Me and Jesus: Episode 5

I deliberately didn't read any Christian books while I was on retreat, though I did have one book of Jesus' words for emergencies.

I wanted to try to be with the divine through a window other than Jesus. Inevitably my mind came back to Jesus occasionally.

But I did have one insight. I was thinking about what it might mean to be a 'progressive' Christian. I suppose I've been getting caught up in the idea of being a 'follower' of a man limited to one period of history. What could that possibly mean?

But I've changed the image. What if, instead of me being a follower of Jesus, I imagine Jesus having pointed in a direction and walked some way in that direction. I have seen the way he walked and am walking in the same direction. What if being a Christian isn't walking behind Jesus, but keeping my eyes on the same point Jesus did, and walking in the same direction as Jesus. Being a Christian is caring about the same things Jesus did. It's not about mechanically imitating Jesus but moving, progressing, in the same direction as Jesus.

When I look at it this way I can see myself as being on the Way of Jesus while accepting Jesus as limited, and perhaps on some issues, plain wrong. But I can decide that the overall direction, the overall orientation of Jesus is worth following, which may not be the same thing as walking the same path.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Wow, Stephen. Just wow!

1:24 am

What does it mean to be non-creedal?

Steve Caldwell says "The problem here isn't humanism vs. theism for theist Unitarian Universalists -- it's the non-creedal nature of Unitarian Universalism" This is a good point. We need to think much more deeply about what it means to be a non-creedal religion. The first thing I want to say is that there is more than one possible understanding of non-creedalism. The Disciples of Christ are a non-creedal church, they say here : " Freedom of belief. Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit study and prayer, and are expected to extend that freedom to others." Quakers are also non-creedal and say here : Quakers have no set creed or dogma - that means we do not have any declared statements which you have to believe to be a Quaker. There are, however, some commonly held views which unite us. One accepted view is that th...

LOST and theology: who are the good guys?

***Spoiler alert*** I'm continuing some theological/philosophical reflections while re-watching the series LOST. One of the recurring themes in LOST is the idea of the "good guys" and the "bad guys." We start the series assuming the survivors (who are the main characters) are the "good guys" and the mysterious "Others" are definitely bad guys. But at the end of series 2 one of the main characters asks the Others, "Who are you people?" and they answer, in an extremely disturbing way, "We're the good guys." The series develops with a number of different factions appearing, "the people from the freighter" "the DHARMA initiative" as well as divisions among the original survivors. The question remains among all these complicated happenings "who really are the good guys?" I think one of the most significant lines in the series is an episode when Hurley is having a conversation with ...

Is humanism theologically tolerant?

OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...

Reignite

Search This Blog