Recently, I met a man from Syria who had only a short time ago come to faith in Jesus Christ. In the brief time I had with him, he shared how he had encountered the Saviour.
But let me first ask: `Have you ever noticed that in most if not all of the Bible’s accounts of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, the Risen Lord, that his disciples failed to recognize Him?! They had spent hours, days, months with Him – sharing fully in His life, as companions and followers along the roads of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and into Jerusalem. But they didn’t recognize Him as He appeared before them.
I think you could argue that He ‘came and went’ time again to the disciples (as St. Paul puts it - appearing to as many as 500 at one time, on occasion). The same Paul comments that ‘from now on, we do not know Him ‘according to the flesh.’ Somehow, Jesus’ new, resurrected Body remains the same and yet is somehow different. For Him, the seed has already flowered; He is in a resurrection, spiritual body – though one still corporeal (and we too shall one day be ‘like Him’ having bodies like `His glorious Body”).
Jesus appeared and disappeared in those days between his Resurrection and Ascension – seemingly moving through doors and walls without limitation – no doubt moving through and beyond various dimensions of space/time of the created order - and beyond and into whatever the ‘eternal’ means . . .
There follows the Ascension experience of Christ, before His disciples, as they see Him disappear into the clouds and into the eternal (which may very likely be not all that far away – just of another dimension and order of things). He had disappeared several times from their sight, but this time He would disappear for the most part or more fully from their natural and physical embrace and encounter, at least as they had previously been privileged to experience Him. But His presence was nonetheless real, now to be possible through a new communication of ‘spirit’ – to be theirs with and through His (Holy Spirit).
Paul Himself had a vision – a kind of appearing, of Jesus to him, on the Damascus Road (Damascus being then as now in Syria). I wonder if or how many others had a similar experience of which the Bible does not speak and of which we do not know. We do know that the early church at worship, in the height of both knowledge and passion, and in the liturgical expressions – some ancient and some new to Judaism and to this new ‘sect’ – looked forward to corporately ‘discerning the body’ in the tangible elements and expressions – the symbols of reality in the taking and eating and drinking of the Bread and of the Cup (of Communion), as Jesus had commanded them. And in that context they would cry – ‘Maranatha’ (Aramaic for: ‘Come Lord (Jesus)). They had a deep sense of His reality and of His Presence as they gathered and welcomed and worshiped. It was by faith they embraced Him, but it was a real encounter, nonetheless.
But again, I wonder if sometimes Jesus actually showed Himself to such as them at worship, as a vision of manifest and even corporal presence.
Back to my Syrian friend. An Islamic fundamentalist and an ex El Quaeda operative, his life would be forfeit now if he should return to his homeland – in danger of being killed by members of his own family and certainly by the hands of his former associates. He came to faith, he told me, because without thinking or solicitation or any other intermediary of which he was aware, Jesus had appeared to him. He was certain that it was Jesus and the encounter started him on a journey that led to Christian companionship, an introduction to the Scriptures and to a clear embrace and statement of faith, as he became a follower of this Jesus.
I wonder how many other times in our lives Jesus is near – to be apprehended by faith, or by sheer sight (though this is rare and not to be expected or sought). Other friends in that context have indicated to me that though the man’s vision was wonderful, it is also perhaps a rebuke to them and to all Christians that where we fail to do our task of showing and telling the Good News to others, Jesus does it for us, in spite of us, around us. Indeed, beyond arguing Islamic people into Christian understanding and faith, it may well be that such ‘signs and wonders’ will be used by the Lord, especially in areas we dare not go or even where we have friends and neighbours that we fail to reach.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
For the Church?
How is this new clan and community - called the Church, to be part of God's answer, in Christ?
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
- Ephesians 1:17 - 23
Witness to Clan and Family
How to share faith when one is among clans and tribes - and not mere 'individuals?'
It is vital to think deeply about these realities and to try to do Missiology - i.e. to missionally assess implications for Gospel witness. It is necessary to do Christology - to think through the reasons for which Jesus came, in fulfilment of the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and how He will ultimately overcome (made possible by His Person and Work - His life, death and resurrection). It is essential too, to do Ecclessiology - to see how the Church, the Body of Christ-followers are part of God’s plan, the answer (cf. Ephesians 1) for how all of this is going to get done.
The following is true of rural communities, in the West still, for reflecting on tribalism in the recent political chaos and mess of Kenya, or in the upheaval and division that Lebanon reflects (as mirror for internal Arab conflict - with each other, with Israel, and with the West).
Can thinking about mission context(s) such as the following not help us understand our mission challenges and responsibilities in the West and in the whole world (?) - mandated as we are to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven and to make disciples throughout the whole of the cosmos.
As with most of our own fore-bearers in various times and places, with their own unique challenges, locales and hurtles to overcome for survival and establishment, “the overwhelming need for security led the Bedouin of centuries ago to gather in patrilineal families locked in steadfast fidelity and absolute obligation to one another.
In the brutal, open desert (one could put cold, Canadian winters in our context) where survival depended on numbers and cohesion, each tent represented a family, each encampment constituted a clan, and several clans linked together through descent from a common ancestor became a tribe. Within these protective walls of kinships, father and son, brother and brother, cousin and cousin searched for pasture, camped together, married first cousins to first cousins, and defended each other and their collective honour.
Within the group, cohesion held because overpowering cultural and social pressures instilled within each individual the supreme and unquestioned value of life - the commitment to family solidarity and the assumption of mutual responsibility. In these family in which every person knew every other person, in which all were related by blood, or at least by a fiction of common descent, the imperative of the collective good of the family passed from generation to generation. Near-absolute necessity guaranteed enforcement . . .
Each individual, in both emotional and practical terms, surrendered his or her identity to the family. And like the rest of the family, these individuals distrusted and largely disliked those outside the boundaries of kinship.
The definition of family in Arab culture is not nuclear or even extended. . . A first cousin is like a brother and a distant cousin is an integral part of the total family, regardless of gaps in wealth, education, and social status. This potent sense of family has cast societies into an amalgam of primordial allegiances governed by the most Arab of all utterances: “My brother and I against my cousin, and my cousin and I against the alien.” (cf. Sharon Mackey, "Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict")
It is vital to think deeply about these realities and to try to do Missiology - i.e. to missionally assess implications for Gospel witness. It is necessary to do Christology - to think through the reasons for which Jesus came, in fulfilment of the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and how He will ultimately overcome (made possible by His Person and Work - His life, death and resurrection). It is essential too, to do Ecclessiology - to see how the Church, the Body of Christ-followers are part of God’s plan, the answer (cf. Ephesians 1) for how all of this is going to get done.
The following is true of rural communities, in the West still, for reflecting on tribalism in the recent political chaos and mess of Kenya, or in the upheaval and division that Lebanon reflects (as mirror for internal Arab conflict - with each other, with Israel, and with the West).
