Enchanted Community

BLOG 7/18/19. THE DEMEANING OF THE DESIGNATION: EVANGELICAL

The current political scene becomes the more perplexing as a sizeable segment of the voting population are identifying themselves as: ‘conservative evangelicals’. We need to unpack that to see how demeaning it is (perhaps bastardizing?) of the significant roots of that term evangelical. It comes from a Greek word (sounds like euangellion) which means: ‘thrilling news’. The Christian church adopted it to describe the whole life, message, and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. It is referred to as “the gospel of the kingdom of God” and, hence, of the thrilling news that God had come into this world to inaugurate his new creation through the person and work of Jesus.

It is in this understanding that we have four eyewitnesses to Jesus life and ministry, known to us as the four New Testament gospels/evangels. This heralds the dawn of a whole new age. Jesus life and teachings, the record of his earthly career, teachings, the death and resurrection. The founding of his church—the community of his new humanity—is built upon these teachings. Jesus was unequivocal in his insistence that only those who kept his teachings could be considered his disciples. This is the heart of the evangel, and the legitimate basis of the designation of evangelical.

The current mystery is as to how a considerable segment of the electorate of this nation embraces a political platform, and candidates (including the president), whose policies stand in stark contrast to the primary command to love others as he loves us, to engage in humanitarian ministries to the oppressed, to the poor, to strangers, … to yield our bodies as instruments of justice, to be instruments of his peace, to love our enemies, to minister to the poor and homeless, … how can that segment even remotely embrace that evangel in a movement that stands in naked opposition to everything Jesus taught … and, hence, as a conservative evangelical to be even more insistent upon those teachings.

For-instance, how can a university that presents itself as an evangelical school, invite as a guest of honor, even the president of this country, who is totally immoral and without any seeming familiarity with the scriptures that define the teachings of Jesus, i.e., who stands in naked denial of those teachings, and represents a lifestyle that is condemned throughout scripture? Or how can the son of a significant Christian voice from a former generation, and yet who is the anti-thesis of his father’s teachings and example, set himself forward as a spokesperson for this conservative evangelical segment of our political scene?

Here was Jesus who embraced the example of the good Samaritan (Samaritans were hated by Jews), of the Roman centurion (an officer in an occupying army), of a Syro-Phoenician woman, … as examples of true faith. All of them were objects of prejudice by Jews. Even Jesus’ cross was picked up by a North African when Jesus stumbled on his was to Calvary. The life and teachings of Jesus are built upon the teachings of the Old Testament prophets with their insistence that the Lord requires of us lives of justice and humility. All of this Biblical ethic is totally at odds with the racism, the prejudice, the void of humanitarian compassion exhibited by most of the advocates of the conservative evangelicals.

No! true evangelicals have a radical social ethic, if you read the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps it is time for those embracing this ideology to go back and read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived in another time when the Christian church all too much sold its soul to an unrighteous national leader, … and paid a horrible price for doing so. To be a true evangelical is to be an incorrigible follower of the life and teachings of Jesus, … and that’s a long way from where our current conservative evangelical movement in this country seem to be.

Peace!

BLOG 7/15/19. I AM A CITIZEN OF TWO NATIONS, … NOT ALWAYS EASY.

I don’t mind having to pay taxes, actually. Out of my modest retirement income I have to come up with a couple thousand dollars a year. But then I do have a problem with those who make millions, even billions, who don’t pay their equivalent amount (or almost none at all). I don’t resend that some have extravagant tastes, with summer homes on Nantucket, and winter homes in Palm Beach. But, again, they, of all, should be carrying their load of the expenses of operating a government that seeks the welfare of all of its citizens.

Then, too, I have a problem of how that tax money is spent, and who / what are the recipients of our government spending. I am, after all, I am a citizen of two nations: one a kingdom/government of this world, and the other, the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. That kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the age to come, was inaugurated with its design by the Father-God who sent and anointed him, “ … to proclaim good news to the poor … liberty to the captives… recovering sight to the blind … to set at liberty those who are oppressed. (Luke 4:18). The humanitarian focus, and the priority of justice and righteousness is unmistakable there. So, as a citizen of two kingdoms I am zealous that those responsible for the stewardship of this earthly kingdom have the social and humanitarian passion, the concern for economic, environmental, political, and social righteousness that is the priority of my kingdom citizenship, that demonstrates God’s new humanity in Christ.

