It's not string theory . . . or is it?

I don’t understand string theory, although I’ve tried.  Well, I looked it up on Wikipedia.  I got halfway through the first sentence.  Thanks to The Big Bang Theory, “string theory” has now replaced “rocket science” as the ultimate impossible-to-fathom thing that something else (like changing a tire or retrieving lost computer files) is not.  (Or supposedly is not.)

Supposedly, Christianity is not string theory.  Some say it can be reduced to “Love God. Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.”  Others say, “The Old Testament has ten commandments and the New Testament has two.  Everything else is a suggestion.”  That sounds simple enough.

But then we come to the double problem of Details and Stuff.  How long did it take God to create the universe? Did Moses turn the Nile into blood or was it just red mud? Was Mary really a virgin?  The Old Testament is full of details and a lot of them are about Stuff – how to build the temple, how to sacrifice animals, what the priests should wear, what to eat or not eat, how to treat skin disorders.  (Leviticus goes into great detail about the making of beautiful things for the Tabernacle and then talks about smearing them with the blood of the sacrificed animals.)

And today, we still have details:  millions of books about theology, millions of debates in meetings in churches, millions (Or is it billions?) of people worrying if they are “doing Christianity” right.  How many of them are making themselves sick with this worrying?

And of course, there is Stuff:  candles, altars, incense, stained glass.  A lot of it is beautiful and even fun.  But what is the Stuff doing to create Christians?  This creates the problem of how we should feel about Stuff.

Have Details and Stuff turned Christianity into string theory?  Do they have to?

Not necessarily.  And maybe the problem is not that they are making Christianity harder, but that as simple as it really is, the problem is that doing is a lot harder than understanding.

I don’t have a solution.  But maybe the first step is to stop worrying about the Details and Stuff.  You won’t be able to ignore them; you just don’t have to worry about them.  Loving God, our neighbors and ourselves is challenging enough.