As Christians it at times is difficult for one to articulate what it is that makes one a follower of Jesus Christ. How can ones identity be found in Christ, as Paul says 'we are now clothed in Christ', when those who profess no faith appear to be identical in lifestyle and profession to what we have christened 'Christian' in America. How can our identity be found solely in Christ when our day to day interactions, business dealings, appetites and words appear to have nothing in common with Christ? Jesus said that the ways in narrow, that disciples will be known to the world by the fruit that they produce (Mt 7:16-20), love,joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, (Gal 5:22-25) not only for themselves, but for others as well. The protestant church in America by and large has been motivated by seeker sensitivity, a tactic to get more people saved, to tell as many people as possible the Gospel message so that they will have a personal relationship with Jesus. There are many problems with this model, but the primary problem in my opinion is that we have been tempted to do such a large number of programs, services, and actions that we have been forced to do everything poorly. We never get the chance to catch our breath and focus upon what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Rather we busy ourselves with our own views of what God is doing in our churches and lives so that we may become better on a personal level. They have become merely self-awareness and self-help centers where they empower individuals to become even more individualistic, but now they have the right to place the label Christian upon their particular lifestyle, churches have been almost entirely comodified and colonized by our culture. The church, the body of Christ which is to be the presence of Christ in the world just as Jesus was the presence of God has turned from a outwardly focused people of service to an inwardly focused people of privilege. How can we make the difficult transition from the self interested seeker to the other interested disciple? It is no wonder that there is a crisis of faith in America, we have forgotten what it means to be a disciple for we now are encouraged to have a faith in Christ that truly costs us nothing. If the way is narrow, if our example is Jesus, then what are we doing? We pursue careers so that we can be comfortable, we are blissfully ignorant that we can afford to be comfortable at the behest of others. We have created a culture that cannot grieve or that is unwilling to grieve, we pretend that the suffering in the world isn't true and that someone else will take care of it, but we have lost the power and pathos of the early followers of Jesus who knew that Jesus was calling them to be the Answer to some of their own prayers. Example, when we say Lord please be with the homeless tonight, keep them warm, feed them and bless them. Yet at the same time in our very own homes have extra rooms that our warm, our cupboards are filled with our extra food, we possess the very blessings that they need, the very blessings that we are praying for them to have, yet it doesn't occur to our American minds to be the answer to our prayers, that we could answer this prayer if we simply prayed with our feet and our own hands. Jesus described his followers as people who were generous, people who clothed the naked, who befriended the stranger and the foreigner, people who loved their enemies, people who fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty, people who gave their time, and their money and their resources to make this world a more beautiful place with every simple small action of kindness in the name of Christ. And yet with all the words and deeds of Christ that we recount over and over from the scriptures in our churches daily, we still find our identity primarily in our beliefs about Christ rather than in our imitation of Christ. Christianity has been infected. Much of what we have been told in Sunday schools and youth group services, Church services and pot-lucks, has been infected by the ways of the world and the wrath of empire. Though it may look holy but it must be tested by the spirit, it must be show to produce fruit, if not I saw we need to take a stand, to realize that we have been taught and told in many ways and for many reasons are untrue, not found in the scriptures and far to closely associated with the American dream rather than with Christ our savior. Over and over again in history the dominate culture in the world has infected the church and every time this happens Christians go to the margins of society to re-think what it means to be a disciple of Christ. With the new Monastic movement that is sweeping across America it is obvious that something is terribly wrong with the institutional churches of our day, and we must be ever vigilant so that we too may not be deceived. If we are not the salt of the earth, if we are not the light to the nations, then we are nothing. As when Jesus spoke with the Pharisees the clash came about not because he believed in justification by faith alone while they believed in justification by works alone, but because the kingdom agenda that God had for Israel demanded that Israel leave its frantic and paranoid self defense, that reinforced by the ancestral codes, and embrace instead the vocation to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Again, the church must be re-imagined, everything must change not for the sake of being relevant to the world but for the sake of discipleship, for the sake of the Gospel. It is not the reputation of the American Church that is on the line, but the reputation of Jesus Himself. So now what? Where do we go from here? That my friends is what needs to be re-imagined, how can we be faithful Christians, honest theologians and followers of Christ in this dark world? That is for communities of faith to decide with the spirits guiding, but together another world is possible, and we may yet share in the days of peace.
