Finding God in the Questions: A Personal Journey Book

P.66 This drive for relationship, not just for sex, is a universal characteristic of human nature. We spend much of our lives consumed with desire for an intimate relationship that will satisfy all our needs, emotional as well as physical...We know that physical touch has extraordinary power to increase well-being, and the lack of it jeopardizes well-being. Studies show that happily married couples enjoy better health and longer lives than singles or unhappily married individuals.

The Chalcedonian Creed (A.D. 451)
The Chalcedonian Creed reads:
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

p. 134-136 "It is enough to make me weep'this reduction of the vibrant Jesus portrayed in the Gospels to the stilted language of church leaders under pressure from the emperor to settle their theological differences. It is almost as if they had turned the profoundly beautiful relationship between Jesus and God as recorded in the Gospels into a basic biology lesson! From this moment on, the course was set. Not only would the church increasingly define its beliefs and practice through highly intellectualized creedal statements, but the humble organization of the initial Jesus Movement would eventually become the imperial church sanctioned by imperial Rome. It would become a political and even military-like force that would often elevate itself to the heights of secular power and prestige but all too often at the spiritual expense of distorting the original message of Jesus.

I believe that if Jesus were to return to earth today, he would be stunned and saddened to see that the church founded in his name has too often become a gathering of those more concerned to be politically influential or socially powerful than to be spiritually available to those in need.

This is just one of many reasons why I have come to prefer the phrase a "follower of Jesus" rather than the label "Christian." The latter word too often simply indicates blind support of the various aspects of the religion called Christianity. (The word Christianity, designating a formal religion, is not found in the New Testament and is first used by a Roman historian in the second century.) I personally like "follower of Jesus" for many reasons, including
• It drives me back to the Gospel accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus as my spiritual guide. It puts me in the good company of the first followers of Jesus who knew nothing of the later intellectual formulations that would transform the Jesus they had experienced in real life into the Christ of the creeds and the church.
• It does not force me into explaining what kind of Christian I am or am not'for example, a "Jerry Falwell" Christian or a "Bishop Spong" Christian, both of whom claim to be Christians but are as different as night and day in what they believe and teach.
• It does not require me to defend the terrible misdeeds of some past representatives of the Christian religion or to justify the cultural stridency of some modern Christians. It also frees me from playing the endless and divisive intellectual game of who is "right" and which theological positions (all of them too human in their verbal formulations) are "true." Indeed, sometimes the shouting match between so-called believers begins to sound like that of children in a theological sandbox screaming, "My God is better than your God!" The terrible religious hatred of recent times reminds us just how dangerous that theological sandbox fighting can become. If there is one thing I am now absolutely certain of, it is that no human minds or committees will ever capture the powerful reality we call God with human words or formulas or creeds. At best, and even then only a distant second best, they can be only an approximation of that reality.

Most importantly, calling myself a follower of Jesus urges me to pursue the kind of life portrayed and taught by Jesus in the Gospels. Indeed, the Gospel writer Luke, in his history of the early church as recorded in the book of Acts, often refers to the early followers of Jesus as those who followed the "Way of the Lord." I like the feel and sound of that phrase, implying a personal commitment of the heart to the "Way of Jesus" rather than a mental commitment to the intellectual formulations of church theologians.

p. 142 I believe this phrase'"born again"'should be understood metaphorically to describe a dramatic spiritual change in a person's life, so dramatic that it is reminiscent of our initial physical birth'a conversion of from one kind of existence (in the womb) to another (in the outside world).

p.180

"Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing." ~ Blaise Pascal

But, you might say, you lose your integrity and self-respect if you bet on God without really believing in it. For that reason, I personally don't feel comfortable with this kind of intellectual bet'a logical analysis that concludes "there is nothing to lose" in betting that God exists.