Resolutions should (ideally) change how you see. A lot of the Proverbs are directed to getting young men to see that not investing chastely in their marriage, work and wisdom was not a short road to delight, but rather a short road to ignominy and death. The wise are those with the larger scope, the wider, higher-definition vision. (A digression on the lameness of big tvs wants to come here, but I will hold it off.)
What brings people into church is the unrecognisable or unresolvable, thick and dreadful darkness. What keeps them there is the light of truth. Preaching and teaching should offer solid resolutions to problems. I am relatively 'pro' positive-thinking, which often mimics christian teaching without offering any validation or limitation, or even any motivation. I think what we now see as 'positive thinking', worldly, selfish and flawed, is really much of what Christianity used to (and still does in some communities) offer. It is one part of the way preaching, teaching and communicating the faith is essentially aimed at helping people. I am impatient with churches that aren't willing to say they have answers for living.
There are two reasons this is out of fashion with the more thoughtful christians of today. First, the problems faced in daily life are complex, and a finite list of answers will be exhausted by the manifold of reality. Second, the examples of people giving terrible answers that satisfy the base passions but do nothing to solve real problems: scientific racism, militant creationism, biblical literalism, bad fundamentalism.
The reason Christians follow Jesus is that he declares resolutions that work better than our own. To accept them changes who you are, indeed it involves giving up on the dream of who you are and swallowing the ugly truth.
The christian community, like the christian, needs to hear declarations that make experience intelligible. But the gospel teaches that the hearing requires transformation, the opening up of new intentional territory and a new place to stand.
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Your last post, 'this is that', was one of my favourites so far. It really made sense to me, perhaps because of my habit of poetry. Poetry is all about 'this is that'. As are many bits of the Bible, and particularly the gospels. I think most of life, (at least the examined life), is an exercise in 'this is that'. Do I go too far?
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to say for some time, and this post prompts me again, that I think a whole post on 'resolve/resolution' is due. It seems to be foundational in your thinking, so I think we'd all enjoy hearing more about how you understand it, and why you think it matters. Eh, readership?
I will see what I can do.
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