“Beyond belief: consider the possibilities”
The 2d Sunday of Easter, March 30, 2008
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Jesus' good news was bad news to many in Jesus' time.
It was such bad news that at the beginning of his preaching, they nearly killed him.
At the end of his ministry, they succeeded.
Yesterday, for some reason, I was thinking about those words of Jesus, when one of the religious leaders asked which, of all the commandments, was most important.
Jesus’ answer, of course:
Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
And equally important, he said:
love your neighbor as yourself.
The “love God” part sounds fine to me.
but the “love your neighbor” part is pretty fuzzy.
What exactly are we expected to do when confronted with someone we really don’t like, but we’re told we have to love.
I don’t really know how to do that.
I’m thinking that an improvement would be to say it more or less this way:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another, even to that person you don’t very much like.
I’d like yo to hold that thought.
POST-CREDAL CHRISTIANITY?
One of the problems that churches face today is that the culture has been shifting over the last two centuries, shifting in its attitudes toward religious faith.
There’s been a gradual movement away from seeing Truth revealed by external authorities, such as the Bible or the church, there’s been a shift toward a belief that Truth is revealed to us through our own personal experience.
More important to many people these days, is living lives that are authentic, and expressive of our true selves.
The idea that the way to be “good” is to follow rules laid down by others has been displaced, displaced by suspicion of those who made the rules in the first placd.
There’s a sense that to think seriously about our lives, it’s better to turn to psychology, or maybe the latest book on Buddhism.
It’s better to do that than to listen to some sermon on a Sunday morning.
POSSIBILITIES?
But imagine a different kind of church, a church without creeds, without creeds, but at the same time, a church that remained fundamentally mystical in character.
At the heart of that church could be an awareness that we live in the presence of Mystery and Truth, and that we have been invited to take part in a reality that extends beyond our individual lives.
Imagine a church that would be without creeds, but would preach Truth about life lived in a context of love and generosity and kindness.
Imagine a church where God was not defined.
In theological terms, this approach to God has been called the via negativa, belief that we can only say what God is not, belief that God ultimately lies beyond any formulas or doctrines, God hidden in a cloud of not knowing.
This approach can be seen in ancient Judaism, where God could not be named for fear of diminishing God’s infiniteness.
This approach obviously is the opposite of “credal” Christianity, which claims that Truth can be reduced with certainty into various concepts and theological premises.
In the church that I’m imagining, members would not stop talking about God.
But they would recognize that any attempts to speak of God would have to be essentially poetic, simply pointers to Truth that lies beyond the words.
Talk about God would be seen as poetry.
It could be timeless and living, a living, creative force, not a fixed formula.
In the church I’m imagining, a major concern would be to ensure the well-being of others, to seek Meaning in this life, to transform the world through Kindness.
What d’ya think?
Does any of that sound good?
AN AMAZING SHIFT
One of the most astonishing revisions of the gospel narrative in the history of the church took place during its first 100 years.
Mark’s version of Jesus, in the earliest of the gospels, Marks version was of a Jesus who understood his mission as being one of announcing the reign of God that he saw breaking into the world.
Jesus saw signs of this when the blind were given sight, when the deaf could hear, when the lame could walk, when those appressed by “demons” were liberated from them.
The poor heard that better times were coming, THEY would be valued and honored.
It was the shift from this version of Jesus, to John’s version of Jesus, that was astonishing.
John’s Jesus explained his life as a human sacrifice.
John’s Jesus became one who preached that Christianity should be fundamentally about adhering to a set of correct doctrines, believing certain stuff.
The first Bible verse I ever memorized was from John’s gospel:
John 3:16.
I was a boy in Sunday School when I memorized it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If you didn’t believe, you were doomed.
Scared me half to death, actually.
There were nights when I couldn’t sleep because of that “good news”!
THIS MORNING’S READING
This morning we get more of it, because we’re reading about John’s Jesus, in the John’s gospel.
Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt but believe.”
Then John’s Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
And preachers ever since have been telling us exactly that:
if you don’t have faith, you will perish.
HERE’S THE DEAL
But here’s the deal:
Jesus came preaching, preaching the good news, but the church wound up preaching Jesus.
