Watch Night

You think tonight is New Year's Eve?  Think again.

Tonight is Watch Night.

In point of fact, it is actually the 150th anniversary of the first Watch Night.  On December 31, 1862, free African-Americans and abolitionists gathered in their local churches, waiting for the midnight hour to strike—the hour that the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.  When January 1, 1863, began, slavery in America was pronounced dead.

Since that time, many in the Christian tradition have remembered this event, not ignoring the evil that came before and being thankful for the good that came after.  And so they should!—for it was a little over two millennia ago that the Christ himself proclaimed, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor and has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4.18-19).

What beautiful news!  What a great charge by which humans could live! If only...

Yet, there is a catch.  The Emancipation Proclamation did not make the slaves free, but only changed the tenor of the war from unification to liberation; the 13th Amendment ensured the right of freedom for them.  And even though followers of Christ have spread throughout the world, supposedly carrying Jesus' proclamation of freedom with them, the International Justice Mission estimates that at least 27 million people are held in some form of slavery worldwide—many of whom are in the sex trade, in places as far as India and as close as Houston, Texas.  Do you see the connection?

I see a need to make a proclamation into something concrete.  I see a need to bring the "law of Christ"(i.e. Gal. 5.6: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love") into power so that the proclamation of Christ will be realized.

"The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom 8.19-21).

And, praise God, those who belong to the Way that Christ immortalized are "all children of God through faith" (Gal. 3.26)—they are the ones upon whose revealing creation has been waiting.

So here, a week after remembering the "midnight hour" of all creation's healing in Christ's birth, we find ourselves again on the cliff of a new year.

The proclamation has been made, signed in the blood of the King.

The war continues, "nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom... This is but the beginning of the birth pangs;" yet, the war has been changed.

Slaves are called free, and now are charged by the King to spread that freedom.

So in this night in which so many celebrate beginning anew, let us watch closely.  Let us remember freedom proclaimed, and receive that freedom given in love.  It will honor pain, praise virtue, encourage a heart in despair, remember the forgotten, sit with the lonely, laugh in mirth, and meet the unforeseen future with courage; and, if you have it, then share it with those around you—it's meant for all people, everywhere.

"For in hope we were saved..."

Mercies

Κύριε Ἰησοὺ Χριστὲ Θεοῦ ὐιὲ ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλό.
(Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner - The Jesus Prayer)

It's been a dry and empty few weeks, with only reading, writing, and Aggie football dictating my life.  Yet I've heard a word from God.  I've been affirmed by brothers.  I've seen hope in communities.
And I'm thankful for these (small?) mercies.

For the time being, my Missional Residency group has been practicing a "trial Rule of Life," and I decided to use my journals to create a daily prayer for myself.  My journals are full of records of the mercies I've received, so I put them together.

The funny thing about mercies or gifts that we receive is that they often instigate responses.  I can't receive a new and stylish shirt from my younger sister and not feel grateful.  I have to wear the shirt, and therefore I actually become more stylish because of that gift, because I use that gift, because I become familiar with it. (Shallow and egotistical analogy, I know, but it still works).

I receive mercies from the communal God, and I cannot but respond.

So here is my response, as much a mindset and "way of being" than anything else:


"Before I speak, I wait in silence.
Before I ask, I give thanks.
Before I think, I pray.

And these I see:
Knowledge, yet Mystery;
Anger, yet Grace;
Fear, yet Trust;
Depression, yet Hope—
And I call them Beautiful.
For from Shame comes Honor;
From Detachment, Intimacy;
From Passion, Harmony;
From Chaos, Life;
By the Grace of God.

Lord, let me believe in You and your works.
Wisdom, let me hear your voice.
King, let my abundancies fill deficiency.

God who set each star in its place,
Let me learn to love the stars I am under.
Let gratitude be my attitude,
Even when there is nothing for me here.
Kyrie Eleison."

Also, some Mumford lyrics seemed to fit as a conclusion here:

Though I may speak

Some tongue of old

Or even spit out some holy word,

I have no strength

From which to speak

When you sit me down and see I'm weak.

—Mumford & Sons, "Not With Haste"

Bones

Where does most of the time, energy, focus and money go in your church?  Or, where does it go in your life in general?

Kent Smith gave my Missional Residency group a very interesting tool recently.  Looking at the different type (really, size) of groups that Jesus interacted with in his life on earth, this tool gives 7 unique and distinct Levels of Community:
1) Solo: by yourself - Mark 1.35, 6.45-6; Luke 4.42, 5.16.
2) Mono: group of 2 ("one other") - John 13.25, 21.20-4; also, the disciples were all called and sent in pairs in Mark.
3) Micro: group of 3-5 - Mark 14.32-4.
4) Meso: group of 12 - the Disciples.
5) Macro: group of 70-120 - Luke 10.1-12, Acts 1.15.
6) Metro: 1000s - "the crowds" in Jesus' ministry.
7) Mondo: the universal Church.

