a Missional Theology: part 3

I recently posted a podcast at our new site - www.MissionalMonks.com - titled "a missional theology," which addresses my understanding of who we are called to be as God's people. I decided to post the transcript of that podcast here. Its a little long, so it'll show up as a series of three posts (this is the final of the three).

Note that its entitled "a" missional theology...not "the" missional theology. What I attempted to describe are some basic understandings of functioning as God's community of ambassadors to all creation. There is plenty of room here for the different denominational distinctions and doctrines - I didn't even try to get in to all the finer points of systematic theology here. So, if you think that something I added is wrong, please feel free to open dialog. If you think I left something out...I did. Add it and serve faithfully.

If you aren't interested in reading 3500 words over three posts, you can listen to nearly the identical thing at missionalmonks.com - the "music" player is in the left hand column - its just under 30 mins including the intro (shorter than most of my sermons...). Whether you read or listen, I'd love your feedback.

Towards a Missional Theology

part 3

Broken or not, we are created in the image of God and I think one of the great examples of human pride is the false belief that there is anything we could have done (like the concept of original sin and total depravity) that could ever completely destroy what God placed in our very essence.

We are not God. We are broken and fall very much short of our ideal, but we still carry within us the image of the Divine Creator. Because of this, our identity is formed not only by our difference from God but also by what we’ve seen God at work doing, who we’ve seen God revealed to be.

Before the beginning God existed as a complete Community of Love. Unlike the claims of some religions that hold the beliefs that the gods need human worshippers to maintain their power, we worship the God who needed nothing. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit share in a fully contained and unified community of Love. The full understanding the Trinity is certainly beyond us. But this much is clear, one cannot love without an object to receive love. Unlike us, God needs no external object because the Father loves the Son and Spirit, The Son loves the Father and Spirit and the Spirit loves the Father and Son. And yet, the nature of love is to make room for others to experience loving community and so God created. And when God created, God made room at the table for creation. However, this is not a story of a wealthy landowner simply throwing occasional parties at his mansion. Time and time again we see that God is not only willing, but apparently anxious to be out in the midst of those God loves.

Communitas

I am grateful to Alan Hirsch for introducing me to the word communitas. It is a latin word that refers to community which develops and is cultivated among people who have a shared struggle, ordeal or mission. Like sports teams that endure long difficult seasons, or soldiers who share a foxhole, communitas refers to that bond that comes from being in a place where you have no choice but to depend on those around you. We see this in the very nature of the Triune God. Be it the act of creation or the redemption of creation through the cross, we find Father, Son and Spirit with a shared mission and apparently even a shared struggle. It doesn’t take away from God’s greatness to acknowledge struggle - because the struggle doesn’t come from God’s inability to overcome, but rather from God’s willingness to neither overwhelm creation nor abandon it.

If we are the people of God, created in God’s image, then communitas is going to be a vital component of our lives. When it isn’t, we know something is missing. This is part of why both gangs and fraternities are so popular - whether they are healthy or not, they are an experience of communitas. I also think this is why buddy movies, war movies, sports movies are so captivating - they tap into our desire to go through something significant with others.

Hospitality

Because God, the Community of Love, not only created us but made space for us within the Community, we see the importance and even centrality of hospitality. When we trace the story of Scripture we see over and again that God welcomes us into his presence. We see God clothing the naked and even the poorly clothed like Adam and Eve. We see God feeding the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. We see Jesus feeding the multitudes, washing the disciples’ feet and going to prepare a place for us in his father’s home. (Which by the way, is a reference to ancient marriage customs...where a betrothed male would actually build a room for he and his future wife onto his father’s house. He would continue working on the room until the father decided it was ready to be inhabited and then the father would send the son to get his bride). Throughout the old testament we find God instructing the Israelites that they were to be people of hospitality - welcoming the stranger into their homes, making sure that foreigners and the poor were taken care of, even ensuring that they’d have a place at the annual feasts. Hospitality is a central component to the revealed nature of God and is a vital piece of identity for the people of God.

Hospitality means so much more than just inviting our friends to our house for dinner. It literally means to welcome the stranger...and if we take Jesus seriously, it will also include loving and welcoming even our enemies. It means caring for the poor. It means remembering those who are overlooked and forgotten by society. It means that we are a community that practices the customs of the new Kingdom, the Kingdom of God that is here but still coming. It means that we should live in a way that seems radical and even foolish in our get ahead at all costs society.