Can thinking about mission context(s) such as the following not help us understand our mission challenges and responsibilities in the West and in the whole world (?) - mandated as we are to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven and to make disciples throughout the whole of the cosmos.
As with most of our own fore-bearers in various times and places, with their own unique challenges, locales and hurtles to overcome for survival and establishment, “the overwhelming need for security led the Bedouin of centuries ago to gather in patrilineal families locked in steadfast fidelity and absolute obligation to one another.
In the brutal, open desert (one could put cold, Canadian winters in our context) where survival depended on numbers and cohesion, each tent represented a family, each encampment constituted a clan, and several clans linked together through descent from a common ancestor became a tribe. Within these protective walls of kinships, father and son, brother and brother, cousin and cousin searched for pasture, camped together, married first cousins to first cousins, and defended each other and their collective honour.
Within the group, cohesion held because overpowering cultural and social pressures instilled within each individual the supreme and unquestioned value of life - the commitment to family solidarity and the assumption of mutual responsibility. In these family in which every person knew every other person, in which all were related by blood, or at least by a fiction of common descent, the imperative of the collective good of the family passed from generation to generation. Near-absolute necessity guaranteed enforcement . . .
Each individual, in both emotional and practical terms, surrendered his or her identity to the family. And like the rest of the family, these individuals distrusted and largely disliked those outside the boundaries of kinship.
The definition of family in Arab culture is not nuclear or even extended. . . A first cousin is like a brother and a distant cousin is an integral part of the total family, regardless of gaps in wealth, education, and social status. This potent sense of family has cast societies into an amalgam of primordial allegiances governed by the most Arab of all utterances: “My brother and I against my cousin, and my cousin and I against the alien.” (cf. Sharon Mackey, "Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict")
Love and Hate
Loving ourselves at the expense of loving others is contrary to the heart of the Gospel. Jesus calls us and enables us (only by His very Spirit living in and through us) to overcome such ego-centric, harsh and selfish attitudes and life-styles.
That's in direct challenge and opposition to clanish, tribal thinking that concludes that whether religion, class or culture - the more one loves one's own, the more one is entitled to hate another.'
For 'hate' put diss, laugh at, mock, scorn, ignore, fight against, scoff at . . . all of which happens between denominations (which are the un-happy product of nation-state times and critical, Cartesian/cognitive/modernistic times) and which also happens when emergents get thinking about liminals (former establishment and institutional 'christendom'), and vice versa.
That's in direct challenge and opposition to clanish, tribal thinking that concludes that whether religion, class or culture - the more one loves one's own, the more one is entitled to hate another.'
For 'hate' put diss, laugh at, mock, scorn, ignore, fight against, scoff at . . . all of which happens between denominations (which are the un-happy product of nation-state times and critical, Cartesian/cognitive/modernistic times) and which also happens when emergents get thinking about liminals (former establishment and institutional 'christendom'), and vice versa.
Jesus is 'The Answer' - How So?
What was it Jesus really came to do - to accomplish, if one thinks of individual needs (guilt and blame against God), and of family, clan, tribe and community alienation?
How does His life and death and resurrection bring Peace and Reconciliation? And why haven't we seen or experienced it much in the last two thousand years.
Why aren't we experiencing it, promoting, seeing it 'fleshed out' more in our day, in our communities, in our world?!
How does His life and death and resurrection bring Peace and Reconciliation? And why haven't we seen or experienced it much in the last two thousand years.
Why aren't we experiencing it, promoting, seeing it 'fleshed out' more in our day, in our communities, in our world?!
Family or Individual?
Does negation of family, clan, tribe and community and pressing towards individual freedom, rights and wants lead to inevitable chaos?
I was raised with familiarity and responsibility due to close proximity to family members. Many rural communities in Ontario remain the same today. Local churches may still reflect this and new pastors need to know they are entering a community of family and relationship that is more than their coming together to build a church and to seek to follow Christ.
The new pastor has entered a tribe, a clan, a community just as cohesive and united as would be entrance into any clan or tribe or community in what you used to be called ‘the mission field,’ overseas.
Within each church there are tribal leaders and intricate relationships. Father, sons and brothers, mother, daughters-in-law, and cousins may still live within tight boundaries of kinship drawn by precise bloodlines.
In Arab or Bedouin cultures there remains deeply ingrained codes of personal honour, the dictates of vengeance, the obligation of hospitality, and the near-sacred dedication to family (see Sandra Mackey: ‘Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict.’
When does mission, evangelism, church life, community impact follow lines of family and clan and tribe, and when not? Does one leave one family and tribe (or is the former life in community trumped) by entrance into the new Family of God, the Church? Is this part of what Jesus is saying when he tells us that one’s enemies (when one comes to faith) may be those of his own household, and that if we don’t ‘hate’ father, mother, sister and brother (at least relatively speaking), in following Him, that we cannot be His disciple.
But does the individual faith, and seeker-driven service draw one into a new family in Christ, in new relationships, responsibilities, allegiances and loyalties? Or, has modern Western society simply replaced the old allegiances (rural values, family life and living in small town (even urban ‘pocket’s’) community - not for something better (at least as provided for and reinforced in new church community) but for individual tyranny and eventual societal chaos?
I was raised with familiarity and responsibility due to close proximity to family members. Many rural communities in Ontario remain the same today. Local churches may still reflect this and new pastors need to know they are entering a community of family and relationship that is more than their coming together to build a church and to seek to follow Christ.
The new pastor has entered a tribe, a clan, a community just as cohesive and united as would be entrance into any clan or tribe or community in what you used to be called ‘the mission field,’ overseas.
Within each church there are tribal leaders and intricate relationships. Father, sons and brothers, mother, daughters-in-law, and cousins may still live within tight boundaries of kinship drawn by precise bloodlines.
In Arab or Bedouin cultures there remains deeply ingrained codes of personal honour, the dictates of vengeance, the obligation of hospitality, and the near-sacred dedication to family (see Sandra Mackey: ‘Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict.’
When does mission, evangelism, church life, community impact follow lines of family and clan and tribe, and when not? Does one leave one family and tribe (or is the former life in community trumped) by entrance into the new Family of God, the Church? Is this part of what Jesus is saying when he tells us that one’s enemies (when one comes to faith) may be those of his own household, and that if we don’t ‘hate’ father, mother, sister and brother (at least relatively speaking), in following Him, that we cannot be His disciple.
But does the individual faith, and seeker-driven service draw one into a new family in Christ, in new relationships, responsibilities, allegiances and loyalties? Or, has modern Western society simply replaced the old allegiances (rural values, family life and living in small town (even urban ‘pocket’s’) community - not for something better (at least as provided for and reinforced in new church community) but for individual tyranny and eventual societal chaos?
Does the Gospel Lead Inevitably to Democracy?
