No one can force this on you, nor can it be anyone else’s ambition for your life. It has to come from within you. Sometimes it takes a menagerie of different experiences to bring us to it. Some of us will insist on going through tremendous pain, disappointment, and failure before we come to it. Eventually we have to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and decide there’s someone else that we want to see there. But everyone who’s going to make this particular trek has to pass through the same gauntlet that has brought me and so many others to that place where in the deafening silence we hear the cry of our own soul screaming, “I want to change!”
English: Inside Hillsong Church, Sydney (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mick Turner
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the supernatural realm is where the real action is in these days. As a race, especially those of us in the West, we have become so sophisticated that we discount the supernatural without adequate investigation and, by doing so, fall into the enemy’s trap. We must pay closer attention to the supernatural realm because we are involved in a supernatural battle, whether or not we understand it or accept it.
It is interesting to note that the fastest growing churches in the world are those of the charismatic/Pentecostal traditions. This is especially true in Asia and Africa, but really, it is a phenomenon that can be seen all over the world. By the same token, it is those denominations that adhere most closely with the use of reason, logic, science, and the legacy of the Enlightenment that are withering on the vine. This is not how I would have predicted things to have worked out and it surely is not how I would have wished it would have worked out. Quite frankly, some of the craziness and downright foolishness seen in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches is an abomination in my sight. And I suspect that much of the really fringe elements of these movements will disappear as time progresses.
However, I think the core elements of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement will continue to prosper because God says he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. And certainly, now more than ever, the supernatural side of things must be taken into account. I am uncertain as to exactly how this will manifest itself here in the West, however. One thing is certain, the church in the West will need more manifestations of God’s power in these rapidly changing times. Yet this revealing of God’s strength must be presented in a manner that is less chaotic and “sensational” than in the past. The days of flopping about, running around the sanctuary, barking like dogs and “holy drooling” have passed. It is a time for the world to see God’s power and presence in all its glory, not in patently bizarre human translations that greatly miss the mark.
As the future unfolds, one of the most needed of the spiritual gifts will be that of discernment. Pastors, teachers, elders, and others in positions of spiritual authority will need to be deeply educated in the criteria of discernment, or at least in recognizing those who have this gift, even in its embryonic forms. Anytime there is a period of increased Holy Spirit activity, and this is without a doubt one of those times, the potential for the Great Deceiver to lead many astray is great. We live in an age that is ripe for deception. Trained, gifted discerners are in critical need. James Goll speaks directly to this issue:
Lack of discernment and an unscriptural emphasis on experience beyond the confines of Scripture are major stumbling blocks for the majority of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who are open to the supernatural and revelatory realms of God…..When it comes to gifts of miraculous powers and prophecy, we need mature elders in every church who are equipped with the gift of discernment to watch over the flock. We also need apostolic voices who will release guidelines for discernment in the years to come, as the sense of God’s Presence and power increases throughout the world – growing alongside the “tares” of this world, evidenced in soulishly and demonically induced counterfeit expressions of power. Right now, we are sadly equipped with too few apostolic leaders who are respected enough to speak the truth in love about these issues of discernment and correction. And we have too few humble church leaders who are open to correction from apostolic leaders, regardless of their denominational preferences, networks, or alliances.
Many within the Mainline denominations and Evangelical churches have such a historically “negative charge” with the Charismatic movement that they suspect anything of Spirit-filled nature as being either doctrinally lacking or worse, a product of Satan. This mind-set is not entirely their fault as there has been such excess and, yes, plain wanton foolishness in more than a few Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. Yet at the same time, it is not wise to completely slam the door shut.
At one end of the spectrum you have those sincere followers of the Master who are so turned off by what they see as bizarre extremism that they close their minds to all Charismatic experience. In a sense, these folks use too much discernment in the sense that anything even remotely resembling “Spirit-filled” experience is discounted out of hand. At the other end of the spectrum you have the fringe elements of Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity that fall into all sorts of error, both doctrinal and experiential, and wind up engaging in practices that seem too strange to be true. At this extreme, too little discernment is practiced and, in some cases, none at all.
The contemporary church has a critical need for a more balanced approach to and criteria for accurate discernment of supernatural phenomena, grounded in Scripture but not so tightly bound as to handcuff the Spirit. The real challenge for the church at this point is the development of this much-needed criteria and, after that, widespread training in its fundamental applications. Understandably, this development remains a work in progress.
