An Essay for those who have a spiritual yearning, but are (understandably) suspicious of the Church.

Does the Church have anything left to offer?

Does the church have anything left to offer? Not if we insist on staying in the 16^th century, (or even the 19^th century), we don’t. And yet it seems many of the words we Christians use to talk about God come from an earlier time, an earlier “worldview.” Many of us know that, but for reasons I don’t completely understand, we don’t talk about it. As a result scads of people jettison any involvement in the church because when we talk about God we don’t make any sense. So what? Why should that matter? It matters because it leaves many of us without the spiritual resources we need to live and to grow into our full purpose and potential. Over these last decades, many have come to recognize this and so embarked on a self-guided spiritual journey. Don’t think I’m knocking that here; what else are people to do? My concern is that life’s journey is difficult and confusing. Going it alone is fine as far as it goes, but too often it leaves us isolated and stagnant. We do better when we have the support and encouragement of community seeking to live into their own purpose and potential. Does the church have anything to offer? The church can offer such a community, but we’ll have to understand our traditions and images in radically new ways, and refocus our work to meet the interests of today’s “spiritual but not religious” believers. There are many “progressive” churches emerging now, churches that seek to fulfill their purpose in a world yearning to grow towards the very source of our life together. We are among them. But there are questions to answer – many of them – before people will be willing to involve themselves in a church again. I try to work with the most common ones in the remainder of this essay – inevitably in brief. But please understand, I view this essay, like all my preaching, as the first word in a conversation, not the last. For what we seek to understand is beyond thought, a deep mystery. So, who knows . . . I might be wrong.

Do you think that Christianity has a monopoly on religious “truth?”

Short Answer: Absolutely not.

Slightly Longer Answer: The God of all creation cannot be contained by creation. Therefore God is beyond all words, all experience, all thought. The God “about whom naught can be said.” Therefore, any words I use to describe God, (theology = words about God), can only be representations pointing to God. Any statement I make about God then, (including the first two sentences of this paragraph) is a statement of belief, not fact. I can think that I’m right in what I believe, but to suggest that I know it, is arrogant — the very antithesis of love. Religions are like languages designed to talk about God. They evolve like languages and influence one another like languages. Sometimes we find that one language communicates a particular idea more clearly than another. Greek for instance, has four words for “love” and communicates about love more clearly than English. It behooves us to listen to one another’s language about God. To quote a Presbyterian Church confession of faith: “The Christian finds parallels between other religions and their own and must approach all religions with openness and respect.  Repeatedly God has used the insight of non-Christians to challenge the church to renewal.” I do believe that Christianity’s “grammar” offers much that is essential as we relate to God. (Though I would  grant that our “vocabulary” could use a lot of work.)

Why does God permit suffering?

Short answer: That question does not compute.

Slightly Longer Answer: First let me say there is no adequate explanation for human suffering, no answer that satisfies, no point of view that allows us to understand it and therefore to contain it. Asking why it exists, or blaming God for it doesn’t change the fact, suffering exists. If we talk about a God who is “up there,” who has control over whether this happens or that happens, then the problem of suffering is deeply troubling. God is “blamed.” But theological words that project human qualities onto God are necessarily representations, or metaphors, pointing to the Divine. To suggest that God does this or does that with motivation understood in human terms is to extend the metaphor way too far. It has destructive consequences; it drives people away from the source of creative grace they need to sustain them through the struggle. At the center of Christian thought is a God whose nature is to bring life from death.

Do you think the Bible is the Word of God?

Short Answer: Yes, but it really, really depends on what you mean by that.

Slightly Longer Answer: Since beginning human beings have sought to understand who God is and how God interacts with creation. We call the efforts we’ve made to describe that, “theology.” The Bible is the work of generations of theologically creative people engaged in that effort. As with other sacred scriptures, it defines “a trajectory of thought” about God. But each writer, compiler, editor and interpreter in the process, has done their work from within a particular “worldview.” I stand in their “trajectory of thought,” but I work from within my own “worldview.” I don’t think that God sits above a dome in the sky and opens the windows of heaven to make it rain, as the author of Noah’s Ark thought. So when I read that story I am entering into an ageless conversation, asking what “truth” it is pointing to and wrestling with it as I develop my own faithful response. I believe that conversation has led me into a deeper understanding of who God is and how God interacts with my life. God has revealed God’s self through an engagement with the text and so, yes, the Bible is the Word of God to me.

“Jesus is the Son of God.” What’s that about?

Short Answer: We came up with that in the 3^rd century. I’d put it very differently now.

Slightly Longer Answer: I suppose it means many things. The Son of God in the Bible generally, though not always, refers to the King of God’s people. King David was referred to as the Son of God. In an agricultural society, the character of the Son determines the viability and productivity of the estate. So the character of God’s Son sets in motion the productivity of the reign of God. When we talk about Jesus as God’s Son, we are in part, pointing to Jesus as the monarch whose character leads, guides and directs God’s reign of love in the world. We are all daughters and sons of God.

What do you mean, “Jesus died for my sins?”

Short Answer: I don’t know. I’m working on it.

Slightly Longer Answer: The challenge facing Jesus’ followers following his death and their experience of his resurrection was to discern the meaning behind the events. Historically the church developed three major metaphorical motifs in rising to that challenge: Christus Victor – A spiritual battle took place. Substitutionary Atonement – A debt was paid to set “sinful” people free. Moral Influence –  Seeing the faithfulness of Jesus on the cross calls us to greater faithfulness in love. All are derived from a worldview very different from our own. (We don’t believe blood has magical properties; nor that disease is possession by evil spirits – at least I don’t.) So how shall we describe the “truth” this story points to? I don’t know, but here is my current starting point: Perhaps the story points to a God whose love is so deep that we can say, “God would rather die than destroy you.”

What is essential to Christian doctrine?

Short Answer: The Law of Love. The question is, what kind of love?

Slightly Longer Answer: I contrast two Greek words for “love,” agape and eros. Eros sees value in an object and wants to enjoy it. Agape sees an object and seeks to put value into it. God is agape, always moving to put value into us. Loving is the creative act. Believe it or not, the 10 commandments are all about the movement of that creative love into the world — they are not rules you have to follow to get God to love you. (If God is love, God can’t not love.) We talk about two “tables” of the 10 commandments. Jesus summed them up this way: Love God. Love neighbor. There is a flow to it. For as we open our lives to the creative love of God, that love is formed in us and we can then express that love by creating value in the world around us. It is through receiving and sending God’s love that we live out our purpose.

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So does the church have anything left to offer? In the end, you’ll have to tell me. I’m available for the conversation.  Grace and peace, Rev. Sam Alexander