Showing and telling the Gospel among people who celebrate tribe and clan (the Arab world, Africa, youth culture) challenges the way in which Christendom, latterly, entered into attempts at evangelism and mission. Having one's own personal relationship with Christ may seem very strange to those cultures where they will come to Christ as a group, if at all, or when the clan-leader embraces the claims of Jesus.
Does the Gospel lead inevitably to democracy (as it has been outlined and embraced in and by the West)? Is making a 'personal decision' for Jesus necessary to salvation (if you confess with your mouth: 'Jesus is Lord . . ' ? - but then become a problem if one doesn't see further how one is to then fit into the Christ's Body, the Church, or become part of God's reclamation-project that touches all people, all relationships, all aspects of life in the cosmos.
Sandra Mackey, writing in ‘Mirror of the Arab World,’ states that: “Unlike the West that glorifies the individual, Arabs define self in personal relationships with others. And it is mutual obligation of one to the other than knits Arab society together. Consequently institutions are inseparable from those who occupy them. In the realm of Arab politics, a person who holds a political or legal position is seldom if ever capable of separating himself from his relationships within his family, community, or web of indebtedness in order to exercise an impersonal, institutional role. To the officeholder as well as those he represents, any act of independence is the equivalent of splitting the social atom, risking the release of unknown and uncontrollable forces that threaten order. Therefore, to most Arabs, it is better to live in tyranny than risk chaos.”
Does the Gospel lead inevitably to democracy (as it has been outlined and embraced in and by the West)? Is making a 'personal decision' for Jesus necessary to salvation (if you confess with your mouth: 'Jesus is Lord . . ' ? - but then become a problem if one doesn't see further how one is to then fit into the Christ's Body, the Church, or become part of God's reclamation-project that touches all people, all relationships, all aspects of life in the cosmos.
Sandra Mackey, writing in ‘Mirror of the Arab World,’ states that: “Unlike the West that glorifies the individual, Arabs define self in personal relationships with others. And it is mutual obligation of one to the other than knits Arab society together. Consequently institutions are inseparable from those who occupy them. In the realm of Arab politics, a person who holds a political or legal position is seldom if ever capable of separating himself from his relationships within his family, community, or web of indebtedness in order to exercise an impersonal, institutional role. To the officeholder as well as those he represents, any act of independence is the equivalent of splitting the social atom, risking the release of unknown and uncontrollable forces that threaten order. Therefore, to most Arabs, it is better to live in tyranny than risk chaos.”
Holy Week
Holy Week reminds us of the death and resurrection of our Saviour. It’s like a long birth canal, this week, in that the Gospels reveal the story of the culturally contextualized, incarnational womb-like existence of Christ, embedded in the unique and particular ancient culture of Judaism - for thirty years, privately and then 3 years in public ministry.
As in childbirth, there is a period of excruciating pain (in the crux and crisis of the Cross) that soon gives birth to the new, resurrection life of the First of a whole new Race, the Second Adam, our Saviour, our Friend, the Firstborn, our Lord and Master - Jesus.
This is the One who overcomes the guilt and bondage of the world and its citizens, the One who took the place of sinners that they might be set free – to be the fully human Creatures once again, and to the restored hope of a fully restored Creation one Day. He became ‘sin’ for us that through Him we might receive - indeed might become, the righteous and the righteousness of God.
This is the One who overcomes shame and blame. When reviled, accused, scorned, abused and spit upon (in the midst of a shame-culture, where blessing and cursing and ‘tit for tat’ was the norm), even then He opened not His mouth. Even though He was not to blame, He took the blame. He for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame . . .
This is the One who overcame fear. His perfect Love (for His Father, for the elect citizens of earth, for the world – ie. cosmos, itself) overcame fear. He came to that point in his ministry when, his time - his hour having come, He set His face like flint towards Jerusalem and toward all that would await Him there.
Thanks be to God for His incredible Gift !
As in childbirth, there is a period of excruciating pain (in the crux and crisis of the Cross) that soon gives birth to the new, resurrection life of the First of a whole new Race, the Second Adam, our Saviour, our Friend, the Firstborn, our Lord and Master - Jesus.
This is the One who overcomes the guilt and bondage of the world and its citizens, the One who took the place of sinners that they might be set free – to be the fully human Creatures once again, and to the restored hope of a fully restored Creation one Day. He became ‘sin’ for us that through Him we might receive - indeed might become, the righteous and the righteousness of God.
This is the One who overcomes shame and blame. When reviled, accused, scorned, abused and spit upon (in the midst of a shame-culture, where blessing and cursing and ‘tit for tat’ was the norm), even then He opened not His mouth. Even though He was not to blame, He took the blame. He for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame . . .
This is the One who overcame fear. His perfect Love (for His Father, for the elect citizens of earth, for the world – ie. cosmos, itself) overcame fear. He came to that point in his ministry when, his time - his hour having come, He set His face like flint towards Jerusalem and toward all that would await Him there.
Thanks be to God for His incredible Gift !
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Fall and the Resulting Effects of Sin
A Place to Start in Missional Focus? (cf Genesis 3)
1. The Issue of Guilt –In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die . . .
The West has stressed the issue of guilt, especially in the substitutionary atonement understanding of the finished work of Christ, as taught by St. Anselm. Thus has been stressed the issue of the Righteous judge dealing with the guilty, or turning aside the just judgment and penalty due law-breakers, through the advocacy of the Son of God Who has Himself fully paid the penalty for sin, having experienced the curse of death, becoming ‘sin for us’ that we might be set fully at liberty. This is the Gospel but not the whole of the Good News.
2. The Issue of Shame – Their eyes were opened, that they were naked . . .
There are many shame-based cultures in the world where in the context of being together – as a couple, a family, tribe, clan or people-group, shame is a (pre)dominant theme. In such cultures, ‘tit-for-tat’ and balancing of revenge and justice is deeply engrained. This attitude and resultant actions happen in rival gangs in Toronto or New York, or in the reciprocal knee-capping of opposite sides in Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles,’ and in the eye-for-eye theory and practice prevalent still in Jewish and Islamic cultures (and indeed also to be found in the West, too, where token or nominal Christianity is acknowledged without taking seriously Jesus teachings with regard to the seemingly foolish, vulnerable and peace-at-any price ‘turning the other cheek’ motif He advocated for His followers.
It may well be that the West has stressed too greatly the issue of ‘guilt’ in seeking to win many in the world (for example, Africans) to faith in Christ. And perhaps the same may be said in all places in the West – for many such may claim to have had a ‘born-again’ experience, to have had that transaction they believe to have been completed in their life wherein they have passed from death to life due to their ‘acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.’ But in many (f not most) instances, globally today, many of those who claim to have ‘found Jesus’ do not bear deep fruit and show many evidences of lives that have been transformed.
