Authoritarianism and Jesus

In our day of rising authoritarianism in many forms (both in society and the church), a timely word from one of my favorite books about Jesus (JESUS BEFORE CHRISTIANITY). Unlike all others, Jesus insisted on not using any titles for himself. Albert Nolan says this about him:

"Jesus' courage, fearlessness and independence made people of that age ask again and again, 'Who is this man?' It is significant that Jesus never answers the question. There is no evidence that he ever laid claim to any of the exalted titles which the Church later attributed to him.

"...did Jesus claim authority, any kind of authority at all, even implicitly? Would it not be closer to the truth to say that what makes Jesus immeasurably greater than any other human being is precisely the fact that he spoke and acted without authority and that he regarded the 'exercise of authority' as a pagan characteristic...

"Jesus was unique among the people of his time in his ability to overcome all forms of authority-thinking. The only authority which Jesus might be said to have appealed to was the authority of the truth itself. He did not make authority his truth, he made truth his authority...(He) did not expect others to obey him; he expected them to 'obey' the truth, to live truthfully..."

Advent Waiting

Long waiting

Is infuriating...

     but

Is a space for creating

     New ways

     New seeing

     New thinking

     New being.

In this long waiting

Your Spirit, Abba,

Is present tense

To help us sense

The new.

In this long waiting

In this long lapse

Help us see

That the collapse

Of old things past

Makes space for creating

     New ways

     New seeing

     New thinking

     New being.

Nita Steiner

(Advent 2021)

In the End, What Matters Decisively?

As I age and continue to grow and change, I am increasingly aware that the more I know, the less I know. What I believe today will change tomorrow...

I grew up hearing and accepting that being sincere wasn't enough to "save" you; you had to have a specified experience of accepting Jesus into your heart by faith and then you could be assured of being saved. I was given a "house of cards" belief system that kept me imprisoned in a mindset that demanded perfection and certainty of belief. I'm not saying that I think everything about that was bad or wrong (there were great blessings for which I am grateful), but there were implied and spoken messages of condemnation for all those who didn't have such beliefs, and that presents a major problem for me now.

In his second letter to Timothy the apostle Paul commends him for his "sincere faith". So now when I reflect on my life and am tempted to be discouraged or disheartened over things I said and taught for many years that I don't agree with now, Paul's words to Timothy comfort me. From childhood my heart has been genuinely sincere about Jesus' God and his deep love and affection for all humans. I wonder if the only thing I have to offer him is sincerity and a humble heart that is wide open to him and to all that is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control.

I appreciate what Walter Brueggemann says: "In the end it is not *human righteousness but the abiding trustworthiness of Yahweh that matters decisively." This is the place of rest for me.

*human right-ness

To Err is Human

The incarnation of God in the man Jesus convinces me that God really likes humans and wants us to be truly human (which includes the glory and the limitations implicit in being human).

As a college professor in an evangelical missionary school situated in the holiness movement, I enjoyed telling my stressed, fearful-of-failure students, "Take a deep breath; relax...most of what you will decide and do in life will be mistaken, and God is just fine with that!" 

This message was badly needed. Although we said that God is love and that it's "by grace alone you are saved", the stronger subliminal message received by most of us was that if you behaved perfectly, did enough, sacrificed enough, denied yourself enough, etc., then God would approve and like you.

Many decades and much unlearning/relearning later, I now approach all of this from a different posture, aware that my God-given humanity and the God-given humanity of those around me is fraught with limitations and error. And that is not a bad thing!

In an age of being bombarded with endless close-ended opinions about what is "right" and "wrong", it's easy to feel the pressure to try to make sure I'm "right".  But there is a comfort in realizing that I can never get it right, because 'to err is human'; or as the apostle Paul put it: "we see through a glass indirectly...we see in part..." Consequently we are making choices constantly without really having enough information or wisdom to be sure it's a 'correct' choice. Since this limitation is one of the beauties of being human, why not accept and enjoy it and come out from under the impossible burden of trying to be gods?? (I believe Jesus was happy to be fully human with all its limitations and invited us to be under that easy yoke with him.)

So what about the daily decisions we have to make about all kinds of issues?? Do they not matter at all? Should we not make any attempt at living well in our world?