thanks
J
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
conspire
Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time of the year, and it is, however, perhaps we have allowed the gifts and traditions to get in the way of the sort of celebration that Christmas is. It is the sort of celebration where we remember, where we proclaim the entrance of Christ to the world, the defining moment of history where God came and dwelt among us. But instead we have by tacit consent allowed this celebration to be co-opted by consumerism, allowed the meaning of Christmas to fade. We have given up the glory of Christ for the glory of riches, we have allowed the world to set the tone for what Christmas means, 'it's about Santa and presents right?' We have stood by and allowed our consumerism to harm others, the chocolate we buy, is mostly made by slave labor, the vegetables and fruit we buy at cheap prices are grown by workers who endure outrageous conditions, the cloths we give to one another are made by children in sweat shops so we can give a thoughtful but cheap gift, the systems of power that keep the rich content and apathetic cause harm to others, and worst of all we are terrified to change or worse yet unaware of how we get our stuff. Experience has made us suspicious of others, so much so that we cannot give ourselves to one another relationally for fear that we might experience heartache. What a fallen and sinful world we live in, truly the gravity of our own sin, which we constantly overlook, cannot continue. I do not intend this note to be full of doom and gloom, merely realistic.
On the bright side of things, all of the world and all of its powers and principalities cannot stop the overwhelming power of love. Love need not be complicated, love is simple, love is about caring, love is about being aware. One of the problems with our world today is that the world is filled with people who want to feed the hungry, who want to take care of the sick, who want to invite the stranger in, who want cloth the naked, but who know not how and cannot transfer want into reality.
This Christmas we have the opportunity to take hold of the life that is truly life, people who follow Jesus are asked to be generous, with our time, with our stuff, with our resources, we are blessed so that we may bless others. We are saved by grace through faith in order to do good deeds. In first timothy chapter 6 it says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."
This holiday season let us conspire to be more generous, to worship fully, to love like Jesus meaning to love all people, our families and those who make our stuff, to conspire to being the change we wish to see in this world. Our thoughts and words are powerful, but our will is so weak, we listen and listen but never understand, the way in which we do Christmas in America is not the way in which is has to be. We can imagine a different world, we must never forget that another world is possible. We are blessed, may we find a way to be more generous, perhaps it starts simply, perhaps it starts with the way we think about the things we own, we often forget that it belongs to God, there is enough to go around, as the saying goes, there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed. Our extra coats, shoes, shirts, pants, those things belong to other people those without coats, shoes, shirts, pants, it starts with a thought in a living room and grows into the mustard seed Kingdom.
So this Christmas may we be blessed, may we worship fully, may we understand that our stuff are luxuries most of the world doesn't have, may we come to see how we can be more generous.
Worship fully
Be Aware
LOVE ALL
May peace be upon you
J
On the bright side of things, all of the world and all of its powers and principalities cannot stop the overwhelming power of love. Love need not be complicated, love is simple, love is about caring, love is about being aware. One of the problems with our world today is that the world is filled with people who want to feed the hungry, who want to take care of the sick, who want to invite the stranger in, who want cloth the naked, but who know not how and cannot transfer want into reality.
This Christmas we have the opportunity to take hold of the life that is truly life, people who follow Jesus are asked to be generous, with our time, with our stuff, with our resources, we are blessed so that we may bless others. We are saved by grace through faith in order to do good deeds. In first timothy chapter 6 it says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."
This holiday season let us conspire to be more generous, to worship fully, to love like Jesus meaning to love all people, our families and those who make our stuff, to conspire to being the change we wish to see in this world. Our thoughts and words are powerful, but our will is so weak, we listen and listen but never understand, the way in which we do Christmas in America is not the way in which is has to be. We can imagine a different world, we must never forget that another world is possible. We are blessed, may we find a way to be more generous, perhaps it starts simply, perhaps it starts with the way we think about the things we own, we often forget that it belongs to God, there is enough to go around, as the saying goes, there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed. Our extra coats, shoes, shirts, pants, those things belong to other people those without coats, shoes, shirts, pants, it starts with a thought in a living room and grows into the mustard seed Kingdom.
