I know what you nee

"What you need to do is. . . " and I don't recall what followed because my brain shut down in resistance. I just don't like to be told how I feel, what I need, or what I should do. Who does? Even when I know that someone has more expertise than me I still resist. I cringe when my doctor says that I need more exercise. My inner rebel stands to attention when my diocese hands down the call to attend another workshop. I don't even like financial guidance from my pension fund. This presents a challenge to me as my role as a priest often calls me to point out the needs of others. Of course we followers of Christ are called to love our neighbor. We wrestle with how to meet the needs of others in a way that honors their dignity and enables them to thrive. There are other needs that the Church seeks to meet, and it is those needs that I wish to address.

My role as a priest and pastor gets challenged when we set about the work of planning activities, worship, and mission for the parish. As I meet with staff and committees we look at what has drawn folks in the past, and at things that just are not working. Again and again I have heard some well meaning parishioner say: "We should ask folks what they want." I have followed that line of thinking before and found it to be a frustrating path. I recall youth group meetings where we made a list of all the great activities kids wanted. (We did leave off the suggestion that "beer and strippers" would help the group grow.) We set about planning many of those activities, but most were scrubbed as participation dwindled. We provided what they said they wanted and it didn't seem to matter. Ski trips and lock-ins are fun, but are they truly what the Church is about?

As the Church, we know what people need. As a priest, I know what you need. Hold on, please don't shut down as I so often do. We hold that people need a relationship with Christ, that Christ called us to live that relationship in community, and that this relationship will transform us and our world. You need a relationship with Christ. You need a community that holds you accountable. You need the transforming love of Christ that will increase your love of the world.

We may want a congregation that gives us the music we like, entertains our kids, and has a pastor we can relate to. Those are not we need. I am challenged as those are some of the very things that I focus my concern on when considering congregational life. I worry about the numbers and try to think of flashy ways to draw people in. Yet I see every day that the people who are growing in commitment to Christ and the Church are not asking for those things. They are folks who have found real transformation by engaging in the life of the community. They have entered into worship as an experience with God even if they don't like a particular song or the sermon is kind of flat. They have built relationships over cups of mediocre coffee. They have found the love of Christ in authentic community.

So to my parishioners I want to apologize for trying to give you what you want. Such efforts have exhausted me and haven't provided what you need. I extend a challenge to my ordained brothers and sisters to step up and tell people what they need. It is the same thing we all need. We need that loving relationship with Christ. Whether we know it or not, it is what we truly desire.

The Bible, The Living Word, and Television

Skimming the "internets" I see that reality TV producer Mark Burnett has joined with his wife Roma Downey to produce The Bible beginning on 3/3/2013. This past week they authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which they propose that the Bible should be taught in public schools. I could entertain that idea, but something else caught my attention. 

After reading the WSJ article I saw something related on Huffington Post. This article noted that Burnett and Downey say in one place that they believe the Bible to be "the living word of God." I am familiar with this notion. I grew up in the world of conservative evangelical Christianity and my parents owned a Christian bookstore in our small Alabama town. The name of that store: The Living Word. We even had a hand painted sign with an open book right beside the name. As I read scripture over the years I began to realize that we had it all wrong. Calling the Bible "the living word" just isn't... well biblical. 

Hebrews 4:12 does say that "the word of God is living and active." Nothing in that verse and the surrounding verses says anything about the Bible or scripture. The word for "word" is the Greek  λόγος (logos). That word is not typically understood or translated as the written word. In the broader culture before the Christian scriptures were written, the term "logos" was used in philosophical circles to speak of a pattern of the universe. In the New Testament, the word "logos" most often refers to Jesus. Perhaps the most famous usage is John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The passage goes on to describe this word coming into world in human flesh. That Word in Christian teaching is Jesus. 

A quick search of the "interwebs" will reveal many Christians speaking of the Bible as the "living word." No doubt, many of us who believe feel the scripture has an authoritative and powerful influence in our lives. Most of us Christians have no problem declaring that the Bible is "the word of God." As people of faith, we see these scriptures witnessing to the "living word" which is Jesus Christ. Sometimes it takes faith to read scripture with those eyes. 

I point out this misunderstanding of the Bible as "the living word" because it is a distortion that takes away from faith. Understanding Jesus as "the living word" makes things messy. Then it is about relationship, and loving our neighbor. It means that the life and teaching of Jesus have something to say about how we read the whole of scripture. Considering the Bible to be the "living word" means that I can use it to mean what my group and I think it means to do what we want to do in the name of God. 

Of course, I have just given an example of how some of us interpret "the living word of God." I took that step because I believe that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey believe with other Christians that our faith is not in a book. Our faith is in a living God who we believe  to be revealed in Jesus Christ. We don't worship the book, but the God that it reveals to us. 

I hope to catch the series as it airs. I am a sucker for some good biblical storytelling. I hope it does well and that we can all understand how this important collection of literature has influenced our culture. Of course, I will be watching those stories from the perspective of someone who believes that God is "the living Word" active in us, and that will make a difference.