Sometimes I think there’s a strange idea floating around Christian circles that seems to long for Christians to be the dominant force in the world.
It’s a longing I understand: wouldn’t the world be such a lovely place if everyone understood how small they all were and stopped worrying about trying to make themselves big and got on with loving God and each other instead? And while I may answer a hearty yes, the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 is a biblical cold shower on any such dreams of Christian dominance.
The word is sown, and there are 4 responses to it, and of those 4 only one actually reaches its potential and bears in the world the richness the Christian life is intended to bear.
It seems to me that humanity can’t get over dreams of power. Every religious or political system humans seem to be a part of, at some point gets co-opted into their dreams of running the world their way, or having the world styled as they would style it, but God never seems to have that agenda.
In Matthew 13, Jesus has a chance to use his profound powers as a teacher to convince large numbers of people to get on board with his program, but instead he speaks in Parables with the express intention of not getting the clearest and best coverage for himself. Then further, when he explains how the Kingdom of God will actually operate he explains that it will always be a movement that springs from weakness, and works in and through weakness, using only the few.
Perhaps one day Christians will realise their profoundly distinct heritage of being the unique minority, and cherish that weakness, and love from that weakness, and not feel burdened to make this Kingdom of service into the empire of control human ambition longs for.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Being Always Honest
Ever been in an argument, and got the sneaky suspicion that perhaps you might be wrong this time, but pride stopped you from admitting it and you continued the argument nonetheless?
I don’t think that’s a particularly uncommon situation. I’ve certainly done it a few times and been tempted to do it many times.
What is it in us that can be so stuck, whether on pride or anger or jealousy, that we’re prepared to wilfully reject something we know to be true, in order to maintain whatever it is we treasure. What is it in us that can overvalue something to such an extent that it no longer matters whether something is true or not?
It’s a problem the Pharisees had with Jesus. They could see what he was doing. It was obviously good and merciful, but their own pride and jealousy and fear led them to accuse him and eventually to have him crucified.
I always wonder to what extent we might do something similar these days.
There are lots of people in the world, many of whom we won’t agree with, who nevertheless do good things. Now our disagreement with them may be small, for example the difference between a Pentecostal church and a Conservative church, or it may be more significant, say the difference between a Muslim and a Christian or a Militant Environmentalist and a Christian.
My concern is to ensure that we don’t let those differences, lead us into places of fear or pride or jealousy such that we can’t admit to truth and goodness when we see it. If someone does a good thing, let’s praise them for doing a good thing, no matter who they are or what they stand for. If an Angry Lesbian Anti-Christian, Pro-Porn Greenie saves a tree, let’s praise her for saving the tree. If a wild Pentecostal church with an apparent obsession with wealth leads someone to love Jesus, let’s praise them for doing so.
A great challenge in this life it seems to me is to be able to see difference, acknowledge difference, but not let that colour our perception of good and evil, truth and falsity, and be brave enough and generous enough to say so.
May God give us wisdom and grace to do this.
I don’t think that’s a particularly uncommon situation. I’ve certainly done it a few times and been tempted to do it many times.
What is it in us that can be so stuck, whether on pride or anger or jealousy, that we’re prepared to wilfully reject something we know to be true, in order to maintain whatever it is we treasure. What is it in us that can overvalue something to such an extent that it no longer matters whether something is true or not?
It’s a problem the Pharisees had with Jesus. They could see what he was doing. It was obviously good and merciful, but their own pride and jealousy and fear led them to accuse him and eventually to have him crucified.
I always wonder to what extent we might do something similar these days.
There are lots of people in the world, many of whom we won’t agree with, who nevertheless do good things. Now our disagreement with them may be small, for example the difference between a Pentecostal church and a Conservative church, or it may be more significant, say the difference between a Muslim and a Christian or a Militant Environmentalist and a Christian.
My concern is to ensure that we don’t let those differences, lead us into places of fear or pride or jealousy such that we can’t admit to truth and goodness when we see it. If someone does a good thing, let’s praise them for doing a good thing, no matter who they are or what they stand for. If an Angry Lesbian Anti-Christian, Pro-Porn Greenie saves a tree, let’s praise her for saving the tree. If a wild Pentecostal church with an apparent obsession with wealth leads someone to love Jesus, let’s praise them for doing so.
A great challenge in this life it seems to me is to be able to see difference, acknowledge difference, but not let that colour our perception of good and evil, truth and falsity, and be brave enough and generous enough to say so.
May God give us wisdom and grace to do this.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Unique Christ
It's hard to deny that there is evil in the world. Any student of history, no matter how new to the discipline, cannot help but notice that humanity is capable of evil things. Humanity has done with clear conscienced creativity, things that later generations observe with horror. There are things done in the name of science, or productivity, or imperial ambition, or even individual recreation, that can only be described as evil.
The question we all face in light of this reality is: what do we do with the evil and brokenness in the world, and more pointedly, what do we do with the evil and brokenness in ourselves as individuals?
There have been two traditional ways of psychologically coping with the reality of evil. They are to either: 1. define away evil, characterise it as an illusion, or a lack of enlightenment, or a simple evolutionary process, and continue to live with it; or 2. to struggle with all your might to fix the evil, to heal it in your own heart and in the world around you.
