all I need is me, my Bible and Jesus?

So I’ve been meaning to write this all week. To quote the Matrix, this thought has been like “a splinter in my mind.” I just haven’t been able to let it go, which I guess is a good thing. But before I delve in let me say that the weather has finally cooled, I am out with my trusty Mac on the porch, with my daughter beside me and a little Dave Matthews playing. Aaagh, this is life. Now that I have given you the setting, I can set forth on the “splinter.”

I think it all started Tuesday as I sat in my History of Christianity class at RTS. We have been studying the early church heretics, which has been both fascinating and disturbing. In the midst of this the professor has commented numerous times that one cannot DO THEOLOGY IN ISOLATION. This thought popped into my mind as I conversed with a fellow classmate, a man who is retired and is auditing the course for sheer knowledge sake (probably what education should be, but that’s another discussion). This man is humble, gentle and well thought through. He seems to have a deep love of Jesus and His Church. I respect him greatly. I guess the conversation served to remind me of the need I have to be in conversation with men and women who have much more wisdom than I. Often I have the tendency (i.e. previous blogs) to think I know best. I may have a different perspective at times, but this should not negate the perspectives of others who have traveled the road before me. I’m living in this tension of wanting to think differently about the Church, whilst retaining what is good and pure and right with the Church. For someone who is not one for convention, this is tough for me. I just need to make sure my thoughts are held in check and explored with the wisdom that is prevalent in so many that surround me, both young and old.

It just can’t be me, my Bible and Jesus. I have to be in community. I need to be forming my theology in the presence of others who may think differently. I want to speak into the dialogue of current issues pertaining to the Church and theology, but I also need to be willing to listen. There is no dialogue if I am simply spouting off my thoughts. The heretics did theology in isolation. The heretics trumpeted their cause with reckless abandon, but to the detriment of themselves and the Church. I don’t want to be a heretic, but I also don’t want to blindly accept what has been handed to me. God would you give me wisdom.