Reading Karl Barth, thinking about Jews, and wondering about preaching

I started reading Karl Barth’s Dogmatics in Outline in a class at Wake Forest University in 1981. Barth was the Swiss theologian who was “The Theologian” of the Confessing Church of Germany that resisted the Nazis before and during WWII. His theology began as a powerful rediscovery of the transcendent element in Christianity. He saw that Christianity had largely become all about humanity and not about God. He distinguished faith from religion, and with the Bible in hand, launched a devastating attack on the Christianity of his day. Barth felt the earth shaking when he read the Bible and prayed. He got that trembling of the spirit that comes in the presence of the One who questions and we answer, the One who calls into existence things that are not. In a real simple way, it might be said that Karl Barth, right in the middle of intellectual Europe and right in the classroom of great historical theologians and biblical scholars – right in the damn middle of all that cultured, controlled study of religion – he was shaken by the Spirit and was never the same! The words that came from the early Barth are the words of a prophet.

And, Barth was not the kind to just go home and meditate on this experience. No, he, like Luther, was called to preach, and preach he did, and write theology, he did. He was so convinced that cultured, liberal Protestantism had gotten things backwards that he spent much of his remaining life explaining that to the churches. As Barth opposed the rise of Hitler and the Nazi, German nationalist party in the 1930’s, most all of the liberal theologians and scholars went right along with Hitler, many even writing a theology to sanction the Third Reich. Barth and other pastors with him, like Martin Niemoller, heard a Word that came from far above religion and church life; a Word that transcended nations and dictators. And, Barth’s living faith was outraged at the impudence of Hitler. Right in the middle of Berlin, professor Barth gave an address on the radio entitled: “Jesus the Jew.” Barth,as well as Bonhoeffer who took radical action in solidarity with Jews in Germany, spoke of the Hebrew prophets and the Hebrew people as God’s people. Barth used to say that you could not really know Christ without having a deep bond with the Jewish people.

Barth also had some strong criticisms of fundamentalist Christianity (he said they had made a “paper pope” of the Bible, and felt it was just the flip side of the misguided rationalism from the Enlightenment), but seemed to take it less seriously. I think Barth felt that the Bible had enough actual power to withstand fundamentalism, and that the true interpretation of the Bible had enough power to overcome the liberal and conservative perversions of Christianity. It seems that with conservatives, he could at least argue about the Bible. Liberals had it safely tucked away under the lock and key of historical,criticial studies, having a way to explain away any difficulty posed by the Bible.

And, as I am trying to figure out what is the center of church life in a new church situation, I have found my self reading Barth again, starting right at Volume I, Part I of his Church Dogmatics, in which he talks about the Church’s proclamation, the Church’s Bible, and the Church’s Lord. It’s pretty slow reading, but it is like having someone to talk to about things that others just aren’t interested in anymore. Pastors in our day are apparently far beyond me in knowing what the real point of church and faith is. They think the Church has the message perfectly preserved – the truth as clear as day – all that needs doing is a good marketing job! Bullshit! The Church needs to hear the Word of God itself, and be changed by it, and then maybe it can have something to say to the world. Apparently most pastors have the Bible tucked away nice and safely in their four or five sermons they recycle throughout the years (hey, I probably don’t have anymore than that either when it comes down to it! Only difference is I throw the four or five away every four or five years and start over). And, it makes no difference to me whether they are conservative, liberal, fundamentalist. What matters to me is that I can’t seem to find anybody who gets shaken up by reading the Bible, who gets overwhelmed at the mystery of God’s way on earth, who feels like you can only see it for an instant, and then right as it comes into view, you are left with only a vague sense of joy, purpose; but, with a strong yearning to praise – and, an overwhelming humility with other people and indeed, all life on earth. I guess if you explain the faith in that way, not too many people would “join up.” But, then, again who needs joiners. Maybe more people than we think are wanting to experience this deep mystery in life.

Yesterday, I’m pretty sure was a memorial day for the Holocaust. Barth’s real interest was in cleaning up the Church, criticizing and reforming false Christianity. He had no real concern to judge anyone outside the Church. Thinking about the Holocaust, reminds me that the first focus of Christian preaching has to be cleaning up our own house. When it comes down to it, if we “Christians” had gotten the log out of our eye and not been so busy trying to get the speck out of everyone else’s eye – well, maybe we wouldn’t have provided such great religious legitimation and support for the slave trade, the annihilation of Indians, the persecution and murder of so many Jews by “Christian Germany.” All I have ever felt called to as a preacher of the Gospel in the Church was to first clean up our house, so that it might be a fit place to invite everybody into. We are the ones who need to be converted. That’s all the Bible is about. Jesus and Paul don’t go out criticizing “pagans.” They call the religious to conversion, and simply invite the irreligious to come in together with the so-called outcasts. There is a truth at the heart of the Gospel that is very pure and wonderful. But, that truth is in the hands of God. He has not seen fit to give that truth into the hands of human beings – except one human being who is one with the being of God. That is the only one who has born that truth in human flesh. If redemption came through the Church, then many would be left out. Since it comes through the Christ, everyone is let in. That is the Church’s great message. Sometimes, that message gets through as a witness to this grace preaches.

And, for all Christians who want to define the Jews as if they are not God’s chosen people. Please read the Bible! Romans 9-11 might set things straight. Paul shows how much he believes in grace and reconciliation from God in Christ – a reconciliation which will mean the salvation of all Israel with the Gentiles. That’s what it says in the Bible. Any Bible believing churches preaching that? Any “Bible believing churches” in need of conversion – perhaps in worse need of it than those they are trying to convert? God bless the Jews who labored so long and hard in faith, and still do. Thank God for their presence in this world that shows the integrity and goodness of the way of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Messiah, Jesus – who, by the way, was Jewish (real circumcision ceremony, real Jewish mother putting the pressure on him to turn water into wine at Jewish wedding, etc.).