Enchanted Community

BLOG 5/13/17. THE ROLE OF PROPHECY IN THE NEW CREATION COMMUNITY

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m continually disappointed at how consistently Biblical expositors skip over the awesome consequences of Paul’s reference to the Ascended Lord’s gifting of the church (in the 4^th chapter of Ephesians) and of the necessity of those four gifts for the equipping of all God’s people for maturity in his mission. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t focus on charismatic personalities having one or the other of those gifts (though there are those especially gifted in each), … but that all four are necessary for all of Christ’s followers to be mature, to have the stature of Christ, to achieve the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

I want to begin with my own ‘take’ on prophecy. Prophets, as such, appear regularly in the apostolic writings, but without much description of precisely what their role might have been. We find one of them warning Paul of what would happen if he persisted in returning to Jerusalem, etc. … but, here and there, there are references to that phenomenon in the normal life of the church. But here in Ephesians 4 the Spirit-gift of prophecy appears to be one of the necessary components in the equipping of all of God’s people. Why is it so essential? My persuasion is that this is the capacity for cultural analysis, or cultural exegesis, of understanding the realities of the cultural-social setting in which we realistically live. It is the capacity to be (if I can say it this way) very knowledgeably this-worldly, to understand the dynamics of our incarnation as the children of the Light, of God’s New Humanity men and women.

I am very much influenced by the late French sociologist-theologian Jacques Ellul. His provocative book: The Presence of the Kingdom makes the case that the kingdom of God is most powerfully present when God’s people are not dealing in abstractions, but in consistently creating a lifestyle that demonstrates before the watching world the realities of God’s New Creation, God’s Kingdom.  But to do that, one must confront those very existential realities. It is almost blasphemous to see the church as some ‘place’ in which we escape the challenges of daily life.

I, as a white guy, sit frequently with an African-American friend in a coffee shop, and have the most amazing and fruitful and honest discussions about racism. We tune in to each other. He assists me in prophetic understanding of this particular blight in our society. Racism, economic crises, global food supply, iPhone culture, a culture of urban nomads who seem to have no roots, neighborhoods without true neighbors, political darkness here and abroad, immigrants, sexuality, educational systems, crime, … and on and on. The church, as Ellul insists, must not succumb to some abstract spirituality, nor avoid what God’s people are confronting 24/7 in their particular place of incarnation.

So, then, it becomes one of the necessary components of God’s gifting the church to equip those New Creation people to exegete their specific cultures, what with all of its ‘plusses and minuses.’ This is not an elective, but a necessity. The church can never demonstrate the good works, the life-style, the counter-cultural essence of God’s New Humanity if it becomes an escapist. Church gatherings, liturgies, public teaching-preaching are all for naught if they do not contribute to the prophetic equipping of all of God’s people. This is a never ending, and always changing discipline.

In future blogs I will attempt to explain why the other three gifts mentioned are also essential. Stay tuned … [and, if this Blog is helpful, recommend it to your friends.]

BLOG 5/9/17. GOD’S CALLING INVOLVES RADICAL CHANGE IN US

I don’t know whether it is some kind of mindlessness, or is downright humorous if one looks at it carefully, but we folk who profess faith in Jesus sometimes get lost in a kind of spiritual euphoria that has not much to do with what Jesus has in mind for us. We blithely sing: Just as I am without one plea … I come to Thee, and then don’t always look carefully into what responding to that call involves. Or we quote Paul on: all things work together for good, as though that is some kind of a carte blanche promise that covers all of our fate and foibles, … but then never go on to read the whole passage in its context.Yes, absolutely, Jesus calls us “just as we are” … but he doesn’t leave us there. Radical change is in store. One doesn’t forsake his/her autonomy easily! Repentance is a huge act of will.

When Jesus told the twelve that upon the foundation of what he had taught and demonstrated before them, namely, that he was the long-awaited promised one from God, … that upon that reality he was calling out a whole new people (church) to be is New Humanity community, … that is not some pleasant cruise into spiritual experience, or a casual approval of Jesus as a wonderful person, not at all. He has already demonstrated in his own life that he was in continual conflict with the dominant religious and political order. He has incurred the wrath of the pious leaders of Israel. And, he has warned those who would follow him that unless they were willing to lose their lives for his sake, that they weren’t worthy of him.

