Making the call

St. John's Seminary & School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota is running a new advertisement to attract prospective students.  The ad is at left.

If I didn't already have my professional degree, I would call them immediately.  This is my kind of place.  I think they've got it exactly right.  Learning theology is not the same as knowing God.  There are large differences between those two things.  Both may be necessary and while I admit they can be related toward a common endeavor, it is the former that is at the heart of parish ministry for me.

I was blessed with a remarkable education at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.  Yes, that school, the one many Episcopalians love to hate.  What I've grown to truly appreciate about the education I received is the ability to make theology practiceable.  I am what is called a practical theologian.  I am trained to turn what can be esoteric theological constructs into accessible faith practices.  My years of parish ministry have convinced me that if you cannot practice it, then it has no purpose.  So much of Christianity has become mind candy.  We've lost touch with the faith as a path to be walked, a way of life to be lived.

The only relevant church for me is the one that helps us to ask questions rather than to rehearse answers.  Our work is supposed to break down those false walls we've erected between the (so-called) sacred and profane, and to hold them in the creative tension that is already present.

I love this small excerpt from Dying Church, Living God by the late Chuck Meyer.

...the Bible is a strange collection of conflicting accounts from different traditions at differeing times in history, from different cities and different cultures.  Like other holy books, it serves up inconsistencies, different accounts of the same events, from the differing creation stories in Genesis to the differing admonitions of Jesus and Paul and Peter on various issues from divorce to the relationship between faith and works.  Although it can be argued that the current biblical canon was the result of a political and theological compromise worked out around 400 CE, it can also be argued that the document we have is exactly what God had in mind-- inconsistency.

What is the result of incongruent statements from different biblical figures?  The result is that we who are looking for certainty can't find it.  The result is that we are forced to talk, argue, exchange views, and ferret out the truth of the moment, knowing we may get more data tomorrow that would change that truth to a new one.  The result is that we are given a model of interacting with God and one another based on a dialogue rather than doctrine, collaboration rather than certainy, process rather than perfection-- quite a different model from the structured hierarchy of belief and personnel we have cemented into the current God-box.

During the drama around the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, columnist George Will of the Washington Post wrote about a conversation with an Episcopal bishop who said that he was tired of being asked "What is your opinion?  What matters," the bishop said, "is theology, not opinion." 

Where did we ever get the idea that theology is something other than opinion?

As we approach the next General Convention in a matter of mere weeks, I plead for us to get off our theological high horses and come down closer to where God lives.  Let's get real, get dirty with Jesus.

Just my $.02 on a stunningly beautiful Friday afternnoon in Phildelphia.

pax[+]

Comments

[Marie]

It's gorgeous here too. I love the part about breaking down barriers between sacred and profane. What a key point! I hope we can get real with Jesus. I fear that our institutions get in the way.

[Marie]

I keep thinking about this post. I'm helping with the delegation of youth from our diocese to General Convention. If you look at the materials that are available for young people to prepare for GC, they are all about church history and polity. Tell me, when did any of that ever matter one whit in doing God's work? Why would we pretend that it does? Can't we just be honest and say, here's how we get stuff done, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is, well, yes, preparing to serve.

[Tim]

I too believe the institution gets in the way. Especially when they confuse their theology with truth with a capital T. I really think it is a generational difference. Boomers still believe theology and absolute Truth are the same thing, while us Xers doubt any man or institution possesses absolute Truth, and we aren't even sure if there is one to possess in the first place...

...I guess I'm just starting to feel the Boomer-Xer generational tension more and more nowadays. It's nice to read the Xer perspective laid out so well in your words.