Generally, I (and others with whom I've spoken) get the sense that if you ask an individual which levels of community they could most live without, they first will drop Mondo, then Metro, then Macro:  We are beings who cannot live well without knowing and being known by at least a small, intimate group of people.

However, when we look back at my first question... then we will most likely see that often most of a church's money goes to Sunday morning/Sunday evening/Wednesday evening services built for the Macro or Metro level, and the more intimate (and more fulfilling, and more formative) levels are left to fend for themselves. (I would love to actually see some research on this.  When I have time... hah)

That's like trying to build a building without a foundation.
Or rigging a sail to catch the wind without a mast.

No wonder I so often hear people saying they feel disconnected from a church even if they worship there every Sunday...

So, this upcoming weekend my Missional Residency group will begin taking the concrete steps of forming intentional Christian community by entering into a Rule of Life, or Way of Life, together.
We all gave voice to the desires and passions in our own spiritual lives to help create our own Rule, and it contains some common Christian practices:
—>Daily prayer
—>Daily Scripture reading
—>Weekly communal worship with Eucharist and confession

However, it also has a number of unique and specific things for us to do together, and the rest all focus on the Mono, Micro, and Meso levels that are at best left as optional secondary services of most larger churches:
—>regular 1 on 1 time with the same "soul friend" for greater encouragement and accountability
—>meeting regularly with the same gender-specific group of 3-5 members of our "church family" to ask "How is it with your soul?"
—>communally engaging in Silence, Solitude, and Fasting, among other disciplines
—>creating and nurturing relationships outside of the Church, and outside of our normal circles, with a soul friend or partner

These are the "bones" of what we've talked about; we'll iron out some more specific version today.  And I'm extremely excited to begin this entire process.

A note about "Rules of Life:"  These typically consist of disciplines that practicing Christians do anyway.  A Rule is merely a framework for helping a group do them consistently and hold each other accountable to them.  We create ours to be as liberating and freeing as possible while encouraging the practices we as a community find so necessary to living life with each other and God.

As my good friend Kester reminds us, "We should live the kind of life that requires more serious prayer."  And I believe this Rule of Life will be that more serious prayer for me—prayer in action.

Hopeless Wanderer

"Let anyone with ears to hear, listen!" - Mark 4.9, 23 

How often, and through which things, do we anticipate that we might hear a word from God?

Anyone who might actually read this blog probably is aware of Mumford & Sons' new album, "Babel."  I have long used Mumford songs as aids to my prayers, as vessels to carry me into more contemplative modes of listening to God (please see 'The Cave,' 'Winter Winds,' 'White Blank Page,' 'Awake My Soul,' 'Dust Bowl Dance,' among others).  This album as a whole has surpassed anything I've had in my possession before for that.  As I've told a few friends already, I learn more about life and human experience with every new Mumford song I hear.

We can cover the usage of "Christian" labels on music elsewhere—I don't think that tag is worth too much; God is a creating God, so when humans create art we bear that image more clearly and in so doing reveal the reality around us in more detail through new perspectives—so, even though I am not aware of any such label (or faith commitments) on this band's part, I will tell of how the Spirit of God has already used it to speak into this particular moment of my life.

I've been in Abilene, Texas, for near 14 months now.  Moving to this west Texas town has been a drag for me, primarily because I had built such a network of friends in Aggieland that not being in the midst of constant encouragement drained me greatly.  Not only that, but I have had quite a hard time finding a feeling of purpose outside of my studies here (more concrete developments happening on this desire; another update coming soon).

So as I hit the 3rd track of "Babel"—called "I Will Wait—a few of its lines begin to run around and around in my head:

These days of dust, which we've known,

Will blow away with this new sun.

But I'll kneel down, wait for now.

I'll kneel down, know my ground.

Raise my hands,

Paint my spirit gold.

And bow my head,

Keep my heart slow.

And I began to think about the sand around Abilene.

Then, last Wednesday night, my MRNA (Missional Residency in North America) cohort had a family cookout, with hot dogs, black bean burgers, and s'mores with Reese's (which, by the way, will change your life).  At the end of it all, a few of us followed our professor Kent Smith up a hill, and at the top we could see the lights of Abilene below us.  And under the stars, we prayed over the city.  I prayed about the sand.

