5 July 2005

Today begins a series on Theology by Joseph Sittler in "Gravity and Grace."

I would suggest that Christian theology is an act of faith whereby we invest a theory of episodes, symbols, metaphors, and historical reality with the most comprehensive meaning and truth we can imagine.
The truth of the Christian faith is not severable from the meaning of the Christian faith. It is the meaningfulness of a story composed of both the horrors and the delights of human existence. That is fundamentally what the faithful, the church, will depend on for the the acceptance of its message. People will be attracted to or repelled by, find interesting or find dull, find relevant or find unintelligible, what we say and teach in exact relationship to its interpretive power.
That is the way Christian theology, in the long haul, has got to understand itself and defend itself. Jesus said that if you will obey and do the deeds, you will know the Spirit of truth (John 14:15-17). That means that the meaning appears only when the risk is taken: one cannot judge it from the outside.

A number of people speak of the risk involved in being a follower of Jesus. That risk comes with something as simple as speaking statements of faith. It is also what takes place when we begin to take the message and risk to make it a part of our own lives. When that takes place, we not only listen to the stories we contemplate what they will mean in the context of our own lives and then our lives become a part of that story. When I say I am a follower of Jesus, I not only think about what Jesus has done for me...I am a part of that life that Jesus brings into my life. In other words, I risk to follow Jesus into the lives of others just as Jesus would come. In that following I am involved in deeds that involve some risk. For example: when I reach out to be with those in this day that are like those with whom Jesus lived, I am stepping out contrary to the world's story and making this story meaningful for the very shaping of my life. In some ways, the way I interpret the story of Jesus becomes the way those stories become recognizable through my life.

Connection: It is good to ask "what does this mean." This is especially the case when we ask what something of the faith means within the context of my life today. That will be how we come to face the risk of the faith but also its joy.

God of Our Imagination, we do not see very far into what will be and we do not often walk along the path of your gracious will. In this day encourage us to risk and question and make this day an opportunity to do the faith. Amen.