GospelDrivenLife

The Christian Parallel Universe

I like certain forms of science fiction.  OK, I admit it, I am a Trekkie.  One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek explored the possibility of parallel universes.  Quite to my pleasure, the new TV series Fringe does the same.  They imagine that there could be various quantum realities and we breached the wall between them.

Well, I have news for them.  I think there are parallel universes.  At least, it seems that way to my eyes.

What I mean is that Christians in the USA seem to have created a universe parallel to the secular one.

There are more obvious versions of this -- the Christian Yellow Pages being foremost in my mind -- but there are subtle versions too.  Think of all the ways we have devised to "Christianize" every conceivable form of human relationship in education, commerce, diet, and exercise.  There are Christian food co-ops!  Christian exercise videos.  The list is long.

While I certainly do not deny the right to free association, I do have one question: is this what Jesus called us to?  I believe he prayed explicitly in John 17 that we would NOT be taken out of the world.  I believe Paul wrote these words:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. (1 Corinthians 5:9-10 ESV)

Well, I think Paul would be quite shocked that we have managed to do exactly that -- we have "gone out of this world" -- at least in practice, if not in body. We have created a parallel Christian universe. 

But the problem is more subtle than that.  As I listen to friends speak of their work or their neighborhoods or their schools or their kids sports -- it is almost always in the context where they note who the Christians are in those places ("My son is in little league, and his coach is a Christian").  They do so with a sense of relief or with greater confidence in the safety of their kids or with some sense of the magic of influence the coach will have over others.  It is even better if the coach is a former professional athlete who is a Christian.   

I would also observe that for some it seems desirable for Christians to work and play alongside of people who are not in Christ and somehow manage to avoid too much intersecting of their lives with them.  In other words, some would avoid any breaches between these parallel worlds.  It would never occur to them to engage their colleagues world and life.

Granted I am stereotyping, and there are many many exceptions.  There are traditions in the evangelical world that are not so world-detached. But this stereotype is based on years of data collection. Generally, I think mainstream evangelical USA Christians are uncomfortable with associations with unbelievers that are too close, too personal. Generally, we are afraid that simply being with them will have some corrupting influence.  So we create a parallel universe. We have effectively done what Paul thought impossible -- we have gone out of the world.

I sometimes think that we live in fear and call it wisdom.  But we live in fear -- fear of the negative influences of the world.  We live as though we have far more to fear from the "world" than they have to fear from us.  We carry with us the Good News of Jesus the crucified and risen.  The explanation of that news changes people; it removes them from the kindgom of darkness and brings them into Jesus kingdom. It is far more a threat to their way of life than they are to us.  

We live in unbelief and call it moral separation.  We live in unbelief, and actually deceive ourselves into thinking that we can create a parallel universe and thereby escape the corruptions that are in the world.  We are not confident in this message and its power in us and its power toward others.  

Now, of course I am aware of our vulnerability, and of course I am aware of the care of my children, and of course I am aware of all the arguments that can be marshalled for caution and safety and the rest -- but I am pressing for the other side.  I am doing so because the Gospel calls us.

We follow the One who was a friend of sinners, who took on flesh and blood as he entered a world in which there was nothing but defilement.  He came down into this world, in association with people ruined by sin and living in sin in all its various forms, he lived in the same universe, not a parallel one.  He was a friend of sinners and lived in purity at the same time. And he has sent us into this present age with the same mission -- to be the people of God in the midst of this world, not to isolate ourselves from the people of this world.

God wants believers to have confidence in the Gospel and to pass this on to our children to as well.  I am simply asking -- are we confident?  are we imparting confidence to our children or teach them to live quarantined lives?  Are we living in invisible hazmat suits?  in a parallel universe?

 

 

The Depths of Hospitality and Evangelism

Fred Sanders work, The Deep Things of God punched me in the gut, with a good hurt.  Its not so much Dr. Sanders who punched me, as the doctrine of the Trinity.  You see, my world tends to be small.  My imagination is limited.  I am really good at staring at my toes and a foot or two ahead of me. 

This book grabbed my attention, raised my eyes to the heavens, and carried me back to the world of the Godhead, before there were any worlds made.  I have turned my meditations there again and again since.

Just recently, seeking to hear God's Word and its call to look outward, I wrestled with how to engage our people with that word.  Another message on the Great Commission?  

I started by asking a different question -- if we were to turn outward in Gospel proclamation, and Gospel service, and Church planting, what would that look like?  How would God work?

That is when I started to reflect on the ways of God.  God sent his Son who became a grain of wheat that fell into the ground to die so that it would bear much fruit.  Death was his path to life and fruitfulness. And, as I meditated further, I saw that death (in the form of suffering) is the path he takes us on to bear fruit as well.

Suffering and loss are the means of living Christ and provide the context for proclaiming Christ.  We shall not be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while the Son of God poured out his blood for us.

Well, that was a jarring note to us all, including me.  And it drove me further into considering how evangelism and church planting is not just a command, it is a pattern.

Then there was a coalescence of ideas from Sanders and Scripture. If the great news behind the good news is that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the gladness of the Trinity have opened up their life to bring adopted sons and daughters to their table, then the root of evangelism is in the depths of the Godhead.  Evangelism is not something Christians do on Thursday nights, it is a reflection of something God is in eternity past.  It is not peripheral or optional.  It is essential.  

