When an artist creates a painting, there is a deep, multi-layered expression. When people look at art, we all find our own meaning in it. The idea of looking for the "truth" or correct interpretation is an odd concept.
Of course, the artist might have been trying to express something, but will find joy in people connecting their own lives to his or her work.
In our scientific reductionist western world, we can often reduce things to a single meaning. Is love a beating heart, a well of emotion, a willing sacrifice, a feeling of desire, a flow of chemicals to certain parts of the brain... or might it be all the above? Why must we always try to reduce things to only one meaning?
When I put bird food in my garden feeder, if people came to examine the action and debate what the meaning of my action was, what might they say?
He did it because he cares about vulnerable creatures, one will say.
No, he is bored and needed something to occupy his time, another will suggest.
Both wrong, says a third. He is easing his guilt at the damage mankind has done to natural resources.
A fourth might suggest the answer is clear. He finds a peace from watching nature from the comfort of his window. He is luring nature towards himself.
And what of my children? What will they learn about me as a father? One might suggest this shows that a father with power and resources must care and provide for those who are weak, and motivate her to do likewise. Another might say it reflects my gentle spirit and be reminded of my care for her.
These are very different ways of looking at the same event, while drawing different meanings from it. The truth is multifaceted, and of course, someone might draw an incorrect conclusion. However, it's also possible for multiple "truths" to be contained in the same event.
I was reading up on different models of atonement, and found all 7 fascinating. However, as I was reading, I sensed an internal panic rising. I had to find the "correct" view. Which was closest to the truth? How should I explain this to my children, other believers or an enquiring non-believer?
Was it the Moral Influence theory? Ransom to satan or God? Christus Victor? Satisfaction theory? Penal substitution? Governmental? Scapegoat?
Each can find supporting scripture. Each has an army of theologians and authors able and seemingly willing to argue their case.
I found myself wondering, did God want me to have a clear opinion? Did I need to understand the complex theology of the Cross and resurrection? No doubt some theologians would tell me yes, as a "correct" understanding of the death and resurrection of Christ will guide me to know how to live my life in the best way.
And yet, at times there can be a theological paralysis that does more harm than good. Spending too much time studying something can reduce our pleasure of enjoying it. I know God loves all creation. I know Jesus taught us how to love. I know the Bible has stories, poems, pastoral letters and historical events that help me reflect upon God and his relationship with people and with me. I know Jesus died on a cross, free from guilt. I know Jesus overcame death. I know Jesus promised his Holy Spirit as our guide and counsellor. I know Jesus gave a commandment of love and summarised the Law and Prophets with the greatest commandments.
While reading the different models of atonement, I began to see how people across the ages would connect with different models and draw something beautiful from each.
In the Moral Influence theory, I find inspiration in how I live today. Too often in my faith, I have focused extensively on heaven as a future place, while neglecting God's Kingdom in our midst today. The moral influence aspect of the life of Jesus and the consequent explosion of Christianity across the globe following the resurrection and by the subsequent work of the Holy Spirit fills me with hope and energy to be part of that story and to partner with God in my prayer life and Christian walk.
Within the Ransom Theory, I see a God who is willing to pay any price to rescue me from a life of pain and suffering - a life without God. At times I need reminded that there is someone who loves me so powerfully that he is willing to put himself on the line for me.
In Christus Victor, I am rescued from my fear of death. Christ has conquered death! In following him, I know that there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God. No sin and no death can keep me from God's love!
I am aware that in my own focus, I am drawn to models that emphasise the love of God over the justice of God. This is what drew me to faith in the first place. When I saw the love and acceptance in the lives of Christians, I knew this was a community I wanted to be a part of.
However, I am also aware that there is a father whose son was murdered in a gangland crime. I know there is a mother whose daughter was raped and killed by an unrepentant paedophile. I know there are victims of war criminals who escaped justice and died in the comfort of their own homes surrounded by wealth. How do these people respond when we tell them God loves and accepts the murderer and rapist of their loved ones? These voices demand justice. They demand repentance. And for those people, I can understand that they need to believe in a system of justice. A price to be paid, a genuine repentance of sin. In my desire to move away from any model of penal substitution or satisfaction theory that addresses the issue of sin, as it can paint an angry God of wrath demanding sacrifice, might I be robbing the grieving victim of a sense of justice? What God turns a blind eye to their pain? Perhaps models like the scapegoating theory of a non-violent substitution for our natural violence is something important for people to hear?
