Why I Am a Christian

October 27, 2016

WHY I AM A CHRISTIAN

I am part of a long tradition of women and men who have been shaped by the stories of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I have accepted the central vision of the man Jesus of Nazareth, which is that life is to be lived in love. 

The first theologian of the Christian faith was a Jew named Paul. He agreed with Jesus that love is the fulfilling of the law. All the commandments, the instructions, the guidance of the Hebrew Scriptures can be summed up as the moral imperative to love one another.

The people of the Christian faith have developed institutions and organizations to put love into practice: such as hospitals, schools, hospices, disaster relief, orphanages, etc.

My people have combined the truth and wisdom of the Jewish faith and the Greek philosophers to shape cultures based on science, moral virtue, artistic creativity, and educational opportunities.

The Church as an institution has a mixed history. It has allowed itself to be coopted by government authorities. It has slid into the position of usurping state authority. It has developed rigid, unethical laws for its people. It has, in short, been unfaithful to its original character.

But the Church has also been the carrier of the Good News of human dignity and the moral obligation to care for the weak and the vulnerable.

As part of the people who name themselves followers of Jesus, I have felt motivated to be an advocate for people who are treated unfairly or inhumanely. Furthermore, I have joined other Christians in showing concern for the ecological health of our communities and the planet.

Christians are in continuity with the Jewish prophets who called for justice and mercy. We join our Jewish sisters and brothers in the mission of being a light to the world.

Christ is the one to whom I turn for guidance in living. His life, his example, his way of embodying the moral vision of the God of Israel, is the criterion of my behavior and life style. The way he related to people with reverence and humility is the north star for my way of life.

The death of Christ has given meaning to the way I understand the transcendent power of the universe. His death represents the truth that the power of life finds meaning in giving and emptying itself. An old way of interpreting the death of Jesus as a father (God) killing his son (Jesus) has been a wrong reading of the Gospel narrative. Instead, I join other Christians who read the story of the crucifixion as the pulling back of the curtain to show how God is willing to become vulnerable and share our pain and tragedy and injustice. The cross reveals a caring heart at the center of reality. To Jesus is God is to say that God was Jesus on the cross. The Absolute entered the relative to reveal a love that is not detached and uncaring. This for Christians is the clue to accepting that God cares even when God doesn’t “show up” or intervene in every tragedy. To take the cross seriously is to know that even when it seems as if God doesn’t care, God’s permission for evil to destroy life is not proof of such a feeling; that in fact there is a caring that has been revealed that we hold onto.

The resurrection of Jesus from dead is a mysterious reality that gives hope. Christians speak of what happened in the resurrection in different ways. For some the historical nature of Jesus’ resurrection is essential. For others the objective nature of the event is not crucial; the significance of the resurrection is found rather in its energizing effect. The fact that the Church was born and spread into all the world  cannot be accounted for without some radical empowerment at its origin. The reports in the gospels a generation later and the basis of Paul’s writings earlier all attest to some kind of existential encounter with a life-giving force that is described as Christ himself alive.

The world of the first century and the world of the 21st century seem so far apart and so differentiated that some people view the New Testament accounts as being from a different world. We have to give some poetic license to the apostolic writers, as well as reading their accounts with the perspective of ancient Semitic literary sensitivities in order to enter their world of language and culture.