What about Jesus?
You may have noted the conspicuous absence of Jesus in my previous post, though the ancient Galilean’s name appeared in the title. It’s time.
Our common political life in the United States is founded precisely on the absence of a monarch, substituting in a democracy (“rule by the people”) and a republic (“thing of the people”).
In the Christian faith we have a weird thing. We have a library of ancient documents (the “bible”) that in some way or another we consider authoritative for faith and ethics. But these documents also point Christians toward a monarch, Jesus the Christ, whose person forms the essential object of faith and life.
Most Christian congregations would not say that someone’s life with God depends on their confessing faith in the bible. They would say that faith in Jesus Christ confirms one’s life with God. But just as many would say that the bible is somehow essential to the Christian faith: that it is impossible to know or follow Christ as king without the bible.
In many discussions I listen to regarding the outworking of faith, I see a clear parallel between Americans working out how to interpret and follow the Constitution and Christians working out how to interpret and follow the bible. Folks want rules, and those rules must be based on some agreed-upon words. But agreeing on the words does not predict agreement on how those words will be interpreted.
When we claim the lordship of Jesus, though, we are going beyond the written words to a person. Discerning the relationship between the person of Christ (the second person of the Trinity) and the written words of the bible gives rise to the expansive literature we have on the inspiration and authority of the bible. We live in a tension between constitutionalism and monarchy.
It is interesting to me that many Americans in their political life are embracing a similar tension, perhaps for the first time in their lives. We love the Constitution, but we really want it to point us toward a single person who can fulfill our political dreams—someone who “alone can save you.” Texts do a great job of telling us what to do, but they don’t get anything done for us.
I really crave a snappy and proverbial ending to this thought. But I don’t have one. The cultural and political moment feels unfinished and uncertain, which may rob me of pithiness. Perhaps I am only called to issue a challenge to pay attention and see if these tensions are a reality for you. And if they are, test the spirits to see which are from God.
~ emrys
3 comments:
Tensions can be dealt with by strong political and church leadership. The weak separate themselves from working together politically and spiritually diminishing the teachings of the Bible from the pulpit.
To me, the American flag represents the freedoms our country was founded on and is symbolic of the sacrifices made to achieve those freedoms. We are here in our churches worshipping freely with joy because our forefathers addressed it with the First Amendment in the Constitution. We should celebrate our flag!
From Nancy Senti
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