So this Christmas may we be blessed, may we worship fully, may we understand that our stuff are luxuries most of the world doesn't have, may we come to see how we can be more generous.
Worship fully
Be Aware
LOVE ALL
May peace be upon you
J
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Unity...attempting unity
This blog is devoted to marriage, seeing as that I have recently tied the knot with my new and beautiful bride I would like to share some reflections. Being united is a blessed pleasantry where two people commit to being united together for the rest of their lives. Marriage is a symbolic contextual parable of a biblical covenant, at least in our minds, which is an embrace of true faith, it is the unreserved thrust of not one but two into the arms of God embracing not only our own sufferings together, but the sufferings of God in the world taking seriously the call to live in this world proclaiming the glory and beauty of the next world. As two people become one, as two individuals become one in the essential things they commit to being made into one another through the power of Christ, which is the power of love. This process does not begin nor end at the civil ceremony of marriage, rather it is the public commitment to the call of unity, to the dreams of God that we would be one in the essential things. By dreams of God I simply mean those institutions and actions that God wishes for Her children to have, it is an extension of the church of Christ, a functional unity, or a continual action whereby we either choose to move closer to one another or to remain veiled as the individual. Marriage is an attempt to break through the veils of our cultures and societies attempts at what is one's own, and flies in the face of the survival of the fittest, for one must truly give up one's own ambitions so that each partner can support one another and imagine new dreams that proclaim not simply ones love for another, but a better world than has ever been seen, a world where selfish ambition cannot stand, but only the power of love, from one person to another, the power of Christ among us to proclaim a new order, a new way of being human to quote a popular phrase. In this proclamation and celebration of a world that no eye has seen we enact a parable of special magnificence, an action that others cannot help but notice, and we unleash love in unparalleled ways. LOVE FROM LONDON
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
love
I will start this post with the center of it...Let us as followers of Christ in this present age never allow our theology to get in the way of Love. Theology can be a dangerous thing, it divides us, it makes us believe that the right answers to our faith are to be found within the hollow pages of a textbook while Christ is waiting for us to love the person next to us. As Kierkegaard says in works of love, “Christian scholarship is the human race’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the New Testament, to ensure that one can continue to be a Christian without letting the New Testament come to close.” We must acknowledge as followers of Jesus that we are deeply broken people, that need one another and need the scandalous grace of the cross in order for our lives to be sensical. We have a lot of work to do as as communities of believers, but we must never allow our opinions or that which we believe to be absolutely true to break the unity that we have, what we have in common, through the new creation that Christ proclaims, is infinitely more important than the opinions we hold on account of theology. The body of Christ is not divided, rather we are united in the essential things and we can remain united in everything except opinion. May we submit ourselves to one another in love and for the love and glory of Christ so that Christ may be present among believers that are united in the essential things. If we are to be known by our love then we must work together to be known by the love of Christ in essence so that we can become united in the things that we hold strong opinions about. We must learn how to disagree well in the love of Christ and not merely in the realm of what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' theologically. Perhaps this blog is of no use, but then again perhaps this subversion of theology so that love can become more important than theolgoy in the imitation of Christ.
Monday, May 19, 2008
a Rough Sketch of Amos
Amos was a prophet in the days of Jeroboam the II of Israel, while at the same time Uzziah was the king of Judah, this is the period of the divided Kingdom. Born in Tekoa in Judah sometime in the early 8th Century BC. Although he was a native of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, he prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This is a time of social unrest where the rich are getting richer on the back of the poor and the poor are no longer poor but becoming slaves to the empires they are under. That is why Amos is so interesting, he is not seen as a 'professional' prophet, in stark contrast to many other Old Testament Prophets such as Samuel, Elijah and Elisha etc. Amos had two main occupations before God called him to be a prophet, he was a shepherd and the keeper of sycamore fig trees (Amos 7:14). Since it is clear from the text that he was a particularly clever man who was fully aware of the political and cultural issues within his societal context, the text suggests that he was most probably from a wealthy background, and thus the owner of flocks and sycamore groves rather than simply a Sheppard or hired help.
