Let the Children Come to Me

Almighty God,
Prepare my heart and mind for the children who come to me. May this classroom be a laboratory for Your reign in this world. Bring glimpses of heaven to this corner of earth. Inspire me into creative experiments of love, compassion, service, humility and wisdom. Let the fear and knowledge of You flow organically from my words, gestures and presence. Oh, that we may discern the truth about Your world in the midst of a cachopony of voices from all over the political spectrum. Empower me with spontaneous energies, breaking out of the routine of day-to-day life on this campus. Liberate me from the daily grind of attention-seeking teens and my own longing to be admired. Let me be a gentle, humble, consistent, confident, non-anxious leader. Give me the audacity to carry around the death of the crucifed and risen Jesus so that the life of Jesus may shine the New Reality through me.
Amen.

Life in the Age to Come

For God loved the world so much that God gave His only Son, so that all those who trust in Him may not be destroyed but may have life in the age to come.
John 3:16

This familiar passage is a highlight of John's story about Jesus the Messiah, the Passover Lamb [Jn 18:39] who died to liberate us from the bondage of worldly systems and powers. Throughout the Hebrew Bible [ie, Psalm 1], God's Story reflects a two-ways tradition: those who are saved because they boldly risk journeying God's way and those who are destroyed by the counterfeit ways of the world. Jesus, as the climax to God's story of Israel's salvation, dies at the hands of the powers that rule this world [a coalition of Roman and Jewish leaders]. On his way to the cross, Jesus confronts worldly power: 'My kingdom is not of this world' [Jn 18:36].

This long-awaited kingdom--or as the Jews called it 'the age to come'--was characterized by Jesus' self-denying love and foot-washing servanthood. God inaugurated the kingdom of God through the life, teaching, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus. Contrary to popular interpretations, Jesus' kingdom is not entered upon death in an other-worldly, disembodied heaven. Instead, the kingdom of God is ‘not of’ this world in terms of its ethos...its way-of-being: disciples enter this kingdom now as we love, suffer and serve the world.

Those of us Americans who 'listen to Jesus' voice' [Jn 18:37] trust that God will one-day fully liberate the world from bondage. Until then, we reject the fear and greed and lust that saturate the counterfeit stories that our world tells us. We are scripted by an alternative story featuring a God who loves His creation so much that He's willing to give his Son in self-donating love and calls forth a People 'who belongs to the truth' [Jn 18:37] by imitating His love with imagination.

Independence for All

This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony...

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced...

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages...

...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery...
Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

In the decade leading up to the civil war, the prophetic-Christian-former-slave-turned-abolionist Frederick Douglass, gave a speech in his hometown of Rochester, New York to commemmorate the Fourth of July. Douglass boldly proclaimed that he could not celebrate the holiday since his fellow black Americans continued to suffer the injustice of slavery, as well as the undignified condition of not even being considered human beings by common white citizens and the offical force of law.

Douglass quotes from the Bible extensively, but his scripting strategy subverted that of his detractors--like the prestiguous Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary--who [at their best] reluctantly admitted that the Bible was crystal clear. God ordained slavery:

The fact that the Mosaic institutions recognized the lawfulness of slavery is a point too plain to need proof, and is almost universally admitted. Our argument from this acknowledged fact is that if God allowed slavery to exist, if he directed how slaves might be lawfully acquired, and how they were to be treated, it is in vain to contend that slaveholding is a sin, and yet profess reverence for the Scriptures.
Charles Hodge

While Hodge was mired in the controversial theological and political debate of his own Presbyterian denomination [trying to keep abolitionist and pro-slavery camps together], Douglass spoke prophetically on behalf of his marginalized, vulnerable black brothers and sisters who suffered:

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

Douglass' strategic biblical scripting was liberated through the checks and balances of inhumanity. If it ain't humane, it ain't divine. He refused to miss the forest for the trees. The whole story of Scripture was about a God who was determined to liberate all of humanity from all enslaving forces: political, economic, spiritual, social, etc. Douglass quoted from Isaiah's vision of God's coming kingdom, gaining interpretive leverage with a passage fulfilled in Peter and John's Temple healing in Acts 3:1-16: the kingdom of God had arrived!

