An Invitation to Balance

I am not a Muslim. Nor am I a Jew, a Hindu, Buddhist, Methodist, Catholic or Baptist (although I honor and cherish my Baptist background); nor am I an advocate for any of the above. I recognize that each has made positive contributions and had negative impact on human history, and I respect the right of anyone to adhere to any of them.

This writing will not argue the relative merits or weaknesses of any of the above. While I am more than willing to share my own faith perspectives with any who want to hear, I have no desire—indeed, I have no right—to inflict my perspectives on anyone who does not wish to listen.[1]

I advocate open sharing between all the above, in order to generate greater mutual understanding and appreciation, because there is much common ground among all us—common ground upon which to build a more peaceful, cooperative and enriched humanity.

But I face a wall. I've lived on the other side of the wall, so I think I understand and empathize with those who are there, and I have no wish to insist that they conform to my perspective before we proceed.

Here’s the wall: there are those who, because of their utterly sincere faith and commitment do insist that all humanity accept their confession of faith before we proceed. Nor does their faith and commitment encourage them to collaborate with those who are not under their roof.

I understand that. As I say, I’ve held the same passion as they; a passionate belief that they hold the exclusive, ultimate truth of God—which is the only path to God and to eternal salvation—and that they are responsible for proclaiming that truth until all of humanity has accepted it and has made the same affirmations they have made.

I honor that sense of commitment, nor would I ask them to cease and desist in their efforts (although I would wish them to honor the rights of those who feel violated by some of their strategies. Indeed, I find some of their strategies counterproductive to the Gospel. That’s another debate I’m willing to pursue, but in a different venue.)

Jim Wallis[2] recalls a public forum in which he debated a close friend and colleague, Southern Baptist seminary president, Dr. Albert Mohler. The topic was, “Is social justice an essential part of the gospel and the mission of the church?”[3]

Wallis argued yes, justice is integral to the gospel. Dr. Mohler said no, arguing that social justice was important but that “the gospel” was the atonement brought about in Christ that saves us from our sins and secures our souls for heaven. Wallis reports:

“It was a very civil and respectful conversation because Al and I know each other and because both of us wanted to demonstrate a kind of discourse different from what now prevails in our culture and politics. But we did disagree, and our disagreement is at the heart of very different visions today for the future of the church” (emphasis mine).

First of all, I find it refreshing and encouraging when disagreeing Christians debate with civility and respect, and remain close friends.

In this writing, let’s affirm Dr. Mohler’s stance that biblical imperatives for justice are important, but only an implication of the gospel. In practice, I have rarely seen evangelicals acknowledge social justice as important at all.

In fairness, I confess that, except for a few congregations and isolated judicatory examples, my own denomination is seriously lacking in effective evangelistic theory and practice. Actually, many of our constituents reject evangelism as valid (although, I have the sense that by evangelism they mean those counterproductive strategies to which I refer earlier).

So, here’s my question: can we overlap? Is it possible for evangelical and mainline Christians to work together on both evangelism and social justice without anyone compromising a priority?

I understand that we don’t even agree on terminology (e.g., I and most mainline Protestants don’t buy “substitutionary” atonement.) 

But, bottom line, whether atonement/justification/salvation is substitutionary or exemplary or sacramental or reconciliatory or universal, the overwhelming majority of Christians will agree that Jesus is the medium through which God extended (or at least demonstrated) that salvation, and that such extension/demonstration was an expression of pure grace.

Never mind that we won’t even agree totally on what grace is (e.g., virtually all will say it is “unmerited favor;” that it can’t be earned. But some will place prerequisites upon the reception of grace, while others will say it is given gratuitously.)

Never mind that we will never agree on all of the faith. Can we at least start to work together, just so the world can witness what a united Body of Christ looks like?

Gandhi is reported to have said, “I love your Jesus. It’s Christians that give me problems.” 

A sizeable portion of the generation called “Millennials” would agree, and are leaving the church en mass. Thomas G, Bandy calls them the fastest growing spiritual population in North America: the "spiritually yearning, institutionally disillusioned public."

Can we begin to remove that roadblock to the Gospel?

