In my last post I discussed the necessity of reclaiming our unique character as followers of Jesus Christ, which requires, among other things, a certain comfort with being social misfits. This is a difficult comfort level to achieve, as those who relish being social misfits may have a hard time conforming themselves to the teachings of the Gospel and those who find security in social conformity will have hard time acting differently because of the teachings of the Gospel.
The fact is, that as Christians, we are called to be set apart from the world and we are called to be in the world. This is a dynamic tension that like many other Gospel tensions (e.g. justice and mercy), should be maintained rather than resolved. The dangers of resolving these tensions are fairly obvious, choose the separatist way and you have a Church that is irrelevant to the struggles of the world, choose the cultural way and you have a Church that looks no different (maybe more miserable?) than the culture around it.
While we must become increasingly comfortable with being different, we should not embrace strangeness or oddity with abandon, in a sort of who cares what other people think attitude. Such an attitude is liberating and has its merits, but as Christians we do need to be concerned with how we are perceived by those who do not (or as often in the case in North America, no longer) share our faith (for a very sobering view of what unchurched think about us read the book “UnChristian" ). If we are scaring people off from Christ merely because we choose to be culturally ignorant, or old fashion, or dressed up or whatever, we need to reconsider the packaging we are presenting Jesus in – and despite popular opinion packaging influences the punch, that is the messenger shapes the message.
Sorting out the right packaging for the message of the Gospel is a complex job. It is really an awful business of heavy discernment that is not easy to do (just look at all the debates about contemporary vs. traditional, vestments no vestments, dress up or dress down, topical vs. expository, missional vs. doctrinal etc. that rage in the church), but is part of the task that the Church in North America must take up prayerfully if a Godly reformation is to take place.
What challenges do you see for us as we sort out the tension of living in the world, but not being of the world?
The key here is in discerning what "the world" actually is. I think for too long, the American Church has taken a neo-Gnostic view that 'the world' is everything physical, everything beautiful, everything that brings deilght and pleasure, and everything produced by culture. The reaction, then, has been anti-beauty, anti-culture, even anti-compassion.
ReplyDeleteInstead, I believe 'the world' refers to a much more pervasive "Aemrican civil religion,' built on political and supposedly 'common-sense' assumptions about poverty, 'order,' 'obedience,' patriotism, criminal justice, etc. To truly be not 'of the world' will require one to raise eyebrows from others when discussing cultural 'givens' that fly in the face of Christ's commandment to klove others as ourselves.
One thing I see, but not the only thing. We are not the only ones to preach love, seek justice, serve the poor, try to live good lives, combat evil etc... We are however, and this is what sets us apart, those who preach Jesus and The Kingdom of God, here and now and its culmination when Jesus returns. Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. What should make us different is the result of this preaching, our Faith, Hope and Love. We are a non-anxious people. No fear. No worry. No anxiety. The world feeds upon this in our day and age. WE HAVE JESUS. JESUS HAS US!
ReplyDeleteParticipating in accurate self-perception is a most difficult activity that very few of us are capable of accomplishing with much accuracy.Once we have a bit of that self-perception, what do we make of it? Personally, what sets me apart, my clothing, persistent inner prayer that gives me a dazed and confused look, seeing Jesus in the faces of others, speaking out against injustice?
ReplyDeleteWe in the OPA live in a community with the common goal of preaching. I hope that we stand out as being different. I hope that we stand out as a welcoming "In Crowd" that others wish to join. I hope that the world sees in us something better that is an attraction. I hope that in us the world sees Jesus and his followers. Living in discipleship sets us apart.
Thanks for the comments. Thomas indeed you are on to something, of course, there are fragments of Gospel within the American civil religion, and fragments of American civil religion in each of us and our churches. Soring these fragments out both ways is going to hurt, even with the greatest care.
ReplyDeleteOne form of witness that was stronger, at least in the earliest Church, was the sense that Christians really lived different sort of lives. Both ethically and in how they visibly treated one another and this got postive press, even from hostile pagans (not that all pagans are hostile!). I'm not sure we stand out in the way, as a rule, in Canada and America today.
Still thinking about this. I think what I was fumbling with was the idea that...what makes us different...what sets us apart...what we should be in this world is people of Joy. Not only do we know the resurrection of Jesus...We are the resurrection of Jesus. People in whom God's Spirit resides...this side of heaven. We live in and are the Kingdom of God. What greater joy is there than that?
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