Standing Under the Scriptures
October 11, 2009

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this Sunday are (see note at bottom of this notice concerning the upcoming schedule):

Hebrews 3.1-6: As the claims in our Hebrews reading for last Sunday were christological, so the claims in our Hebrews reading for this Sunday are ecclesiological.

Mark 10.17-31: Jesus’ injunction to the rich salvation-seeker to dispose of all he had raised troubling questions for the disciples, and raises them also for us.

Last Sunday we were puzzled about the source of our readings, which mostly were not from the lectionary. Later I discovered that Alex, who was preaching, had chosen the Gospel reading, which was about child-like reception of the kingdom of God, to accord with the baptism at the 9 o’clock service. And the reading of Hebrews was cobbled from the Prayer Book and Revised Common lectionaries. Even so, the two can be seen to work well together.

To this end it might be well to begin with the Gospel reading, Mark 10.13-16. In brief, the disciples, reflecting their sharing in the world’s view of children as of little account, rebuke people for bringing them to Jesus to be touched by him. But he, here as so often, turns the world’s concept on its head: “Allow the children to come to me… for of such is the kingdom of God” (the King James Version here comes closest to the original Greek). And Jesus goes on to draw the corollary: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall [emphatically] not enter it.”

We discussed what aspects of a child Jesus would have had in mind. For from our children and from our recollections of our own early years, we knew that childhood is not entirely innocent. Openness and uncritical receptivity seemed to fill the bill. But this led to the question of what we are to do with our critical faculties. With regard at least to the gospel, are we simply to suppress them? But for those in professions which have demanded the development of their critical faculties---and all do to some extent---this would be a denial of an important, and valid, part of their identity. Moreover, our critical faculties are a gift from God. Thus to deny rather than develop them is to be lacking in the thankfulness that we owe him.

As a way out I proposed the following: Only through uncritical, childlike acceptance of the gospel and of the person of Christ does it become possible to exercise our critical faculties to the full. My formulation seemed to meet with some puzzlement. To overcome this I cited its affinity Karl Barth’s dictum, somewhere in his Church Dogmatics, that the only true freedom is freedom to serve the Lord. Even this did not seem to satisfy everyone. So we left the matter as something to ponder, as perhaps with the sound of one hand clapping.

The real problem, though, was my failure to explain the matter properly. An advantage, perhaps the main one, of these weekly notices is that they enable me to make up some part of my deficiencies as class leader. So I will now say that, although we may not have thought it this way, all our critical thinking has as its point of departure what we have accepted uncritically. It could not be otherwise; des Cartes to the contrary notwithstanding, we have to start with something from outside ourselves. The only real question is what we start with. Commonly, although we may not realize it, we take the preconceptions of our culture, the received wisdom of our time as our point of departure. But sooner or later this leads us into contradiction, effectively frustrating our critical faculties (cf. the outcome of supposedly scientific Marxism). Only the gospel, revelation as attested in Scripture, is free of this attribute, so as to leave full scope for our critical faculties. (Correspondingly, with regard to Barth’s dictum that the only true freedom is freedom to serve the Lord, we are necessarily in some sort of servitude, although this idea also may be novel to us. All other servitudes involve some sort of bondage. Thus only in serving the Lord can we find true fulfilment.) Jesus himself may be said to provide an instance of this thesis, indeed the prime instance, in his unique ability to see through the world’s concepts and to turn them on their heads. Still it remains for us to test it for ourselves.

And our first reading, from Hebrews, affords an occasion to do so. Hence we can say, as I did above, that the two passages work together. For Hebrews makes claims of the most sweeping sort about the nature and work of Christ---christological claims to use the jargon. But if we are uncritical in our acceptance of them, there will be scope for the employment of our critical faculties to the full, in working out their implications for ourselves and for the world. This is essentially what Barth did in the 14 volumes of his Church Dogmatics.

The reading was not continuous; we began, after some discussion of the letter’s intended audience, by looking at Hebrews 1.1-3. In these Jesus is identified as God’s Son, speaking God’s word to us as did the Old Testament prophets yet transcending them, as the heir of all things, through whom God created the world, as the reflection of God’s glory and the exact image of God’s nature, as upholding the universe by his power, as making purification for sins, and as having then “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Although in different language, these christological claims parallel those made in Colossians 115-20.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him… and in him all things hold together,,, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The foregoing relates to the divine side of Christ’s nature. We saw the second part of our Hebrews reading (2.14-18) as elaborating on his “making purification for sins” (above) and as, in doing so, setting forth the human side of his nature. For it speaks of him as sharing in the flesh and blood of the children, i.e. humanity, as being made like them in every respect. This is so that he may destroy the power of death “and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. This is so also that he might make expiation for the sins of the people. “For because he himself has suffered and been tempted [or tested], he is able to help those who are tempted/tested.”

Hebrews’ claims about either Christ’s divinity or his humanity may be shocking enough in themselves. But to make both together strains all credulity. Nevertheless, if instead of questioning them we accept them uncritically, we find that utterly amazing possibilities open up. In particular, the union of the divine and the human natures in the one Person, the coming of God to earth, is something that had never happened or even been dreamed of before. And its having happened makes creation, history, and our own lives take on a whole new aspect, in which they are seen as no longer shadowed by futility but instead imbued with promise.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted

NOTE: As some of you know, I am scheduled to preach Sunday, November15---for the first time at All Saints. So I can now do what I had long intended on such an occasion, namely discuss the readings for that Sunday in our class the previous Sunday and then base my sermon on the class discussion (also a first, I think, for All Saints). I will however be away the previous three Sundays on my annual visit to Britain. This means that the “previous Sunday” will be October 18. So we will then discuss the reading for November 15 (which I will have chosen).

The other question arising here is who will lead our class in my absence. For it is desirable that we not lose continuity. A class member has agreed to take one of those three Sundays. And he and I have decided on someone to take another Sunday (although we haven’t yet told her). But this leaves one Sunday still uncovered. Nobody should let lack of experience keep her/him from volunteering. Remember that when I began this series I had never before led a class.

Finally, also on October 18 I am to take the Rector’s Forum in place of Bishop Salmon, who will be away. And I will speak about my visit to Kinshasa in August for the installation of the Congo Church’s new archbishop against the background of the Congo Church’ story, one of the most remarkable missionary stories of the 20th century though little known. Please come, bearing in mind that global outreach is an integral aspect of standing under the Scriptures.