February Newsletter Article

This winter quarter I am enrolled in a structured reflection and discussion class on my student internship. This class, called “practicum,” has taken up a conversation about the meaning of some pretty basic elements of Christian faith: God, Jesus Christ, Prayer, etc. My practicum instructor began this quarter with the following question: “As ministers, we often use some pretty loaded language like 'God' and 'Holy Spirit.' If we don't know what we mean by these words and ideas, should we expect the people with whom we interact to understand us?” I found that to be a profound question. These religious terms are so often thrown around in church, almost casually. But what do we mean by “God?” What does it mean to call Jesus the “Christ?” What do I mean by any of it.

That got me thinking (always dangerous!). What is church? What are we doing when we come to church? Oh, and that age old question: why church? While I don't intend to give a comprehensive analysis of what I think church “is” and “does,” I do believe that a church is, among other things, a community of interpretation. A church is where interpretation happens.

Church as “a community of interpretation” might strike us as pretty obvious. The church has a central text, the Bible, and most church services are built around interpreting this text. In the same way a preacher interprets a biblical passage, we might find ourselves coming to church to interpret the language of faith. We ask questions like the ones I posed above: what does “God,” “Christ,” or “Faith” mean? We can't help but use our lives and our experiences to interpret and understand what these things mean, and we learn from ourselves and from each other in community.

But I want to go further than that. The church is a community of interpretation in a more radical sense. Yes, the church gathers together people of various backgrounds, vocations, and interests and unites them with a recognizable language, the language of faith. But we don't simply interpret this language; no, the language of faith interprets our own lives. There is an interpretive “back and forth” involved.

What we do at church—again, among other things—is seek to understand ourselves, the world around us, and the purpose and meaning of life through the language of faith. We interpret in order to understand. With an understanding of our faith-language we come to orient ourselves and make decisions about who to be and what to do. In other words, the faith-language interprets us. Yet, this is not a wooden, rigid process. It is a fluid, dynamic one. We come to understand the faith-language—and are interpreted by it—through using it and interpreting it. We interpret in the process of being interpreted.

This is an ongoing process that happens with each other in community. In this way, what we understand God, Christ, and Faith to mean is not static, but instead unfolds for us as we interpret and are interpreted by these central elements of the Christian faith. Thus, a church, I want to suggest, is a community of ongoing interpretation about the language of faith. What it means for God to be in relationship with us, to have given us the Christ, to redeem us and offer us salvation is understood in and through the language of faith that unfolds for us together.

A church, then, asks the very same kinds of questions as my practicum instructor: What does it mean to say “God,“ the Christ,” or “Holy Spirit?” These terms are drawn out in the sermon, used in communion, and offered to the children at children's time. And they also involve are very lives. We come to see more of what and how those words mean by sharing our lives with one another. Even as we sing and pray we can come to recognize new dimensions of God's Grace or Forgiveness as they give themselves to us in each new day and every moment. So what do I mean by “God” and “Holy Spirit?” I have some basic ideas, but the rich contours of those ideas are developed each week in the elements of the worship service and in the interactions with the people of the congregation. You are a part of what “God” means to me, and together we interpret this term and use it to interpret our lives. What I mean by “God” is linked up with “a community of interpretation,” where we all interpret in order to understand. Church, as St. Augustine might agree, is a place where faith seeks understanding.