New Heaven New England?

I recently finished reading N.T. Wright’s After You Believe  and I must confess…it had me laughing out loud. Not because I held it in derision (I loved the book), but because it was so…English.

Wright’s thesis is that his New Heaven New Earth eschatology should lead us, in anticipation of ruling and reigning with Christ in his kindom, to develop our “fully human” selves which are characterized by Virtue a la Aristotle, but transposed to a Christian key. In other words ( I write with a grin), Christians should learn to behave. Prepare now to inherit the Kindgom; one would not want to find themselves seated at the Banquet and not know which fork to use! 

Contrast this with the mainstream Evangelical vision of heaven, perhaps best captured by the pop-Christian song Big-Big House.  Lots and lots of room…lots and lots of food… where we can play foot-ball…

Which of the virtues is needed in this latter view of heaven, I wonder? Well, look at the discipleship program found in Evangelical churches. What discipleship program you ask? Exactly.

Certainly to an Englishman we U.S. Christians are all behaving badly…and in many ways I do not  disagree. I think we in the U.S. would do well to do a little soul-searching when it comes to what we’ve lost in breaking away from our Roots. But I daresay Christianity in the U.S. will ever look like it does in England. It’s been a different neighborhood from the beginning, and it’s always going to show in one way or another.     

Alexis de Tocquevill observed, ”The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.” Indeed. And this is why someone like N.T. Wright needs to explain the value of conformity to a set of Virtues. It doesn’t come naturally to the American evangelical mind, where to be fully human is to be fully autonomous.

 

I don’t know if it can really catch on, N.T.  At least, not on this side of the pond.  Nevertheless, I admit…I watch the BBC produced versions of Jane Austin’s novels and wonder, if I worked really hard at it, if I could ever learn the language and find myself mistaken for a native in the English province of heaven. It would  rather feel like coming home…

 

*grin* 

…the Bell Tolls

The kind of pro-Hell-anti-Bell spirit I’ve been seeing among some on FaceBook worries me far more than whatever Bell wrote in his book.  I might be wrong, but isn’t it rather hellish in itself when “fellowship” consists  of  communally gnashing teeth over a book, and high-five-ing each-other’s clever criticisms? These “Christians” advertise this way:

“Heaven: where all the people are Right, and congratulate each-other for it.”

Some fun.

One young thinker writes that at least Bell has forced Christians to evaluate and publish their own position on the doctrine of Hell.  Perhaps, …I’m not sure the world needs more position papers on Hell…  But what I see more of is Christians rallying around those who already have a position on the doctrine of Hell, like wolves around the Alpha. This rallying is not limited to Bell-bashers, either.

I read somewhere that John Piper posted on Twitter, “Fare well Rob Bell.”  Alpha male tweeting like Pro-Wrestlers before a game?  Quite a bit of speculation has gone on, apparently, on what Piper meant. I know about as much of his motivation as I know what Bell wrote in his book. But I was reminded of some famous lines written by John Donne:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Orthodoxy is a Circle

Reading a book, recently, that was discussing the varying theological viewpoints emerging during and soon after the Reformation, I had a simple vision that went like this:

A large circle had been drawn on the ground and two people were standing on the lines, face to face, one foot on either side of the line.

The two walked backwards, away from each-other, yet keeping their feet on the line. Soon, they had traveled around the circle and were as far away from each-other as they could be. They were shouting at each-other and arguing about their doctrines, and how different they were, etc.

Then a voice said loudly, “Turn around!!”

The two turned and realized they were now, in turning,  face-to-face.

This is how I have felt reading outside of the  “middle-way” claimed by the Anglicans. I have come to believe there is, in fact, no such thing as a “middle-way” (mostly because the Anglicans are not the only ones to claim to have come up with one!)  Orthodoxy is a circle – not a line – and the interesting thing is that those who have become, in the mind of some, quite “far away” are actually much closer than they think. Take the Anabaptist and the Anglicans, for example…

The Imperative of Spiritual Responsibility

(Final Post on Yoder’s The Fullness of Christ)

Yoder’s final chapter is titled, “Primitivism? Progress?”