Missional Living

But again, God doesn’t merely welcome us in, God comes to us and brings his peace with him. In addition to hospitality we see that God is the preeminent missionary. In other words, from the very beginning to the very end and everywhere in between, God is not content to sit in heaven and watch our lives from a distance. God draws near. God sets up his tent among us. In Exodus we read about the Tabernacle. It was basically a large tent that the Israelites carried around with them. The Tabernacle represented God’s presence with the Israelites.

Several years ago I realized that in the Gospel of John when it is says that Jesus made his dwelling among us, the Greek word used is the word for tabernacle. In other words, like God with the Israelites, Jesus set up his tent in our midst...as Eugene Peterson says it in the Message, Jesus moved into the neighborhood. The cool thing is that when you read Revelation 21 - the end our Scriptures. It says that when everything is finally brought to its culmination, the new Jerusalem will come DOWN out of heaven and God will dwell with his people. Again the word is tabernacle. The dwelling of God will be with his people. From the beginning, to Jesus’ life to the culmination of all things, God chooses to come down and tabernacle with us.

How can we choose anything different? If we are God’s people, formed in the image of God we must seek to cultivate communitas - which means that our life in God will not be carried out alone but in community. We must be a people of hospitality, welcoming the stranger. But we must also be a missional people - a community sent out by God to dwell among the people, among creation, in the dark places where the light needs to break in.

These six things: discipleship, spiritual formation and worship because we are not God and communitas, hospitality and missional living because we are created in the image of God, are not meant to be the final formula to fix the churches problems. However, I contend that if we, as a church, can live into these principles we will find that we are in a place where we are more likely to witness God at work, praise God for what we see and answer the call to go and do likewise.

So, Which is It?

Yesterday I read the story of Jesus going to the home of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. This is a very familiar story, and that always carries with it a risk of giving in to the temptation to simply autopilot through the text.

But a couple things struck me today. One in particular is something that may seem very elementary - and it is really - but it grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

Jesus has just finished telling the story of the “good Samaritan.” As he moved on in his journey he comes to a small village where we find the home of Mary and Martha. We know that hospitality is important to Jesus - both giving and receiving. In fact, when Jesus sent out the twelve in chapter 9, the disciples were taught how to receive hospitality and were to depend on the willingness of others to offer it. In chapter 7, when Jesus was anointed by the “sinful woman,” the pharisee’s unwillingness to offer simple courtesies of hospitality is counted against him.

We also know from the story of the Samaritan (the story IMMEDIATELY before this one), that Jesus has little patience for people who engage in religion and ignore the needs of their neighbor.

So why is it that while Martha is busy offering hospitality and Mary is ignoring those duties in order to hear some religious teaching, Jesus says it is Mary that has chosen the better thing? Doesn’t that directly contradict the point of the previous parable...and several other teachings in Luke?

Let me encourage you to slow down and allow this to roll around before immediately jumping to one of the canned answers about this passage. It was a temptation that I had to resist as well. We need to take a page from our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters and soak in the mystery and paradox for a moment, rather than instantly clamoring for logical defenses.

Perhaps this would make a good passage - and maybe right now is a good time - to slow down and pray through these words.

God, what is there here for us? Why are these two stories next to each other in this way? Teach us, Holy Spirit.

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What do you hear? How do you read it? I have 2 responses that struck me, but I’d like to see if anyone else might want to weigh in first...

The Embodiment of Christ

I recently heard someone say that they tend to refer to the Church less as the Body of Christ and more as the Embodiment of Christ. Subtle difference, maybe one you don’t care for, but it struck me. It is beyond understatement (and should be extremely obvious) to say that there is nothing wrong with the phrase “Body of Christ.” This scriptural description of the Church is a vital corrective to more settled and institutional understandings.

However, embodiment carries an active sense that resonates with me. It is not active in the sense of trying to accomplish something, but rather active because it is alive. To be the Embodiment of Christ in our world is astounding; it simultaneously declares our existence and our mission, our calling and our sending.

I’m looking forward to seeing a friend this weekend. In fact I’m looking forward to the opportunity to once again worship with and learn from her. In preparation for our worship gathering I’ve been thinking about the concept of hospitality – the theme for this Sunday and a topic that has been on my mind in a special way for the past few weeks.

When we arrived here in Burleson a few Wednesdays ago, the community of Christ Journey surrounded us. They showed up to help unload the trucks, to stock our new pantry with food, to shower us with hugs and laughter and greetings…and to share a meal with us. It struck me that people showed up at OUR new house and showed US tremendous hospitality.