As she approaches the cross, she sees a reminder that God has suffered with her.
As he approaches the cross, he knows God will not ignore his oppression and injustice.
As she approaches the cross, she knows no sin or failure on her behalf can ever stand between her and her God. She knows her slate has been wiped clean.
As he approaches the cross, he is reminded that death is not the end.
As I approach the cross, I am reminded of the loathing humanity can show when the force of love encounters the greed of power and control, but the resurrection reminds me that love wins.
What do you see when you approach the cross? What hope do you find in the resurrection?
Perhaps, rather than obsessing about a single correct truth (and fighting amongst ourselves about who is right), we need to find our own meaning in a much bigger truth than we will never truly be able to grasp in its fullness. For myself, this might mean sacrificing my hunger for a perfect understanding of that cross, on that cross, that I might be free to love with all my heart, soul, mind and strength in the light of the resurrection.
Perhaps, rather than convincing others my view is correct, I need to help people find their own meaning within it, while being willing to share mine, as we journey that Road to Emmaus together, making sense of what happened that first Easter. Then together we might encounter the living God, however limited and imperfect our theology.
(A helpful overview of models of atonement: http://www.sdmorrison.org/7-theories-of-the-atonement-summarized/)
Showing posts with label resurrection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resurrection. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 April 2020
Saturday, 28 September 2013
why I believe in...
The Virgin Birth and Miracles
I grew up hearing the Christmas story and reading about the miracles of Jesus. Then I became a scientist and a Christian at almost the same time.
I remember hearing atheists using science as some kind of club to beat religion. This always bemused me, as it is like using Mathematics as a weapon against English or Art.
For me, the universe is like a giant tapestry. Look at it from one side and you see beauty, patterns, colours, stories and much more. Look behind and you see a complex weave of thread and the "mechanics" behind it all. To me, science is the exploration of what is going on behind the tapestry. That some use that understanding to try to disprove that the tapestry was ever created has always bemused me.
I completely understand why many people are agnostic or atheist. We are so influenced by our parents, friends, school teachers, role models etc. that each of us goes through life with the inherited views on much of what is around us. Few of us take the time to challenge these things. While I believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I do so with a questioning faith. Many times I've asked God "why?" and when I read something in the Bible I don't just accept it at face value, but I remind myself that it is a collection of translated sacred texts that need careful interpretation to discern what God would say to us through them.
I always understood why a non-believer would struggle to believe that the Virgin birth was a real event. I completely understand why they would doubt that a resurrection or miracle could actually take place.
(On a side note, one of the things that I think damages Christian witness most is when a believer tries to prove God by describing some kind of miraculous event and they claim there is no other way it could have happened, but by God. That is laying down a challenge to a scientific mind and where does it say in the Bible that the mechanics of all God's workings could never be understood?)
But what confused me most was Christians who did not believe in the Virgin birth or the resurrection. There are some who see the virgin birth as just meaning that Mary was a young girl, and who think Joseph was probably the real father, but it didn't suit the writers so they wrote another angle into the story. Some say the resurrection is a symbolic story rather than a literal one.
I wonder if this might in part be a counter response to the dogmatic unquestioning if-it's-in-the-Bible-it-must-be-true-and-needs-no-interpretation attitude of some? Perhaps a way of reconciling a faith we love to a universe we (partly) understand is to reject literal understandings of much of the Bible.
However, as a scientist, I actually find that science helps me have more faith and I actually believe in a literal virgin birth and literal resurrection.
Firstly, there is an importance, I am led to believe, to a Jewish audience, that sin is passed down the generations through the male line from Adam. The virgin birth would have been a proclamation to the Jews that this child, this man, was not born with sin (and therefore would be a perfect and flawless sacrifice when he gave himself up to take on all the sins of man, according to their custom of giving up meaningful sacrifices as part of their covenant with God to show their thanksgiving, their awareness and repentance of their sins and their total dependence on God).
