One dream I have for a new community is that we will cultivate the skill of keeping the unity of the Spirit while navigating disagreement over significant theological issues, and first order moral concerns. I think it will be important from the beginning to have a bent towards not being anxious about our disagreements. Instead of anxiety I hope we will be centered on Jesus and the table fellowship to which he invites us and the whole world. So today I want to pitch how I think the Bible can be a huge help in keeping the unity of the Spirit especially when we disagree.
I have spent much of my adult life studying the Bible, and encountering Jesus in the Bible, and I see no sign that I will ever stop. In the future I will talk some more about coming at the Bible from a different angle than that taught at my seminary or within my previous denomination, but for the moment I wanted to focus on how the actual Bible we have may be a really key pointer in keeping the unity of the Spirit. It appears to me that there are points where there are discrepancies and disagreements within scripture. For much of my life these discrepancies and disagreements caused me a whole bunch of anxiety. I thought that these discrepancies and disagreements had to be harmonized or explained away, but now I am hopeful that the actual discrepancies, disagreements and different voices within scripture may actually be key pointers towards unity.
To get at what I am driving at, I would like you for a moment to think about this question. Has anyone ever posted something on social media - that you thought was just simply foolish, or perhaps even dangerous? What is the Biblical way to respond to the person who made the foolish post? Thankfully the Bible has clear teachings on this:
Proverbs 26: 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Now I'm sure that there are genre specific nuances that could harmonize and explain away the "apparent" contradiction between these two pieces of advice, (as there are harmonizing explanations for: the creation accounts; Jesus' genealogies; how many times and when the rooster crowed; when the fig tree wilted; How many Gaderene demoniacs? Did Satan or Yahweh incited David to take a census? (I would say this is not an insignificant Theological difference - Yahweh or Satan - it seems like it would be really important to be clear on this); when did Jesus cleanse the temple? (or where there two cleansings?); Who killed Goliath? Probably Paul and James were in some actual disagreement on faith and works ... In the past my go to response for any of these apparent contradictions or disagreements would have been to look for the harmonizing explanation, but I wonder if in the midst of my anxiety and harmonizing I missed something pretty important. In Proverbs 26:4 & 5 the author/editor/collector, inspired by the Holy Spirit, put together these two sayings, that seem at least to me to be giving two very different pieces of advice on FB interactions after somebody has made a foolish post, and they have lived together within the Bible with their different advice for over 2500 years.
I think wrestling with the actual text(s) that we actually have, and the actual tensions - in our actual communities, would give us important clues about what unity within diversity might look like. This would mean not rushing to soothe my or others anxiety and waiting long enough with the texts for the non-anxious presence of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the texts to take root in my heart and the heart of our community. As we wrestle with the texts we will trust that the Holy Spirit will hold us together even in disagreement - just as the text of the Bible has been held together with its disagreements over the centuries.
What do you think? Is the actual Bible an important clue to hanging together in disagreement? Am I being foolish? If so what would be the Biblical response to my folly?
I have spent much of my adult life studying the Bible, and encountering Jesus in the Bible, and I see no sign that I will ever stop. In the future I will talk some more about coming at the Bible from a different angle than that taught at my seminary or within my previous denomination, but for the moment I wanted to focus on how the actual Bible we have may be a really key pointer in keeping the unity of the Spirit. It appears to me that there are points where there are discrepancies and disagreements within scripture. For much of my life these discrepancies and disagreements caused me a whole bunch of anxiety. I thought that these discrepancies and disagreements had to be harmonized or explained away, but now I am hopeful that the actual discrepancies, disagreements and different voices within scripture may actually be key pointers towards unity.
To get at what I am driving at, I would like you for a moment to think about this question. Has anyone ever posted something on social media - that you thought was just simply foolish, or perhaps even dangerous? What is the Biblical way to respond to the person who made the foolish post? Thankfully the Bible has clear teachings on this:
Proverbs 26: 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Now I'm sure that there are genre specific nuances that could harmonize and explain away the "apparent" contradiction between these two pieces of advice, (as there are harmonizing explanations for: the creation accounts; Jesus' genealogies; how many times and when the rooster crowed; when the fig tree wilted; How many Gaderene demoniacs? Did Satan or Yahweh incited David to take a census? (I would say this is not an insignificant Theological difference - Yahweh or Satan - it seems like it would be really important to be clear on this); when did Jesus cleanse the temple? (or where there two cleansings?); Who killed Goliath? Probably Paul and James were in some actual disagreement on faith and works ... In the past my go to response for any of these apparent contradictions or disagreements would have been to look for the harmonizing explanation, but I wonder if in the midst of my anxiety and harmonizing I missed something pretty important. In Proverbs 26:4 & 5 the author/editor/collector, inspired by the Holy Spirit, put together these two sayings, that seem at least to me to be giving two very different pieces of advice on FB interactions after somebody has made a foolish post, and they have lived together within the Bible with their different advice for over 2500 years.
I think wrestling with the actual text(s) that we actually have, and the actual tensions - in our actual communities, would give us important clues about what unity within diversity might look like. This would mean not rushing to soothe my or others anxiety and waiting long enough with the texts for the non-anxious presence of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the texts to take root in my heart and the heart of our community. As we wrestle with the texts we will trust that the Holy Spirit will hold us together even in disagreement - just as the text of the Bible has been held together with its disagreements over the centuries.
What do you think? Is the actual Bible an important clue to hanging together in disagreement? Am I being foolish? If so what would be the Biblical response to my folly?
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