I felt like I had been irritated by Abilene not being how I wanted it to be, much how I feel when I'm covered in sand in all the wrong places and can't get it all out.  So my prayer was for God to make the irritating grains of sand to become like pearls, so maybe I'd begin to cherish and value this place as God so obviously does.  So I consented to "kneel down," to "wait for now," and learn to praise God in that place regardless of feelings in the manner of the above lyrics.

Into this place the Spirit threw track #9, "Hopeless Wanderer."  Not only does it have a fitting title (right Ruth?), but the song as a whole seemed to be an exegesis of my life in this moment:

The shelter also gave their shade,

And in the dark I had no name.

Much how I feel some shelter from the Spirit's forming of me in my studies, yet there is a shadow under which I am grasping for some sense of present (as opposed to future) identity in ministry.

So when your hope's on fire,

But you know your desire,

Don't hold a glass over the flame

Don't let your heart grow cold.

I will call you by name,

I will share your road.

Just try to read those lines, as a Christian, and tell me that it doesn't fit the picture we share of being called, of being named (claimed, given identity) by God—the very God who in Jesus walked our dusty, wandering roads.

THEN, we hit the kicker, the line that made me start screaming like Rafiki as it rang in my ears:

Hold me fast! Hold me fast!

'Cause I'm a hopeless wanderer.

I will learn, I will learn

To love the stars I'm under.

To love the stars I'm under.

SO SICK!

I could continue on about the lyrics of this album that so blatantly exclaim the realities of life, many of which the Church could learn to sing better, but I'll just stick to this point.  I have a hope that the changing, shifting ground upon which I stand will become valuable to me, and that I'll learn to love the stars I'm under.  I can eagerly anticipate a new sun, and even wait for it.  All because my road's been walked before by the One in whom I trust.  And because I know, by the always-active, always-listening God, that I am heard and not forgotten, and spoken to by even the most mundane things like a popular band's album:

"He who planted the ear, does he not hear?  He who formed the eyes, does he not see?" - Psalm 94.9:  God is a God who sees and hears us, and replies**; and, "Ever since the creation of the world God's eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things God has made." - Romans 1.20.

**Also see the Book of Job—and my blog about it, "Whirlwind of Trust"—and pay attention to 42.8-9, where God says that Job has spoken of God what is right... even though Job was calling God out.  Perhaps God hears us better than we expect, and even desires to be called out by us.

Learning about the Economy of Grace

Ephesians 2.8, 10:  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God...  For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Kent Smith, my professor and guide/teacher/mentor/educator in my internship of missional living & leadership, gave to my cohort an article of his in which he describes the "Economy of Grace" given to us in Ephesians.  In this paper, Kent follows the language Paul uses in describing grace (charis) & what Kent calls economy (a quite literal transliteration of oikonomia, which literally translated is "law or order of the household").

First, go read Ephesians.  Beginning to end, all at once.  Partly, so you'll be familiar with the language used here; but mainly because I believe our understanding of Scripture is best founded on a holistic view of a given text:  Each part of Ephesians is founded in the entire movement of that letter.

Now, on grace.  Our traditional view on grace leans heavily upon the Reformation's definition:  Grace is the gift by which we are saved through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2.4-9).  And this is true, but does not cover the whole extent of the use of charis in the New Testament.  Charis is a gift, something that brings delight.  God's greatest gift is absolutely God's self, most explicitly in Jesus Christ.  However, God's self-giving has not stopped there.  The Church is the Body of Christ—not like the Body of Christ, but is the Body of Christ (Eph. 5.23).  And God's great grace, charis, has been given to each and every individual in that Body (Eph. 2.10 & 4.7).  So grace, holistically understood, "is God dispensed into us" (Kalistos Ware).

In Ephesians 3.1-10 Paul explains that what once was a mystery has been revealed in Christ, and that the revelation came through grace (God's self-revelation) and is to be continually revealed through anyone to whom grace has been given; grace implies calling, and calling implies action or works—again, Ephesians 2.10: "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."  But, what works?  And how?

Here we unpack the language of economy.  The root word meaning "household" (oikos) is all over the letter—in words like "plan" (1.10, 3.9), "aliens" or "members of the household" (2.19-22), "building itself up" (4.16)—and it fits right into the language of God as "Father" and of Jews and Gentiles both being children adopted into the family of God (1.5, 2.19).  When you add on the Greek word nomos, which means law or order, you then get oikonomia or "order of the household."

In Ephesians 1, Paul explains how, "with all wisdom and insight, God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth."  The word rendered "plan" here is in fact oikonomia, the same word from which came our commonly used term "economy."

Look up "economy" today, and you'll find definitions like "the management of the resources of a community, country, etc., especially with a view to its productivity;" or "the regulation of the parts or functions of an organic whole, an organized system or method."