One of the rationales of Baptist beginnings was that ‘all of Europe had been baptized’ (and was thus part of Christendom, members of the visible Church), but in such professors there was little or no evidence of an inner, transforming work of the Holy Spirit into the saving death and life of Christ. Hence, Baptists, uniquely, sought to wait until there was ample fruit and more evidence of a changed life (of at least the beginnings of sanctification that would be evidence of justification having actually happened) – and then, and them only, would they baptize such ‘believers.’ (Of course this came down through revivalism, in many cases, as leading to prohibitions re: dancing, smoking, playing cards, spitting and chewing, etc. in that, as one stopped these behaviours, one was giving clear testimony to the work of God within the heart and life.)
Today, when so many in North America claim to be ‘born again’ and have even received ‘believers baptism’ subsequent to a personal response of repentance and faith, it is more than passingly strange that society as a whole does not reflect the same realities of the inner life, the inner world of the Spirit, the inner values supposed espoused by Bible-believing churches comprised of born-again, baptized confessors of Jesus. Why is there this disparity between the claims of having ‘received Christ’ and so little evidence in Western society as a whole of personal and corporate holiness, justice, forgiveness, mercy, proper care of God’s world (ie. the environment), and so many other positive, redemptive, constructive change in such matters as personal and societal health and blessing. And if there is little real peace in the heart, or the home, or the nation what really (as a society of Jesus’ apprentice followers) has the Church to expound and export to the rest of the world?
Is stressing the issues of guilt and grace the right approach in cultures where lives are so largely dominated by issues of shame? Where clans, cultures and families spend so much time trying to ‘save face’ or avenge wrongs – real or imagined (often in vendettas lasting generations and centuries), is it wise or effective, in terms of seeking response to the Gospel, to stress only or predominantly this one (albeit vital and necessary) aspect of Gospel truth.
Even in the West, in a supposed ‘postmodern’ world, the idea of the cognitive (Cartesian, thinking, rational) model – to the exclusion or minimizing of other aspects of life (the heart, the passions, emotions, feelings; the body, action, praxis, doing it) is losing ground. An over-emphasis, in modernity (‘I think therefore I am – thanks Descartes) is seen now as ‘wanting’ – as unbalanced, as less than the whole or of what it means to live a holistic life.
There is, of course too, the opposite danger of dumbing-down the Gospel; of elevating experience over the gift of good and pure Reason; mindless actions without thoughts. This is also a foolish and futile response for believers who think they must now negate or minimize biblical study and apologia as a means of sharing and understanding what it means to follow Jesus, in a day when people want to see it, touch it, feel it, taste it, do it, and not merely theorize about it. Indeed, people want not merely the pictures and the words on the menu – they want to experience the meal. And that is a good thing.
The danger of course is a kind of gnosis where people claim to have a kind of experience (in worship, alone with God, while hearing their favorite meditative or almost erotic love-songs –to-Jesus worship songs). ‘I’ve found it; I’ve got it’ I’ve experienced it’ – often leads to a kind of contemporary Gnostic or Essene community that tries to escape from most of life – from where normal people live and breathe and have their being – trying to create a pseudo (or virtual) or escapist kind of world and community. If the ‘world’ has a dance for youth – we provide a youth group and hay-rides (or some other supposedly safe entertainment and fellowship experiences) because the other is ‘worldly.’
We may create churches that are cocoons that never show forth or break-forth in new life that might actually transform whole communities. Too often, we become defeatist and, again, escapist – not believing in the power of the Gospel to rescue and save, transform and to set people on a new path.
That God is reclaiming through Christ and the Gospel people and places and things – is largely lost to many. They believe nothing will happen really till Jesus comes again, and until then we must snatch souls from the wrath to come. But the idea of changing the atmosphere, the environment, the city structures, the power and influential bases of the larger society is little known or embraced as a Kingdom goal or part of good news for modern (or postmodern) mankind.
The ‘apologia’ (apologetic) form of faith-sharing is essential as still part of the wider Christian missional enterprise. We do have a reason for the hope that is in us – not merely a blind hope or a mere whistling in the dark. The danger is, however, that we will come across, as it were, hauling someone into court and accusing them of being wrong (and sinful and bad) – for not knowing either the Law or the Gospel, for not hearing, agreeing – and thus inherently doing many things that displease God) – a kind of ‘setting forth our case’ in parading an impressive (at least to us) array of arguments that we hope may somehow convince them how wrong they are (and conversely how right we are) and how they should admit it, confess, repent, believe our explanation and embrace the Gospel. And if they will not, then ‘go to jail, go directly to jail.’
This legal, often intentional (or even when unintentional) accusatory approach simply turns people off – though of course the Spirit may bring conviction and convincing through all means and even our most bumbling attempts to share faith.
But, is it enough or even a wise ‘strategy’ to lob canon shots of verses and theology from our Bibles as they reciprocate with the same with their Holy Book (Koran, Sacred Vedas) or in the cerebral exchanges and the opinions of our own heart (sometimes based on or mixed with thoughts from secular media, education, maxims, truisms or even New Age idiocy)? Will we win people when we try primarily to convince them at the head level when their hearts are broken or hard or indifferent? . . .or, when their hands are itching to do something good for their world and for their neighbour?
Indeed, there will be times when we have (or should create) opportunity to share our sacred scriptures, our apologia, the reason for our inner hope lived out in faith in practice – but to start there may simply result in mutual intransigence, failure to listen, to more dissension, misunderstanding – even to fighting, with both sides failing to appreciate, receive and be changed positively, in such situations and with such approaches.
Either we say nothing or, too often, we come across as – it’s our way or the highway. Failure to listen and to be empathetic so that we may wisely shape and tailor our responses does not lead to the gentle and wise entry of truth and models of love that will enter into and effect places of their heart where God’s Spirit is already pressing in.
3. The Issue of Blame – The woman you gave me, she gave it to me . . .
The theology and practice of ‘passing the buck’ is one which we know all about and in which we often eagerly participate. We may know our guilt and feel our shame but the tendency is that unless aided and turned by grace infusions of the Spirit, we will try to shift our responsibility to others, seeking to bring shame and guilt upon them. Much effort goes into this as individuals, families – indeed, whole nations, see clearly (they think) the obvious sins and short-comings of others (real or imagined) and use this to justify their own condemnation and even retribution. Jesus’ words of the mote in the eye of others versus the beam in our own eye are to be remembered.
The fact that it usually takes two to tangle (or tango) is conveniently set aside at times, when in order to prove a point, justify our own aggression or other improper action/response, we move into the ‘territory’ of others - to attack, build our case, neutralize the defenses or arguments of others, or to justify our own righteous cause and indignation.
4. The Issue of Fear – They hid themselves . . .
Knowing ourselves to have failed and to be less than perfect, people try to hide from God, from others and from themselves. Whole cultures live in fear. Gated communities are arising in the West. Globally people live beyond walls (some topped with razor wire and glass shards, surrounded by guard dogs and security forces. Such fear begets fear and even further causes for alarm.
