Caught Off-Guard by Grace

In the book, Addiction and Grace, the following words by Gerald G. May resonate strongly with what I have discovered and continue to discover about God's grace :

"Grace is only truly appreciated and expressed in the actual, immediate experience of real life situations...it can only be 'lived into.'

"Living into the mystery of grace requires encountering grace as a real gift. Grace is not earned. it is not accomplished or achieved. It is not extracted through manipulation or seduction. It is just given. Nothing in our conditioning prepares us for this radical reality. Some would say that early childhood experiences with our parents is important in determining how we come to accept grace in later life. If we had loving, trustworthy parents rather than rejecting or unreliable ones, we would grow up more willing to accept God's grace as a gift. I do not think this is so. We all have trouble accepting the radical giftedness of God's grace, no matter what our childhood experience. God's grace is simply not part of our conditioning. Nor can we make it so, though we are sure to try. All our attempts to control the flow of grace will be frustrated because, like God, grace will not become an object for attachment. 

"Because grace is a pure gift, the most meaningful of our encounters with it will probably come at unintended times, when we are caught off-guard, when our manipulative systems are at rest or otherwise occupied. But still we can pray for grace, actively seek it, and try to relax our hands to receive it..."

Jesus, You are full of grace and truth; come to us and release Yourself upon us and thereby empower us to receive this radical gift of grace!

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 3)

(See part 2 here: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/dehumanization-cost-of-progress-part-2.html)

In this post I will touch on the implications of technology's dehumanization of society for the collective people of God. In the previous post I recommended a video talk by Shane Hipps about this; I also want to highly recommend his recent book, Flickering Pixels, which is quite an eye-opener concerning how technology has and continues to shape us and why western evangelicals got to the place where the version of the Gospel we present is very linear, efficient and individualistic. (Some of what Hipps writes about is similar to Jacques Ellul's work but in simpler and more contemporary language.)

I believe that for the people of God collectively to be a prophetic voice in our day, there is great need for leadership that understands the times we live in and who will courageously face the fact that we as a people have been affected by what Ellul and others write concerning our obsession with progress and production and who will call God's people to a higher place, a life of faith and love.

In our drivenness to erect highly organized systems for just about everything we do thinking this will make us productive, are we unwittingly engaging in what Ellul says is "a busy, pointless, and, in the end, suicidal submission  to technique"? Are we like the man who was digging a hole in order to fill another hole? Are we trying to bring the light of the kingdom of God to the problems of our age by using the world's methods? Have we fallen for the idea that anything of value must be measurable or quantifiable and therefore requires setting up technologies ("standardized means for attaining a predetermined result")?

In the foreword of his book, The Technological Society, Ellul says that humanity is headed towards a certain dire destiny if we continue to uncritically adapt to every new advancement. However, he then suggests that there are three possible things that could happen to alter the course of history; they are:
1)  A general war of such enormous destruction that a technological society would no longer exist.
2)  An increasing number of people becoming aware of the threat of the technological society and determining to assert their freedom by "swimming upstream" so to speak.
3)  God's intervention. 

And so, as it relates to us as a people, I believe we could take the small steps I mention in part 2 but do them with someone else:
1.  Help awaken one another by dialoging about these realities and/or reading material together about this with a few friends.
2.  Help one another develop a healthy suspicion of all that technology promises and offers in order keep alert; and help one another to walk away from our technological devices from time to time as a prophetic act.
3.  Grow together with others in the Lord Jesus, learning to abide/depend on Him together.

Perhaps above all, we can pray (both privately and collectively) that God would raise up more and more prophetic voices to lead His people and that His kingdom would come on earth, that He would intervene and save humanity from self-destruction. Come, Lord Jesus...

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 2)

(See part 1 here: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/dehumanization-cost-of-progress-part-1.html )

In light of what men like Jacques Ellul and C.S. Lewis warn us about concerning the dehumanization of humanity by the powers behind technology ("any complex of standardized means for attaining a predetermined result"), how should we followers of Jesus resist the powerful pull of "progress" in today's world?