I will give my support to those governmental figures who most approximate that self-giving love as inaugurated in Jesus Christ. In our better moments, we have been exemplary in that. Consider the inscription on the base of our Statue of Liberty: ““Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

That sounds totally contradictory to current immigration policy. If taxes were imposed on all equally we would have sufficient to, not only to welcome, but to provide, to house, to train for citizenship and working skills. I can see whole villages of modest Habitat for Humanity houses whose immigrant earn them with what Habitat calls “sweat equity”. We are, after all, primarily, a nation of immigrants (except for the Native Americans).

My primary citizenship is from Jesus, who said: “I was a stranger, and you took me in.” I want my secondary citizenship, also, to demonstrate that. I want those for whom I give political support to most reflect the ethics and principles of God’s new creation (whether they are professing Christian persons or not). And I will be a co-belligerent those government figures who have a humanitarian and righteousness-focused in the way they spend my taxes. And I will oppose those who use their vast wealth to provide the “perks” for agencies of economic and social greed.

Jesus said that it is by our works that others will know we are his disciples, and those works are nearly always costly, but they are demonstrations of love and justice of God, and of God’s new creation (new humanity) people. Yes, I am citizen of two kingdoms, but God’s kingdom has the priority.

“Make me an instrument of thy peace.”

________

BLOG 7/11/19. POSSESSIONS/MAMMON: THE NAMED COMPETITOR WITH GOD

It won’t hurt us as Christians to surface the danger of wealth, and take a sober look at its dominance as a major force/influence is our current political landscape.  For One major billionaire, who ran for president has just died, another has just been indicted for sex crimes against minors, one has just announced that he is entering the presidential race, … and on and on. The teachings of Jesus include major warnings about wealth. As a matter of fact, it names affinity for wealth and possessions as the major competitor with God: “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

When a wealthy young man approached Jesus with the desire to be one of his followers, Jesus told him to go and sell al that he had, then come and follow him. He underscored that you could not serve both God and mammon. Wealth easily becomes an idol, not to mention that it often makes us indifferent to the desperate poverty and helplessness of most the world’s population.

It is easily to become callous to this need of basic human needs when we read daily of the massive amounts of money necessary to become a political candidate, or the huge sums invested by Political Action Committees in order to influence votes … while remaining indifferent to a minimum wage that is insufficient for meeting basic needs. We spend unbelievable amounts of money on military armaments in countries that have desperate humanitarian needs. And it seems so normal.

And, from the mouths of so many who profess to be followers, one seldom hears his word: “Woe to you rich!” So, allow me to alert my readers to the reality that the gift of the daily necessities—our daily bread—is one for which we may pray and for which we can give thanks, the obsession with wealth in our culture (even in too many churches) should turn on our yellow lights. The lifestyle of God’s new creation people is a calling to simplicity of living, and of generosity to those in need.

On the political scene, it should focus our attention on a politician’s values and on the desperate, daily struggle for survival of the majority who are not rich. It should focus on being content with basics, since this is the focus of Jesus and the apostles. It should focus on a quest for justice for the helpless, the stranger, the refugee, … and not on tax-breaks for the wealthy. If you think I am being just a bleeding-heart, go back and read your New Testament and see where the values of the kingdom of God are focused.

“By this shall men (and women) know that you are my disciples,” in that you have an affinity for the poor and oppressed (Matthew 5).

Blessings on those who share the heart of Christ in tangible ways in this earthly sojourn.

________

BLOG 7/9/19. THE STORY OF BASE CHURCHES, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

What happens when the church doesn’t have clergy to lean on? What happens when the church has no ‘clergy filter’ between its participants and the teachings of scriptures? Well, up front, let’s be honest: all kinds of things, good and bad, can happen. But in Latin America during the last half-century, or so, there is a fascinating demonstration of the church reverting to the form we first see in post-Pentecost Jerusalem, when believers met together “house to house” around the apostles’ teachings in a unique, mutually accountable and responsible intimacy (fellowship).

Latin America was inhabited by a dominant Roman Catholic population, where the church was something of a political force and thus somewhat beholden to the governments in power. But there came a time when there were not enough clergy to provide priestly services to many of the smaller communities, so those churches took on a smaller communal form, meeting in homes to read and discuss scriptures (without clergy filters), and to hold one another accountable for living out those teachings. These became known as base churches, or base ecclesial communities. (The church in many places over history has done exactly the same thing.)

