N.T. Wright on the Colbert Report

Just found out that Bishop N.T. Wright, whose work on the resurrection has been a big influence on me, was a guest on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report this past Thursday. You can see the interview on the Colbert Report site.

I think Colbert's funny (Jennifer can't stand him), mostly because he plays the pundit parody so well. He does, however, have an annoying habit of talking over his guests. Bishop Wright is able to get a word in edge-wise here. I have to say that I'm really amazed that he was on the show in the first place and that even a discussion about the resurrection of Jesus (particularly from a more orthodox perspective) found its way into the mainstream popular media (particularly Comedy Central).

It's especially interesting given the kinds of conversations I was having with fellow clergy during annual conference last week. We had Diana Butler Bass in to talk with us about her book A Church for the Rest of Us, which claims that the assumed decline of liberal to moderate mainline churches is a myth. She points to churches who have adopted and adapted to the postmodern mindset (no absolute truth, relativity, individualism, etc.) that are vital. When I listened to her, however, I was struck by the fact that her theological approach, like that of many of my colleagues, tends to shift with the cultural stream. She used the metaphor of a village connected to the mainland by a bridge over a river. After a great flood, the river changed its course and a new bridge was needed. Her message to us was that we live in a time of a 500 year cultural flood, that the river is shifting, and we need to build new bridges over it. On one level, I get that. Forms of church and the language we speak need to change. What I had trouble with, however, is the assumption that our views of Jesus and the Gospel also need to change. She talked a lot about the importance of human stories, but Christians have long believed that there is one Story, one overarching narrative, in which we find ourselves. Our stories only matter in light of the story of God's engagement with the world.

To put it bluntly, I was shouted down in one conversation as being a "modernist"–too much stuck in the old paradigm. To proclaim that there is such a thing as universal truth, that the facts and evidence of history matters, that Scripture has timeless authority, etc. is strictly passe among many United Methodist clergy, who are very proud of their "progressive" views. Me, I'd still rather have a confessing view–that Jesus Christ is Lord. If that's true, then nothing else really matters. If that's true, then I'm subject to his Lordship and my life is not my own. If that's true, then the resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point in all of history, not simply a metaphor for change. The resurrection matters because Jesus matters–not as a theological love guru, but as the one who saves the world through his sacrificial death and through his overcoming of death itself.

I'm looking forward to engaging my colleagues more in this conversation. I think that Bishop Wright has provided some wonderful tools for that discussion.

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