In this post I will touch on the personal walk of the believer as it relates to this topic...

This reality isn't new; as Ellul so well points out in his book, The Meaning of the City, all of this has its roots in the building of the first city by Cain. Jesus acknowledged that the world systems lie in the hands of the evil one, so as long as we live in this age, we can't escape from the systems of the world. Jesus spoke of being in the world but not of it. Having recognized that this is not a new reality, it's important to be aware that the "noose" is being tightened around humanity with each generation's technological advancements.

In these posts I'm not pretending to give thorough or easy solutions to this but want to share simple thoughts that I have had about it. I believe that the following are some ways of living prophetic-ly as persons who love and follow Jesus:
1.   Being awake to what we're immersed in, having a healthy suspicion about all that technology promises to give us and the awareness of what we lose when we indiscriminately engage it. (A great presentation related to this is Shane Hipps' talk about how technology shapes us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkZ9G6ZxtmI.)  Without such awareness, we unwittingly live subject to the powers at work in our technological society.
2.   Being intentional about walking away from the technological devices (smartphones, ipods, TV, e readers, computers, etc., etc), refusing to jump onto them every time the urge comes and developing the ability to do nothing for awhile. Disengaging them altogether for a set time may be needful from time to time. 
3.   Continually abiding in Him who is Truth. This abiding is active and prayerful dependence on Him, trusting Him in the midst of confusing times. Only in Him can we hope to have at least a bit of objectivity when it comes to the influence of these powers over us...He is able to help us be sensitive to what's going on around us that most people aren't aware of.

(In part 3, I'll touch on our prophetic role as a collective people related to this...)

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 1)

Jacques Ellul, who I quoted last week, has helped give me more insight and language for the reality of the powers at work in society that are far beyond our ability to control apart from Jesus. His was truly a prophetic voice. (For any who may want to know more about Ellul, this link gives a short biography on his life: http://www.ellul.org/bio_e1.html)

In the foreword to Ellul's book, The Technological Society, Robert Merton says this of Ellul's insights:
"By technique…he means far more than machine technology. Technique refers to any complex of standardized means for attaining a predetermined result...The Technical Man is fascinated by results, by the immediate consequences of setting standardized devices into motion...

"Ours is a progressively technical civilization: by that Ellul means that the ever-expanding and irreversible rule of technology is extended to all domains of life. It is a civilization committed to the quest for continually improved means to carelessly examined ends. Indeed, technique transforms ends into means. What was once prized in its own right now becomes worthwhile only if it helps achieve something else.

"Not understanding what the role of technique is doing to him and his world, modern man is beset by anxiety and a feeling of insecurity. He tries to adapt to changes he cannot comprehend.

"In Ellul's conception, then, life is not happy in a civilization dominated by technique...every part of a technical civilization responds to the social needs generated by technique itself. Progress then consists in progressive dehumanization – a busy, pointless, and, in the end, suicidal submission  to technique."

Ellul's works were written in French and translated into English; at the start of this book, the translator, John Wilkinson, says this: "To him (Ellul), to bear witness to the fact of the technological society is the most revolutionary of all possible acts...His concept of the duty of a Christian, who stands uniquely (is 'present') at the point of intersection of this material world and the eternal world to come, is not to concoct ambiguous ethical schemes and programs of social action, but to testify to the truth of both worlds and thereby to affirm his freedom through the revolutionary nature of his religion..."

C.S. Lewis writes about the dehumanization of the human race as well in his work, The Abolition of Man. He says that which we have made eventually makes us: "Man's conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature's conquest of Man...We thought we were beating her back when she was luring us on."

In the second and third parts of this, I'll address what this means (at least in part) for those of us who are in Christ.

