I want to participate in the High Sierra Semester because I’m addicted to nature. Ever since I was young, keeping me inside proved rather challenging, and even before I entertained any kind of thoughts oriented outside of the typical all-consuming “me, me, me!” (A reality I am daily trying to shrink and shift out of), I can remember having this mysterious feeling that there was something different about the great outdoors. Like for some reason I felt more alive and more myself under open skies, or looking at glorious scenery, a beautiful sunset, or experiencing the pounding of waves, or just watching the way the rain comes down. I now recognize that “something different” as the very fact that praise is inherent in creation. It’s the very fact that I am found by a holy and transcendent God, whose glory is made evident throughout creation. And it’s obvious whether you’ve read Psalm 8 or not - we tell the glory of God by our very existence. It’s completely unavoidable. It’s just up to us to choose whether we will amplify and be moved by it or not.
It’s become a habit of mine ever since gaining the knowledge of His transcendence, to discover and rediscover God’s greatness by living with eyes wide open to see the imprint of the Creator in creation – from the most mundane parts of it to those that leave you gasping for air, because it never fails to bring me back to life. It’s at times like these, when I know beyond a doubt that I am found by the living God that my insides swell with devotion and my heart erupts with thankfulness. A thankfulness that reminds me who to praise, and in doing so, it brings me to an awareness of who I am, in light of who He is that is sometimes so present and vivid that it is impossible to contain. Surely this is a truth that goes beyond creation alone, but through creation it became clear to me that the best thing to do for Him is to embrace what he does for us.
So all that is just to say I am way stoked on the idea of living in the High Sierras for a semester. And from talking with High Sierra Alums on campus, I can’t think of any better way to study than by getting away from the business of life here in LA. Also, I’ve only heard great things about Dave Williams(Dr. Baloian dubbing him the best kept secret at APU), and knowing the Bobby Duke will be there next semester –I’m left with no reason why not to go.
2. What does it mean to be a Christian Scholar?
The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.
–Soren Kierkegaard
First off I think this quote is hilarious, and secondly, it profoundly affected me over the past year because at the time I came upon it, it completely resonated with my soul as I was just began to seriously question what it would look like if we decided to really follow Jesus. It all started after hearing a friend tell me with great intensity and sincerity in his eyes that he’d given up Christianity to do just that, follow the way of the cross. At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure what a devoted Christian even looked like. So I searched all over to find a Christian in my life and shortly thereafter it almost began to seem like sometime back we had largely stopped living Christianity and started studying it.
Even as this underlying, not-so-beautiful truth of Christian scholarship was being made know to me, I too found myself becoming a victim of Christian Scholarship as I began bible and Christian thought classes for the first time. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but both of my professors for these classes at some point in time confessed how good of a thing it is that we students don’t have the opportunity to follow them home and see how they live because they quite frankly “suck at living out” what they know as the way of Christ. (No knock on my profs. It’s not like I’m exempt from this condition either)
So in regards of Kierkegaard’s quote, I’m not sure I totally agree with his belief that it is directly the church’s invention for the means of continuing our un-sacrificial way of life, but I understand what he’s getting at. Moreover, I believe there is a whole lot of truth in it, and it might just go something like this. . .
Christian Scholarship is a necessary and inherently good thing. I mean, what are we without knowledge of God and his ways? The problem is that ultimately, God isn’t concerned with what we know; he’s concerned with how we live. The scriptures call this true worship and we hear a whisper of this in Romans 2:13 where it is said that it is not those who hear and therefore know the law that will be considered righteous, but those who do it. Considering this, the problem with Christian scholarship is that it so often develops a separation between belief and action, as the pursuit of God-wisdom somehow seems to appease the conscience that knows we will be held accountable according to our understanding of Gods purposes (Luke 12:47).
. . . And then I wonder why we even want to know and understand so much because we will never know enough and what we do know will unclear and half-baked at best. Meanwhile we can’t fulfill the simplest of commands and love God and neighbor to their fullness. Why not just focus on that and nothing else?
