Friday, January 26, 2018

Jews, Christians and their Bibles


Jews and Christians both have their own distinct bibles.  They interpret those scriptures in a variety of ways.  But on some matters, there is agreement.  

They do not worship their Bibles and they know their scriptures and traditions are not inerrant or infallible. 

As a boy attending Yeshiva, the Rabbis introduced me to these writings.  I was taught to interpret and wrestle with them.  I was taught the words and commandments of God were intended to transform us into healthy human beings.  I was taught that some of these texts could be incomplete or difficult to understand.  I was taught to argue with the stories to discover their possible meanings.  I was taught to listen and study the historical interpreters of scripture with an eye to where they were right and where they could be wrong.  I was taught to pay attention to the white spaces between the words.  I was taught to think not just to believe.

Let’s say this as bluntly as we can. The Bible is not God.  In places, it can tell us the truth about God and human beings.  Yes, we study our scriptures, but we are not obligated to obey everything they say.  When our texts point us to God, point us to living with courage and integrity, and caring for the neighbor, we respect and follow that scripture.  But, when the scripture does not point us in that direction we are obligated to argue with those texts and consider where they may be wrong.  

After all, some texts are descriptive while others are prescriptive.  Some texts describe what religious people practiced long ago.  Other texts prescribe how we ought to live our lives.  It is the ongoing work of Religious communities over the years to interpret, debate and determine which are which.  This emphasis on interpretation can be confusing and distressing, but better than blind following of the tradition.  To be clear, scripture and tradition are fine but not divine.  Let us respect and listen to the wisdom of our scriptures but not blindly follow what obviously belongs to the culture and practice of another era.  We are called upon to emulate their faith but not their cultural practices.

Our scriptures are rich and have much to teach us if we will let them speak and transform us.  The goal for Jews and Christians is to seriously engage their scriptures and traditions, grapple with them, figure out the best they can how to live as people of faith and character.  All the rest is commentary.






Friday, January 19, 2018

Seven Questions For God



Some years ago, in another life, I heard a sermon by a Lutheran theologian named George Aus at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.  Dr. Aus talked about a list of questions he had assembled that he would take with him when he died to present to the Divine authorities in the heavenly realms.

Recalling his sermon reminded me of an old Jewish tradition which says, when you arrive in the next world, they will not ask you whether you had faith or not; they will not ask you if you were good or bad; they will say to you, “You were alive all those years, what questions do you have?”  And woe to the person who has no questions.

In that spirit, I have been thinking about my own evolving questions.  I ask them not from pride or wanting to know what is none of my business, but merely things I wonder about as one religious human being going about his daily routines.  The questions are addressed directly to God, in no particular order, addressed with humility, awe and respect for the inscrutable mystery that is God.  

1.       Why all the secrecy and mystery?  Why make it so hard to see you and what you are doing?



2.       Are you actually at work in human history or is what happens every day what appears to happen, a combination of capricious laws of nature, ambiguous human decisions and chance?



3.       Do you favor one of the religions on earth or are each of the major religions a vehicle for addressing you and you addressing them?



4.       I understand giving people a measure of free will and all that, but why create human beings with the capacity for such horrific evil?



5.       As you forgive us for our sins, omissions and commissions, with all due respect, are we to forgive you for your ineffective, problematic or ambiguous ways of working in the world?



6.       If there is an afterlife, why must it be so mysterious and unknowable?



7.       Where were you during the Holocaust and where are you whenever and wherever people unjustly suffer absurd suffering, evil and death?



       Those of you who know me know I have been wrestling with these questions most of my life.   I have developed some responses, but they are all quite tentative. 

These questions are “in, with and under” faith.  People of faith cannot escape questioning what God is doing in this crazy, wonderful, problematic, mysterious planet floating and rotating in dark space.

Btw, how do your questions differ from mine?

Friday, January 5, 2018

The Truth of Things


I am a person of faith.  But I have close friends whom I respect who do not have faith.  They think the whole notion of God is absurd.  I hear and consider their rational questions and doubts.  But I grew up trusting there is a God at the heart of the universe that is for us and not against us. 

After being alive all these years, having read so many books, having had many restless nights, I continue to trust despite.  Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I find I still think behind all the religions, creeds and rituals, something is going on which convinces me, God is there, real and active in our world.

But why?  Why do I persist?  Why do some of you persist?  Something convinces us we are right.  Perhaps it is plain and unadulterated fear, or the way we were brought up, our scriptures, our religious traditions, experiences we have had, a religious leader or teacher, the structure of our brains, or just plain fear of death.  I want to know why we persist?   After the Holocaust, the ambiguities and contradictions of human and non-human nature, and all the everyday unjust senseless or meaningless injuries and deaths, why keep on talking about faith? 

For those of us who are religious we are convinced there is something more.  What is that something more?  We call it God.  Is there something there or do we just imagine what we want to imagine?  You know what I’m going to say.  Whatever trust we have in God, we must be ready to face the puzzling methodology of God and wrestle with the questions and mysteries at the heart of faith.

In the end, most people, whether they admit it or not, are aware of the contradictions and problems in being religious.  Faith is trusting without knowing for sure.  People who are religious, in the best sense, are not so because they are scared, feel alone, or are determined to be ignorant.  Most are religious because they are after the truth of things.  If we are wrong, so be it.  Yes, it could be a fool’s errand.  But we are beckoned to pursue the truth of things and there is nothing else we can do.