Dream Center service at Angelus Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In this morning’s quiet time, the Spirit gently led me to these inspirational words by Matthew Barnett, taken from his book, The Cause Within You.
Life is much simpler than we make it.
God’s objective is for you to live an outward looking life – that is, not worried about yourself, but focused on the needs of others and how you can respond to those needs. When you embrace that mind-set, you are on the precipice of influence and success because that’s a perspective that God will bless. As soon as you start thinking about the needs and burdens of others, and what you can do to alleviate them, or how you can bless and build up others, you begin to establish a new identity for yourself – your true identity.
It doesn’t take a person with unusual training or ability to change the world. All it takes is a heart that cares, a mind that’s determined, a spirit that’s willing, a cause that matters, and a person to help.
Diagram of coronary angioplasty and stent placement (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As I mentioned a few days ago, tomorrow (August 23) I will undergo an angioplasty and, for the second time, the doctors will try to place a stent in my subclavian artery, which is blocked. This time, they will enter through the brachial artery in my left arm, as it gives them a better angle of approach to the blockage. This is preferable to the standard entry through the groin approach, but for a writer, it does have one drawback. I will have to restrict movement of my left wrist for several days and the powers that be tell me that typing (unless I do it with one hand) is out. So I may be unable to post here for a few days. I do have some unpublished material that I might be able to put up, but we’ll see how I feel.
As always, I appreciate any prayers for this surgery and for my wife and daughter, who are under a bit of stress with all this.
As some of you know, my health has been a major life issue for some time now. I am afflicted with Severe Cardiovascular Disease and also Congestive Heart Failure. I had a quadruple bypass at age 47, back in 1996. Since that time, two of the grafts have closed and cannot be opened or stented. A third graft has a stent and the fourth one is fine. Over the last few months my angina has become more frequent. My systolic blood pressure in my right arm is some fifty points higher than in my left.
Yesterday, I underwent an angiogram and a blockage was found in my clavicular area, just below the left shoulder near the collar bone. Due to its location, which the doctor described as “tricky,” it was decided that a consult with a heart surgeon was needed. The doctors told me that they will either attempt to put a stent in the artery or a bypass graft around the blocked area. Much depends on what the surgeon suggests. Next Tuesday I am also scheduled for an ultrasound on my carotid artery, I suppose to see if there is any further complications in that area.
I mention all this to let my readers know what is going on and to request prayer. I am optimistic as to the outcome and in any case, I am at peace in the care of the God of All Comfort. I will try to keep up the blog as best I can through the next month, but if things are a little less regular, it is because I am dealing with these issues.
It has become almost cliché these days to say that the church in America is dying. Whether one arrives at this conclusion through general observation or through the analysis of vital statistics, the result is the same. The Body of Christ in America is withering on the vine. Church leaders and those who make their living by studying the church cite a wide range of reasons for this demise. Likewise, solutions offered to stem the tide of this downward spiral vary widely in terms of both rationale and methodology.
One thing these experts can agree on, however, is this: change is happening and it is happening at a rapid pace.
It is far beyond the scope of this essay to delve into the intricacies of these issues. Instead, I want to focus on one specific theme that I believe accounts in part for the church’s current decline and, if properly corrected, can also be instrumental in forging a new, more vital Body of Christ as the future unfolds. Interestingly, a number of writers from differing theological orientations have also flagged this problem as a contributing factor to the current set of issues bewildering the church. Among these writers are Philip Yancey, Marcus Borg, N.T. Wright, Brian McLaren, Harvey Cox, Phyllis Tickle, and Mark Driscoll, just to name a few.
I also want to mention the recent work of Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola as I believe their writing especially identifies the theme I want to discuss in this essay, namely: the church has lost contact with the very source of its life, its purpose, and its calling.
This vital, life giving source is Jesus Christ.
Near the beginning of their excellent book Jesus Manifesto, Sweet and Viola get down to business in describing what they see as the fundamental cause of the church’s present dilemma:
……….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………..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.
