I recently heard a radio preacher explain how it was OK to be rich -- that, in fact, it was a mark of being blessed by God. It was a rational argument. It is just common sense, after all: If God likes us, we will be rewarded with money and the other things we want, and we should enjoy that. The callers to this preacher's show affirmed his view and told wonderful stories of how God had favored them. One woman, in tears, talked about the inheritance that had come to her after a period of prayer, letting her provide herself and her children with everything that they desired.
It made sense to me. I wanted it to be true. The catch, of course, is that Christ taught the exact opposite. Unambiguously and irrationally (to our minds) he said plainly that it is the meek who are blessed by God, that people should "not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth" and that "you cannot serve God and mammon." He insisted on poverty for his own followers, to the point of not even allowing the 70 followers he sent out to spread the good news to take even a change of clothes with them. Over and over, he taught that worldly riches detract from the riches of the spirit. Christ, on this point, was not rational.
So my rationality says one thing. Christ says another. This occurs over and over on a wide variety of issues: Loving my enemies, keeping the Sabbath, taking oaths. Which should I choose to believe: the irrational Christ, or the rational views of myself and my society?
In facing this conundrum, there are basically three answers, only two of which are honest (and the third of which is popular).
First, I can decide that my rational thoughts and those of others should guide me rather than the teachings of Christ, and I can stop calling myself Christian. Many people I like and respect have made this choice, and it is an honest one. They call themselves atheist or agnostic or Ethical Humanist or Unitarian Universalists.
Second, I could decide that I will set aside my own conclusions (and those of mainstream society) and follow the seemingly irrational Christ. This is an honest answer, but a very difficult one. It is profoundly humbling, hard to explain to others and may even seem anti-intellectual.
The third (dishonest) route is to somehow convince myself that Christ agrees with me, even when he taught the opposite in plain language. Under this model, I call myself Christian while putting my own reasoning above the clear teaching of Jesus. Sure, Christ said that we are not to make a public display of prayer, but surely he did not mean that, right? There are good reasons to sit at the head table at the prayer breakfast, after all, and everyone I know (besides Christ) agrees with me. On that one, he just doesn't make sense.
Too much of our own faith (including my own) takes this third path. Too often, it is our leaders who have led us down that path.
Much of American theology, high and low, seems devoted to making Christianity unthreatening to our base desires, our culture and our economy. This project is nothing less than a denial of God. If put our reasoning above the teachings of Christ, then who is on the throne of God? We are there, alone, with a flag of false allegiance over our head.
My friend and mentor Susan Stabile once summed up the root of her faith in two short sentences: "There is a God. I am not God." So much flows from that, including something very hard: allowing mystery to fill the void between our reason and the far greater knowledge of God as revealed through Christ. That chasm of mystery and humility is a sacred space, and like all sacred spaces our instinct is to conquer it in our own names, to pave it over to fit the contours of our own understanding.
As a professor, this truth is constantly humbling. My work is my intellect, yet I must constantly humble that intellect beneath a greater truth. Yes, Christ's truths seem irrational to me, many times, but should I expect anything different? If God is God, and I am his creation, then of course his ways surpass my understanding and reason. Against every instinct, I must lay down my will and come to him like a child, as a student: humbled, raw and quiet.
Rev. Dr. Janet Edwards: The Moral Awakening of Mainstream Christianity
Nothing quite as demeaning to human dignity as belief in an omnipotent and omniscient deity.
Also it sounds like you're a nice enough sort. And you've got some smarts. Hope it doesnt come off as condescending that I observe with amusement the amazing mental gymnastics required to reconcile observable reality to religious faith. Can't be done, at least on the big issues, but fun to watch folks try.
Keep trying!
Odin promised the end of ice giants.
I don't see any ice giants around.
Poverty: You are truly rich when you realize you have enough. Many rich people are anxious and depressed because they fear they will lose their money, their power, or their lives (which all of they do at some point). Perhaps the point of the poverty is to help followers realize that material things and extreme experiences are not the most stable sources of happiness and salvation.
Loving your enemies: Anger and hatred blind one to rational thought. If you see your enemies as they truly are, rather than as the incarnation of evil, you may be able to understand them and work with them. Make them your friend, and they are no longer an enemy.
Appropriate humility is the ultimate wisdom. You state your humility with reference to God, but it is just as appropriate for an atheist to admit that they do not understand everything, or even most things.
Neither you nor your irrational Jesus seem irrational to me.
God or no God? Either one is a decision to believe something.
That's not faith, it's just wishful thinking. Far better advice would be:
"There is no God. Gods are imaginary."
That requires no faith, no wishful thinking. It's simply a statement of fact based on volumes of information about the emergence and transmission of god belief throughout history.
How nice for me if my work is is perceived as being worth a lot of money by the community in which I live. I'm pretty sure that in God's eyes this matters naught. What matters is that in the process of making money.
As for irrational: loving and forgiving your enemies for example, might be interpreted as no more or less rational than military aggression. I have seen evidence of the power of love and forgiveness to heal, build and restore peace. How has the world benefitted from war? In my lifetime, It seems to me that except for perhaps a few brief periods, we humans have been constantly at war in at least one part of the world. Now that's irrational!
Maybe our big rational brains aren't as big as we think they. From a rational point of view, survival of the human race may very well be dependent upon Christ's doctrine of love, and everything that flows from that, makes eminent sense.
Many of the seemingly irrational teachings of Christ are in a context of Christ’s teachings that the end times were near, that heaven was about to come to earth. In that understanding of the world, it is perfectly rational to abandon all of your worldly possessions and teach the faith. Fortunately, Christ had much more to say that is still relevant to a world that we know will be around for a more billion years.