Indeed, alarm and security systems percolate through the advertizing of the days of our lives. The fear that we have lost something, or that we might lose something causes us to hide, build walls and to strike first lest we be struck later, justifying as we do, our aggression rather than spurring our efforts towards peace-making. All of this is contemporarily and globally evident.
Societies and families have always lived in fear. Nothing is new in this reality. And yet we can fear too much or fear things that may well never be (as Mark Twain acknowledged: he had known a great many troubles – most of which had never happened). The fear of what might be, could be, what we may think is likely to be, sets whole and negative directions for individuals, families and nations. We fear the threat of nuclear disaster, the capacity of others to do us harm in many ways – whether justified or not, which leads to trillion dollar armament industries. Again, fear begets fear. The Gospel and the perfect Love of which it speaks and which in Christ it may bring, casts out (expels) fear so that Christians can live freely, despite the realities and potentialities of evil that dominate and day and prevail in any society. Christians living risky, faith-full yet fearless lives would be a powerful testimony to their neighbour and in their world.
There is a proper and sane realization of potential harm of what may happen in life – and that very often does happen, for which we should be properly and adequately prepared. Bad things happen to innocent, good people who are just trying to get on with life as best they can. It is not wrong to buy life-insurance or to lock the doors of our homes, nor to be prudent and circumspect when allowing our children to meet strangers – or, when we first seek to assess or measure situations, potentially brewing storms, or clear and inevitable threats. But living in fear that creates too many unnecessary adrenalin rushes or that results draining and debilitating inner anxieties – well, we were never created to live this way.
‘You can’t threaten a Christian with Heaven.’ Ultimately, the believer knows that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are wise; we look after ourselves; we rightly preserve body and soul, daily seeking to make wise, prudent decisions about the stewardship of all of life: our resources (the planet’s resources), our health, our very lives. Yet, also we may dare and risk, simply living fully our lives as unto Christ in the Adventure to which we have been called, with Him and through Him to ‘bless all the nations of the earth.’ For indeed, in Him we experience the promises and fulfillment that are to come to (and through) Him Who is the ‘Seed’ of Abraham.
The witness of trusting, obeying, and ultimately fearless Christians is a powerful, attractive perhaps the Spirit may use to winsomely and compellingly ‘draw’ to faith in Christ those He seeks to be part of the Way, the Truth and the Life that is found in Him.
1. The Issue of Guilt –In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die . . .
The West has stressed the issue of guilt, especially in the substitutionary atonement understanding of the finished work of Christ, as taught by St. Anselm. Thus has been stressed the issue of the Righteous judge dealing with the guilty, or turning aside the just judgment and penalty due law-breakers, through the advocacy of the Son of God Who has Himself fully paid the penalty for sin, having experienced the curse of death, becoming ‘sin for us’ that we might be set fully at liberty. This is the Gospel but not the whole of the Good News.
2. The Issue of Shame – Their eyes were opened, that they were naked . . .
There are many shame-based cultures in the world where in the context of being together – as a couple, a family, tribe, clan or people-group, shame is a (pre)dominant theme. In such cultures, ‘tit-for-tat’ and balancing of revenge and justice is deeply engrained. This attitude and resultant actions happen in rival gangs in Toronto or New York, or in the reciprocal knee-capping of opposite sides in Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles,’ and in the eye-for-eye theory and practice prevalent still in Jewish and Islamic cultures (and indeed also to be found in the West, too, where token or nominal Christianity is acknowledged without taking seriously Jesus teachings with regard to the seemingly foolish, vulnerable and peace-at-any price ‘turning the other cheek’ motif He advocated for His followers.
It may well be that the West has stressed too greatly the issue of ‘guilt’ in seeking to win many in the world (for example, Africans) to faith in Christ. And perhaps the same may be said in all places in the West – for many such may claim to have had a ‘born-again’ experience, to have had that transaction they believe to have been completed in their life wherein they have passed from death to life due to their ‘acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.’ But in many (f not most) instances, globally today, many of those who claim to have ‘found Jesus’ do not bear deep fruit and show many evidences of lives that have been transformed.
One of the rationales of Baptist beginnings was that ‘all of Europe had been baptized’ (and was thus part of Christendom, members of the visible Church), but in such professors there was little or no evidence of an inner, transforming work of the Holy Spirit into the saving death and life of Christ. Hence, Baptists, uniquely, sought to wait until there was ample fruit and more evidence of a changed life (of at least the beginnings of sanctification that would be evidence of justification having actually happened) – and then, and them only, would they baptize such ‘believers.’ (Of course this came down through revivalism, in many cases, as leading to prohibitions re: dancing, smoking, playing cards, spitting and chewing, etc. in that, as one stopped these behaviours, one was giving clear testimony to the work of God within the heart and life.)
Today, when so many in North America claim to be ‘born again’ and have even received ‘believers baptism’ subsequent to a personal response of repentance and faith, it is more than passingly strange that society as a whole does not reflect the same realities of the inner life, the inner world of the Spirit, the inner values supposed espoused by Bible-believing churches comprised of born-again, baptized confessors of Jesus. Why is there this disparity between the claims of having ‘received Christ’ and so little evidence in Western society as a whole of personal and corporate holiness, justice, forgiveness, mercy, proper care of God’s world (ie. the environment), and so many other positive, redemptive, constructive change in such matters as personal and societal health and blessing. And if there is little real peace in the heart, or the home, or the nation what really (as a society of Jesus’ apprentice followers) has the Church to expound and export to the rest of the world?
Is stressing the issues of guilt and grace the right approach in cultures where lives are so largely dominated by issues of shame? Where clans, cultures and families spend so much time trying to ‘save face’ or avenge wrongs – real or imagined (often in vendettas lasting generations and centuries), is it wise or effective, in terms of seeking response to the Gospel, to stress only or predominantly this one (albeit vital and necessary) aspect of Gospel truth.
Even in the West, in a supposed ‘postmodern’ world, the idea of the cognitive (Cartesian, thinking, rational) model – to the exclusion or minimizing of other aspects of life (the heart, the passions, emotions, feelings; the body, action, praxis, doing it) is losing ground. An over-emphasis, in modernity (‘I think therefore I am – thanks Descartes) is seen now as ‘wanting’ – as unbalanced, as less than the whole or of what it means to live a holistic life.
There is, of course too, the opposite danger of dumbing-down the Gospel; of elevating experience over the gift of good and pure Reason; mindless actions without thoughts. This is also a foolish and futile response for believers who think they must now negate or minimize biblical study and apologia as a means of sharing and understanding what it means to follow Jesus, in a day when people want to see it, touch it, feel it, taste it, do it, and not merely theorize about it. Indeed, people want not merely the pictures and the words on the menu – they want to experience the meal. And that is a good thing.