For some reason, the church has insisted on making Jesus the object of its attention, instead of focusing on Jesus’ message.
THE GIFT OF HOLY WEEK
Every year during Holy Week, there’s what’s called a “Mass of Collegiality” for priests in the diocese.
It’s held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.
Bishop Sisk is host.
At lunch each of us receives a gift every year.
And this time it was a book titled The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus.
Its author is the esteemed Harvard teacher and minister, Peter J. Gomes.
Gomes believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian Church astray.
To recover the transformative power of the gospel, he says, we have to go beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus’ original revolutionary message of hope.
“What did Jesus preach?”
That’s the question we should be asking.
Not what did Jesus do, or what would Jesus do, or what is it we have to believe.
“What did Jesus preach?”
JESUS THE PREACHER BECAME JESUS THE PREACHED
Jesus, who came preaching, somehow became Jesus-the-One-Who-Was-Preached.
In a way, it’s understandable.
Actually, it’s easier to talk about Jesus than to talk about what he talked about!, because Jesus’ preaching was outrageous.
The nature of his “good news” was scandalously radical.
He condemned the rich.
He challenged organized religion.
Love your enemies, he said.
Turn the other cheek.
Give away all your worldly goods.
Say goodbye to your family and follow me.
I could go on....
but I won’t.
It’s scandalous.
Jesus’ good news was bad news to many in Jesus’ time.
It was such bad news that at the beginning of his preaching, they nearly killed him.
At the end of his ministry, they succeeded.
KINDNESS: THAT’S WHAT JESUS PREACHED
If you were to distill the great spiritual teachings from around the world, distill them to their most basic principles, one thread would emerge to unite them all.
That thread would be Kindness.
It’s not the sweet, naive sentiment that you might think it is.
Instead, it’s an immensely powerful force that can transform individual lives, transform the lives of persons offering the kindness, as well as persons on the receiving end of that kindness.
Kindness, not toughness, can ripple out to change and improve relationships, change the environment, change our communities, and ultimately, change the world.
JESUS KNEW IT
Jesus knew that to be true.
Kindness was central to Jesus’ message, central to his preaching:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Yesterday, for some reason, I was thinking about those words of Jesus, when one of the religious leaders asked which, of all the commandments, was most important.
Jesus’ answer, of course:
Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
And equally important, he said:
love your neighbor as yourself.
The “love God” part sounds fine to me.
but the “love your neighbor” part is pretty fuzzy.
What exactly are we expected to do when confronted with someone we really don’t like, but we’re told we have to love.
I don’t really know how to do that.
I’m thinking that an improvement would be to say it more or less this way:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another, even to that person you don’t very much like.
I’d like yo to hold that thought.
POST-CREDAL CHRISTIANITY?
One of the problems that churches face today is that the culture has been shifting over the last two centuries, shifting in its attitudes toward religious faith.
There’s been a gradual movement away from seeing Truth revealed by external authorities, such as the Bible or the church, there’s been a shift toward a belief that Truth is revealed to us through our own personal experience.
More important to many people these days, is living lives that are authentic, and expressive of our true selves.
The idea that the way to be “good” is to follow rules laid down by others has been displaced, displaced by suspicion of those who made the rules in the first placd.
There’s a sense that to think seriously about our lives, it’s better to turn to psychology, or maybe the latest book on Buddhism.
It’s better to do that than to listen to some sermon on a Sunday morning.
POSSIBILITIES?
But imagine a different kind of church, a church without creeds, without creeds, but at the same time, a church that remained fundamentally mystical in character.
At the heart of that church could be an awareness that we live in the presence of Mystery and Truth, and that we have been invited to take part in a reality that extends beyond our individual lives.
Imagine a church that would be without creeds, but would preach Truth about life lived in a context of love and generosity and kindness.
Imagine a church where God was not defined.
In theological terms, this approach to God has been called the via negativa, belief that we can only say what God is not, belief that God ultimately lies beyond any formulas or doctrines, God hidden in a cloud of not knowing.
This approach can be seen in ancient Judaism, where God could not be named for fear of diminishing God’s infiniteness.
