“Come to me, all you that are weary and
are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
William Willimon, the most
widely published United Methodist Bishop, retired from his episcopal
responsibilities and returned to teaching at Duke Divinity School in 2012. The
Christian Century marked his retirement with a wide ranging interview covering
a wide spectrum of topics relating to the work of a bishop and the ministry of
the United Methodist Church.
He was asked whether in his
role as Bishop he would have removed a pastor who had “recanted doctrinal vows
he or she had solemnly pledged to honor.” “Absolutely,” said Willimon, “tell me
you have misgivings about the Trinity or trouble believing in the bodily
resurrection and I’ll help you find less intellectually challenging work—like
being a Republican candidate for president.”
Throughout his career,
Willimon has been known more for his wit than his wisdom, and if one assumes that
he was trying to be funny about the Republican candidates, then maybe he was
just kidding in his doctrinal illustration.
If he wasn’t kidding, then
it’s troubling to think that having “misgivings about the Trinity or trouble
believing in the bodily resurrection” would be grounds for dismissing a pastor.
(Didn’t he read Paul Tillich’s “Dynamics of Faith,” or does he think the
greatest theologian of the twentieth century was wrong about doubt being a
necessary part of faith?)
But setting Tillich aside,
Methodists have never been greatly concerned about doctrine. We are united in a
general affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, but widely divided about
precisely what that means.
And more seriously, if
“misgivings” can be grounds for dismissal, then it will be difficult to have
really honest conversation with one’s bishop, who is supposed to be a “pastor
to the pastors.”
But there’s more.
This coming Sunday is Trinity
Sunday. I’m guessing that the average United Methodist lay person doesn’t know
that and doesn’t care. The Trinity has a strong tradition as church doctrine,
but it is connected to the biblical witness of the early church by the thinnest
threads of biblical evidence.
The Trinity does represent an
important truth: we experience God in different ways. The traditional
formulation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reminds us that we experience God
as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
And if we don’t understand
the Trinity, how will we ever make sense of Don McLean’s “American Pie”
reference to “the three men I admire most”?
But to the average person,
the doctrine of the Trinity often sounds like a belief in three gods, rather
than three experiences of the One.
Willimon’s second example of
denying a doctrine is described as “having trouble believing in the bodily
resurrection.” Nothing is more central to Christian faith than the resurrection
of Jesus. The Gospels are written by people who are convinced that they have
met the risen Christ. That encounter vindicates everything that Jesus taught.
They are clear that they are not just talking about a memory, and they have not
encountered a ghost. His presence is real.
Expressing that reality in a
way that it can be understood is not easy.
Clearly, we are not talking
about a resuscitated corpse, but the Gospel descriptions never confront the
issue head on. We see an empty tomb and we hear a voice. He approaches two of
them on the road to Emmaus, and they talk for hours before they recognize him
in the breaking of bread. When Paul describes his encounter on the road to
Damascus, he claims that the appearance to him is just the same as previous
appearances to other disciples. There are no words to describe the experience
which has turned their world upside down.
More than half a century ago, Paul Tillich published a sermon called, “The Yoke of Religion,” using the text from
Matthew cited above. He argued that Jesus had come to free us from that “yoke.”
And he described the predicament of modern “man” this way:
“The religious law demands that he accept ideas and
dogmas, that he believe in doctrines and traditions, the acceptance of which is
the condition of his salvation from anxiety, despair and death. So he tries to
accept them, although they may have become strange or doubtful to him. He
labors and toils under the religious demand to believe things he cannot
believe.”
In Tillich’s time, there were
many church goers who labored and toiled under the religious demand to believe
things they could not believe. In our time some of those people are searching
desperately for a way to reconcile their faith with ancient doctrines, while
many others simply leave the church. For such people, a pastor with
“misgivings” about those doctrines may be exactly what they need.
When Jesus called his
disciples, he did not demand that they believe something, only that they follow
him. That is still our invitation.
*This is revised from a post first published on June 1, 2012.
Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments are always
welcome. Please feel free to share on social media as you wish.
No comments:
Post a Comment