I firmly believe that it is the church’s seeming inability to consistently answer this one question in a way that is simple, pragmatic, and above all, accurate, that lies at the root of many of its current problems. What is this central question raised by Sweet and Viola? It is precisely the one Christ asked his followers a little over 2,000 years ago:
“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
According to sacred scripture, Peter, led by the Holy Spirit, got the answer right. The church, however, has turned this simple question into a conundrum of colossal proportions. It took the early church at least four centuries to arrive at a fragile consensus. Over time, that consensus eroded into a quagmire of conflicting, confusing answers that could fill entire libraries and, in the process, created much rancor and discord instead of the unity and cooperation called for by Jesus and later, Paul.
Sweet and Viola paint such a dynamic, comprehensive, and inspirational portrait of the nature and being of Christ. Speaking of Paul’s reasons for writing to the Colossians about these themes, the authors state:
The Christ that the Colossians knew was simply too small. That was why they became susceptible to chasing after other things – including religious ones – in the first place.
Sound familiar?
You bet it does! If ever something hit the nail right on the head in terms of my lack of consistent faithfulness, this sums things up pretty well. By not comprehending the truly awesome and magnificent stature of the pre-existent Christ, I chased after all sorts of lesser entities and stumbled down more than a few dark alleys. Believe me when I say that Alice pales in comparison to me when it comes to jumping down rabbit holes in hot pursuit of magical characters with funny hats and big watches. Sweet and Viola continue:
Paul’s goal was to strip away every distraction that was being held before their eyes and have them with nothing but Christ. He dared to displace all rules, regulations, laws, and everything else that religion offers, with a person – the Lord Jesus Himself. As far as Paul was concerned, God hadn’t sent a Ruler of rules, a Regulator of regulations, a Pontiff of pontifications, or a Principal of the principles. He had sent the very embodiment of divine fullness. So, he reasoned, if the Colossians could just get a glimpse of the glories of Christ, He would be enough. The Spirit would electrify their hearts and restore them to a living relationship with the head of the body. So Paul threw down his trump card – The Lord Jesus Christ. He presented a panoramic vision of Jesus that exhausts the minds of mortal men.
In other venues, I have written that I believe one of the most critical tasks facing the contemporary church is reintroducing people to Jesus Christ. With the steady exodus from the organized Christian denominations over the past forty or so years, we now have a situation where at least one generation, and maybe two, have been raised in a culture that is, for the most part, non-Christian. In large measure, many of these folks have either an incomplete or utterly confused image of Jesus.
Before the church can even begin to tackle this crucial goal, however, it must accomplish one critical preliminary task. The church has toreintroduce Jesus to itself. The sad truth is the church is every bit as confused about Jesus’ nature and being as those outside the institution. The silver lining in this tragic situation is as follows: once the church really gets a clear, biblical picture of just what manner of being this Jesus Christ truly is, it will set off a spiritual conflagration that will make previous revivals look like brush fires.
Sweet and Viola state that in the first chapter of Colossians Paul was in “full flight.” The Apostle told his readers that if they truly laid hold of Christ’s real identity they would be able to muster a walk of faith worthy of the Master.
In describing the stature of Christ Paul pulls out all the stops:
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20 NLT)
After the foregoing section, which is found in a chapter fittingly entitled “A Bottle in the Ocean,” the authors present an incredible description of who Christ was and is. I find this passage so complete and inspirational I am going to share it at length. Describing Jesus Christ, the authors state:
Set your eyes beyond the stratosphere and see a Christ who confounds the mind. This Christ is – present tense – the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ displays God’s image visible in the invisible realm, where He is seated in heavenly places at the Father’s right hand. To look upon the carpenter of Nazareth is to discover God in totality. To know the Nazarene is to know the Almighty, the one true Creator – He who was, is, and is to come.
But that’s not all.
This Christ is the firstborn of the entire cosmos, the first person to appear in creation, and He is preeminent in all of it. All things visible and invisible were created by Him, through Him, to Him, and for Him. He is the Originator as well as the Goal – the Creator as well as the Consummator.
But that’s not all.
This Christ existed before time as the eternal Son. He is above time and outside of time. He is the beginning. In fact, He was before the beginning. He lives in a realm where there are no ticking watches and clocks. Space and time are his servants. He is unfettered by them.
This Christ is not only before all things, but the entire universe is held together in Him. He is the cohesive force, the glue and gravitational pull that holds all created elements together. He is creation’s great adhesive, the hinge upon which the whole cosmos turns. Remove Christ, and the entire universe disintegrates. It comes apart at the seams. Remove Him, and creations wheels come off.