In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart." [Isaiah 35:6]

"The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. [Isaiah 59:1]

Speaking on behalf of all black Americans, who mostly embraced the faith of their slave masters, Douglass equated emancipation with the coming reign of God who would most certainly deliver them from bondage.

Quoting from the most notorious of 'lament Psalms' [137], Douglass scripted the black American children of God into the role of the exiled Israelites, taken captive by Babylonian soldiers who made them play musical instruments for them:

If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"

Douglass' prophetic words certainly criticized America's failure to live up to the words of Scripture and the Declaration of Independence. But his speech ended with hope. He drew on the first page of the Bible:

The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.

His hope was in a God who actively engaged with the injustice of the world. Patiently and gently, Douglass called for God's light to break forth into the dark world of American chattel slavery.

Douglass modeled a beautiful form of Bible Study. Those of us who pledge allegiance to God's Kingdom breaking into the world of sin, death and oppression, read in order to be transferred into God's Story. It is a liberating word for us now, in our own unique context. Our vision is to read prophetically and imaginatively, like Douglass, instead of whole-heartedly clinging to the status quo of the universalized, dogmatic truth mined out of the text, like Hodge. The tragedy of this biblical reading contest was that the slavery issue was ultimately decided by a brutal war, not by a genuine dialogue of Christians straining for consensus [like Acts 15]. Of course, we all now look back and side with Douglass' prophetic biblical outcome, but many Evangelicals 150 years ago concurred with Hodge's more 'scientific' readings [a reading strategy that continues to dominate Evangelicalism today]. This leads us Jesus-followers to the timely question: how do we discern what the Bible says concerning justice issues involving women, children, the poor, war, homosexuality, the unborn, workers and immigrants?

This week, we Americans celebrate the Fourth of July for the first time under the leadership of an African-American President. Barack Obama campaigned in the tradition of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King and his inauguration was a partial fulfillment of what they lived [and died] for. But we prophetic Christians [what Cornel West calls 'a tradition of those who side with the weak'] still have much work to do as we speak truth to power, invoking our sacred Scripture and our Constitution to work for justice for our most vulnerable among us so that we can all experience Independence in its most authentic form.

This year, will God's Kingdom Light shine on...

...the brutal killing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan?
...321,480 homes lost to foreclosure just last month?
...46 million people without adequate health care?
...1 million aborted fetuses in the US?
...12 million undocumented immigrants living in fear?
...30 million unemployed workers who are looking for jobs?
...10 million gays and lesbians yearning for basic rights?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful.
Frederick Douglass

The Fierce Urgency of Now

It's been 42 years since Martin Luther King delivered his anti-war sermon to the Riverside Church in New York City [04.04.1967]. Delivered exactly one year before his assassination, this was the speech that finally set off the Powers-that-Be in the United States. Some folks found King's subject a bit odd coming from a civil rights preacher, but he gave 7 reasons why his conscience left him no other choice but to speak out boldly against American military action in Vietnam [and why we Evangelicals follow this prophetic voice and speak out against our current military endeavors]:

1. War is always an enemy of the poor

Spending billions on fighting so-called enemies 8,000 miles away from our borders acts 'like some demonic, destructive suction tube,' as domestic programs helping the vulnerable, disadvanted and marginalized are slashed.

2. The poor fought and died in higher proportions to the rest of society

Young men are manipulated to join up in order to earn money for living expenses or college. For many, it's the only choice after the high school years.

3. Social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action

King called the United States 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,' but didn't stand up as an innocent bystander, admitting it as 'my own government.' True change never comes from living out the myth of redemptive violence.

4. To save the soul of America

'If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read 'Vietnam.'
This war, like so many others, was 'some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war.'

5. His Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 made him a spokeman

This commission came from allegiances that transcended nationalism and patriotism.

6. As a minister of the enemy-loving Jesus Christ

If our Lord loved his enemies so much that he died for them, then what were Christians thinking to ordain and approve this war?

7. Bound by an allegiance to God's Reign

King was first and foremost a son of the living God. Peacemakers are blessed and shall be called 'children of God' [Matthew 5:9]. We worship a God who raises the dead...we can risk nonviolent obedience to his manifesto.

