Why We Need a New Theology
It should be obvious from reading any of this site that I believe a great hoax has been perpetrated on all us Christians by the church. In my own awkward way I've tried, using multiple examples and scenarios, to show that there never was nor is there one true creed of the church. Throughout the centuries the church has changed its beliefs to either gain acceptance or power or control. This is why the Fundamentalists err. Their goal is to recover the "original" and "pure" religion of God that was corrupted through the ages. But this is a false goal. There never was a "pure" religion; there never was a foundation to recover. All they are doing is grabbing an arbitrary (and inconsistent) snapshot of the way God's people worshiped him. What is the truth then? Perhaps a story will help.
When I was a child I always asked the wrong questions, and my parents were often amused by this. Once we were out driving though the fields of Pennsylvania and we encountered a new freeway being constructed. The road started in a field and connected up with the road we were on. "Is this the start of the roads?" I asked my Dad. He didn't understand my question. I had reasoned that everything has a start, and since this road "began" in a field it must be the start of the roads. There has to be a first road, a beginning road, the road from which all others lead off from, right? Another way to examine this idea is to look at a globe and ask, where does it begin? Well, it's a sphere, there is no beginning. A piece of paper has an "edge" and you can argue whether one edge or the other is the "beginning" but at least the question makes some kind of sense. If you've ever printed an envelope in a laser printer, you understand how important it is to figure out "which edge goes up". But a globe has no edge and thus no start. The roads are a vast interconnected network. They, likewise, have no "beginning", no "edge" as it were.
And this is how it is with God. People who try to define one true Creed ignore the blatant fact that the bible itself portrays no one true creed. Just look at how the "truth" in the bible changes through the years. Polygamy? Ok in one era, not ok in another. Slavery? Ok in the bible, not ok today. Marriage? Arranged in the bible, free choice today. Kings? Obeyed in the bible, rebelled against in America. Kosher meat? Illegal in Acts, ok today. Women as possessions? Ok in the bible, not ok today. The Ten Commandments? Seriously, do you really want to be put in jail for coveting? Coveting is not stealing, it's just wanting. Dear God, if coveting were illegal in America how could we have all those ads for new cars on TV? The whole economy would collapse if America obeyed the Ten Commandments. Trust me, even if you think you do, you do not want the Ten Commandments made into law. But isn't it the "truth"? That's like asking if there's a first road or where the edge of a sphere is. You're framing the question incorrectly, and that is why you get the wrong answer.
Let me ask you this: what is the truth about you? Is it the list of knowledge that you have and perhaps your likes and dislikes? Is it a bunch of measurements of height and hair color and manner of dress? Is that you? No, of course it isn't. You are a person. You don't know anything about a person without interacting with her. You can know some facts about her, but you cannot know her.
Likewise, the truth about God is the interaction between us and God. And I say "interaction" to emphasize that it is a living process, not a dead record written on sheep's skin. When God wanted to represent himself in the clearest way he sent Jesus, a person. He did not send a prophecy or a text or a pronouncement or fire or wind. He sent a person. God is a person and so the truth about God is not an object or a text, but an interaction with that person. Just as I cannot know you without interacting with you, I cannot know God without interacting with God.
The problem is, interacting with God is suicide. No, really. Knowing God wipes away any sort of selfishness or arrogance we might have. Think you're hot stuff? Really? God stands outside of time and created all of space-time for his pleasure. Do that much? Truly interacting with God is a frightening thing, and most people shy away from it. So the church steps in and says, "Well, God is a scary thing. Why don't you come to God through us? We'll make him quite safe for you." And so the church becomes the priest, the mediator, between you and God. It's all there in Exodus 19. We ask for it so that we don't have to face God ourselves. In exchange for our obedience and loyalty the church will intervene between us and God. They will determine what is the truth and we just have to parrot it. No thinking required, and more importantly, no relationship with God required. The church does everything for us.
Church history is a cycle of people coming face to face with God (revival), realizing what it means and asking for a mediator (ritual), and losing sight of God (retreat). Then the cycle repeats. My goal is to break this cycle, because it's been going on for far too long. There's no need for it. God never wanted us to have a mediator. Like it or not, one day we will stand naked before God and no church will be there to coddle us. I used to laugh when ministers would describe heaven. It always sounded like one of their church services extended forever. Such people are clueless; ignore them.
Interacting with God is nothing like church. The church makes everything easy; God makes things difficult. The church draws clear lines; God made the universe fuzzy at small scales. The church likes conformity; God loves diversity. The church wants order and regularity; God loves chaos. When John said "God is love" one of the things he was pointing to was how irrational God can be. We all know love is irrational. I drive my single friends crazy when they ask me how you know when he or she is "the one". I always reply, "You just do." Love is crazy. God is crazy. If you've ever had that insane, illogical love that makes no sense, you understand what a relationship with God is like. This kind of relationship is anathema to the church, because it cannot be mediated, printed in a bulletin and done over again for the evening service.
Life is messy; God is messy. But messy is where the fun is. We need a theology of messy. Have you ever been in a forest? The tangle of vines and underbrush and fallen trees. True chaos, but so alive! Dead branches lie on top of young saplings. Animals make nests in the dead leaves. Trees fall across the trail. The church wants theology to be an orchard: orderly, productive, mechanistic. God wants theology to be a forest. After all, men make orchards but God makes forests.
In the next article I'll discuss what a messy theology might look like, and how we can live in a relationship with God without mediation.
