The Birthright of the Margins

There are lots of conversations going on in the political realm regarding morality issues. In many instances the charge for morality is led by Evangelical Christians and the “Religious Right”. There is much good to be said about Christians being willing to risk ridicule or estrangement to fight to protect that which we hold dear. I was recently talking to a friend about the present issue of whether or not the school system should teach Intelligent Design alongside the theory of Evolution. The question he asked me is whether or not the Church should be lobbying Congress for this or other issues. Until now I have been fairly silent on this, but I have finally been roused from my slumber…

Many scholars have debated the exegetical issues with Isaiah 40:3. Should the passage read, "A voice cries out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord." or instead, "A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord"? Regardless of how this text is rendered, I think that it holds significance for our discussion here.

The command to prepare a way is given so that all people (presumably the nations as well as Israel) can hear it. But the call is not made from/for the political halls or city gates...it is in the wilderness; that place from which God navigates the unclear paths.

I'm not sure that one couldn't make a case that our political systems today are in fact a wilderness and the prophetic voice of the Lord should be heard from within.

However if we are to prepare a "highway in the desert" we have to at some level leave the discourse of the nations for a time. I often comment that the church has been disengaged for too long now. But we have not gone to the desert to make a highway... we've made refugee camps. We've gone to the desert to die.

A friend of mine recently raised the call to engage our culture rather than ignore it in the supposed name of faithfulness. I agree that often we can use our allegiance to another Kingdom as a crutch and smokescreen to avoid our responsibility, so I applaud what Matt is calling for (check out the post on Little Holy Heroes). With this in mind, I would urge us all to consider the ways in which the Church can regain its birthright of the margins. How do we once again become the place from which Jesus calls to the poor, the oppressed, the weak?

It is only when we identify ourselves as the poor, the oppressed and the weak! We must rejoice in our sufferings and embrace our rightful place at the margins of a secular society. How can we continue to focus on issues like our kids praying in school when to keep from being offensive we don't cry out in prayer away from school? How can we fight for intelligent design to be taught alongside evolution when we our own handling of this vital part of our faith is just in passing…a story for elementary students? How can we expect the government to teach people about the creative aspect of Jehovah God? Do we just want a scientific theory of creation? Of a creator? Which creator then? Which theory? Why?

The important part of our belief in God as Creator is not the way in which the world came about. It is our belief, our faith, that Jehovah God along with the Word is the creative force behind all that is, all that was and all that will ever be.

And this is our story to tell, not the government's.

It was the Church; the disciples of Jesus Christ, who were commissioned go and preach the Good News...not any government. When God's dealings were with a government (Israel), he focused on seclusion not subversion. They were not to try and convert the Canaanites, Jebusites, Amelakites, etc...they were to destroy them and avoid any interaction whatsoever.

This makes perfect sense to me. God's call is not a top-down "come-to-me-because-its-law" approach - except within the ranks of his own people. God is not afraid of proselytizing, its just supposed to come from the mouths of the meek and lowly, not the powerful. Walter Brueggemann has been very helpful on this issue. He shows evidence that God often waits to act until there is no other explanation for victory but God’s deliverance. The Christians are not ever going to be the redemptive force in our society…its always been God and God alone. I pray that we will learn to depend more fully on the Lord. I pray that we will become convinced of our world’s brokenness and our inability to fix it.

When this happens we will cry out to the Lord and he will hear us. That’s always been his promise.

Matt you are right, we need to be challenging the way the world goes about its business. But we must acknowledge that there are separate kingdoms at work here. We seek to be active participants in this world, but never at the expense of our distinctive identity as citizens of a wholly different kingdom.

Perhaps we are called to be the voice of one calling…perhaps we are called to be the ones building the highway. Either way we end up in the wilderness away from the comforts of the city council. We can be a voice to our generation; to our culture; to our country without being just another special interest group on Capital Hill. Ours is the more difficult calling, one that requires more than rhetoric, money and knowledge of Constitutional law. Our calling is predicated on lives not legislation. The life of Jesus Christ and the lifestyle of his Disciples.

Matt points out that we need to highlight the positive things that are happening. He is very right; spiritually mature Church’s know how to celebrate. So let’s celebrate the things we see going on and encourage one another so that this becomes the norm of our identity. Let’s just give it a shot. If the Church in the US decides its okay being marginalized; if we decide that following Christ may just be politically incorrect; that we have redemptive function in our workplaces and classrooms, I’ll wager we won’t have to send crowds to fight for our political agenda.

If this happens and it doesn’t have an effect, then by all means let’s retry legislating morality (I say this realizing and acknowledging Matt’s statement that all laws are a form of morality legislation). However, if we enter this experiment and it does not have any effect on our culture, I admit that I will be forced to reevaluate my faith entirely…

…but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

The Spiritual Discipline of Love

The past couple weeks have been really hard. This job in New Orleans is all about long hours and stressful days. I enjoy the work, but the “higher ups” don’t make it very easy to do your job around here. Files come in and then are taken away, you get a hard copy of a claim but no electronic – which means you can’t write anything…which means that you can inspect the house but can’t turn in a report, and thus can’t get paid. And then there is the really frustrating “paying your dues” aspect. I’ve been humbled by going from positions of management (running this stuff down here is kinda like running a youth ministry or an extended work camp…its certainly not as hectic as Kids Corp!) to being treated like a worthless nothing. The “supervisors” don’t necessarily have any supervisor training…they’ve just been adjusters for a long time. So they ask for my help fixing their computers, learning new programs and even sending emails – but then refer to me as “little boy” or ceremoniously pretend I’m not in the room…or tell me to leave the room so that the grown-ups can talk. I don’t mind doing menial tasks as the low man on the pole, but I’m reaching the limit of ability to keep my very well-sharpened tongue in its cage.

