What Christianity means to me is… well, complicated isn’t exactly the right word. My views aren’t especially confusing, unclear, or difficult to explain. Perhaps “radical” is a better word. Radical as in “way different than normal”. I’ll write more about that soon.
For now, I just want to share something I saw recently that seemed to gel with my thinking.
I was impressed with the sermon notes my friend Eric Mann posted recently, especially his conclusion:
So today there are really three points you need to remember:
- That we were made expressly for the purpose of working
- That we were made to do specific good works that were prepared in advance
- That we were given the model of Christ to follow as we do these works in the service of others
I trip over #1. I’m skeptical that we “were made expressly” for anything. But! It does seem to me that work is a compulsion most of us have. If we were made for something, it is evidently to work.
I can also quibble with #2. I’m skeptical that some benevolent and detail-oriented deity has a master plan for you and for me. But! I feel compelled to take opportunities to do good works, and I see that is fairly common, and I think it’s remarkable (if not entirely magical) that there is no end of opportunities for us to exercise that compulsion.
But that’s all beside the point. Eric and I may not see eye to eye on my quibbles, but that’s fine with me. I admire him for his ethics, and for preaching them.
Number 3 is spot on. It is one of the tentpoles of my own personal religion.
If that is all Jesus was — nothing metaphysical about it, just a model Really Good Guy — that’s interesting enough for me. The guy was amazing.