Signposts
I've found myself using the phrase "signpost" quite a bit lately. It's one of those things that you don't really think about, you just all of a sudden notice one day that you've been dropping it left and right in conversations. Realizing my frequent use of the term has me thinking more about what it reflects.
As city dwellers, those of us in westown, have no shortage of signposts. Some of them I always notice; A&B Party Store, Parkway Tropics (the neighborhood strip club), The Other Way Ministries. They serve as a reminder of who is in this neighborhood and what they are about. Some of them slip into the back ground; West Fulton Parking, Marion St., McDonalds. They are so much a part of the landscape I just stop noticing them. There are other signs that come in and out of focus depending on the season, like "no parking odd dates november 1st-april 1st," the even-date/odd-date plow schedule that you ignore in the summer but notice again when the snow flies... Or at least some people on the block notice when the snow flies.As a hiker, signposts have at times meant the difference between a warm tent and a long night in the middle of a national park. When hiking there are few things more beautiful in the gathering darkness than a wooden post with a number and an arrow on it. Between that and a good map you can figure out which way to turn to get back to your campsite. Sometimes signposts even help you figure out how to avoid trouble to begin with.
Our lives are full of signposts, but I haven't been talking about the metal and wood signposts of our city landscape or back country trails. I've found myself talking about signposts as a metaphor for the life of faith. In fact, last week I used that term in this blog referring to some words from our website. And every time I use the term I recognize echo's of Jesus in the background saying, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
I am not looking for just any signposts, I am looking for signposts that help me find The Way. It is a powerful image for me. An acknowledgement that following Jesus, is about more than believing the right things, it is about walking the right way, the Jesus Way. In fact that is what some of the first Christians saw themselves as doing, they were "followers of The Way." Last year my favorite author Eugene Peterson put out an entire book about this metaphor called, "The Jesus Way." It's a great read.
But the point, I guess, is this; if following Jesus is about following in The Way of Jesus, we'll need some help to understand what that way is, where it is taking us, and how we stay on it. I can tell someone to get to our house by heading east or west on Fulton, turning south on Marion at the McDonalds then east on Pulawski (at least I could before someone stole the lovely street sign in the picture) and park on the side of the block with odd address numbers.I want to be able to do the same for people that want to move through life on the Jesus Way. So I'm always on the lookout for signposts of The Way. Those markers and guides that help us find our way forward.
My hope for this blog is to get some dialogue going, so give me some help this week and post a comment about the signposts you rely on.
How do you learn what the Way of Jesus is? Where do you find hope in where it is taking us? And most of all, what signposts help you figure out how to stay on it?
posted by pastor jeff @ 12:01 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Thanks for the good thoughts Jeff and Don. Like Don said, I find that my brothers and sisters in Christ guide me as I try to follow the Way of Jesus. I also find that spending time in the Word helps keep me focused. When I'm feeling lost or unsure, I rely on faith and the Holy Spirit living in me to be the lamp onto my feet. I think prayer can be a powerful signpost and it is definitely an area I am working on growing in right now. Hopefully, I will be able to share new thoughts as my prayer life becomes richer.
Alicia Hyma
“Signposts” translates into “ethics” in my head. Many of us have asked the question, “How should we then live?” I’ve started to read a book by John Howard Yoder titled The Priestly Kingdom, with the subtitle Social Ethics As Gospel. Yoder’s first chapter deals with a practice seldom heard of in churches. The chapter heading is, “The Hermeneutics of Peoplehood: A Protestant Perspective”. Yep! It’s not exactly casual reading!
For the reader who hasn’t dabbled in theological jargon much, “hermeneutics” is a fancy way of referring to how we ‘interpret’ things. As Christians it especially has to do with how the teachings of Christ and His apostles are interpreted by us. Yoder thinks that there are biblical grounds for an interpretive process to take place through a “Peoplehood” (Matt. 16:19; 18:18; 1Cor. 14:26-33). I’ve agreed with this for a long time now. The “Peoplehood” he has in mind, of course, is the “Priesthood of Believers”, or disciples of Jesus.
This concept isn’t new to me. Karen and I, along with a group of friends, studied a traditional Christian doctrine and discovered just what the New Testament had to say about it. Others we know have tried it on a number of critical studies as a community of believers. The main thing was that we do this ‘together’. Nobody is an island in his or her interpretation of an issue. That’s a “Hermeneutic [interpretive process]” of “Peoplehood” [a group endeavor].
Jeff is shooting for something like this on Wednesday evenings, right after our Family Feast. He’s hoping that those of us who attend these conversations will give our input on the text he will be preaching on in about a week and a half. He calls it an experiment. I think it’s a good one!
The “Signposts” idea takes this a step further. Here we’re asking the “How Shall We Live?” question as a community. Yoder’s book is dealing with how we handle ethics together. What a fascinating, challenging idea! Ethics isn’t left in the hands of a few professionals, but rather it’s up to us as a Priesthood to discern together the answers to our “Signpost” questions.
Over the years I’ve found myself relying heavily on this Peoplehood-Hermeneutic in the writings of brothers and sisters. For me this is an artificial substitute though, for the real presence of a willing ‘peoplehood’. At times I’ve gotten side tracked by some not-so-good “Signposts”. But if we were doing this “Signpost” reading together, there’d be less of a chance of being guided wrongly. There would be Bill and Mike and Jody and whoever else I’ve been hermeneutic-ing with, to help me discern the right answer to the “How should we then live?” questions. However we choose to use “Signposts” for doing ethics as Christians, the all-alone idea is both dangerous and contrary to a biblical design. I’d advocate for the “Peoplehood” idea any time!
Metaphor, simile, symbol…..to tell you the truth I confuse them all the time. I’m thinking they can all be signposts, or markers, or keys. I live my life by them because the Bible is full of them. Think “The Lord is my Rock!”
It is interesting to me that God gives me pictures to explain truths, because I am the “words” girl. I have a little notebook that I write them down in. They are poorly drawn illustrations of God’s great truths.
I have signposts all over our house. You may come into our house and see a picture on the wall and may think, that is lovely or I don’t like that or any of many reactions. But it is not a picture to me. It draws me into the story of what is going on.
According to Eugene Peterson in Eat This Book, “Metaphor does not explain; it does not define; it draws us away from being outsiders into being insiders…”
Probably what I actually have all over the house are symbols which can in fact be signposts. As I walk upstairs I have a window that I designed and Don built. You might not even see what I see in that window. You were not privy to the design. But when I look at the window as I ascend the stairs and not just hurry up, I am thinking specific thoughts. “God, I am coming to you.” “I am coming upstairs to read Your Word or pray.” I am thinking, “God, you are far above me.” If I stop and look at the window, which I don’t do very often, I will see all the shards of glass I put it in. Even the decision of the colors had forethought. Broken pieces of glass with very little black pieces were placed between two pieces of clear glass. Black is symbolic to me of dark, sad, unhappy, hard times in life. In the big picture of my life I have not had many black times. When I stop and look my heart can say, “Thank you God!”
And that is just on the stairway. The pictures and other decorations in the dining room and in my bedroom hold great meanings for me. I could go on and on. I guess what you could say is that I purposefully build into my life signposts to keep me on the path to God.
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