King's vocation to give a voice to the voiceless wasn't just his own. He called upon all ministers of the gospel of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Calling upon immediate action [the fierce urgency of now], he called on people of conscience to abandon profits and privilege and be willing to sacrifice for God's Dream for the world.

This sacrifice, for King, must be soaked in what he called 'a true revolution of values.' This was a call to abandon our Western arrogance, [assuming that we need to teach others] and learn to listen to the voices of the other. This revolution of love, peace, fairness and justice would trump the truly systemic challenges of racism, poverty and militarism.

King called upon a progressive brand of Christianity who 'rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.' God's Dream for the world [the Kingdom of God] is at hand. We anticipate it by enacting it with loving creativity. This movement is ecumenical, open to all people of conscience, regardless of faith, nationality, sex or class. Jesus infused this vision to his disciples in Mark's gospel: Whoever is not against us is for us.'

Today, King's 'beloved community' continues to be sidelined by followers of Jesus who are convinced that Jesus' message was spiritual and future, rather than spiritual and political and economic: a dedication to 'the fierce urgency of now.' We need to relearn that long-lost line of the disciples prayer: May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In our stance towards Iraq and Afghanistan [and heating up in Iran], health care privileges, immigration status, and marital freedom, those of us who boldly take on a vocation of agony should strive for deep structural change to make the beautiful symphony of brotherhood a reality.

Everything in bold comes from his sermon entitled Beyond Vietnam. Let us meditate on these words today in our time of contemplation and prayer, concluding with 'Come, Lord Jesus.'

Homosexuality, the Bible and the Kingdom of God

Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

Those of us who believe strongly in the authority of the Bible read passages like this with fear and trepidation. The Apostle Paul, writing to the network of house churches in Rome some 20-25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, declares at the outset that homosexual behavior is the result of humanity's idolatry: arrogantly or ignorantly refusing to worship the Creator. Paul not only declares, he reasons, noting the unnatural nature of gay and lesbian sexual activity.

Evangelical Christians are unwaveringly taught that homosexuality is an easy, non-negotiable issue: there are 6 passages dotted throughout Scripture and all of them condemn it. Slam dunk. Game over. In recent conversations about gay marriage [Proposition 8 in CA], gays in the military [will Obama overturn 'don't ask, don't tell'?] and, first and foremost, gay/lesbian participation in Christian discipleship have opened the Bible to a mostly closed conversation. This issue, perhaps more than any in the American suburban context, opens our eyes to what it means for the Bible to function authoritatively in our lives.

Two passages in Israel's Torah [Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13], call homosexual behavior an abomination. The context is the radical formation of a new community, in a new land, setting themselves apart from the religious and social practices of Egypt [where they came from] and Canaan [their destination]. God would not tolerate the practice of homosexual prostitution used in the worship of foreign gods, nor would God condone the shameful degradation used in military practice after the invasion of a city. Perhaps, God was reminding his people of the need to increase in numbers ['be fruitful and multiply'] as they grew into a nation who would be a 'light to the nations.'

In the NT, Paul writes [in Greek] to the small Gentile Christian community in Corinth to abstain from μαλακοi & aρσενοκοiται. Contextually, these referred to the ancient practices of pederastry, a older, weathy man [aρσενοκοiται] purchasing a younger boy [μαλακοi] as a sexual slave. Even though it is hard for us to fathom, this nonconsensual, dehumanizing practice was a live option for Corinthian disciples of Jesus and, surely, those in Christ would abstain from it! These aρσενοκοiται would be the equivalent of 'dirty, perverted old men' today who get off on porn, prostitutes, or the old guy who used to attend baseball games at the University of Kansas to masturbate to girls' feet [sad, but true story].

In I Timothy 1:10, Paul again refers to aρσενοκοiταις and adds another group: aνδραποδισταiς. This probably was a word referring to kidnappers and sexual slave traders, supplying many of the μαλακοi for wealthy men. Again, horrific group of guys...no wonder Paul banned them from the Kingdom of God.

