Academia!

It's 10:45PM, I stumble into my domicile half asleep but excited. Tonight was one of those nights that education comes alive. I had class, REL304 Genesis: Creation and Fall, from 6:30PM to 9:30PM. Most weeks the professor is lucky if he can hold the attention of the whole class through 9:00PM; tonight we stayed right up until 9:30PM...it was wonderful (says the annoying "non-trad").

Religion 304 focuses on Genesis, chapters 1 through 3. Tonight was the first night that it felt like we were truly getting into a moment of wrestling with God as a group. We've had a few good classroom discussions prior to this, but nothing this in-depth or thought provoking. Have you read through the first three chapters of the Bible lately? In one sitting? I've done it about a dozen times this year...and each time it gets more confusing and produces even more questions.

What got me excited tonight was when one of the young men in my class--I can use the phrase young man because he's probably 20+ years younger than I am--asked, amidst the quiet chaos of our discussion, the kind of question that I've been waiting to hear. He wanted to know if it was possible that God would limit His own ability to see into the future in order to make sense of giving humankind free will? The question arose from reading the pericope and considering the idea that God created Adam and Eve KNOWING that they would choose to disobey. It's kind of like putting a big red button in front of a small child and telling them not to push it...you do so knowing they will most likely push it, you have set them up to fail. The questions finally came back around to asking if God created mankind to fail on purpose? And if He did, doesn't that seem kind of mean? Lighting bolts did not rain down, but the wrestling match was on.

I might have had a problem with this 20 years ago; and, I don't think it would be inaccurate to say that there might have been apprehension on the part of some people in the room. After all, no one is taking this class as a general education elective. Most of us are in the process of earning some sort of ministry or theology major. Are we allowed to ask questions like this?

My response is an enthusiastic "YES!" tempered with the belief that we can only do so with the realization that we bring a question like this to God, and each other, with empty hands. We have nothing to offer to Him in return for understanding and insight. I'd like to say that we came up with a definitive answer to the question as a result of our discussion but we did not...and I think that's fine.

"What if God placed these paradoxes within the Scriptures to cause me to struggle for the truth? What if it is the struggle he desires as much as the truth itself? Could it be that the truth lies not in one of the seemingly opposed answers to the paradox, but in between them, within the paradox itself? Could it be that uncompromising stances on the paradoxical teachings of the Scriptures are foolishness, no matter how important the doctrine or belief in question, because such dogmatic posturing misses the point entirely? Could it be that the answer to these either/or questions of paradox is neither this nor that, but simply, "Yes"and "Yes"?" (Athol Dickson. Gospel according to Moses, The: What My Jewish Friends Taught Me about Jesus (p. 70). Kindle Edition.)

It felt great to get to a point in the conversation where we could look around the room and realize that maybe we don't have all the answers and, as long as we're here on this earth, we might not ever have them...and that is OK!

I'll admit it, I'm hoping for a few more classes like this. :)