But there’s still more.
This Christ is the very meaning of creation. Eliminate Him, and the universe has no purpose. Remove Him, and every living thing loses its meaning.
But more than all this, the One who created the universe watched it fall. He saw the cosmic revolt in heaven and the wreckage on earth. Under the caring eye of the Father, the Lord looked upon His own creation as it morphed into an enemy – His own enemy. And then he did the unthinkable. He penetrated a fallen world.
This Christ pierced the veil of space-time. He became incarnate and took on human flesh. As such, He was touched with the same temptations, the same infirmities, and the same weaknesses as all mortals, only He never yielded. Christ entered into His own creation to reconcile it back to Himself and to His Father. The Creator became the creature to make peace with an alienated creation.
Sweet and Viola go on to describe the gospel message of the atonement, the resurrection, and how Christ was the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. It is a remarkable passage in a remarkable book. My point in mentioning it here is that it illustrates the vital need the church has in this challenging age. Put simply: the true and real Christ, stripped of the myriad accretions with which he has been covered over the centuries; the true and real Christ, revealed in all his magnificence, splendor, and glory – must be reintroduced to the church.
Ironically enough, for many sincere believers this may well be the first time they actually meet the real Christ.
You see my friends, for far too long now the church has been cut off from its source. In a real sense, the Body of Christ has been decapitated. If Christ is the head, it stands to reason that the church cannot survive long without being attached to the Master. Unfortunately, for quite a long time now the church, with some exceptions, has gradually been drifting farther and farther away from that which gives it meaning, direction, and most of all, life.
In his various writings, Marcus Borg has consistently espoused the notion that the church’s tendency to view God through the lens of “Supernatural Theism” has caused many problems and is also one of the chief culprits behind the mass exodus from the church today. As an alternative, Borg puts forth the notions of “panentheism” and also of “viewing God as Spirit.” Panentheism, which views all things as being “within God” is a logical and valuable model. Here, however, I want to reflect a bit on several implications inherent in the Spirit model. Borg covers this theme in considerable detail in his book, The God We Never Knew.
Borg begins by stating that the Spirit model leads to an image of the Christian life that stresses three vital things: relationship, intimacy and belonging.
In addition, Borg states:
As a root metaphor for the sacred, Spirit images God as a nonmaterial reality pervading the universe as well as being more than the universe. As used in the Bible…..its meaning is broader than the specific Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit,” which sees it as one aspect of God. But in the Bible, Spirit is used comprehensively to refer to God’s presence in creation, in the history of Israel, and in the life of Jesus and the early church. ……Some of its resonances of meaning are suggested by the Hebrew word for Spirit. “Ruach” also minds wind and breath. The associations of both are suggestive. Both are invisible yet manifestly real. We cannot see the wind, though its presence and effects are felt; it moves without being seen. When it blows, it is all around us. Breath is like wind inside the body. For the ancient Hebrews (as for us), it was associated with life. Metaphorically, God as Spirit is both wind and breath, a non material reality outside of us and within us. Our breath is God breathing us, and God is as near to us as our own breath. Speaking o f God as Spirit, as both wind and breath, evokes both transcendence and nearness.
Borg goes on to point out how the Spirit model of God allows for the inclusion of feminine images of God, specifically images of God as:
Wisdom
Lover
Journey Companion
It is as a Journey Companion – or Good Shepherd – that I think Christ has the most direct impact and relevance for Christians today. Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd. Borg elaborates on this role of Jesus:
Rather than a single image, this is a category of images pointing to God as a companion who travels with us. It includes the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day that led the Israelites through the wilderness, as well as the presence of God that tented among them in a mobile home (the tabernacle). God as shepherd is another such image, but with the added dimension of nourishment and protection. The shepherd not only travels with the sheep but leads them to water and food, finds shelter, protects them, and seeks them when they go astray. In the New Testament, journey companion imagery is associated especially with Jesus. A disciple is one who journeys with Jesus (who also provides bread for the journey, indeed, “companion” literally means somebody with whom one breaks bread). In the Emmaus Road story, the risen Christ journeys with his disciples, even though they do not recognize him. And in John’s gospel, the image of God as shepherd is applied to Jesus: the Johannine Jesus is “the good shepherd.
