My 2013 Resolution: Undo 2012. Yep, it was a genuinely terrible year. The Mayans were wrong and that was only the tip of the iceberg. However I hope and I believe – beyond all reason and all possible justification – that something has to happen in this New Year. The alternative just cannot be so.
–Michael D. Bobo
My second Advent exploration is on Sojourners. In it I explore the paradox of God the Father and Embryo at the same time in the Advent story. Please comment there to help me out with this new writing community. I’m delighted to share and to see what else may come.
Man is made by his belief. As he believes so he is.
–Bhagavad-Gita
There are two primary forces in this world fear and faith. Fear can move you to destructiveness or sickness or failure. Only in rare instances will it motivate you to accomplishment. But faith is a greater force. Faith can drive itself into your consciousness and set you free from fear forever.
–Norman Vincent Peale
“Where is the Church Going” Panel Discussion from Claremont on Vimeo.
It was an honor to attend this in person. It captures so many questions, concerns and expectations for the future of our faith.
photo © 2007 Stuart Richards | more info (via: Wylio)
This is exactly what 22nd century faith must address. Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America? It is exactly what I pray we can realize as a global Church. The pre-believing world is looking for salvation from us – from the followers of Christ. Not from their sins. Not from their despair. Not from their future in hell that awaits. The fear is increasingly of us. The hell fire, brimstone message is not working anymore. The legalistic rules and requirements of Fundamentalism only alienate and confirm reasons not to believe. We must awaken to the reality of how we have been perceived. It is not their fault. It is not the world’s problem. It is our lack of a loving, relevant form of communication. We are outmoded and anachronistic. The first step is acceptance.
photo © 2007 LASZLO ILYES | more info (via: Wylio)
I couldn’t resist breaking my self-imposed silence for Lent to share this beautiful comment. Thank you, Jane for your well reasoned thoughts.
I agree that it is not good to suffer silently. From what I’ve experienced in church, many Christians are afraid to admit they are suffering or hurting. That’s why it’s hard to find authentic, Christian community. I think Christians are afraid to admit they are suffering or what they have suffered in the past because are we not all supposed to be living the “victorious Christian life”? Yet, when the past is not dealt with (especially the hurts and sins done against you), it usually comes back to bite you. Yet I don’t think the church or people in positions of leadership necessarily know how to create a community of healing, even though that is what the church and leaders might want. What’s worse is when people just give you a Bible verse and just leave you to deal with the pain yourself because they don’t have any answers or tools to help you. Most people are not trained to know how to deal with other people’s hurts.
I think we all want to be healed, but at the same time we don’t want to dwell on the past and be stuck as victims. Maybe people are afraid that digging up the past is just a useless griping session. As many well-meaning Christians have said, “Forget the past. Press on ahead,” making reference to Paul’s letter in Philippians. Then there’s counseling/ therapy (secular or Christian). Some churches don’t think it’s a valid recourse since the word of God is sufficient for every need and has all the answers. I personally think that counseling serves a purpose and has some good in it, but ultimate healing and resolution are found in God and the work He has done for us on our behalf. Two books that I’ve read which have helped me understand healing are “12 Christian Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy” by Cloud and Townsend and “A Journey To Wholeness: Intimately Involving God In Prayer for Resolution and Healing” by Richard D. Smith (www.cross-resources.org).
For me admitting and sharing the hurts from the past was the first step in the healing process. What is absolutely necessary to the healing process is also understanding the consequences of sin done against you as well as your sins towards others and asking the Heavenly Father to break the power of those sins & consequences in your life. Another absolute necessity is forgiveness and what that all entails. It is not just letting the other person off the hook. God took sin seriously and paid for every sin by blood; therefore, we should NEVER excuse someone else’s sin, no matter high small, and no matter if we love them. Then one must go before the Heavenly Father and ask Him to reveal the “lies” that have shaped your life, asking Him to break the power of each lie, and asking for a specific truth to replace each lie. Then the hard work begins of living out the those truths, becoming the person God created you to be and redeemed you to be. Truths become easier as you reject the lies. There’s a lot more to share, but I am not going to write a book here. My journey of going back to the past and finding healing has not been easy, but it has definitely worth it because God wants each of His children to live life abundantly.
