A few weeks ago, my wife began to put together a song titled "People of the Fence." It is an allegory about the relationship between God and we the church.
The song tells how God has a path for us and alongside he put up a fence, a simple fence, to keep us from loosing our way. The problem is that we see the fence and begin to believe it is our job to fix the fence or make it better so that no harm might come our way. Instead of journeying down the path toward the One who loves us best, we spend our time building bigger walls and mending fences.
Now I must admit I've done my fair share of wall building and the like in the name of God. I have built my walls of theological superiority and intellectual curiosity to stand against the tides of secularism on one hand, and fundamentalism on the other. I have worked hard at developing my skills, and I can look back to remember how I far too frequently won the day.
Yet is that what God desires we spend our time doing? We fight for prayer in the schools but vote against giving them the tax base they need to do their job. We protest the failure to post the 10 commandments in some obscure court room and yet we lie and cheat on our taxes. We go to our Bible-believing churches on Sunday, only to exit condemning those sinners who did not gather alongside us. We have done well at building walls but wasn't Jesus about building bridges?
Over the past few weeks, I have experienced what it is like when people construct a theological wall declaring me to be the outsider. Many who argue for the truth of the whole Bible have chosen to disassociate from our fellowship. Yet did they come and have a conversation or allow us to bid them farewell? No. They are right and we are wrong, and so I suppose there is no need for further conversation.
As a Lutheran Christian I was taught that the Incarnate Word (Jesus) is the lens through which we read the written Word (Bible). If that is so, then we read the bible always through the promise of God's salvation and his desire for inclusion. As we see in the Book of Acts, this witness of Jesus caused Peter and others in the early church to rethink scripture, tradition, and identity. In Acts 11 we see Peter defending his eating with the Pagans because of the Spirit not the Scriptures. Thank goodness for this stand, because without it we all would still be pagans.
I for one believe that the Gospel is intended to liberate and free. I hope that in that spirit we will realize that we are free to leave our fences and join Jesus in his mission to build bridges as we continue on this journey with and to God. The bible is worthy of our reflection, study, and discussion, but it is not God. It is God's choice to reveal himself through the Bible thus providing us a roadmap for the journey ahead. More importantly, however, he has given us Jesus & the Holy Spirit to be more than a map, but a living presence, a guide, to direct our journey. Thank goodness.
Peace.
