One of the things that make little children cute is their innocense. They have an outlook that is unencumbered by "knowledge" that so often takes the lustre off of wonderment. I recall the occasion when I was in 3rd grade that I first learned where babies come from. I, up to that point, had acquired some information about a certain behavior that "naughty" people did that was represented by a certain four letter word, but had no clue that it had anything to do with reproduction. It upset me to no end when a friend said my mom and dad had "done it" or I wouldn't have been born. I laid in bed crying that night as I considered the horrible prospect. Dad was cool in the way he helped me process that information from a biblical perspective and give it a positive, wholesome spin. Still, that passage of discovery and maturity, took away from me some of the magic and mystery about life that I had enjoyed up to the moment (though it did open the door to some enjoyable moments in my future).
I think about such milestones of learning on the journey toward adulthood when I read what Jesus said about children and his kingdom. "Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'" He made a similar point when conversing with Nicodemus as recorded in John 3. Jesus' assertion that being "born again" was the only way Nicodemus could "see the kingdom of God" was another way of saying childlikeness is essential for kingdom participation, as in the Matthew 18 passage above.
It would be equally absurd to think Jesus was requiring Nicodemus to regress to the point of going back into his mother's womb, or that I am required to delete from my understanding essential information like the facts of life before either of us can enter God's kingdom. So what was the point Jesus was making? The key phrase is humbling oneself. Jesus' disciples were keen to know the path to status in the kingdom. Jesus called a child heretofore excluded from their conversation, placed him front and center, and answered that it would be the kind of humility displayed by this child who was being asked to stand in front of a bunch of grown men that leads to greatness in God's kingdom. This child was just a little person rolling along in life not encumbered by philosophizing quests for greatness--blissfully unaware of the political scheming and self-agrandizing shenanigans that many adults get into. Much of this stuff characterizes our religious endeavors, things like striving, posturing and approval seeking.
I think Jesus was trying to get us to understand that kingdom greatness comes more readily to those who are oblivious to such things and are just happily and humbly "playing" in the playground of life.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
HAPPILY UNCERTAIN
How's this for a quote? "There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns--the ones we don't know we don't know" (Donald Rumsfeld as quoted by Evan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Fisher in Time, January 29, 2007, p.142). Huh?
It may come as a surprize that some pretty significant Bible characters said essentially the same thing. Isaiah quoted God as saying: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Jesus told his disciples: "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear..." Speaking of events they were anticiapting about his kingdom, he also told them matter of factly, "It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority." St. Paul echoed Isaiah's words and wrote to the Romans, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!" He also reminded the Corinthians that, "For now we see in a mirror dimly... now I know in part..." And, John agreed, stating, "what we will be has not yet been made known."
The trick is keeping humble enough to remember that "we don't know what we don't know." Our tendency, instead, is to take pride in things on which we think we have certainty. Most of us have constructed sheltering systems of thought and belief in which we hide to shield us from "unknown unknowns" and, in effect, deny their existence. These shelters, be they creeds, systematic theologies, political views, or the traditions that have been passed down to us, tend to make us very suspicious of and closed to anything new. My own formal training as a Bible scholar and pastor was designed to prepare me to defend what we "knew" to be true and ready to win the argument against any suggestions to the contrary. All questions had specific "correct" answers. Historically, people have been literally put to death for suggesting that something everybody "knew" to be true was not true--things like the earth isn't flat or the sun doesn't orbit around the earth.
As a friend of mine stated at breakfast this morning, "Faith is the flower that can only grow out of the soil of doubt." In other words, the faith that connects us with the unknowable (God) is not so much about being certain what we know, but, like the little child, being okay for now with with what we don't or can't know. Study, inquiry, searching, evolving opinion and even doubt can be evidence of blossoming faith. Dogmatism, rigidity and opinionatedness, on the other hand, tend to be counterproductive to faith and can be dangerous. It is people with this mindset that fly airplanes into buildings and burn dissenters at the stake.
Given the contrast, I've decided to be happily uncertain.
It may come as a surprize that some pretty significant Bible characters said essentially the same thing. Isaiah quoted God as saying: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Jesus told his disciples: "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear..." Speaking of events they were anticiapting about his kingdom, he also told them matter of factly, "It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority." St. Paul echoed Isaiah's words and wrote to the Romans, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!" He also reminded the Corinthians that, "For now we see in a mirror dimly... now I know in part..." And, John agreed, stating, "what we will be has not yet been made known."
The trick is keeping humble enough to remember that "we don't know what we don't know." Our tendency, instead, is to take pride in things on which we think we have certainty. Most of us have constructed sheltering systems of thought and belief in which we hide to shield us from "unknown unknowns" and, in effect, deny their existence. These shelters, be they creeds, systematic theologies, political views, or the traditions that have been passed down to us, tend to make us very suspicious of and closed to anything new. My own formal training as a Bible scholar and pastor was designed to prepare me to defend what we "knew" to be true and ready to win the argument against any suggestions to the contrary. All questions had specific "correct" answers. Historically, people have been literally put to death for suggesting that something everybody "knew" to be true was not true--things like the earth isn't flat or the sun doesn't orbit around the earth.
As a friend of mine stated at breakfast this morning, "Faith is the flower that can only grow out of the soil of doubt." In other words, the faith that connects us with the unknowable (God) is not so much about being certain what we know, but, like the little child, being okay for now with with what we don't or can't know. Study, inquiry, searching, evolving opinion and even doubt can be evidence of blossoming faith. Dogmatism, rigidity and opinionatedness, on the other hand, tend to be counterproductive to faith and can be dangerous. It is people with this mindset that fly airplanes into buildings and burn dissenters at the stake.
Given the contrast, I've decided to be happily uncertain.
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