BLOG 10/17/13. “CHRISTIAN FAITH IS TOO WILD AND FREE FOR THE TIMID”
I think it was author Madeline L’Engle who once commented about her presence among so many literary colleagues who were resistant to the Christian faith, when she observed: “Christian faith is too wild and free for the timid.” It may also be too wild and free for many inside the Christian faith if they ever became aware of the dimensions of Christ’s teachings and of the requirements that faith and repentance make upon those who accept them.
Gregory Boyd learned this lesson when in 2004 he resisted the efforts of some right-wing political folk in his congregation to distribute their literature and have folk sign-on to some other efforts. Boyd and his leadership team resisted and he thereupon preached several sermons on how dangerous it is to identify the Christian faith with political agendas. Some members wept for joy at having this explained to them, but about one thousand members left the church. Even the New York Times picked up on this story. … Too wild and free, indeed! (By the way, Gregory Boyd published these sermons in the book: The Myth of a Christian Nation.)
Or, there was my dear friend Prof. Jack Sparks, who realized this the campus Christian organization of which he was a board member was not reaching the radical youth culture on campuses (in the 1960-70s), and so resigned his faculty position and moved with a team to Berkeley and took on the life-style of the radical youth culture and engaged it from the inside—it called itself the Christian World Liberation Front. It became a very fruitful ministry, but not for the timid! I spent a couple of weeks with those folk, and let me affirm that such an encounter was thrilling, but they never taught me this stuff in theological school. Not for the timid, indeed, but it transformed my life. In the course of my conversations with Jack, I asked him why he thought such a ministry was so fruitful. His response speaks directly to the theme of this blog: “I am persuaded that God rejoices to bring the light where the darkness is the greatest.” Light shining in cultural darkness is not safe and is not for the timid, but it is our calling.
Maybe the example of New Testament scholar N. T. Wright fits here. There was a group of (how to describe them?) semi-agnostic New Testament scholars who were chipping away at the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and were widely reported as the: Jesus Seminar. Tom Wright got himself included in the group, dealt with all of their questionable teachings, learned the material better than the founders of the group, and rather took it apart from the inside. Now, granted: that Dr. Wright is a uniquely gifted scholar, but such an engagement required that he forsake the security of academic isolation and engage in the potential consequences. Timidity, again, would have kept him cloistered, but the Christian faith when understood, understands that our Christian/Kingdom faith is rambunctious, fearless, free, well formed in intellectually and ethically. It moves into this post-Christian culture and the inhabitants thereof with high joy.
A. W. Tozer once commented that as long as the Christian church moved out in mission in obedience to Christ, even in such a hostile world, it grew and flourished. But: “But when it dug in to preserve its gains, like the Jews and the manna in the wilderness, when hoarded, it bred worms and stank.”
Yes, the Christian faith is too wild and free for the timid, both inside our outside the church.
