Does 2 + 2 really = 4?
ok, here's something for whoever looks at this thing to chew on - for at least a moment i hope. i'm really big on the whole concept of incarnational living. no, incarnational is not a word in the dictionary, but it's an idea that is changing the way i view what it means to be a christian.
we live in a church culture that has for decades tried to prove the validity and truth of the bible through objective, scientific methods. we have built large mounds of evidence from anywhere we can find it in order to convince everyone around us that everything in the bible is true. and we have done the same thing for all of our doctrinal minutiae. in the end we have a church that is fragmented beyond description - but fortunately, however, each of the individuals in the thousands of different denominations we have in the church know they are right about everything they believe and they are willing to separate with other christians at the drop of a hat over something that has nothing to do with loving one another. this is of course the problem: loving one another at all costs as jesus loves us is not important to us. being in covenant with one another as god covenanted with us is not important. there are far bigger issues at hand. things like, the style of music we worship god with, how we teach on tithing or not tithing, whether we believe that drinking alcohol is permitted for christians, how we specifically define and believe in the trinity, what we specifically believe about the hypostatic union, etc., etc., etc., etc....
yet we "evangelize" people by telling them they can have reconciliation with god. we tell them they can know the truth about god. we tell them they can become a part of a loving community. yet in our current state, how in the world does any of our talk make sense? we speak of reconciliation, but we are fragmented. we speak of a perfect god's love for imperfect us, but his church of imperfect people can't love one another. we tell them we know the truth, but which truth are we talking about? is it the baptist, foursquare, presbyterian, catholic or methodist truth they can know? since we ourselves are so entirely black and white, someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right. so which denomination is right? which truth are we giving them? can we see that this is the religious equivalent of telling our kids to never smoke while we light up the cigarette in our mouth?
it seems to me our mounds of evidence pointing to the historical validity of the bible and the correctness of our myriad of doctrines are blinding us from the very thing that god has set up to expand his kingdom. i must say here and now that god can and does do as he pleases. he uses humanity and his church in spite of our deficiencies. and even when we are operating in ways that are moving towards a healthy methodology, it is still his grace that is ultimately the power in his church. but i believe god desires to use us not in spite of our deficiencies but because of who we are becoming in him - because of who he has made us to be. jesus has given us a new nature - his nature. our identity is his identity. when we live outside of that identity, we live inauthentically. he created his church not to COME UP WITH mounds of evidence that validate him in history, but to BE his presence in the world around us. life in jesus is a life of faith in community. it's a life of growing in the love for one another that jesus came to earth and modeled. we can never find all the evidence to prove everything we believe about everything in the bible, but that isn't the point. when we look at jesus' life we observe how to live. regardless of your philosophical prowess or interest, everyone can see how he lived. if we have a humble desire to, we all have the ability to observe jesus' life in the bible and then learn how to treat the people in our lives in a loving manner. we look at jesus, and we CHOOSE to love. that's incarnational, and it all needs to start with the body of christ.
so what does the question, "does 2 + 2 really = 4" have to do with incarnational life? i hope it already makes sense. the abstract concept of mathematics means little until it connects with humanity in a tangible way. how would you explain the meaning of 2 + 2 = 4? as a concept, it really means hardly anything. it's two quantities represented by symbols coming together and turning into a new whole, represented by another symbol. that's great. there sure is potential there for something i'm sure, but it's entirely abstract. but what happens when we go to build a house? what happens when we want to measure two different quantities to put in a recipe? what happens when i want to balance my checkbook? and the list goes on and on. all of a sudden mathematics has connected with us in a tangible sense...mathematics has become meaningful.
i'm not really that mathematically proficient any longer, and i could really care less if you try to prove to me on an abstract level that 2 + 2 really does = 4. i would challenge and question you simply because it's fun. by the way, that is a very irritating character trait i have. but build me something using mathematics, and i will be captivated.
in a sense, jesus' life is the house of god - to use the earlier illustration. jesus didn't just sit up in heaven yelling down abstract truths he demanded his creation to simply believe in. he stepped out of a perfect existence into utter chaos to demonstrate his love. he gave everything he could to bring us into his presence for eternity. god connected with humanity - all of humanity - in a tangible way. he stepped out of abstraction and became meaningful to his creation (and please understand that any articulation i could use here is the most drastic understatement i could write, for there are no words to adequately describe god's meaning to humanity). jesus gave up everything to be in community with those who betrayed him. with this in mind, how is it possible for one person to ever feel justified in separating with another person?
incarnational life is bringing jesus' presence into the various spaces of our lives. instead of heaping our piles of evidence regarding the abstract on the people in our lives, it is doing our best to shine the light of his love on them in a way that makes a connection inside of them. it's being the sound that resonates inside all of his creation to some degree. in a very real sense, we were created to be jesus to the world. not to go around proving we are right about everything we believe - which is impossible anyway - but to love everyone in our presence with the humility and gentleness that jesus has created inside of us. each of our doctrines hold within them a divine meaning - an incarnational reality - for the way we live out our lives in community with one another. the evidence we seek to prove the validity of jesus is not found in our mounds and mounds of abstract proof about the bible. jesus' presence is displayed through the incarnational lives his children choose to live from day to day. in this place, the abstract becomes meaningful. in this place, god becomes meaningful to a world weary from the inertia of intellectual abstraction.