Secondly, I have no problem theologically if science were one day to discover how God actually got Mary pregnant without a biological father. There have been many "miraculous" things that science has begun to understand over the millennia. Take for example the regular message that by trusting in God and lifting our anxieties to him, we find peace and comfort. Psychology has shown us that the things we think about have an impact on our emotions. There is a deeply mechanical (for want of a better word) process to prayer and faith, but this understanding doesn't diminish in the slightest our need for it or the wisdom God gives us in commanding it.
When faced with amazing "I can't believe it!" events, rather than jump to a conclusion that it probably didn't happen, I remind myself that if our earth were a few centimetres out of its orbit of the sun then life as we know it would not exist. I remind myself that the beautiful child I see living in my house did not even exist a few years ago, but this sentient, conscious, delightful being was created into existence... It's a scientific miracle!
I remind myself of the beginning of our universe. Either it was suddenly created out of nothing in a Big Bang, or it has always been and is always growing (growing into what we might also ask?). The world around us is so full of amazing things we barely understand. Each year we understand a fraction more through the wonders of science. I remind myself to never try to prove God by something I don't understand ("if we can't understand, it must be God"), and I cringe when I hear Christians try to engage with others that way. We don't demonstrate faith by arguments. There is a place for logical arguments and apologetics but we demonstrate faith (and by this, I mean our relationship with God) by love. It was the greatest commandment Jesus gave and remains the best form of evangelism.
I believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus because of the witnesses and accounts of the gospel. It was also something he predicted and Jesus was an entirely trustworthy man. It also was core to his message of salvation and hope. But also, as a scientist, I have no reason to doubt that it could actually happen. If my wife and I can create a child, if the sun can rise and set, if the world can actually support sentient life, if humanity can evolve into what we know it to be today, then why would I have a problem with Jesus being put to death, found to be dead (the piercing of his side and the fluids that emerged were physical proof he no longer lived), being buried and then rising again to show that God had conquered death and by putting our faith in Jesus we need never fear!
You see, I don't believe miracles are there to prove to a scientific mind that God must exist. I think they are there to remind God's people that we can depend on him completely. If Jesus can turn water into wine, then he can turn my despair into hope. If Jesus can feed the multitudes on only a few small loaves and fish, then God can use a small number of Christians to feed the needs of a starving world (literally and metaphorically).
I actually think there is a danger in Christians beginning to doubt the miracles of God. It is understandable to find them hard to believe (we are skeptical humans after all), but if we are not careful, we might start to doubt that we can actually depend on God. We might lose confidence in hope. We might doubt salvation. We might drift away from the rock and find ourselves buffeted by the waves and storms with nothing to offer the world in terms of witness and confidence (a word that actually has faith at its root).
I don't write this to condemn or judge Christians who don't believe in miracles or the virgin birth. But I do hope to encourage some who doubt because of reaction to the over confident bragging of some, that it is actually okay to believe in the miraculous without leaving our brains on standby, and we don't need to ever convince a world of miracles. Leave that to God. Instead, let us unite, whatever we believe on smaller issues, to show a world just how big and inclusive God's amazing love is!
I grew up hearing the Christmas story and reading about the miracles of Jesus. Then I became a scientist and a Christian at almost the same time.
I remember hearing atheists using science as some kind of club to beat religion. This always bemused me, as it is like using Mathematics as a weapon against English or Art.
For me, the universe is like a giant tapestry. Look at it from one side and you see beauty, patterns, colours, stories and much more. Look behind and you see a complex weave of thread and the "mechanics" behind it all. To me, science is the exploration of what is going on behind the tapestry. That some use that understanding to try to disprove that the tapestry was ever created has always bemused me.
I completely understand why many people are agnostic or atheist. We are so influenced by our parents, friends, school teachers, role models etc. that each of us goes through life with the inherited views on much of what is around us. Few of us take the time to challenge these things. While I believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I do so with a questioning faith. Many times I've asked God "why?" and when I read something in the Bible I don't just accept it at face value, but I remind myself that it is a collection of translated sacred texts that need careful interpretation to discern what God would say to us through them.
I always understood why a non-believer would struggle to believe that the Virgin birth was a real event. I completely understand why they would doubt that a resurrection or miracle could actually take place.
(On a side note, one of the things that I think damages Christian witness most is when a believer tries to prove God by describing some kind of miraculous event and they claim there is no other way it could have happened, but by God. That is laying down a challenge to a scientific mind and where does it say in the Bible that the mechanics of all God's workings could never be understood?)
But what confused me most was Christians who did not believe in the Virgin birth or the resurrection. There are some who see the virgin birth as just meaning that Mary was a young girl, and who think Joseph was probably the real father, but it didn't suit the writers so they wrote another angle into the story. Some say the resurrection is a symbolic story rather than a literal one.
I wonder if this might in part be a counter response to the dogmatic unquestioning if-it's-in-the-Bible-it-must-be-true-and-needs-no-interpretation attitude of some? Perhaps a way of reconciling a faith we love to a universe we (partly) understand is to reject literal understandings of much of the Bible.
However, as a scientist, I actually find that science helps me have more faith and I actually believe in a literal virgin birth and literal resurrection.
Firstly, there is an importance, I am led to believe, to a Jewish audience, that sin is passed down the generations through the male line from Adam. The virgin birth would have been a proclamation to the Jews that this child, this man, was not born with sin (and therefore would be a perfect and flawless sacrifice when he gave himself up to take on all the sins of man, according to their custom of giving up meaningful sacrifices as part of their covenant with God to show their thanksgiving, their awareness and repentance of their sins and their total dependence on God).
Secondly, I have no problem theologically if science were one day to discover how God actually got Mary pregnant without a biological father. There have been many "miraculous" things that science has begun to understand over the millennia. Take for example the regular message that by trusting in God and lifting our anxieties to him, we find peace and comfort. Psychology has shown us that the things we think about have an impact on our emotions. There is a deeply mechanical (for want of a better word) process to prayer and faith, but this understanding doesn't diminish in the slightest our need for it or the wisdom God gives us in commanding it.
When faced with amazing "I can't believe it!" events, rather than jump to a conclusion that it probably didn't happen, I remind myself that if our earth were a few centimetres out of its orbit of the sun then life as we know it would not exist. I remind myself that the beautiful child I see living in my house did not even exist a few years ago, but this sentient, conscious, delightful being was created into existence... It's a scientific miracle!
I remind myself of the beginning of our universe. Either it was suddenly created out of nothing in a Big Bang, or it has always been and is always growing (growing into what we might also ask?). The world around us is so full of amazing things we barely understand. Each year we understand a fraction more through the wonders of science. I remind myself to never try to prove God by something I don't understand ("if we can't understand, it must be God"), and I cringe when I hear Christians try to engage with others that way. We don't demonstrate faith by arguments. There is a place for logical arguments and apologetics but we demonstrate faith (and by this, I mean our relationship with God) by love. It was the greatest commandment Jesus gave and remains the best form of evangelism.
I believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus because of the witnesses and accounts of the gospel. It was also something he predicted and Jesus was an entirely trustworthy man. It also was core to his message of salvation and hope. But also, as a scientist, I have no reason to doubt that it could actually happen. If my wife and I can create a child, if the sun can rise and set, if the world can actually support sentient life, if humanity can evolve into what we know it to be today, then why would I have a problem with Jesus being put to death, found to be dead (the piercing of his side and the fluids that emerged were physical proof he no longer lived), being buried and then rising again to show that God had conquered death and by putting our faith in Jesus we need never fear!
You see, I don't believe miracles are there to prove to a scientific mind that God must exist. I think they are there to remind God's people that we can depend on him completely. If Jesus can turn water into wine, then he can turn my despair into hope. If Jesus can feed the multitudes on only a few small loaves and fish, then God can use a small number of Christians to feed the needs of a starving world (literally and metaphorically).
I actually think there is a danger in Christians beginning to doubt the miracles of God. It is understandable to find them hard to believe (we are skeptical humans after all), but if we are not careful, we might start to doubt that we can actually depend on God. We might lose confidence in hope. We might doubt salvation. We might drift away from the rock and find ourselves buffeted by the waves and storms with nothing to offer the world in terms of witness and confidence (a word that actually has faith at its root).
I don't write this to condemn or judge Christians who don't believe in miracles or the virgin birth. But I do hope to encourage some who doubt because of reaction to the over confident bragging of some, that it is actually okay to believe in the miraculous without leaving our brains on standby, and we don't need to ever convince a world of miracles. Leave that to God. Instead, let us unite, whatever we believe on smaller issues, to show a world just how big and inclusive God's amazing love is!
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