In this light, broadened by the definitions of the roots found in oikonomia, we can then see that what we have been calling the "plan" of God for the fullness of time is in fact a system of management in Creation initiated by Christ that we are then called into & empowered by grace as the Body of Christ to carry out.  It ends in the adoption of humanity into familial relationship with God and the perfection of all things through Christ; and this management system is the way in which "the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (Eph. 3.10).

Kent then draws out this paradigm for the context of mission today, and even more so as "our way of life."
(1)  The initiator of this "economy of grace" can only be God, the One with the Plan, the "Grace-dispenser."
(2)  The leader of this family, this household, can only be the Father;  all we as humans and communities of people can do is act as stewards.
(3)  Therefore, we stewards must first be attentive listeners for God's initiative in any context in which we find ourselves.  Kent also explicates, looking at Jesus' instructions in Luke 10.4-7, that the contexts into which disciples of Christ will go will have "households of peace" waiting to receive the grace which we have first been given; some will not, and the disciples are told to move on from there.
(4)  And because stewards are not lords of the house, our role is that of education: "the drawing forth of what is latent or potential in another," particularly referring to the gifts given by the Spirit (Eph 4.11-12; see also 1 Peter 4.10).
*My addition: If we take 3 & 4 as true, then we also are confessing that we believe our communal, Triune, initiating, self-revealing God is always at work all over the world.  Jesus' instructions in Luke affirm this, as some households were ready to receive peace and some were not.  This places Mission firmly within the nature of God, and the Church merely draws out or "harvests" what God has already planted and grown (Matthew 9.37-38, Luke 10.2).

In this way, God's plan or predesigned order for the fullness of time is one in which God continually gives of himself to us for the purpose of maturing the Body of Christ and also bringing all things to God through the same Christ.

Hope this linguistic journey has been fun; it's an example of what makes me happy and hopeful in studying this old, "dead" language.  And I continue to look forward to studying under Dr. Smith, hopefully learning even more about this "plan" God designed and how we best participate in bringing it to fruition.

Grace & Peace

Residency in Missional Living

"Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not grace." - Karl Barth.

This year marks another new beginning of sorts in my formation as a minister.  I am beginning an internship-style program at ACU under the tutelage of Dr. Kent Smith, a life-long minister, church-planter, and missionary-educator.  This program will train me in missional living & leadership.  I, along with 6 other students plus "significant others," will undergo a different type of education.  While we will be given new information to process and assimilate, the primary vein of instruction will be through practice, particularly communal practice.

We will learn community by being community; we will learn vulnerability by being vulnerable; we will learn pastoral care by pastorally caring for each other and by being cared for ourselves; most importantly, we will learn to listen to a God who is continually active in this world and in individuals by listening for and to God through others.

After a year of very academically-inclined study, in which I have felt an undertow of grace forming me individually, the opportunity to be formed in an "intentional community" has me almost giddy.

To paraphrase Kent, living "missionally" means living in a community that purposefully participates in what God is doing in the world.  I believe in a God in Three Persons; therefore, I believe in a God who is communal, and not one Person of the Trinity can be understood outside of the entirety of the communal God.  I believe in a God whose first recorded act was speech-creating; therefore, I believe we are made to be able to hear God within that Creation (the world itself, communities of people, etc).  I believe in a God who revealed God's self and simultaneously invited us into the participatory relationship of the Triune life through the incarnation of Christ Jesus; therefore, I believe that those of us who follow that Christ and are brought up into his Body are given the gift of grace so that we might continually reveal that God, particularly through pouring ourselves out.

I believe many other things, but these will be central to me for understanding what it means to participate as community with a purpose in what God has always been doing since time began—namely, to bring all people into God's family and all created things into God's perfection.

"With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth." - Ephesians 1.8b-10.

More coming very soon.

Grace and peace to you all.

Ever-Expanding Participation, Part the Last

Howdy, and welcome to Part 3 of my paper investigating the integration of Theology & Mission.

I hope that anyone who has taken the time to read through so far has found a more holistic Trinitarian theology (not merely a sending one, or one focused too much on one Person) to be helpful.  I hope it encourages us to know the communal Godhead is always wholly involved with us and with Creation.  I also hope that it will inform our own actions as Humanity as well as the Church.

May the shalom of the Holy Trinity, the peace of the Lord Christ, go with you, wherever the Spirit may send you.

