As to the idea of ’solving’ problems, it may be that the Christian answers are just as unconvincing—or convincing—as any others. Here again, God is no stop-gap; he must be recognized as the center of life, not when we are at the end of our resources; it is his will to be recognized in life, and not only when death comes; in health and vigor, and not only in suffering; in our activities, and not only in sin. The ground for this lies in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He is the center of life, and he certainly didn’t ‘come’ to answer our unsolved problems. From the center of life certain questions, and their answers, are seen to be wholly irrelevant. In Christ there are no ‘Christian problems.’
Bonhoeffer...Letters and Papers from Prison
Over the last month or so there has been much written by the wise sages of the Blogdom ( Here ) and ( Here ) around the impending death of evangelical church and christianity in general. Terms like " emergent " are not to be used anymore, sort of like packaged food that has gone well beyond the " best before date ", it's expired and tossed out. One has to wonder if we've processed and packaged " missional " the same way, and it's only matter of time before it goes bad.
The articles around the demise of the church make for an interesting read, and I think both emergent and missional were, and are still important, something the church needs to wrestle with through a theopractic lens.
But...we have yet to really wrestle with the big question of why is " christianity " so unconvincing. I really believe it is because the church, and many who occupy its sacred space have forgotten what the " gospel " is. We are hard pressed to artculate what it is. And, if you can't say what it is, how do you live what it is?
Christianity never should have been about answering questions, solving problems, or as an emergency first aid kit when life hurts us...or as make-up, making life look good.
Richard Rohr reminds me in the forward to John Dear's book, " The Questions of Jesus ", for example, that Jesus only directly answers 3 of the 183 questions that he himself is asked in the four Gospels! This is totally surprising to people who have grown up assuming that the very job description of religion is to give people answers and to resolve peoples' dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus' understanding of the function of faith because he operates very differently.
The gospels re-position you, make you own your unconscious biases, breaks you out of your myth of the world being divided into sacred and secular spaces, challenges your image of God and the world, and presents new creative possibilities. Instead, if we really listen, the gospels ask questions, good questions, unnerving questions, re-aligning questions, transforming questions. They lead us into liminal, and therefore transformative spaces, much more than taking us into any moral high ground of immediate certitude or ego superiority. They subvert up front the cultural or theological assumptions that we are eventually going to have to face anyway. They leave us betwixt and between, where Jesus and the Spirit of God can get at us, and where we are not at all in control.
We made of Jesus a systematic theologian, who walked around teaching dogmas, the bible answer man, life's handy repairman, part of a program... instead of a pilgrim, and an engaging transformer of the soul.
But the biggest reason why christianity is left unconvincing is because...the gospel is not being lived out.
Reading the gospels it soon becomes apparent they can not be reduced to scriptural stone, an evangelistic weapon to be thrown at the unsaved.
Eugene Peterson, in the Message, Colossians chapter 1, reminds us...
13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
When we know the gospels, all of it, and more...when we live it...we become participants in the resurrection parade. It's about the Kingdom...on earth, as in heaven. It's about everyone, not just the people we like, those like us...everyone finds there place in Jesus. And the gospel, the Kingdom is about all creation...people, the environment, injustice, the economy. It's about all the broken dislocated pieces.
The gospel is about the resurrection parade, the beginning of a new creation...that Jesus calls us to be heirs, and co-creators of the Kingdom. But much more he fills us with his life to do it. Just don't believe in the gospels...be(LIFE ) THE GOSPELS.
Read, read, read and reread...the gospels. Let them permeate the very core of your being. Let them question you...learn to live in your questions. Live the gospels, and you will find your answers. But, it is only in the living that you'll find life.
Christianity is unconvincing...because it has not articulated, or lived the gospel. The gospel is nothing more than words on a page, unless it is lived in the Life of Jesus.
Man, I have nothing to add to this post. You've nailed it, Ron. The gospel really has no substance outside of an embodied practice. Thanks for the reminder.
Posted by: Randy Hein | March 26, 2009 at 01:32 PM