Cliffs Notes Christianity

I've noticed something that other clergy have told me that they see too. Often we run into non-Christians who really 'get' Jesus better than many Christians. I've thought about this a lot and I've decided that it has to do with how we encounter Jesus.

A non-Christian is most likely to be familiar with the story of Jesus as just that, a story. Perhaps they've seen a few Jesus movies, or read the Gospels on their own, or something like that. In that case, the power of the story is able to capture them withour much interpretation of commentary. They are able to connect with the essential core of wisdom, compassion, courage and faith they find there.

Christians, on the other hand, have often had a lifetime of interpretation piled on the story. They've heard preachers and Bible story teachers telling them how they ought to read the story. They've got footnotes in their Bibles that tell them what everything really means. All of these tools are well-intentioned, and are designed to help, but they can have the opposite effect.

When I was in college I read Cliffs Notes for classes quite a bit. The little yellow booklets did an excellent job of telling me all the things I might miss in a difficult piece of literature. Of course I soon found that it was easier studying from Cliffs Notes than actually reading the book (some of those are long!)

You can do that, and even get a decent grade, but it will give you no real appreciation of the book, let alone any depth of understanding. To gain that you have to read the book. You have to struggle with it and think about it and get to know it.

Doctrines are the Cliffs Notes for Christianity. They can be helpful, but far too many people over-rely on them. They become a substitute for reading the Bible for yourself. Worse, they become a substitute for getting to know Jesus or God. This results in a shallow faith, one which can miss the whole point. Sadly, a lot of Christians are stuck in this rut and stubbornly insist that their doctrines are the last and only word on understanding God.

We can really take a pointer from those people, even outsiders, who have skipped the whole Cliffs Notes experience and actually 'read the book'.