Holy Bible, human Bible (5)

In the fifth chapter of his book, Gordon Oliver addresses the issue of how Christian pastoral practice engages the Gospels as they witness to Jesus Christ. He says that first and foremost, although the Gospels can be studied intellectually, they will be most truly heard when they are read in the contexts of prayer, community worship and commitment to holy action; a faith perspective. Engaging with Jesus in the Gospels means facing the hard questions of how present experience and the stories about Jesus fit or don't fit together. Pastoral practitioners should also be always alert to look and listen, to watch carefully, aware of their own reactions to Jesus in the Gospels, seeking a true hearing of the Gospels. There may be sparks of discovery, and new insights created when the Jesus of the Gospels and our present day concerns are brought into contact with each other. Reflection is the next step where encounter with the text may lead to changed or confirmed decisions about what to do next. How does the Gospel really speak into present day narratives? This is easy to answer in conventional religious terms, but the church in the postmodern world can no longer give the standard answers that were satisfactory in the modern era.

It is perhaps surprising to see the word 'disillusionment' come up. Yet the author states that this is a key stage in bringing pastoral practice and the gospel witness to Jesus together. A close look at life narratives tells us that sometimes connections between people's experiences and the Gospels is very clear but many times it may be obscure or absent. "To be disillusioned is to become capable of seeing things as they really are. In this sense disillusion is the threshold of discovery (of who Jesus is and what he is really for)". This is a refreshing thought to engage with, especially as we tend to get stuck today in seeing Jesus through only one set of lenses - depending on whether one is conservative or liberal or inbetween. Jesus defies all categories today, just as he did in his day, and brought so much consternation both to his opponents and to his followers.

"When pastoral practice asks hard questions of Jesus, Jesus has a way of asking hard questions back. All of these questions are designed to open the way to a reassessment of values or renewal of commitment to godly action." Indeed, the Gospel as Good News cannot be fully embraced, without asking questions, and being open to Jesus' own challenge to us.