I had a very unusual (for me) conversation today at work. A co-worker of mine is, I guess, a Christian. She has done youth ministry before and is a proud member of the United Church of Christ. She is very proud of her denomination and also of the fact that it is Obama's denomination as well.
What was unusual to me was to run in with true theological Liberalism. I feel like I had my initiation. She and I were talking about a Brennan Manning book. We both seemed to be tracking with each other. It became clear after a time that she is decidedly NOT evangelical, which is fine because that means so little today. But as the conversation continued and other co-workers participated it became clearer and clearer that the Gospel was not a place of common ground for us. It partcularly became clear that we did not speak the same language when she began talking about Unitarians. She said that she did not like the Unitarian way of saying you can call anything "God" and worship whatever you want. I would have agreed if she hadn't added the words, "Not that there's anything wrong with doing that." Worshiping trees and calling God "mother" is just not her preference. These were not words I was used to trying to process.
Surfing the internet tonight I came across this quote of Barth's. It helps me put things in perspective as I continue to pray for and seek God's potential guidance on how to handle these moments in the future. A few years ago I would have simply started a fight for the sake of at least "saying something." At other times I would not have spoken up at all. This time I just mumbled along impotently.
This quote helped because it reminded me that in times past my real motivation for speaking would have been either fear of not saying something or a jealous competitiveness to "win." Now I just want her to know the gospel, and I know that I am an unworthy and incapable messenger. Perhaps Jesus will open the door. Prayers are appreciated.
“The Gospel neither requires men to engage in the conflict of religions or the conflict of philosophies, nor does it compel them to hold themselves aloof from these controversies. In announcing the limitation of the known world by another that is unknown, the Gospel does not enter into competition with the many attempts to disclose within the known world some more or less unknown and higher form of existence and to make it accessible to men. The Gospel is not a truth among other truths. Rather, it sets a question-mark against all truths. The Gospel is not the door but the hinge. The man who apprehends its meaning is removed from all strife, because he is engaged in a strife with the whole, even with existence itself. Anxiety concerning the victory of the Gospel — that is, Christian Apologetics — is meaningless, because the Gospel is the victory by which the world is overcome. By the Gospel the whole concrete world is dissolved and established. It does not require representatives with a sense of responsibility, for it is as responsible for those who proclaim it as it is for those to whom it is proclaimed.”
Karl Barth — The Epistle To The Romans, pg. 35.
