Sole Jones

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Quick Look at 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

In 2 Cor 12:7-10 (TM), Paul discusses his infamous thorn in the flesh, and it proves to be a rich field of study, mainly because we have here the primary human author of the New Testament, and he’s not getting what he asks for in prayer. I’m sorry, but that’s notable.

The first thing you notice is that he sought the Lord three times for the thorn to be removed, so it’s clear that it was a big enough deal for him to ask, and then he didn’t just ask, he sought the Lord, pleading. What I get from this is three full-blown seasons of seeking God’s will on this, and he finally hears God’s answer, so he hung in there.

The second thing you get is that answer. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” This is all your gonna get. This is a ticket for a free ride to quit whining, to get on with life, a dry-eyed, clear-path trail through the ruins of whatever-you-were-hoping-for, onward to what your life is actually going to be.

You are given grace, which is the free ticket part of the whole deal: it’s grace, stupid. Duh. It’s the guarantee that you can, indeed, make it through this. Sometimes we complain that a person doesn’t seem too concerned about whatever trouble they’ve found themselves in, but isn’t that the goal? That particular point could probably stand a lot of unpacking, and maybe I will do that at another time, there is a kind of indifference to results that indicates no direction, no drive, no ambition, but that’s often misconstrued for the actual working of grace, that allows you to despise (think Jesus despising (TM)the shame of the cross) all that as you keep your gaze fixed on the prize. We too often get derailed by minor points, or troubles that are beside-the-point. Grace is like peace in these situations; it lets you move on.

The third thing you get is how not-high-minded-or-spiritual this grace thing is. It’s a huge, cool thing. Do you see people born into money acting all apologetic or thinking they’re failures? Not as a general rule, you don’t. But they’re recipients of grace, also. So maybe we should take a cue from them whenever God decides to give us a free ride, and not hang our head about it.

Paul goes on to talk about bragging about his infirmities, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Look at me, Paul says, this is POWER.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Blue Parakeet: Chapter 4

In chapter 4 of Scot McKnight's fine Blue Parakeet, it's all about story and the retelling of the story with fresh nuance at each and every turn. He calls these retellings "wiki-stories" in the manner that the Wikipedia is put together article by article - hey, in some cases word by word, by the bearers of remarkably different viewpoints united in a common cause; it's a distributed model for a post-Babel world. What else could serve such a disparate, dispersed people?

Scot uses Mt 4:1-11 (TM) to illustrate the idea of wiki-story. It's the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, and Scot explains that this could serve as a "perfected" retelling of either Adam & Eve's temptation, or the wilderness travails of the children of Israel. Either one works; indeed, maybe that's the point - Jesus steps in to whatever story and, in walking through it again, redeems it and reconciles it to Himself. And just this small taste, this one example, starts to open up an entire universe of possibilities for us: maybe this is how the ministry of reconciliation actually works! And then we're able to make the traditional application of rebuking Satan and his temptations with scripture just like Jesus, only now, through this reading of the story as a wiki-story, we're suddenly much more solidly grounded, more thoroughly prepared for the vagaries of life.

The Bible is flexible. It's vast. It's wide, covering a bazillion different things, and it's deep, restating some themes over and over with subtle variations, fitting itself through these countless iterations closer and closer to where we actually are, wherever we've actually washed up, painfully in need of rescue.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Network of Conversations

Finnish sociologist Niklas Luhmann stated that “community is a network of conversations.” This is one of those quotes that immediately strikes you as being true, even when you don’t understand it. I have a pretty good idea about usage of the word “conversations” in emergent circles. In fact, I guess that it’s very closely related to my use of the word “negotiate,” or “sitting down at the table.”

Think of negotiating “in good faith.” How’s that defined? You have notions of transparency and fairness… in short, the Golden Rule, so that community becomes a network of Golden Rule participants. I was concerned that saying proper negotiating follows the Golden Rule is stating the obvious, especially when you could say that proper anything follows the Golden Rule. However, to put the emphasis on conversation heightens the attention to communication, the transparency side of negotiations, and using the word “negotiations” acknowledges that each party has its own set of interests; i.e. we don’t operate and relate in a bubble devoid of interest, and we are not all the same.