No, Jesus came to initiate in the here-and-now a radical new creation, and at the threshold of one’s entering it is the command to repent, i.e. to have a radical change of mind. It requires one to lose one’s life for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s. He would be described by his apostles later on, as the first fruit of the New Creation. There is a cosmic shifting of gears in the coming of Christ. This is never veiled. That very passage (quoted above from Romans 8:29 in loc) says that all things work together for good (note) to those who are called “according to his purpose.” And exactly what would that purpose be? That text says that God has an eternal plan to reconcile his rebellious creation unto himself, a plan to make all things new, a plan to call forth a new humanity. Then (watch this): the way this redemptive design works itself out, is that he calls out a people (in the mystery of how that takes place through the heralding of Christ), and the consequence is that those who respond to that call are then, by the power of God, to be (check this) “conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Still with me? Unpacking the meaning of that “image of his Son” in other apostolic writings, it has at least three clearly defined components: we are conformed to the Son in (1) knowledge, (2) righteousness, and (3) holiness (Ephesians 4:24 & Colossians 3:10). God’s Spirit in us recreates us so that we have the mind of Christ, that we (as one paraphrase states it) “see all things from his point of view.” Those responding to Christ’s call are always being formed and refined by knowledge, by the word of Christ. Then we are being recreated to live out the behavior, the righteousness, of God’s New Creation—Sermon on the Mount kind of stuff. And ultimately we are being recreated as those “reconciled, restored, forgiven” to dwell in the intimacy with the Holy God through his Son, Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, that’s nothing if it’s not radical.

And God’s people over the centuries have learned that it is not cheap, but costly. Think twice. God’s people are always counter-cultural, and in “missionary confrontation” with their context. Even so, they are also the light of the world and the salt of the earth. To be continued …

http://wipfandstock.com/what-on-earth-is-the-church-14083.html

BLOG 5/6/17. THE CHURCH: CALLED FOR A PURPOSE

There is a generous degree of obscurity, or maybe amnesia, in the church as to its purpose in the design of God. When one joins Alcoholics Anonymous, or the Boy Scouts, there is a well-defined sense of purpose that goes along with one’s identification with such. Not so, all too often, with  those in the church. One can be a faithful participant and not have a clue as to what the church as to do with God’s design for the human community. Maybe much of the blame can be laid at the door of the translation of the New Testament into English. The Greek word that Jesus used to designate the community he was to create was the common word ek-klesia, which pertains to any group of those persons called-out for some specific purpose. This is the word that Jesus used when announcing to his intimate disciples what was about to follow: “I will build my ek-klesia/church and the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Right away, any inquisitive mind would ask: Called out from what? and, called to what? How does that take place? But when the translators sought a word for that in English, they used an Anglo-Saxon word that essentially meant: ‘the Lord’s community’ (sounds something like kuriakos, or church). That easily took on something of a static possibility without any dynamic sense of purpose or mission essential to its purpose. Along the way it took on the sense of being a religious institution with buildings, active priesthood, and rites, … and the possibility of being passive participants within what may have been a meaningful spiritual experience, but with no engaging of every participant in the mission of God. But that’s not at all the way it is presented in the New Testament.

Let me tell you a story that began to focus this in my mind. I had been invited to one of this country’s paradigm theological institutions to give a couple of lunch-time addresses to a group of their students. After the second address, I casually mentioned that I was going to be around until the next day and that if any of them wanted to join me for supper, then I would enjoy their company and would let my organization pick up the tab. That evening about eight or them joined me, bright and attractive seniors, and took me to their favorite bistro—but what they wanted from me was not any more about the subjects I had addressed in my talks, but they wanted to know what it was like in the pastorate? What were the dynamics I had experienced? It began to dawn on me that they had never had courses in ecclesiology (the study of the church), or much about missiology (the study of the church’s mission). And, sadly, almost none of their faculty had ever been pastors. The faculty were brilliant academicians, but had no significant experience in mid-wifing others into faith (evangelism), or making disciples, or creating contagious Christian communities.

These particular students had mostly come to seminary after being leaders in para-church organizations in college (Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, Young Life, etc.), organizations that did put a focus on disciple-making, and that had given them the desire to pursue that calling after college, and in the church, somehow. But, essentially, what they had received in seminary was superb academic disciplines, and the image of pastor as institution-keepers (and an academic degree). No wonder we have such obscurity on the church’s purpose in the design of God to be the incarnation of God’s New Humanity, and to be conformed to his image, and to be actively engaged and contagious in that calling.

