Proactive Compassion and Christ’s Kingdom (Part One)

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Mick Turner

When we take an honest, unbiased look at the life of Jesus as presented in the four Gospels of the New Testament, we are left with the undeniable impression that his primary concern in inaugurating his kingdom on earth centered on caring for the poor and the marginalized. Despite the concerted efforts of those self-proclaimed “believers” who have made brazened attempts to alter the message of Jesus to fit their political agenda, anyone with even a grain of objectivity and personal integrity will admit that the Master called us in no uncertain terms to care for the less fortunate among us.

“I have come to preach good news to the poor,” Christ tells us in Luke 4:18. With these words, and a proclamation taken from Isaiah 61 Jesus launched his mission. If anyone doubts his concern for the marginalized, let them study carefully his closing words in Matthew 25: 31-46 where the Master states clearly that our eternal destiny is intimately connected with how we treat the poor, the sick, and the infirm. As disquieting as Christ’s words are in this section of Holy Writ, the implications are clear and cannot be dismissed out of hand, just because they happen to fly in the face of our political ideology. It is for this reason that when the LifeBrook Faith Alliance began back in 1997, it was with these words as our motivating credo:

As followers of Jesus Christ, our prime calling is to give flesh to grace.

I am convinced that this was the directive Jesus operated under and I feel I should do no less. In concrete terms, instead of giving people advice, trying to convert them or get them to come to church (these are not bad things by the way), our mission is to help those who are hurting find a better way of navigating through their problems and living in the solution. Instead of asking, “Are you saved?” we instead ask, “What do you need?” or “How can I help?”

Unfortunately, the vast majority of practicing Christians in America have drifted far off course. Instead of looking for positive and effective ways to be of service to others, many of us have opted for a more comfortable and less challenging version of the faith. Seeking at all cost to maintain the status quo and keep the application of Christianity within the respectable bounds of American culture, we have settled for something far more tame and far less radical than what the Master called for. In the process of living beneath the standard set by Christ, we have also managed to more often than not, major in the minors. And in doing so, the once-honorable title “Christian,” has become a term of derision.

Francis Chan makes the following cogent observation regarding the contemporary church in America:

I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That’s for “radicals” who are “unbalanced” and who go “overboard.” Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering.

I have found that at least in a general sense, most American Christians shy away from churches that are serious about putting on the mind of Christ. Like Chan says, the typical American believer prefers a church that is safe and predictable. This desire for safety and predictability goes even farther. These same Christians also prefer a Jesus that is equally safe and predictable – one that sits quietly on quilt-board displays holding lambs in his lap and patting kids on the head (or maybe that’s the other way around, with kids in his lap and patting lambs on the head).

The point is this: the radical, firebrand Jesus that showed up in the flesh and went on to challenge the religious leaders of his day, calling them everything from a brood of vipers to white-washed sepulchers, was and is far too dangerous. That’s why one of the primary tasks of the church throughout the centuries has been to domesticate the rough-edged revolutionary who set this new faith in motion.

In the somewhat detailed notes below, taken from Richard Stearns The Hole in Our Gospel, the author describes how anemic and superficial Christianity has become. From his perspective as President of World Vision U.S., Stearns also looks at some of the causes of this situation and how a return to a more complete gospel, based more solidly on the actual teachings and life of Jesus provides a way for the church to heal.

More and more our gospel has been narrowed to a simple transaction, marked by checking a box on a bingo card at some prayer breakfast, registering a decision for Christ, or coming forward during an altar call………..It was about saving as many people from hell as possible – for the next life. It minimized any concern for those same people in this life. It wasn’t as important that they were poor or hungry or persecuted, or perhaps rich, greedy, and arrogant; we just had to get them to pray the “sinner’s prayer” and then move on to the next potential convert. In our evangelistic efforts to make the good news accessible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down to a kind of “fire insurance” that one can buy. Then, once the policy is in effect, the sinner can go back to whatever life he was living – of wealth and success or poverty and suffering. As long as the policy was in the drawer, the other things don’t matter as much. We’ve got our “ticket” to the next life.

There is a real problem with this limited view of the kingdom of God; it is not the whole gospel. Instead, it is a gospel with a gaping hole. First, focusing almost exclusively on the afterlife reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life. The kingdom of God, which Christ said is “within you” (Luke 17:21 NKJV), was intended to change and challenge everything in our fallen world in the here and now. It was not meant to be a way to leave the world but rather the means to actually redeem it.

