Recently I heard someone, in a very since
re and heartfelt way, struggle to make sense of the current conflicts in the Church. He concluded that Truth and Love were sometimes in conflict and that on matters of full inclusion of gay and lesbian folks in the membership of the Church (including ordained leadership) and the reading of Scripture on this and many other issues some Episcopalians were choosing Love and some were choosing Truth. Although this person meant this analysis as a way to affirm each side’s integrity and provide some common ground for unity and reconciliation, I was left troubled. In the Christian understanding of life can Truth and Love be in conflict? What do we mean when we talk about Christianity being true?
It seems to me there is two basic approaches the Truth the Church proclaims. They are not mutually exclusive and most of us practice our faith with some mixture of both. But for purposes of reflection they can be separated. The first sees the Christian Faith in terms of propositions the second sees the Christian Faith in terms of relationship.
In the first approach having faith means believing a series of statements about God and what God wants us to do. The Bible is seen as a kind of spiritual encyclopedia where you can find thousands of these statements. Truth is this sense is a kind of once and for all, objective reality, like scientific facts. In this approach Truth is law.
In the second approach having faith means the process of knowing God and His ways through being in a loving relationship with him. Like all relationships of love, our understanding of the both of the God of ourselves changes over time. Hopefully our understanding broadens and deepens as the relationship transforms us. The Truth is revealed as something within us and between us. It is personal. The Bible has authority because, taken as a whole, it’s tell us the stories of the relationships lovingly establish by God with Israel and Jesus’ community – the Early Church. (Sometimes told in very different ways than the way we tell stories today.) In both the stories, God is portrayed as reaching out to embrace people who the societies of the time deemed unimportant or unacceptable. Those stories are the foundation given to us to guide our own journey to discover the kind of Truth which transforms us all by embracing all of us in this time and place. In this approach Truth is grace.
Another way of putting all this is our faith proclaims that in Jesus Christ God is revealed as pure unbounded Love. In other words, for Christians, Love is the Truth.
No complaints on this end, smpily a good piece.
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What a great piece Bryan, this is such a wonderful insight to share. It’s funny to think how a Church can be full of conflict, while God’s fullness is inclusivity.
Sorry, but I will have to actually dispute with this blog post. Regardless, I understand that we all have our varying position.
“Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: One, it’s completely impossible. Two, it’s possible, but it’s not worth doing. Three, I said it was a good idea all along.” – Arthur C Clarke
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I think its on your end.
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