Ah! but there is burbling up from the grassroots a generation of creative and innovative younger adults, who are reconceiving of the church and forming contagious, authentic homebrew churches, in all kinds of unsuspected forms and unexpected places, … and where every participant is part of the ministry. I want to expore that with you in forthcoming Blogs. Stay tuned, and invite your friends to join us in this journey. Thanks.

BLOG 5/2/17. BEYOND THE HAZE AND DISTORTIONS SURROUNDING THE CHURCH, WHICH OBSCURE ITS PURPOSE AS INTIMATE COMMUNITY

OK, I know that the traditional church institutions that have dominated the scene for so long, and still are present, have been a huge blessing in many lives, … still I want you to allow me to pursue my role as an ecclesiastical gadfly and seek to reconceive the church for tomorrow’s children, many for whom authentic relationships are a continual quest and who find much of institutional Christianity falls short. There have always been, and always will be a place for teaching forums, i.e., those gatherings of Christ’s followers to be formed by the Word of Christ, and equipped with the knowledge of God’s mission in Christ. Praise God for such.

Still, we live in a nomadic culture, where people are on the move, and where notwithstanding the availability of information on iPhones, it is easy to be lonely, … and God’s sensitivity that: “It is not good for man that he should be alone,” is rooted deeply in our human need for true, mutual, caring, and realistic relationships. The recreation of a true humanity, and of the human community, is at the heart of the mission of Jesus, … which lies behind his “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” statement at Caesarea Philippi.  To grasp the awesome implications of this has exciting potential for us.

At the heart of recreating the human community is the necessity of those persons, who somehow are informed and energized and recreated into the capacity to relate to one another    out of the life of Christ which mutually inhabits them. Somehow, when men and women encounter Jesus in his life and teachings, and when they respond to his invitation to give them a new life by the Spirit, … this has the very practical result of the Spirit of Christ implanting his (how to say it?) divine genome in their lives so that his life becomes their life, and his knowledge of God’s design to make all things new by and through Jesus, … to inaugurate God’s kingdom, or his new creation, becomes dynamic in and through each one of them. Not only are those respondents renewed in knowledge, but are also renewed in their true vocation to live out the life of Christ in their behavior and relationships in the midst of a broken world.

This is not a merely human religious possibility. It requires the supernatural presence and energizing of the Spirit of the Father and the Son in their lives. Jesus knew this. His bewildered disciples were not comprehending what he was saying. But he told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them.True human community, the community of God’s new humanity, is consequently called: “the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit.”  It comes about when the genome of Christ in me, encounters the genome of Christ in you, and we are bonded together in the life of Christ, and become thereby accountable to one another, and responsible for one another in a deep bond of self-giving love So, also we demonstrate God’s intended relationships for his people before the watching world: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, and so you are to love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.”

This is not a merely human possibility. Our individual encounter with Christ in this way may be dramatic, or convulsive, of very quiet—but it is the threshold of true community, when we forsake our autonomy and embrace Jesus as he invites us to become one with him and to share his life. Maybe an example will help. When I was about to receive a very delicate heart procedure in the hospital and shortly before they wheeled me into the operating room, I was asked by staff to sign a statement of consent, giving to their medical staff the right to proceed. When we come to Christ by faith, we are making our statement of consent for him to live out his life in and through us in the midst of the realities this sojourn, and a huge dimension of this is the creation of his new humanity in relationships. Christ in you and Christ in me, relating as Christ to one another, … and so we to our present social and cultural context. … stay tuned.

BLOG 4/29/17. THE CHURCH IS INEXPLICABLE IN MERELY HUMAN TERMS

The emerging generation (GenZ) has the proclivity of being incorrigible in its questioning of past patterns and paradigms, and awesomely innovative in creating unimaginably fresh and encouraging solutions, paradigms, and patterns. So, it may be an appropriate time to look at the very essence of the church as it is apparent in the New Testament documents. Let’s start with the statement that the church is the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). That, right away puts it beyond any community that is explainable in merely human terms. We simply must look at the church in its ultimate (eschatological) purpose in the plan of God. So, let’s go back to God’s invasion of his creation in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

