By Roland Wrinkle,
In order to get an undergraduate degree in political science, I had to learn the four rules of physics. (Presumably, in the event I failed to become a city councilman, I could always be a rocket scientist.) In order to continue enjoying the privilege of basic training in the army, I had to memorize the Eleven General Orders. (Including saluting everything the wind blew by.) In order to get a law degree, I had to be educated on the 380 Rules of Civil Procedure. (Presumably because…. well, I still don’t understand why.) I considered all of this to be a curious and wholly unnecessary burden. That is, until I read the Old Testament and all the rules that Second Temple Jews (i.e. first century Jews, like Jesus) had to learn and follow. It wasn’t just the 1,500 years old, ten stone-emblazoned commandments. (Including, “Thou shall stop trying to keep up with the Jones.”) All of the “Great Cloud of Witnesses” from Moses of Sinai to Joseph of Nazareth were taught and were supposed to follow no less than 613 rules fondly referred to as the Halakha. I didn’t become a politician, physicist or career soldier—I sure wasn’t going to become a rabbi.
Then I read the New Testament and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. There was only one rule, i.e. follow Jesus, 1. Jesus wasn’t big on teaching his disciples a bunch of codes, regulations and statutes. Instead, he asked them (and us) to follow him. He said, “Come follow me” 43 times and implied it fifty times more. The prophet Micah saw this coming from a mile away: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (6.8). Jesus didn’t supplant the ten commandments or the 613 laws; he didn’t replace them; he didn’t declare them obsolete. He fulfilled them.
Jesus didn’t round up his posse of fishers of humans (and convince them to forfeit their livelihoods, their families and, eventually, their lives) by having them memorize a catechism, creed or preformulated set of beliefs. No. He did it by tersely saying, “Come, follow me” over and over and over again. But where’s he going? Where is it that he’s leading us? Where are we going to wind up? Right through this life (with all of its soaring joys and bottomless sorrows) straight to the gates of the Kingdom of God in New Creation.I sometimes wear a nifty tee shirt quizzically announcing that, “Jesus Is My Savior, Not My Religion.” I think the saying is attributable to Brady Weldon. In any event, I agree with Weldon when he comments:
The essential destination of the Christian faith isn’t a what but who, and the true test of faith is not knowledge based. The true test of faith is a revelation, and relationship, test. A relationship with God is the fulfilling of the Law, according to Jesus. The moral law was written on tablets of stone. But Jesus rolled that stone away, didn’t He? The question I am pondering is how can “belief” in all the right things produce such a lifeless church? Shouldn’t it produce just the opposite? Paul put his finger on the connection between sterile orthodoxy and a lifeless spirit: “…for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” …. The modern church has an attitude of principles rather than a relational spirit. Principles of belief have choked the life out of the Spirit in the life of faith. We have even managed to make Jesus into a principle, an answer to a certain question: “Christ is the answer.” (emphasis added).
If my car sported a bumper sicker, I would have Barbara Brown Taylor write it: “The poets began drifting away from churches as the jurists grew louder and more insistent.” But if we follow a person–and not a religion or a set of espoused beliefs–can we trust the person we’re following? I think it all depends on whether Jesus was actually bodily resurrected from the dead. I am convinced that he was. And Paul (being a really smart lawyer) agrees with me: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.For since death came through a man,the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits;then, when he comes,those who belong to him.” (1 Cor 15). Reciting a church-endorsed or formulated set of beliefs based on ancient creeds developed 1,700 years ago to resolve 1,700-year-old debates is not, in my judgment, what the Christian Faith is all about. Neither professions of beliefs, nor public confessions of endorsed tenants, nor following rules and principles (no mater how fundamental) are going to lead to the Kingdom God promised Abraham. Only faithfully and tenaciously following the heels of the sandals attached to the feet of the living Christ can do that.
1 Of course, as it turns out, in order to follow Jesus, you necessarily have to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and“Love your neighbor as yourself.” This turned out to be a much tougher slog and, at times, it elusively appears much easier to just follow a gaggle of rules. I’m fine with not eating shrimp and not committing murder, but loving those who persecute me presents a serious challenge. However, that is, has been and will be, a topic for another day.