Jesus’ view of the gospel went beyond a bingo card transaction; it embraced a revolutionary new view of the world, an earth transformed by transformed people, His “disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19 NKJV), who would usher in the revolutionary kingdom of God. Those words from the Lord’s Prayer, “your kingdom come, you will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” were and are a clarion call to Jesus’ followers not just to proclaim the good news but to be the good news, here and now (Matt. 6:10). This gospel – the whole gospel – means much more than the personal salvation of individuals. It means a social revolution.

For those of us raised in the embrace of American Christianity these words may be difficult to digest, but digest them we must. The Master we have chosen to follow calls us out of our comfort zones and into the roiling cauldron of poverty, disease, and injustice. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are not afforded the luxury of sitting quietly on the sidelines, shaking our heads in dismay, spouting scripture, and uttering a chorus of sympathetic platitudes while children are starving and dying of preventable diseases. As those bold enough to take on the mantle “Christian,” we have not only blessings but responsibilities. Christ charged us with taking care of the last, the lost, and the least. When we do this, our hands are likely to get dirty and our hearts are likely to be broken. Jesus warns of this and encourages us to count the costs before we set our hand to the plow.

to be continued….

(c) L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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Wise Words for Today

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I was raised in a typical county seat church in the south whose main mission centered on fear, guilt, and manipulation. Like most guys my age, I viewed the whole church thing with a jaundiced eye. Church was little more than an obligatory nod to God every seven days. It was a cheap form of fire insurance against burning forever in the fiery flames of a devil’s hell. So I went to church, lied about reading my Bible, made a “decision” for Jesus, endured boring sermons, and got with the program like all other good little religious robots. After all, acquiescing to the church-thing one hour a week seemed like a small price to pay for an eternity of bliss and happiness in heaven, especially since death seems pretty much unavoidable. [foster xiii]

 This little “ticket-to-ride” arrangement was blown to “heaven-in-a-hand basket” so to speak, the night I was abducted by Jesus in an out-of-church conversion experience. I was a seventeen-year-old college freshman the night the ever-living, wild-loving, revolutionary Jesus entered my room, my heart, and my life. The command I received that night was “follow me” as a part of your world and life view. He dared me to move to Him. I said “yes” and nothing has been the same since. I’m still not quite sure what happened, but I am so glad it did.

 That night, my religious understanding morphed into a mysterious, radical, relationship with the real Jesus. It was like walking out of a stale, stuffy, self-absorbed existence into a bright, brand new world of freedom, fun, and great adventure. That night rebellious Dave died and I became an R4G (Renegade for God). I was reborn with purpose, direction, and the sheer joy of being alive. Great anticipation for the future replaced my rage and rebellious swagger. Almost instantly I knew things would never be the same. I felt freer and more alive than I ever thought possible. I traded my cold, dead, rule-based religion for an untamed, unpredictable relationship with the ultimate renegade of all time – Jesus The Christ.

David Foster

(from A Renegade’s Guide to God)

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Christ’s Prime Directive: Give Flesh to Grace

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Mick Turner

If we truly desire to see positive change in the world, not just cosmetic window dressing which does little to alleviate the causes of social ills such as crime, violence, and crippling poverty, then that positive change must first be seen in the Body of Christ. The kingdom of God is not a reality to be discussed, but instead, is a body of principles that are to be lived. Just as Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk and his cohorts aboard the Enterprise had a “Prime Directive,” so we, as Christ-followers, have an overriding directive from our Master. As Christians, our prime directive is to give flesh to grace.

The church is meant to be an alternative community, a place where new principles, values, and interpersonal ethics are lived out in healthy, balanced social relationships. Gandhi nailed it when he said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” If we are faithful to living by kingdom principles, people will take notice and naturally be drawn to the peace, justice, and grace they see being lived out in this alternative society. It was this very reality that led to the widespread success of the early church. People were drawn to the fledgling Christian communities because they lived the prime directive – they gave flesh to grace. Jim Wallis, long-time Christian activist and founder of Sojourners, speaks to this aspect of kingdom living, where the church:

…………is meant to be an alternative community living a new way of life, visibly demonstrating the values of Jesus and the kingdom of God. That necessarily will create a countercultural community living by different values than the surrounding society and providing a real evangelistic model of the healthier and more human way of life that the gospel offers.

Or, in the very succinct words of John Howard Yoder:

The church is called now what the world is called to be ultimately.