In the midst of all this I have been reading some exchanges between early leaders in the Stone/Campbell Restoration movement for my Restoration History class at ACU (last class…comps next week…graduation in December!!!) This past week I stumbled across a series of essays over the concept of unity and how to treat others who profess Christ and yet have different understandings of what that means.

I also found a modern-day version of this debate between a friend of mine and a website of “Watch Dogs”…protectors of the Faith. "Watch Dogs"...what a conundrum of a name! I visited their site and it was sadly familiar. I greatly respect the desire of these folks to protect the Church they love. However, like we often experience with adolescents, love must mature beyond insecurity or it isn't actually love at all. When teenagers (and immature adults) are “in love” their relationship is often characterized by insecurity and jealousy. This is often viewed as protection of the beloved. However, in truth the motives here are more self-centered than other-focused. I don’t mean this in a defamatory way, but rather to point out the natural need for an intentional and continued maturation process. Love does not envy. When true love is present, fear is driven out and we can act and react from a standpoint of patience, compassion, peace and trust rather than suspicion or anger.

This love should drive us to protect, but only when an intruder is threatening our loved ones. The problem we run into with our situation is that “Watch Dogs” seem to begin from an assumption that “everyone” is an intruder and should be treated with suspicion…you have to earn the right (through agreement to a certain party-line, proper doctrinal stance, etc) to be called family. But family (supposedly loved ones) are still family even if don’t agree with them, so treating them like an intruder because you don’t like what they say is not love. It is, at best, an immature infatuation.

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Sidebar: You’ll notice that I’m not using any specific references to names or websites. This is not because I’m afraid or want to shout critiques from the corners. However, my goal is not to debate, confront or offend any specific person or group of people. My goal with this blog is to engage ISSUES that relate to Spiritual Formation and/or Youth Ministry. Like everyone, this is a learning process for me. One thing I have learned is that people expect critiques to be leveled at an individual and it is very hard to convince them that you are attempting otherwise. I don’t want to fight with anyone! This is not about individuals…it is about the larger ideas behind our individual actions.

Please note: words that are italicized, in bold or underlined do not suggest anger or aggression – these highlighting tools help important points to stand out from the rest of the text. Okay back to the Watch Dogs...
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These "Dogs" view it as their Christian duty to police the actions of others and report back to everyone else on just how wrong these bad/dumb/evil/etc people are…and why they should be reprimanded. While there may be a comment (which can often come across as offhand or insincere) about the imperfection of the Watch Dogs, a basic assumption is that they have a grasp on the height and width and depth of God’s nature, His Church and other humans’ actions. This to me seems wrong on so many levels. (Even the choice of "Watch Dogs" as a title...in Scripture, is it ever a good thing to be described as a dog?)

Interestingly, the Dogs seem to often espouse the rhetoric of unity. Unity seems often to be synonymous with ascribing to everything they believe. I stumbled across the blogs of some of these Watch Dogs just yesterday and, as always, I wish I’d just navigated away from the page as soon as I realized what it was. However, like a motorist on 635 craning my neck to see an overturned car in the other lane, I read on. A sour mood hung like a cloud over the rest of my evening.

The Unity movement - one of the fundamental tenets of the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement - seeks the unity of all believers under the banner of Christ. The Watch Dogs have shown me how dangerous it is to seek this unity on the basis of doctrine rather than behavior; of creeds (even the creed of anti-creedalism as in my own corner of the family tree) instead of conduct.

This doesn’t mean that doctrine or statements of belief are not important. Rather we should seek our unity based on the faith and following of Christ, and work out the other differences within the confines of a mutual love and respect shared between brothers/sisters.

Interestingly, these comments are probably enough to place me on the "bad list" with several of my brothers/sisters who are most ardent about unity.

I don’t intend to estrange or attack – though I admit my patience is tried by this subject. Neither would I ever suggest that everything is relative and that we should just chuck our convictions to the wind. However, I believe quite strongly that if I, or anyone else on this earth (Watch Dogs included) were judged on the basis of right doctrine and freedom from error, we would be undone. I hope that my understanding of God’s Law is maturing and developing along with my spiritual growth. With that said, I must then acknowledge the probability that there are things I am ignorant of or erroneous on at any given time which will require God’s grace.

It is much easier to find fault, raise defenses and circle the wagons than to truly seek "as much as it is up to us, to live at peace with everyone." As you pointed out Nate, we can easily come to believe that we are appointed by God to do the "guarding" and elevate our opinion to that of Sage and Prophet. The pride and seclusion that come along with believing we are our own ambassadors is difficult to combat. I’ve definitely seen that at work here in Louisiana. Without structure there will be strong ones who rise up and take a position like that of Watch Dog – without the necessary accountability or integrity. It is, to say the least, a stretch to think that if we all go our separate ways and study that we’ll all come to the same conclusions and consensus will be achieved. This is often described as trusting in the Holy Spirit or the Scriptures to clearly communicate the message of the Gospel with no “iffy” sections. However, this manner of discernment does not promote faith in God so much as faith in human ability and reason…we just don’t call it that. You can put religious or faith language on it, but we’re still talking about our ability to discern. The Unity movement, if based on human ability and reason, should be abandoned. If, rather, it is based on faith and hope in Christ’s interaction with humanity then it should be revisited, strengthened and supported with all that we are and all that we have. And then it should be proclaimed that there is indeed Good News for the oppressed, that it is Christ and not reason, doctrine or ability that will provide salvation.