Bob, from The Corner, shares a few Lessons from The Four Corners. This bit caught my eye:

All the trapping that we use to somehow capture God - the liturgies, the theologies, the doctrine and dogma - are more like sand paintings than they are like granite monuments. Traditionally most sand paintings are destroyed shortly after their completion, as a metaphor of the impermanence of life. The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited. So much of the strife and battles among peoples of faith tend to be about maintaining the myth of permanence.

We would do well to remember that our traditions are not our God. By traditions I mean the whole ball of wax: our theologies, our methodologies for Biblical interpretation, our rituals, our systems of doctrine, all of it. All of these are useful when - and only when - they reveal God. If at some point they cease to be windows and instead turn into walls, then we put destroy them and build new ones.

There’s no need for undo haste. Let us be certain that the windows have indeed transformed into walls. It could be that we’re just looking at dirty windows. Regular, ordinary use can lead to a build up of grime. No reason to toss the whole thing out when all we need is a little soapy water and elbow grease.

I find it interesting that even Jesus maintained a certain amount of mystery when he spoke about God and the Kingdom of Heaven. “The Kingdom is like…” he would say. Here we have the one person who best knows God and is best equipped to communicate this to people, and he still choses (or perhaps must) speak in simile. If the first Incarnation occurred today, or in any setting other than first century Judea, how many of us think Jesus would complete these sentences - “The Kingdom is like…” - in the same way he did then?

So then, let us maintain perspective. God is eternal; our sand paintings are not.