Reconstructing Faith? Start From the Ending.
As a kid, I loved mazes and had a peculiar practice for solving then. At some point early in grade school, I began starting from the end. It may have made no practical difference, but starting from the end of a maze and working backwards just made sense.
Starting from the end also makes sense as we begin the work of spiritual reconstruction. Reconstruction is what we do after a season of deconstruction. Reconstruction is about building the next version of our faith.
Like a remodel job that begins with demolition and then moves on to building, the move from deconstruction to reconstruction should be undertaken with a certain amount of planning. Rather than simply ripping down ideas and practices, we need something to tell us what to let go of and what to hold.
We need an end that can guide us and see the process to completion.
The First Church of Me
Modern ideas can’t be our starting point and guide. I would love to build a faith focused on being an involved dad, racial justice, ending gun violence, and a perfect balance of capitalism, social welfare programs, and poor and working-class-focused economics.
Most of those things might be good, even Christi-honoring. But I would be creating the first church of Matt.
Our tastes and wants can't be our starting point and guide. I would love to build a church where 90% of pastors only speak for twenty minutes (sorry, pastors, more talking is usually worse), where women also preach, where the band always rocks (no electric drums, please), where the congregation knows how to clap on time (my fellow white folks, I am looking at you, do better!), and where the choir only sings the hits everyone knows and loves (including the occasional secular song, let's have “All I want for Christmas is You” as offering music during advent). But, again, I would be creating the first church of Matt.
Someone once said, “In the beginning, God created humans in God's own image, and we’ve been returning the favor ever since.” If we base our reconstruction journey on our modern ideas or individual wants and needs, we will recreate God in our image. That recasting of God will inevitably be more convenient and manageable. That new God will look good on our bookshelf and make a good bumper sticker. But it will also be smaller, less mysterious, and dangerously close to idolatry.
So, how do we work backwards through the maze of reconstruction? What starting point can guide all the tasks that follow? What can support and sustain our work?
How about Christ?
Lord, Word, and Fulfillment
From its inception, the Christian faith has centered on Christ. The gospels attest to this in distinct and powerful ways. In Mark, the oldest and most action-packed of the gospels, we see Christ assert his gracious dominion over evil (Mark 1:23), over sickness (Mark 1:40), over sin (Mark 2:5), over religious traditions (Mark 2:27-28), over death (Mark 5:35-40), over natural forces (Mark 6:50-51), and over hunger and want (Mark 8:1-8). After demonstrating his lordship over all these facets of our finite existence, Jesus reveals himself to be the messiah (Mark 8:29-30) and God (Mark 9:2-7) only to give his own life in a sacrificial act of love (Mark 15) and then rise again (Mark 16).
From the beginning, the Christian faith has understood Christ as Lord, as the gracious absolute authority over the universe and the finite lives we live in it.
In the Gospel of John, Christ is introduced as “the word” who was “with God and was God.” Any self-respecting Hebrew reader of the Torah would have understood the writer’s intentional allusion to Genesis 1:1, in which creation happens through a spoken word.
Meanwhile, any self-respecting student of Greco-Roman philosophy would have understood the double meaning of the Greek logos, which we translate as “the word.” For hundreds of years, philosophers from Heraclitus to Zeno used logos to describe a certain rationality, a wisdom that permeated the whole universe.
From the beginning, the Christian faith has understood Christ as the universal constant, the personal, active, and real presence woven through the fabric of time and space.
Finally, Christ describes himself as the fulfillment of our faith. In Matthew chapter five, we encounter the sermon on the mount. The Sermon on the Mount holds some of Christ's most famous and well-known teachings. A seminary professor once told me, “These teachings would be part of Jesus’ greatest hits. The Beatitudes, salt of the earth, turn the other cheek, and other classics are all there. You invite Jesus to speak at your retreat or convention, and he’s going to preach the sermon on the mount."
At the end of the sermon on the mount, the gathered crowds were “amazed… because he taught as one who had authority” (Matthew 7:28). This was social media-worthy “#blessed” stuff. It was also radical. Jesus challenged the listeners' understanding of faith and righteousness and how they were to exist in a world where oppression and injustice were very real.
In the middle of that radical, perspective-altering, “I’ve got to download this and send it to a friend” type sermon, Jesus says, “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets… I have come to fulfill them.” The Torah and the writings of the prophets were pillars of the faith for his listeners. Many would have memorized large sections as children. In a sermon that could feel like a challenging work of table-tossing deconstruction, Jesus says, “I am not destroying anything. I am completing everything.”
Christ is the completion of our faith, the end that should guide all beginnings. Jesus alone is the point from which we should work backward as we rebuild our spirituality, faith, and religious identity.
Who Do We Say He Is?
So, if Jesus is the end that ought to guide all our means, who are we talking about? Who Christ is and what Christ taught should shape our reconstruction journey. How we understand Christ will guide and limit our understanding of the Christian triune God. The gospel of Matthew speaks to this truth when it uses the word “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us,” as a name for Jesus. Colossians 1:5 makes a similar point. The ancient letter reminds its early church believers that Christ is the “visible image of the invisible God.” To understand “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” we can start with the Son.
If Christ is our key to understanding the divine, it would only seem logical that Jesus would also be our guide, our decoder ring for understanding the Bible. After all, we have already established that he is the fulfillment and “completion” of scripture. When scripture gets difficult or feels conflictual, we can look to Jesus.
Oh, and if you say, “There is nothing difficult or conflictual in scripture,” hit me up via email or my contact form. I’ve got a list for you.
Finally, if Christ is our guide to understanding God and scripture, it seems logical that Jesus should also be our guide to understanding ourselves and others. Before we decide how someone should be treated, we should look at Christ's example. When we wonder how we should think and feel about ourselves, we should consider how Christ responded to ordinary people like you and me.
When we wonder how we can get along with people whose voting, values, marriages, and worldviews differ from ours, we should consider how Christ treated the diversity of people he encountered.
You’ve Already Arrived
Navigating deconstrucion and reconstruction can feel like walking through a maze. Here’s the good news: In Christ, we already have the endpoint. We’ve already arrived. Now, we get to work backward, aligning parts with Jesus, discarding bits that no longer fit, and adding new elements here and there.
Best of all, because we have already arrived at the end, there is less pressure on the journey that follows. You can experiment, erase, and color outside the lines. The work can be an “easy yoke and a light burden” and maybe even a lifelong adventure.
Thank You
Thanks for reading this post. Please take a moment to sign up below for updates on book launches and occasional insights into the world of psychology, spirituality, and more. I will only reach out when I have something to share.
If you have questions about working with me on a workshop, training, keynote, or other event/project, please reach out via my contact page. If you liked this post, share it on social media or leave a comment.
