Ben sends this along:

Isnt it great that our Lord lived a NORMAL, maybe even UNEVENTFUL life for ~30 years. NOT discounting his ministry and redemptive work, why doesnt anyone talk about that? When Im stuck in rush hour traffic on my way into work tomorrow, the thought that Jesus had to work to put food on the table comforts me more than all the miracles Jesus ever did. His humanitynot his miraculous worksblows my mind! God in fleshridiculous, amazing and life changing news!
Thanks Ben. Great thought.

Ok. Let’s try this on for size.

I’m really unhappy with Protestantism’s Bible thing. (Jim- you gotta write that “Magic Book” essay.) Here’s the deal. My experience of evangelicals is two messages: #1 Jesus and #2 We got the Book with all the answers.

The Jesus message keeps me in my place. I am a creature, fallen, living out this normal human existence and Jesus is God revealing Himself and loving me. I am still limited, fallen, sinful. I don’t have any answers. I just have faith in Jesus, which really just amounts to a starving guy admitting his appetite for the bread of Life.

The other message is the problem. Telling Christians they have a book with all the answers, all the authority, all the truth is not humbling to most of them. It’s empowering, and not in a good way. It “dehumanizes” us, and we start acting like we are God. Or that we know God and his “Word” well enough that we can do whatever we want as long as we have enough scripture verses.

Evangelicals have multiplied this problem. Catholics have minimized it (while magnifying it.) P/Cs have gone nuts with it. I don’t want anything to do with it. I don’t want to be the answer man. I don’t want to be running around with the answers for anyone other than as a human being who has graciously been given some light and truth in Jesus. I mean, ALL the truth is in Jesus, but what I get is Jesus, not the Encyclopedia Biblica.

The reason evangelicals seem so “unhumanized” is they’ve taken on the gnostic mantle with various forms of Bibliolatry that elevate their own ability to understand the truth too high.

Yelling scripture verses at anyone is almost always wrong.