So I just wanted you to know: I have five years left before retirement and
I have no intention of spending those years muting the radical claims of a truly progressive Christianity for safety's sake
In the face of the Fundamentalist distortion of Christianity into puritan and political (theocratic) absolutism, I intend
to propose a vital response. GOSPEL. God is love. Justice is not about retribution, but about renewal. Peace is a way of life.
Central to this project is a basic debate over the foundation of Christian
faith. Fundamentalists and conservatives believe that the Faith is basically set and immutable. It must respond to what is
happening in the world, sometimes even using new language, but the substance has been set once and for all by the Bible. Progressives
disagree. Not only does the response of Faith change as times change, but the Faith itself must adapt to new knowledge and
re-form itself We deny this dogmatically even while Church History demonstrates decisively that this reformulation of the
Faith itself has been going on since Day #1.
Rudolf Bultmann thought the origins of our problem began in the early centuries
of church history (e.g. St. Justin Martyr--165) when we began to turn myth into dogma. Bultmann defined dogma as the rationalization
of myth. Dogma conceptualizes and absolutizes myth. Myth is more like poetry and is, therefore, more flexible and fluid. Myth
is "...an expression of the conviction which cannot be expressed in rational terms, of man's obligation toward the transcendent
Good."
My life as a Christian is not about believing and obeying absolute dogmatic
truths by rote. My Christian life is about walking with Jesus, living into the parables, working out the meaning, day by day,
of Jesus' basic ideas like "God is love" or the Golden Rule or the nature of new-mindedness as a turning toward the neighbor,
the stranger, and even the enemy. The needs of other people set my agenda as much as the Bible does.
I love the Bible--this great poem of Israel's ongoing struggle with God and then, in the New
Testament, carried beyond Israel into all the world. But I
don't see the Bible as having said the last word (or the literally true and inerrant word) on any topic--not marriage, not
war, not whether women should be silent in church, not whether haircuts are legitimate, not whether Palestine
belongs only to Jews. This way leads to horror. Instead, I see the Bible starting a conversation with me about God and my
life--a conversation that sometimes becomes an argument. It is my faithfulness to the interchange that is fruitful, not my
submission to out-of-date (and sometimes even immoral) ideas.
The Good News is that God is not done with us, or with history. God is still
revealing God's self to the world. He invites me and you to be part of the process of discovery. She is giving birth every
day to new insights, new hopes, for the journey of faith. Our world--your life and my life--are venues for revelation just
as much as the lives of those who lived in the first century. Jesus needs my discipleship as much as he needed that of the
Twelve. He dreams his dreams of a world ruled by love, forgiveness, compassionate justice, and a passion for the common good.
He asks you and me to take the risks of preaching Good News in a time of fear and of drawing in. The Church must wake up and
rise up and join the adventures of the soul. We are needed!