Christianity over the past thirty years has been flooded with clichés - to the degree that a language has been created, mockingly labeled “Christianese.” As a younger man, I was guilty of using these clichés and not really thinking about how necessary it is to relate to the common woman or man whose experience is broader than the bubble of the church. 22nd Century faith must confront this ingenuousness that is rampant from the most popular leaders to the average church members. Sitting in a Bible study or small group will reveal how this occurs. Rather than confront the raw realities of life, it is easy to fall under the sway of phrases like “I’ll pray for you” or “God bless you.” Such all to common phrases mask the true mental conversation that sounds something like: “I do not want to listen to all of this negativity and I need a way out.” Honestly, it is more difficult, more painful, more self-sacrificial to get in the trenches and confront life’s injustices, pains and disappointments. It is emotionally taxing to listen and to care for those whose faith is not a guarantee for health, wealth and prosperity.
There is much to be said for propagating truth. Many Christian communities and movements claim to have a “truth” that they boldly declare as the one that is worth having in this very relativistic and confusing time in which we live. As I consider the claims of religious leaders from my past, I sympathize with Pontius Pilate’s question when faced with the only human who accurately communicated his truth. “What is truth?” Jesus, standing before his accuser, embodying the only perfectly righteous life in human history, is truth. He was the very truth that Pilate question and condemned. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever stood face to face with truth and found yourself condemning it, casting it before judgment, crucifying it?
Truth in the 22nd century is going to undergo greater scrutiny and persecution than ever. I find it hard to believe that the pattern of individualization of many truths and the relativizing of any sense of universal truth will reverse itself to the degree that the 20th and 21st century Evangelical movement has plead for. Rather than hope in this restoration of some sense of objectivity, I believe it is best to stand, like Pilate did, before the face of truth and start reflecting upon His claims, His life, His truth. That can at least be a starting point for 22nd century truth since it is rooted in the life, the ministry and the mission of our collective Savior.
Photo Credit: Truth & Falsehood by Iza Bella
A universal ethic has been proposed throughout human history, most notably from Confucius, Jesus, and Immanuel Kant. In the 21st century, it may seem impossible. Cyber cultures illustrate the infinite number of fetishes, pleasures, passions, etc., which reinforce the difficulty of such a possibility. Over the course of my dialogs, several people have commented that there is nothing universally applicable since the postmodern fixation upon linguistics and hermeneutical debates has complicated communication; thus, enabling any ethic to be redefined and used contrary to its original intention.
Despite numerous objections, I would like to propose compassion as our 22nd century universal ethic. To define this – appeasing postmoderns of various persuasions – it is important to consider the Latin meanings of the prefix cum and root pasus. Cum - with and pasus – to suffer. To suffer with. This universal ethic ironically consists of suffering. This is probably not good news to most of us who do not enjoy discomfort or inconvenience, but the good news is that this suffering has a redemptive purpose. Suffering in itself is miserable and oftentimes begs the question, “Why God?” Suffering with or demonstrating compassion is entirely different. It is the coming alongside the one who is suffering and lending aid, offering a prayer, sitting patiently, enduring the hardship together. It gives meaning and purpose to both sufferer and caregiver. The sufferer realizes a unique experience of love and acceptance. There is nothing the sufferer has done to merit this attention. This act of compassion gives him or her the opportunity to experience agape love, which is the highest form of love in the New Testament worldview. The care giver then is given the greatest honor of being an ambassador or expression of God in this suffering with the sufferer. No wonder all major world religions consider this among the greatest of virtues.
22nd century faith is rooted in compassion. In order for the Church to regain its place in the shaping of society in the next century there must be a shift in focus and emphasis. The time has come to humbly walk alongside those who are suffering from all religious persuasions, from all economic classes, from all nationalities, from all ages and stations in life. May we be those progressive souls whose love, humility and patience are visibly demonstrated in acts of suffering with the downcast, rejected, oppressed, enslaved.
