8/24/03

Dear Christian Moravian Friends,

 

I am an associate member of The Jesus Seminar and Westar Institute.  Although I do not subscribe to all of the research and writings, I have been stimulated in my spiritual development by the exciting things coming out of the Seminar and Westar.  I question many of its positions and am enlightened by a few. 

 

"The Ground of the Unity" doctrinal statement of our church is a beautifully written and valuable statement.  There are a few things in it that I disagree with, but by and large I accept it as sound doctrine.  Sometimes, it disturbs me a bit to find a lot of members apparently referring to "The Ground" as though it were almost scripturally authoritative.  True, it has been, since I think 1954, widely accepted as truly the ground of our faith.

 

We have been charged, in the electrical sense, and enlivened in the past couple of years with vigorous debate over two issues: 1) homosexuality, which I consider a tempest in a teapot, and 2) the primacy of Jesus Christ.

 

I think we can learn from The Jesus Seminar to separate the historical Jesus from the Christ Jesus.  The former was an extraordinary man who never wrote anything down that we know of.  All we know about him is filtered through others' expressions.  The Jesus Seminar has done a remarkable job of separating the things that Jesus the man probably actually said and did from the legendary words and deeds.  Not even the fellows of The Jesus Seminar agree on everything.  That is why the scholarly credentialled fellows voted on all issues and laid out the votes for all to consider.

 

The latter -- the Jesus of the Christ -- is slipperier to grasp.  I take The Christ to mean The Word referred to by John in the prologue to his version of the gospel.  The Word is the connnection between God and humanity.  The Word need not be identified with any one man.  The Word always was, is, and always will be, as is God. 

 

It seems to me that proclaiming that Jesus the man was the one and only embodiment of The Word is chauvinistic.  That chauvinism is what is called "exclusiveness," not exclusivity, exclusiveness.

 

So much of the trouble in the world has been caused by religious chauvinism that I propose that we place the idea of Jesus as the one and only incarnation of The Word on the back burner and bring forward to the front burner the gospel message.  That is, I propose that we Moravians set aside the atonement doctrine established by the Roman Catholic Church many centuries ago and strike out on our own in true protestant fashion to publicize what we have in common with the world's other great religions -- the gospel. 

 

When I use the term gospel, I do not mean the necessary and cruel, gory torture and killing of God's only son for the forgiveness of sin.  I mean the message integral to all the great religions, i.e., love of each other as human beings, the incarnation of God; not just one man, but all of humanity, i.e., The Children of Man.

 

The great novelist, Leo Tolstoy, when he was in his fifties rejected the Roman Catholic version of Christianity, sold all his goods, and went to work in the fields.  He was tormented by the thought that he had lived so long in the conformity to what he came to believe as false religion.  I recommend his little book, _The Gospel in Brief_, for a fine introduction to Tolstoy the sincere Christian.

 

I, in love, hope that we Moravians continue to share our thoughts and opinions to the greater glory of God, who is within and waiting to be touched by each and every one of us children of God.

 

                        John Scepanski

                        Christian Faith Moravian Church

                        DeForest, Wisconsi