I especially feel a vital connection with Jesus as “journey companion” when I reflect on the realties inherent in Paul’s brief statement in Ephesians 4:10. This is where Paul describes Jesus as the “one who ascended higher than the highest heaven so that he might fill all things with himself.” The implications of this one small comment are literally staggering. With the Ascension of Jesus, all things underwent a tremendous change – all things became a home for the Risen Lord.
Once we understand and accept this reality – the infusion of Christ into all things – our priority should be to deepen our conscious contact with the Indwelling Light. In my mind, I believe the best way to facilitate this deepening is through the practice of the classic spiritual disciplines. Borg speaks of these practices, what he calls “sacred practices,” which are means by which the sacred is mediated with daily living. With the infusion of Christ into all things, almost all activities have the potential to be considered “sacred acts” if performed with the proper reverence and mindfulness.
Returning to the theme of what I call “divine infusion,” as described in Ephesians 4:10, the implications of this act are staggering. In my own spiritual journey, when I first discovered this sublime biblical truth it was as if a flood gate of spiritual understanding had been opened. I could fill pages with the new insights brought about by this one small, often overlooked verse. Space does not allow for that, but let me explore just one minor implication of this profound biblical reality.
We know from Old Testament accounts that God accompanied the Israelites on their journey in the Wilderness as both the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. As mentioned in the above quotation from Borg, we also are reminded that the Great I Am then took up temporary residence in the Tabernacle. Eventually requiring a more permanent home in the Promised Land, the Lord had Solomon construct the first Temple in Jerusalem and, deep within the Temple in what was called the Holy of Holies, God made his earthly home. And it was in this innermost sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem that the Father resided when John the Baptist and Jesus appeared on the scene.
With the Resurrection and subsequent Ascension of Christ, along with the advent of the Holy Spirit, a most remarkable thing occurred. The Great I Am took up residence within every person. And if that was not miracle enough, with the “infusion” the Lord “filled all things with himself” (Eph. 4:10).
We can see in this pattern a sort of “progressive intimacy” orchestrated by God, culminating in the essence of Christ permeating all things, great and small. It is this all-encompassing Christ filling and animating all things that fits so well the “God as Spirit” model as described by Marcus Borg. This image of God as Spirit is, at the same time, highly personal and transpersonal. As an all-pervading Spirit resident in all of creation and especially in the hearts of his followers, Christ engages in a depth of intimacy that was not possible prior to his ascension and infusion. This divine indwelling fosters a deeply intimate and personal relationship between the individual and the animating Spirit in which he or she “lives, moves, and has their being.” At the same time, the all-pervasive Spirit is transpersonal, going beyond the individual and, by the very nature of His being, unites all creation in a interdependent and interrelated whole.
In Borg’s view, this expansive view of God as Spirit, as opposed to “Divine Monarch,” gives rise to a number of useful metaphors which makes the personal/transpersonal Spirit more accessible and pragmatic in daily life. Borg discusses several of these positive metaphors including God as: fire, light, breath, wisdom, mother and father, lover, and journey companion. I find all of these metaphors useful in terms of making the incomprehensible power, creativity, and intelligence of God more accessible.
All of these metaphors are carried over from the Old Testament into the New Testament. On a personal note, I have found the analogy of Christ as “journey companion” to be highly pertinent and impactful. We especially see this in the imagery of “Christ as Shepherd” in the 23rd Psalm and in the gospels as well, especially the writings of John. Personal experience has also shown me how each of these biblical metaphors can be beneficial in ways both practical and meaningful. Borg goes on to describe a trio of more obvious ways the metaphor of God as Spirit impacts our experience of God:
The biblical metaphors for the Spirit model affect our root image of God in three quite obvious ways. First, these metaphors emphasize the nearness of God rather than the distance implied by the monarchical model. They evoke closeness, relationship, and connection. God as Spirit is near, at hand; indeed, we live within Spirit. Nearness also involves concern: God as Spirit is compassionate. God is the womblike one who gave birth to us, who nurtures us, cares for us, yearns for us. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Second, both male and female metaphors (as well as some that are neither) are used, rather than exclusively male images of the monarchical model. God is like a woman giving birth, like a mother raising her children, like Sophia the wisdom woman; God is like an intimate father. Moreover, some images go equally well with either gender: God as lover, as companion or friend, even as shepherd. . . . . . . . . . .Third, rather than the essentially anthropomorphic image of God as king, lord and patriarchal father, the metaphors for God as Spirit include both non-anthropomorphic and anthropomorphic images. . . . . . . . . . .The presence of both is suggestive. . . . . . . .That is, they suggest that there is a personal dimension to the relationship to God. Yet non-anthropomorphic images suggest that God is not simply a person. Combining the two suggests that the relationship to God is personal, even as God is more than a person. The sacred is not simply a non-animate mystery but a presence.