This was disturbing to the Latin American Fraternity of Bishops, since they had always presumed that it was necessary for an ordained priest to perform the rites of the church and interpret scriptures, and this was no longer possible. Could these multiplying Base churches be true churches? But another effect of this exposure of the (mostly) peasant folk to the radical social and ethical implications of the gospel of the kingdom. Whereas the priestly dominated church had sought the blessing of the (often corrupt) governments, these lay folk (campesinos) were under no such constraints. The omnipresent Biblical requirements of righteousness and justice, and the ethical requirements of Jesus’ teachings, … put them in inescapable missionary confrontation with governments, ruthless and powerful drug cartels, and made them the instruments of humanitarian aid, and social justice—salt and light in the context so alien to such.

The emerging result was that these Base churches became forces for righteousness, whereas when they were the passive participants in a clergy-dominated and clergy-interpreted church and gospel, this role was not part of the church’s calling. (I’m generalizing and overly-simplifying, I confess). There began to be developed an interpretation of the gospel which was given the label of: Liberation Theology, which was anathema to the conservative and traditional Catholics (and Protestant) establishment. It began to put this popular grass-roots Base Church movement in diametric opposition to political and economic forces. When an archbishop (Oscar Romero) became an advocate of this understanding of church and gospel, he was assassinated by the government.

My purpose in bringing this up is two-fold: 1) small, base-church gatherings of God’s people around scripture is a growing phenomenon, even in our traditional churches. But 2), such unfiltered exposure to the teaching of Jesus and the apostles is not “safe”. The gospel of the kingdom is radically transformational and has implications in personal ethics, politically, economically, and culturally, … and will cause waves. Moreover, we are accountable to one another for the living-out of this gospel. We become the incarnation of God’s mission in Christ to put the world to rights, to incarnate God’s new humanity.

And, finally, those clergy who see it as their calling to make such an understanding of scripture clear and inescapable are a blessing. Those who just want to be popular clergy delivering comforting homilies are part of the filtering that impedes God’s mission.

Run with that! And the Lord be with you.

_______

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BLOG 7/2/19. DYING CHURCHES IN DENIAL ARE A COMMON PHENOMENON

In the heyday of the Christendom era, it was assumed that the mission at hand was to create church institutions, replete with sanctuaries and staffed by gifted clergy, … and that, all too frequently, without much thought given to what the God-given mission of that church was to be, or how its participants were to be equipped to be a significant part of that mission, … or of what the role of the church even is in God’s new creation. Especially, was it seldom even a passing thought that a particular church has a life-span, i.e., that it can actually fulfill its mission and then move into a whole new place and in a new form to be faithful in the mission of God, … that it can ‘morph’ into a new incarnation of God’s new humanity in some other form or setting.

That being so, it is not at all uncommon to see (ostensible) church institutions that have gone into decline, and that have lost awareness of their missional purpose and of their current context, looking back on their days of glory and romanticizing them, … and trying desperately to reclaim them, … when, in fact that almost never happens. It is not uncommon to witness them seeking to refurbish decaying sanctuaries, or calling a new pastor in hopes of reclaiming that past glory.

I have witnessed in my own lifetime many such churches in major cities, which a century ago were significant forces in their place, and with a significant endowment, seeking now to staunch their decline by denying their impending demise in just such ways. I have been sought as a pastor by some of them. It’s a sad phenomenon. A couple of decades ago, the Roman Catholic Maryknoll Order, becoming aware of it precipitous decline, contracted with a cultural anthropologist, Gerald Arbuckle, to study the reasons for the decline. His conclusion was that whenever such a community dilutes, displaces, or forgets its “founding myth” (its true mission and reason for being) it returns to (what he calls) ‘chaos’. He further concluded that they could rarely be restored, but rather that they needed to start all over again, and be (what he terms) ‘refounded’.

While some are looking (with denial) at their community’s decline (return to chaos) and seeking to solve the problem in attempts to restore sanctuaries, or call a new pastor, … other new Christian communities are springing up in the same neighborhood and flourishing by keeping the mission of God always as their raison d’etre, and engaging in their role of creating communities that demonstrate God’s new humanity in Christ, and in equipping their members to be contagious with the message and mission of Jesus Christ—and in seeing meeting places and church leadership (pastors) defined by that ‘founding myth’. They are also sensitive to the cultural realities of the present generation, youthful and creative. They form communities that are flexible, mobile, and versatile. Their meeting places can be quite informal and pragmatic. But, … they know why God has called them to this time and place.

