It is often fascinating to me to watch the debates involving the nature of our salvation (Calvinist vs. Arminian, works vs. grace, and so on) with participants quoting off scripture at machine-gun speed, assuming that their position (of course, a result of much study and scholarship) is the very same as that of the early Christians, even the Apostles themselves! Is our salvation a process of grace manifested in works, grace alone without any sort of evidence, grace revealed by works, simply good deeds and a clear conscience, or whatever other theory has been put forth to explain what Jesus did on the cross. Too often, these different ideas have been read into sacred scripture with the misconception that they are, in fact, the right questions to be asking.

Dear friends, Calvinists and Arminians, Catholics and Protestants: these are simply not questions that need to be asked. The text(s) of the New Testament bear witness to an executed Messiah who, through his acts of reconciliation and friendship, has begun the restoration of all creation unto himself to be made new again. We, the church catholic, bear the beginnings of that redemption in our very being and operation. Our worship, together to God, is the essence of our salvation, our becoming new again. When we examine the christian tradition as a whole, our sacred writings and teachings as well as even our art, music, and poetry, we find that the silly arguments over the nature our participatory redemption are irrelevant in the face of christian formation and sanctification.

It is time that we lay aside our imagined doctrinal presuppositions and return to a reading of scripture that allows for an interpretation given by the whole of the church's tradition, that is, how the church has read the bible in the past and how we ought to read it now. God's continuing revelation of himself ought to have a voice in our ongoing dialogue with orthodoxy and what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the 21st century post-christian West.

Brothers and Sisters, now is the time to ask the right questions, the Christians questions: Who is Jesus and how can I become more like him? If we truly believe that Jesus is the Truth and yet we don't become better people as a result of it, maybe we have some serious rethinking to do in regards to our faith.