To “go back” or to “restore” as some have attempted to do assumes there is some concrete pattern spelled out in Scripture to which we could return. But, as Yoder writes, “It is neither possible nor necessarily desirable to reproduce in detail specific social structures of another age.” (86)

Some of the changes in the way churches have ordered themselves have not necessarily moved the church away from what it is in essence; other changes have, however, made alterations that result in a church that is no longer church.  Yoder suggests not that the church should never change anything but instead that any changes be weighed against the testimony of Scripture. “When, ” writes Yoder, “the entire outline of the Epistle to the Hebrews centers around the end of the priesthood, when in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 the central theme is the multiplicity of the gifts in the church, and when in Ephesians 4 this unity in multiplicity is in fact referred to as ‘the perfection of Christ,’ it would seem obvious that the apostolic interpretation of the meaning of the multiplicity of ministries forbids our treating the matter as merely a temporary fitting solution to a pragmatic question of optimum social management.” (87)

Yoder posits there are constants which, no matter the context, are part of the Pauline vision:

"Professional" Ministry

(thoughts on Yoder’s The Fullness of Christ, continued)

Yoder continues to rattle the cage of ministerial exclusivism by examining the concept of a ”professional” in ministry.  He successfully, I think, exposes the faulty logic supporting the mono-pastoral pattern, which says that it is the increasing complexity of our organizations that necessitates the Sr. Pastor role be a  “professional” role in which he is expected to personally embody the 5-fold (or 7, depending on your views) ministry.  Some of the things Yoder notes about the “professional” mindset are insightful, for example,

“The professional discourages amateurism. It is assumed that the serveral aspects of his task are best done together, all by one person. His own work, according to this concept, would be less well done if shared with other, less competent agents or if the several strands of the task were separated. This centering on a cluster of numerous tasks done by one person is clearly counter to the Pauline body concept. The point in the Pauline multiple ministry notion is not that by the division of labor more can get done, nor that there is too much for one man to do, nor that people are more likely to support an organization which needs them, nor that democracy has taught that laity wnt a voice in their government. All these things may be true, but they are not the main points. Paul’s point is that each task can be better done by its own bearer.”  (79)

“..by its own bearer.” In other words, what has come to be called the “Sr. Pastor” (or by whatever name the top-dog goes ) is a conglomeration of usurped roles, many of which are not, actually, best done by that person at all !  Moreover, it is the Spirit of God who calls and equips persons for ministry in all of the various ways. “Professionals” are trained in colleges, universities, and other kinds of educational institutions; and they are evaluated by peers and colleagues who have been similarly trained and approved. Ministers, according to Scripture, are not necessarily so trained and approved (as helpful and significant formal education is!).

What then, should formal education be abandoned? By no means. However, it must be viewed not as a means to an end (a job in the world of professional ministry) but as part , and only part, of a total package of equipping and development for universal ministry. When we look at it that way, every  Christian can consider some form of Christian education as valuable for ministry; not just those who want to take on a role of Sr. Pastor in an institutional church setting. Moreover, the focus of education should be, not the development of the “professional” but the development of the minister in the true Pauline sense of the word.

Can you imagine with me what that would look like? . . .

Believing: Body-Life and Ministry

In a flashback-moment triggered by a recent comment, I was reminded that one could  think it a good plan to sit at the “gate” of a church, as it were, and interview each person coming for membership in order to discern where they would best serve in the church and in some cases, even whether they ought to serve in the church at this time. It brought up images in my mind of a holy-contractor at a religious job-site; “no, we don’t need any more carpenters today but can you drive a fork-lift? No? Well, would you like to learn? We have classes mid-week. Not for you, huh? Hmm.. well, maybe you’re just in a season of rest, then. Let us know when you’re ready to do something we need around here but until then, make yourself comfortable, …and don’t forget to tithe!“

I don’t know if I was more perplexed, the first time I encountered this, that anyone would believe they were so positioned, and so spiritually equipped, to individually make these determinations; or that anyone would imagine this setup could possibly be healthy for church life. But when I stepped back and considered the fact that serving, as defined in the particular settings in which this was practiced, was limited to those things that contribute to the achievement of the leadership team’s vision and mission statement of the church,and that the ethos of this setting is one of “belonging before believing,” it didn’t seem too surprising anyone might volunteer to make sure the right people get on the bus in order to get the job done.

Quite unrelated to these ponderings, I went to the library this morning to get a book by J.H. Yoder. Not any book in particular; I was just in the mood for something to lighten my heart and keep my mind well-occupied; and for this, Yoder is my man. To that end, God led me to Yoder’s The Fullness of Christ, with the bonus that it addressed my ponderings regarding this “gate-keeping” issue mentioned above, without even needing to ask.

It was a good day.

The Fullness of Christ is a book about the Pauline vision of the Body of Christ. …Ahh, Yoder. He says it so well. For example, I’ve been wrestling with the issue of “ordination” for years now. As a woman, I have more to untangle than the average bear. I recall an assignment, while in Seminary, to read Thomas Oden’s Pastoral Theology. I cringed when I read Oden’s belief that women, too, should be allowed into the ministry as he defines it. Yoder, in The Fullness of Christ, articulates perfectly what my sinking heart was crying out as I read Oden:

“When a role has been defined on dominion-oriented grounds in the first place, why should a ministering woman want that status?… Fighting sexism by forcing one’s way into a sexist elite is like cutting an intrusive shrub off at the top. The origin of an exclusive male clergy in the early centuries was already a product of having rejected the Pauline vision. If that vision is retrieved, gender becomes a non-issue. If it is not retrieved, squeezing a few women into privileged ranks without changing basic mentalities will be self-defeating.” (53)

[At this point I recall the clip my friend Bill Kinnon posted the other day...]