But church communities do have a lifespan, which is usually vital for a couple of generations before the “forgetfulness, diluting, or displacing” begins to take its toll. I have written extensively on this in Refounding the Church from the Underside and other works, in case you are interested.

Peace!

BLOG 6.28.19. THE CHURCH: ILLUSION, DISILLUSION, THEN REALITY     

A lurking question about the church has to do with what standards do we use to evaluate a church, or to discern our likes and dislikes of a particular expression of the church. What makes a church a community of integrity? Somehow, we assume that all of those people who inhabit our churches, for whatever reason, have a clear vision of what its purpose is in God’s mission to inaugurate his new creation, … that it is somehow to be the community of God’s new humanity on display before the watching world.

But even that is a bit out of reach when dealing with the actual incarnations of that new humanity, what with the huge diversity of people that inhabit it, … but not surprising since few churches take pains to spell out what is the essence of the church, and what are the disciplines that create it in that essence, so that many come with expectations that are a bit unrealistic.

Face, it: here you have a company of people whose initial profession of faith is that they are sinners, unworthy of God’s grace, … who have done those they ought not to have done, and left undone those things that they should have done … “most miserable offenders.” Someone noted that it is more difficult to join the Boy Scouts than it is the church. Then you have all the diversity of healthy personalities all the way across the spectrum …to troubled and pathological personalities who have difficulty functioning even in families. You have those who join churches out of custom, or in need of some kind of community, but with no intention of having their lives radically transformed into God’s new creation people.

There is something of an algorithm that I find helpful in approaching this issue: illusion > dis-illusion>reality. We come to the church with our illusion of a wholesome spiritual community inhabited by exemplary persons, and that illusion may be fulfilled for a while, … but then something will occur, or some immature or insecure personality/personalities will emerge and bring tension and conflict. Or, some respected church leader will have a moral lapse and do something so disappointing that the whole community is shocked and disillusioned.

What we do at that point is to come to grips with the reality that the church is a community of folk in the process of being transformed out of their brokenness and all have the potential of behavior that is contradictory to God’s design. Ah! But that is when we need, desperately, to come to the purpose of the community/church to be that community of grace, of prayer, of mutual confession of our brokenness, and of love and forgiveness and reconciliation. The church may just become more of the church when it deals forthrightly and lovingly with the disillusioning episodes, whether in our house church/community groups, or in the larger congregations. We grow together in our quest to be the embodiment of Christ when we forsake our immature illusions about the church, and embrace our calling to be Christ to one another, … not condemning but ministering patiently for the restoration of the broken.

… And it doesn’t always turn out as “happily ever after.” But read your New Testament documents and you will see this algorithm being taught in multiple settings. To live with the illusion naively is to remain in immaturity as we confront the relentless disillusioning realities of incarnating God’s new humanity.

We’ll pursue this more in future blogs.

BLOG. 6.25.19. QUESTION: “WHAT IS YOUR APOSTOLATE?”

Did anyone ever ask you that question? Being a good Protestant kid, I never had heard it until I got immersed with Roman Catholic persons, especially in a couple of weeks in the Vatican where we were in daily discourse with the staff about the mission of the church. It’s a good question to internalize. It derives from the Greek word apostello, with means ‘to send out.’ Jesus told his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.” His final commission was to send them out to make disciples until his gospel of the kingdom of God had permeated every people-group in the world with their love and good works and the message of Jesus.

This would imply for us that, by virtue of our baptism into Christ, we are recipients of that apostolate in whatever corner of this human scene that we occupy week by week, and are to be somewhat self-conscious of that apostolate. The apostle Paul has a way of including encouragements to engage in good works, works of generosity, love, and kindness in our engagement with others so that they will see the love of God at work in and through us.

As a pastor, I probably had several dozen personal conversations, or encounters each week. Ah! But I preached (or attempted to equip for their apostolate) to several hundred. Do the math! That meant that the number of my congregation’s contacts in their daily apostolate ran into the thousands. Lives of generosity, ministries of integrity, works of reconciliation, zeal for justice, patience, and the welfare of the oppressed were the ‘stuff’ of their apostolate, … beginning with those closest such as family and working associates.

