Lesson 39: How Do We Determine God’s Word – Community 1

Finding myself on vacation, I plan to be more anecdotal in the next couple weeks. Well, perhaps it has to do with more than my vacation. I think we have come to where we truly live our lives. That means speaking of experience more than theology.

When I want to check whether an inspiration is really God’s Word, I begin by asking my wife. It is not that she is infallible, but she shares my faith and knows our situation. If I am still not sure, I check with the rest of the family and my trusted friends. I might do that in casual conversation or more organized groups, such as Sunday School classes or theological seminars.

This is one way the community that Paul described as the Body of Christ helps me hear God’s Word. We so often use the term to describe one of the elements in the Communion meal that we forget it primarily refers to the people who gather to share that meal. Jesus speaks of this role played by the community when he promised to be present when two or three gather in his name.

The Church has usually agreed that the ultimate way we test an individual charisma is how it plays out in the Body of Christ. That does not mean the majority rules or that we need to form a consensus. God can certainly speak a special message to an individual.
It also does not mean the community operates without taking into consideration the other parts of the tradition, such as canon, creed, custom, ceremony, and clergy. However, in most cases if the community rejects the inspiration, it is suspect. Even Pope Benedict in a former life wrote that the individual conscience remains the ultimate standard.

Some warn this concept is dangerous, because it leads to “relativism” and “situational ethics”. They argue it enables secular society to determine God’s Word. In fact, some sophisticated theologians say Christianity should never claim to be relative. My response has always been what good is it if it does not relate to the people, time, and place of my real life.

One of those theologians recently published an article about how he has changed his mind. He wrote when looking back over many decades he finds his theological developments followed his life experiences. He then traced them by referring to national and world events. My wife, realist and sometimes cynic, laughed with a “told you so” She had always observed his work reflected his life experiences, no matter how much he claimed to be objective and even absolute. With another laugh she observed he still was not being totally honest with himself, because the experiences that marked his development had more to do with the events in the life of his daughter that of the nation.

That rings true for me. I find the Holy Spirit has often led me through my relationships to new insights that I identify with God’s Word. I am sure one reason I feel as I do about homosexuality is because so many of my dear friends have homosexual children. Come to think of it, this is exactly the way the Holy Spirit operated throughout the Acts of the Apostles in opening baptism to Gentiles and Europeans. It led in new directions by providing new experiences.

Tags: body of Christ, community, God's word, inspiration