we live in a church culture that has for decades tried to prove the validity and truth of the bible through objective, scientific methods. we have built large mounds of evidence from anywhere we can find it in order to convince everyone around us that everything in the bible is true. and we have done the same thing for all of our doctrinal minutiae. in the end we have a church that is fragmented beyond description - but fortunately, however, each of the individuals in the thousands of different denominations we have in the church know they are right about everything they believe and they are willing to separate with other christians at the drop of a hat over something that has nothing to do with loving one another. this is of course the problem: loving one another at all costs as jesus loves us is not important to us. being in covenant with one another as god covenanted with us is not important. there are far bigger issues at hand. things like, the style of music we worship god with, how we teach on tithing or not tithing, whether we believe that drinking alcohol is permitted for christians, how we specifically define and believe in the trinity, what we specifically believe about the hypostatic union, etc., etc., etc., etc....
yet we "evangelize" people by telling them they can have reconciliation with god. we tell them they can know the truth about god. we tell them they can become a part of a loving community. yet in our current state, how in the world does any of our talk make sense? we speak of reconciliation, but we are fragmented. we speak of a perfect god's love for imperfect us, but his church of imperfect people can't love one another. we tell them we know the truth, but which truth are we talking about? is it the baptist, foursquare, presbyterian, catholic or methodist truth they can know? since we ourselves are so entirely black and white, someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right. so which denomination is right? which truth are we giving them? can we see that this is the religious equivalent of telling our kids to never smoke while we light up the cigarette in our mouth?
it seems to me our mounds of evidence pointing to the historical validity of the bible and the correctness of our myriad of doctrines are blinding us from the very thing that god has set up to expand his kingdom. i must say here and now that god can and does do as he pleases. he uses humanity and his church in spite of our deficiencies. and even when we are operating in ways that are moving towards a healthy methodology, it is still his grace that is ultimately the power in his church. but i believe god desires to use us not in spite of our deficiencies but because of who we are becoming in him - because of who he has made us to be. jesus has given us a new nature - his nature. our identity is his identity. when we live outside of that identity, we live inauthentically. he created his church not to COME UP WITH mounds of evidence that validate him in history, but to BE his presence in the world around us. life in jesus is a life of faith in community. it's a life of growing in the love for one another that jesus came to earth and modeled. we can never find all the evidence to prove everything we believe about everything in the bible, but that isn't the point. when we look at jesus' life we observe how to live. regardless of your philosophical prowess or interest, everyone can see how he lived. if we have a humble desire to, we all have the ability to observe jesus' life in the bible and then learn how to treat the people in our lives in a loving manner. we look at jesus, and we CHOOSE to love. that's incarnational, and it all needs to start with the body of christ.
so what does the question, "does 2 + 2 really = 4" have to do with incarnational life? i hope it already makes sense. the abstract concept of mathematics means little until it connects with humanity in a tangible way. how would you explain the meaning of 2 + 2 = 4? as a concept, it really means hardly anything. it's two quantities represented by symbols coming together and turning into a new whole, represented by another symbol. that's great. there sure is potential there for something i'm sure, but it's entirely abstract. but what happens when we go to build a house? what happens when we want to measure two different quantities to put in a recipe? what happens when i want to balance my checkbook? and the list goes on and on. all of a sudden mathematics has connected with us in a tangible sense...mathematics has become meaningful.
i'm not really that mathematically proficient any longer, and i could really care less if you try to prove to me on an abstract level that 2 + 2 really does = 4. i would challenge and question you simply because it's fun. by the way, that is a very irritating character trait i have. but build me something using mathematics, and i will be captivated.
in a sense, jesus' life is the house of god - to use the earlier illustration. jesus didn't just sit up in heaven yelling down abstract truths he demanded his creation to simply believe in. he stepped out of a perfect existence into utter chaos to demonstrate his love. he gave everything he could to bring us into his presence for eternity. god connected with humanity - all of humanity - in a tangible way. he stepped out of abstraction and became meaningful to his creation (and please understand that any articulation i could use here is the most drastic understatement i could write, for there are no words to adequately describe god's meaning to humanity). jesus gave up everything to be in community with those who betrayed him. with this in mind, how is it possible for one person to ever feel justified in separating with another person?
incarnational life is bringing jesus' presence into the various spaces of our lives. instead of heaping our piles of evidence regarding the abstract on the people in our lives, it is doing our best to shine the light of his love on them in a way that makes a connection inside of them. it's being the sound that resonates inside all of his creation to some degree. in a very real sense, we were created to be jesus to the world. not to go around proving we are right about everything we believe - which is impossible anyway - but to love everyone in our presence with the humility and gentleness that jesus has created inside of us. each of our doctrines hold within them a divine meaning - an incarnational reality - for the way we live out our lives in community with one another. the evidence we seek to prove the validity of jesus is not found in our mounds and mounds of abstract proof about the bible. jesus' presence is displayed through the incarnational lives his children choose to live from day to day. in this place, the abstract becomes meaningful. in this place, god becomes meaningful to a world weary from the inertia of intellectual abstraction.
posted by bl_nd m_c at
11:21 AM
2 Comments:
Hey mic,
I like what you have to say. I am reminded again that Jesus essentially came down, and put a community together. He invested three years of ministry in a bunch of misfits, but through them transformed the world with a new community.
He didn't teach theological bullet points--he didn't even write one thing! He left that up to others. What he did do was to take a bunch of diverse, screwed up, doubting people, and forged them into a truly unstoppable team--as Miller says, motivated by his love for them, not out of fear or duty.
So what have we done? What you said.
By
Clint Heacock, at 2:12 AM
thanks for the response clint. i'm tempted to say, "we've got to become the church we wish to see in the world." then i remember that there are a lot of really rigid, antagonistic, and fearful people doing just that. i guess there is really nothing we can do about that except live jesus' life in a way that makes his love tangible. may god use us as a conduit for an expanded understanding of what it means to be his family.
By
bl_nd m_c, at 11:51 AM
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