In two of the key songs of this past year in hit movies were very simple tunes. The movies were low budget and filmed quickly and without special effects or any enhancements. Juno and Once were about story. About things that happen in real life. Sure there have been other stories but these were different. Moral choices were prevalent in both films. "Anyone Else But You" and "Falling Slowly" are very simple songs, almost nursery rhyme simple. And people love them. I think it says something about this time and generation. It needs to be about story, simple and not complex. I think it needs to not be about words only but assimilation. Get people to be a part of the story quickly. Help them identify themselves with The Story. Instead of talking about sin, we need to begin to talk about life. Abundant life. It cannot be academic (and please don't react to that) but it needs to be learn-able. It needs to be about good news, in terms of hope, but it also needs to be about truth. We need to go back to Genesis and see the story without all the preconceived notions. It isn't about the argument whether it was six 24 hour days or evolution or young earth vs old earth. Let the story be told. It is a story about God and us. We need to take time in it.
I think we need to also reteach how to think. Some times we try to cram our square peg theology into lemniscate curve. It is important to have good theology, but good theology is not closed and tidy. There needs to be mystery and journey in it. A humility of seeing dimly helps to keep proper perspective. We have a bright group of young women and men on the horizon, but they don't have the same story that I grew up with. They aren't surrounded by a safe place to mention Jesus. Families are busy and it is about activities as much as it is about stuff. Not a lot of time to tell or hear stories.
Where do this generation learn the mechanics of community? Dinner table conversation is minimal. Learning how to listen and wait, reflect and consider, hearing and thinking through possibilities are often what is at that table. Moms and dads are busy, teens and children are over committed to music, sports, and studies. I was talking to a mom who said she is on the run from 2 until 7 getting her kids to and from places. Then get the kids fed, studies done and put to bed to wake up and get them off to school, pick them up and again, get them to their activities. Weekends are about travel sports, Sunday school is a moral activity. Just as soccer is a physical activity, and now they are equal in importance.
So where do they hear the story? Where do they understand and wrestle with the logos, ethos, and pathos of the stories of Old and New Testament? Where do they hear their father's or mother's testimony (story)? Where do they ask questions? How do they even learn to question? It is easy to teach theology, it is hard to have a theology. That takes relationship with God, so we need to be telling our stories.
This summer I am trying something different. We are telling the story of creation and trying to create places for questions so that the answers may have a place to nestle. We have tended to give answers when there wasn't questions asked. It takes more intelligence to ask questions than to teach answers. This isn't about a test next week, it is about living according to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Not by rules. Pavlov's dog learned quickly how to react to stimuli and consequence, but did it know how to create.
When I was in elementary school I asked the teacher why did I have to learn this arithmetic? He told me, "Next year you will be learning harder math that requires you to know this." "Yeah, but when will I..." "Sit down and do your work!" I checked out at that point, I needed to know the context of the information, not just the information. It needs to have a place in order for me to understand and participate in it.
Speakers are not going to teach or just download information but set up the conversations that will take place in small groups or cabin/church talks. They will be rattling the cage a bit, provoking people to think about where they get their ideas. A bit of the Socratic method to get them to delve a bit deeper than just regurgitate that which was given to them at some point in their lives.
I don't think it is about faith when you just have knowledge. It has to be applied to one's life. It has to affect the way that we walk. Like Jacob after the wrestling match, he became Israel. Faith is a bit of a dislocation or the hip, if you will.
6 comments:
Tony, I very much appreciate your comment. I believe we are linked by a few brilliant souls- Ms. Julie-O and Ms. Annie-B-Groves. Perhaps more, though I have heard your name in the buzz of ministry conversations, thoughts, and questions. So I am happy to be connected.
I love what you said about giving answers a place to nestle. Beautiful imagery. Although, in my ol' age I would say I am just on the cusp of the generation of Activity-injected- lives, there have been many a times where porch lights have been turned off on my inquiring soul. I am thankful to hear someone echo the ideas of seeing and telling the story of God, observing holistically, and finding solidarity in that.
Peace be your journey Tony- I as well, will be stopping by.
that'll preach.
not to stir the pot of the other posts, but strands of doctrine may appear to be equal to the vulgate. when we look at the vulgate in retrospect we view it as rather pompice, unless you are mel gibson, i think this perspective leads to the story and even makes the flannel board a little more appealing. but any flannel board separated from the spirit is rubbish.
I still like Mel.
"Faith is a bit of a dislocation or the hip, if you will."
Yeah. A bit.
Thanks for this.
This line made me smile: "We have tended to give answers when there wasn't questions asked." How true.
I agree that the faith we offer needs to be a narrative and lived. Church history has helped me a ton in seeing how my forebears did just that. The problem is that when we read those theologies later and divorce them from the stories that gave rise to the theologies. Luther wasn't intending to write something I would read in seminary centuries later, but to call the Church back to faithfulness. Not only can I learn from what Luther said, but how he went about addressing issues and crises in his day.
I think the Vulgate offers a great example. When Jerome translated it, the Vulgate offered people who couldn't read Greek and Hebrew an opportunity to read and hear Scripture in their own language, i.e., Latin. But Latin has died, is no longer the langua franca for really anyone, and thus the Vulgate's utility is limited now. When it came about, it was a great missional work.
For what it's worth, much to my surprise, I used algebra last month for the first time since college. I couldn't believe it.
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