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II.  The Implication

            The Church as both object and agent of the Triune Mission has two responses missio Dei:  First, the Church worships God; and second, the Church seeks the shalom of the city in which it resides, with the purpose of making disciples.  The second response has been somewhat described above.  The exhortation by the prophet Jeremiah (29.7) comes to a nation that has found itself brought to a strange context, Babylon.  Strange may be an understatement—the people of God had been broken, defeated, and displaced from their homeland by the Babylonians.  They were the enemy.  And yet, Jeremiah’s word from the LORD told them to actively seek out the life and blessing of Babylon!

            What this gives the Church today is a decree that God is about blessing all nations through his people.  God does not say, “Take over the government of Babylon and make the Law their law.”  God tells Judah, “Live as my people in their city, for their benefit, and you too will be given shalom.”  This message meshes with the earlier-quoted “great commission.”  Jesus told his disciples to “Go and make disciples.”  “Go” is not an imperative, but literally translated would say, “as you are going about” (my translation).[1]  It implies that the disciples will all go about living their lives, but as they do, they must make disciples.  Add to this Philippians 1.27:

“Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.”  (NRSV)

The verb translated “live your life” implies one who is involved in social, political, and economic realms of the society in which they live.  To live worthy of the gospel of Christ, to live in a way that will allow the Church to make disciples, the Church must engage society in all of its realms and forms.

            The other response of the Church to the missio Dei is one with which the Church has always been familiar, but which could use fresh perspective.  In this realm John Piper has gained great popularity—his book connecting missions and worship has sold over 185,000 copies—even being quoted in a popular Christian rap song by the artist Lecrae,[2] by this proclamation:  “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church.  Worship is.  Missions exist because worship doesn’t.”[3]  As the rest of this paper has shown, Mission is part of the Trinity’s very nature, and therefore exists because of God—not because of some lack of Worship within Creation.  

            Bosch provides an image by which the Church may understand the connection of Mission and Worship: “an ellipse with two foci.”[4]  An ellipse is an elongated circle, an oval.  In mathematical terms, the size and shape of an ellipse are determined by it two separate points of focus.  In the same way, Worship and Mission create two points of focus for the Church that determine the shape of her faith.  Bosch gives more depth to the image by adding motion:  “The church gathers to praise God, to enjoy fellowship and receive spiritual sustenance, and disperses to serve God wherever its members are.”[5]  Worship and mission both influence the Church in how she acts out her faith, and placing one higher than the other (as Piper does) does neither justice.  If any church community focuses upon Worship for the sake of Worship (“We worship because we were made to”) or on Mission for the sake of Mission (“We must obey the ‘great commission’” or “We just need to help people”), then that body’s vision will go to that focal point and no further.  All else will necessarily become peripheral.  Worship will build upon itself to support more Worship—an unstable foundation where most of a church’s energy goes into Sunday worship, i.e. many megachurch services.  Mission will have to provide meaning for more Mission, removing depth and robustness from the Body, and becoming a set of works and stratagems.

            However, what if the Church allowed each of these focal points to highlight the distant direction of her faith?  Light coming from any one point travels two different paths from two different angles when any human focuses upon it with their two eyes:  It is that different perspective, that other path, that gives the image depth, dimension and substance.  What if Worship and Mission both were markers for the Church to find a greater, more far-sighted vision?  That far-sighted vision is the eschatological Kingdom and Reign of God, and Worship and Mission are the evidences of it in the here and now.  They are the signposts by which we must navigate to bring the Kingdom into reality today.

            A Church that recognizes this can then act it out in a number of ways.  First, worshipping Christians will recognize the intimate link means that their Worship affects their daily lives, and their daily lives affect their Worship.  Take the story of Jesus in Mark 11, when Jesus cleansed the temple:  Jesus, incensed, flipped the temple structures on their head and completely stopped the economic transactions taking place in this place of Worship.  Jesus emphatically states through his action that “without justice there could be no worship.”[6]

            The Church can also respond by bringing narratives, stories, into the center of Worship.  The worship meals in Corinth consisted of small gatherings around the table of someone’s home.  The meals were followed by each participant giving whatever “word” or story had been given to them:  They, in essence, would share a testimony.[7]  Not a story of one’s conversion, as many Western Christians define "testimony" today, but a testimony to the power of God at work in their daily life.  The Church today already continues its retelling of the “big story”—the one about God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Israel, covenant, exile, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ongoing redemption—but the Church should also encourage its participants in worship to share the “new chapters of the story that are being written in lives, communities, and nations throughout the world.”[8]

            Elaine Heath, in The Mystic Way of Evangelism, shows how mystic Christians have understood evangelism in the past—that it is in fact a holistic Mission, not merely a statement that can fit on a pamphlet:  "Evangelism is intrinsically relational, the outcome of love of neighbor, for to love our neighbor is to share the love of God holistically.  The proper context for evangelism is authentic Christian community, where the expression of loving community is the greatest apologetic for the gospel."[1]  The first use of the word from which we get “mysticism” actually describes the “mystery” of the revelation of the Triune God in Jesus Christ (see Colossian 1.26-7).[2]  For these Christians, their life was “a continual movement of the heart seeking to transcend the limitations of the individual standpoint” and to participate in life communally with the Triune God.[3]  The church needs to re-learn this lesson today, as Heath explains in greater detail. 

