I have been thinking lately about one concept - the departing of the Christian faith from the Jewish faith. The relationship between what the first followers of Jesus thought of for themselves and how we see ourselves today.
One of the things that I am "stuck" on is the concept of how the imagine of God changed through the Old Testament to the New. How a God who chosen the Israelite as "his chosen people" and went so far as to send plaques to Egypt to prove his power and his people's place...who brought the walls of Jericho down without a fight and who favored one ethnicity in the early days of the Old Testament morphed into a God who gave to all who believe grace. Who humble walked amongst us to make all those who chose, chosen people. To me, it isn't surprising that the Hebrews were confused with Jesus and believed him to be speaking not of God's authority for although there world-view and view of God was expanding, Jesus was taking them to new levels.
If you look at the Bible, however as an evolving expression of the human experience of God, you begin to see how this change wasn't really so surprising. For as we as humans continue to live and experience the Holy, we are changed and forever shaped. For each of us the Holy is a bit different and some of us may be able to describe our God in beautiful language while others might only be able to describe a feeling. We all experience the divine in our own way and in our own time. If we were to write our own Gospel - or Good News about how God works in our lives, they would all be very different. Some vivid like dreams and others short poems...much like the Bible.
The other important lesson here is just how much the imagine of God changed as the perspectives changed - not only the individual human experience but as the human's world-view grew. I am thus struck to remember that there has been 2000 years since us and Christ.
That is right...a few thousand years separates us and the New Testament...this doesn't mean the New Testament isn't still the Word of God or worth anything but it does mean that imagine of God is most likely not the same imagine as those who wrote the Good News. Our experiences aren't even close to the life experiences of those who wrote the Testaments and further our world-view is ever changing.
We live in an area were we are using the internet to communicate instantly with people. We have portable phones that can fit in our pockets and do more then ever thought imaginable. We experience God in new ways every day and in our own individual lives vastly differently. So we need to recognize this and begin to lift up - the Good News According to ______ fill in the black with name.
In a way this blog, is my Good News how I experience God in my life. Think about that as you experience God, what would your Gospel look like?
In order to have true theological debate, in order to truly hash out some of the important topics of our times, we need to first recognize the Gospels of those around us and begin to listen to their own experiences and how they define God. We can't just throw Scripture at each other and expect that we are all on the "same page" when we are reading from different Gospels.
