an avalanche of counter ‘proof texts’ particularly from Paul. Not that this ever happened, but we were ready in case it did.
Now, my theology is far less evangelical than it used to be. If anyone asks me why I believe in gender equality, why I’m gay affirming, or why I believe that we should not repeat Ezra’s ethnic cleansing I can explain and, like a good evangelical, explain from the Bible. It might sometimes mean a bit of a theological workout, looking at the meaning of original Greek words and the context of the original passage, but we could get there.
On the other hand if anyone was to ask my wife these same questions she'd probably shrug her shoulders and say ‘ask Chris’. I suspect she just can’t be bothered with all my pharisaic like theological gymnastics just to get to a position to which she already knows in her heart to be true. She knows it to be true because she’s spent a life time trying to be like Jesus, rather than me who has spent a life time trying to wrestle with scripture. If we walk in the city she takes the cash. If I get asked by a homeless person for some money I need ten minutes to work out what the best thing to do is. She’ll just hand over the cash. She just has a more natural ability to embody Jesus than me. She spent the first twenty five years of her life listening to sermons on why it was important to submit to your husband and spent them single because she refused to date anyone who believed that. Despite what everyone else said she just knew that sort of dominate/subordinate relationship didn't line up with who Jesus was.
Recently, I heard a great talk explaining how the feeding of the 4000 parallels with Joshua’s conquest of Jericho. (It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds). Anyway, just as I was about to tell my wife about it, I realised she didn't need some convoluted explanation about why we shouldn’t kill thousands of innocent people and take their land from them. Of course, she wouldn’t even think that could ever be justified. All it took was for her to once read Jesus saying ‘you’ve heard it said, but I say...’ for her to know the right answer, the Jesus answer, is always the compassionate answer. As exciting as my theological discovery was I couldn't help but think maybe I should make Jesus the centre of my faith and not the Bible. Maybe I should stop wasting my time and be more like my wife.
Of course things weren’t always as simple as quoting one proof text. Older texts could always be ‘trumped’ by newer ones. For example, if anyone ever suggested that we should adopt Old Testament purity laws. Then we could deliver an avalanche of counter ‘proof texts’ particularly from Paul. Not that this ever happened, but we were ready in case it did.
Now, my theology is far less evangelical than it used to be. If anyone asks me why I believe in gender equality, why I’m gay affirming, or why I believe that we should not repeat Ezra’s ethnic cleansing I can explain and, like a good evangelical, explain from the Bible. It might sometimes mean a bit of a theological workout, looking at the meaning of original Greek words and the context of the original passage, but we could get there.
On the other hand if anyone was to ask my wife these same questions she'd probably shrug her shoulders and say ‘ask Chris’. I suspect she just can’t be bothered with all my pharisaic like theological gymnastics just to get to a position to which she already knows in her heart to be true. She knows it to be true because she’s spent a life time trying to be like Jesus, rather than me who has spent a life time trying to wrestle with scripture. If we walk in the city she takes the cash. If I get asked by a homeless person for some money I need ten minutes to work out what the best thing to do is. She’ll just hand over the cash. She just has a more natural ability to embody Jesus than me. She spent the first twenty five years of her life listening to sermons on why it was important to submit to your husband and spent them single because she refused to date anyone who believed that. Despite what everyone else said she just knew that sort of dominate/subordinate relationship didn't line up with who Jesus was.
Recently, I heard a great talk explaining how the feeding of the 4000 parallels with Joshua’s conquest of Jericho. (It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds). Anyway, just as I was about to tell my wife about it, I realised she didn't need some convoluted explanation about why we shouldn’t kill thousands of innocent people and take their land from them. Of course, she wouldn’t even think that could ever be justified. All it took was for her to once read Jesus saying ‘you’ve heard it said, but I say...’ for her to know the right answer, the Jesus answer, is always the compassionate answer. As exciting as my theological discovery was I couldn't help but think maybe I should make Jesus the centre of my faith and not the Bible. Maybe I should stop wasting my time and be more like my wife.
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This is article first appeared in the Anabaptist Association of Australia & New Zealand Journal "On The Road" (December 2012 Issue 54). Which I have to say I feel quite honoured about :-).
1 comment:
I once went through a group bible study based on a book by a well known evangelical leader. It went on about the cross being the centre of our faith. "What could be possibly be wrong with that?" I thought, yet something didn't sit right. On my way home it hit me: the book was putting the cross at the centre, not Jesus!
Gary
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