This approach obviously is the opposite of “credal” Christianity, which claims that Truth can be reduced with certainty into various concepts and theological premises.
In the church that I’m imagining, members would not stop talking about God.
But they would recognize that any attempts to speak of God would have to be essentially poetic, simply pointers to Truth that lies beyond the words.
Talk about God would be seen as poetry.
It could be timeless and living, a living, creative force, not a fixed formula.
In the church I’m imagining, a major concern would be to ensure the well-being of others, to seek Meaning in this life, to transform the world through Kindness.
What d’ya think?
Does any of that sound good?
AN AMAZING SHIFT
One of the most astonishing revisions of the gospel narrative in the history of the church took place during its first 100 years.
Mark’s version of Jesus, in the earliest of the gospels, Marks version was of a Jesus who understood his mission as being one of announcing the reign of God that he saw breaking into the world.
Jesus saw signs of this when the blind were given sight, when the deaf could hear, when the lame could walk, when those appressed by “demons” were liberated from them.
The poor heard that better times were coming, THEY would be valued and honored.
It was the shift from this version of Jesus, to John’s version of Jesus, that was astonishing.
John’s Jesus explained his life as a human sacrifice.
John’s Jesus became one who preached that Christianity should be fundamentally about adhering to a set of correct doctrines, believing certain stuff.
The first Bible verse I ever memorized was from John’s gospel:
John 3:16.
I was a boy in Sunday School when I memorized it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If you didn’t believe, you were doomed.
Scared me half to death, actually.
There were nights when I couldn’t sleep because of that “good news”!
THIS MORNING’S READING
This morning we get more of it, because we’re reading about John’s Jesus, in the John’s gospel.
Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt but believe.”
Then John’s Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
And preachers ever since have been telling us exactly that:
if you don’t have faith, you will perish.
HERE’S THE DEAL
But here’s the deal:
Jesus came preaching, preaching the good news, but the church wound up preaching Jesus.
For some reason, the church has insisted on making Jesus the object of its attention, instead of focusing on Jesus’ message.
THE GIFT OF HOLY WEEK
Every year during Holy Week, there’s what’s called a “Mass of Collegiality” for priests in the diocese.
It’s held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.
Bishop Sisk is host.
At lunch each of us receives a gift every year.
And this time it was a book titled The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus.
Its author is the esteemed Harvard teacher and minister, Peter J. Gomes.
Gomes believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian Church astray.
To recover the transformative power of the gospel, he says, we have to go beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus’ original revolutionary message of hope.
“What did Jesus preach?”
That’s the question we should be asking.
Not what did Jesus do, or what would Jesus do, or what is it we have to believe.
“What did Jesus preach?”
JESUS THE PREACHER BECAME JESUS THE PREACHED
Jesus, who came preaching, somehow became Jesus-the-One-Who-Was-Preached.
In a way, it’s understandable.
Actually, it’s easier to talk about Jesus than to talk about what he talked about!, because Jesus’ preaching was outrageous.
The nature of his “good news” was scandalously radical.
He condemned the rich.
He challenged organized religion.
Love your enemies, he said.
Turn the other cheek.
Give away all your worldly goods.
Say goodbye to your family and follow me.
I could go on....
but I won’t.
It’s scandalous.
Jesus’ good news was bad news to many in Jesus’ time.
It was such bad news that at the beginning of his preaching, they nearly killed him.
At the end of his ministry, they succeeded.
KINDNESS: THAT’S WHAT JESUS PREACHED
If you were to distill the great spiritual teachings from around the world, distill them to their most basic principles, one thread would emerge to unite them all.
That thread would be Kindness.
It’s not the sweet, naive sentiment that you might think it is.
Instead, it’s an immensely powerful force that can transform individual lives, transform the lives of persons offering the kindness, as well as persons on the receiving end of that kindness.
Kindness, not toughness, can ripple out to change and improve relationships, change the environment, change our communities, and ultimately, change the world.
JESUS KNEW IT
Jesus knew that to be true.
Kindness was central to Jesus’ message, central to his preaching:
Love God with everything you’ve got, and be kind to one another.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
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