This reminded me of Eugene Peterson’s powerful retelling of the story of the road to Emmaus where Jesus joins weary travelers on the trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus (check out Luke 24 if you’re unfamiliar with this passage). I’ve included part of this story on this blog before, but here’s the part that came back to me when our new friends gathered around us, which was highlighted even more after our friends in Mandeville had so lovingly surrounded us during the days and weeks before our departure.

As you enter Emmaus, you are actually feeling calm and almost your old self. You left Jerusalem three hours ago whipsawed by emotions. And now, thanks to this stranger, you are feeling almost normal.

It’s late in the day and time for supper. You’ve been away from home for a week, maybe over a week. There is nothing to eat. Passing a bakery stall you buy a loaf of bread and invite the stranger in for supper. After some coaxing, he comes in. You get out a bottle of wine. The three of you sit down to a simple supper of bread and wine. The stranger then makes a move that takes you aback momentarily. HE takes up the loaf and blesses it. The guest you invited to supper becomes the host offering you supper. After blessing the bread, he breaks it and gives it to you and to Cleopas. Then, and only then, you recognize him. It’s Jesus, alive. It’s resurrection.” (from Eugene Peterson’s, Living the Resurrection. pg 65)

While it isn’t the full expression, giving (and receiving) hospitality is a powerful embodiment of Christ in this world. Hospitality goes beyond feeding the hungry; it sits down at the table and shares the experience of the meal with them – extending not just grace, but love, dignity and community. Hospitality goes beyond merely saying “God loves you,” and even beyond, “I love you.” Hospitality says to someone that our lives would be more impoverished without them.

This isn’t about fixing a fancy dinner and making sure the children are on their best behavior (though feasting can also be a powerful embodiment of Christ). Hospitality is about sharing life together. It is what was expressed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 “We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

While I won’t suggest that we begin going into people’s homes and taking charge of the meal time ritual, as Christ did with the companions from Emmaus, I do love this idea of the one invited extending hospitality. It reminds me that often we approach a relationship assuming that we are the host and we find ourselves in the place to instead receive. There may well be a temptation to resist and forcefully maintain our place as the one setting the agenda or bringing the food (literally or metaphorically).

I was blessed while we lived in Louisiana to experience the incredibly humbling experience of receiving hospitality from those “less fortunate” than me. Few encounters in life have impacted me quite as deeply as when someone who I know struggles to pay the electric bills and the continuously mounting medical bills gave a very loving and sacrificial gift to my children. The gift was powerful for several reasons. For one, it is a gift that this person has given to all his grandchildren – thus it was his way of communicating to us the depth of love, commitment and connection he feels with our family…we’re part of his family.

This same family, on a Sunday when Rachel and the boys were in Texas, invited me to their house for lunch because they didn’t want me to have to eat alone…especially on Sunday.

In the past I struggled with accepting hospitality from certain people because I didn’t want to be a burden. In truth this was the lie that hid my pride and ego which preferred to sit in the position of one who offers help to those in need. It is one thing to eat a meal with the poor…it’s another thing all together to be fed by the poor.

Another time I grew frustrated with a person who each month struggled to pay bills and yet she regularly “wasted” money buying people gifts or giving to others who didn’t really need it. I wanted her to be more responsible with her money.

My internal hesitation to bless God for these gifts began to sound a lot like the disciple’s indignant complaint that perfume poured on the head of Jesus could have been sold and given to the poor. What’s more, I began to realize that in my arrogance I was assuming that my giving was less ridiculous. My assumption was that I am a “have” and others are “have nots” instead of the truth, as David Wray has been known to say, “I’m just one hungry beggar sharing bread with another.”

The offer of hospitality is not merely an opportunity for the “haves” to bless the “have nots” - though that is certainly appropriate. It is a way for each of us to embody Christ in a very real and significant sense, and to acknowledge that we all serve from a place of need in anticipation of the day when Jesus himself will fully satisfy those needs.

For some of us, and for different reasons, receiving hospitality may well be more difficult than offering it. Perhaps it is pride, perhaps it is insecurity or perhaps it is a fear of being indebted to someone. In any case we must ask ourselves whether our inability to accept hospitality can negatively impact our ability to embody Christ.

What would have happened if Jesus was unable to receive the anointing of perfume and tears from the “sinful woman” in Luke 7? I don’t have room to go into it here, but I believe that it was in part Jesus’ ability to receive hospitality from the “poor” (whatever kind of poverty they were experiencing) that enabled him to be truly hospitable. Jesus himself declared that he did not come to be served, but to serve – perhaps that’s why people rejoiced when they had the opportunity to serve him!