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.
