It's a true story about Sheldon's romance with his wife. In the beginning of their relationship, both were unreservedly pagan. Not long into their marriage, while living for an extended time in England, first his wife and then Sheldon became Christians.
There's an extended quote from midway through the book that struck me and I want to share it here, even though it does not really give a true flavor of the main concern of the book (which I hope to say a bit about in a future post). Vanauken raises a good question: Why do people who don't really BELIEVE want to call themselves Christians anyway?
At this point in the story, Vanauken relates the culture shock of leaving the vivacious Christian community he and his wife knew in England and returning to the United States - as relatively new believers, viewing the American religious landscape for the first time:
"Now it appeared to us that there was very little interest in living a life centred in the Incarnate Lord. People went to church of course, but their conversation was about the convivial Couples Club or the radical racial ideas of the bishop. No doubt Christ was in the churches somewhere, but He was not easy to find.
"Even more dismaying, in other circles, was the watering-down of the Faith to little more than a few of Christ's moral precepts. 'Yes,' said these unbelievers who called themselves Christians, 'yes, indeed, Jesus was the divine Son of God; so are we all, divine Sons of God. Of course there was an incarnation: each of us is the incarnation of God. If St. John suggests anything else, or St. Paul does, they are not to be depended on. Miracles - well, no, we happen to know God doesn't work that way. No, of course our knowledge of how God works doesn't come from the Bible, but we know all the same. There was no resurrection, except in some very, very spiritual sense, whatever those naive Apostles thought they saw. Of course we're Christians - how could you doubt it? - though, naturally Buddhism and Islam and all religions except the Catholic Church are equally Ways. Truth? What is truth? What has truth got to do with it?'
"All this, to us who had accepted the ancient Christian faith, was depressing. It was about as far from the strong red wine of the Faith as grape juice. The Faith was too strong: the wine must be turned to water in an anti-miracle. In other ages people who could not believe in Christianity (and, admittedly, it takes some believing) had called themselves Deists or Unitarians, but these people, for reasons we did not understand, were intent to shelter under the name of Christianity and at the same time to reduce the Faith to a hollow thing that required no believing beyond a mild theism."
I know a lot of our founding fathers self-identified as "Deists". I wonder how and why that label faded away? And I wonder how many folks in church pews every Sunday morning would more accurately be called "Deists" or "Unitarians" than "Christians"? An even sadder thought: How many pulpits are filled with Deists and Unitarians?
How does the true Gospel penetrate a church where the preacher works "an anti-miracle" every Sunday from the pulpit?
I will never forget a sermon delivered in my home church when I was in my early teen years. The pastor explained away the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.
Our pastor was much smarter than the Gospel writers. He had figured out (or read somewhere) that the people who came to hear Jesus preach commonly smuggled food in the sleeves of their robes, hidden away so that hungry neighbors would not make any demands on their personal supply. When the disciples started passing around the baskets at meal time, the crowd's selfish hearts had already been softened by Jesus' preaching and so, as each individual pulled out their own bread and fish to eat, they actually dropped a portion or two into the basket to feed those who had brought nothing. And THAT was how the baskets were overflowing when they were collected at the end by the disciples!
He finished with this summation: "It WAS most certainly a miracle. It was a miracle of SHARING!"
He seemed proud to have done away with the pesky supernatural elements of the story - which can be so hard for modern, civilized folks to believe - but in the back of my teenage mind, plenty of other questions sprouted up:
**So human beings did the miracle, not God?
**Did the Gospel writers intentionally mislead their readers into believing Jesus worked the miracle supernaturally or were they just rubes themselves?
**Is the Bible inspired by God or not?
**If Jesus was the Son of God, why should we consider the multiplying of bread and fish to be a feat that was obviously beyond him?
I didn't begin this post intending to finish this way, but maybe I'm ready to take a stab at answering Vanauken's question as to why the Deists and Unitarians continue to "shelter under the name of Christianity."
Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but perhaps the answer is that deep down inside they WANT to believe in the ancient Christian faith. Perhaps they know that the grape juice does not satisfy and they truly desire the strong wine, but they fear taking that step of faith. Maybe they know that to declare themselves as nothing more than Deists or Unitarians would cut them off from the chance, however remote they think it might be, of connecting with a sovereign God fully capable of the miraculous.
I truly hope that is the case.
I've been there myself, seemingly content with a shallow faith, but wanting to know a God worth dropping everything to follow. A God who inspires passion. A God for whom I'd be willing to suffer and even die. A God who really knows each hair on my head. A God who calls me to urgent work in his Kingdom.
You know the feeling? It's the same one that finds you sitting in a pew and wanting to see a bonafide miracle, solely for the glimpse of the greatness of God, and yet all the while disbelieving in miracles deep down inside!
You want to see a paralyzed person walk, and THEN you'll believe.
Which reminds me: I saw a quadriplegic walk a few weeks ago.
She also sings ... about God's glory and power. I'll tell you more about her next time...
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| Perhaps the pastor is a Deist... |
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