Real-world Faith

There are stories in the bible where the disciples just don’t get it!   They don’t understand what Jesus is trying to say.  He says he has to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die, and be raised on the third day.   “No!” they say.  Or… you gotta wonder if this is how the conversation sounded among his disciples when Jesus said something about the new kingdom of God coming: “Hey, you think he’ll pick me to be his Director of Doctrine when he gets to be in charge of the world?”   “No – he’ll pick ME!”  “Nu-uh, he’s picking ME!”   Then steps in Jesus… “Hey guys, what are you all talking about?”   “Uh… nothing!”    Really??    You guys SO don’t get it! 

The Gospels are full of the disciples just not getting what Jesus is trying to say.   What am I saying… the whole Bible is full of people just not getting this whole God-thing.   It seems these biblical characters are prone to misinterpreting or misconstruing the whole point God is trying to make.  

See, we readers have an advantage that the characters in the story just don’t have – we often have 1- a narrator to tell us what the “real” meaning is all about things (you know, a peek behind the curtain – “Oh, THAT’S what that means!”), and 2- we can always read to end and find out the real point God was trying to make.   These advantages don’t apply to the characters in the various stories though… they’re sort of stuck inside the story, and limited by chronology of the events as described.   And sometimes they look really bad.   

But that’s in the stories…   what about the “real world”?    In the real world, how do we know what Jesus or God might be calling us to?    In the real world, how do we know what Jesus (or God) might be asking of us?   In the real world…  how do we know?   I mean, really know?   There’s no narrator there to tell us, and we can’t read through to the end of the story.   How do we know?

And even worse, the bible doesn’t have every situation or every decision we might ever face all spelled out for us to just turn to and read.   Having trouble with your neighbors, the Wilsons?   Just turn to Isaiah 53:17, it’s all spelled out there what you have to do.   Find out a coworker is embezzling funds from the company?    Well, God had it all figured out ahead of time – all you have to do is look at The letter of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 5… your name is there, the company you work for is there, and what you have to do is spelled out for you.   You don’t have to think, or make any hard decisions or anything!

Of course “real life” is not like that.   So… how do we know what Jesus would do in the same situation we find ourselves in?    How many ideas are there out there of what Jesus would do or not do… what he would say or not say… or what he would be like or not like?  

Eminem had a song a number of years back with a line… “Will the real Slim Shady please stand up… please stand up.”   Remember the old game show “To tell The Truth”… (well, maybe you don’t, but maybe you’ve heard of it)… where there were three guests to ask questions of three panelists up front.   The panelists each purported to be experts in the same field, when in fact only one was the expert.  So, the other two were basically lying.   The guests were there to figure out who was telling the truth; who was the “real” police officer, or stunt man, or artist, etc.    And at the end of the show, they would find out.    the announcer would say… “Will the real stuntman please stand up?”

So, will the “real” Jesus please stand up?  It’ easy to tell in retrospect what Jesus would say or do.   Looking to the past, seems pretty easy.   Some examples:

In the 1860’s, would the real Jesus have been in favor of or against slavery?     Back in the 20’s, would the real Jesus have been in favor of, or against, giving women the right to vote?   Back in the 50’s and 60’s, would the real Jesus have been in favor of or against inter-racial marriage?    Now these are pretty easy ones… We can all agree on the answers to these questions (I assume).    Of course we know Jesus would have opposed slavery!  And of course Jesus would have allowed women to vote, and of course Jesus would have no problem with interracial marriage!   Of course!    

How do you know?   There’s no precedent in the bible for any of these?   In fact a biblical case can be made that none of these should be allowed.   And the biblical cases had been made at the time… to NOT allow any of these things!    And yet… we, today, think Jesus thinks (and thought in that time in history) like we do now.    

Jesus very specifically condemns divorce!  And if a divorced person re-married, they are committing adultery!     But how common divorce is today!   So common, we don’t even look twice about this.   Used to be, divorced women and men were limited in what they could do in church (assuming they were even allowed to be there at all after a divorce).  But today we not only have divorced and remarried Sunday School teachers, we also have divorced and remarried clergy.  Hell, we have divorced and remarried bishops!     Would Jesus allow divorce and remarriage?   Well, we know the answer to that one!   Oh well!

How do we know that the words coming out of Jesus’s mouth – words we think Jesus would have said in that situation – aren’t really our words?   How do we know these words aren’t really our words put into Jesus’s mouth?    

The problem is even more pronounced when we bring Jesus to our present world.   Have a look-see:  Would the “real” Jesus be for or against gay marriage?   Or ordaining gay people to ministry work?   I know two pastors:   Both have serous faiths!    Both are very biblically literate!    Both spend time in prayer and bible reading daily!     And they both ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum of this issue.  In fact one left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America because of the decision the church made to allow ordaining gay people.    And the other pastor didn’t.   And both of them base their decisions on biblical and faith reasoning.             