Lastly, there is Paul's blatant condemnation of gays and lesbian sexuality found in the introduction to his scroll letter to the Romans. Paul is reasoning from nature, just like the secular philosophers from the Roman Empire. These philosophers believed sex was for procreation and to stem the tide of overflowing lust. He had no concept of homosexuality as a committed relationship of two equal partners. He had no concept of homosexuality as intensely rooted in one's identity. He had no concept of the very live possibility that men and women develop sexual attraction and urges at birth or the first 18 months of life.

With this contextuality laid out before us, we must now decide what biblical authority means for us today. Most of us Evangelicals have been trained to understand Truth [with a capital 'T'] as coming from a simple and certain reading of the Bible. As my 4th grade teacher at Capistrano Valley Christian School used to say, 'God said it, I believe it and that settles it.' But a lot of issues in Scripture have become unsettled as we think critically about the text, weighing scientific and social-scientific findings, our own experience, the life testimony of others and the results of history: think slavery, women's roles/rights, charging interest on loans & sexuality in marriage [is it all about procreation?].

First of all, homosexuality is not a meta-label that we can use with broad brush strokes. Not all forms of homosexuality [like heterosexuality] are equal. We can narrow our questions [gay marriage, gays in the military, gay discipleship] to a specific form of homosexual orientation and behavior: the commitment to celibacy or monogamy [date one partner with sexual integrity or be committed for life in marriage to one partner in fidelity--just as we expect heterosexual disciples of Jesus]. Homosexual activity in baths and bars, one-night stands, prostitution, porn, partner-swapping--these are all dehumanizing, destructive and, most often times, non-consensual behaviors. The bold experiment of two men [or two women] committing to a lifetime of love, service, forgiveness, empathy and, yes, sexual intimacy should be a live consideration for radical followers of Jesus whose sexual testimony declares same-sex feelings/urges.

Second, the living Word, the movement of the Holy Spirit [the presence of the risen Christ!] as discerned through Scripture, prayer, testimony and consensus decision-making [see Acts 15 for our profound model] is the biblical paradigm for how God speaks in every era. Throughout Scripture, God's Word changes. Two examples: in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, Jesus overturns God's Word to Israel ['you have heard that it was said, but I say to you']; in addition, Paul's reading of Scripture [the Hebrew Bible] consistently finds fresh interpretive meaning and value as a result of God's shocking arrival in Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth. When the Body of Christ is bound by a status-quo reading of Scripture, we have often been positioned on the wrong side of history, oppressing the truth. Two examples [of many] should suffice here:

Martin Luther said, ‘This fool Copernicus wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture in Joshua 10:13 tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.’ Not only does this Luther quote remind us to humbly weigh what our leaders are saying, it also reminds of how not to read the Bible. Luther was assuming that the author of Joshua got it right in regards to everything, including astronomy. We know Copernicus was right and Luther's reading of Scripture was wrong.

In similar ways, the legendary Princeton theologian Charles Hodge found himself waffling in the middle of the 19th century with the moral question of his day: slavery. He wrote, ‘The fact that the Mosaic institutions recognized the lawfulness of slavery is a point too plain to need proof, and is almost universally admitted. Our argument from this acknowledged fact is that if God allowed slavery to exist, if he directed how slaves might be lawfully acquired, and how they were to be treated, it is in vain to contend that slaveholding is a sin, and yet profess reverence for the Scriptures.’ A flat biblical reading strategy led to Hodge's blunder.

Third, gay and lesbian issues are being swept under the carpet by Evangelical leaders partly because of homosexuality's uber-minority status. Just 2-3% of the American population professes a homosexual orientation. This leaves the gay community at the whims of the overwhelming majority of heterosexuals who mostly do not understand the issue [they've never had these feelings/urges] and mostly do not see it ever affecting their lives. They don't know gay people [or so they think] so they don't see it affecting their discipleship. However, homosexuality's minority status [both in numbers and in terms of oppression through name-calling, physical abuse and withholding Constitutional rights] should automatically make it a live issue for Evangelicals since God consistently moves at the periphery of society: ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ God is the protector of the oppressed, marginalized and broken-hearted over and over and over again in the Bible.