The text of Amos tells us that two years after Amos had his visions an earthquake happened in the area (1:1). Josephus, a Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah's capture of the office of High Priest and thus according to some this is what caused his subsequent affliction with leprosy. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II, the kingdom of Israel reached the pinnacle of its prosperity and thus the gulf between rich and poor widened. Yahweh called Amos from his rural home to remind the rich and powerful of God's requirement for justice (2:6-16). He claimed that religion that is not accompanied by right action is wrecked before God (5:21), and prophesied that the kingdom of Israel would be destroyed (5:1-2; 8:2). This is similar to the book of Deuteronomy where God says, ‘You may think that your strength and the power of your hands has made you prosper, but remember the Lord your God, that he has given you the ability to make wealth.’
Amos' message was, perhaps understandably, unwelcome in Israel as the same message is unwelcome in our current context of the American empire. Not only was he a foreigner (an immigrant) from the southern kingdom, but his prophecies of doom and gloom were completely at odds with the prevailing political and socio-economical goals of hope and prosperity (the American Dream). The Nation of Israel under the leadership of Jeroboam II expanded their territory into modern day Syria, taking advantage of the nation's weakness after a recent defeat by the Assyrians. Assyria, the central threat to Israel's power, was temporarily out of commission resulting from internal strife, allowing Israel to flourish politically and economically. Due to this the nation became affluence, the main focus of Amos' mission came to a head soon after Jeroboam came to power in 781 BCE, Amos was called to speak to the people of the Northern Kingdom as an outsider. He was from this point constantly in conflict with the governing authorities, as demonstrated in the text by way of a dialog between Amos and Amaziah, a priest of Bethel. The priest, loyal to Jeroboam (the State), accuses Amos of stirring up trouble and conspiring against the king, and commands him to stop prophesying. Amos responds with an oracle: “Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land."(Amos 7:17) Do we really get how intense this is? Through Amos God has some very harsh things to say to those who are more concerned with an earthy Nation than with the Kingdom of God, which has nothing to do with realm but everything to do with reign in all areas of our life and world.
One of Amos' most interesting claims is found in Amos 7:14, "Amos answered Amaziah, 'I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.'" While this was often understood to mean that Amos was reluctant to prophesy or that he was poor, scholars today see it as bolstering Amos' claim to be financially independent and not a part of the corrupt religious system of his day. He didn’t need to depend on the empire for his well being. His agricultural holdings as a shepherd and a tender of trees were seen in his day as signs of means, which he used to point out that he was not in the prophetic calling for money. Rather his message predicted that many of Israel's neighbors (including Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab, but especially Judah) and the nation of Israel would suffer because they "knew" God, yet rebelled against God’s reign in their lives.
Much of the prophecy of Amos is directed at the heartlessness of wealthy merchants who ignore the suffering of the poor, the lack of any real justice for the righteous among them, and the emptiness of religious ritual apart from true faith. This is a call from for the rich to be generous in with their wealth and to be rich in good deeds. Amos is a classical prophet, concerned with the well being of the people and the actuality and participation of the faith. He does not have the apocalyptic views of later prophets, nor does he rely on esotericism or mystical signs, rather he relies upon the word of God. The prophecy of Amos is clear and direct to all who heard it, and subversive to the empire. He ends his message with a distinct proclamation of hope and restoration for the people of Israel, if they mend their ways: "The days are coming, declares the LORD, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the LORD your God.” (Amos 9:13-15)
From this case study I find that Amos might as well be speaking directly to the leaders of our own Nation, we are an Empire in this world that works upon the backs of the poor. (Example: Capitalism, who makes our stuff? Much of it is made in factories by the poor who are not paid enough to work themselves out of poverty, but only to remain in poverty, this is not an accident or a coincidence.) The gaps between the rich and poor are growing wider, what I fear is that much of the patriotism that has been fused with our faith, the Christian faith and the American empire have actually allowed the name of God to justify our greed. Our money says in God we trust, but our economy reeks of the seven deadly sins. We need people like Amos, an immigrant that commands those who are rich in this present age not to place their hopes in wealth but to be rich in good deeds, in faithfulness to the Lord their God. After all Jesus said, God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, God will take care of you too. We need more prophets who are willing to stand up to any authority when what is conspiring to happen is not only unrighteous but it is sinful. Just my thoughts enjoy…
The text of Amos tells us that two years after Amos had his visions an earthquake happened in the area (1:1). Josephus, a Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah's capture of the office of High Priest and thus according to some this is what caused his subsequent affliction with leprosy. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II, the kingdom of Israel reached the pinnacle of its prosperity and thus the gulf between rich and poor widened. Yahweh called Amos from his rural home to remind the rich and powerful of God's requirement for justice (2:6-16). He claimed that religion that is not accompanied by right action is wrecked before God (5:21), and prophesied that the kingdom of Israel would be destroyed (5:1-2; 8:2). This is similar to the book of Deuteronomy where God says, ‘You may think that your strength and the power of your hands has made you prosper, but remember the Lord your God, that he has given you the ability to make wealth.’
