1/20/14. (CONT.) THE HUMAN IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH
The alternative narrative for tomorrow’s church will include the thrill of embracing again our understanding of the humanly impossible calling of the church, i.e., being the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, or of bearing the gospel of the kingdom to the remotest corners the human community. This is not an idle theoretical point that we can ‘blow off’ as we pursue the church into the unknown incarnation of the church’s tomorrow, into its demonstration of New Creation community.
Yet this, which is humanly impossible, is our hope and goal, and we know that Jesus did not call us to despair or grim resignation. We know that with the calling he also gave us the equipment to bring it to reality, and at the heart of this equipment is not only that of our obedience to his teachings, but also our passion for his own glory. He also told us that apart from him we could do nothing. A dynamic relationship and communication is a key … and that defines prayer. Consider, for instance, the most difficult, complex, even hostile social, moral, political, and cultural setting you can imagine in your city, or in other parts of the world, and then know that it is into just such contexts, such areas of need, that the church is called to go and to become God’s Light there, and to demonstrate the joy and hope of his New Creation/Kingdom … and there in such a humanly impossible setting to obey Christ’s calling. For the church to be the church is not achievable in merely human terms. (I’ve probably lost some of my readers at this point.)
Our response to the human impossibility of the church, however, is not resignation … but rather is intercession and petition for the creative and evangelizing source we need to accomplish God’s purpose. What do you think we are praying for when we pray: “… thy will be done [here and now] on earth as it is in heaven?”
Did you ever stop to ask why the church recorded in Acts was always praying? or that the apostle taught that we were to pray without ceasing? or that the final piece of the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6) is that we should always be praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all the saints? This all begins precisely where we are, in our 24/7 contexts. Our calling to be the children of light is in the realities, first of all, of our immediate incarnation, i.e., the persons, the potentials, the difficulties, the pathological or hostile or agnostic personalities whom we meet. But as we pray, we also become the missionary arm of the Triune God in those places.
A huge part of our problem is that our present church narrative focuses on the humanly achievable church institutions, which we have created, i.e., the Christendom churches with their sanctuaries, their church professionals, and their focus on gatherings and well-crafted worship services—but which fail to realize that none of these are called for in the New Testament documents. What we are called upon to do is to ‘make disciples,’ to obey Christ’s commands, to teach and admonish one another in the Word of Christ, to see to it that all of God’s people are equipped to maturity for engagement in the mission of God. And this is all empowered by God as the church accesses the power of prayer given to it by God. We are not called upon to create comfortable church institution in which we entertain ourselves with churchy activities. Our alternative narrative will be to engage in bold intercessions … for the humanly impossible, for our active participation in the mission of God to our neighbors and for our colleagues who live lives without a center, or an authority, or a creative source, or guiding principle, or an ultimate goal. It begins with you and me, with us, with the here and now—this place and this time.