Maybe more often than not, a Christian scholar is someone that’s obsessed with comfort.
3. What makes Christian Community unique?
I believe the only thing that makes Christian community unique is the cross. Thoughtless, I know, but when it comes down to it, I really think it is the only defining aspect. I mean, name any and every value or characteristic of Christian community, whether it be the economics, forgiveness, love, compassion, freedom, laughter, acceptance, or whatever else, and you’re sure to find other communities that fully embrace the same. On the flip side, name any negative and dark aspect that is technically not suppose to be part of Christian community as though it’s only associated with others, and you’re sure to find it if you look hard enough.
Community survives on love. And eventually love requires forgiveness, which as we all know can get rather tough at times. Without these interdependent things of love and forgiveness, community dies. And without a collective hope in something greater, the death of love eventually follows. Still, Christian community isn’t unique in this framework that collectively focuses beyond self. In fact, there are loads of faith communities that believe in something or someone greater. And even though I’m not educated on world religions, I imagine a few of them also have a God that functions much like the God of the bible and loves his people.
So what then, if anything, really makes Christian community unique? It’s the terribly mysterious beauty of the cross - a symbol of torture, signifying that God became man (something totally unique to Christianity), lived a rather peculiar life, died in a particularly unpleasant way, and forgave his executioners. The implications of such are deep enough for a scholar to drown in, yet shallow enough for a child to wade. It is in the magnitude of this love,the death of Christ that goes beyond all reason, that Christian community becomes unique because no other community has so great a love that enables them to truly love each other and therefore, truly function as a community.
"Christian Scholarship is a necessary and inherently good thing. I mean, what are we without knowledge of God and his ways? The problem is that ultimately, God isn’t concerned with what we know; he’s concerned with how we live. The scriptures call this true worship and we hear a whisper of this in Romans 2:13 where it is said that it is not those who hear and therefore know the law that will be considered righteous, but those who do it. Considering this, the problem with Christian scholarship is that it so often develops a separation between belief and action, as the pursuit of God-wisdom somehow seems to appease the conscience that knows we will be held accountable according to our understanding of Gods purposes (Luke 12:47)."
ReplyDeleteI think that you're right, this "learning, doing & living" partnership is the most important thing that Christ followers are called to work out. With you, I think this is what true Christian scholarship entails. It would be nice if it was all linear: get the knowledge about one new thing, go practice doing it for awhile, and then live it flawlessly for the rest of our life. That kind of growth sounds ideal to me - always upward. But at least since the Fall, that doesn't seem to be the way it works. So we're stuck with spurts of head knowledge that leave us giddy with glimpses of God's grace - and our potential - only to fall flat on our faces when we go out to "effortlessly" do - let alone flawlessly live - these new exciting truths. After a few faceplants in the dust, its easy to say, "Forget this learning. I might as well spend the rest of my life trying to do one or two things right." Perhaps God calls some to that; but it seems that a good portion of scripture begs us to keep growing; to create a cycle of "learn, do, live" even when its lots messier than a spiral staircase to perfection; to stretch and grow and repent and repeat and eventually look back and see some growth - at least in a few areas. The challenge for many of us is to not become complacent or proud or discouraged - and those can pile up with amazing rapidity. With you, I think that the greatest problem with Christian scholarship comes when we think that because we can understand and articulate a point of Christian life that we have attained the goal. If we don't demand of ourselves to go try to live it out, then we're missing the whole point of studying the Jesus way. Universities and Biblical studies programs by definition have to work at dumping a lot of head knowledge into a persons mind in a relatively short time. I suppose this creates an imbalance in knowing, doing & living. Should they teach less? Should the whole western system of education be done away with? Other people get to deal with those issues, but my prayer is that you and I will learn enough mentally to always keep us humble and hopeful, to watch for those things that the Holy Spirit prompts us to make our current "doing and living" points, and to live in that generous space where we forgive others and ourselves while we aggressively push forward to new heigthts of truly being Christian. Love you, Dad