The mind of Christ PDF
Preview The mind of Christ
TheMind ofChrist The Mind of Christ David Scott contniuum Continuum 80MaidenLane The TowerBuilding Suite704 11YorkRoad NewYork LondonSEI 7NX NY10038 www.continuumbooks.com ©DavidScott, 2007 Allrightsreserved. No partofthis publicationmaybe reproducedor transmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronicor mechanical, includingphotocopying,recordingor anyinformationstorageor retrievalsystem,withoutpriorpermissionfromthepublishers. Firstpublished2007 BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData Acataloguerecordfor this bookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN0-8264-9074-3 Typesetby TechBooks, NewDelhi,India Printedandboundby AshfordColourPressLtd., Gosport,Hants. Contents Introduction 1 1 'ButwhodoyousayIam?' 6 2 Bywayofimitation 16 3 The mind has mountains 34 4 But wehavethemindofChrist 56 5 A mind to confront 70 6 A mind to imaginewith 84 7 A mind to pray 98 8 TheChristofPsalms 109 9 The wisdomofChrist 121 10 Christminds: TheSt JohnPassion 134 Introduction 'It isnotliterallytheface ofJesusthatwehaveto seek; the picturingimaginationwillnotgreatlyaidus. Weseekhis heavenlymind. Wemustbe bold,therefore,to conceive whatit islike to be mindedas he isminded...wemustbe Christin his thought, as far as weare able.' Austin Farrer' The collegesermonattheologicalcollegewasalwaysacrucialmo mentforthoseofuswhoweresoontogooutfromthewombofstu dentdaysto thecoal-faceofparishlife.For thesermonyoucould preach on anything you wanted and choose your own text, and it was preachedbeforethewhole college. The choicewas vertigi nous,butgenerallypeoplespokefromtheirhearttheonethingthat hadbecomemostimportantto themin thecourseoftheirlifeand training.Onethrewallhis notesin theair andsteppeddown;one chosethe compass points of Donne's famous poem about lovers. RolyBain,Ireadrecentlyinhisautobiography,preachedonclown ing. Lookingback,thesermonwasprobablyasymbolofwhatthe future heldin thewayoflife choicesandstyleofministry. Ipreached in a very discursive way about trying to put onthe mind of Christ. I hope it wasn't entirely delusions of grandeur but it was a time when feelings and thoughts, the heart and the head,hadmetin somesortofcreativetension,andthatphraseof Paul's,'putonthemindofChrist'pointedtoalife'swork.Through childhood and school, faith had been very much about sensing the presence of God and responses to that from the heart. The rollercoaster emotional life was uppermost through those years, respondingtochurchservices,thelanguageofworship,theglories ofthelandscape,andthesecretsofpoetrywrittenandread.Itwas all verymuchanaffairoftheheart. 2 TheMind ofChrist Then came the challenge of theology. Feeling sure that in the end Iwould like to be ordained, theology seemed to be the most suitable subject to study at university and slipping into a church collegeunder the disguise of an Englishliteraturestudent, Ithen changedcoursesandtookonthechallengeofacademictheology.It wasabracingandinsomewaysaromanticchoice. Ihadreadabout Abelardand themedievalschoolsandbeendeeplyinfluencedby the poetry of John Donne. What I hadn't bargained for was the complexityofGreekandHebrewverbsandtheclosenesswehad to achievein relationto thetextofscripture,Mostimportantofall wasthatitprovidedthestimulusandchallengetodiscusshowwe canknowanythingaboutJesus, let aloneunlockthesanctuaryof his mind. Itwasat thistimethattheclashbetweenwhatIfelt and whatIthoughtbeganto pitchits battle. Five years laterIclimbed the steps of the pulpit in that incom parableOxfordshire church, from which Ihad heard Archbishop Ramsey preach the Three Hours only a few months before. The chosen text was a last-minute addition, 'and Jesus went off into thehillsbyhimself', notexactlybecausethatwas goingto be the subject of the sermon, but because that sort of escape route was mypreferredoptionat thatparticulartime. Iwantedto takeJesus and his love of solitude into the pulpitwith me. Ifelt sure that it was in such times of solitude that Jesus' mind would have been mostcreativelynurtured and the substanceof the sermonwas to dowithhowwemightcomecloserto themysteryof thatmind. In the35yearsofministrysincethen,thethemeofhowwe 'put onthemindofChrist'stillhoversoverme. Whatthatphrase,with itsconcentrationon'mind',doesnotimmediatelyevokeistheway inwhichtherattle-bagoffeelingsaboutthings,theheartaches,the heart searchings, the lifting up of the heart have coalesced and beeninformedbythesharper,tougherattitudesofmind.Weshall see in the case of Jesus that those two concepts, heart and mind, becomeone orientation, attitude and springfor action. Theyalso provide one unmoveable pointer for us to a destination we trust in, as weset outto knowChrist,andareknownbyhim,andso to enterintoa creativerelationshipwiththeverycentreofourfaith. Introduction 3 Picking up the pen on a Saturday night to finalize the follow ingday's sermon,thetexthasfocused a kaleidoscopeofdifferent thoughtsandfeelings.Weask, 'whatisitaboutthistext, thisword, this action, this parable that reveals one layer more for me about whatGodis tryingto showthroughJesus?' I've always been a great devourer of ecclesiastical biography. I've wanted to know how people have got where they are, what major influences havebeen pressingupon them, and where they have experienced what they have experienced - the terrain, the landscape,theweather- bothspiritualand physical. Mostlythey havebeenmodernbiographies, in which theaccountseemsto be quitestraightforward.Therehasbeenforthelast200yearsonlyone wayofwritingaboutaperson'slife:youbeginatthebeginning,go throughthelifeuntildeath,andthenstop.The NewTestament,at leastthegospels,haveasimilarnarrativethrustwithJesus'life,but therearebiggapsinwhatwenowconsidertobecrucialformative periodsinaperson'slife,suchastheperiodofchildhood.Itisthese differencesin biographicalwritingwhichmakeastraightforward attempt to copy Jesus, to 'put on the mind of Christ', a complex oneand one,becauseofits complexity,ofcontinuingfascination. Myjourneythroughministrybetweenthelatesixtiesandthebe ginningofthethirdmillenniumhashadtoencompasstherealityof modern,scientificproceduresineverysphereoflife.This includes most importantly a searchingcritiqueof the literary evidencefor the life of Christ and also of the mind that seeks to discover the mind of another. On one level nothing seems stable, and noth ingcan be saidthatcannotbe contradictedaboutlife,Jesus,God, anything. Isuppose that's whywe hammer in markers forged in existentialism,justtosaythatwhatwefeelaboutsomethinghasa certainvalidityaboutit,regardlessalmostofanythingelse. Itmay notbe universallytrue,butifit'strueforme thenithasat leastthe qualityofpersonaltruth,integrity,and meaning. In thatpersonal reality, whichissuchacommonexperiencein religiousbelief,the experience of things stopping, being fixed, being as we say, true, mightwellbe as trueas wecan get.
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