God Doesn't Oppress Us with His Will but Gives Us Room to Be

In his book, The Politics of God and the Politics of Man, Jacques Ellul looks at accounts from the book of II Kings and presents a case for a God who values human dignity so much that He allows us to freely be who we are. In chapter one Ellul writes about the healing of Naaman, saying that God used many different agents in Naaman's life. He points out that none of the people involved in the healing (Hebrew slave girl, king of Syria, Elisha, Naaman's servants) acted under coercion from God but they acted according to their own "bent", at their own "level" and with their own "personal decision." Ellul goes on to remark, "If the story wanted to show us God crushing the will of man and forcing man to do what God wants, then things would have been very simple."

Unlike other gods who force and bend people to their will, the God and Father of Jesus Christ takes the dignity and freedom of human beings seriously and will not "crush the will of man" and force us to do what He wants. He allows us to be who we are and to act according to our bent, and He takes our small free actions, combines them with the small actions of others and brings about His good will in a situation.

George MacDonald puts it this way in his book, Knowing the Heart of God:

"God does not, by the instant gift of his Spirit, make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, aspire after him and his will...The truth is this: He wants to make us in his own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How could he effect this if he were always moving us from within? God gives us room to be. He does not oppress us with his will. He 'stands away from us,' that we may act from ourselves, that we may exercise the pure will for good."

The marvel and genius of God is not that He is able to get things done because we finally "get our act together" but that He is able to get things done through broken vessels who never really get our act together but who freely move and act according to our bent and personal decision.

Majoring on Minors

Recently when troubled by a particular situation, I was praying and asking the Lord for understanding of why I was troubled. As I waited and listened, I heard the word "religion" in my thoughts. Then I remembered something that I've observed in the New Testament stories about Jesus. Whenever He would heal someone or there would be partying over His presence among the sinners, the religious people were unhappy. They couldn't look past the details of the law's requirements in order to celebrate the bigger and more important issues of forgiveness and joy and healing that Jesus' presence always brought to those who would receive Him.

I had a fresh glimpse into an aspect of religion that day: it majors on minors. In his book, Repenting of Religion, Greg Boyd says that in religion, rules trump everything else.

In our proneness towards finding life from judging what's "right" and "wrong" (both in our own lives and those of others), we get easily sidetracked by examining the intricacies of what "right" behavior is, while Jesus is celebrating the bigger issue of deliverance and freedom with the one He has touched.

In the particular situation referred to at the start of this post, there had been great deliverance in the person's life, and the issue over which I was troubled was inconsequential in comparison. I was in danger of missing the Lord's joy over the person involved because of my concern over details of the "law". I have asked the Lord to expose phariseeism in me, and He did once again. Because He spoke to me and opened my understanding, I was able to celebrate with Him and with the person...I'm grateful!

Discipling or Proselytizing...?

A few months ago I posted the following and want to share it again now. In his outstanding book, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, Roland Allen (Anglican missionary of the early 20th century) contends that we western believers have a "fear for the doctrine"; in other words, our worry about people not getting the "doctrine" right motivates too much of what we do, and Jesus ends up being relegated to a secondary place. He is the First Cause and we tend to stress the secondary causes:

"Fear for the doctrine...leads us to put the doctrine in the wrong place...We speak as if the Gospel and the doctrine, preaching Christ and preaching Christianity, were identical terms.

"There is a difference between the revelation of a Person and the teaching of a system of doctrine and practice.

"...our doctrine so dominates our mind that we can scarcely believe that men can love Christ and be saved by Him unless they know and use our doctrinal expressions. Because we find this difficult we inevitably tend to give the teaching of our doctrine the first place in our work...But the Person is greater and far excels it.

"When we fall into this error, we inevitably tend to make the acceptance of the shadow, the doctrine, the system, the aim and object of our work. In doing that we are doing something of which Christ spoke in very severe terms. To make converts to a doctrine is to make proselytes."