I propose that if we accept that there are limitations to our knowledge, then we must accept that we take actions daily on high risk that we will be mistaken; we cannot escape ignorance and mistakes, hard as we try. However, we can make a choice about how we will err.

For example: giving to those in need...I've been questioned about freely handing cash to someone on the street asking for help. I don't know that person's situation or if they will use it in a wise way; but knowing that whatever I do is a risk in error (either the error of giving to questionable use, or the error of withholding from genuine need), I have decided that I will err on the side of giving. I have also decided to err on the side of inclusion of those who are labeled 'sinners' by religious systems rather than on the side of exclusion, and to err on the side of compassion/mercy rather than on the side of judgment. 

Why? Because Jesus, who I claim to follow, was fully human with the ignorance and limitations of being human and he lived in this way (from what I can gather by reading his story).

There are few cases in our lifetime that we are close enough to and have enough intimate knowledge and understanding about that we can approach in a more nuanced way, but for the bulk of decisions I have to make over a lifetime, the default position of an open heart and open mind is a place of peace and joy and even carefreeness about the myriad life decisions we make.

"Faith is risk with a direction, and the direction I want to give myself to existentially is this: the (Creator) of the universe knows each of our names and cares and desires the flourishing of the whole, despite the fact that what God has to work with is people who don't know what they are doing. (Lk.23:34)"  -Tripp Fuller

Losing Control in Order to Grow in Understanding the Living Christ...

The following is a quote that I read years ago from Frank Viola. It expresses so well how I feel about continually moving forward in knowing Jesus which requires that we be willing to let go of how we have known Him in the past.

In the following, Viola is referring to the encounter between Mary and Jesus in the garden after Jesus' resurrection: 

He was moving forward, but she was clinging to Him. Jesus was in effect saying to her: “Mary, stop holding on to me. There’s a new way to know me that’s different from what you’ve experienced thus far. Let me go. I must move on.” 

Viola then speaks of the encounter between Jesus and the two disciples on the Emmaus road...he proceeds to say,

"These stories hold a critical insight. You cannot cling to the Christ you know today. He will vanish from your midst. Jesus Christ is an elusive Lover. Seeking Him is a progressive engagement that never ends...We all wish to cling to the Lord who we know now. We all wish to hold on to the Christ who has been revealed to us today.

"But mark my words: He will come to us in a way we do not expect—through people we’re prone to ignore and inclined to write off. Perhaps they don’t talk our religious language. Perhaps they aren’t theologically sophisticated. Perhaps they don’t use our vocabulary. Perhaps they don’t share our insider knowledge nor parrot our religious idioms.

"So we cling fast to the Lord we recognize—receiving only those who talk our language, use our jargon and employ our catchphrases—and all along we end up turning the Lord Jesus Christ away.

What, then, does Jesus do after we fail to receive Him when He comes to us in an unexpected way? He moves on. And the revelation we have of Him ceases to grow. Jesus Christ is richer, larger and more glorious than any of us could ever imagine...

"There is something in our fallen nature that, like Peter, wishes to build a monument around a spiritual encounter with God and remain there. But the Lord will not have it. He will always break free from our frail attempts to pin Him down, box Him up and hold Him in place. And He does so by coming to us in new and unexpected ways."

It wasn't until I was willing to take seriously the thoughts and findings of people outside of my western evangelical charismatic theological mindset that I really began to awaken more fully to the beauty and goodness and bigness of God in Jesus...it can be (and will be) a wild ride into losing control over certainty to allow 'others' in but in time, very rewarding. Don't be afraid to listen to those you consider outsiders and people on the margins of society in your search. God is there...

Bad News for Organized Christianity may be Good News for Our Times

 

"It will take a miraculous overhaul of the church to become once again the bearer of good news."  - Vincent Harding

The dramatic announcement made to the shepherds is truly good news! Unfortunately, in much of her history, organized Christianity has lived and framed the story of Jesus in such a way that it doesn't end up being such good news. Let's listen once more to the angelic announcement and ask ourselves what additives we have included in the gospel story that have turned it into not so great news after all.

