Chapter Twelve looks anew at the ancient -- really ancient -- story of "creation" in the opening pages of the Bible. In contrast to a traditional reading of the story that points toward the complete "depravity" of humankind, Pagitt says that in "the fall" while our relationship with God and one another changed, our basic humanity did not. Still created "good," we can still "join in to the good things God is doing in the world. We are still capable of living as the children of God." (Page 136)
Thus, we are created "in the image of God to be God's partners in the world." Humanity is "inherently godly, rather than inherently depraved." As such, our purpose is to love, and to be loved. (Page 138)
Thus, he concludes, "the joy of this proper understanding [that we are godly, rather than depraved] is that we no longer have to feel ashamed of our humanity. It is not a sin to be alive." (Page 144)
Chapter Thirteen takes on the concept that God is our Judge. Christianity has used the language of the legal system to describe how God works: God give us laws, we break them and go before the Judge. A price is to be paid -- a fine, perhaps our life -- and Jesus steps in to pay it in our place. We walk out of the courtroom grateful to Jesus. But, says Pagitt, this distorts who God is, and elevates "the Law" above even God. God is subject to his own rules, so goes the argument.
Pagitt thinks that "sin" is real . . . and something to be death with in one's faith. But he calls for a faith that begins not with sin (as does the traditional, God-the-Judge theology of many forms of Christianity) but rather with God -- a merciful, loving, creative God who calls us to partner with God in renewing the world, in loving one another. (Page 156)
On sin: "Jesus cared about the sin in people's lives because sin kept them from being fully invested in life with God. Sin mattered because it was less than what God wanted for humanity." (Page 158) Sin is not breaking some code, the rules of God. And we don't need to be told what it is -- wee know that abuse and hatred, for example, are wrong. We know it is wrong because it brings disharmony into our relationships.
"Sin isn't a legal problem with God; it's a relationship problem with us." (Page 159) Judgement, then, is about restoration, reconciliation, redemption, renewal -- NOT about punishment.
Chapter Fourteen carries the idea of "sin" farther, to include Hope. The legal model of sin offers no hope. It is an unending cycle of sin, confession, forgiveness, and then sin again. The world is indeed rife with sin -- actions and attitudes that divide, that demonize, that kill. Christians don't pretend that all is well in the world. We see it, identify it, and then choose life, and choose hope that sin will not win out. That is the message of Jesus.
Why do we sin? That is, why do we so often seem to choose disintegration rather than reconciliation? Pagitt -- here wanting to incorporate the findings of science and medicine into faith -- says that sometimes there is a biological reason for our behaviors (Page 166) -- alcoholism is a good example. I personally think that fear motivates us to be less than we know we can be -- fear of ridicule, or losing something, of being seen as we are. Fear of "the other" surely is part of the worldwide divisions of race and religion.
Pagitt invites us to a faith that says, despite all evidence to the contrary, healing is yet possible, for ourselves, and for our world.
Chapter Fifteen reminds us that Jesus was indeed Jewish. And Chapter Sixteen continues to talk about Jesus in his Jewish context. He notes that the common idea of the "Messiah" to come would be a military figure -- God's warrior to carry on the war between good and evil. But Pagitt sees in the message of Jesus not violence, but peace. "The way of Jesus not just to shift the war motif from one kind of war to another, but to see Jesus as the ender of war. Period." (Page 191)
Jesus came in the spirt not of Joshua conquering the land, but Isaiah announcing justice for the poor -- a re-integration of society. To call people to be in partnership with God, to overcome evil not with more evil, but with good. The hope of faith affirms that in the end the good will prevail, even as in the resurrection the seeming defeat of Jesus was reversed.
Chapter Seventeen -- more about Jesus, this time focusing on the issue of the mix of humanity and divinity in the man Jesus. The paradox that is a great obstacle to faith for many -- How can a human being also be divine? -- is, says Pagitt, the fault of the Church's early adoption of the Greek view of reality. That view puts humanity and divinity at odds -- never the twain shall meet. But the Hebrew mind saw no such conflict. And that is what Pagitt calls us to consider. Using an image of St. Paul's, he wants us to see Jesus as the "second Adam." As the first Adam started disintegration, the second Adam begins re-integration.
"Jesus isn't a superhero, and he isn't just a great example." (Page 209) He is both Son of God and Son of Humanity. Jesus was saying to his followers, "This is what life with God looks like. This is it. And you can live this life too." (Page 211)
Chapter Eighteen, and the Last, is appropriately about Heaven. And it should come as no surprise that Pagitt takes issue with the usual, traditional idea that Jesus came to the world to save us, so that we can someday live in Paradise with him and all the other good people for eternity. (Current right-wing Fundamentalism adds the fun, and diabolical, twist that we good people -- no, the people who believe the right doctrines -- get to RULE over the rest of the earth, with force if necessary.)
For Pagitt the message of Jesus was all about today -- and how we live faithfully today. As Jesus famously said, "The kingdom of God is within you." That is, here and now, and more scandalously inside human beings. Pagitt: "Jesus was proclaiming a holistic reorganization of all that is and all that will be. He was bringing about a new kind of life that was meant to be lived out right away, right here, and forevermore." (Page 220)
Pagitt echoes some of Crossan's views on the kingdom, namely, that when Christians proclaimed the kingdom of God, they were uttering treason against the kingdom of Caesar. And when they said that "Jesus is Lord," they were also saying that "Caesar is NOT Lord." And that got them into trouble.
His conclusion is that understanding the "kingdom of God" not as a place to go someday, but a present reality within -- the presence of God to teach us, comfort us, chide us, and above all else go with us -- has revolutionized his faith, and has made "A Christianity Worth Believing."
No comments:
Post a Comment