We looked, in our last Blog (4/25), at the creation of the human community which was to live in total harmony both within itself, and in intimate company with their Creator. Then at the very end of scripture there is that mind-boggling statement that “the dwelling-place of God is with men and he will dwell with them.”  So, how then, does God deal with the tragedy of the human rebellion, and create a community in which to delight to dwell in total shalom? The answer: God doesn’t deal with humankind in the abstract, or in theory, or by creating some new religion, or building some new temple—rather, God actually comes and identifies himself with it, and he does that on the margins of society, not in the places of prestige or power. He comes to his covenant people, the Jews, who reside in a marginal nation with a decadent religious establishment, and occupied by a world empire, … but he doesn’t appear in their courts. He comes to that strata on the margins of society, that huge majority, who are marginal, living always in challenging ways and with uncontrollable circumstances. He becomes one of them. Watch!

First of all, God comes to a godly young Jewish peasant girl by his angelic messenger, and tells her that she is to be the mother of the long-awaited of promise: the Messiah, who kingdom and reign will know end. This amazing young lady responds: “How can these things be in that I am not even married, nor have ever had sex with a man?” The angel responds: “The Spirit of God will come upon you, and you shall conceive a son …” To my readers, Note: these responses are appropriate for what follows about Jesus and the creation of the church: “How can these things be?” And the answer: “The Spirit will create a New Humanity, i.e., the church.” By the descriptions and explanations that follow, the true church is not explainable in merely human terms. It’s awesome.

When Jesus begins his walk in the marginal parts of Palestine, and begins his teaching, he will say things like: “He who has seen me has seen the Father;” or “I and the Father are one;” or “the works that I do are not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” The apostle John explains that Jesus was the very revelation of God, i.e., the Word, and though many will reject him, those who receive him as who he is, to them he will give the authority to become the sons of God. He later explains that as he lives in the Father, so he will live in them by the Spirit—a new community in which God dwells by the Spirit. Jesus will say in his prayer (John 17:23) that he is in them, and the Father is in him, … Note: We are looking at a whole new human community that is recreated to be what it is supposed to be, both within itself, and in its intimacy with God the Father. No ‘twilight and unreality’ religion here, but the human community recreated by the Spirit—the dwelling-place of God by the Spirit, which is being always recreated into the image of the Son of God in its thinking, its behavior, and its intimacy with God … right in the midst of the realities of this confusing world. A community that is reconciled and reconciling, a community that is loved and so loves, a community whose whole way of life is visibly expressive of that of Jesus, and so it the radiant display of the divine nature. Nothing miserly here. To my young friends in the emerging generation: Run with that! Create  those fresh new innovative communities that are unexplainable in merely human (or religious) terms, but not so  by the Spirit. Whee!  [If you find the Blogs provocative, recommend them to your friends.]

BLOG 4/25/17. THE EMERGING GENERATION AND THE ENIGMA OF THE CHURCH

Don’t be surprised if those who make up the emerging Gen Z (or iY generation) look at you with puzzlement if you raise the subject of the church  with them. As the culture moves further and further away from the patterns and paradigms of the previous Christendom era, the concept of the church becomes more and more distant to those who have had no contact with it. At best, it may register with them as some kind of weird organization for those have some need of ‘religion’ but may be met with a shrug of the shoulders, and a “so what?” when the subject is raised with them. At the same time, there is always that (perhaps) dimly burning quest for meaning: What does my life mean? … and all those accompanying questions: Is there some center to life that I am missing? Is there some authority out there that I should be aware of? Is there some creative source of which I am not aware? Is there some guiding line to lead me through all the crap I deal with day by day? Yes, and is there some final goal to which I am blind? These questions are quite common, though we tend to brush them aside with distracting immediacies. But they are there. Where do those questions come from? Is there meaning to my life? Does anyone really care that I am even alive? And, is this life all that there is? It is quite easy to be lonely in the crowd. So, where do we begin to seek out some answers, some direction on this quest?

I, personally, am so thankful for that brief (but poignant) account of the beginnings of the human community in the opening chapters of the Bible. They says ‘worlds’ in just a few short paragraphs. First, the account posits that it is God who has created all things, and that they were created good. The crown of God’s good creation was the creation of the human, whom God made in his own likeness and image (Wow!). He was made to have intimate access to his Creator, and to be totally at ease “walking with God in the garden.” This human would have had no question who he was and where his life derived. Then that same sensitive God was aware that this human creature would not prosper in solitude, so made him a complementary woman, … and so we see the beginning of the human community. These three components give us clue on the meaning of our human existence (and, if you want to throw in a fourth, add that they were made stewards of their environment, keepers of the garden).