For more contemplation on compassion, consider this wikipedia article.
Doubt suggests a striking contrast between the major players and their respective places in the church. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Flynn a controversial figure whose encounter with a young African American alter boy raises the suspicion of Meryl Streep’s character, the principle of the parish school Sister Aloysius Beauvier. Appearances are not what they seem. Father Flynn’s grace based approach to his faith is a huge affront to Sister Beauvier, whose lot in the film is to destroy him, exposing him as a pedophile. This brilliant portrayal on a small scale is a metaphor for an innner struggle which rages inside Christians – the battle between law and grace.Unfortunately, just as the conflict between Father Flynn and Sister Beauvier hindered the greater work, this inner war too can work against us. Ironically, law and grace are not opposed in Scripture, but their forces work as hammer and anvil on the steel of our souls. Law and grace. Hammer and anvil. Each blow the hammer delivers and the anvil receives tempers the steel, refines it and prepares it for proper use. Grace is so often spoken of a the means by which Christians are empowered to live for Christ, but it is interesting that He Himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Christ fulfilled the Law in his ultimate act of grace through his death on the cross. This crucifixion is enacted in our souls on a daily basis as we, too, fulfill the law. For example, we receive a blow from the hammer of law when we are called to love our enemies. This is a hard truth, but it can work for our edification. The anvil of grace receives this blow and we are tempered as in the image of Christ.
May we live between this tension of Law and Grace so as to fulfill Christ’s mission on this earth to love, to give, to serve.
There tend to be historical “pendulums” in which times transition between two extremes. The 21st century has experienced a remarkable swing in favor of American political strength. This has in turn politicized American Christianity in the guise of movements, most notably against abortion and against the legalization of gay marriage. I believe the pendulum needs to swing back towards an ethical form of Christianity that is informed by Scripture. Politics is a crucial mode of human activity, but ethics also is just as significant. The tendency to attack American Evangelicalism for its hypocrisy has been rooted in this pendulum swing. This does not mean less involvement in politics, but it means that the focus needs to be upon right living, right speech, and right thought – first. 22nd century faith should demonstrate this motto: Purity precedes Politics.
Dave Matthew’s “Funny the Way It Is” hits on some profound aspects of our society. Injustice is all around. We need to not only consider the poor of Darfur and their plight but also the homeless in D.C. and the prostitutes in Las Vegas. Funny the way it is. The Church has a role in all of these injustices. We need to see the poor at home and abroad through the eyes of Christ. With the compassion and forgiveness that Jesus extends. “Go and sin no more!” is our proclamation throughout the earth. But the necessary thing is to first have the tender touch and the loving eyes that will have no condescension. The Evangelical movement has been quick to proclaim the sin, but the compassion is often either completely absent or significantly delayed. Funny the way that is. The lyrics are worth some contemplation:
Lying in the park on a beautiful day
Sunshine in the grass, and the children play
Siren’s passing, fire engine red
Someone’s house is burning down on a day like this
The evening comes and we’re hanging out
On the front step and a car rolls by with the windows rolled down
And that war song is playing, ‘why can’t we be friends?’
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song
The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You hear the laughter while the children play war
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born
Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
Nearly thirty years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote A Christian Manifesto in order to address the Church’s responsibility in the midst of a technological transformation that radically altered the worldview of 1980s society. So many technological generations later, it is time for another manifesto. On the heels of such a revolutionary period in human history, now is the perfect time to pause and consider the times in which we live. This first decade of the twenty-first century is the perfect opportunity for the church to gain its rightful place in the shaping of the next nine decades. A manifesto is presented to the church by the sheer opportunity for Christians to be on the cusp of socio-cultural transformation. A manifesto is presented by the very times in which we live. It is time for the church to rise up to the challenge – to be a global agent of change, to seize the technological advancements and global communications as opportunities, to communicate truth, to call for justice, to encourage the downcast, to be a light amidst growing darkness.
