I’m trying to get back on track. I admit that this is not
easy because I have a couple of projects in the hopper as well as other things
that demand my time (like the screaming and crying children around my feet) and
a church that wants me to work more than one day a week. But I recognize that
my readership yearns and craves my wit and wisdom, so let me kick the children
aside, ignore my other responsibilities, and give you, the reader, your
necessary theosnob fix.
A local church in the neighborhood has a banner advertising
an Alpha series. Some of you may be familiar with the Alpha series. Some of you
may have even participated in this program and may now be in the Beta series
which is basically an Alpha detox.
I don’t care much for the series, but that is not the point
of this particular rant. What gets me is the promo on the banner:
Got
Questions? We’ve Got Answers.
This is the hook, the advertisement – that they have the
answers. Now I recognize that it is supposed to be answers to the basics of
Christianity, the simple questions like,
Who wrote the Bible?
What do you mean Jesus
is the Son of God and is God and is a man?
Why does it hurt when
I pee? (A Zappa reference is never out of style)
Did God hate those
children who were killed in Newton, CT?
Does God hate the
millions of Hindus in the world?
Why does everyone in
this church look the same?
Maybe you get the idea. The Alpha series is supposed to be
an introduction to Christianity, albeit a certain, specific, rigidly orthodox
understanding of Christianity, but an introduction nonetheless. The promo
doesn’t seem to suggest that this is what the church is offering. What the
promo seems to suggest is hubris.
Really, you have the answers? You have the key and the
solution to everything I have been wondering about, praying about, and staying
up late over? You mean all of those years at seminary, doctoral studies,
searching and wondering are wasted because you have the answers. Oh.
No, you don’t have the answers, because you don’t know what
you are talking about because you are talking about God. No one has the market
on God.
Now if I were to redesign the banner it would be something
along the lines:
Got
Questions? So do we, let’s talk.
Christianity is a journey of questions.
Scratch that.
Religion is a journey of questions.
Scratch that.
Life is a journey of questions.
Christianity offers not answers, but one way to engage and
wrestle with the questions. There are moments when we make truth-claims but
they are based on faith. We must make some kind of claims with a level of
assurance, but at the same time with the honest realization that we could be
wrong. That is a large part of the risk of religion (and why spirituality
without a community/tradition is wussy – no risk). We are in essence saying, we
don’t know, but we believe this and will now journey with that hope and belief.
Sure, I have answers about things like different views of
eschatology, different ways to engage scripture, and why Baptists are so
stubborn. Yet these answers are just options for the journey of questions. The
answers of Christianity are options for the journey of questions resting on
faith that we are walking in a way that will deepen our life and bring us
closer to God (and to believe in the existence of God is also a leap of faith).
Got questions? Me too. How about we sit down, have a slice
of this humble pie and talk.
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