Out Our Way: The Gospel According to Goliath: Who Was That?

Mark 8: 27 - 30

Out our way, especially in the Bear Paws, you are liable to see all kinds of critters. Goliath and I have seen foxes, a few coyotes, mule deer and white tails. Naturally we have also seen a few cattle that somehow missed the round-up and have to be herded toward the road where the folks working the rest of the herd can pick them up. No grizzly or black bears in the area, and while I have heard rumors of a stray wolf or two that someone claims to have seen, I have never seen any. But I have seen and heard mountain lions.

A few years ago, Goliath and I were riding on a friend's private land, and as we trotted along something moved in the trees. Goliath started to snort and went all stiff, and I was somewhat "anxious" myself. Something was there, but what? A deer? A stray cow? A lion? We had to know because we weren't going any further on that trail until we did.

Fortunately, old Rez dog Jack was with us, and he was delighted to go find out. Barking joyfully, he bounded into the brush, and out hopped a white-tail deer. Goliath and I both relaxed, and Jack just came trotting back with that big old grin on his face. I suspect his sense of smell and knowledge from the days running on the reservation told him it was a deer from the get-go, but neither Goliath nor I knew what it was until it jumped out of the trees and we saw for ourselves. And one thing was clear: We were not going to go anywhere until we answered the question, "Who is that?"

In today's Gospel lesson Jesus asked the disciples the same question about himself. It is one thing to ask who others say that he is - but ultimately we are going to have to find out for ourselves - or we won't be going any furher down the trail either.

One of my heroes and favorite authors is C.S. Lewis, the man who gave us "The Chronicles of Narnia," " Mere Christianity" and " Surprised by Joy," among many other classic books. Although he is probably not as well-known today as he was in the 1940s and 1950s, he has had a tremendous influence on generations of Christians.

"Jack," as he liked to be called (if your first name were Clive you'd be looking for a new name too!) was a professor at Oxford and later at Cambridge. One of his closest friends was J.R.R. Tolkien who gave us "the Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Both men were devout Christians in a time and place where traditional and historic Christianity was largely scorned by the intellectual elite. Sadly, even many leading church authorities were skeptical in the name of being "progressive." Secular Christianity, as it is sometimes called, sought to make the Gospel more acceptable to the secular world by "demythologizing" it, that is, denying all miracles and supernatural claims, including the divinity of Christ.

Jack had once been an atheist himself, and then sort of moved into a little more open-minded status as an agnostic, but ultimately he realized that was a copout. Reading the claims of Christ, he realized there were only three alternatives: liar, lunatic, or Lord. He attempted to prove Jesus was one of the first two categories, liar or lunatic. However, he found the evidence from Jesus' own life and from the next 2,000 years of church history, simply could not support those conclusions if one were willing to be brutally honest. He also noted that when Jesus asked his followers to declare themselves as to who he was, he did not give them any middle ground. Indeed did not intend to.

Then Jack challenged those skeptics, especially the secular church leaders, to do what he had done: Carefully examine all the evidence and then conclude once and for all who Jesus is. If he is not the Christ, then stop being hypocrites serving the church that says he is. If he IS the Christ, then stop trying to straddle the fence and take HIM as the authority, rather than the popular opinions of the day. Jesus was clear about this: "He who is not with me is against me."

Riding in the Bear Paws with Goliath and Jack that day, I realized I had to know who was in the bushes: Friend or foe? I also realize that now I am the one in the bushes and Jesus is on the trail asking the same of me, "Who am I?" It's time to step out and either run away or get on the road with the Master.

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John Bruington and Goliath serve First Presbyterian Church in Havre. Their book, "Out Our Way: Theology Under the Saddle," is available at Amazon.com.