These two approaches to evil have themselves two sad but inevitable consequences. The consequence of ignoring evil is that it remains and the world continues to groan under it, even if intellectually it can be rationalised as survival of the fittest, or ignored as an illusion. The consequence of working to fix evil, to conquer it, to so live that it is not present in our own lives, is unfortunately despair. The general problem of human evil is always too big for us to fix, and the specific problem of evil in our own hearts is too pernicious to be cured by our own labours, such that eventually honesty will lead the labourer to the realisation that they are helpless in the face of this problem, and thence to despair.
The unique thing about Christianity is that it chooses neither path in dealing with evil, and thus, alone among faith systems and philosophies, finds a way to live with evil that is at the same time both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying.
Christianity is intellectually credible because it recognises that evil is a problem. A holocaust, genocide in Rwanda, or Bosnia, or Cambodia, these things are evil, and to simply rationalise them as evolution, or ignore them as illusion is to do a profound disservice to those who suffered and to be, in my humble opinion, intellectually irresponsible with the fact of these atrocities.
But rather than then labour to the point of despair, Christianity avoids the opposing pole by finding in God both a love that grips us despite our own personal evil, and a power that took evil into itself on the cross and will return to cleanse the creation of the evil which presently plagues it.
Christianity finds in the love and sacrifice of God in Jesus, an approach to evil that can hold both the reality of evil and our helplessness in the face of evil, with honesty and without despair. Christianity allows us to live in the world without either despising it or accommodating it. Christ alone among the gods loves us in such a way that we are able to live... as ourselves... here.
The question we all face in light of this reality is: what do we do with the evil and brokenness in the world, and more pointedly, what do we do with the evil and brokenness in ourselves as individuals?
There have been two traditional ways of psychologically coping with the reality of evil. They are to either: 1. define away evil, characterise it as an illusion, or a lack of enlightenment, or a simple evolutionary process, and continue to live with it; or 2. to struggle with all your might to fix the evil, to heal it in your own heart and in the world around you.
These two approaches to evil have themselves two sad but inevitable consequences. The consequence of ignoring evil is that it remains and the world continues to groan under it, even if intellectually it can be rationalised as survival of the fittest, or ignored as an illusion. The consequence of working to fix evil, to conquer it, to so live that it is not present in our own lives, is unfortunately despair. The general problem of human evil is always too big for us to fix, and the specific problem of evil in our own hearts is too pernicious to be cured by our own labours, such that eventually honesty will lead the labourer to the realisation that they are helpless in the face of this problem, and thence to despair.
The unique thing about Christianity is that it chooses neither path in dealing with evil, and thus, alone among faith systems and philosophies, finds a way to live with evil that is at the same time both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying.
Christianity is intellectually credible because it recognises that evil is a problem. A holocaust, genocide in Rwanda, or Bosnia, or Cambodia, these things are evil, and to simply rationalise them as evolution, or ignore them as illusion is to do a profound disservice to those who suffered and to be, in my humble opinion, intellectually irresponsible with the fact of these atrocities.
But rather than then labour to the point of despair, Christianity avoids the opposing pole by finding in God both a love that grips us despite our own personal evil, and a power that took evil into itself on the cross and will return to cleanse the creation of the evil which presently plagues it.
Christianity finds in the love and sacrifice of God in Jesus, an approach to evil that can hold both the reality of evil and our helplessness in the face of evil, with honesty and without despair. Christianity allows us to live in the world without either despising it or accommodating it. Christ alone among the gods loves us in such a way that we are able to live... as ourselves... here.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Making All things New
What is it all about? Why get up in the morning I suppose? And that's a question we all have to answer sooner or later. I know too many people whose only honest answer to that question is: "to work to accumulate, so I can remain restless and continue to work to accumulate, so I can remain..."
Even among Christians I don't detect a great deal more hope. Some might trip out: "I'm just a stranger here, just passing through..." as if the reason for living is to endure long enough to stop living. My darker side could suggest an obvious short cut.
There must be more, surely?
And there is.
God never intended us to use this life to serve ourselves, so accumulation, or selfish recreation are out. Nor did he intend that we just endure this life, it's his gift and the best way to thank someone for a gift is to enjoy it.
The Human Project, the purpose of life, for every human being, whether they accept their responsibility or not, is to Glorify God. And this it turns out, we do by delighting in him, delighting in the good things he purposes and then labouring to see those good purposes realised as and when we may, in our own lives, societies and cultures.
Why get up in the morning? Because we have work to do. God has a world to make new, and he has called us to partner with him in that project. Repent of your old life and purposes and serve God in the making of a new world, filled with Him.
Even among Christians I don't detect a great deal more hope. Some might trip out: "I'm just a stranger here, just passing through..." as if the reason for living is to endure long enough to stop living. My darker side could suggest an obvious short cut.
There must be more, surely?
And there is.
God never intended us to use this life to serve ourselves, so accumulation, or selfish recreation are out. Nor did he intend that we just endure this life, it's his gift and the best way to thank someone for a gift is to enjoy it.
The Human Project, the purpose of life, for every human being, whether they accept their responsibility or not, is to Glorify God. And this it turns out, we do by delighting in him, delighting in the good things he purposes and then labouring to see those good purposes realised as and when we may, in our own lives, societies and cultures.
Why get up in the morning? Because we have work to do. God has a world to make new, and he has called us to partner with him in that project. Repent of your old life and purposes and serve God in the making of a new world, filled with Him.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)