What is Humanly Possible

Thursday night I attended a lecture at Furman University by biblical scholar Marcus Borg. I decided to go at the last minute; it was a hectic week and the prospect of another night away from home didn't excite me. However, Borg is one of my favorite writers, so I made the trip.

My first exposure to Marcus Borg was in a letter to the editor in the newspaper some years ago. My memory says it was the Greenville News, but the timing of where we were living makes me think it had to be the Post and Courier. Regardless, the writer of the letter was upset about a group called the Jesus Seminar, and worried that the image of Jesus this group was developing was dangerous and heretical.

Needless to say, I was intrigued.

I ended up purchasing the book The Five Gospels, the initial report of the work of the Jesus Seminar. Turns out, this group was a gathering of dozens of leading New Testament, historical, and linguistic scholars who were combing the gospel record in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson (he used scissors and paste, but that is another story) in the hopes of recovering the original, authentic, words of Jesus of Nazareth. It was (and is) controversial stuff, but it caught me at a time when I had discarded much of my christian faith as illogical and childish. The book rescued my faith in that respect, as it stimulated my adult mind to again engage the life and message of Jesus.

Fast forward ten years - I'm now attending church every week, leading a Sunday school class, and blogging about my Christian faith.

I think I'll save the substance of his talk for my next post, but what impressed me initially was the turnout. It was a rainy Thursday night in conservative Greenville, at a school with a baptist heritage. The speaker was a liberal re-thinker of the historical Jesus, who rejects much of what is considered accepted dogma in mainline christian circle.

And the place was packed.

I don't mean it was full, or that there was a good turnout. What I mean was people were turned away. If it had not been raining outside, I'm sure some would have stood on the steps to hear.

And at the end of his lecture (more on that to come) a lady stood who described herself as a member of the "Church Alumni Association," (i.e. she no longer attends) stood and asked Professor Borg some probing questions about why scholarship such as his is not more widely circulated in our churches and in society at large. His answer was fine (it actually was pretty interesting) but the crowd's response to her question is what truly surprised me:

Applause.

I think it was strong evidence of our collecting yearning for an understanding of Jesus and what he means to us today. I think it is both a good sign, and a challenge for the church.

I also think I'm going to suspend reflection on the Psalms for the time being, and spend some blog time on the content of his lecture.

More to come.