The Camp Leader and the Cudgel
Introduction
If you've read any of these posts, you'll know that I've been inspired by a dream to discuss issues around reading the Bible. So far, each post has addressed some surface-level roadblocks when picking up God's word. This post will not be like the previous ones. It will be more of a theological reflection on how the big C church uses the Bible. So, if theology is not your thing, please feel free to tune out, but if you're interested and are daring to read anyway, hang on to your butt because we're going for a ride!
The Nebulous Nature of Dreams
The truth is, none of the entries I've written so far have really accomplished what I've tried to set out to communicate. They are, after all, based on a dream. We like to say our dreams could be sharing a more profound message, but in the end, they could just be plain old dreams. After I initially awoke from it, my first sense was that it wasn't directed at new Christians or nominal Christians but those who actively read and participate in ministry. For instance, the meeting, which was taking place as we were plummeting from the sky, was led by Chris Green, a pastor, and theologian, and I was once a pastor. Secondly, we were trying to solve a pressing issue, so it seemed we were in some leadership position. Then I pulled out the Bible for assistance, which Christian leaders do when we want God's guidance. So, why would he tell me to put it away and say, "people treat that as a spare tire"?
I think it's because dreams often depict what's happening in a person's sub-conscience. They can be a projection of how we feel about ourselves that is put on to another person. Dr. Green wasn't necessarily saying everyone else is treating as a spare tire but that I, the dreamer, was treating it like a spare tire. I found this out by trying to apply what I'll say next to the rest of Christianity.
Camps
I want to say that I don't think we as the Church use the Bible 100% the way God means us to use Scripture. I believe this simply because of how many factions exist within Christianity. These factions appear more and more evident as time goes on. When Christians are sloppy, we rally around a specific leader or set of leaders who institute a particular way of interpreting the Bible. Because we don't understand or aren't concerned with understanding power the way God would have us understand power, we give enormous amounts of authority to the people who lead our camps. Therefore, how our camp leader interprets the Bible becomes the gold standard rather than allowing for multifaceted and just as faithful interpretations. When this happens, the Bible becomes a cudgel wielded against both believer and unbeliever. A cudgel is a blunt instrument used to club an enemy to death. When the Bible is treated as a cudgel, it perverts the witness of the Scriptures.
The Church
I think that happens because we sometimes think of the Church poorly. One of the ways I've come to see the Church is that it is like a kaleidoscope. Each section is filled with different colors, but you can only see the brilliance of a kaleidoscope if you point it into the light. Only then can you experience how the different colors complement each other to form a beautiful pattern. We ask what light illuminates the Church, and I believe the answer is not what birthed the Church, but who birthed the Church? Christ did through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit must always be our lens when we look upon the diversity of the Church. If we look to Augustine, he says that the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. So, God is eternally existing in love, and since we have the Holy Spirit, the Church also has and should be operating in this divine love, and we can go to the Scriptures to see this. In 1 Corinthians, Paul recognizes that this love knits the people of God together through providing the Church with gifts from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives all of these gifts not to display one over another but to build the Church. Paul says earlier that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." He's saying that that type of knowledge inflates the ego, but often inflated things are hollow, but love has a structure.
A structure has different parts, and that's why in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Paul uses the analogy of a body to demonstrate this fact. The body can only be the body because it has all of these parts; when they work together, the body is healthy. No, each part doesn't do the same thing, but they're not meant to or designed to, but that doesn't make them any less important than the other parts. The same is true for the gifts and the Church; however, this is why Paul goes into what he does in chapter 13. We're only going to understand the importance of diversity in the Church when we're operating in love. Paul emphasizes love throughout that chapter and culminates with love, saying, "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Love is the greatest because it is the only one of the three that will exist when Christ returns. The reason for our faith and hope will be standing right before us so that we won't need those things, but God is love; God has always existed in love, so we will fully exist in God's love. At the same time, we have access to his love
now and the ability to operate in his love. That is what is meant to be led by the Spirit because, as Glenn Packiam
recently stated, the Holy Spirit leads in the way of Jesus.
We're All Weird
So, what am I saying here? I'm saying that when we as the big "c" church are busy taking potshots at one another, we become a sick body whose illness is caused by a lack of humility. The potshots go way beyond the accountability of passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 or voicing the Bible's hard truths to just downright degradation. When we continue to act that way, we become a church full of the Disney version of Judge Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where we demand accountability from everyone but ourselves. Or we become like Inspector Javert from Les Misérables, where we're so hellbent on enforcing the letter we miss the Spirit entirely and then self-destruct. Or we become religious loudmouths.
I think some parts of the Church have become so vocal with a harmful speech that they have pushed other biblical and historically orthodox Christians to the margins, like turning the Church into a high school cafeteria with the loudmouths making everyone else sit at the weird kids' lunch table. I think the truth is that we need all of these parts of the Church that are trying to be as faithful as possible to the biblical witness of Christ. We're all weird kids at the weird kids' lunch table because the cross of Christ presents such an alternative message than the world is used to; we have to accept that fact.
Conclusion
We may not get the Bible right 100% of the time, and we might be guilty of treating it as a spare tire, but we definitively harm our faith in Christ and the potential faith of others when we use Scripture as a cudgel to gain victory over our perceived enemies. There is more to faith than this. Jesus offers us life and life abundantly. It's not just relevant for the individual; it's appropriate for the life of the Church as well. Let us always press on to use Scripture in a way that points to the life that Christ promises.
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