'Decreedalizing' Jesus

I always use the Gospel of Mark as my confirmation gospel. It allows teenagers, for perhaps the first time in their young lives, to ask questions that have probably been on their minds for a long time. Maybe I am giving a perceived curiosity in these fourteen year olds too much credence. It is just as likely that what they have been told about Jesus throughout Sunday School has made him so irrelevant to their lives that the only reason they are willing to endure confirmation is so that can have a neat party after completion. Until the blank stares and obvious boredom reach an as of yet undefined tipping point, I will cling to the hope that something we study and discuss will make these young folks cling to the Christian faith.

But, one thing I am sure of is that if we don't release Jesus from his creedal strait jacket the church is doomed to its continued journey towards total irrelevance. That's why I have chosen Mark as the confirmation gospel. I open our study with questions. "If Paul's letters were written before any of the gospels, and if Mark was the first gospel written, what are we to make of the fact that neither Paul nor the writer of Mark mention the Virgin Birth? In fact, what are we to make of the fact that neither Paul nor the writer of Mark seemed to be even aware of Jesus' Virgin Birth? Or, if they were aware of the Virgin Birth don't you think they would have thought it was important enough to mention?" If those three questions don't arouse interest, my final one usually does: "Do you believe that a woman can have a baby without having sex?" Yes, fourteen year olds have an interest in sex! Most of them, because good teachers or parents have taught them something about the 'birds and bees' will quickly answer that final question.

"No Ron, we don't believe that a woman can have a baby without having sex."

And yet, sometime after they have honestly stated a scientific well-reasoned fact, they will probably be asked to recite these words, if they are to remain in the great cloud of witnesses -"I believe in Jesus Christ,. . . who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,". It tells the confirmand that if he or she is to be classified as a 'believer' they must state something that they patently don't believe.

With this exchange in the basement of our parish hall after our Sunday morning worship service I begin the process of attempting to 'decreedalize' Jesus. Whatever purpose the creeds have served in the past, they have become a millstone around the necks of those who truly desire to be followers in the twenty-first century.

I am saddened that my own denomination's latest hymnal felt the need to include both the Apostles' Creed (from which the above affirmation was taken) and The Nicene Creed. The lame attempt to provide a more inclusive alternate version, in the same hymnal, is a rearranging of the deck chairs on a theological Titanic. I guess I'm less enthused that in the alternate version of the Apostle's Creed 'Lord' is turned into 'Sovereign' than I am troubled that Mary remains a virgin. I am pleased that the Virgin Mary is left out of the UCC Statement of Faith, although I wish they would have included Paul's proclamation that Jesus 'was born of a woman.' Someone as fervent in his discipleship as Paul didn't need a virgin born Jesus to proclaim him Lord, oops sorry, Sovereign.

"We find our understandings of God in the life and teachings of Jesus and in our experiences of Christ in our community." That's one of the points in our church's 'Who We Are. How We Live' statement. (Note: We don't speak of belief, which is a poor substitute for faith.) If I want my confirmands to get an understanding of God through the life and teachings of Jesus it is unnecessary and even detrimental to say that Jesus somehow existed outside of the laws of nature. A fully human Jesus is my gateway to God. I want to free Jesus from his creedal strait jacket and reassert his humanity. By following the fully human Jesus we might just rediscover our own humanity and the divinity that is at the core of all of God's sons and daughters.