Although it is hard to contain in the limited nature of words, it is this sense of God as Spirit in general and God as presence in particular that I have found most transformational. Christ, a unique, pre-existent being who, at the very same time, is an all-pervasive, deeply penetrating, and fully indwelling force, becomes a life-enhancing, life-changing force – an ever-present presence that is indeed an indispensable and welcomed companion for my journey.
For most of us, life in contemporary society is a hectic affair. Myriad responsibilities send us on our way each day as we scamper here and scamper there just trying to keep up with our daily duties. It is easy to see how we can become spiritually desensitized in a situation such as this. We lose our connection with the divine and, in doing so, we often miss the blessings of the day, both great and small.
Below is a declarative prayer I penned a few years back. I noticed that when I prayed this prayer consistently over a period of thiry days, very positive things began to happen. I began to notice things I didn’t notice before, my mood lightened considerably, and most significant of all, I once again felt a vital connection with the Holy Spirit as he walked beside me each and every day. The prayer is entitled “The Blessings of Today” and it goes something like this:
Today is indeed the first day of the rest of my life –
Today is a day of resurrection, renewal, and restoration and I greet this day with enthusiasm, confidence, and passion.
This confident passion arises from my acceptance that in Christ I am a new creation and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Today I know that the old indeed is passing away and that the new has been born. I am a being of light and love, committed to my spiritual growth, service to others, and becoming the optimal version of myself.
Today I declare, along with the Great Apostle, that with the power of the Holy Spirit, I am forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press forward into the future toward the goal and the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
However tightly a man may have bound himself round he can always unbind himself. Into whatever morasses of trouble and trackless wastes of perplexity he may have ignorantly wandered he can always find his way out again, can always recover the lost highway of uninvolved simplicity which leads straight and clear, to the sunny city of wise and blessed action. But he will never do this by sitting down and weeping in despair, nor by complaining and worrying and aimlessly wishing he were differently situated. His dilemma calls for alertness, logical thought, and calm calculation. His position requires that he shall strongly command himself; that he shall think and search, and rouse himself to strenuous and unremitting exertion in order to regain himself. Worry and anxiety only serve to heighten the gloom and exaggerate the magnitude of the difficulty. It is a great day in the life of a man (though at the time he knows it not) when bewildering perplexities concerning the mystery of life take possession of his mind, for it signifies that his era of dead indifference, animal sloth, of mere vegetative happiness, has come to an end, and that henceforth he is to live as an aspiring, self-evolving being. No longer a mere human animal, he will now begin to live as a man…
I am an admitted book addict and have been an avid reader since childhood. I guess there are worse things one could be and, other than spending more than I should for books on occasion and having a head full of somewhat useless knowledge, I don’t think my life is any worse for wear as a result of my excessive reading.
I mention all this because I am going to do something I rarely do in these pages: I am going to recommend a series of books by a particular author. I normally shy away from doing this because I understand that readers have a wide range of tastes and, as a result, what appeals to one may not be pleasing to another. However, from time to time I run across a book, or in this case a group of books, that are so outstanding – so relevant and informative – that I feel called to bring them to my readers’ attention.
The author of the books I will briefly discuss is N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey. Many of you are most likely already familiar with the works of Bishop Wright, especially if you are at least somewhat connected to the loose association referred to as the Emergent Church or Emerging Church. Representing a more moderate, traditional stream within the Emergent movement, Bishop Wright’s books are well-thought-out and presented in a manner characterized by logical coherence, a trait sadly lacking in far too many contemporary writers.
