One of my favorite novels is Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. The story is about a fiercely fundamentalist minister, the Reverend Nathan Price, who takes his wife and four daughters to Africa to be a missionary, to bring the light of God's love in Jesus Christ to the indigenous people.
But Rev. Price is so loveless, so absolutely and arrogantly sure of himself and his theology, so clueless regarding the gospel's moral imperative about loving neighbors, that he manages to alienate the very people he is devoted to saving and loses his family in the process.
It's an extreme example of a fairly common problem: we can get so fixated on a certain set of beliefs that we forget all other, often equally important and moderating, values. Religious people - regardless of our tradition - are vulnerable, but so are many other ideological cohorts. It's challenging - and important - to hold fast to the particularity of our beliefs while recognizing the importance of competing - and complementing - convictions.
We see that in this week's scripture passage. Religious leaders approach Jesus in hopes of pinning him down on one all-important belief. But he simply refuses to go there. The interaction between Jesus and community leaders is instructive, and I invite you to read it closely.
We'll talk about it in depth at all services this weekend. In addition, we'll celebrate baptisms, enjoy fine music at all services, and rejoice over the privilege of baptizing more babies.
Come and bring a friend,