My wife has studied the issue of long-term homosexual relationships. Studies of non-distressed homosexual populations HAVE shown that gay male couples are actually more cohesive (on average) than heterosexual married couples, who are (on average) more disengaged. Are same-sex marriages a prophetic model for the onslaught of broken marriages in the American Body of Christ? Perhaps there is much we heterosexuals [who have the protected right to get married as many times as we like] can learn from this minority group.

What then shall we do?

1. Learn: there are some excellent, eye-opening writings by well-respected theologians that have put a lot of time and energy [and been converted] into this issue. Walter Wink and Jeffrey Siker are two valuable conversation partners.

2. Listen: when gay and lesbian disciples of Jesus tell their story it is a powerful spiritual practice. Their passion and pain are doubly convicting. Check the internet to see what's going on in your area. There are great opportunities even in the OC!

3. Prayerful Dialogue: what do your brothers and sisters in Christ think about this issue and how are they coming to these convictions? This happens best over a beverage of choice and a lot of space to ask questions and the boldness to leave some of them unanswered.

4. Mainstream the Conversation: ask your pastors and ministry leaders to make this topic a priority. Multiple voices should be represented in a forum that asks: should gays and lesbians be included as full participants in the Kingdom of God? [just like multiple voices were heard when Gentiles were considered for full membership in God's family...again, see Acts 15]. Most Evangelical pastors are scared to death of fully entering this conversation because what their congregations will think.

So...some follow up questions to consider:

1. Is homosexuality is sin? Depends on what one means by 'homosexuality.' I would propose that there are two gay options just as there are two heterosexual options: celibacy or monogamy---taking sexual integrity seriously. These options are not a sin, but an opportunity for service and growth in the kingdom of God. Other options [homosexual or heterosexual] are dehumanizing, destructive and erodes God's intent for love and sexuality.

2. Can someone be both 'gay' and 'Christian?' Depends on what one means by 'gay' and 'Christian.' Since my wife and I are rooted the Anabaptist Christian tradition, I believe a Christian is one who makes a decision to pledge allegiance to God's Kingdom. The New Testament refuses to define Christian faith outside of radical, scandalous discipleship: loving and forgiving our neighbor & enemy, serving the marginalized and committing to radical alternatives [to secular and accultured Christian options] of relationship, spirituality, justice and beauty as illustrated by God's Story in Scripture. For my definition of 'gay,' see #1. So, a 'gay Christian' is one who commits to radical, scandalous discipleship to the One they fall in love with [Jesus] and who commits to a life of reflecting Jesus' love, forgiveness and service to the other one they fall in love with [the member of the same-sex who completes him/her].

3. Am I crazy? Let the conversation begin.

You Know You are a Fundamentalist if...

As you read each statement, ponder whether or not this is a conviction of yours.

You know you are a Fundamentalist Christian if you agree with these…

1. The Bible is the inerrant word of God.
2. It is possible to read the Bible objectively and the Spirit will make its meaning self-evident. People read it wrongly when they read it through their own sinful filters [lifestyles, beliefs, etc].
3. Because the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is completely, literally and historically accurate about everything it reports.
4. Absolute Truth is known through an accurate reading of the Bible.
5. Christians have a duty to stand up for the Truth.
6. ‘Politics’ is mostly a waste of time.
7. When you do spend time and resources on politics, Christian morality issues like abortion and gay marriage are the most important issues.
8. The goal of Bible reading is to find the one correct meaning for each passage and then apply it to your life.
9. The Old Testament is about the Jews trying to work their way to God and earn their salvation [and fail]…the New Testament is about God giving grace through Jesus Christ to those [Christians] who admit they’ll never be perfect.
10. Salvation is about going to heaven when you die.
11. You can only go to heaven if you have made a personal decision for Jesus Christ [as Lord and Savior].
12. The world is divided into spiritual things [or souls] that will live forever and material things [the rest of life] that will pass away forever.
13. Life is made up of a series of decisions: either for God or against him. We can’t blame anyone or anything for our plight.
14. Sin is ‘missing the mark’ of what God wants for human life.
15. God is angry with sin, but wants all humanity to be saved through Jesus.
16. Satan is a real being and does everything in his power to keep you from worshipping and serving God.
17. God has designated the man as the spiritual leader in the family and the church.
18. God created the world in a literal 6 days.
19. God will end the world with the rapture, saving His people and destroying the wicked.
20. Homosexuality is a sin. The Bible and nature prove that it perverts God’s original intent for sexuality.
21. At least one of these guys is your ‘pastor-hero’ [depending on your style]:
a. Francis Chan
b. John Piper
c. Mark Driscoll
d. Pat Robertson
e. Rick Warren
f. Franklin Graham
g. John MacArthur
h. Andy Stanley
i. James Dobson
j. Chuck Smith