Yoder continues,

“The equal dignity of every ministering person in the body of Christ is not a distant goal to be attained by transforming the whole culture through a long process of corrective education. Rather, it is a present fact to be appropriated by faith in the empowering work of the Holy Spirit.”

but I digress. This post is not about women in ministry… It is about the Church. The Glorious Body of Christ. …

Yoder dives right in with an argument for the diversity, plurality, and universality of ministry. No one in the body of Christ is not a minister. The distinction between “clergy” and “laity” is heresy in the body of Christ.

I won’t try to re-state his case here (the book is only 100 pages in length, but no words are wasted); but you should know he doesn’t make it based on his opinion or preference. He makes his case based on a sound look at what Scripture attests rather than on what emerged over the course of history and which is then read back in to what amount to proof-texts for hierarchical leadership structures in the church.

Yoder contrasts what he refers to as the standard “religionist” model with the Gospel’s universal model of every-member-a-called-gifted-minister. He states wryly, “…we should not be surprised when churches rebel at the notion that every member is a minister if they have not yet accepted that every member must be a believer.” (20)

It is much easier to make a living as a minister if one capitalizes on the natural human tendency (which Yoder points out is present in every society whether Christian or not) to want a “religionist” among them to mediate between the heavenly and the earthly, exhort them toward moral responsibilities, officiate rites-of-passage, stand for peace and justice in the community and so on. The more people supporting the one religionist, the better. Thus, the clergy-laity split benefits the religionist and it is therefore difficult to truly reform this model. Yoder shows how even the most “revisionist” movement often has done little more than change the scales; never really upsetting the split because secretly, we all want it. Things are easier that way.

“In most efforts of dissent and reform since the Middle Ages,” writes Yoder, “some element of criticism of the restriction of ministry has been involved….Yet in all these efforts, the concept of the non-ministering “laity” was not attacked directly, nor was the universality of ministry affirmed sweepingly.” (37) It is just too “useful” to have laity at the disposal of leadership; they do not want to do away with them entirely and indeed the “laity” often to not want the responsibility associated with ministry. Nevertheless, some attempts have been made to even the playing-field a bit. For example, history has shown attempts to give more honor to the laity by doing such things as bestowing more recognition on the value of “secular” work, or by “involving” lay-people in the functioning of the organization of the church through volunteering as “ushers, committee members, stewardship drive workers, holders of rotating elective office…” and so on (39) Another tack has been to send ordained priests out “into the world” with jobs (referred to as ministry) in the “secular workplace.” Still, this does not remove the dividing wall between minister and lay-person. This is not, writes Yoder, what we see in the New Testament. “As ‘gifts’ we read of apostle and prophet, teacher and elder, deacon and healer – all of them functions discerned and exercised in the gathered life of the congregation. When Paul says, ‘everyone has a gift,’ this is what he means. …It is thus a simple confusion of terms to speak of one’s social and economic insertion as one’s ‘gift’ or ‘ministry.’” (40).

I am now reminded of the discomfort I’ve felt in conversation with those in the “emerging” crowd who came to the conclusion they would exercise their ministry in the workplace, “pastoring” in the marketplace, for example. I just don’t think this is the direction to take, folks. The gifts of the Spirit are for the ecclesia, and they are what make the ecclesia what it is. You cannot call it a milk shake if the milk is in the sink, the malt is in the cupboard, and the ice-cream is melting on the picnic table, as much as the squirrels are benefitting from the location of the  ice-cream!

Yoder concludes his observations, “Nowhere in this broad and growing stream of writing on the laity has it been seriously suggested that instead of shifting the weights and the labels between two categories named clergy and laity, one might find a third, quite new option, more faithful to the biblical authorizations and more adaptable to today’s world. Instead of being dismayed by the idea of the concept of ministry being vaguely diffused through laity as a whole, why not conceive of specific ministries being assigned to all members specifically, so that what is done away with is not the specialized ministry, but the undifferentiated laity?”

Why not indeed.

(to be continued)

Are you East, or West?

It was a perfect evening for a run. A bit cloudy and breezy, threat of a storm moved far enough to the South to offer only the refreshing moist air in the wake of its passing overhead . I started out going North a few blocks, then East, taking in the neighborhood. I love this time of year when growing things are fresh and untouched by the scorching sun that will come in later months.