            Our understanding of Mission must come from our understanding of the Trinity, and, if it does, then we will see a Church in loving community with all Humankind, with all created things, seeking the shalom of all so that all may worship.  If the Church can do this, then “that language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence.  It is the man who is the missionary, it is not his words.  His character is his message.”[4]

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[1] The word for “go” is in the Greek a circumstantial participle of time.

[2] “Send Me” by Lecrae, After the Music Stops (Reach Records, 2006).

[3] John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1993), 17.

[4] Bosch, 395.

[5] Ibid., 395.

[6] Kreider, Alan and Eleanor Kreider, Worship & Mission After Christendom (Scottsdale: Herald Press, 2001), 33.

[7] Ibid., 101.

[8] Ibid., 82.

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[1] Elaine Heath, The Mystic Way of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 13.

[2] Ibid., 15.

[3] Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism (New York: Meridian, 1955), 71.

[4] Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World (New York: The Peter Pauper Press), 17.

Ever-Expanding Participation, Part II

Howdy people!  Here's part 2 of my Integration of Theology & Mission, focusing on the Church in the midst of a Creation whose Creator is by nature communal, relational, and therefore missional.  The last part will be more practically-minded, the actions that follow the worldview I've been spelling out.  

In the first post, I defended how a missional Church must begin their theology with the Trinity.  Each Person has always been involved in Creation, has been participating with the other Persons in Creation, and therefore the Church has been invited and called into this communal, missional act.  The focus is not merely some individualistic view of relation with only one Individual of the Trinity (Jesus).  Because participation and self-donation are inherent in the nature of the Trinity, and therefore determine the identity of any one Person in it, these characteristics are what the Church needs to embody to perpetuate the missio Dei.

Hope you find this to be a blessing today.  Grace & Peace

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            Where does this leave the Church?  If the entirety of the Trinity is actively being missional within the world, then it would seem that the Church is not strictly necessary for the missio Dei.  And if the Church does not have a monopoly on God’s salvific work, then it would seem that the Church may only get in the way.  However, the Church still has a central role to play in the missio Dei, and it is based entirely on the participatory nature of God.

            The Church is a missional paradox.  Historically in the Western World, the Church has claimed to be the vessel through which Christ’s salvation came to the world; and yet the Church has often found itself acting detrimentally to that very mission.[1]  David Bosch calls the Church itself “an object of missio Dei.”[2]  Christians remain humans, and so they must continually be renewed by repentance into new creaturely habits of heart and mind, just as Paul encourages the churches:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12.2 NRSV)

“So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed bay by day.” (2 Cor 4.16 NRSV)

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:  Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5.17-18 NRSV)

Bosch further reminds his readers that “Paul, who knew so much about the weaknesses of the churches to which he wrote his letters, began nearly every time by thanking God for their existence, their faith, their loyalty”[3] (i.e. Rom 1.8; 1 Cor 1.4-9; Eph 1.15-16; Phil 1.3-7; Col 1.3-4; 1 Thess 1.2-3; 2 Thess 1.3-4).  The Church, paradoxically, is both imperfect object and transforming agent of Mission:  Having been reconciled and in the process of being continually renewed, the Church also acts out the reconciliation and the continual renewing of the missio Dei.  The Triune God, by God’s own relational nature, is glorified by participating with the Church as a bride (Rev 21.9), entering into the Church as she empties herself for the greater glory of both.

            The Exodus narrative illustrates this participatory God with his people, Israel.  In Exodus 6 God promises to redeem his people, and God is celebrated in Exodus 15 for having done so.  The root word for each of these is tied to the idea of a “kinsman redeemer,” which “affirms a bond between [God} and Israel that is as close and as committed as any bond of human kinship, and with it YHWH accepts the obligation that comes from taking Israel as his own family.”[4]  This is the doctrine of election—God invited a people into a communal relationship because that is the nature of the Trinity.  The Hebrew Bible testifies to the participation of both God and Israel present in the call of Abram:

‘Now YHWH said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”’ (Gen 12.1-2 NRSV)

The very act of God calling Abram, making a covenant with him, blessing Abram, and sending him into another land was presupposed by the idea that Abram would bless those around him.  Abram must reflect the self-donating love inherent in the very nature of the Triune God who called him, and the nation of Israel after him is given the same command, even in exile.

