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. 

I recently returned from vacationing in Vietnam where our tour consisted of visiting several temples and pagodas that are important to the Vietnamese people.  Several things struck me as we visited these sacred places to the local people.  1).  Some of the temples were Hindu, either run by Hindus living in Vietnam or remnants of the Cham dynasty (these were not ethnic Vietnamese people) which once covered most of central and southern day Vietnam.  In spite of Vietnamese people traditionally being Buddhist and worshipping their ancestors these Hindu temples also recieved many Vietnamese worshippers who paid their respects to the Hindu gods.  Some of the temples were known to have healing properties.  I asked our tour guide about this and he stated that the people must respect those gods too because they’re there.  2).  The Vietnamese government is Communist which means its officially atheistic.  But, several years ago the city of Hanoi, which is the capital, rebuilt a portion of the Confucian temple that had been destroyed in one of the recent wars in Vietnam.  Instead of reconstructing the destroyed dorms and classrooms at this temple where the first university in Vietnam was established the government submitted to the people of the country a poll to decide which students who graduated from the university should be honored at the temple.  (The temple and university are at the same place since religion and academics once went together.)  Four names recieved the most support and included a famous teacher and three kings who had studied at the university; all in the distant past.  These four now have statues in this new building and are worshipped by anyone who wants to ask them for help.  I find it remarkable that the communists government would perpetuate the worship of past heroes on a scale that transforms them into gods.

 In light of these oberservations several questions have been brewing in my mind. 

Do the gods exists because people remember them?  If so, then when people forget the gods do they cease to exist?  If this is the case then what happens in the Christian tradition when we take the Eucharist in rememberance of Christ?  Does the Eucharist have transforming power because those partaking are remembering?  Further more, Paul speaks of idols as being masquerading demons.  If the people forget the god/idol then what happens to the demonic that is associated with it?  Does the demonic, through human interaction, create a new god to “decieve” the people?

It seems that worship and the “existence” of the gods is the result of a fusion within humanity between the spiritual side of reality with the physical or material reality (In the east these two can’t be separated and I would tend to agree).  Religion is a human reflection of the interaction between the created and the spiritual or Divine.  Therefore, religion is a construct that reflects the worldview of the people and their understanding of Truth and the Divine.  The gods and temples are not “demonic” but neither are they truth.  The demonic is present where there is a distortion of the truth but the Divine is also present.  It’s always a mix of the two because nowhere can God not be found but, within Creation, everywhere there is brokenness and evil. 

Rodney

I am experimenting with a number of features that are new to me in blogging.  This post is a test in uploading files.  The link below is to the paper I presented for the Mennonite-Orthodox Dialogue at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on March 3, 2007. 

Interpreting the Bible: A Mennonite Voice…(in conversation with Orthodoxy)