These 21 Questions are my attempt to describe the distinct tribe of Christians who called themselves 'fundamentalists' back in the early 20th century [they published more than 100 pamphlets titled The Fundamentals and distributed them to churches all over North America]. This movement fought hard against the onslaught of theological liberalism and issues like evolution that were 'invading' Christian culture. They continue to have a lot of influence in our culture today. In fact, one of their own took up residence in the White House for the first 8 years of the 21st century. These 21 statements are not meant to be sarcastic or rude. They are meant to spark conversation and identify theological concepts that are contested: each of these convictions are not shared by other Christian traditions. I'd love to hear additions, questions, comments and concerns.

For more on this from academics, check out George Marsden & Mark Noll [histoically and sociologically] and Nancey Murphy's legendary Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism [philosophically]. Marcus Borg helpfully adds that there are 'hard' fundamentalists and 'soft' fundamentalists [theologically]. One of my professors at Fuller, John Goldingay, once told us in class that Evangelicals in North America have the unique contextual challenge of emerging out of fundamentalism...this takes time [Goldingay is British and observes a much stronger attraction towards fundamentalism in the States].

I write because I yearn for a Christian movement that transcends the fundamentalist/liberal packages. I would argue that the 21 statements above are not necessarily 'wrong,' but they are framing questions and focusing on certain concepts in harmful or skewed ways. I am humbly claiming that American fundamentalists misrepresent authentic Christian faith. Through my research, I am compelled that they are asking questions that Jesus and his original disciples would have never asked. For instance, the original followers of Jesus would have never understand Scripture as 'error-free' or historically accurate in the modern sense. They would not have understood salvation as 'going to heaven when you die' either. If I were to add a #22, it would be that fundamentalists live with the assumption that there is only one form of Christian faith: theirs [they struggle to recognize the contested nature of theological concepts & biblical interpretations within the various Christian traditions/denominations]. More to come in the next post.

Wright's Simply Christian [2006]

NT Wright, the renowned British Anglican bishop, has written the Mere Christianity [CS Lewis in 1952] for our time: Simply Christian [2006]. Bland adjectives like ‘mere’ and ‘simply’ do not adequately describe Wright’s theological work. One cannot simply read his work with a shrug of the shoulders claiming that he’s offering nothing new. He is a pioneer, trailblazing fresh ways to understand Christian faith in the new world of post-modernity, where Europe has and the United States is moving away from Christendom [being a cohesive Christian society]. However, he is not trying to be original. In all of his scholarly works [and there are a lot!], he is asserting the best of biblical and historical scholarship to make claims about what the original message of Christian faith was [and is] all about and how it has been muddled by various cultures since then. The genius of NT Wright is that he is a genius...yet he can still communicate with the rest of us ordinary pilgrims who care deeply about discipleship and mission in a rapidly changing world. I've mined out 7 key paradigm shifts that I think Wright offers all of us who dare to engagement this work critically:

1. Compelling, not Proving: Wright’s 'apologetics' [his defense of Christian faith] is anything but defensive. He outlines 4 concepts universal to humanity, whether one lives in Lorrach, Germany or Littleton, Colorado:

• A Longing for Justice
• A Quest for Spirituality
• A Hunger for Relationship
• The Delight in Beauty

Wright calls these ‘echoes of a voice’ that whisper to the deepest parts of who we are. His treatise isn’t ‘a case for Christ’ or ‘evidence that demands a verdict.’ Wright knows we can’t prove Christian faith, but instead, he is attempting to provide a compelling portrait of why the biblical story makes sense. Christian faith, according to Wright, is true because it answers our deepest questions and yearnings. This voice that beckons us—that we can hear if we take time to listen and ponder—is from the God who created the world and is now determined to put the world back to rights.

