What Verse Do You Want on Your Bumper Sticker?

I just finished a wonderful book by Robin R. Meyers called Saving Jesus from the Church (HarperOne 2009). Meyers argues that Christians should concentrate on the message of Jesus, rather than the question of whether Jesus was the divine Son of God. Or, as Meyers puts it in the subtitle of the book, "How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus.” If we go down this path, we don’t need to struggle over whether Jesus was a man or a man and God combined, or whether he was equal or subordinate to God – the questions that occupied the Catholic Church for centuries. These controversies continue to create religious fault lines around the world and often do little or nothing to help us live more loving and meaningful lives.

Whatever one thinks of the nature of Jesus, his words (or at least the words attributed to him) reflect the greatest insights of all the words of wisdom in the Bible. Recall the trick question posed to Jesus by the rabbis, hoping to discredit him. What is the greatest commandment, they asked? Jesus replied: “And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 30-31. That is a remarkably progressive message, which has nothing to do with rigid religious laws or rituals. In my view, if we are to take one central unifying idea from the New Testament, it is the ideas found in that passage.

Too often, though, the Church has strayed from this basic message to find itself bogged down in disputes over abstract doctrines and elaborate theological constructs that are not to be found in the words of Jesus or, in fact, in the Bible at all. In a way the question boils down to this: If you are a Christian and have to pick one of these verses from the New Testament for your bumper sticker, what would it be: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16) or the passage from Mark above?

The familiar passage in John, which all Christians learn as children, focuses on God loving us and the requirement that we accept Jesus as the Divine Son of God. It is a beautiful thought, but it is all about us -- and the requirement to accept a certain creed. Compare that to the passage in Mark, which focuses on our loving God and our neighbors. Your choice should tell you something about what Christianity means to you.

*Correia takes a profound look at the doubt and uncertainty millions face when presented with the traditional conception of God. The Uncertain Believer: Reconciling God and Science (SterlingHouse Publisher, Inc., 2009) addresses the skepticism and indecision that plagues those who no longer find it easy to accept the existence of a supernatural creator. Confronted with the often unappealing alternatives of agnosticism, atheism, and blind faith, The Uncertain Believer offers readers a fresh look at the meaningful role God can play in our lives.