That’s how I see it through the flawed glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

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[1] I do not limit this discussion to the groups named above; indeed, should I try to be all-inclusive, it would be an exercise in futility. Suffice it to say that the above constitutes a representative sampling of the human diversity that I believe enriches humanity.

[2] Wallis is a self-proclaimed evangelical; although, his social activism has resulted in his being pushed, at best, to the periphery of evangelical circles. Indeed, many evangelicals reject him as a valid Christian voice.

[3] Wallis, Jim (2013-08-15). Who Jesus Is and Why It Matters (Ebook Shorts) (Kindle Locations 192-213). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Seven Biblical Principles of Unity--#1

The Priority of Unity: It Is the Mystery of God’s Will

Ephesians 1:9-10 (RSV) (God) has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

When your kids were growing up, my guess is that the most frequent question they asked was, “Why?” Well, I never outgrew that. I’m the kid that took his parents’ alarm clock apart to see how it worked. (But I was going to put it back together…)

I was a curious kid. I remember a Sunday School teacher responding in exasperation to a barrage of my questions, “Jimmy, there are just some things we’re not supposed to know.” And when I responded, “Then why did God give us a brain?” she slapped me—right across the chops. She told my father I’d been disrespectful and, back home he got right to the seat of the problem! Well, the questions didn’t go away, but I stopped asking them to her.

I still don’t believe her comment: “There are some things we’re just not supposed to know.” Really? Then why DID God give us a brain?

The text above lets us in on ‘the mystery (a better translation is “secret”) of God’s will!” Privileged with that information, what else do we need to know? The only information withheld—which also was withheld from Jesus, himself—is the day and hour of his return.

So, what is this secret? The RSV says it is “to unite”; the KJV says, “…to gather together in one…” And the text modifies the idea with the words, “…all things in heaven and on earth under Christ”. All the vital forces of the universe are brought into focus in Christ. And when “all things in heaven and on earth” are brought into their true relationship with Christ, they also are brought into their true relationship with each other—into an all-embracing, universal harmony. One way to know if we are in true relationship with Christ is to examine our relationship with each other!

Nothing is more important to God than the unity of all God’s creation. It is the mystery—the secret—of God’s will. Consider:

·         1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

·         Ephesians 4:11-13 It was (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

·         Colossians 3:13-14 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

·         Psalm 133:1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

·         Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another.

·         Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And in the garden Jesus prayed this for his disciples:

·         John 17:20 ^“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” 

I could go on and on with verse after verse of Scripture. Nothing is more important to God. Unity is the mystery—the secret—of God’s will.

But a clarification is necessary. Unity is not uniformity—it’s not “same-ness.” It was never intended to be. We’re not called to be alike. Each of us unique with our own unique set of spiritual gifts.

Nor is unity found in agreement of opinion, philosophy or ideology. It’s not demonstrably possible to experience agreement at those levels. Democrats and Republicans will never agree totally—on anything. Nor will Baptists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians and Disciples and Methodists and Catholics and entrepreneurial independents…

God created free choice! I can’t believe God expected or even desired that humans agree on everything (although God intended humans to disagree with integrity, respect and love, and in the process to discover new truth in each other’s’ perspectives).

God created us differently so we could mutually enrich each other. A choir singing in unison produces beautiful sounds; but a choir doesn’t reach its greatest potential until it produces wonderful, rich harmony—beautiful precisely because the sopranos, altos, tenors and basses all are singing different notes at the same time!

In Paul’s body metaphors of Ephesians and Romans it becomes clear that the church lives up to its full potential precisely because each of us is different!

So, having establishing the theme of the epistle, the writer of Ephesians moves through the metaphor of the Body to this literary masterpiece, summarizing the unity that is the mystery—the secret—of God’s will: “…speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:15-16 (NIV)

And so, the cat’s out of the bag! It’s no longer a secret!

And that’s how I see it through the flawed glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

Seven Biblical Principles of Unity--Introduction

[Today I begin a series of eight blogs on “unity”. At its core is the closing series of sermons I delivered at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Introduction and Epilogue have been added for the blogs.

