Monday, October 15, 2012

Theology in 140 Characters

There is no shortage of short, pithy profundities tweeted and retweeted these days. It is amazing to think about how much information is available in an almost instantaneous fashion. This week I read a tweet that made me pause and think about theology in 140 characters or less.
There was a tweet, or most likely a retweet, by someone, quoting someone else who made the a statement something to the effect of "Jesus never asked for people to worship Him but to follow Him and obey Him." The point, I think, was to suggest that we really worship by how we follow and obey. At first my response was to offer an Amen of agreement. If we consider Paul's words in Romans 12:1 to offer our bodies as living sacrifices...(as) our spiritual act of worship it would seem there is biblical support as well. But after further reflection I thought back to my nerdy language study days, Matthew 14 and Jesus walking on water. I was studying Jesus' words "it is I," tracing the phrase in Greek back through Isaiah in the Septuagent (a Greek translation of the Old Testament) and eventually back to God's revelation of His name to Moses in Exodus 3:14- "I AM WHO I AM." I truly believe Jesus' language was meant as a revelation, especially as we recognize that it is in conjunction with His direct control over the elements of creation-walking on water and calming the storm. Is there any doubt as to why the disciples would immediately "worship" Jesus and declare Him to be "God's Son." Surely these events were orchestrated by Jesus to provide a deeper understanding of who He was and to elicit such a response of prostration, reverence and homage-worship. Jesus did not ask for worship in so many words, but it is an underlying theme here. The problem with this understanding from scripture is that it is not easily simplified to a pithy 140 characters.
It is not that the above mentioned tweet was wrong, not in the least, it was just not full enough. Nor could I ever say anything against the individual who was quoted, having not been there when he spoke, I have no idea what he said in full, nor his full understanding of worship. We must be careful, however, when communicating in this medium that we not reduce theology to an anemic state. The concern is magnified when we consider our egos, and the temptation to tweet to be retweeted and be noticed.
When it comes to theology, I am just not sure that it can be reduced to 140 character or less.

No comments:

Post a Comment