Wednesday, August 30, 2006
How Broad Is Your View?
A friend of mine once told me I had the best blog in the world for "politcally conservative, gradutate-trained-in-chemistry, partially-trained-in-seminary, environmental consultants." He is certain that every similar person in the world will find their way here and read judiciously and daily. Which probably explains my sitemeter numbers.
Self-deprecating humor aside, it is a reminder that each person has a very unique viewpoint on all sorts of levels. One of the tricks when you want everyone to share something, like say faith in Jesus Christ, is that your definition of "faith in Jesus Christ" has to be elastic enough to accomodate all those viewpoints, but not so elastic as to become something entirely different altogether. That's a pretty tricky proposition.
It is particularly tricky when we have poeple that spend their lives trying to figure out precisely what that definition is, in excruciating anf often mind-numbing detail. There is a tendency in such a pursuit to become rather narrow-minded, to even forget the necessity of elasticity in the defintion. I mean think about it, it is very hard to define something that is never exactly the same shape twice.
But again since we are talking about something we want everyone to share, we have to remember there are people in this world who will share it, but not give a moments thought to definitions or boundaries - they will be perfectly content with something so amorphous, so shapeless, as to be almost without meaning in any academic sense. And yet those people's live will be radically changed by this indefinable amorphous "whatever" to levels the more academic types may never even dream about.
Which is why it so important to remember that it is the object of faith that matters, not the faith itself. Jesus Christ was fully human, therefore He had shape and definition; He could be experienced, measured, bounded. Jesus Christ was also fully God - infinite, unimaginable, incomprehensible, unbounded and undefinable.
When the preacher says:
All must be subject to the God we can know but never understand.
Related Tags: knowledge, experience, faith, undertsanding, Jesus
Self-deprecating humor aside, it is a reminder that each person has a very unique viewpoint on all sorts of levels. One of the tricks when you want everyone to share something, like say faith in Jesus Christ, is that your definition of "faith in Jesus Christ" has to be elastic enough to accomodate all those viewpoints, but not so elastic as to become something entirely different altogether. That's a pretty tricky proposition.
It is particularly tricky when we have poeple that spend their lives trying to figure out precisely what that definition is, in excruciating anf often mind-numbing detail. There is a tendency in such a pursuit to become rather narrow-minded, to even forget the necessity of elasticity in the defintion. I mean think about it, it is very hard to define something that is never exactly the same shape twice.
But again since we are talking about something we want everyone to share, we have to remember there are people in this world who will share it, but not give a moments thought to definitions or boundaries - they will be perfectly content with something so amorphous, so shapeless, as to be almost without meaning in any academic sense. And yet those people's live will be radically changed by this indefinable amorphous "whatever" to levels the more academic types may never even dream about.
Which is why it so important to remember that it is the object of faith that matters, not the faith itself. Jesus Christ was fully human, therefore He had shape and definition; He could be experienced, measured, bounded. Jesus Christ was also fully God - infinite, unimaginable, incomprehensible, unbounded and undefinable.
When the preacher says:
Eccl 1:2-3 - "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?He is not telling us to quit trying, He is reminding us of the proper place of our effort. He reminds us that neither our experience nor our understanding are sufficient - and that they never can be.
All must be subject to the God we can know but never understand.
Related Tags: knowledge, experience, faith, undertsanding, Jesus