Then the mysterious intrusion of the temptation to declare autonomy, to be their own gods, and the whole scene short-circuited. Guilt entered since they knew that they were not God, and so they hid from God. But more, they were estranged from one another, and sought to hide from each other by making clothes to hide in. Darkness entered, then, in those three dimensions. These primordial humans lost their true humanity, and in that tragic episode all those questions listed above began to fester. Some despairing person has said: “It’s been lonely in the world since God died.” … Ah! But God didn’t throw up his hands in disgust, but rather began to unfold, what an apostle centuries later would describe as: “… the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed …” (Colossians 1:25-26). That mystery that was revealed was that God came into the human community in Christ to inaugurate his “all things new” recreation, his eschatological design for his creation, … and a huge piece of that was the recreation of the human community—the restoration of true humanity, and of true human community. When one looks at the life and teachings of Jesus, all his teachings and promises speak of God dwelling among us, of abundant life, of beyond asking or imagining freedom, self-understanding, loving relationships, and intimacy with God. Ultimately, comes the word that at the consummation of all things: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them …” (Rev. 21:3).

In that huge reality of the coming of God to dwell among us in Christ, lie the answers to all of those questions that lurk in the deeps of the human psyche, and our understanding of the church. (to be continued …)

BLOG 4/22/17. RE-CONCEIVING THE CHURCH … AND THE ALL-CONSUMING THEME OF INTERPRETATION

My purpose in these present Blogs is so totally outrageous that it is almost laughable, but then it has been brewing me for decades—even so it is totally intimidating. As if the task of reconceiving the church were not intimidating enough, it might be even more laughable to even begin to define what the cultural context of tomorrow’s children might look like, what with the exponential explosion of information, the globalism, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, … and in an increasingly unrooted nomadic population that seems always temporary. Is that enough? We’re looking for a new pattern, a whole new paradigm for the future.

Yet, in my mind a significant reason for my intimidation before the task is the realization is the awareness that so few who deal with the issue of the church seem to realize how all-consuming is the concept of the Kingdom of God in life and teachings of Jesus and his apostles. Nor do they seem to understand it. Into the realities of human history, and the human community, what with its lost understanding true humanity (in its quest for autonomy), … with all the tragic consequences … God came in person, in Christ, as God had promised he would come, … and he came in order to make all things new, including the human community.

Now watch. John says it beautifully in the explanatory introduction to his account of the life and teachings of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness … the Word became flesh and dwelt among us … He came … and as many as received him, who believed on his name, he gave the right to become the children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:1ff). Got it? Somehow in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth there is brought into being a whole new humanity, a recreated humanity, and a recreated human community That’s awesome. It is also our clue as to the true nature of the church. But don’t leave yet. Look at how Jesus enters into his public task, and what he does and says. He enters his public ministry with the theme that is consistently at the heart of all his teachings: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe this thrilling news.” Subsequently, after doing many public and miraculous works, he will explain them by saying: “…   if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). The kingdom of God, the inauguration of God’s all things new design, the intrusion of God’s ultimate design into the here and now: his will for his creation and his human community – all this inaugurated and made possible by this Word made flesh: Jesus. (The Kingdom God is variously referred to in the New Testament as: new creation, eternal life, salvation, sometimes as righteousness: all referring to the ‘all things new’ design of God.) Ultimately he will tell his followers that: “When this gospel of the kingdom shall have been heralded into every people-group in the world, then will the end come,” … or in other words, then God’s New Creation, God’s eschatological Kingdom will be consummated. Meanwhile, the task of incarnating it and heralding it in the here and now of human history, … this by the church.

It is in the eclipsing of this all-consuming theme of interpretation, that the church becomes confused about its own identity, form, and mission. To ‘reconceive the church for tomorrow’s children,’ we must be very much focused on this primary theme for such a task. In the incarnation of the Kingdom of God, the church is the communal component of that ‘all things new’ recreation—in the church God incarnates what true humanity is all about. It has nothing to do with the mistaken notion that Jesus came to start a new religion. Stay tuned …

BLOG 4/18/17. ALONE: NOT THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE

I’m always intrigued by the observation by so many that one of the most common quests of men and women today is the quest for authentic relationships. It is because of that that I am launching out on this journey with my readers to reconceive the church as the communal dimension of God’s New Creation in Christ. It is not too much to define it as intended to be: the communal expression of the abundant life that Jesus promises to his followers. (To do this, however, means that we’ve got to forsake that most dominant pattern or paradigm of the church as somehow a religious institution that is dominated by clergy.)