A pressure point in negotiations happens right here when parties realize that their interests do not map with those of other parties. You hear statements like, “I thought we were on the same page,” and the words carry a tone of betrayal and disappointment.

This isn’t right, though. Indeed, it betrays a certain naiveté to feel this shock. Of course the other party or parties have a different set of interests from my own. We should realize this.

What should inform this is another question: what is germane to this particular project? We are seeking to set scope. Are we on the same page? The only page that matters is the most local one that covers the project. Do our interests within the scope of the project map to a tolerable level of congruence? This is why Jesus says (TM) that if they're not against us they're for us.

Most misunderstandings where there wasn’t an out and out transmission error, in other words, where all words and intentions got transmitted and received correctly (transparency), fall under the category of scope error.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Going Up to Jerusalem

They were going up to Jerusalem with Jesus. What they were expecting was a blockbuster Michael Bays film: lots of explosions, collateral damage. Zap! Pow! What they got was an indie film with a confusing ending that wasn’t really an ending.

Friday, June 19, 2009

A Quick Look at Psalm 81:11-12

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 81:11-12. (TM)

"...My people..." Even in the midst of our disobedience, even in the midst of punishing us, God considers us to be His people. We would do well to remember Hebrews 12:6 (TM), "For whom the Lord loves He chastens..."
"...would not heed My voice..." The opposite would be the way to go. Heed, according to OneLook.com means "pay close attention to..."
"...So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart..." A direct consequence of that stubbornness. God has the reputation of not staying where He's not wanted, and this passage would seem to support that.
"...To walk in their own counsels." This is reminiscent of Isaiah 55:8 (TM), where the Lord says that neither our thoughts nor ways measure up to His. Choosing our own way is a bad move, and He will let us do just that if we insist.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Quick Look at Psalm 81:7

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 81:7 (TM).

You called in trouble, and I delivered you... - Isn't this so typical of the Lord, the very type of thing that causes Him to be named Faithful and True?
...I answered you in the secret place of thunder... - I love this secret place of thunder... secret, and therefore mysterious... thunder, and therefore powerful. I think it really is just like thunder when the Lord drops something heavy on you. It rattles everything, even the foundations. And nobody else is even aware of it many times, so that it's secret at the same time.
...I tested you at the waters of Meribah... - This refers to the first time (TM) Moses was instructed to strike the rock, satisfying the thirst of the Israelites. It's funny how it says here that God tested the children of Israel, and in the Exodus passage it says that the people tempted God by asking "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Kind of makes you think this could be a diagnostic: If I'm thinking that I'll just smart off at God about my situation, maybe I'm just being tested after all.
Maybe it's the tell-tale sign that He's right there, though unseen, and He's involved. That's a nice thought.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Quick Look: Psalm 47

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 47 (TM).

You read verse 1 of this psalm and you're taken immediately down memory lane with the children's chorus, which is unfortunate in a way. The chorus leaves out so many good bits!

v2 This verse states what is perhaps obvious, but just how obvious is it that
- 1) the Lord is the Most High, and
- He is awesome?
Even in our gatherings at church, do we act as though He is awesome? Not really.
v3 I think this states Israel's expectation right up until the time of Christ, and was indeed the plainly stated role they imagined for their Messiah.
v4 This puts things perhaps a bit more ambiguously, foreshadowing the Suffering Servant role that the Messiah would actually fill. It's a good place for us to be, being willing and able to readily admit that God will choose our inheritance.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Jonestown, 30 years later

Here's a link from boingboing about Jonestown and related stuff. I was in college when this happened. I think it's important, and something everyone should be informed about. We mustn't blindly follow anyone, and there were clues aplenty that Jim Jones was up to no good.

More about this later. Do any of you remember any of this stuff?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Yancey at CT on Diagnostics for Congregations

Philip Yancey (Wikipedia article) has an interesting article on Christianity Today called "Denominational Diagnostics." I wouldn't have called it that, because it doesn't seem to have too much to do with denominations. He talks about being able to sense the "aliveness" of the congregation within a very short amount of time, based on 1) talk going on in the foyer, 2) presence of laughter, and 3) what activities and issues were highlighted on the bulletin board.

Read the entire article. What Yancey says he found at the heart of his quick impressions were three things.

