Just finished what I think was a very important piece of work from Donald "Blue like Jazz" Miller. Asked about "Searching for God knows what", Miller writes,Essentially, I had begun to wonder if had misunderstood the gospel of Jesus, thinking of it in propositional terms rather than relational dynamics. The latter seemed too poetic to be true, but the former had been killing my soul for years and was simply illogical.
If we hold that Jesus wanted us to "believe" certain ideas or "do" certain things in order to be a Christian, we are holding to heresy., I finished the last paragraph and felt a kind of sickness at the thought of whether or not I was telling the truth. But after further consideration, and after rewriting the book, I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical.
Try it for yourself and let Graceland know what you think?
If we hold that Jesus wanted us to "believe" certain ideas or "do" certain things in order to be a Christian, we are holding to heresy., I finished the last paragraph and felt a kind of sickness at the thought of whether or not I was telling the truth. But after further consideration, and after rewriting the book, I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical.
Try it for yourself and let Graceland know what you think?
3 comments:
Hi
I really like the redesign.
There seems to be so much talk around concerning formulaic christianity and I am sure that this is not a new thing but it seems that we humans like to reduce everything to something we can box, predict and therefore control and surely therein lies the heresy. To engage with God who is both interventionalist and unpredictable is demanding but maybe that's what faith is?
Thanks Cheryl
Just read John 5;39-40 in Message and going by Petersons translation, Miller would appear to be sayin something similar.
Message; John 5;39-40
"You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These scriptures are all about me! And here I am standing right before you, and you aren't willing to recieve from me the life you say you want".
There is so much today that can replace actually engaging and encountering the living Christ.
Maybe we instinctively know that to fully encounter Christ will cost us more than we are prepared to give?
As hectic heart says, formulaic faith has existed for centuries and even with our post-modern insight, we may fall into the same traps again and again?
How can we avoid this?
Been think today about the changing of seasons (probably the wind blowing the gold leaves from my favourite tree!)
Maybe there are seasons when faith as formula is necessary? Could this be the value of liturgy perhaps?
Maybe there are other seasons when faith must be pregnant with spontaniety, creativity and risk?
Maybe there is a blending of these elements of faith which may create sacred spaces where life is renewed?
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