Luke 2 ^{- "}And in the same area there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And then an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were very afraid. But the angel said to them, “Listen! Do not fear. For I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find the Baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly there was with the angel a company of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

                                           Glory to God in the highest,
                     and on earth peace, and good will toward men.”

Notice the following good news in the highlighted phrases:

First, "Do not fear." This suggests that God knows we are fearful people and wants us to understand that, unlike the intimidating gods of the nations, He is coming to us in a gentle loving way that dispels fear.

Second, "good news of great joy." Our God is a joyful God with good news for us. This announcement isn't that of a vengeful, vindictive God but One, who like loving parents, is eager to surprise their children with gifts of pure love and affection.

Third, "to all people." This God is not tribal. He isn't coming for only one particular group of people but for all people, all nations. This is staggering news for humans whose bent is toward thinking that God favors people like ourselves over others.

Fourth, "the Baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger."  A human baby is the most vulnerable and helpless of all babies. God comes in the most vulnerable form possible and is born into the poor of society, underscoring His desire to identify with the lowest and the disenfranchised of society and to come in the most non-threatening way possible.

Fifth, "peace on earth." This tells us that His nature is peace-loving and non-violent. He comes, unlike all other gods and kings, with no rivalrous nor competitive agenda, no need to prove Himself. The rule of His kingdom is a rule of peace.

Sixth, "good will toward men." This God comes with good intentions towards all people. All other gods and rulers view people as a means to accomplish their agenda and glory. Our God is about well-being for all in his creation.

This is an astonishing announcement! Everything about it shouts that this God has no animosity towards humanity but rather is in love with humans and will do anything to come to our aid. Because he is how he is, he won't assert and force himself and his ways on anyone but quietly persists in untiring love to the point of letting us collapse under the weight of our religious enterprises that have insisted on systems and statements of faith that:  fill people with fear for non-compliance, rob them of joy, exclude groups of people we deem 'sinners' or outsiders, threaten and intimidate people with our hierarchical systems, resort to violence in the form of coercion, and wish bad for those we consider undeserving.

 

...all the while justifying this with Bible verses. Maybe the good news in our time is that, just as God disrupted the systems and statements of faith of the first century religious and political worlds with the coming of a baby, so he is doing it again with the lifting up of the poor and rejected, overlooked and despised ones of society.  The Spirit of God cares enough about the good news to disrupt the Christian industry with its unhealthy gospel additives so that the Story that remains will be truly good news for all people everywhere!

 

 

I Still Don't Think We Get It...

 
...how utterly upside down (to us) God's kingdom ways are. A short article by Kenneth Tanner, The Great Humility that Redeems the Cosmos, expresses well how wonderfully different God's ways are from ours and how far astray the church in the west is from God's ways. He writes:

The gospels upend every human (perhaps every rational) notion of strength.

The cosmos—superclusters of galaxies, delicate wildflowers on countless meadows, the waves of every ocean—thrives on one source of energy, a hidden force of charity that does not seek its own, a Person with an unremarkable face, who came not to be served by his creation but to serve.

...The biggest challenge presented to humanity by his gospel is our mistaken bedrock belief that what drives the universe is an unbridled might that rules by fiat. This is after all the only form of power we humans recognize: brute force, cunning strategy, ruthless competition, and, above all else, "winning."

 

It goes against everything that man has built and everything that man has ventured to accept the idea that the real power that sustains all movement and all life, that binds all things together—from subatomic particles to intergalactic distances—is a self-sacrificial love without measure.

 

"If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it."  Jesus is not just talking about your life but is describing how *everything* works.

 

The losers in this scenario do not "win" but instead come to participate forever in the life of him who lays down his life for the life of the world and in so doing—by a great humility—redeems the cosmos and makes all things new, makes all things well.

 

This belief is not going to get you anywhere in the world that humanity has made but you can serve that world—this world that Christ loved before it loved him—by embracing this sacred path of humility and renouncing all the other ways and means and kinds of power.

 

All of them. Political. Military. Intellectual. Physical. All.

 

It is telling that almost every news story that compels the urgent attention of Christians these days can only do so because we have denied that we serve a Lord that rules by a mysterious humility that conquers all hearts by self-giving.