Reality
Check
“One
must never identify the text with the revelation or the messenger
with the message. That has been the major error in our two-thousand
years of Christian history. It is an insight that today is still
feared and resisted. But let it be clearly stated, the Gospels are
not in any literal sense holy, they are not accurate, and they are
not to be confused with reality. They are rather beautiful portraits
painted by first-century Jewish artists, designed to point the reader
toward that which is in fact holy, accurate, and real. The Gospels
represent that stage in the development of the faith story in which
ecstatic exclamation begins to be placed in narrative form.”
John
Shelby Spong (Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to
Believers in Exile)
We wonder why people are
leaving the mainstream Christian Churches in staggering
numbers—around 3,500 a day last year, or 65-million American
adults. Perhaps it's because in two-thousand years, the message
hasn't changed but human beings have. Not only have we learned an
incredible amount of information in that time, but we are influenced
greatly by realism and fact-based science. We have a harder and
harder time believing the Bible stories in literal terms—and the
church, especially the evangelical branches, won't have it any other
way. So, people, especially our young people, simply walk away.
The Bible is a collection
of stories first told in oral traditions, cobbled together, overlaid
with legend and embellished with mysticism to add interest. This is
the way of storytellers yesterday and today. My friend, Andy, told me about a book he is reading that tells the stories of many
famous American's—cowboys and frontiersmen of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. People like Daniel Boone and Davy
Crockett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James—people who actually
lived, but whose lives have been greatly mythologized and made
legendary. So, too are the stories in the Bible—they are meant to
point to truths and give us examples of human progress in
understanding the concept of God, and God's work in the world. From
the fiery brimstone-slinging Old Testament God, to the gentle, healing and
forgiving Jesus, we have watched humanity evolve—albeit, slowly.
When one is able to read
the Bible as truths told in story form, it comes alive with meaning.
Trying to interpret it literally requires the willing suspension of
disbelief, and is difficult to apply in our modern lives. But
understanding the mystery and transcendence described through these
stories is not. The birth of Jesus is a case in point. Did angels
actually announce his coming? Did kings ride camels across the
deserts to bring him spices and gold? Did a bright star sit atop a
cowshed to show where he lay? Don't know, but it makes the point that
Jesus' birth was a momentous event—a turning point for all
humankind. A bringer of change and good news—a new understanding
about what being in relationship with the divine actually means. How
transformational it is, and what a bright light it casts. I like that
version of the story, don't you?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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