Where does that haunting desire for intimate relationships come from? What does it look like?  Why is it there? And why is it so often unfulfilled even within marriages?  Weird as it may seem, there is a powerful clue for us in the very first pages of the Biblical narrative—that familiar bit of folk history about the creation of the world (Genesis 1-3). Consider that that story was passed down by oral tradition for many generations, until it was (probably) committed to writing sometime in the second millennium B.C., and yet it has had huge impact over the millennia. It tells of the Creator fashioning this whole world, as we know it, out of the formless void. The crown of that creation was his creation of the first human, and creating him in God’s own likeness and with the capacity to relate intimately, i.e., to walk with God in the garden paradise. That’s awesome. That’s the first dimension of our quest for relationships: intimate relationship to the One who created us.

It only takes a moment of reflection to realize that such a relationship would mean that this first human would be totally at peace with himself, to know who he was, to be free and transparent in his relationship with his Creator. That’s the second dimension of or quest for authentic relationship—we need to be free and fulfilled in our own identity as those whose purpose is to demonstrate the image of God.

Ah! But the Creator knows the need of that first human to have another human with whom to relate creature-to-creature … as well as to God himself. So, he created a companion. They were totally innocent in this identity as stewards of the garden in which they lived. They were naked and not ashamed. They had nothing to hide. This is the third dimension of our quest for an answer for our common human need for relationships.

Then, that story, tragedy entered when that primordial human community succumbed to the suggestion by a tempter (that’s a whole study in itself) that they would be even better off if they were their own gods—and the whole scene then was short-circuited. The result was the loss of all three inter-animating relational dimensions of their humanity. … They were suddenly very alone, estranged from God and from one another. And that’s where we find ourselves.

Right away, however, God declares the tragic results of their foolish decision, … but also makes it known that his ultimate design for them has not altered, and that there will be “the seed of a woman” who will ultimately destroy the tempter and is rebellious agenda. Skip down some generations and another promise comes to a middle-eastern sheik, Abraham, about his seed bringing about universal blessing. Along the way, God promises through his 8^th century prophet that he will make all things new. So, then in the fullness of time there enters that one who is to inaugurate this New Creation, Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He is the One who comes to create God’s New Humanity in which all three of the necessary components of authentic relations are realized. That is the church, which is that community in which God himself comes to indwell those who embrace his Son, and to make it to be the truly human community which demonstrates the abundant life God intends for his human community. That’s not an impersonal church institution. It is a community that demonstrates God’s love to the world around it. Stay tuned …

BLOG 4/15/17. RE-CONCEIVING THE CHURCH FOR TOMORROW’S CHILDREN

Greetings on this Easter weekend. At this point I want to give my faithful readers, visitors, and subscribers, a glimpse into where I intend to go in my forthcoming blog posts, … just in case you want to tune-out, un-subscribe, … or maybe join me in the journey. The very writing of these blogs has been surprising to me in that I have received comments from around the globe, even from persons in nations and cultures hostile to the Christian faith.

I want, now, to begin to share my reflections on the church, not in terms of institutions, or place, or sanctuaries, or clergy, … but: in terms of relationships. And I want to do it on behalf of the generation now emerging, who, though followers of Christ, are not into church institutions and all the primary dominant patterns and paradigms that have defined the church for so much of the church for the past millennium and a half.

As an old guy, I am fascinated by so much of the freshness, the creativity, the willingness to tamper with venerable old traditions, and to break old rules, in order to bring about something new and more energized and purposeful. This emerging generation is formed by a totally different set of dynamics than former generations. The exponential explosion of knowledge, and their ease in dealing with all the global connected-ness, with artificial intelligence, and so much more leave me marveling at their potential. Yes, and their capacity to conceive things that would have been beyond the wildest imagination of their parents (my bunch).

Add to that their quest for meaningful relationships. The need for human community has always been lurking in the human psyche, but with the emerging generation it is expressing itself in all kinds of new ways, and with all kinds of new components. That said, for all the wonderful expressions of Christian tradition in church institutions, they can be (and frequently are) impersonal so that one can be a participant and be totally anonymous. Our created nature which is designed to live in community, often finds no resource in venerable church institutions. Every young person with an iPhone has access to more resources and teaching that the most prestigious theological libraries, and profound teaching than is imaginable, not to mention social media. So, comes the question: Where do we go with this?