Out of the depths of the Triune God, God in his goodness and love chooses to redeem and welcome sinners into the circle of his glory.  He seats us, not at the guest tables, but at the head table, co-heirs with the Son.  We are made one flesh with Christ, our heavenly husband. 

When we welcome the stranger, meet the new neighbor, make room in our schedules for the unbeliever, disrupt our fellowship to send people out to do church planting and missions -- we are reflecting the deep things of God.  That is is costly should not surprise us.  God in Trinity ruptured their everlasting fellowship of love to open the circle to the likes of us.  The Father send the Son and the Father made the Son a curse for us.  The Son did it gladly.

This is stunning.  

If you want to consider this more, listen in HERE.

 

 

Gospel for our day

Recent conversations have provoked me with a question. Friends have been telling me of their time with people who are not in Christ and have no relationship to the church. These pictures of modern life helped me see what evangelism would look like today. We are called to make Christ known clearly in our day -- do we understand what the hard work of spiritual obstetrics and pediatrics looks like?

Relevance or Faithfulness, a weird example

Relevance is borne of relationship  . . .  and when we do not know lost people, we may do some pretty weird things . . .

Relevance or Faithfulness, 5

As you can tell by now -- I don't buy the distinction.  We are called to both: to be faithful and to earnestly contend for the faith -- we do that best by zealously pursuing the advance of the Gospel to the lost -- not by hermetically sealing the Gospel in our Christian ghettos. 

If we read our NT carefully we will see that this is what was at the heart of Paul's life.  Bringing the true Gospel to the Gentiles involved seeking ways to make it connect to their lives -- so, whether at Mars Hill in Acts 17, or discussing varied conscientious positions in Romans 14, Paul was careful to keep the Gospel pure from all cultural barnacles and to explain it understandably.  He was accused of compromise!

Seed is preserved by sowing -- store it long enough and it will rot.  Passionately pursuing an effective explanation of the truth is essential to evangelism -- that means "relevance." What does this look like?

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 4

Let me make it clear -- we can be faithful and passionate about communicating the truth to people of our day!

I had been looking for examples of this for years.  It was in the midst of this I discovered Tim Keller and was greatly relieved that there was a model of a man who was theologically faithful and who worked hard at communicating to his particular context with significant effect – by God’s grace. He linked me to other authors.

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 3

The question is what to do with issues of faithfulness or relevance when neither of the models present has a complete picture. Let me make it clear -- we can be faithful and passionate about communicating the truth to people of our day!

My help in this was that I was trained as a missionary (though we never served in this capacity full time). Our early adulthood included a sense of call to take the Gospel to Muslims – and with that call came the pursuit of the best training possible. It was during that training that I discovered an important truth – repeating biblical words is not communication. To take the Gospel to Muslims required a lot of reflection on how to state the Gospel in a way they could understand. I also spoke with people who served among Hindu’s and Buddhists – in those situations the complexity was multiplied.

Relevance or Faithfulness, 2

As noted yesterday, I have been following the debates in the blogosphere over relevance and faithfulness and find the same old songs being sung. So, I thought I would offer the same old additional perspective. As I said yesterday, we can, once again, make enemies of friends. We have created a false dichotomy. Relevance and faithfulness are not the real issues. I think the real issues are quite different.

Let me make it clear -- we can be faithful and passionate about communicating the truth to people of our day!

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 1

Link: Together for the Gospel.

I found this post today and would recommend it.  It a helpful beginning of the discussion.  I would add that I think we have made a false dichotomy here.  The issue is not faithfulness or relevance -- indeed the Gospel is always relevant when presented faithfully. 

I think the issue is this: are we doing everything we can to explain the Gospel faithfully in terms most readily understood by our hearers?  Are we seeking to remove every obstacle except the cross?  Are we diligent in laboring at illustration and explanation that answers the questions and thoughts of the secular people around us?  We no longer share a common vocabulary with our culture -- we must go the extra mile to explain our ideas.  This was the passion of Paul as a missionary to the Gentiles.  Repeating biblical and theological terms is not faithfulness to the Gospel -- speaking the Gospel without clarity is not faithfulness to the Gospel.

On the other hand fooling around with "image" is cheap relevance.  The seeker version of relevance is superficial.

I think real relevance is simple: know and love people who are not believers.  Love is always relevant.  Here is a plan.  Pastors -- let's get out of our study's and go be with people.  I would suggest every pastor get to know unbelievers and spend time asking them questions -- to learn about their perceptions. Ask your people to ask unbeliever's questions -- so we can stop sterotyping them and know their real objections. So we can use words and concepts to explain biblical truth in a way that makes sense.  Stop reading statistics and know people.  That will fuel your preaching so you are as clear as possible.

The Liberty of the Christian, 4

The Gospel is mighty to change people's lives -- and it does so in very context and culture of the world.  It is not bound to a particular culture -- converted people do not all wear coats and ties.  But whatever fruit it bears looks like godliness -- the fruit of the Spirit, a pursuit of holiness.