Diversity - I think he was getting at the idea that diversity showed tolerance of personal differences and the absence of any one group dominating everything. I bet everyone's been in a congregation where actions and attitudes were highly restricted so as not to upset the "alpha" group. When that's not happening, it's a good sign.
Unity - We could easily get into centered vs. bound sets here, a fun topic to be sure. Unity could simply be strongarm tactics - "be like I tell you to be or you're not welcome here." But that would go against the diversity point above. Unity shouldn't be based on blind conformity, but on a cherished common ground, hopefully in the case of churches - Christ.
Mission - Is the church obviously trying to make disciples, and are they doing so in some positive, uplifting way that includes large doses of love?

Friday, October 31, 2008

Fitch on Psalm 37

David Fitch put up a good post yesterday. He's at it again, outlining right-thinking for churches and their leaders.

Here, he's talking about when times get tough. Belt-tightening, all that kind of stuff. The pressure is on to keep cash flow going. You've got to pay the bills, or as he puts it here, you've got to get pragmatic. And this is in the context of a missional church, where you're already straining credulity, you're already pushing the envelope. Let's face it, you are not doing things just like the successful church down the block.

He says there are three things about missional churches that ought to help.

They tend to keep building expenses minimal
They tend to utilize multiple bi-vocational pastors that can weather difficult economic times
They tend to live more communally, achieving economies of scale

Then he quotes Psalm 37:1-6 (TM), recommending it for - get this - spiritual formation! This is potent stuff, radical even, a true humility right in the normal practice of a front-line pastor.

I really like David Fitch.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Alan Hirsch on Planting the Gospel

Alan Hirsch has a fine post based on a quote by Dr. D.T. Niles of Sri Lanka. Hirsch suggests that we replace the term church planting with gospel planting. Here is Dr. Niles' quote:

The Gospel is like a seed, and you have to sow it. When you sow the seed of the Gospel in Israel, a plant that can be called Jewish Christianity grows. When you sow it in Rome, a plant of Roman Christianity grows. You sow the Gospel in Great Britain and you get British Christianity. The seed of the Gospel is later brought to America, and a plant grows of American Christianity. Now, when missionaries come to our lands they brought not only the seed of the Gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So, what we have to do is to break the flowerpot, take out the seed of the Gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.

I think this is quite powerful, and I would suggest that cultural soil is fractal in that this principle of soil applies not just to the largish entity thought of as a culture, but it applies equally as well to each successively smaller sub-culture, right down to the individual level.

I particularly like how Dr. Niles talked about breaking the flowerpot. A lot of rejection we see in evangelism is not an out and out rejection of Jesus, it's a rejection of our flowerpot, the container in which we bring the gospel. A lot of situations where people do not go forward with Jesus are simply flowerpot problems.

Like it or not, we add a lot to the gospel when we share it. We do this without realizing it; it's unintentional, but real nonetheless. I think Hirschy is encouraging us to plant the gospel as cleanly as possible, enabling the hearer to really accept it, embed it into their lives.

contamination video

This is a really great video over at small ritual.

grace - contamination 1 from steve collins on Vimeo.

What do you think?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Radical Humility 2

Let's look in Philippians 2, verses 5-8 (TM).

"Let this mind be in you..." This is an invitation to a kind of incarnation, this mind "... which was also in Christ Jesus..." It's also a doorway into His humility.
"...Who, being in the form of God..." This echoes:

Paul's words in Hebrews 1:3 (TM) where he calls Jesus "the express image" of God.
John's words in John 1:1 (TM) where it says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Jesus' words concerning Himself in John 14:9 (TM) where He tells Philip something like, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."

"...did not consider it robbery to be equal with God..." This is a really difficult translation. I don't think the NKJ does it justice. NIV says, "...did not consider equality with God something to be grasped..." which seems much more clear. This seems (to me) to reveal so much about the Lord's humility:
- "...equality with God..." - This is Jesus. Equal. With. God.
- "...did not consider..." - Jesus had a choice, an opinion. There's no hubris in Him.
- "...something to be grasped..." - For one thing, Jesus could step out of and back into these privileges at will. In Matthew 4:6 (TM), we see through Satan's quote of Psalm 91:11, 12 (TM) that this is true. Through this sober self-assessment (TM), the Lord saw Himself as He truly is and acted confidently based on that.
"...became obedient to the point of death..." - Here we see this extreme form of humility resulting in an absolute form of obedience. No wonder that Jesus labels obedience the truest mark of love (TM).