The atmosphere in my neighborhood is always full of activity: families outdoors barbecuing, kids playing in the yard and the street, lawnmowers mowing and sprinklers  sprinkling and various kinds of blue-collar workers parking their utility trucks after a hard day of work. Things don’t quiet down until after dinner is cleaned up and everyone sits out on the front porch to take in the cool evening air.

I ran past all kinds of homes; some cared for well and many not so much with unkempt lawns, weeds, broken fences, hanging gutters, decomposing roofs. Other homes showed the careful attention of owners who worked hard to water, mow the lawn, pull weeds, plant flowers, paint, maintain fences, and so on. The neighborhood reflect the people who live here; they (most of them) work very hard and do everything themselves, if they do it at all.

Then, I crossed Clarkson Street…into the mature neighborhood of upscale Englewood (Cherry Hills Village, to be exact). Like passing through a veil into another world, I was quickly surrounded by quiet and stillness. A distinct hush was created by the large trees, beautifully landscaped, expansive, carefully manicured and  mature grounds. Properties spanned acres and included barns and stables and other out-buildings. Beautiful architecture, large private back-yard playgrounds, fountains, pergolas, gazebos …but strangely, I saw no people!  I ran for blocks (well, actually there are not really “blocks” in this neighborhood) and saw not a soul. No children on the lovely back-yard play grounds with swings and slides and hoops; no one riding or even caring for horses, no one out on the beautiful decks and porches surrounded by fragrant lilacs and flowing, flowering ground-cover and roses…it was the strangest thing. Such beauty and peacefulness; but no one seemingly enjoying this beautiful evening. As I turned to the South to make a loop back home, I passed more astonishing homes with larger yards and more mature and fabulous landscaping; there were rabbits scurrying amongst the low-lying bushes and more birds singing in the trees but still not a human to be seen. A few homes had obviously been re-modeled and were up for sale, and there was one expansive home still the the construction stage. As I turned back to the West, eventually crossing over Clarkson again into my neighborhood, I felt as though I’d run through the set of a movie with no actors. Everything perfect but no one there to perform any lines.

Back in my neighborhood I passed some children digging in the mud produced by a broken sprinkler head and some others playing on a swing made from a tire and some rope around a snaggly tree-branch. There were some tools left out in one yard next to a large pile of muddy rocks and landscaping fabric where evidently the homeowner called it a day after probably hours of hard work of digging up the old weed-laden rock border.  Many in the neighborhood have undertaken this kind of effort, bringing their homes to a state of good repair and beauty through many months of diligent work. Not many in this neighborhood can afford to hire help, much less the raw materials for the kind of thing you see over on the East side: beauty comes with your own sweat and muscle here, and so does keeping it that way.

I arrived at my own front door and went inside. As I hopped into the shower the Spirit whispered, “so…what side of Clarkson does your soul live on?”

What?

“What side does your soul live on, East or West?”

I immediately wanted to reply, “Well, West of course.”    But I hesitated. Isn’t the difference between East and West merely a matter of resources? My soul has had no lack of resources and in fact, I have been designed, landscaped, and tended carefully and lavishly by the Master Gardener of my soul. But…there is this matter of  community… large beautiful homes and none of them “alive” it would seem with people (unless they are always cloistered inside, even on such beautiful nights?) What of hospitality? What of fellowship? There’s more to this equation than “resources.”

I was reminded of my friend Cathy, who actually lives on the “East side.”  Had I run past her house, I think I may have seen people outdoors. Maybe playing volleyball or barbecuing, or entertaining guests. She and I talk, when we get together, about what it looks like to “bring together East and West” at our church, which attracts people from “both sides” of Clarkson. As I thought of this bringing together of two worlds, I knew the answer to the question.

My soul has, indeed, been cared for lavishly…but God is hard at work to bring wealth of soul and hospitality of heart under one roof. Indeed, this is a work only the Spirit can do.

I think I will take this jogging- route more often.

The Inescapable Voice

The psalmist wrote,

I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.

(Psalm 139:7-8)

Have you ever noticed God speaking everywhere — you open the Scriptures, listen to a sermon, chat with a friend, read a blog, engage in conversation with a stranger in the grocery store, pick up a book and flip to a page that says…

“This is God — and yes, you got it right, that’s what I’m saying!… would you like to hear it again?…”

Sometimes, its pretty quiet, and you might wonder…Is He with me? Is He here? But in the silence, as you draw closer to listen, leaning in and settling into the peace that passes understanding (and words)…like the first glimmers of light over the horizon, dancing on clouds to signal the rising sun…God begins to speak…

And Oh does He speak!