“And seek the shalom of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray on its behalf to YHWH, for in its shalom there will be shalom for you.” (Jer 29.7)[5]

            The shalom of the LORD should not be restricted to humanity, however.  The entirety of Creation is interacting with the Triune God:

‘Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature on earth.”’  (Gen 9.10)

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”  (Rom 8. 18-21 NRSV)

It seems that God has intentionally held Creation back, and it awaits the “children of God”—the Church, by way of being grafted into Israel (Romans 11.1-4, 11-12, 17-18).  So, as the Church continues to proclaim the name of the LORD and make room for the Triune God’s power, Creation itself should be the recipient of the blessing, just as every human being should be. 

            This then brings Mission to the Cross.  N. T. Wright connects the Kingdom of God with the missio Dei, then he plainly describes how “Kingdom and Cross belong together.”[6]  Wright affirms the purpose of Humanity to bear God’s image, the special election of Israel for the sake of Human’s redemption, and Jesus Christ’s completion of that redemptive task on the Cross.[7]  Not only did Jesus redeem Human, but he also bore the weight of the “the accumulation of the actual human pride, sin, folly, and shame.”[8]  Then through death Christ defeated Death, and through his Resurrection gained power and authority over it all—a power and authority the Church now has through Christ against Death and all its continuing forms, like oppression, hunger, hate, war, inequality, etc:

“When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.  And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.  He set this aside, nailing it to the Cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.”  (Col 2.12-15 NRSV)

The Church, in proclaiming the Kingdom of God, is also meant to be an agent of its coming; and this Kingdom, this “reign of YHWH,” brings justice to the oppressed (Isa 61.1), food for the hungry (Matt 25.34-40), peace to the nations (Isaiah 2.2-4), and economic prosperity for all people (Isa 61.2; Luke 4.19).[9]  This is what Christ died for; this was “the joy set before him” for which he “endured the cross” (Heb 12.2 NRSV).  And this is the work of the Trinity in all of Creation into which the Church is invited to become co-workers with the Triune God (3 John 8).  In addition, the Cross is also that which has created One Body out of many:  Those found in Christ have been unified through the suffering LORD, and therefore the Church bears that Cross and that Christ in the world by her actions, by her very habits of heart and mind.[10]

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[1] See Bosch ch. 7-9, and Bevans & Schroeder ch.

[2] Bosch, 396.

[3] Bosch, 394.

[4] Christopher J. H.Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press (2006), 266-7.

[5] Ibid., 99.

[6] N. T. Wright, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 114.

[7] Ibid., 112.

[8] Ibid., 114.

[9] C. J. H. Wright, 309.

[10] Volf, 47.

Ever-Expanding Participation, Part I

Howdy all!  Grace & Peace.

I just finished an assignment for class that I felt like posting.  It is an integration of theology and mission, which seemed pretty practical to me, and was something I felt a little passionate about.  So I think it fits the blog pretty well.  It's rather long, so I'll be breaking it up into pieces (probably 3), which I'll post over the next few days.

Ever-Expanding Participation

Christianity's on-going conversation about the purpose and nature of Mission has come to the forefront of both the practical and doctrinal minds of the Church, as evidenced by the recent explosion of the use of the word “missional” in a variety of Christian contexts.[1]  The theological paradigm of Mission is in flux.  Some insist that theology is unnecessary—it is the practice of mission, of mercy, of grace that matters.  But what Christians believe and emphasize about God affects how they view the world, and how Christians view the world determines how they interact with it.  A robust theology that emphasizes the relational and communal nature of the Triune God, specifically in the act of participation, will provide a definition of Mission both historical and practical, and it will show how Mission as a part of the Trinity’s very nature has been active since the moment of Creation.  From this point must every missional action of the Church be informed.

I.  The Theology

            “There is nothing more elusive than an obvious fact.”

In the first account of Creation found in Genesis, the NRSV translates verse 2 as “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  That word “wind” has most often been translated “Spirit of God.”  Interestingly, the Greek word translated Spirit in the New Testament also has the same primary meanings of “breath” or “wind,” just as the Hebrew does.  This linguistic history, and the history of the theology behind it, gives Christians precedent to tie the doctrine of the Trinity to the very act of Creation.  God the Father is present as “Elohim,” the Spirit is present and called “wind”—and both Paul and John depict God the Son as also an agent of Creation:

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor. 8.6 NRSV). 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”  (John 1.1-3 NRSV)

The whole of Christian memory and tradition seems to show all three Persons of the Trinity to be active from the very beginning of Creation; many recent Christian theologians, however, have missed this very important image. 

