BLOG 9/14/14. EQUIPPED TO BE ‘PROPHETS’

BLOG 9/14/14. COLONIES MADE UP OF PROPHETS (WHAT?)

In these current Blogs I am seeking to reconceive ‘the church’ as being colonies of God’s New Humanity, i.e., a whole different genre of human community, that is the product of the Holy Spirit, and is not humanly explainable. ‘Church members’ can be religious sightseers, who think Jesus is a nice guy, … but true colonies of God’s New Humanity are made up of disciples. ‘Church members’ can tip their hats to Jesus, and sing songs about him, … but disciples have encountered Jesus as the very transforming Word of God made flesh and blood, welcomed him, embraced him into their lives, and have chosen a life of faith in him and obedience to his New Creation agenda.

The Apostle John says right away, that: “to those who received him, to them he gives the power to become the sons and daughters of God.” But there is another not-so-subtle factor, which we dare not skip over. To use Eugene Peterson’s unforgettable paraphrase of John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” … which brings us to the necessity of our own prophetic calling. To come into any neighborhood is to come into a particular culture that has traditions, prejudices, blind-spots, patterns of communication, laws, human relationships often broken and destructive, but sometimes quite commendable, and with many beautiful expressions. You get the picture.

But, for us, this means that when we embrace Jesus and are given the his own life and power, and so become what true humanity is meant to be … we know that this takes place in our own specific and real neighborhoods, which are equally very real cultures, or mini-cultures—sometimes hostile, sometimes cynical, sometime seeking meaning, and producing marvelous expressions of human-kindness and creativity. We are never called to move into religious clubs, which isolate themselves from the very real cultures of their neighborhoods.

This is a clue to the incredibly insightful passage about the four necessary dimensions of our equipping for the calling, which is ours in Christ, found in Ephesians 4. Too many expositors skip over the four necessary gifts Paul mentions there, if (all) the people of God are to be equipped for their own incarnational ministry. And one of those four necessary gifts is that of prophet. Why would that be a necessary gift? Stop and think about it. If we are all to be effective in our incarnation, in our participation in the mission of God, then we must absolutely be tuned-in to the culture in which we live and operate. This is termed (by students of the missionary task of the church): cultural exegesis. This is where the church/colony comes to understand and confront its cultural setting.

We live our New Humanity lives in particular and specific cultures. In Jesus’ case, or the early church, one can identify at least four different cultural forces: Jewish, Greek, Roman, and probably a strong Arabic component. Every believer came into these cultural realities. We, likewise, here in the West, come into a very real post-Christian culture that has built up considerable anti-bodies against much of its Christian past. We come into a culture with competitive religions: new age, Islam, materialism, hedonism, Facebook relationships, digital age stuff (where folk are over-informed and still lonely), etc. … New Humanity folk must be continually honing their prophetic skills, their on-going cultural exegesis, so that our incarnation is authentic and is in continual missionary confrontation with the real people Jesus came to seek and to save. So true colonies of God’s New Humanity absolutely must equip each to be prophets, and to relate the incredible love and grace of God in Christ to the realities of each culture.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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