Formation -- Part 4
Where did we get the notion that being a Christian was about having the answers to all of the mysteries of life? When did the ability to parrot an "answer" become more important than wrestling with the questions? Why do we choose to ignore the questions that make us uncomfortable -- the ones that won't readily avail themselves to a succint solution? How can we recover intellectual curiosity in the local congregation?
Who is God? What does it mean to say that God is Trinity? Who is Jesus? How is Jesus the Son of God? What is the uniqueness of Jesus? What difference does it make? What does it mean to be human? What is sin? Bad behavior(s)? Unruly force?
What is the Church? How does the Church proclaim the Gospel of Jesus? What difference does the Gospel make in the world? In the lives of followers of Jesus? What is salvation? How is salvation effected? By whom? For whom? What is the mission of the Church? How does that mission intersect with God's mission? What about human suffering? What about evil? What about death? Where is hope?
Conversation, anyone?
Where did we get the notion that being a Christian was about having the answers to all of the mysteries of life? When did the ability to parrot an "answer" become more important than wrestling with the questions? Why do we choose to ignore the questions that make us uncomfortable -- the ones that won't readily avail themselves to a succint solution? How can we recover intellectual curiosity in the local congregation?
Who is God? What does it mean to say that God is Trinity? Who is Jesus? How is Jesus the Son of God? What is the uniqueness of Jesus? What difference does it make? What does it mean to be human? What is sin? Bad behavior(s)? Unruly force?
What is the Church? How does the Church proclaim the Gospel of Jesus? What difference does the Gospel make in the world? In the lives of followers of Jesus? What is salvation? How is salvation effected? By whom? For whom? What is the mission of the Church? How does that mission intersect with God's mission? What about human suffering? What about evil? What about death? Where is hope?
Conversation, anyone?
posted by FrGaryB | 6:58 AM
3 Comments:
I'm not sure I want to go to your first 2 paragraphs right now, but I do want to throw my hat in on the third because I have been thinking about these questions a lot this week. We all know, I think, that Dr. KNS is a fairly strict Hauerwasian when it comes to "what the Church _is_" - at least when looking at it from the perspective of someone _inside the Church_ who has always been inside it. From that perspective, the Church is called to "be Church," no more, no less. The _sine qua non_ is, of course, the Eucharist, for without it the Church would not be itself. Everything of the communal and ethical flows from Eucharist, and must be understood through the prism of Eucharist. In the past I know I have used the image of "centrifugal force" to talk about this concept - where the Eucharist is the fixed point of a whirling vortex forcing things/people OUT rather than drawing them IN to converge on stasis.
What I have been thinking of this week, though, is how this looks from the OUTSIDE, and this is perhaps where Stanley's flavor of American Methodism comes a bit short and where I am going to espouse a horribly unfashionable idea. I think that as Americans we err in trying to interpret the idea of an Established Church (and of monarchy, for that matter) far too literally and directly when in actuality it does not work that way at all. Establishment viewed from the outside or the fringe points always towards God and the Church. Certainly it is more than merely a signifier, but it is still an _enormous_ signifier, and I do think the Holy Spirit works through those signs to draw people closer so that they may then see what this Christian thing is all about.
Happy Pentecost!
Okay, my friend...you asked for it, so here we go.
You can be a prophet or you can be a pastor. People want pastors. They're nice people. They become rectors of large parishes.
People don't like prophets. They serve small parishes. They ask big questions and get little answers.
The job of the prophet is to strip off the veneer of cozy half-truth; the job of the pastor, is to put it back again.
Is that cynical? Nah....
I'd take an abrasive prick who is committed to the Gospel any day over a wobbly lump of pastoral availability. The two priests who have had the most influence on me and my understanding of the faith both have very limited social skills and a complete readiness to offend if necessary. (Though I'll admit both have also experienced "downward mobility" in terms of size/prestige of their congregations.)
Post a Comment
<< Home