            Study of the Trinity found new life in the 20th century, sparked in part by the tragedy of the Second World War and the expulsion of missionaries from now-Communist China, and it sought to redefine Mission by determining how the Triune God acts with Creation as pictured in the paragraph above.[2]  Karl Barth produced an entire ecclesiology on the notion that God is a God who sends even within God’s Triune self:  God the Father sends God the Son, who both then send God the Holy Spirit, and the three of them send the Church into the world.[3]  This puts Mission squarely into the realm of the nature of God.  Evidence of this view is prevalent in Christian writings from Tertullian to Pope John Paul II.[4]  The central passage for this view of Mission is what became known as the “great commission”: 

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28.19-20 NRSV). 

The word traditionally emphasized here is “go,” most often with an exclamation point at the end as if it were an imperative (which it is not, in Greek) that urged disciples to themselves be sent.  But, Van Gelder and Zscheile critique a linear emphasis of divine sending by showing how it diminishes the agency of God by making the Church as the primary agent in Creation.[5]  God the Father, in this view, has no direct agency in salvation, but is only related through the mediators of Christ and Church, the Body of Christ.

            Another consequence of this restricted view inordinately emphasizes individualism and hierarchy by focusing more on Jesus than the Trinity itself.  Mark Driscoll is a prime example of this movement, continually espousing “a simple return to Jesus”[6] as the starting point of Trinitarian theology.  It is an approach that is highly attractive in its simplicity and in how well it fits with modern Western individualistic culture, but it also distances God the Father from Creation, reduces the agency of God the Holy Spirit, and makes Mission into a mere discipline garnered from the example of Jesus as opposed to part of the nature of the Trinity—and therefore part of God's work from the very beginning.[7]  So, Christians are taught to emphasize their individual relationship with the individual Christ, and that the salvation of the Father comes to the world exclusively through the Church through the Spirit through the Son. 

            In response to this common paradigm of the missio Dei, the Church should start not from Jesus only but from the Trinity through an “epistemology of participation.”[8]  Returning to Jesus' own words in John 5: 

“Very truly I tell you the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise… I can do nothing on my own.  As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (vv. 19, 30 NRSV).

Jesus, the Son, testifies here to being sent by the Father, so this language should not be discounted in Trinitarian discussion.  However, he explicitly states that he can only do what he sees the Father doing.  Jesus understands that God the Father is continuously active in this world (not reduced to merely sending), and Jesus’ own will is to follow after the present actions of the Father.  The Spirit is not to be counted out in this work:  Mark’s gospel mentions the Holy Spirit's actions three times in the first twelve verses, culminating in verse 12 by saying,

“And the Spirit immediately drove him [Jesus] out into the wilderness” (NRSV).

Before Jesus has begun his ministry, the Spirit is actively leading Jesus in the wilderness of the world, not merely one sent after Jesus has later ascended into heaven.  All Persons within the Trinity were active at the foundation of the world, were active in Jesus’ earthly ministry, and continue to be active simultaneously in the world today.

            The Three Persons do not act separately but with a nature of participation.  Jesus did not claim to do any single thing on his own, but was directed by both the Father and the Spirit.  The participation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit determines how the Persons interact with each other as One God, and this relational manner can be called “self-donation.”  This theory is one in which “the self contracts to be expanded by the other, and we enter into the other’s contracted self in order to increase the other’s plentitude.”[9]  Jesus here does give an example to which we can return of the Trinitarian relationship:  Jesus empties himself of his own will, allowing God the Father and God the Holy Spirit to expand their power and will into that now empty space.  This results in Jesus willingly submitting to each of them, allowing both Father and Spirit to be glorified; but instead of this ending in a diminishment of the Son, the Son is filled by the other Persons and eventually brought to greater glory himself (John 17.1; Romans 6.4).  Each Person in the Trinity repeats this action, making the identity of each completely determined by the relationship of the communal whole.  This is the love relationship to which the author of 1 John referred by saying that “God is love” (4.8 NRSV).  The Trinity loves by each Person continually emptying their own self to be filled to a greater amount by the Others as they each spread out—an ever-expanding love relationship that is the foundation of Creation.

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[1] Craig Van Gelder & Dwight J. Zscheile, The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 1.

[2] David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission—Twentieth Anniversary Edition (New York: Orbis Books, 2011), 379.

[3] Craig Van Gelder and Dwight J. Zscheile, The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 26.

[4] Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004), 38, 41.

[5] Van Gelder & Zscheile, 75.

[6] Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 15.

[7] Van Gelder & Zscheile, 80.

[8] Bosch, 371.

[9] Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996).