On a practical level, what this means is that the church, although intimately in contact with the surrounding culture and in fact deeply embedded within that culture, must not take on the core values of that culture. Although some within the Emerging Movement might take issue with this idea, I think that as a Christian community, we are called to a different reality. Throughout its history, when the church has been at its best and most influential, it has been a counter-cultural force – often a revolutionary alternative community. Jim Wallis describes the church’s position this way:

…….the Christian presence in the world is a perpetually revolutionary posture. This is not, however, another call to violent insurrection; it is much deeper and more “revolutionary” than that. . . . . . .The kingdom of God literally brings a great reversal to the values, assumptions, and norms of the world as we have known them. This is why Christianity in defense of the established order – “Christendom,” “Christian civilization,” “Christian nation,” “Christian empire,” and the rest – has never made sense.

With these counter-cultural realities in mind, exactly how does this play out in the context of our contemporary socio-economic and cultural values? If the church is to be a model of alternative community, what are some of the guiding kingdom principles that must be both visible and defining? Without a doubt, the Christian socio-economic ethic of justice and equality take center stage. As followers of the Master Jesus, we must model and ethic built upon the principles of fairness, equal opportunity, and yes, even more equitable distribution of wealth.

 As Christians we are to be guided by the principles of the Sermon on the Mount in general and Matthew 25:31-46 in particular. Perhaps this flies in the face of the current status quo and especially runs counter to those Christians who have become joined at the hip to one political party for years. Personally, as Christians, I firmly believe that it is detrimental to our witness to publically declare allegiance to or agreement with any political party. Instead, I believe we should do all that we can to work toward eradicating the causes of such rampant, systemic poverty in this nation while, at the same time, working toward helping people become more self-sufficient. In this sense, we are to all become maladjusted.

I love the following words by Dr. Martin Luther King. In my mind, they encapsulate in a highly cogent manner the Christian principle of being in the world, but not of the world.

But there are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob-rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence. I call upon you to be maladjusted. . . . The world is in desperate need of such maladjustment. Through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

In this present age of social and cultural transition it is especially important for people in general and the church in particular to be maladjusted. For it is only through such concerted, unified, and purposeful non-conformity that a new social reality can emerge – a rejuvenated, vital, and equitable social order, built upon principles of economic justice and true Christian love. A significantly positive sign is the emergence of a new generation of Christians that is catching fire with an enthusiasm that has not been seen for decades in the organized church. These young firebrands may well represent the spark that sets off a conflagration of renewal passion and purpose in the Christian faith, something that is currently lacking and sorely needed. Jim Wallis describes these committed believers this way:

The greatest sign of hope…..is the emergence of a new generation of Christians eager and ready to take their faith into the world. The Christianity of private piety, affluent conformity and “God Bless (only) America” has compromised the witness of the church while putting a new generation of Christians to sleep. Defining faith by the things you won’t do doesn’t create a compelling style of life. And young people are hungry for an agenda worthy of their commitment, their energy, and their gifts. . . . . . . . . . . .This new generation of believers are waking up and catching fire with the gospel again. Theirs in an emerging Christianity that could change the face of American religion and politics. Their vision cannot easily be put into categories of liberal and conservative, left and right, but rather has the capacity to challenge the categories themselves. I’ve met these new Christians across the country and have worked with an extraordinary group of them at Sojourners. Their faith is intended to change this world, not just prepare them for the next. God is again doing something new.

Although it is hard to pin down exactly what form and what direction this new and vital force within the Christian faith will take, one thing is certain: we can no longer afford to march along in lock-step with the status quo and grant blind approval to a system which systematically fattens the pockets of the privileged few while increasing numbers of hard-working, decent people are pushed below the poverty line.

 If such an economic and social ethic is the norm, and in this country that seems to be the case, then I am proud to be a maladjusted discontent. I refuse to be contented with an economic system riddled with injustice and that keeps a boot on the throat of the last, the littlest, and the least. It is not the way of compassion and it surely is not the way of Christ.

(c) L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

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God is bringing forth new wineskins for a fresh outpouring of wine, and it does not look like anything we’ve ever seen. So we must focus on Jesus and the wine he is pouring out, and not on the wineskin. Remember, the purpose of the wineskin is to furnish the appropriate environment for the juice of the choice grapes to ferment and season at just the right time. We should be open and flexible, like new wineskins, in order to have Jesus fill our hearts and communities. This new wineskin must be very simple and able to expand and grow with the new wine.

Renewal is not enough. We all need to go through a conversion something like what the apostle Peter experienced in Acts 10 and 11. Peter’s conversion from an ethnocentric Jew to an advocate for Gentile missions was one of the most significant paradigm shifts in the history of the church. Likewise today, the church must repent of any cultural tradition that hinders the movement of the gospel across cultures. The current spiritual-cultural crisis calls for nothing less than complete repentance, what the Greeks called metatonia, a transformation of the mind, a change of heart, and a new way of living. Just as Gentiles received salvation free of Jewish tradition, so all people have the right to follow Jesus without having to become Western or institutionalized…………Jesus calls his followers to undergo a systemic shift that goes to the root of our identity – one that questions all the assumptions of the Christendom model. What we really need are people living the life of Jesus in community, drinking the new wine of the Spirit and living as fresh wineskins in the world.

Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell

(from The Way of Jesus)

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Who Do You Say That I Am?

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Mick Turner

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, in their landmark book Jesus Manifesto, make the cogent point that the modern church, which is supposed to bring Jesus to the world, has instead suffered a major disconnect from its Master. As a result, many Christians really have no workable concept of who and what Jesus was and is. In addition, we seem to have lost sight of the single most important question Jesus asks of us:

…..we feel a massive disconnect in the church today, and we believe that the major disease of today’s church is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus has become increasingly politically incorrect and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “morality,” “values,” and “leadership principles.” The world likes Jesus; they just don’t like the church. But increasingly, the church likes the church, yet it doesn’t like Jesus. . . . . . . Something is wrong when it’s easier for some Christians to think of the world without Christ than the world without Bach or the Beatles or Bono. When we dethrone Jesus Christ from His rightful place, we tarnish the face of Christianity and redefine it out of existence. . . . . . . Can our problems really be caused by something so basic and simple as losing sight of Christ? We believe the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Answers other than Christ to the problems of the church today mean that we are more into solvents than solutions. For that reason, this global, Google world needs a meta-narrative more than ever and the Jesus Story is the interpreting system of all other systems. In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear revolves around the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, we need to decide how we are going to answer one question. . . . . . . “Who do you say that I am?” is the question required of every generation, and every generation must answer it for itself.

Perhaps you think you have already answered this question. But have you really? What do your actions, your worldview, how you approach and live your life tell you about this vital issue? Does it seem that you have answered Christ’s eternal question in one way, yet the manner in which you live reflect that you have answered it in another way? I know that when I spent several days prayerfully reflecting on these themes I was quite surprised, and dismayed, at what I discovered.

Why not spend some time looking at your answer, and your life? It may prove an eye-opener.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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Wise Words for Today

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…..God gives us salvation, life, love, and everything we need up front, including a purpose in this world. It is his gift to us (See Romans 6:23). When we realize this down in the depth of our bones, we then naturally live a life that expresses our gratitude by loving God and others. To do otherwise would be false and forced.

Religious people miss this message and turn to the rituals and regulations, ethics and activities prescribed to them as a way to achieve what God has already offered them as a gift. In so doing, they miss the life of God and fail to satisfy their spiritual thirst.

Picture a thirsty person holding a cup of water. Now picture that person licking the outside of the cup in an attempt to quench his thirst. That is a picture of religion. Religious people tend to focus on the cup and forget about the contents. They argue about which cup is best and forget to drink from any. Some cups are ornate and some are simple. People are attracted to different kinds, yet none of them will quench your thirst. I’m not saying there is no refreshment to be found within any one cup, only that religion itself is not what refreshes. In fact, when we think we have found the , we should probably throw it away, because we have already confused the contents with the container, substance with structure, faith with form. Faith can be expressed in many forms, but the form is not what satisfies. The Bible calls this process of confusing form with substance “idolatry,” and it happens to well-meaning people all the time.

Bruxy Cavey

(from The End of Religion)

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Please Remember Alabama Tornado Victims in Your Prayers

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We at LifeBrook ask that you please remember the victims of the deadly tornado outbreak of April 27, which took so many lives, injured scores more, and left an untold number of people homeless. In today’s edition, the Huntsville Times reported on the front page that 28 tornadoes touched down in North Alabama on that stormy day. Although recovery across North Alabama is in progress, healing on all levels is a slow and often painful process. Please keep these people in your prayers as they go about putting their lives back together as best they can. Also, please pray for those many volunteers who are working diligently bring about recovery and healing.

Blessings and Light,

Mick

Wise Words for Today

People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay.

Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture. What is true is what happens, even if what happens is not always right. People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order. They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments in order.

Barbara Brown Taylor

(from An Altar in the World)

Doctrinal Purity: A Persistent Illusion

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Mick Turner

It intrigues me that conservative and fundamentalist believers put so much stock in the Bible and the traditions of the early church. These rigid Christians view those traditions as orthodox and any deviation is usually branded heresy, apostasy and worse.

