Bumping Up Against the Limits of Language

Near the end of my trip to Poland, Adam (my friend and tour guide extraordinaire) and I relaxed at his parents summer garden home. It was located in a walled and gated community of gardens and summer dwellings. After enjoying some fresh vegetables, a barbeque, and a campfire, we decided to head back to his apartment inside the city.

It was getting dark, and after trying the main gate and the back gate, it seemed that somehow we had been locked inside. As I remember it, we had keys - but they didn't work at either of the gates. We were a little concerned because the walls and gates weren't just for show - they really did keep thieves and vandals out. In this case they were doing a good job of keeping us inside. And we needed to get back to his apartment because we were leaving early the next morning for Warsaw where I would catch my plane home.

Adam recalled that there was one other gate - a small one (walk-thru only) on the far wall. We joked (and hoped) that surely our keys would work and we would be able to get out through it because it was the "narrow gate." Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha. Ahhh bible college humour - how tedious are you? And sure enough, our key opened the narrow gate. We were quite impressed with our very literal and practical application of Matthew 7:13-14:

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Its neat when you have experiences that embody passages of Scripture. Whenever I read these verses I think of that day in Poland when after a few frantic moments and running from gate to gate, we found the small gate and passed through its narrow opening. And although we were trying to "exit" not "enter" I feel the analogy still holds up in that when we find the narrow gate (Jesus) and pass through (salvation) we find horizons and new dimensions of life and existence opening up before us - to where our lives before Jesus and salvation look cramped and restricted, walled in and gated.

I also believe that these verses are descriptive of the field of theology. This became evident to me when I started writing sermons. The pressure of speaking in front people, no less a congregation, no less from the Word of God - - - makes you more attentive than usual to the theological statements you make and the various ways they may possibly be misinterpreted.

This can be good, but for the most part it's just paranoia and you end up wasting time overexplaining for the sake of clarity things that are beside the point and already clear. (Which kind of reminds me of Mr. Casaubon in Middlemarch working on his historical magnum opus but getting nowhere because he was always mired deep in footnotes.) (Also . . . it's always good to credit your audiences' intelligence - - people are usually more perceptive than you think.) Many times I've found myself far down a tangent path trying to get the emphasis just right, the "flip-side of the coin" expressed, the terms all defined.

Theological expression can be an exercise in bumping up against the limits of language. For me "the way is narrow that leads to life" illustrates how on one side of the highway of truth there is the ditch of understatement, and on the other - overemphasis. And we're always sliding from one shoulder to the other, as we try to express ourselves accurately and in accordance with the Word of God, as best we can. And "as best we can" is key because as more than one theologian has put it - the limits of our humanity makes our theological quests for an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God . . . hilarious. But we can find reassurance in that the God that is revealed in Jesus Christ, is the God that comes looking for us.

Take for example, that last sentence. The question may be asked: so, are you saying that God comes looking for us and we are totally passive in salvation? And then if you're saying that do you mean to say that people who never accept salvation are people God forsakes and never comes looking for? So we could get into a discussion about the order of salvation . . . or I could just tell you that the intention of that statement was that we have no knowledge about the God revealed in Jesus Christ other that what he has revealed to us. And he has revealed himself to us so in spite of all the ways we may be incorrect, in spite of our finiteness and his infinity, theology is by no means a hopeless task. And we could take those sentences apart and go down a few more tangents . . .

And while we're talking about clarifying theological statements, I'd like to clarify something I said in my last post. I said that instead of looking at Jesus' life and considering the question WWJD? it would probably be easier to go to the New Testament epistles and see what they explicitly say about how we should live. And that's kind of a crappy thing to say, but this is after all, a blog, not a textbook.

The truth is that Jesus obviously has lots of things to say himself about how we should live - - so forgive me I wasn't trying to pull some weird championing of Paul over the Gospels. My point was more like - - asking WWJD? instead of Jesus, what would you have me do - might have you mistakingly spitting in peoples eyes for their healing (on the other hand, he may ask you to do that . . .) or trying to feed thousands of people with your PB & J sandwiches (but it's possible he may have you do that too). He's unpredictable : )

As C.S. Lewis would say, "He's dangerous! But he's good."