FROM THE BOUNDARY

Last week I asked what, for you, was central to your Christian life. I acknowledged that all sorts of factors, some personal, some related to the tradition which has shaped your understanding, may affect your answer. I also suggested that, in principle, no one would be entitled to say your answer is ‘wrong’ UNLESS it is so at odds with what it is to be a ‘Christian’ – and that begs all the questions too – that you couldn’t possibly say ‘this is what is central for me’ and still claim to be one. I revealed that, for me, the Christian faith is about living, so far as I am able, the life (and death) of Jesus my Master as revealed in the Gospels and in my life’s experience. Remember: that, for me, is what it is to be a ‘Christian’ – and I’m sure it will raise some priestly eyebrows. But it’s not, in itself, what I regard as “central” to my faith. I’ll come to that.

Oddly enough, last week I chanced (really?) to chat with a lady on the ‘phone about a business matter. I found her very impressive indeed for all sorts of reasons. It caused me to ask her: “Where do you worship?” Her response went something like this: ‘Oh I’m not a regular churchgoer, though in fact I’m a Pentecostal. I try to live my life as Jesus would have wished even if that means changing my first responses to things.’ Was that a ‘chance’ meeting? For, of course, she was saying as I’ve suggested – that, for her, being a ‘Christian’ was about “living…the life…of Jesus”. Are we Christians if we live out the life of a Pharisee? What if we write to a Bishop (David Jenkins) and end our letter, because we disagree with him: “I hope you rot in hell (signed) A true Christian”?

I suggest above that what I’ve written about what it is to be a Christian might raise some priestly eyebrows. Well, I know it has! My best friend has said he’ll have to take me to task, that he’d better read me again, and that I might meet the same responses as I did following my words at the Pride March! “What about the atonement?” he asked. Well, what about it? It’s a theological construction. It may be something which is absolutely critical to us in our priestly life, but does it identify for us, albeit in a messy way, what it is to be a ‘Christian’ – that’s to say as something which stands outside what we know about Jesus from the Gospel accounts as he presented himself to those who heard him, and in our own life’s story? To put it another way: you can believe all the theology in the world and still be a Pharisee – and whatever else, that was NOT Jesus. And if, at root, it’s not our will to be like Him as best we can in our very human selves, so that He truly ‘defines’ us, what’s the point of it all?

For me, you see, the Word IS Jesus, the Way IS Jesus. He’s not locked up in creeds and catechisms. He’s not found only by cleverness, or through mere words, or through rites and ceremonies, or feasting and fasting. Indeed, no words can tell that which He is. He’s not about serving nagging rules. He’s not locked up in a box. He’s to be found in the temple, the market place, beneath a tree, in the company of children – anywhere. And he can be found by a genius or a madman, by a domestic worker, by a carpenter – anybody. I think of Him as the breath of my breath. In Rumi’s words, He thinks of you, not as a drop in the ocean, but as the ocean in a drop. What more do I need – or you? Yes: I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus my Master, my Brother, my Friend. Sure, He’s very human. Sure, He embodies the divine. He’s the fire which refines us into whom we truly are. And joy beyond joy, He calls us to journey with Him and touch all we meet with petals of blessings. If you will, call it all, with Thomas a Kempis, the ‘Imitation of Christ’. It’s the Christian ideal. Do we have that kind of courage? We’re going to need it. Surely, we’re not just paper Christians, are we?

Now I hope I’m not giving my best friend apoplexy. For of course he’s right. There’s much more to Christianity than I’ve suggested. My difficulty is in supposing that all
of that is necessary or indispensable, even though, say, the Gospels (hypothetically) were to portray Jesus as a Pharisee, a rules and regulations man, a ‘look down his nose’ man, a punitive, ‘do as you’re told’ man of false smiles and bowels of flint. Supposing that man was labelled “Messiah”, a “Lamb” who took away the “sin of the world”? Despite all the theological trappings we’ve cooked up, is that how we’d live out our identity as Christians? Would we follow Him then? I wouldn’t. I’d become a Buddhist. What about you?

Go safely, then – until the next time.

Journeying from the boundary: “Jesus makes us see that the Christian journey is simply about changing hearts – one’s own heart first” (Pope Francis).