It also reminds us that we cannot be oblivious to any who are oppressed or in need. Agencies who provide for the needs of the 70 million homeless refugees in the world, or who provide legal aid for those unjustly detained, or medical help for those in crisis situations who support depends on the financial contributions such as you and me. We are among the wealthiest people in the world, and so are responsible in a unique way for our stewardship of that. Just in case you need some suggestions, allow me to suggest several that I am impressed by:

• For refugees: The United Nation High Commission on Refugees has superb agencies to provide for those who have had to leave home and go into the unknown with nothing. They have a great track record.
• So also, The International Rescue Committee (founded by Albert Einstein to provide for refugees in World War II).
• The Southern Poverty Law Center which seeks justice for those unjustly accused because of race or sexual orientation.
• The American Civil Liberties Union, providing legal aid for helpless refugees being detained by immigration agencies.
• Your local food bank.

There are so many more. You church may have its own contact with humanitarian agencies.

So, can you identify your apostolate?

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BLOG 6.21.19. “THY KINGDOM COME” IS RADICAL STUFF

For these coming weeks, we are going to be deluged with political rhetoric, often confusing and difficult to evaluate. One thing is for certain and that for the people of God’s new humanity to pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” is to pray a prayer that is radical to the core. For starts, God’s kingdom, God’s new creation, transcends any kind of nationalism. God’s kingdom consists of those from every kindred and tribe and nation. God’s kingdom people dwell among the 70+ million homeless refugees across the globe. It exists often in hostile cultures, and unexpected scenes. But more than all of that it is totally trans-national and unbelievably inclusive.

To pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done” is a prayer that makes socialism look tame. God’s kingdom people are those who hear the word and teachings of Christ …  and do them. They are those who, when they have two coats, give one to someone who has none. They are those who take the homeless refugees into their home, and visit those who are unjustly imprisoned. They are those, who by virtue of their baptismal vows, are committed to living a radical new kind of life, thinking, behaving, hoping, conceiving, and rejoicing, … even when it cost them their lives. Theirs is a calling to the ministry of foot-washing, that humbling ministry of caring for the physical needs of others.

But, … it certainly is not a calling to make America great again. America will be a great force for justice and peace and order when its policies come into closer proximity to the ethical principles espoused in its sacred teachings from the beginning, in the teaching given to the Jews and underscored by the prophets when they became forgetful. It is the teachings which are contained in the teachings of Jesus, and demonstrated in his life and ministry.

It is against these radical teachings of God’s new creation that we much evaluate the political viability of the candidates, and by their lives have been practitioners of those with some integrity: poverty, unjust wages, care of the environment as stewards of God’s creation, of provision for the needs of 70+ million refugees, and the implantation of those principles of peacemaking and justice that are taught in holy scriptures.

It is one thing to say Christian words, but it is quite another to be practitioners.

God, give us wisdom, and make us strong to do your will. Make us instruments of your peace.

_______

BLOG 6.18.19. “BY THIS TIME YOU OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS …”

Question: How long do you have to ‘hang out’ in the church community, being taught, … before you are responsible to teach others? How does one become mature and become a disciple-maker ? …  or when do we become aware that we are dull of hearing. Hebrews 5:12 indicates that this problem goes back to very early in the church’s history? With my many decades of being a teacher in the church, I could regale you with lots of illustrations of this, i.e., when the church becomes a social activity, and “inspiring” buy not at all equipping.

My favorite story comes from an episode in my own career as a teaching pastor in a church full of career church-attenders, and persons who were regularly in the pews. In my naivety, I thought I would try to get them involved in communicating the message, beginning with one another. So (whatever my text was) I proposed that we take a few minutes, turn to the person next to them, and share something of how and why we came to know Christ. Response? Stunned shock. But some did it joyfully, and for the first time shared their faith in Christ with someone else.

But not all … After the service, one of the matriarchs of the church came to me with hostility in her eyes, and said: “Bob, don’t you ever do that to us again.” She was living testimony that what was true in the early decades of the church, continues to this day.

I was the teacher of one of the prestigious adult Sunday School classes in a prominent church institution once, and before me were the leaders of the community, week by week. They had been doing this for years. It was part of their weekly social agenda, … but I was a new kid in their history of teachers, and didn’t know any better than to ask them questions. Their ignorance of scripture was palpable. They didn’t even know where the books of the Bible were. There was no way they were going to be teachers of others. … But they enjoyed being together, drinking coffee, and singing gospel songs. The last thing on their minds, evidently, was being equipped to teach others, or becoming mature in Christ, or “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and the word of Christ. (They even chose and paid their Sunday school teacher.)

What is the solution to this? Maybe a discipline of ordaining every person who joins the community to a ministry of disciple-making, and to jointly equip each other in this ministry, so that teaching one another becomes the rich flavor of the fellowship?

I’d love your feedback. Peace!