Quick Look: Psalm 146

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 146 (TM).

"...Do not put your trust in princes..." This is not in contradiction to the radical humility of Psalm 141 (TM) where it says, "...Let the righteous strike me..." and indicates God's person, the righteous, acting on God's behalf - the trust is really in God, resulting in our submission to God's correction through even imperfect man. Here in Psalm 146 it simply says not to put your trust in princes, meaning don't put your trust in any man, even those at the top of the food chain.
"...on that very day their plans come to nothing..." This is why you can't put your trust in them: they won't necessarily be around to put their plans into action or make their stated intentions reality.
"...Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob..." This is in contrast to princes.
"...the Maker of heaven and earth..." This emphasizes the scope of His power, infinite, and the length of His days, without beginning or end.
"...the Lord, who remains faithful forever..." Here's a killer reason for putting your trust in God: His faithfulness, His loyalty. Power alone isn't sufficient criteria. The very powerful might be completely indifferent to you, or worse, might be bent on your destruction, but the Lord has pledged Himself to us, and His word is true.
"...Who executes justice for the oppressed..." I love this justice stuff, and so apparently does God. It's what defines the good guys versus the bad guys, even though we now know that there aren't necessarily any strictly good guys other than the Lord, but this is the criteria for trying to be part of the good guys' team: 1) identification with the oppressed - we've all been there, even if we're only oppressed by our own foolishness, and 2) an interest in basic decency and fairness, a desire to treat people well and live in community with them.
"...The LORD sets prisoners free..." Notice how similar this language is to Isaiah 61 (TM), which is the passage Jesus read from in Luke 4 (TM) when announcing the beginning of His ministry. All this is named here as appropriate reasons for trusting the Lord instead of man and it has to do with His stated purpose for being on earth. I think that's a slam dunk. It's convincing; it's compelling. Folks go for self-help or personal growth all the time, with a fraction of these prospects.
"...the LORD gives sight to the blind..." Talk about personal growth. I need this. I'm so blind to all kinds of things - the truth about myself being at the top of the list. The Lord is worth of your trust because He shows you how things really are.
"...the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down..." Do you feel beaten or bruised or just really, really tired? He lifts you up if you allow it. This is a picture of restoration. Has the weight of whatever it is you've been carrying gotten just too heavy? The Lord lifts you up. "Come to me," says Jesus (TM). "Cast all your cares on Him," Peter tells us (TM).
"...the LORD loves the righteous..." The Lord loves those who join Him. He loves everyone else, too, I believe, it's just that this is how you allow His work in your life. You join up.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Radical Humility

Brenton Brown has a song called "Humble King." In it he says, "You are the God of the wounded / The friend of the weak / You wash the feet of the weary / Embrace the ones in need / Oh I want to be like You, Jesus / To have this heart in me / You are the God of the humble / You are the humble King."

In an earlier post, I was talking about the radical humility that occurs when we tell the Lord we will accept correction, not only from the Lord Himself, but even from His people, the righteous. This is all the more remakable for the knowledge that these people will be hypocrites, failures, people coming up short personally in the very same areas in which they are giving advice. In essence, people just like us.

This takes some kind of nerve, some kind of desperation, or, most likely, a little of both. Desperation, because we must be desperate to not isolate ourselves, not cocoon, not withdraw to lick our wounds in private. That's the first instinct for so many of us when trouble comes or when we've failed. We're embarrassed. We retreat.

Nerve, because not only are we not retreating, but going public - not just going public, but submitting to the kind (or not so kind) words of the very ones from whom we wanted to hide. It takes some kind of nerve, and some kind of desperation, to stay a course like that.

Paul instructs us to admonish one another in both Romans 15:14 (TM) and Colossians 3:16 (TM), and that requires this kind of humility. I like the fact that love covers a host of sins (TM), because that's what is needed for this to work. We have to be a community of humility in order to receive this kind of input from each other.

