Church as the New Humanity

I've been thinking over Rob Bell and Don Golden's new book lately as I listened to it as I drove down to TN before Christmas.  The name of the book is "Jesus Wants to Save Christians."  Like most of Rob's teaching, it stretched and challenged me a lot.  I'm going to quote a little bit from the last chapter to hopefully spark some discussion among us.  But before I begin, I totally recommend this book.

A church is where peace has been made.  Because in the Eucharist, in Jesus' body and blood, everything has been reconciled to God.  Paul calls this the "new humanity."  The Eucharist is about the new humanity.  People who previously had nothing in common discover that the only thing they now have in common is the one things that matters.  People who had previously found themselves on opposite sides of a wall find out that the wall has been distroyed.  People who had fought over an endless array of issues realize that peace has been made and there is nothing left to fight about.

In the new humanity, you hear perspectives you wouldn't normally hear, you walk in someone else's shoes, you find out that the judgments you had previously made about that group of people or that kind of men or that kind of women or all of those kids simply don't hold up because now you're getting to know one of "those" and it's changing everything.  You learn that your labels for different people groups are insufficient, because people are far more complex and unpredictable and intelligent and creative.

You used to have a rigid stance on a particular issue, but now you've heard the other side and it's impossible anymore to categorize them all as stupid and uninformed and heartless, because you realize that they have thought about their position and they have weighed the consequences and they have good points that you must consider.

In the new humanity our world gets bigger, our perspective goes from black and white to color, our sensitivities are heightened, we're rescued from sameness and uniformity, because the wall has come down and peace has been made.  A church is the new humanity on display.  She's in graduate school, and he's in his nineties; and one couple has a million dollars, and another doesn't have enough money for dinner; and he arrived in this country three years ago with a small suitcase, and they've never been out of the country; and they have a son fighting in the war, and they're going to a war protest later today; and he's got serious doubts about what he was taught growing up, and she's just decided that God might even exist.

All of these people-who are divided, who never sit down and listen to each other- in the new humanity, in the church, they meet, they engage, they interact, they begin to feel what the other feels, and the dividing wall of hostility crumbles.  In the new humanity, them becomes us, they becomes we, and those become ours.

Sounds a lot like being generous doesn't it?  Is it possible for our protestant churches in this day and time to look like this?  Especially established churches?  I'll post a few more quotes from this chapter in the next few days.

NAE should be ashamed

I don't know if you've been following the incident that has led to Richard Cizik's resignation from the NAE, but I think it's a great example of ungenerousity. Read this interview from the NAE president in Christianity Today. When will evangelicals learn?

I heard Cizik speak at a conference last summer and enjoyed his look at the history of evangelicalism.  It was an interesting place for him to be because I would venture to say that most of the people in the room considered themselves post-evangelical in the spirit of postmodernity.  But nevertheless, Cizik's call was for the church to remember its missional, evangelical roots that were focused on leading people to Jesus, not on condemning the world because they are the world.  (That last line is a shout out from Hauerwas which if I remember correctly sums up what Cizik was saying.) 

I have one quick question.  Is it a good thing for the church to try to live out the great commission in so many different ways?  (I can clarify that question in the comments if you need me to.)

The trouble with being generous.....

...is that it's difficult to interact with those that are not generous.  I currently find myself at a crossroads in dealing with a few people who view the world differently.  Disagreements are usually a hard situation to navigate in the first place, but when the disagreement revolves around religion or the Bible the situation worsens exponentially.

We've all been there before and know exactly how it plays out.

One person is right and the other person is wrong.  This has plagued the church ever since the Protestant Reformation when we found out it was easier to separate than to reconcile.  Separation allows us to keep our integrity in our minds because we stood up for what we believed in.  Some might even think that they have suffered for the gospel.  But what if suffering for the gospel meant putting aside our own personal beliefs/convictions and learning how to live in a way that reflects the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).

So let me ask your take/advice on this matter.  How does one continue to pursue generosity when it is not reciprocated?  How can one begin a dialogue that might lead to a disagreement and not have it blow up in their face?  Lastly, what does generosity look like in the face of great frustration?

Name calling

Do you remember when you were a kid and how calling somebody a name was like the biggest slap in the face?  You probably had your standard once and for all name that you used frequently too, didn't you?  For some it may have been boogerhead, dufus, dummy, four eyes, etc.  Growing up when I did I think I used Beavis a bunch.  Now that I am approaching my third decade of living, am involved in youth ministry and have a child on the way, I find myself thinking back to my own childhood and the things that I did.  Why did I feel the need to call someone a name?  Most of the time it was out of frustration because the other person didn't do something I wanted.  I don't really know what made me think calling them a name would change their action, but that was my line of thinking.  In fact, as best as I can remember, name calling usually made the situation worse because the one named now feels as if they need to defend their honor.  Which would lead to more name calling and eventually some sort of scuffle.

Now that I am an adult I cannot really say that the world has changed too much.  We still call each other names.  We think that if someone is labeled as a liberal or conservative, Jesus freak or pagan/sinner, athlete or nerd, orthodox or emergent, that it will cause them to see the error of their ways and lead them to a path of change.  The truth is that our labels often lead to more division.  The line of thinking usually goes something like this.  We could not simply associate with that person because they are.....  Or they wouldn't want to talk about this or go to this because they are.....  Our labels put us in a box that we cannot break out of.

I speak to all of this because I recently found out from a credible source that I have been labeled, a couple of different things.  I don't really care that I have been labeled becaue in one of the cases there is a bit of truth to it.  Here's the thing that bothers me about this situation.  These people that have labeled me have not spoken to me personally about it.  They have not approached me to talk about if I may actually be what their label points to.  Truth is they may not actually know what their label fully means.  My point is this, the church as a whole has to get beyond this way of conducting ourselves if we ever hope to be fully missional in our communities and the world.  Those who we hope to reach usually do not look like, act like and think like we do.  So a part of reaching out to them is to look past any lables or names that we may call them.  But if we are not doing this with those who share a faith in Christ, how can we ever hope to extend a measure of grace to those who do not share a faith in Christ?

Thankfully we serve a God that looks past our labels.  I am reminded of a sermon that one of my professors, Dr. Tim Green, gave a time when he spoke at a church I was serving in.  He was working through the story of Hagar and Ishmael and talking about labels.  The narrative in Genesis 16 says that Abram and Sarai referred to Hagar as "my servant" and "your servant", never by her name.  She was ultimately driven out into the wilderness by Sarai and it was here that God came and spoke to her through his angel.  Then the coolest thing happened in verse 8.  The first word out of the mouth of the angel was Hagar.  God had given Hagar her name back.  In God's eyes she was not labeled as a servant or slave, but as Hagar.

In the same way, I need to be reminded that God sees me as Jared and not by the labels or names that others may project on me.  Thank you God for the grace that you give to your servants and may we in turn offer that same grace to our friends, our enemies and the strangers and aliens among us.