I grew up before Legos were around, but when I was a child, I had wooden blocks. They came in different colors, with letters, numbers, animals, and symbols on the various sides. It was easy to spend long amounts of time building things with them.
I believe God has given us blocks to build with. We do not renew the Church; God always does that. But God invites us to be co-creators, and God gives us the blocks to build with. In a serious and holy way, God says, “Let’s play!” And we do not do so empty handed.
In my book I identified three key blocks we must use if we are to maintain unity in the Church: the way of love, the practice of non-judgment, and the process of holy conferencing. God has given us these blocks (and more), and our task is to take them out of the bag and see what we can build with them in our respective contexts.
But whether it be building blocks, Legos, puzzle pieces, or any other construction items, the ones who use them and assemble them do so with a preconceived notion of what the final product should look like. With respect to biblical exploration, we call it hermeneutics–the interpretive presuppositions that enable us to make our case.
In the next phase of these posts, I will look at the hermeneutical elements which have led me to offer the principle of love, the practice of non-judgment, and the process of holy conversation for the sake of the Bride.
(If you do not have my book ‘For the Sake of the Bride’ on which these weekly writings are based, here is the Amazon link for it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product?ASIN=B00L5KW5HK&force-full-site=1&ref_=kin_tos_tate_appm_bk_sf_dp)
Oboedire 