Would the “real” Jesus allow, limit, or prohibit immigration?   Would the “real” Jesus allow, limit, or prohibit refugees entrance to your country?    What would Jesus say about refugees from Syria or Iraq seeking sanctuary from war coming to the US, or Sweden, or Germany, or anywhere?    Would the “real” Jesus help or prevent Mexicans from coming across the border – for whatever reason?   Or would Jesus allow this for some reasons but not others?                 

Would the “real” Jesus be for or against capital punishment?    Would the “real” Jesus be for or against gun control?  Would Jesus consider defensive gun-use  –  gun-use to protect life and limb, as legitimate?   Would the “real” Jesus be liberal… in terms of fiscal policy, or politically, or socially… or conservative? 

So, you probably answered to yourself what you think Jesus’s position might be any of these situations.    Here’s another question…   ready…    How do you know?   How do you know you’re right?    How do you know you’re right about Jesus’s position on any of these?  

What’s the criteria you judge this by?   Well, how well do you know Jesus or God?    Is there a biblical perspective to this?   What’s the lens you look through to determine Jesus’s position on any particular situation?   Possibly it could be asking the question:  what are Jesus’s basic motivations?   What are God’s basic motivations?   Love?    Revenge?     Fear?   Respect?    Compassion?     Mercy?     Justice?  And what do you mean by “Justice”?   “It’s up to God to Judge” or “an eye for an eye”?    Every one of these appear as motivators in the bible.   So, which is the main motivator?   Is there a “main” one?  

The bible was written by people; people with varying degrees of maturity, life experience, psychological health, depth of vision, and political and theological agendas.   And all this shows up in the stories about the relationships between the people and their God.   

The joke is that God made us in His image… and we’ve been returning the favor ever since!    What we say about God says more about us than about God.    So the question is how do we work this?  In our world… in our lives?    How do we use faith to help us figure out the best answers to life’s challenges?   

Funny you should ask – there are 5 simple steps to discerning God’s will – all spelled out in my easy-to-follow CD, which I have for sale, just $19.95!     Jokes aside…  this kind of thing really isn’t easy.  You have to work at it.    It takes time to work through.   

What are the values expressed over and over in the bible stories?  You have to look, read, study.   My seminary Prophets professor used to say – “The bible does not reveal its secrets to disinterested passers-by.”      What are the values held by people of faith you respect – historical and present?   St.  Francis, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, Pope Francis, and others.

Remember the show Star Treck?   Remember the Prime Directive?   This was the value – the most basic value – upon which their whole mission was based…    Do not interfere in the cultures you find!   The irony was if this had been followed, there would have been no show!    Captain Kirk beams down on the planet, and well… he always found someone to fight, and a lady to kiss.    Interfering with their culture?   Maybe – on a small scale at least.                        

What’s the biblical or faith “Prime Directive”?    Is there one?  Is there more than one?  What are the Prime Directives in the story of our faith?      Mercy?  Compassion?   Humility?    Love?

Let’s get more basic than that – What is your view of the world?   Is the world a safe place for you?   How mature are you?  Because our maturity level has a tremendous impact on the world around us… and how we see it!     What is your view of God?   Because your view of God has an impact on how you see yourself, other people, events in life – particularly negative ones.      

Here’s what I see… God calling us, through the story, especially of Jesus, to live as new lives as we can!   To live lives of Grace, and Love and Peace, and Unity.   God is calling us to help bring to birth a new world!   But it’s hard.  It’s hard to feel like we’re a part of this wonderful new world being born when the sink is full of dirty dishes, and you’re stuck in traffic, and your project is late, you have to take the kids to their meeting, and… so on and so on.    And yet… in spite of all this – THIS is really where God dwells… in our normal everyday worlds – in the joys and the sorrows and the frustrations and the smiles and the busyness and the moments of peace.   Right there in the middle of it all… there’s God.    NOT asking us to be perfect!  NOT asking us to do what Jesus would do!    Because we’re not Jesus…   But asking us to do the best WE can…. Today!   And if we don’t make it so well today… well, guess what… there’s always tomorrow!         

So the question is not “What would Jesus do” because we really don’t know what Jesus would do.    The REAL Jesus that is.  We most definitely would know what the Jesus we think we know would do… but how funny, THAT Jesus thinks and speaks a lot like us.    The real question is… with God’s help… given our maturity and view on life, can we do the hard work needed to be better today than we were yesterday?   With God’s help, can we more seriously live our faith today than we did yesterday?     

Oh, and we won’t get it either, because – like the characters in the bible stories, our story isn’t finished yet.   There’s no narrator, and we can’t read on ahead.   So… we’ll just have to do the best we can!   But, like the stories… God still loves us anyway!   God’s still there with us anyway!  God’s still with us… anyway!    

Peace!