Amos' message was, perhaps understandably, unwelcome in Israel as the same message is unwelcome in our current context of the American empire. Not only was he a foreigner (an immigrant) from the southern kingdom, but his prophecies of doom and gloom were completely at odds with the prevailing political and socio-economical goals of hope and prosperity (the American Dream). The Nation of Israel under the leadership of Jeroboam II expanded their territory into modern day Syria, taking advantage of the nation's weakness after a recent defeat by the Assyrians. Assyria, the central threat to Israel's power, was temporarily out of commission resulting from internal strife, allowing Israel to flourish politically and economically. Due to this the nation became affluence, the main focus of Amos' mission came to a head soon after Jeroboam came to power in 781 BCE, Amos was called to speak to the people of the Northern Kingdom as an outsider. He was from this point constantly in conflict with the governing authorities, as demonstrated in the text by way of a dialog between Amos and Amaziah, a priest of Bethel. The priest, loyal to Jeroboam (the State), accuses Amos of stirring up trouble and conspiring against the king, and commands him to stop prophesying. Amos responds with an oracle: “Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land."(Amos 7:17) Do we really get how intense this is? Through Amos God has some very harsh things to say to those who are more concerned with an earthy Nation than with the Kingdom of God, which has nothing to do with realm but everything to do with reign in all areas of our life and world.
One of Amos' most interesting claims is found in Amos 7:14, "Amos answered Amaziah, 'I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.'" While this was often understood to mean that Amos was reluctant to prophesy or that he was poor, scholars today see it as bolstering Amos' claim to be financially independent and not a part of the corrupt religious system of his day. He didn’t need to depend on the empire for his well being. His agricultural holdings as a shepherd and a tender of trees were seen in his day as signs of means, which he used to point out that he was not in the prophetic calling for money. Rather his message predicted that many of Israel's neighbors (including Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab, but especially Judah) and the nation of Israel would suffer because they "knew" God, yet rebelled against God’s reign in their lives.
Much of the prophecy of Amos is directed at the heartlessness of wealthy merchants who ignore the suffering of the poor, the lack of any real justice for the righteous among them, and the emptiness of religious ritual apart from true faith. This is a call from for the rich to be generous in with their wealth and to be rich in good deeds. Amos is a classical prophet, concerned with the well being of the people and the actuality and participation of the faith. He does not have the apocalyptic views of later prophets, nor does he rely on esotericism or mystical signs, rather he relies upon the word of God. The prophecy of Amos is clear and direct to all who heard it, and subversive to the empire. He ends his message with a distinct proclamation of hope and restoration for the people of Israel, if they mend their ways: "The days are coming, declares the LORD, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the LORD your God.” (Amos 9:13-15)
From this case study I find that Amos might as well be speaking directly to the leaders of our own Nation, we are an Empire in this world that works upon the backs of the poor. (Example: Capitalism, who makes our stuff? Much of it is made in factories by the poor who are not paid enough to work themselves out of poverty, but only to remain in poverty, this is not an accident or a coincidence.) The gaps between the rich and poor are growing wider, what I fear is that much of the patriotism that has been fused with our faith, the Christian faith and the American empire have actually allowed the name of God to justify our greed. Our money says in God we trust, but our economy reeks of the seven deadly sins. We need people like Amos, an immigrant that commands those who are rich in this present age not to place their hopes in wealth but to be rich in good deeds, in faithfulness to the Lord their God. After all Jesus said, God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, God will take care of you too. We need more prophets who are willing to stand up to any authority when what is conspiring to happen is not only unrighteous but it is sinful. Just my thoughts enjoy…
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Yoder and my thoughts
Thinking about what Christians are supposed to enact in this world, in whatever context which we find ourselves it is difficult to construct an ethic that is supported by much more than a theological exposition of the people of God attempting to continue the story of Jesus. As Greg Boyd points out the church or the body of Christ is to be a giant Jesus, showing the light of Christ and being the literal hands and feet of Christ to a world in despair. by entering the suffering of the world, showing the injustice of any power over system of rule. I think that Yoder's eloquent portrait of the role of Christians who are pro-life to the core, which means that they are against militarism and war or violence in any form...