The danger of course is a kind of gnosis where people claim to have a kind of experience (in worship, alone with God, while hearing their favorite meditative or almost erotic love-songs –to-Jesus worship songs). ‘I’ve found it; I’ve got it’ I’ve experienced it’ – often leads to a kind of contemporary Gnostic or Essene community that tries to escape from most of life – from where normal people live and breathe and have their being – trying to create a pseudo (or virtual) or escapist kind of world and community. If the ‘world’ has a dance for youth – we provide a youth group and hay-rides (or some other supposedly safe entertainment and fellowship experiences) because the other is ‘worldly.’
We may create churches that are cocoons that never show forth or break-forth in new life that might actually transform whole communities. Too often, we become defeatist and, again, escapist – not believing in the power of the Gospel to rescue and save, transform and to set people on a new path.
That God is reclaiming through Christ and the Gospel people and places and things – is largely lost to many. They believe nothing will happen really till Jesus comes again, and until then we must snatch souls from the wrath to come. But the idea of changing the atmosphere, the environment, the city structures, the power and influential bases of the larger society is little known or embraced as a Kingdom goal or part of good news for modern (or postmodern) mankind.
The ‘apologia’ (apologetic) form of faith-sharing is essential as still part of the wider Christian missional enterprise. We do have a reason for the hope that is in us – not merely a blind hope or a mere whistling in the dark. The danger is, however, that we will come across, as it were, hauling someone into court and accusing them of being wrong (and sinful and bad) – for not knowing either the Law or the Gospel, for not hearing, agreeing – and thus inherently doing many things that displease God) – a kind of ‘setting forth our case’ in parading an impressive (at least to us) array of arguments that we hope may somehow convince them how wrong they are (and conversely how right we are) and how they should admit it, confess, repent, believe our explanation and embrace the Gospel. And if they will not, then ‘go to jail, go directly to jail.’
This legal, often intentional (or even when unintentional) accusatory approach simply turns people off – though of course the Spirit may bring conviction and convincing through all means and even our most bumbling attempts to share faith.
But, is it enough or even a wise ‘strategy’ to lob canon shots of verses and theology from our Bibles as they reciprocate with the same with their Holy Book (Koran, Sacred Vedas) or in the cerebral exchanges and the opinions of our own heart (sometimes based on or mixed with thoughts from secular media, education, maxims, truisms or even New Age idiocy)? Will we win people when we try primarily to convince them at the head level when their hearts are broken or hard or indifferent? . . .or, when their hands are itching to do something good for their world and for their neighbour?
Indeed, there will be times when we have (or should create) opportunity to share our sacred scriptures, our apologia, the reason for our inner hope lived out in faith in practice – but to start there may simply result in mutual intransigence, failure to listen, to more dissension, misunderstanding – even to fighting, with both sides failing to appreciate, receive and be changed positively, in such situations and with such approaches.
Either we say nothing or, too often, we come across as – it’s our way or the highway. Failure to listen and to be empathetic so that we may wisely shape and tailor our responses does not lead to the gentle and wise entry of truth and models of love that will enter into and effect places of their heart where God’s Spirit is already pressing in.
3. The Issue of Blame – The woman you gave me, she gave it to me . . .
The theology and practice of ‘passing the buck’ is one which we know all about and in which we often eagerly participate. We may know our guilt and feel our shame but the tendency is that unless aided and turned by grace infusions of the Spirit, we will try to shift our responsibility to others, seeking to bring shame and guilt upon them. Much effort goes into this as individuals, families – indeed, whole nations, see clearly (they think) the obvious sins and short-comings of others (real or imagined) and use this to justify their own condemnation and even retribution. Jesus’ words of the mote in the eye of others versus the beam in our own eye are to be remembered.
The fact that it usually takes two to tangle (or tango) is conveniently set aside at times, when in order to prove a point, justify our own aggression or other improper action/response, we move into the ‘territory’ of others - to attack, build our case, neutralize the defenses or arguments of others, or to justify our own righteous cause and indignation.
4. The Issue of Fear – They hid themselves . . .
Knowing ourselves to have failed and to be less than perfect, people try to hide from God, from others and from themselves. Whole cultures live in fear. Gated communities are arising in the West. Globally people live beyond walls (some topped with razor wire and glass shards, surrounded by guard dogs and security forces. Such fear begets fear and even further causes for alarm.
Indeed, alarm and security systems percolate through the advertizing of the days of our lives. The fear that we have lost something, or that we might lose something causes us to hide, build walls and to strike first lest we be struck later, justifying as we do, our aggression rather than spurring our efforts towards peace-making. All of this is contemporarily and globally evident.
Societies and families have always lived in fear. Nothing is new in this reality. And yet we can fear too much or fear things that may well never be (as Mark Twain acknowledged: he had known a great many troubles – most of which had never happened). The fear of what might be, could be, what we may think is likely to be, sets whole and negative directions for individuals, families and nations. We fear the threat of nuclear disaster, the capacity of others to do us harm in many ways – whether justified or not, which leads to trillion dollar armament industries. Again, fear begets fear. The Gospel and the perfect Love of which it speaks and which in Christ it may bring, casts out (expels) fear so that Christians can live freely, despite the realities and potentialities of evil that dominate and day and prevail in any society. Christians living risky, faith-full yet fearless lives would be a powerful testimony to their neighbour and in their world.
There is a proper and sane realization of potential harm of what may happen in life – and that very often does happen, for which we should be properly and adequately prepared. Bad things happen to innocent, good people who are just trying to get on with life as best they can. It is not wrong to buy life-insurance or to lock the doors of our homes, nor to be prudent and circumspect when allowing our children to meet strangers – or, when we first seek to assess or measure situations, potentially brewing storms, or clear and inevitable threats. But living in fear that creates too many unnecessary adrenalin rushes or that results draining and debilitating inner anxieties – well, we were never created to live this way.
‘You can’t threaten a Christian with Heaven.’ Ultimately, the believer knows that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are wise; we look after ourselves; we rightly preserve body and soul, daily seeking to make wise, prudent decisions about the stewardship of all of life: our resources (the planet’s resources), our health, our very lives. Yet, also we may dare and risk, simply living fully our lives as unto Christ in the Adventure to which we have been called, with Him and through Him to ‘bless all the nations of the earth.’ For indeed, in Him we experience the promises and fulfillment that are to come to (and through) Him Who is the ‘Seed’ of Abraham.
The witness of trusting, obeying, and ultimately fearless Christians is a powerful, attractive perhaps the Spirit may use to winsomely and compellingly ‘draw’ to faith in Christ those He seeks to be part of the Way, the Truth and the Life that is found in Him.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Ichabod
In the Old Testament, the experience of 'ichabod' meant that the 'glory' or Presence of God had departed from the former Reality of His being known as among His People.
In the old New England fable, Ichabod is the unfortunate name of the school teacher in the story of the headless horseman. Ichabod Crane is a fictional character in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", first published in 1820.
Today, it may be that a church has lost contact with Christ, Who is the Head of the Church. The Body has lost the ability to commune with the Head.
