Happily out of Sync

Yesterday after church, I entered into a conversation that I haven't had for a long time. Over a "coffee hour" of shrimp cocktail, specialty breads, and marvelous dips, this astute gentleman and I discussed theology and culture. We both discovered that we shared similar values and views, which was not surprising in itself. What did surprise me was our mutual understanding that American spirituality over the past half-century has shifted from one grounded in firm religious dogmas to one grounded in purely subjective feelings. Totally divorced from anything external or objective, beliefs have become a purely fanciful thing. For example, the name "Jesus" can mean anything a person wants it to mean, depending on how she feels about the word "Jesus." No connection with the Jesus of record is necessary. In fact, for many people today, any connection of Jesus to the Christian New Testament is suspect and often rejected ipso facto because the New Testament cannot be trusted.

Why is this? I suspect that this distrust finds its origin the dual rejection of Jesus Christ and the Christian Church. Hence the preference for a "Jesus" that may be an avatar of some Hindu spiritual being, or "Jesus" as a living Buddha-perhaps a Bodhisattva-who brings enlightenment to Western audiences. "Jesus" may also function as an expression of the spiritual forces in Nature as suggested by various pantheistic interpretations of the Christ. This is post-modern spirituality at the popular level.

Before long, people who find themselves uncomfortable with the historic Christ will eventually find that the name "Jesus" itself still evokes the same discomfiture. The Jesus who calls on people to "repent and believe the Gospel for the forgiveness of their sins" is a Jesus that our culture no longer wants. A crucified and risen Savior deeply offends the sensibilities of the Oprah generation bent on finding its purpose through therapy and inner work. A God who alone has the right to judge people no longer functions for those who find judgment of any kind repulsive, and dare I assert, frightening. A logical next step would either be an opting for the "New Atheism" of the Dawkins/Hitchens type, or an escape into a mysticism devoid of any references to the language of the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Back to my conversation. My friend and I agreed that we are happily out of sync with this form of spirituality and that we gladly accept the teachings of our spiritual ancestors who gave us the Bible and the creeds and confessions of the church down through the ages, for it is in these together with the sacraments and prayer that we encounter Jesus the Christ who gives us eternal life and a living relationship with himself today.