"What Jesus refers to in his call to cross-bearing is rather the seeming defeat of that strategy of obedience which is not strategy, the inevitable suffering of those whose only goal is to be faithful to that love which puts one at the mercy of one's neighbor, which abandons claims to justice for oneself and for one's own in an overriding concern for the reconciling of the adversary and the estranged. This is significantly different from that kind of "pacifism" which would say that it is wrong to kill but that with proper nonviolent techniques you can obtain without killing everything you really want or have a right to ask for. In this context it seems sometimes the rejection of violence is offered only because it is a cheaper or less dangerous or more shrewd way to impose one's will upon someone else, a kind of coercion which is harder to resist. Certainly any renunciation of violence is preferable to its acceptance; but what Jesus renounced is not first of all violence, but rather the compulsiveness of purpose that leads the strong to violate the dignity of others. The point is not that one can attain all of one's legitimate ends without using violent means. It is rather that our readiness to renounce our legitimate ends whatever they cannot be attained by legitimate means itself constitutes our participation in the triumphant suffering of the lamb." -- John Howard Yoder, the politics of Jesus...
Let me know what you think
J
"What Jesus refers to in his call to cross-bearing is rather the seeming defeat of that strategy of obedience which is not strategy, the inevitable suffering of those whose only goal is to be faithful to that love which puts one at the mercy of one's neighbor, which abandons claims to justice for oneself and for one's own in an overriding concern for the reconciling of the adversary and the estranged. This is significantly different from that kind of "pacifism" which would say that it is wrong to kill but that with proper nonviolent techniques you can obtain without killing everything you really want or have a right to ask for. In this context it seems sometimes the rejection of violence is offered only because it is a cheaper or less dangerous or more shrewd way to impose one's will upon someone else, a kind of coercion which is harder to resist. Certainly any renunciation of violence is preferable to its acceptance; but what Jesus renounced is not first of all violence, but rather the compulsiveness of purpose that leads the strong to violate the dignity of others. The point is not that one can attain all of one's legitimate ends without using violent means. It is rather that our readiness to renounce our legitimate ends whatever they cannot be attained by legitimate means itself constitutes our participation in the triumphant suffering of the lamb." -- John Howard Yoder, the politics of Jesus...
Let me know what you think
J
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Illusive unity
This message is on the topic of unity, perhaps this message is in the search of unity, but I will let you be the judge of that. Unity if you we not completely aware, is sort of a big deal as it relates to the people of God. It is such a big deal that Jesus prayed for all believers to be united as Jesus and the Father were one, so that we may also be one. (John 17:6-19) Why is this so illusive, perhaps our lack of unity is simply a notion that we should be aware of so that humility remains part of our vocation. Though, this is an essential notion, that we should be humble I mean, our lack of unity cannot simply be a tool to point us toward our lack of humility either. But there is a time to focus upon what we do poorly and another to focus upon what we do well, however, neither of those times is the current one we face. The time we face is beyond a transitional time, it is beyond the swing of the pendulum, we face a time of contemplative reflection, what sort of a church are we building and what sort of a church is Jesus building, though these are not mutually exclusive, in the real world the majority of the time this is how reality is cashed out in the church. Bonhoeffer once said that the church has lost its ability to speak to the world, that it needs to disappear from the world for a while. I agree this can be time for us to reflect and so that we can be known by our love again and not simply by our theology, whether orthodox of not, than by our love.