Required In Both Directions

Radical humility is required for the one giving the correction as well. Jesus warns us against hypocrisy when He tells us to remove the log (TM) from our own eye in order to deal with the speck in our brother's eye. I think it's noteworthy that He doesn't say just stick to your own eye and leave your brother's eye out of it. That's what generally happens when we manage not to meddle. We say, "it's none of my business." Jesus, however, calls us into community and instructs us on humility.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Blue Parakeet: Chap 3 - 5 Shortcuts

Chapter 3 is really good! Scot outlines five shortcuts that we typically take in reading the Bible. Before I give them, here's a kind of structure for all five.

Overview/Generalization

we see God in some exclusive way or system - the emphasis is shifted, changed
our relationship with God is determined by this system

this leads us to hide something and lie to cover it

the better way is to be non-exclusive, i.e. get over our need to have everything explained

Okay, now on to the details...

Shortcut 1: morsels of law

sees God as cranky, impatient, judgemental - the emphasis is on His righteousness
our relationship with God becomes dependent on our being good

this leads us to hide our behavior and lie about it

the better way is found in the writer of Psalm 119 - the law leads him to deeply love the Lawgiver

Shortcut 2: morsels of blessings

takes a lot of those blessings out of context - sees God as a doting grandmother
our relationship with God becomes diagnosed by "are we being blessed?"

this leads us to hide our circumstances and lie about them

the better way is to read the entire story, seeing the ups and downs

Shortcut 3: inkblots

sees God as we see ourselves - emphasis becomes justifying our story
our relationship with God is defined by tweaking the facts

this leads us to hide non-supporting facts and lie about their existence

the better way is to admit that I can't explain the mysterious

Shortcut 4: mapping God's mind

sees God as finite, understandable - the emphasis becomes categorization
our relationship with God is defined by how smart we are

this leads us to hide our doubts and lie about our certainties

the better way is to admit that we don't know

Shortcut 5: maestros

sees God from a chosen POV - emphasis is on code words more than relationship
our relationship with God is defined by our personal, particular Biblical view

this leads us to hid parts of scripture and lie about their significance

the better way is to take it all in without ignoring things that don't fit - of course to do that, you have to admit that your favored way of viewing things is unable to explain everything

More about each of these later.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Quick Look: Psalm 141:1-5

Let's look quickly at the first five verses (TM) of this excellent psalm.

"LORD, I cry out to You; make haste to me!..." - Sometimes we have to reach a broken-type place in our experience to allow ourselves to cry out to God for help. There's something within that wants to remain in denial many times, and a cry this child-like isn't conducive to denial. In those times of denial, our control seems so fragile, so on -the-brink, that we dare not give voice to the request within us. But things are so much better for us when we do!
"...Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice..." - This is so humble, and so down to earth. I like this aspect of prayer, this laying down of all my cards, and I'm grateful for the Lord's willingness to accept it. We can humbly ask for our prayer to somehow be more acceptable than it really is, and in the Lord's economy, that has an effect. I think that somehow it makes us more mindful of the attitude of our heart, and calls us back to the listening side of prayer as we form the request "Let my prayer..." It calls us to consider, like the Philippian jailer (TM) "...what must I do..."
"...Set a guard..." - Maybe it starts to dawn on us that we are unable to do this stuff alone. Maybe we start to call on the Lord to do some things for us, stuff that He wants us to do. "Set a guard over my mouth" puts the onus onto the Lord, and done correctly, we trust Him to help us in our problem areas. Maybe we start to get a notion of what it means to abide, to be and stay attached to the Vine (TM).
"...Let the righteous strike me..." - Now we're talking radical humility. It's one thing to be humbled before the Lord in private, but here the psalmist actually says that correction from other people will be welcome. And I think that "the righteous" here simply refers to those belonging to Jesus. It's His righteousness, not theirs, so the humility in this passage is the welcoming of correction from imperfect but forgiven humans. That's what is radical about this humility. It calls us to bite back on sharp retorts and "what about your problems?" and all those kinds of protective things we do to save face. I think I'll post about this more in the next day or so.

This psalm points out something incredible: when we ask God to modify our prayer, it inevitably leads to modifying us. Hmm, mercy in action.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Blue Parakeet: Chapter 2, Part 3

In the last post, I opined that the middle road between too much tradition and not enough was part of the big idea of part two. Well, guess what he comes out and says in part three?

Oh, yeah.

