Come, Let Us Reason together

Isaiah 1:18 – Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; KJV

This verse always inspired me as a young adult.

In Dutch Christian Reformed tradition, you went to church on Sunday and listened to a minister preach on a particular lesson.  Then after church, you went to someone’s house, quite often several families, for “Koffie-drinken”.  At this informal gathering, coffee and the wife’s best cakes would be served.  But more important, during this meeting, everyone would discuss the sermon, the Bible verses associated with it and how it really applied to life.  They would “reason” about the Christian Bible, the minister’s analysis and logic and whether there was another interpretation to be had.  There was room to disagree with each other and still be friends and drink coffee together. 

As you grew older, you were expected to listen to the discussion and eventually contribute.  There was a big emphasis on Biblical scholarship in our denomination.  An aspect which I took for granted, but my United Church Minister friend told me was much admired by other denominations.  As adolescents, we studied the Catechism of the church, polity, and scripture.  These learning’s were taken into the Koffie-drinken where we added our voices to the discussion. 

I ended up with the belief that scripture and belief were subject to “reason”.  It was a weekly challenge to understand the minister’s point of view and then contend with them on it.  The benefit of the discussion would be to have enough understanding to become “whiter” than we were before. 

So, whenever I think, or write, about Christian Biblical teachings, I am reasoning in public and want to have the full half hour argument.  So, come, let us reason together…