2. Joining God’s People: The Christian story is about what God did through Israel, climaxing in Jesus the Messiah, to put the world back together again. The story becomes gospel—a great message—for us today because of what it means for us now. Our participation brings significance to the lost cause of living for ourselves. We imaginatively bring healing to a broken world through Spirit-inspired words and deeds. God invites us into the adventure of participating with him in this humble task, imitating Jesus Christ, the One who embodied the justice, spirituality, relationship and beauty that God designed for humanity to experience.

3. Not a disembodied heaven, but a renewed earth: The message isn’t only about now. It oozes hope. But hope is not about our souls spending eternal life in a disembodied heaven. Jesus’ resurrection is the first-fruits of resurrected life on this earth in the future. God inaugurated his kingdom in Jesus and now we live faithfully anticipating God’s eternal kingdom on earth, when all tears and pain and death are wiped away. God’s people live boldly as a sign and foretaste of the kingdom in the rugged details of our unique contexts. God’s kingdom, known partially now, will be fully realized when Christ re-appears in the near future!

4. Kingdom—According to Wright: ‘…we are all invited—summoned actually—to discover, through following Jesus, that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as in heaven.’ The Kingdom of God is not contained in some faraway heaven or individual hearts. Wright critiques the rapture—the idea that Jesus will return in the clouds to rescue Christians from this dirty, sinful, soon-to-be-destroyed world. Instead, Jesus will return to this world and restore it to Garden of Eden status—peaceful and harmonious, just as God intended. But God has been planting seeds of the kingdom from the original disciples through more than 100 generations of Christian communities all over the world. Now is the time to be a citizenship of God’s Dream for the world.

5. Israel: Wright claims that Christians wrongfully tell the biblical story when they jump from creation and fall straight to Jesus. There is an extremely important story between Genesis 3 and Matthew 1! It’s the story of God’s redemption strategy through Abraham’s family, the nation of Israel. God intended all along to bring justice to this world [‘putting the world to rights’] through Israel. This worshipping and serving family would model God’s justice socially, politically and economically. Israel continuously, throughout the Old Testament, fails at this vocation and is exiled from their promised land and scattered throughout the world. God never gives up. One of the key components to the significance of God sending Jesus the Messiah was [and is] to invite Gentiles to join Jews in participating with God in this ongoing adventure. Jesus—as the Jewish Messiah—fulfills the key Jewish concepts like Temple [where God’s Spirit dwelt], Torah [God’s Word to God’s People], King [a new David, a mighty leader after God’s own heart] and New Creation [a whole new world of peace, joy and love].

6. Forgiveness of Sins: the New Testament’s emphasis on sins forgiven must be rooted in this understanding of exiled Israel. Israel, as God’s people, was wayward in their vocation to model God’s intended path for humanity. They were steered toward dehumanizing practices like worshipping idols and hoarding their possessions away from vulnerable groups like widows, orphans and resident aliens. They needed to be forgiven collectively and to be set straight on God’s path. Jesus gathered around himself disciples, re-interpreting and intensifying God’s laws from the Old Testament, forming a new people to renew Israel’s pledge to be God’s people for the world. His death on the cross was interpreted by his earliest followers as a once-and-for-all sacrificial offering to atone for the sins of God’s people.

7. The Authority of the Bible—many American Evangelical Christians use words like ‘inerrant’ or ‘infallible’ to describe the Bible’s authority. Wright refuses to frame the Bible in these ways. It is not an encyclopedia of timeless & absolute truths or universal principles. Wright explains that the Bible is not that type of book. He compares the Bible to a script for actors or choreography for a dance. The Bible must be interpreted and imaginatively performed. It most certainly is not a rule book telling people to do this or don’t do that. It contains diverse narratives, poems, songs, strange apocalyptic literature, letters and, yes, some contextual rules within all these.