Week 38—Wednesday Colossians 2:2-3
Week 38—WEDNESDAY
SELF-CENTERED AND SELF-CONTAINED TRUTHS
TURN OUT TO BE LESS THAN TRUTH
From what I said yesterday it would seem that I am prejudiced against modern education, psychiatry, religious education, and counseling. I am in favor of all four and am carrying on all four directly or indirectly. What I am opposed to is these directives becoming self-contained, self-sufficient, unrelated to anything beyond themselves, making truths the end, unrelated to the Truth, the Incarnate Truth. The consequence is that since they have no starting point they have no goal. They turn around on themselves. They know more and more about less and less.
Let them put one point of the compass on Jesus Christ, the Truth, and then let the other point sweep as far into truths as it will—even these would be coherent truths, related to Truth. With a Starting Point they would have a Goal. In him all things would cohere. Out of him all things are incoherent. The universe is a multiverse, nothing to hold it together.
Take nondirective counseling—taken over by Christians from secular psychology—what relation has it to “the revelation” Jesus has “brought”? Suppose Jesus had gathered people about him on the Mount and had said, “Now, folks, talk about yourselves, talk freely, and I’ll throw in a question now and again.” Instead of the Sermon on the Mount with its “I say unto you,” we would have had a lot of confused question marks. A mess, not a message. Question marks, but not exclamation points. And the people would at the end say, not that “he speaks with authority,” but that, “we are not sure of his position, not sure of ourselves, not sure of anything. We just are not sure.” This kind of approach would not produce people who “were astonished at his teaching,” but people who are astonished at nothing and agnostic about everything. There is nothing to be astonished about—there is only good news, but no Good News. And no conversions, for there is nothing to be converted to. It is all “flesh.”
O Jesus Lord and Redeemer, you do not leave us with “flesh,” for you are the Word become flesh. Amid the flesh there is this blessed, blessed light of the Word. In its light we see life, and what a life, and what possibility opens. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Truth that doesn’t lead me to his feet is truth astray, light turned to darkness.