4/29/15. ‘DIASTROPHISMS’: WHEN THE GROUND SHIFTS UNDER US

BLOG 4/29/15. WHEN THE GROUND SHIFTS UNDER OUR FEET

It is described as a diastrophism: that event that occurs when the tectonic plates beneath the surface of the earth shift, and tend to obliterate much of what is on the surface We have certainly observed this geological phenomenon this past week in Kathmandu, Nepal. The descriptions of that totally unsettling and chaotic scene are a reminder that all that seems permanent and secure, isn’t—dwellings, historic temples, monuments, ordinary and familiar scenes reduced to rubble.

There are other kinds of diastrophisms. This week the Supreme Court of the United States has before it the issue of the legality of same-sex marriages, which defies simplistic responses, and which (as the justices have noted) is a shift from the definition of marriage which has lasted for millennia. Yet, the nation has been increasingly confronted with such an existential issue, and the stability, health, and legality of gay families and children. The mood of the nation has been shifting rather quickly in recent years. It is traumatic for some and hopeful for others.

I’ve also written several blog posts in which I have pointed out another diastrophism that has to do with the dominant image of the church, which has existed for at least a millennium and a half, which image sees the church in terms primarily of temporal institutions, ecclesiastical organizations, hierarchically ordained clergy/church professionals/priests, … and, of course, the ever present church buildings that house such sacralized institutions. All of that is the product of ‘Christendom’ which emerged when the church was essentially co-opted by the governmental and cultural principalities, and given privileges and status, … yet that has little to do with the New Testament teachings of the nature and mission of the church. Such an ecclesiastical paradigm is fast vanishing before a new generation, and before a new global culture that is post-Christian, and generally indifferent to the church as we have known it—to such a dominant paradigm, which has been so essential to our previous generations.

It all reminds one of the old gospel hymn: Abide With Me, which has that line: “Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou, who changest not, abide with me.”

Such cultural and ethical, geological and ecclesiastical moments, however, though never easy, do in fact give us the critical moment in which to take a fresh look at our calling, our priorities, our ethics, and our institutions with eyes of God’s New Creation people for the future (and not for the past). They are never easy, and they seldom have simplistic answers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who grappled with ethical issues more deeply than most Christian thinkers, found himself with the inescapable decision of whether it was better to be complicit in the attempted assignation of Adolph Hitler, or to allow such a wicked leader to continue to wreak destruction on humanity. Bonhoeffer, of course, was captured and ultimately hanged for his complicity in that assignation effort, but in his prison diary he found refuge in the passage from II Chronicles 20:12: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” We frequently face diastrophisms where we do not know what to do.

God’s people are never called to be passive or safely ‘religious’ folk, mindlessly ossifying in our church activities. It is our calling to be those creative, caring, innovative instruments of righteousness—to be God’s New Humanity, and our most fruitful moments are frequently in such moments of diastrophism when all of our merely human securities are suddenly gone. How do God’s people demonstrate his extravagant love and justice in the midst of hostile governments, or among those of different religions, or lifestyles? How are we, in all humility, those who become true salt and light when everything is chaotic? How are we those creative and fresh stewards of our calling?

It is dangerous to avoid the risks of our faith. We are always a counter-cultural folk who are indwelt by the Spirit of the Father and the Son—not somewhere else, but here and now.

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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