Patience Grasshopper.

I am no theology geek, but I must say that the main reason I am a United Methodist is because of our understanding of grace and the fact that how we come to interpret Christ's action in the world is through this quadrilateral of Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.  This allows us freedom to recognize that God speaks and moves in many different ways, just as we are all unique.  Rather than base our understanding of God on personal experience alone, we filter that experience through our knowledge of the others.  Rather than simply base what we know on the tradition from which we come, we allow our personal experiences to color our understandings of who God is in the world today.  This prevents us from being overly dogmatic and allows our theology and worship to unfold as God continues to reveal God's self in the world.  

So many times in life we are confronted with situations for which we want immediate answers.  Often we find ourselves in relationships that need some help and we aren't sure what steps to take.  I know for many making career decisions can be a painful and scary process if we have to live in the uncertain for too long.  For me, it's easy at this point to take things into my own hands and try to figure out the quickest (often easiest) solution.  It's easy to deal with these things when we think we are in control, when we think we know all the factors and consequences.  It is much harder to reflect on what Scripture, tradition, reason and experience might teach us....and even harder to trust in a God that doesn't "speak" immediately.  

The lectionary Scripture for today comes from John 8:

12 Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”

13 The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”

14-18 Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”

Jesus is challenging these Pharisees to recognize that they must see outside of their experience and what they've been taught if they want to recognize God.  It is too easy to simply live our lives based on what we can "see and touch" we must do our best to tap into the "largeness" of God, a perspective that just might be much different than our own.  

These days it seems like we take all sides of every issue and rather than embrace the mystery of how God might be at work we divide ourselves into camps.  It is easy to pull one verse of Scripture and tell the world that "God says" or "God believes" and much more difficult to embrace the mystery of God.  It is easier to divide and dislike than to open ourselves to the unfolding knowledge of God's story in the world.  It is more comfortable to make decisions based on our opinions, to make our own plans at the expense of what God-opportunities might come to fruition.

What situations, people, or plans are you trying to control?  I want to be more intentional about grounding myself in this process of reflecting before I rush to say or do.  It will take patience.  Yikes.

In what ways does this Scripture speak to you?