The people of God in this world have a lot of rethinking to do, we cannot take our contextualization for granted, in our world we have to rethink the way we exist as the church. This can be clearly seen in the American church, for at many turns the American church doesn’t look very much like Jesus, and maybe the church in America never looked like Jesus, on such matters I have no reference point, but the reference point that I do have is one who is within the American church and I often struggle to see Jesus. While we flock from the suburbs to our mega-churches and then quickly back, Jesus is flocking to the places that we have abandoned, to the flint Michigan’s of the world. To the towns that the American empire has abandoned, the places that the Auto industries have abandoned are an example. As our cities grow we have wild animals living amongst domesticated souls, people who are barely alive, and this is not because they have died to themselves, it is because they have died to the world and to the suffering of God. We have so thoroughly boxed God out of the world that the spirit of God is forced to break into our world and into our lives. Which is another thing we need to rethink, how do we open our lives more to the work of God, God can and will work in spite of us, however, it seems to be the case that God would rather work with us than against us.
This is my call, this is my prayers, perhaps you can make it your prayer as well, that we would become the church that Jesus always dreamed of, and leave behind the church that we have always dreamed of. That we would become the body of Christ in this world embracing the suffering of the world, being present in the world together united in our following Jesus together. Now, I am not going to pretend to know exactly what sort of Church Jesus dreamed of, but I think that a good starting point is a church that looks like Jesus. So let us learn from one another, let us attempt to mend the things that can be mended through the power of the Spirit, improve the things that can be improved, keep the things that help us to look more like Jesus, the things that feel more like Jesus, and put the things that don’t seem to be working so well on the back burner. The journey to unity for the church does not start in any particular denomination; Jesus stretches beyond the artificial boundaries of denominations and nations unity starts with each individual heart in community each heart open to the transformative nature of the incarnate Jesus Christ is where the bonds of unity are stored. So let us together take up the cross in our own contexts so that we can humbly come together as the body of Christ in this world to follow Jesus more closely, may you and I be covered in the dust of our rabbi.
The people of God in this world have a lot of rethinking to do, we cannot take our contextualization for granted, in our world we have to rethink the way we exist as the church. This can be clearly seen in the American church, for at many turns the American church doesn’t look very much like Jesus, and maybe the church in America never looked like Jesus, on such matters I have no reference point, but the reference point that I do have is one who is within the American church and I often struggle to see Jesus. While we flock from the suburbs to our mega-churches and then quickly back, Jesus is flocking to the places that we have abandoned, to the flint Michigan’s of the world. To the towns that the American empire has abandoned, the places that the Auto industries have abandoned are an example. As our cities grow we have wild animals living amongst domesticated souls, people who are barely alive, and this is not because they have died to themselves, it is because they have died to the world and to the suffering of God. We have so thoroughly boxed God out of the world that the spirit of God is forced to break into our world and into our lives. Which is another thing we need to rethink, how do we open our lives more to the work of God, God can and will work in spite of us, however, it seems to be the case that God would rather work with us than against us.
This is my call, this is my prayers, perhaps you can make it your prayer as well, that we would become the church that Jesus always dreamed of, and leave behind the church that we have always dreamed of. That we would become the body of Christ in this world embracing the suffering of the world, being present in the world together united in our following Jesus together. Now, I am not going to pretend to know exactly what sort of Church Jesus dreamed of, but I think that a good starting point is a church that looks like Jesus. So let us learn from one another, let us attempt to mend the things that can be mended through the power of the Spirit, improve the things that can be improved, keep the things that help us to look more like Jesus, the things that feel more like Jesus, and put the things that don’t seem to be working so well on the back burner. The journey to unity for the church does not start in any particular denomination; Jesus stretches beyond the artificial boundaries of denominations and nations unity starts with each individual heart in community each heart open to the transformative nature of the incarnate Jesus Christ is where the bonds of unity are stored. So let us together take up the cross in our own contexts so that we can humbly come together as the body of Christ in this world to follow Jesus more closely, may you and I be covered in the dust of our rabbi.
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