Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A Gospel That Retreats And Isolates

by Mike Chong Perkinson
April 2007

“Christians in the postmodern world will succeed, not by watering down the faith, but by being a counter-cultural community that invites people to be shaped by the story of Israel and Jesus.” (Dr. Robert Webber)

Being counter-cultural is no easy matter. It is hard to be a person who loves those who are full of hate and evil. The choice of retreat and building a Christian culture that lives in protected isolation is much easier. After all, it’s so hard to keep pure in this world. How do we keep our children from engaging in evil without allowing them the safety of retreat? What does it mean to be in the world but not of it? Aren’t we supposed to hate sin? Hard questions and this article will not provide an adequate answer. Instead of providing an answer, I wish to pose some questions.
There is so much talk in our Christian culture about “avoiding the appearance of evil,” which translated often means staying away from anything and anyone that is evil. The definition of evil is subjective and interpreted individually by each believer and the verse is oddly utilized in situations that seem to be nothing more than a statement of preference.

Exactly what is evil? If we are applying the biblical definition, the entire world is. After all, it is anti-God, full of self and engaged in a conspiracy that is led by Lucifer himself. If we are going to avoid the appearance of evil, then maybe we should pack up and retreat? Maybe, this is the time to ask the U.S.S. Enterprise to beam us up?

Who do we boycott? What do we allow or not allow? Just how tight do we close our eyes and ears to the cries of the world? Is it wrong to have friends who do not know Christ? If we are to avoid everything that is evil, then should we stop reading the Bible because it contains scenes of rape, drunkenness, witchcraft, murder, lust and sex? How far do we take this? Are we even asking the right questions? If so, then Jesus violated this very command of Paul by associating with those who were evil. As a result, He was indicted as being a drunkard and a glutton (Matthew 11:19). I am grateful He hung out with sinners and loved them. As far as I recall, I am one of those evil sinners He was willing to sit with. The pure Son of God was so pure that He could love someone like me. Maybe that is the question we should be asking. Are we so pure with our lives that we look nothing like Jesus? We worry far too much about how much sin might get in and not enough about how much love might get out.

Maybe the question is not how do we avoid evil or how much evil do we avoid? Rather, how do we love and serve an evil and lost generation? Evangelical Christianity is far too concerned about power: how to get it and how to use it for personal gain. I somehow think that is the opposite of what Jesus is all about. The primary question believers should be asking is “What can I do to serve you?”

The gospel is not about getting “saved” and isolating. It is about a God who came to a sinful world. No matter how hard you try to be neat, changing diapers is a messy business. I suspect, dealing with sin and sinful people is no different. The wise sage of Proverbs tells us that “Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest” (Proverbs 14:4, NLT). There is no question that life is much more defined, predictable and even safe when we disallow sinners into the mix. Scripture does not tell us to keep the stable clean, but to keep our hearts pure. And one of the characteristics of a pure heart is its willingness to change diapers. We can’t transform culture until we find ourselves transformed. Jesus said it this way: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26, NIV).

The life of faith is not about judgment and withdrawal from an evil society. It is about engagement and sacrifice – something like taking up your cross and letting your light shine in such a way that all might see your good deeds and give praise to our Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). As I write this article, I don’t hear too many people giving praise to God because of the good deeds of the church. God have mercy on us!

The revolution will come by way of incarnation, living out the reality of Jesus.

Tell me what you think. Let’s talk about it.

There Is No Box

by Tom Johnston
April 2007

Quite often, when I discuss the spiritual revolution the Lord is fomenting in the West, people consider the ideas and concepts around the issue to be “outside-the-box” thinking. (Some have actually said “Tom, get back in the box!”) In reality, it is simply a journey of radical rediscovery of the basic, orthodox truths of the New Testament scriptures. The core principles of loving God, loving others and making disciples for Christ everywhere all the time are actually the simple heart of Jesus’ teaching. It just seems revolutionary to some, because of their framework, their worldview, their box.

In the 1999 smash movie hit The Matrix, the hero Neo, on one of his journeys into the computer-generated reality of the Matrix encounters a child who is, apparently, bending a spoon with his mind. Neo sees this, and knowing this is impossible, asks how the child is bending the spoon. The child replies – “there is no spoon” – the child knows that the spoon doesn’t really exist, as it is just part of the Matrix sim-world. He is not altering the spoon; having been freed from the superimposed reality of the Matrix, he is willfully altering his perception of reality. Neo, having been recently released from the machine imposed domination of the Matrix, is still having trouble comprehending his reality. In an earlier scene, another character explains the Matrix to Neo, as the “world having been pulled over our eyes.” (Sounds like the first couple chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans to me!)

Many in the Western Church live in a virtual reality, a sim-world of their own making, the First Church of the Matrix, if you will. Not a box of orthodoxy, but a self-imposed box of orthopraxy – how we apply right belief to life and ministry. We have so compartmentalized our Christian existence, so boxed it in, labeled it sacred and secular, right and wrong, proper and improper – that we have marginalized ourselves in the culture. Indeed, even the word orthodoxy used to mean “right worship” – not as an event, but as a way of life lived unto God. We have changed it to mean “right belief,” as doctrine has become our focus. Our doctrine and theology might be O.K. (we all know in part, no stream has it all right - sorry), but our ecclesiology – our understanding of what the Church is, is so fundamentally flawed in the West that we live ineffective lives inside our Matrix-like box.

But the truth is – there is no box. The cultural (and sometimes doctrinal) definitions of “Church” which we hold create the limitations on our worldview, preventing the fullness of the knowledge of Christ to come to us, and ultimately through us to others (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). For His eternal perspective, beyond time and space, God sees no limits on His Church. We are the ones inside the box, inside our Matrix. He only sees His people – He sees sons and daughters, not the programs, budgets, buildings, crusades, outreach events, services or revival meetings. Embracing the simplicity of the Gospel is freeing to the soul, embracing the Church being simply the people of God is freeing to the Gospel.

Unfortunately, for those who think such simplicity is too far outside the box, the only other alternative is to try to “bend the spoon,” or in our case bend the box. Drawing on Jesus’ metaphor, these people have a focus on embellishing the wineskin, rather than focusing on producing some really good, mature spiritual wine (Luke 5:37-39). It is the heart of American marketing and consumerism to accentuate the packaging to sell a marginal or inferior product. Tweak the box all you want – you're still trapped inside it.

Join us in the revolution. Be free from your box. Cast your religious inhibitions aside and pursue Christ and His mission with reckless abandon.

What are your thoughts?