Alan Hirsch (author of Forgotten Things), challenges us unto the recovery of the centrality of Jesus Christ 'in His own Movement.' He asserts that we need to recover a Christology first (that leads to renewal) - then Missiology - then Ecclessiology.
He asks: "Do we see His words as just ‘good advice?’" - for we see today the subversion of Christianity today into being just another religion. We have made Jesus just like us - to fit into our plans and do our thing. We do not listen, nor follow.
But Jesus wants to make us like Him.
In the old New England fable, Ichabod is the unfortunate name of the school teacher in the story of the headless horseman. Ichabod Crane is a fictional character in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", first published in 1820.
Today, it may be that a church has lost contact with Christ, Who is the Head of the Church. The Body has lost the ability to commune with the Head.
Alan Hirsch (author of Forgotten Things), challenges us unto the recovery of the centrality of Jesus Christ 'in His own Movement.' He asserts that we need to recover a Christology first (that leads to renewal) - then Missiology - then Ecclessiology.
He asks: "Do we see His words as just ‘good advice?’" - for we see today the subversion of Christianity today into being just another religion. We have made Jesus just like us - to fit into our plans and do our thing. We do not listen, nor follow.
But Jesus wants to make us like Him.
Guilt and Shame and Fear
The effects of the Fall are reflected in the way people sin or show the ‘curse’ in their lives. This is reflected in at least three ways (cf. Genesis 3):
Many world cultures are based more on ‘shame’ and ‘fear’ rather than on 'guilt.' These reflect the ongoing realities of life in a world community (or local family, clan and people-group) and lived among the dangers and terrors of a hostile world.
It’s not wrong to only present the first aspect i.e. related to guilt and the need for propritiation and atonement; indeed, it is vital and necessary. But we must also attack the issues of shame and fear – or the result will be whole regions and nations where Christianity (so-called) is a mile wide but only an inch thick – with similar results in N. America but for different reasons, as per our presentations. Fear is so prominent in many parts of the world (now also in the West, since post 9/11 terrorism has begun to be such a factor in Western life).
In one sense, people don’t need more guilt or shame or fear. Many won’t attend churches where they know they’ll get emotionally brow-beaten by a preacher any more than some overweight people want to get onto a scale. (They already know the problem and the scale just reminds them of it, unless, that is, they are seeing progress in a more positive direction). Beyond (or as well as dealing with the 'guilt factor,' people need to know how they can be released from the tit-for-tat balance needs of whatever or whoever shames them - and from what they fear.
Put another way, indeed (in some cultures and settings) they may need more clarity in how or why they are guilty, in how or why they are still producing or consumed by shame, or how and why it is that fear so dominates and constrains their lives. And then the Good News may be also shared of Who it is that sets them free from all of that, or goes through it with them - giving courage and hope, making sense of it all.
Shame in cultures relates to people as individuals, members of family, clan and people-groups (ethne) and in some ways also to ‘the nation.’ Saving face, avenging wrongs and slights, and actual harm done to them, are very much to the fore.
They need to be helped to see that they have shamed God (through sin and rebellion and falling short of His demands and purposes for them – individually, in their relationships with others and with this planet -- and that in one sense it may be necessary sometimes even to ‘shame’ family and clan and people-group in order that no longer will they bring shame to God. (In a similar way, Jesus (albeit using hyperbole) indicated that in following (loving, serving, obeying) Him it would sometimes seem (in contrast or relatively speaking) as if they ‘hated’ father or mother or children, etc. Just so, in all lives and cultures it is important to point out how one may not be following God but rather allowing lesser loves and loyalties to dictate thinking and behavior and thus bringing shame upon His honour and right to rule, and abusing the ways He has planned for this world.
In shame-based cultures, the eldest brother is avenger of blood (in some respects like the Kinsman Redeemer – the goel, in Old Testament Israel). There is obligation to restore honour whenever it has been damaged. One must restore the balance even if by blood (or die trying). In such cultures, guilt (say, over divorcing several wives) is as nothing compared to what it would be like to shame family or clan by not avenging perceived or actual wrongs against the family or clan.
Perhaps, therefore, one aspect of sharing or explaining an aspect of the Gospel within such cultures and contexts, may be in helping people to see how they have 'shamed God' and, futher, how Christ through the shedding of His own blood has righted the wrong. God's Son - the elder brother of the new family and clan thus set free - has paid fully the blood money.
- You shall surely die. (resulting guilt)
- Their eyes were open – they were naked (resulting shame)
- They were afraid and hid themselves (resulting fear)
Many world cultures are based more on ‘shame’ and ‘fear’ rather than on 'guilt.' These reflect the ongoing realities of life in a world community (or local family, clan and people-group) and lived among the dangers and terrors of a hostile world.
It’s not wrong to only present the first aspect i.e. related to guilt and the need for propritiation and atonement; indeed, it is vital and necessary. But we must also attack the issues of shame and fear – or the result will be whole regions and nations where Christianity (so-called) is a mile wide but only an inch thick – with similar results in N. America but for different reasons, as per our presentations. Fear is so prominent in many parts of the world (now also in the West, since post 9/11 terrorism has begun to be such a factor in Western life).
In one sense, people don’t need more guilt or shame or fear. Many won’t attend churches where they know they’ll get emotionally brow-beaten by a preacher any more than some overweight people want to get onto a scale. (They already know the problem and the scale just reminds them of it, unless, that is, they are seeing progress in a more positive direction). Beyond (or as well as dealing with the 'guilt factor,' people need to know how they can be released from the tit-for-tat balance needs of whatever or whoever shames them - and from what they fear.
Put another way, indeed (in some cultures and settings) they may need more clarity in how or why they are guilty, in how or why they are still producing or consumed by shame, or how and why it is that fear so dominates and constrains their lives. And then the Good News may be also shared of Who it is that sets them free from all of that, or goes through it with them - giving courage and hope, making sense of it all.
Shame in cultures relates to people as individuals, members of family, clan and people-groups (ethne) and in some ways also to ‘the nation.’ Saving face, avenging wrongs and slights, and actual harm done to them, are very much to the fore.
They need to be helped to see that they have shamed God (through sin and rebellion and falling short of His demands and purposes for them – individually, in their relationships with others and with this planet -- and that in one sense it may be necessary sometimes even to ‘shame’ family and clan and people-group in order that no longer will they bring shame to God. (In a similar way, Jesus (albeit using hyperbole) indicated that in following (loving, serving, obeying) Him it would sometimes seem (in contrast or relatively speaking) as if they ‘hated’ father or mother or children, etc. Just so, in all lives and cultures it is important to point out how one may not be following God but rather allowing lesser loves and loyalties to dictate thinking and behavior and thus bringing shame upon His honour and right to rule, and abusing the ways He has planned for this world.
In shame-based cultures, the eldest brother is avenger of blood (in some respects like the Kinsman Redeemer – the goel, in Old Testament Israel). There is obligation to restore honour whenever it has been damaged. One must restore the balance even if by blood (or die trying). In such cultures, guilt (say, over divorcing several wives) is as nothing compared to what it would be like to shame family or clan by not avenging perceived or actual wrongs against the family or clan.