I would recommend any of Bishop Wright’s works, but I especially want to recommend the following quartet of titles: The Challenge of Jesus; Simply Christian; After You Believe; and Surprised by Hope. In addition to giving the reader a general picture of Wright’s theology, these four books also contain truths that are highly practical and, when applied to a disciple’s daily living, are highly transformative.
Further, Bishop Wright presents the often confusing but highly pertinent conflict between modernism (a worldview that is rapidly dying) and post-modernism, (the worldview that is replacing it). Wright’s books also paint a clear picture of where the church fits into this process and why it is necessary for individual Christians in general and the church in particular to understand and live within the context of the emerging post-modern world. Contrary to the strong desires of many in the contemporary church, Bishop Wright makes the valid point that retreat headlong into the arms of modernism is not a viable option. The following series of quotations, taken from The Challenge of Jesus, is especially illustrative of Wright’s take on the situation:
I suggest, in fact, that if postmodernism functions as the death of modernist culture, many of us will find ourselves like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We as Western Christians mostly bought a bit too heavily into modernism, and we are shocked to discover that it has been dying for a while and is now more or less completely dead. We need to learn how to listen for the hidden stranger on the road who will explain to us how it was that these things had to happen, and how there is a whole new world out there waiting to be born, for which we are called to be the midwives. The answer to the challenge of postmodernism is not to run back tearfully into the arms of modernism. It is to hear in postmodernity God’s judgment on the follies and failings, the sheer selfish arrogance, of modernity and to look and pray and work for the resurrection into God’s new world out beyond. We live at a great cultural turning point; Christian mission in the postmodern world must be the means of the church grasping the initiative and enabling our world to turn the corner in the right direction.
Bishop Wright makes the cogent observation that we stand at a major cultural crossroads. The old modernist view is dying away and the new worldview, along with its practical, concrete ramifications, is moving into the birth canal. The reality is, however, that the new world has not yet been born. As a result, our culture in general and Western Christianity in particular, is presently in a state of confused, unstable limbo. It is as if we are all stuck on an eternal Saturday, halfway between crucifixion and resurrection. What we need now is an increasing clarity as to God’s purposes and a boldness of spirit exemplified by a consistent willingness to think out of the box and take positive risks. We must never reject a new wineskin, just because it “feels different” and may even make us uncomfortable.
As Wright states, we are the midwives that will give birth to the structures and forms that Western Christianity will take as the 21st Century unfolds. As uncomfortable as the age may seem at times, it is also a time of exciting challenge and unlimited opportunity. God is indeed birthing something entirely new and although the past is important in terms of tradition and legacy, it must never be an obstacle to what the Spirit is trying to unfold. This is evidently a very hard truth for some of us to digest, but digest it we must. If we fail to do so, we may hear Taps being blown over the entire edifice of the Western Church.
According to Bishop Wright, and I agree wholeheartedly, if we want to see the rebirth of a vital, livable, and transformational Christian faith, we must learn to live out God’s great story in our day to day lives. Our greatest evangelistic tool must be the love of God translated through the very canvas of our own lives. Bishop Wright expresses this much better than I ever could:
We must therefore get used to a mission that includes living the true Christian praxis. Christian praxis consists in the love of God in Christ being poured out in us and through us……………..We must get used to telling the story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the world as the true metanarrative, the story of healing and self-giving love. We must get used to living as those who have truly died and risen with Christ so that our self, having been thoroughly deconstructed, can be put back together, not by the agendas that the world presses upon us but by God’s Spirit.
For those of us raised in the context of the Christian tradition, much of the magnificent glory of God’s Great Story of redemption and restoration has been lost. In many cases, we have heard the story and been immersed in the symbols for so long that both the meta-narrative and the symbolic traditions have ceased to have transformational impact. For many others, the basic story has been changed to suit the theological prejudices of various groups and leaders and, as a result, the Christian faith being lived out is often a far cry from the reality that Christ ushered into being. And for still others, the traditions of the faith have been adulterated by the cultural ethic in which the particular church finds itself existing. This is especially true of the American church.
No matter the reason for the loss, the result is basically the same: we lose touch with the true splendor of Christ’s being, his mission, and how all this fits into God’s great plan of restoration and renewal on this planet. In addition, we lose our perspective on how unique and incredible the Christian faith is. We lose perspective on how unique and magnificent Jesus Christ was and is.
And when we lose that, we have lost the core of the Christian faith.
LifeBrook 