Bottom Line Non-Negotiables

They come out of the woodwork this time of year even more than they do at Easter-time. They come challenging me to change their minds about the “magical” (their word, not mine) things, or the “superstitious” (again, their word, not mine) things about Christianity. As modern or post-modern people, they simply cannot reconcile their knowledge of how the universe works with what they think are the “bottom-line, non negotiable” about all sorts of things – the inerrancy of the bible, the virgin birth, how the bible says one thing one place and a completely contrary and other thing in another, and all the rest. It’s as if they are yearning to be convinced that they have it all wrong, that the bible really should be read literally, that the virgin birth can be reconciled with everything else we know about higher mammals reproducing, and how the bible is, as a piece of literature, a difficult but interesting cohesive and consistent whole. And they are disappointed when I am not smart enough to do that.

Mostly, I cannot do that because these things that they think are non-negotiables are very negotiable to me. Now, if they would only ask me what my bottom line about all this religious stuff is, what my non-negotiables were, they would likely be surprised by my answers, because they have little or nothing to do with miracles or biblical inerrancy or any of the other stuff that we get into arguments about.

I can think of 4 “non-negotiables,” and none of them have anything to do with:

-this or that style of worship,

-this or that style of study programs,

-this or that style of architecture, organizational schemes, dress codes, political affinity tradition, custom, culture, denomination,

-old hymns, new hymns, hi-tech, low-tech, intellectual distance, touchy-feely intimacy

Rather, at least today, for me those 4 “bottom line” things are:

1) Jesus is an embodiment of God. Somehow, through Jesus, God comes from beyond time and space to show us how it’s done. I have no idea how that happens, and it doesn’t really matter to me.

2) To be Christian is to be open and willing to be an embodiment of God like Jesus. To be like Jesus doesn’t mean dressing like him, eating like him, wandering from town to town like him; it doesn’t mean not listening to hard rock music and not dancing and not standing up for what you think. To be like Jesus means to try to be an embodiment of God, and that means to care for others with integrity, honesty, and true compassion.

3) To be a Christian, I have to know intimately the story of Jesus, because the beginning place for every interaction is the goal to be like Jesus. And that means that I need to know more about the story than Christmas, Easter, and the occasional platitude that excuses my non-Christian behavior while condemning yours.

4) To be a Christian is to embrace the notion that God loves me unconditionally, just as I am. God loves you unconditionally, just as you are. I am, and you are, therefore, freed from having to prove myself to me to you, or to anyone, and am liberated to love even those who seem most unlovable to me and you.

Much of the time, the stuff we pick fights about (miracles, the suspensions of the laws of physics, the often prejudicial ways very pious people often behave, literal or figurative reading of the bible and tradition, etc.) help us avoid the things that matter most. And today, 4 days before Christmas, these 4 things are at the heart of what matters for me.