We read this: "Reading the Bible with the Tradition gives us guidance but it also gives us freedom to differ with Tradition." Pretty middle of the roadish to me, but I will say once again, maneuvering a middle path between two extremes is both difficult and worthwhile.

Here's my take on what this third way expresses: we read the Bible with one eye on the way it's traditionally been read. Which tradition? Well, tradition in this instance can include more than one interpretation. I don't know if Scot believes that, but practically speaking, this is what you and I are going to see and deal with, not knowing in a scholarly way just how close our little "t" tradition fits with the big "T" Tradition to which he refers. In addition to that, many Christians have different views competing for the title of "Tradition." Some people go to more than one church. Some read books by leaders outside of their local church's purview, or watch sermons on TV.

I guess that, for most of us, "Tradition" will have to refer to what is understood to be traditional within my denomination or local church or Christian authority. Look at it in this light first, and you need to have a darn good reason for departing from this understanding.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Bible Reading

Now, what about the Holy Spirit? It's always been my understanding that we read scripture with the help of the Spirit. That's what has to happen on an individual basis. Of course, once we start discussing what truth the Spirit has lead us into (John 16:13) (TM), then we will start to find differences and have disagreements. Let's not let this be the end of the story as is so often the case, but rather the beginning of a long and fruitful dialog in which each party learns of and decides to remove planks and specks from their own eyes, moving together into a better understanding of the Lord, and a closer walk with Him.

Next, we get into Chapter 3.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Quick Look: Psalm 106:1-4

Let's go quickly through the first 4 verses of Psalm 106 (TM).

"...my heart is steadfast..." - I take this to be a pledge, and sort of like the single eye that I've posted about before. I think it's worth thinking about here.

I tell the Lord that I'm bringing my focus to bear on Him

It might even be true. I certainly better believe it to be true, but honestly, sometimes we don't get it done.
It's an entirely good thing to make these confessions of intent to the Lord.

"...I will sing and give praise..." - more intentions - this is goal setting on a spiritual level...

When you are at this level of tenderness toward God, these kinds of declarations are entirely normal
I think this speaks toward our being made 1) in His image, and 2) with an urge to return to Him, that ignites really only (TM) when the Holy Spirit is calling us...

"...even with my glory..." - this is a curious turn of phrase - NIV says "...with all my soul..."
"...Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn..." - I take this as more joyful exuberance

It's hyperbole, and that's okay. God can handle it.
It shows that certain willingness that demonstrates the fact that walls are down, and we are radically open to the Lord.

"...I will praise You, O LORD, among the peoples. And I will sing praises to You among the nations..." - here we're not ashamed (TM) of the Lord, or of sharing about what He's done for me...
"...For Your mercy is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the clouds..." - both the mercy and the truth of the Lord are all encompassing

Blue Parakeet: Chapter 2, Part 2

I'm blogging through Scot McKnight's brand new The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. All these posts start with Blue Parakeet: I hope you'll join me. Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed!

In this second part, Scot talks about reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther. Both put the Bible into the hands of ordinary people, but they also put catechisms and commentaries into their hands. Scot tells us their aim was to summarize and give an overview of the faith so that the people might not dive off into a lot of needless error. I was relieved when Scot got around to saying that we could reduce tradition down to the non-negotiables such as the Apostles' Creed and go from there. It put me in mind of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. This is good, because we don't want to go back to the bad old days when every denomination thought every other denomination was going to hell. If post-modernism does anything for us, surely it's to protect us from that kind of hubris.

What you want is the smallest possible set of non-negotiables because, given that we are looking "through a glass darkly" (TM), that's how you avoid excluding people from fellowship in error which may satisfy us, but hardly satisfies the purpose of the Bible. And maybe that's key to a couple of the most basic realizations we can have: 1) relationship trumps being "right," and 2) the Bible is without error, but we frequently find ourselves and the way we read the Bible (by this I mean our interpretation) in error. Jesus said that the Spirit would lead us "into all truth" (TM), but He didn't say it would happen by today (or even this side of the grave). So chill a bit.

Scot's making a powerful argument here for middle ground, for not going against the core of our 2000 year old community, and for not fabricating rigid requirements beyond that core. It takes discipline to stay in the middle and not give in to either extreme: too much tradition or not enough.

Next, the third way of reading from Chapter 2.