Holy Fool

There is book floating around called 'The Great Emergence' by Phyllis Tickle.  I haven't read it for myself, but in the world of blogging it is not a prerequisite to actually have read something before making bold and audacious claims about said book.  Infact I believe it is encouraged in the blogging community to, 'shoot from the hip' as it were; perhaps with an image of Clint Eastwood from one of his spaghetti westerns in your mind.

But I digress, the reason this book seems to be getting so much play around the blogosphere, is that asks the question, "where now is our authority?"  Now having watched numerous videos with Ms. Tickle in which she summarizes the content of her book I have to say that I don't really have a problem with the question.  I don't even really have much to disagree with in regards to most of her assesments.  At least in the Nazarene/Methodist/Anglican world we have forgone the idol of Sola Scriptura all together, so that is not really a huge issue for me.  In many ways when we are forced into discovering The Word, i.e. Jesus as the source of all truth, vs. what is written (inspiration or otherwise) about him, it helps us form a better Christological focus from which we then live out the gospel in our contexts.

Here is my caution in all of this.  There will be some that will go the way of the classical progressive/liberal track and try to engender that as being the 'emerging' culture, when in fact it is old school liberal theology with a shiny name.  This is no different than the denominational hijacking of the word 'missional'.  In regards to authority however we must be careful because when we swing the pendulum too far we end up with legalism.  If we set up a 'Sola Scriptura' idol we fall into legalism, we will have indeed as Phyllis exhorts exchanged Christ for an idolotrous reverence for the Bible.  On the other end we have classic liberalism, which for all it's claims of liberty is simply a set of rules set in opposition to the other side.

Either way, when humans start trying to 'decide' where the authority comes from we end up with some form of legalism; either conservative or liberal, but both legalists to the end.  I think asking "Where now is our authority" is a lot like asking why gravity works, or why water is wet.  At the core we know the authority, the only true and lasting authority lies in God Almighty.  We have his authority as it is revealed to us by his Son Jesus Christ and the experiences of the first Christians.  We already know where the authority comes from.  The real question, the underlying question that Phyllis is asking is, who gets to decide who is a Christian and who isn't?  Who get's to decide orthodoxy/praxy, etc.?

That is where grace comes in for us humans.  The New Testament gives us a pretty clear picture of who Christ was and what he was here to do.  It gives us a generally agreed upon source from which to become a people of love, charity, and grace.  There is a lot of our faith that God has chosen to leave to personal discernment of the Scriptures and their meaning for our own moral context.  Because of our free will and fallible intellects we have the ability to mis-interpret and mis-appropriate scripture and misapply it to our lives (and other peoples lives as well.)

I say all of that to say that the way of the Cross transcends the either/or legalism of the conservative and liberal debates.  If you have read anything Brian McLaren has ever written on anything than you would have heard that before.  I would add that what we actually 'do' (our practice and relationships) as a people of Christ says a lot more about where we look for authority than what we 'say' (human ideas about who God is) about Christ, scripture, etc.

It's entirely possible to give the Bible the complete authority of your life and to never know Jesus Christ in the way he intended you to.  It's also possible to be smug and arrogant as you squash the conservative imbicles in the name of Christ.  If you want to find out where God's authority lies, then I suggest you do less theologizing and more watching.  Look for the fruit of the Spirit and that is where you will find the authority you seek.