This weekend I attended Everything Must Change – an 11-city tour with Brian McLaren, Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, and Denise VanEck, as well as musicians and a host of sponsors and supporters (including us: Mars Hill Graduate School!). Good content. Good conversation. Good conviction.
Yesterday morning Brian was talking about how we understand God – in general, but specifically through the narrative of Scripture. He said something that I’m sure I’ve heard before and even understood, but I can’t get it out of my mind: It’s not so much that we see a reflection of God through Jesus; rather, it is that Jesus is the manifestation of God (my mangled paraphrase). Even as I type these words they don’t sound all that profound, but there was a way in which he said this – and then described it – that has shifted some of my thinking.
What if Jesus’ life – as told through the gospels – is the way for us to understand the character and nature of God? What if Jesus’ actions, behaviors, and teachings are how God has always interacted with God’s creation and people? What if we could read the New Testament, learn as much as possible about Jesus, and then have that be our interpretive lens for not only the Old Testament, but our day-to-day lives as well?
Still…this doesn’t sound as significant as I heard it. Let me try again:
I have to choose the story I am going to use as that which frames all of my understanding; the lens through which I reflect, understand, and respond. If Jesus is that story then that frames my story, Scripture’s story, history’s story, culture’s story. And that’s a different angle.
I’m not saying that I or any of us who know Jesus don’t hold this as our framing story or lens. I’m just saying that we don’t do it consistently – at least I don’t. I use Jesus as my understanding when I’m reading the New Testament but when I get to the Old Testament I’m more inclined to ask different questions about the nature and character of God. And when I look at my own life or the world around me, I am deluged with questions about God’s activity and presence – or seeming lack thereof; and again, God’s nature and character. What I’m wondering is if that need be. Not that I don’t continue to wonder and ask questions, but that I first look (again and again) at Jesus – as the manifestation of God – in all stories, all texts, my story and text.
Here’s what I heard as the subtext of Brian’s (now undoubtedly slaughtered) point: I have to know Jesus. I can’t see the gospels as one text in which I spend time. I have to see them as the text in which I spend time – on behalf of all the other texts.
My spiritual director once told me, “Ronna, you’ve done good, hard work on understanding and re-imagining who God is – in Scripture and in your own life. You’ve also can articulate and acknowledge many experiences that have helped you understand the active role of the Spirit in your life and how that is made manifest. The question for you now is about Jesus. You need to answer the question he asked: ‘Who do you say that I am?’”
Indeed. The answer to that question is more than a different angle. It changes everything.
Maybe that’s (at least in part) why Brian’s tour is called Everything Must Change. He’s right.
