too frequently, I do not have sufficient understanding to be able to craft a question that will give me the answer I need. Some of Jesus’ most surprising lessons come from his re-directing a question that is being asked. When he was asked, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?”, he asked for a Roman coin and changed the question to: “Whose image is on this coin?” His “answer” to those who confronted him that day was, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In truth, he never answered the question! He gave a much larger question that called for reflection and discussion. He opened up a much larger world than the small question posed by his enemies.
Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions.
The above is the title of a book by Rachel Held Evans. The book was first issued under the title Evolving in Monkey Town. Rachel Evans lives in Dayton, Tennessee, the scene of the “famous” Scopes trial. The trial was supposed to settle once and for all the battle between faith and science. Evans gives a brief, but fascinating read of what was described as “the trial of the century.” More than two hundred reporters from as far away as London came for coverage during the summer of 1925. “People could pay to get their picture made with a live chimpanzee, and the town constable even put a sign on his motorcycle that read ‘Monkeyville Police.’”8
Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan put on quite a show which Evans describes. Her comment on the event: “These days most Christians, even conservative Christians, acknowledge that the Monkey Town approach of stubborn isolationism and anti-intellectualism is an outdated and ineffective strategy for expanding the kingdom.”9
One of her most striking observations is: “The more committed we are to certain theological absolutes, the more likely we are to discount the work of the Spirit when it doesn’t conform to our presuppositions.”10 A brief line on the back cover best describes what this book is all about: “How an evolving spiritual journey leads to an unshakable faith.” It’s not about a faith that remained unraveled but about a faith that found its way because of new and better questions.
It’s one of the reasons my reading has become very broad.
Listening to people espouse beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my worldview is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men, “I can handle the truth.”11
What I’m saying is not that the great truth was Parkinson’s specifically, but that there are realities that occur in life over which I have no control or influence, realities that I can’t negotiate, finesse, or charm.12
My reading has gotten much broader through the years because I faced “realities I couldn’t negotiate, finesse, or charm” and found it necessary to listen to some other voices. My faith did not become unraveled, although the questions came thick and fast. In the end, my faith became richer, deeper, and truer to the biblical witness as my much too narrow vision was opened to new truths that did not so much shatter all the old ones as clarify and expand them.
The truth of the Way was much more profound than the truth of the simple answers that stood guard over my faith. I grew up in the same kind of religious environment as Rachel Evans and I know whereof she speaks. I will be forever grateful for the voices that brought me to questions I never dreamed existed and a Way that led to more comprehensive answers.
A recent find that illustrates the above idea.
While browsing in a used bookstore (some people still do this), I came across The Jewish Annotated New Testament. The Editors’ Preface explains the reason for this book:13
…Jews and Christians still misunderstand many of each other’s texts and traditions. The landmark publication of this book…will serve to increase our knowledge of both our common histories and the reasons why we came to separate.
…in addition to emphasizing the Jewish background — or better, the Jewish contexts — of the New Testament, we pay special attention to the passages that negatively stereotype Jews or groups of Jews…..13
Jesus and Paul were both Jews who were faithful to their heritage and traditions; this book provides valuable insights into the Jewish world in which they lived and worked. I just completed reading Common Errors Made About Early Judaism, one of many excellent essays in the back of the book. It gives much-needed insight and correctives to our assumptions about the New Testament world. One that was not new to me is that there were many divisions within Judaism and no single belief in the role of the coming Messiah. Diversity marked the religious world of that time even as it marks the world of our time.
There is no better way to understand Judaism than to listen to Jewish writers talk about their faith.
Questions for Reflection and Conversation
1 Does my interpretation of the episode in John 9 make sense to you?
2 What do you understand to be the difference between an answer and a way?
3 Are you comfortable with the discussion about a broader base for reading?
7 Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life (New York: HarperSanFrancisco), 124.
8 Rachel Held Evans, Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 53.
9 Ibid, 64.
10 Ibid, 155.
11 Michael J. Fox, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (New York: Hyperion, 2009), 160.
12 Ibid, 180.
13 Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds., The Jewish Annotated New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1911), xii.
Chapter 2:
Ecclesiastes
Is Right
The teacher often says things we don’t want to hear.
Ecclesiastes is ordinarily not one of the biblical books read for inspiration. It begins on quite a low note and never really seems to rise above its basic pessimism. The usual translation of verse two in chapter one is the teacher’s lament: Vanity of vanities — all is vanity. My preferred translation is: Meaninglessness! Meaninglessness! (TNIV). This unnamed teacher then begins a catalogue of the many ways he has sought meaning for his life, including: pleasure, wisdom, riches, and hard work. His discourse is filled with much of what we would term “negative thinking” ending with: “What difference does anything make anyway? We all have the same destiny — the grave.”
It is to be noted that, as one of the Wisdom books in the Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes does have much to offer. Who has not heard chapter three’s familiar opening verse: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens? Following his list, most are surprised by verse eleven: (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set