Perhaps, therefore, one aspect of sharing or explaining an aspect of the Gospel within such cultures and contexts, may be in helping people to see how they have 'shamed God' and, futher, how Christ through the shedding of His own blood has righted the wrong. God's Son - the elder brother of the new family and clan thus set free - has paid fully the blood money.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Transforming Encounter
When, in Isaiah 6, in ancient Israel in that dramatic year that King Uzziah died, the prophet was given to see the awe-full revelation of a greater King, Isaiah thought he was a dead man. It occurred in the temple and the event was attended by angels and such Glory of God that human eyes could scarcely comprehend nor shaking hands, later, barely convey on parchment. The place trembled and shook, the vision at once compelling and overwhelming.
In that moment’s flash of Isaiah’s seeing the Lord, in X-ray-like exposure he also saw himself. He saw too the city and nation in which he was embedded, whose life and lifestyle too did not bode well for survival within the hands of a holy God. He believed he was a dead man walking - or crouching; that they all were.
But there came an act of mercy through one of God’s ministering beings that in itself declared, in effect: ‘Not to worry, Isaiah!’ For with God’s revelation also came God’s redemption. The angel took a live coal from the temple-altar of sacrifice and with it purged the lips of the prophet - an objective act of purification, related to the sacrifice of another, cleansed all that was past and brought clarity of preparation for all that was ahead for him.
The great and holy One of Israel had come down to his people, initially to Isaiah, that day to be with him, to converse with him and to convey his purposes for the nation and of Isaiah’s role in the revelation of those plans. The God - whom Isaiah would further reveal as Immanuel (God with us) and Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - had not given up on His people, nor His world. But there was a lot of work yet to be done.
Unworthy Isaiah was made worthy so that God might have a conference with him as to His plans to make worthy the nation once more so that He through them might touch the world.
I used to think that God’s question was more rhetorical - and only from the perspective of heavenly beings: ‘Whom shall I send - and who will go for us?’ . . . that the ‘us’ was more about the counsels of the Trinity, or about God with angels wondering, seeking an earthly messenger. And that may well be. But perhaps it’s more intimate than that. God asks Isaiah in effect: ‘Now, between the two of us, whom shall I send; who will go for us?’ There is a stratagem of relationship where God and his commissioned ones (human: prophets, priests, kings, the church, a mission board or team) talk together about the who and how of reaching out to lost people in broken, desperate places.
A loving, purpose-full God sends human messengers forth to declare his truth and reveal his plans - and to model His loving, righteous ways. As with Abraham, the father and founder of the by-then idolotrous, wandering-at-heart nation, Israel, God reveals that He wants to bring all of the world's peoples (and all places and things) back in line with God's original creation purposes - that He wants to bless all the peoples of the earth; and that He wants to do it through His People, all of them His servants - individuals, a nation, a Church that unique reveal and bridge His mercy and grace to all.
This calling and sending of individuals, a nation, pre-eminently in a Son and His Church, reveals the mission-heart of God, who through such frail instruments is re-creating all that has been distorted, marred or thwarted, vis a vis original Creation purposes. Isaiah is to speak for God - and so today are we as His Church, Christ’s Body on earth. Like him, we too are to go and (by the total witness of our lives and our lips) to call out to those who will hear, who will see their own need for cleansing and restoration for (and to) the purposes God has uniquely called them.
God comes still to us - as individuals, as His People, the Church today. We worship His holiness and power. We bow before Him. We acknowledge again our unworthiness to be near Him, let alone to serve Him. We are in awe that in fresh and powerful, still compelling ways, He reveals Himself and ourselves anew to us. And we remember that He comes near that (such privilege !) He might again release us to the tasks of showing and telling His purposes - His love, mercy and grace - everywhere, in all of life, to all people.
In that moment’s flash of Isaiah’s seeing the Lord, in X-ray-like exposure he also saw himself. He saw too the city and nation in which he was embedded, whose life and lifestyle too did not bode well for survival within the hands of a holy God. He believed he was a dead man walking - or crouching; that they all were.
But there came an act of mercy through one of God’s ministering beings that in itself declared, in effect: ‘Not to worry, Isaiah!’ For with God’s revelation also came God’s redemption. The angel took a live coal from the temple-altar of sacrifice and with it purged the lips of the prophet - an objective act of purification, related to the sacrifice of another, cleansed all that was past and brought clarity of preparation for all that was ahead for him.
The great and holy One of Israel had come down to his people, initially to Isaiah, that day to be with him, to converse with him and to convey his purposes for the nation and of Isaiah’s role in the revelation of those plans. The God - whom Isaiah would further reveal as Immanuel (God with us) and Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - had not given up on His people, nor His world. But there was a lot of work yet to be done.
Unworthy Isaiah was made worthy so that God might have a conference with him as to His plans to make worthy the nation once more so that He through them might touch the world.
I used to think that God’s question was more rhetorical - and only from the perspective of heavenly beings: ‘Whom shall I send - and who will go for us?’ . . . that the ‘us’ was more about the counsels of the Trinity, or about God with angels wondering, seeking an earthly messenger. And that may well be. But perhaps it’s more intimate than that. God asks Isaiah in effect: ‘Now, between the two of us, whom shall I send; who will go for us?’ There is a stratagem of relationship where God and his commissioned ones (human: prophets, priests, kings, the church, a mission board or team) talk together about the who and how of reaching out to lost people in broken, desperate places.
A loving, purpose-full God sends human messengers forth to declare his truth and reveal his plans - and to model His loving, righteous ways. As with Abraham, the father and founder of the by-then idolotrous, wandering-at-heart nation, Israel, God reveals that He wants to bring all of the world's peoples (and all places and things) back in line with God's original creation purposes - that He wants to bless all the peoples of the earth; and that He wants to do it through His People, all of them His servants - individuals, a nation, a Church that unique reveal and bridge His mercy and grace to all.
This calling and sending of individuals, a nation, pre-eminently in a Son and His Church, reveals the mission-heart of God, who through such frail instruments is re-creating all that has been distorted, marred or thwarted, vis a vis original Creation purposes. Isaiah is to speak for God - and so today are we as His Church, Christ’s Body on earth. Like him, we too are to go and (by the total witness of our lives and our lips) to call out to those who will hear, who will see their own need for cleansing and restoration for (and to) the purposes God has uniquely called them.
God comes still to us - as individuals, as His People, the Church today. We worship His holiness and power. We bow before Him. We acknowledge again our unworthiness to be near Him, let alone to serve Him. We are in awe that in fresh and powerful, still compelling ways, He reveals Himself and ourselves anew to us. And we remember that He comes near that (such privilege !) He might again release us to the tasks of showing and telling His purposes - His love, mercy and grace - everywhere, in all of life, to all people.
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