Ekklesia

I recently had a conversation with a person who works in the construction industry.  He was lamenting the growing paperwork that he has to take care to meet local building ordinances before he begins a job.  Apparently several years ago Pennsylvania standardized many of the ordinances for building codes and so forth.  For a few years, according to my friend, the local governments followed the standard rules to the letter making things easier.  Now, as time goes on, the local governments are adding their own interpretations to the rules which is creating a diversity of applications of the building codes creating a headache for anyone attempting to build.  At this point my friend and I looked at each other and I said; “Hey that sounds like the church.  We have one Bible and a diversity of interpretations and applications.”  We both laughed at the analogy and shook our heads.  (His son was going ballistic in the van so he had to go). 

I wonder, is the diversity of biblical interpretations found in the Protestant/evangelical world the result of local or cultural understandings and applications of scripture?  Or is the diversity the fruit of human-centered religion where the focus is on a humanity that hasn’t died to itself in Christ but still lives in the flesh?  What about the Apostolic Tradition; is there a diversity of interpretation of the Tradition and how the Orthodox understand what it means to be Orthodox? 

I’m not bothered by healthy diversity; I embrace it as a reflection of the creative energy of God.  So is the problem diversity or the religious systems we’ve created that guide our understanding of Scripture.  Some seemingly different interpretations of Scripture found in Protestant/Evangelical circles are linguistic issues where people are potentially saying the same thing but are too “stubborn” to sit together and listen to each other for fear of realizing they may be on the same page and have to actually get along together.  However, other issues of diversity in the interpretation of Scripture are the result of the religious system (i.e. the worldview of the religious community and how it’s worked out in the community’s culture) that imposes a set of values and beliefs upon Scripture.  How often do we read Scripture through our contemporary lenses failing to realize that Jesus and his disciples didn’t sit around a camp fire in blue jeans singing Kumb By Ya. 

Without a transcendent authority to appeal to how do we know if the diverse interpretations of Scriptures that we have in Protestant/evangelical circles are faithful to Christ or unfaithful?  On what basis do we challenge such teachings as the “prosperity gospel” as being unfaithful to Christ when people in the “prosperity gospel” are convinced of the truth of their ways?  We need to learn to let go of our interpretations, to die to our beliefs, and allow the Scripture to challenge and mold us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  But, I also believe we need the guidance of the Apostolic Tradition as a boundary for how we wrestle with Scripture in contemporary times.  Otherwise, we’re left with competing groups and individuals vying to legitimize their own views within a democratic spiritual marketplace.