This week some more thoughts about actions in the New Year…

A good friend sent me a note about my “Another Voice” post of last week:

“Most of our words are too hollow for conveying the meaning of all that is rushing us along. For the sake of loving our grandchildren, I hope we can find, in one another’s voices, the new words that are beacons for digging through the rubble of what is happening, for sustaining life when we find it, and bringing new hope– hand to hand– for personal wholeness and social cohesion where the old civilization has crumbled once again.”

Our language is important and meaningful language springs from thoughtful observations about meaningful life experiences.

I have seven observations and questions:

 

• 1 The historical Jesus, whose Hebrew name was Yeshua, belonged to the Hebrew faith tradition and had a keen knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. He did not establish a new religion. He did not set up a church. His disciples worked out those things later. Jesus lived and called people to a new way of life. His early followers were called “followers of the Way” because the early Jesus movement was known as “The Way” (Acts 9:2; Acts 24:14). The name “Christianity” did not occur until Antioch, several years after Jesus’ resurrection. (Acts 11:27).

— Thought-starter: How do we live and promote the Way of Jesus today? How can we best live and describe it? How can we really inspire and motivate people? Are so many of our traditional words too hollow? Why are so many people dropping out of Christianity? While Christianity is currently the predominant religion in Latin America, Europe, Canada and the United States, the religion is declining in many of these areas, particularly in Western Europe, North America, and Oceania.

• 2 Historically, in Jesus’ days a rabbi would begin to take on students at the age of 30. It was at the age of 30 that Jesus, we believe, began his public ministry. Jesus’ disciples were not a group of middle-aged men but a group of young men and women, probably under the age of eighteen and some perhaps as young as 15. They were inspired by his example, teaching, and wisdom.

— Thought-starter: Where do young men and women today get their Christian inspiration? What do we need to do? Whose wisdom do they admire today? Do we understand their life experiences and their language? How can we speak meaningfully to them about Jesus?

• 3 As the post-Resurrection community of Jesus’ disciples and followers began to grow, non-Hebrew members also joined.

— Thought-starter: How do we welcome God-seekers today – young and old — especially those turned-off by organized religion?

• 4 Post-Resurrection followers of Jesus had growing concern about passing on the heritage of Jesus the Christ to future generations. This called for religious structuring: the composition of the Gospels AND the formation of Christian faith communities with their own rituals, symbols, and leadership.

— Thought-starter: What kinds of institutional structuring and re-structuring do we need today, especially in view of institutional misogyny, clericalism, and doctrinal rigidity? Is it helpful, for example, to say priests can bless same-sex couples but that their sexual expression, according to the Catholic Catechism is still “intrinsically disordered”? Why not simply acknowledge that same sex unions can indeed be healthy marriages?

• 5 In the earliest Christian communities men and women held leadership roles and presided at celebrations of Eucharist. At first there was no ordination. No separate clergy. Later ordination was introduced, not to transfer some kind of sacramental power but for quality control. Only qualified men and women could lead Christian communities.

— Thought-starter: How do we provide quality-controlled Christian leadership today? Should we have annual performance appraisals for clergy and bishops? And if they don’t pass? Should parish councils interview candidates and select their own pastors?

• 6 Religion is not faith. Religion is a system of beliefs, rituals, and symbols designed to help people understand their faith experience. We use religion. We don’t worship it. Religion is healthy when it points to the Sacred. It is unhealthy when it only points to itself not to the Sacred.

—Thought starter: Are our religious words, rituals, and symbols pointing people to the Sacred? How should they be adapted today?

• 7 What about our official statements of belief? Our creeds? The Nicene Creed, is accepted as authoritative by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant churches. It was promulgated – at the insistence of Constantine, who was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 CE — at the Council of Nicaea (325). Curiously, the Nicene Creed says nothing about what Jesus had taught, beyond the idea that God is a Father. It says nothing about loving one another, about compassion, or forgiveness, or helping the poor and needy, or renouncing violence, or building bridges with one’s enemies. Thanks to Constantine and his Council of Nicaea, institutional Christianity shifted its identity focus from correct Christian conduct to doctrinal fidelity and institutional obedience. It was indeed a major shift.

—Thought starter: How do we make a changed institutional focus? A focus on Jesus-style Christian conduct? Is it time for a new statement of belief? This may take some time yet for the institutional churches, but it will happen. Right now, however, how about gathering a group of friends and writing your own creed? I once asked a group of my university students to do that. The results were amazing and deeply moving. Much better than what Constantine’s fourth century bishops came up with.

Jack