The Way, the Truth, and the Life
If you all want, I'll drive east a few miles to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and see if Russell D. Moore wants to come out and play. We might need him, in fact, because I sense that we regulars at Theologic Al's are all rooting for the same team. We're fans of The Lone, Wild Fowl in Lofty Flight. Our buddy Russ is into The Lone, Tame Parrot in a Low- Flying Holding Pattern over the Baptist Faith and Message. He could help us sharpen our language on the issue at hand, which, it seems to me, is about the sovereign freedom of God to go where God wants to go and speak through whomever God is pleased to speak. And, while God is visiting over in the next county, God can elect for salvation and service whomever God wants to elect. Thank God, we're not even registered to vote in that election.
Certainly the Holy Spirit, blowing where it will, can work through and be present in Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, etc. If God can speak through Balaam’s ass, then God might even be able slip a word every now and then through the Dean of Theology at Southern Baptist Seminary.
These guys have got themselves into some kind of logical knot. Who was that Nobel Peace Prize candidate a few years back who covered a microphone with his slobber as he shouted that God doesn’t hear the prayer of a Jew since they don’t pray in the name of our most gracious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Not only is that the worst kind of formulaic literalism, on par with Old World, Vatican I Catholics worried overmuch about getting the Latin right at the altar or that hocus pocus thing wouldn’t kick in with the bread and the wine. It's also just plain wrong.
Leaving out Jesus his own self, what about all those OT types, Abraham, Moses, to name two? They had a communication block with God? We beg Russ's pardon. "All truth is God's truth," Shirley Guthrie liked to say. And truth that is transcendent is always true, no matter the time or the circumstances. (We avoid the phrase "absolutely true," because Russ and his crowd are into absolutism, and we don't want to mess with their stuff). Since that is the case, then God still hears the prayer of a Jew and God's grace, always connected to God's Unpredictable Spirit, can show up in the words and actions of Gerald's friends Ahmed, Gupta, Chang, and Finkelstein.
I be sure of two things. We have absolutely (oops) nothing to do with our salvation. It's all grace all the time. Not a song we can sing, a feeling we can feel, a doctrine we can affirm, a church we can join, nor a cause we can support has anything to do with it. It's not circumcision or uncircumcision, drinking bourbon whiskey or not drinking bourbon whiskey, or being a social activist or not. What matters is the new creation. God's gift it is.
The other thing I'm sure of is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. God spoke a word in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that opens the way to wholeness and purpose and meaning to all people. Now comes the hard part: That openness exists whether individuals or groups of individuals name the name of Christ or not. Is that universalism? And is that a bad thing? Does it lead to moral laxity? (As if all the world's moral strenuousness has taken us to great places).
Rick, your translation of the German's poem comes as a shaft of light. And the way you set it up helped me read it. It's the very kind of writing that makes this nature boy's heart soar like a hawk. At first blush, it is the same question, about whether or not people we know and love lead us to God. Flawed human nature sometimes points the way. The perfect point, so to speak, lies beyond both human nature and nature nature. But a nice sunset or a surprising display of early spring wildflowers can open a portal to Christ's heart, too. And Christ leads us home. Like disciples hoofing it to Emmaus, sometimes you recognize Christ, and sometimes you don't. Jesus saves, though, not the act of recognition. No matter what Russ says.
Julie, your questions about Paradise Regained intrigue; I too have spent a lot of time wondering what it would look like. I don’t know if death itself is excluded from a restored creation, but it might have more meaning, or a more beautiful reality than our current take on mortality. Now a new creation, that may have nothing to do with images of Eden; since it is "new," we have even less of a preview. Familiar analogies may have no currency in that world at all. But maybe death in a restored creation looks like your regulars at the country club bar, bringing gifts to someone on the way out while they can still look someone in the eye and express simple, humble, unmanipulative love.
Dee Hamilton Wade
Certainly the Holy Spirit, blowing where it will, can work through and be present in Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, etc. If God can speak through Balaam’s ass, then God might even be able slip a word every now and then through the Dean of Theology at Southern Baptist Seminary.
These guys have got themselves into some kind of logical knot. Who was that Nobel Peace Prize candidate a few years back who covered a microphone with his slobber as he shouted that God doesn’t hear the prayer of a Jew since they don’t pray in the name of our most gracious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Not only is that the worst kind of formulaic literalism, on par with Old World, Vatican I Catholics worried overmuch about getting the Latin right at the altar or that hocus pocus thing wouldn’t kick in with the bread and the wine. It's also just plain wrong.
Leaving out Jesus his own self, what about all those OT types, Abraham, Moses, to name two? They had a communication block with God? We beg Russ's pardon. "All truth is God's truth," Shirley Guthrie liked to say. And truth that is transcendent is always true, no matter the time or the circumstances. (We avoid the phrase "absolutely true," because Russ and his crowd are into absolutism, and we don't want to mess with their stuff). Since that is the case, then God still hears the prayer of a Jew and God's grace, always connected to God's Unpredictable Spirit, can show up in the words and actions of Gerald's friends Ahmed, Gupta, Chang, and Finkelstein.
I be sure of two things. We have absolutely (oops) nothing to do with our salvation. It's all grace all the time. Not a song we can sing, a feeling we can feel, a doctrine we can affirm, a church we can join, nor a cause we can support has anything to do with it. It's not circumcision or uncircumcision, drinking bourbon whiskey or not drinking bourbon whiskey, or being a social activist or not. What matters is the new creation. God's gift it is.
The other thing I'm sure of is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. God spoke a word in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that opens the way to wholeness and purpose and meaning to all people. Now comes the hard part: That openness exists whether individuals or groups of individuals name the name of Christ or not. Is that universalism? And is that a bad thing? Does it lead to moral laxity? (As if all the world's moral strenuousness has taken us to great places).
Rick, your translation of the German's poem comes as a shaft of light. And the way you set it up helped me read it. It's the very kind of writing that makes this nature boy's heart soar like a hawk. At first blush, it is the same question, about whether or not people we know and love lead us to God. Flawed human nature sometimes points the way. The perfect point, so to speak, lies beyond both human nature and nature nature. But a nice sunset or a surprising display of early spring wildflowers can open a portal to Christ's heart, too. And Christ leads us home. Like disciples hoofing it to Emmaus, sometimes you recognize Christ, and sometimes you don't. Jesus saves, though, not the act of recognition. No matter what Russ says.
Julie, your questions about Paradise Regained intrigue; I too have spent a lot of time wondering what it would look like. I don’t know if death itself is excluded from a restored creation, but it might have more meaning, or a more beautiful reality than our current take on mortality. Now a new creation, that may have nothing to do with images of Eden; since it is "new," we have even less of a preview. Familiar analogies may have no currency in that world at all. But maybe death in a restored creation looks like your regulars at the country club bar, bringing gifts to someone on the way out while they can still look someone in the eye and express simple, humble, unmanipulative love.
Dee Hamilton Wade
posted by Rick at 6:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home