As is my custom, I am currently reading two books. I started reading both of them the same day a week or so ago. One is over 600 pages long, the other only 139 pages. However, in spite of the obvious disparity, I expect I will finish the “600 plus-er” first. Why? Well, for one reason the longer book is a large print version of a Tom Clancy novel. The other is a very technical, academic book with minute print. When reading the Jack Ryan Jr. novel I am having a difficult time setting the book down at the end of a chapter. The other book, “How (Not) to be Secular – Reading Charles Taylor” by James A. K. Smith, has my brain fried every 3-4 pages – so that it takes me 2-3 sittings just to get through a chapter.
Here is a quote from the later book: “Unhooked from the specifics of Christian doctrines and tethered to a more generic deistic god, the modern moral order is independent of any specific – and hence contestable – claims about this god. If the generic religion of the apologists is ‘independent from ecclesiastical or particular-doctrinal authority,’ then the state and political life can be similarly liberated … What we have, in other words, is the making of a ‘civil religion,’ rooted in a ‘natural’ religion, which can allegedly transcend denominational strife. (Welcome to America!) The ultimate and transcendent are retained but marginalized and made increasingly irrelevant. Our difference about the ultimate fade in comparison to the common project of pursuing the ‘order of mutual benefit’ … What emerges from this is what Taylor describes as ‘polite society,’ a new mode of self-sufficient sociality that becomes an end in itself.” (page 54)
That’s three or four mouthfuls for me. It comes from a chapter entitled “The Religious Path to Exclusive Humanism: From Deism to Atheism.” I am not even halfway through the book (so I have no idea what his conclusions will be), but the problem he seems to be pointing out is not always obvious to many Christians: We tend to be our own worst enemies!
Along a similar vein, the main suggestion I am making today is likely nowhere close to being obvious at this point. In fact, as I reread the first three paragraphs, it looks like I am heading in the opposite direction. So I better get to it quickly and put what is not so obvious right out there in black and white: KEEP IT SIMPLE, CHRISTIANS! I think this sounds better – and friendlier – than using the usual vernacular.
The Gospel … the Bible, for that matter … has basically a simple message. Oh, yes, there are some concepts that are complex, but often, the more one tries to explain them, the easier it is to get into trouble. And, as Charles Taylor (and James A. K. Smith) suggest, the more we try to make things understandable and logical, the more we open the door to deism, civil religion, and (think about it) being less Christian!
Perhaps a better – but not always obvious strategy – would be to simply tell the story (that is the Biblical narrative) without worrying about whether or not it makes initial sense to the logical mind. Leave the mystery as a mystery. Leave the miraculous, miraculous. Let God be God as he tells the story his way … admit that he is God and we are not … and let the Holy Spirit work the way he has promised to work: through Word and Sacrament.
Emails from my iPad automatically close with the same bottom line: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10.17) And, as I am sure you know, “By grace (we) have been saved though faith. And this is not (our) own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2.8-9) What is not always obvious is the fact that we are not saved by understanding the Biblical message, we are saved as the Holy Spirit creates/gifts faith in our hearts through the power of God’s Word … as Paul elsewhere reminds us: “the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1.16)
Allow me to emphasize my point with a question: What is the primary reason for attending a Bible study (or reading the Bible)? My answer to this question is not always obvious to everyone. First, let me tell you the wrong answer. The primary reason for attending a Bible class is not to learn more about the Bible or to have a better understanding of the Scriptures! The primary – and not always obvious reason – is to have the Holy Spirit at work through the power of the Word growing and reinforcing our faith – plain and simple. Learning and understanding are nice, but not essential.
The Bible is a story book. Now, don’t confuse this and claim I am calling it fiction. Its story is absolutely true (that’s not always obvious either). It is the true story of – as theologians refer to it – Heilsgeschichte! Or, using terms that most of us will be more comfortable with, the Bible is our “salvation story” or the “history of salvation.” There are many parts of the story I cannot put together. Others that leave me scratching my head. There are even places where my logical mind says, “This cannot be!”
In other words, how God thinks, works, and saves, is not always obvious! And it is surely a good thing that we are saved by grace through faith and that we don’t have to “lean on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3.5). Grace is amazing!