Disciples were founded out of a desire to see Christ’s Church united. “Unity is our polar star”, has long been our still elusive aim; although, disunity remains too much our reality.

I offer these “Seven Biblical Principles of Unity” in the hope that individuals, families, groups and congregations may find in them a path to unity. I offer them in absolute confidence that to the extent that these seven principles are applied faithfully by any congregation or group, the result will be an experience of the unity we humans long to have.]

“Seven Biblical Principles of Unity”: Introduction

If I had to choose one word to describe today’s North American culture, it would be a real challenge: but high on the list of possibilities would be the word, “disunity.”

From the halls of congress, to Wall Street and Madison Avenue, to our systems of economy, education, jurisprudence and health care, to the board rooms of the corporate world—and yes, even in the church—disunity too often is a primary trait.

We humans long for unity; but too often by unity we mean uniformity—conformity to specific ideologies and traditions and moral standards. And when we confuse unity with uniformity we virtually always set ourselves up for failure.

Nor is unity the same as agreement, although those who are in agreement also will experience, within the limits of that agreement a level of unity.

Humanity is broken. The Bible calls it “sin”—a condition in which people generally have placed their own needs, desires, preferences, ideologies, etc. as the ultimate reality, and then essentially have made God in their own image (so to speak) and placed God in position to provide and sustain those personal needs, desires, preferences, etc. That particular expression of brokenness/sin is called idolatry, and it can be manifest at an individual level, but it also has shared manifestations in families, groups and nations. And, yes, it has infected the church, as well.

Given that human brokenness, in which individuals and groups place their own ideologies as ultimate reality, agreement is virtually impossible. But, where agreement is not possible, understanding still remains a valid pathway to unity. 

When we confuse unity with agreement, we broken humans don't want to understand or to be understood. Too often we don't want to resolve differences. We want to win the fight. In our brokenness, about the best we can hope for is overlapping needs and preferences, with emphasis on the “preferences.” Then people divide up into groups with similar preferences and exert massive quantities of energy attempting to convert other individuals and groups to affirm and support their own preferences.

We set ourselves up for failure because when we broken humans don’t find the level of conformity or agreement we desire, we too frequently resort to familiar patterns of manipulation and confrontation (some to the point of violence) in order to enforce our own perspectives—to inflict them on everyone who disagrees.

Those familiar patterns of coercion are rooted in what theologian Walter Wink calls “the myth of redemptive violence.” To sustain that myth we first must locate all evil outside ourselves and assume that our ideology is “right”. By extension, then, anything else is “wrong”. It’s only a short journey from identifying other ideologies as “wrong” to calling them “evil”. By ignoring or even denying our own evil, we can easily scapegoat others: the commies, the gays, the straights, the blacks, the whites, the liberals, the conservatives, the President (whoever happens to be in office at the time), etc.

The next level in “the myth of redemptive violence” is the conviction that, since other ideologies are wrong, and thus evil, they must be eliminated at all costs, and since our perspective is right and good, it must prevail, no matter what. The result is an “ends-justify-the-means” ethic. And when the good guys finally win (no matter by what means—whatever it takes, regardless of ethical or moral considerations) we humans are then able to re-establish a sense of goodness (however the good guys—that’s us—define goodness) without coming to any insight about our own inner evil.

That’s not unity. Nor is it peace. It’s domination and intimidation and forced conformity.

Of course it’s an extreme scenario!

Or is it?

It’s extreme only by degree, and to some degree since the emergence of the conquest empires of the late fourth millennium BCE, it has been a dominant pattern of human interaction—and especially a dominant pattern of resolving conflict and resolving the eternal question of who will control a given relationship, be it one-on-one or global in scope.

Control: possibly the sine qua non of all human disunity. It at least is the opposite of unity. Yet, lacking an effective model for unity, we humans too easily settle for conformity and then spend our energies enforcing that conformity.

While I have not yet found a comprehensive biblical model for unity, I have found seven biblical principles which can be organized in such a way that their cumulative effect is at least a foundation for such a biblical model.

And that's how I see it through the flawed glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim