It isn’t always that hard, either. Oh, but I haven’t said what “it” is yet, have I? Sorry. “It” is following Jesus Christ.
In my last two posts, I have spoken about guilt, shame, form, tradition and following Jesus. A quick reading of those posts might seem as though it’s all so easy, maybe too easy. Isn’t that how Christianity is often portrayed? Someone comes along who is seeking. We share the gospel, and we tell the person that all they have to do is X, Y and Z, and them everything is great. They are excited, all their problems are over, so they do X, Y and Z.
In fact, it isn’t quite that easy, is it? The people are happy, excited; thrilled really. After a few Sundays you don’t see them any more… What went wrong?
Maybe they didn’t really believe. Maybe they faked the whole thing. Maybe they moved to Ohio. Maybe we misrepresented what it is to follow Jesus Christ by reducing it all down to X, Y and Z! This would be the “form” part. Becoming a follower of Jesus is not form, it’s substance. This substance is truth, reality and life. It comes not from long-held traditions of worship, it comes from the person of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t come from avoiding a list of no no’s, it comes from seeking Him.
Someone tell me: How will a new Christian know this if nobody is willing to show him or her the way forward? What about a long time Christian who might have stuck around, but never came to understand what following is? How will they ever know if nobody will take the time and effort to help them out? What about your brother or sister who is consumed with guilt, shame or baggage from their past who is living a life of pain and hurt; how are they to be healed if we avoid them?
This is the “reaching out” part of following.
The reaching out part of the Christian experience isn’t always comfortable, but it also isn’t that difficult. It is where the joy is. It is the part that changes lives, it is the part where we grow and grow in our faith, and that makes everything easier, if not always entirely comfortable.
I have a theory that I’d like to explore, yet I’m not sure that I can explain it as clearly as I’d like, but here goes: Christian theology is not particularly difficult to understand. Its precepts and premises are fairly simple, it was given to “regular” guys to share with the world, and they did it. Yes, of course they had a lot of help from the Holy Spirit, but then so do we. Yet we love to argue, follow tradition and form to avoid spiritual growth and reaching out, because they are counter-intuitive, and the fact that they are counter-intuitive is exactly the point of all things being new, for our human intuition isn’t new, it’s the old thing that Jesus died to free us from.
Hopefully, I can explain this more clearly in future posts. In the meantime, I apologize for my inadequacies as a communicator, and hope that you, dear reader, will ponder these things.
Life Project Blog 
*Thwap* (that is the sound of the world’s gentlest Gibb-slap for saying you are an “inadequate” communicator, when you’re not only brilliant at it… but you prompt others around you profoundly — points at Paulfg’s recent work!)
I hear you here, btw. One phrase I’ve known most of my life… taught at my Christian (Foster) Father’s knee… “Following Christ is NOT easy, it is the hardest thing most people will ever grapple with. BUT it IS simple. There’s nothing complicated about it. In fact, complications are normally a strategy of the Enemy to prevent us from doing the simple.”
Now, sir…
I believe history may be made this morning… I think we may have found a point… a singular… scriptural… doctrinal… point on which we “disagree”. (I worry when I agree with anyone too much.)
Here’s the statement: “Christian Theology is not particularly difficult to understand. Its precepts and premises are fairly simple, it was given to “regular” guys to share with the world, and they did it. Yes, of course they had a lot of help from the Holy Spirit, but then so do we.”
And I’m not going to “pile on”. I realize that the area you are addressing is a “work in progress”, so trust me, I’m not picking at the detail or minutiae of your thinking. Not a bit of it. I want to address something far more radical and fundamental.
I would ask this question, or pose this challenge: “When did Jesus ever teach theology to His disciples at all?”
Now, I MEAN “theology” in that academic, structural, nosological, hermeneutical sense that we have come to know it. He sometimes DISCUSSED it, yes… but ONLY with the Pharisees, Saducees, or Scribes, and only when they brought it up first.
Cover to cover of the Gospels I see Jesus teach the disciples only two things… One: “Relationship” with Him and with the Father (and, at the very end there, with the Holy Spirit). Two: How to act and behave, what to feel, what to do, where to go for the sake of the lost sheep of the world.
That’s it! Honestly… take the outline or exit competencies from the syllabus of ANY systematic theology course from any seminary in this country… and show me where Jesus did that with His disciples?
It has always been the most striking and startling epiphany for me… when Jesus not-so-gently debrided me of my personal pride and smugness about “mastering my ‘ologies'” one day… that not only did He NOT teach these things… but He rather vehemently opposed those in His time and place, who DID!
And I think you got this… and the reasoning so very RIGHT in your next sentence:
“Yet we love to argue, follow tradition and form to avoid spiritual growth and reaching out,”
Yes, sir! Let me disclose one “scary moment” I had, as I was praying and writing, trying to describe some “surpassing riches” for someone… and God moved very close in that moment, and tenderly whispered in my ear, “Have a care, Little Monk, that you not stumble in Idolatry.”
I was stunned. My fingers left the keyboard as though stung with an electric current. “LORD! Am I DOING that? Forgive me! Correct me! I seek never to do such a thing… show me what I need to know, need to see, that I never take glory from You and place it anywhere else! Have I done such a thing? Am I close to such a thing?” I was truly horrified and fearful. Not afraid of HIM… not at all. But afraid of DOING such a thing… afraid of MYSELF, my ego.
He said, “No, Little One, you have not, and you are not even close. But these days, I am showing you things, helping you understand things, that are right at the ‘edge’ of prayer and how people can experience Me. I am ‘growing’ you. And you show these things to others, and they grow. But this means that you often must state what YOU experience Me to be. About YOUR relationship, and you encourage others to expand their sense of possibilities for Me in relationship with them.
“This means you must often make statements that imply that ‘God is…’ this way or that. Or that ‘God does….’ this or that thing. And that is fine, as long as you never ever forget that those statements, those True statements, are ONLY true for YOU, in YOUR life, in YOUR world, in the Creation I have made and maintain for YOU to be My vessel through your relationships. (I maintain an infinity of such Creations, surrounding each of My children uniquely). So… what is True for you, in your life, affirmed by My Spirit in you and your conscience, is binding for you, yes. BUT… it may or may not apply to anyone else. (Romans 14). Each person experiences Me slightly, or vastly, differently.
“The moment you type… ‘God IS…’ or ‘God DOES’… from the perspective of you and your life, you may be implying that, ‘Therefore, God IS NOT…’ something other. And in this you must take great care, for when you put a hard boundary around Me… when you state what I AM… and therefore think you can say, with authority, what I AM NOT… you have now created your own personal God. That God dances to YOUR tune, not Mine. That God springs forth from YOUR fingers, not My Heart.
“THAT God, Little Monk, is an idol. One that YOU control, constrain, and manage. That one, is not Me. I am ALWAYS bigger than you think. And the moment you think you can say what I am NOT, because you rightly perceive something that I AM, you are in danger. I AM very different to other people than I am to you. Never forget that.”
And I’ve worked hard not to. But that was the moment when I stopped “studying theology”. I came under the conviction that it was an entire discipline dedicated primarily to declaring, with great academic authority, exactly what God IS… and putting hard boundaries around what He is NOT. And it seemed as if, if this were a right approach, He’d have given His Name more specifics to Moses from that bush.
*Punt* That’s the sound of the volleyball crossing back onto Don’s side of the court.
Btw… sorry ’bout the Gibb-slap. Guess I got carried away there. Forgive? *hands you a mug of ground-bean coffee in apology* — LM
Thank you for your kindness at the top, I appreciate it, but I fear you’ve gone too far for the level of my communication may be even less than I had originally thought! And before I forget, no need for apologies! (how’s that for grammar?)
As I read through your remarks, so much came to mind, but I really don’t want to waste anyone’s time by attempting something the size of a small novel as a comment, so I’ll try to edit as I go! A few months back I attended a conference that I wouldn’t normally attend, but that I couldn’t gracefully avoid, either. It was being conducted by academic types from a side of the brotherhood I’ve served in, a side to which I don’t belong, if you follow what I mean… (I’ve cut a couple of chapters here, let’s just move on…) Anyway, I seemed to be a bit of a curiosity in the break-out sessions and so on because I was one of “them.” Conversation always came around to what do i teach, and I always accurately replied that I taught Applied Theology. To my chagrin… to a man… they asked me what that was; they’ve never heard of it. They are so strong with Systematic Theology! They can turn it into a rule book the size of the tax code and use it to create the most magnificent and idiotic division, but they’ve no concept of application…It was as depressing as it was illuminating.
Did Jesus teach his disciples theology? In the literal sense of the word, He taught quite a bit of theology. In the academic sense of Systematic Theology? I agree with you that He had none of it! While Systematic Theology has its place in the sense that there are some facts that help to build a foundation of faith, it is only a building block toward Applied Theology in my view. I’ve always told young pastors that if they are teaching a text without applying it to daily life, they are wasting time. (Don’t go crazy reading into that statement!) Most everything I do on this blog is a form of Applied Theology if we want to be technical, even my little post about visiting the White House the other day!
On a different but related note, I love words like “difficult,” “hard,” “easy” and “simple.” They are so very evocative in their vagueness, they stimulate our minds when placed in the right place; they make us think. If someone says out of the blue that Christian theology isn’t that difficult to understand, a person might just fill in his own thought about exactly what is “difficult” for him. If someone said that it was really “simple” and not so very “hard”, that same person might just fill in, in their own mind what is “easy” for them and maybe, just maybe see a glimmer of hope that the “difficult” might someday be more “easy” or “simple.” The poor communicator of course would put the link between the difficult and the simple at the end of his post where most readers won’t notice it if the evocative has taken over their thought-process. 🙂
Well, I’ve always said one other thing, and I’ll share it here: You’ve got to have fun with what you’re doing, and since this is the only form of ministry i have at the moment, I sure enjoy trying to communicate a reasonably clear message about following Jesus Christ, and interacting with my brothers and sisters around the kitchen table. I always look forward eagerly to what you all will teach me, and I suspect that I am learning more from all of you then I give back in return! Thanks so much Little Monk: you are worth your weight in gold!
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