Note that in the creation story of that primordial peaceable kingdom, God created humankind in his own image so that they could relate with intimacy with himself without any barriers: the creature with the Creator. Then God, sensitively, noted that: it is not good for man that he should be alone. There we see the origins of one’s need for relationships, and for the human community. That original pair “were naked and not ashamed.” They had no need to hide. They were free, and intimate. Human community and intimacy, thus, were part of their true humanity. Until … the intrusion of the temptation to be their own gods, to be autonomous—and from that point ‘everything went south.’ But the Creator-God wasn’t left wringing his divine hands. Right away he gave a promise that “the seed of a woman” would emerge and bring about a new creation.

In these blogs, I am going to propose, and explore with my readers, that the church’s purpose, through Christ, is to be the recreation of the human community to be what God intends it to be, and which becomes also his dwelling-place by the Holy Spirit. As God came in Christ to reconcile the world to himself by, so the church is given to be a community of reconciliation. As Jesus expressed the love of God to his disciples, so the church is to be a community of that kind of self-giving, forgiving, authentic, and loving relationships—true community. … Something in that direction is where I intend to go. This may not even register with those formed by former church patterns, … but it is not them for whom I am writing. Stay tuned.

BLOG 4/11/17. GOOD FRIDAY? WHAT THE HELL?

Christian folk around the globe celebrate this week as Holy Week, and will somberly observe this coming Friday as: Good Friday, i.e., the day that Jesus was executed by a collusion of the Roman government and the religious authorities of Jerusalem. The community of his followers would, within a few years, affirm that in that act: “he descended into hell.” Hell? The post-Christian inquirer might respond: “What is hell?” Or: “What in the hell is that all about?” Or: “Who the hell cares?” But … there lingers always that mystery of death and what lies beyond … that won’t go away.

If we probe a bit more deeply into the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ execution on a Roman execution device, … it is not so much the physical agony that should capture our attention, though that is beyond imagination—but many humans have been tortured and killed in agonizing ways. No, what grips the (at least my) imagination is his cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What was going on here? Imagine, if you can, total darkness, total hopelessness, total silence, total rejection … and no one responding, total meaninglessness, total emptiness—just a haunting dark void, … and then, maybe, we might come a bit closer to understanding what was communicated in the creed: “He descended into hell.”

This is not an idle inquiry. It is commonly understood that the fear of death is one of the major anxieties that lurks in the psyche of most of humankind. Some persons are quite cavalier about it and attempt to show contempt for death. Others try to use cosmetics on it to make it seem less final. But our quest to live longer and postpone it show that it is always lurking out there. Check this interesting contribution from one of the early Christian writers: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

That fear of death has roots all the way back to the beginning of the story recorded in Christian (and Jewish) scriptures. Humankind was created in the image of God, to live in joyous and total intimacy with their creator, in harmony with each other, in harmony with the creation, and at peace with themselves … until there came that episode when they were tempted to declare independence of their creator … so that they could be gods themselves. Now being ‘god-players’ may sound tempting, but it is an illusion that is unconvincing—though it persists in those lives that have no sense of purpose other than self-fulfillment. Humankind is given the gift of life, but that life is a mystery, and even the most optimistic scientific minds, seek to unravel the mystery while trying to discover its secret, are themselves subject to death. This is the background, of God’s great love in rescuing his human community from their folly, and from the resulting death, by coming in flesh and blood in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to reconcile his human community from the consequences of their alienation—and that included Jesus taking upon himself their encounter with death, total separation from God: hell.

That last week of Jesus’ life is revealing. He was rejected by both the throngs, and by God. Rejection by God and man. Derelict on the cross. “Surely he has born our griefs and carried out sorrows, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him.” “He descended into hell …” and that in order that he might rescue us from the folly of trying to be our own gods, … and giving in its place such great hope, and the absence of the fear of death by his Easter resurrection (which is just around the corner), …  and with it such great deliverance from the fear of death (and hell). Is that thrilling news, or what?… (And, note: to reject all of that as sentimental religious poppycock … is also an act of faith, alas! And it leaves us with the unanswered questions and mysteries.)