The Internet is filled with websites and blogs, written by supposed “Watchmen on the Walls,” dedicated to the mission of ferreting out any deviation from what they consider to be the orthodox faith. Usually their targets are writers and teachings that have dared to breathe any life into a faith that has, in large part, proved negligent and devoid of transformative practices and life-changing theology.

The usual complaint launched by these rigid, myopic “defenders of the gospel” is related to these writers and teachers bringing some “outside influence” into the church. Recent examples of those unfortunate enough to be in their crosshairs include supporters of contemplative prayer, lectio divina, and similar practices, which have been part of church history far longer than the brand of legalism advocated by these self-styled and self-appointed inquisitors. Father Thomas Keating and Quaker writer Richard Foster are examples of the innovators targeted by the “Watchmen.” Claiming that these practices are little more than imported “Eastern mysticism,” the inquisitors show a complete ignorance of the history of their own faith.

Of course, anyone associated with the Emergent Church movement have frequent shots fired across their bow as well. Brian McLaren has been called everything but Beelzebub himself and long-time scholar and writer Marcus Borg is viewed in a similar light.

Word of Faith teachers and preachers are also slammed on a consistent basis. Now please, don’t misread me here. I am no supporter of the extreme views held by many of the Word of Faith teachers, but I don’t agree with the reasons the Watchmen have them in their gun sights. Word of Faith teachers are criticized for bringing “New Thought” philosophy into the church. Even though the Word of Faith leaders deny New Thought influence, it is clearly evident that ideas from the New Thought movement helped inspire the early pioneers of the Word of Faith teachings.

My point here is, “so what?” From the outset, Christianity has been strongly impacted by the culture(s) where it grew. Bringing teachings of a cultic nature into the Christian faith is not anything new, and in fact, it can accurately be said that it is the norm. Anyone with enough objectivity and enough sense to conduct a thorough study of church history can prove this for themselves.

The fact is, however, that few of these ardent believers have any inkling of the historical facts surrounding the canonization of scripture and the political climate of the day. For example, it is generally accepted that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire after reportedly having a vision of the cross before a decisive battle. The fact is, and solid research is bearing this out, that Constantine may have fabricated the story of the vision at a later date. Further, Constantine was strongly influenced by the pagan spirituality of the day, especially Mithraism, and elements of Mitra worship found their way into the traditions of the early church. Consider, for example, the following tidbits:

• In early paintings, Christ is depicted with rays of sun coming from his head. Mithra, is should be recalled, was associated with Sun worship.
• The official day of rest for the Christian church became “Sun-day.”
• The celebration of Christ’s birthday was moved from January 6 (in the Eastern Church, January 6 is still celebrated) and moved to December 25^th, which is Mithra’s birthday.
• The ornaments of the early church, things like wafers, miters, water baptism, the altar, and use of doxology, were all elements of Mithraism.
• Mithra was a traveling teacher with 12 disciples.
• Mithra was called “the good shepherd” and also the “way, the truth, and the life.”
• Mithra was also called “the redeemer,” the “messiah,” and “savior.”
• Both Mithra and Jesus were called the “Light of the World.”
• Three Persian wise men visited Mithra, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
• Perhaps most telling of all, Mithra was buried in a tomb and after three days, rose again.

How many of these rabid fundamentalists and conservatives know these facts? Very few, indeed. That’s why it strikes me as ironic when they loudly voice complaints about so-called “heretics” bringing outside influences into the church. In reality, the version of Christianity that we are familiar with here in the West, and that is supported by the Watchmen described above, is far removed from what went on in the early church. It has been infiltrated by numerous outside influences over the course of 20 centuries and has also been deeply stained by American ideals. To criticize someone for bringing an external teaching into the church is the height of not only arrogance, but ignorance.

These critics and self-appointed guardians of the faith cry loudly that we must be true to the gospel and “keep our doctrine pure.” Listen up fellows: it’s way too late for that.

And it has been for 2,000 years.

© L.D. Turner 2011/ All Rights Reserved

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Wise Words for Today

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Jesus calls us to a life of unimaginable adventure. It begins the moment we choose to follow Him. It is no less than to pass from existence to life. Though we are not taken out of time and space, we are translated into an entirely different dimension of living. Jesus tells us that He is the portal into this life and the quest that follows. Jesus describes Himself as a door, a gate, a portal. In other words, an escape hatch. He has come to lead us out of the mundane and into the extraordinary. Strangely enough we find it hard to trust Him, while all the time he has been trying to lead us out of the dark dungeons we have created for ourselves and let us run free in the light of day. When we come to Him, he translates us into an entirely new realm of living. His promise is that in Him we will find the life that our hearts have always longed for.

Erwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)