Reflections on Christopraxis

Thoughts on Following Jesus

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  John 1:12 –John 1:13

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  Matthew 16:24 –Matthew 16:25

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 5:1 –Ephesians 5:2

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34 –John 13:35

He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  Matthew 22:37 – Matthew 22:40

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:13 – 1 John 4:17

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:6 –Colossians 2:8

Matthew 5-7

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  Ephesians 3:14 – 21

Seeing Through God's Eyes

Here is another quote from Moltmann's book, A Broad Place.

" And 'the poor' have no wish to be approached from the angle of what they are lacking; they want to be seen first and foremost from the angle of what they are.  If we speak to them merely as 'the poor', then they are merely the victims of the rich and the powerful.  But they are men or women, whites, blacks, or indios; they have families, language, understanding, and faith.  It is only when they become aware of who they are that they can become the determining subjects of their own biographies."   (p. 232)

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.  John 15:11 –John 15:17

Moltmann on Mysticism

"The mystic is really the martyr of the soul, for he passes through 'the dark night of the soul' into the eternal light of God."  (Jürgen Moltmann, A Broad Place: An Autobiography, p. 214)

Church in the Spirit

I am continuing my way through Jürgen Moltmann's autobiography, A Broad Place.  In the chapter where he discusses writing his book, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, he says this:

In the ancient world, the church already took on a patriarchal form in the post-apostolic era once it acquired the 'monarchical episcopate':  God the Father is represented by the bishop, as the father of his community.  ... In the sixteenth century, in a contrary movement, the Reformers introduced the christocentric principle.  Christ stands at the centre of the congregation as the first-born among many brothers and sisters.  In fellowship with him they are free and equal.  But in the church of the Spirit, the congregation is made up of different charismatically endowed people: there are many gifts but one Spirit.  A plurality of powers and functions makes the spiritually endowed congregation a source of life for many people.  It is only the church of the Spirit that fully opens up the Trinitarian mystery of God.  (p. 204ff)

This to me is a profound observation.  It points to a way that the church can to day represent a prophetic community that cannot be duplicated by any philosophy in this world.  It also points to the cause of some problems found in the church today, where they hold to forms that fail to recognize what the church in the Spirit can truly be.

Is Theology Apolictical?

In recent years there has been a lot written about the kingdom of God vs the kingdom of this world.  Greg Boyd, for instance, wrote The Myth of the Christian Nation, in an attempt to make a distinction between the ways of those two kingdoms.  Boyd rightly shows that the way of the kingdom of God is antithetical to the way of the kingdom of the world.   The Mennonites, also emphasize our allegiance to the kingdom of God over that of the kingdoms of this world.  Indeed, often the ways of the world are in direct opposition to the vision of the kingdom of God.  However, can we really separate ourselves from the world to the extent that we can live in a purely kingdom of God way? 

I am reading Jügen Moltmann's book, A Broad Place: An Autobiography, and in it I ran into the following two observations:

'Theology at the charge of the church' is good and valuable, but theology at the charge of the kingdom of God goes further than that and reaches beyond the bounds of the church out into the world, into politics, society, culture -- and also in the universities, the home of the humanities and sciences. (p. 94)

Moltmann's point is that there is a place for theology in a secular university.  However, he correctly observes that the kingdom of God goes further than the church.  As God's people live as God teaches us, we must necessarily impact the world, society, culture, and politics.  The Catholic theologian, Johann Baptist Metz makes the following decisive observation.

'Every eschatological theology must become a political theology, in the form of a theology that is socially critical.'  (p. 108, Moltmann, quoting Metz)

This speaks to an issue that I have been struggling with for quite a while.  Should Christians completely opt out of government and politics?  If we do, then are we ceding the world to those who might not have the same commitment to justice?  Scripture teaches that God holds nations, and the people in them, accountable for they way the treat the poor, needy, and oppressed.  How can we live in prophetic community, being energized toward God's freedom and justice (see my other posts on prophetic imagination), and not at the same time engage the injustice and bondage being imposed on people in this world today? If we engage these things, then we will inevitably find ourselves standing against one political side or another, or both.  If we have success in alleviating some of the injustice, we will most likely have changed the political landscape. 

Many of the contemporary movements such as New Monasticism challenge the Church to live out prophetic community, standing against the dominant culture.  The New Monasticism movement certainly stands critical of our society.  Proponents of a radical lifestyle based on Jesus' kingdom of God teachings are advocating a lifestyle based on an eschatological theology.  The kingdom of God is now, but not yet.  It is not something we can make happen in our own efforts, so it is something that looks by faith to the promises of God.  Yet, it is also breaking into the world, now.

If Metz is right, and I believe he is, then those of us desiring to live in prophetic community must do so in a way that engages all of life in this world.  Yes, the choices and methods we use will often be different.  However, we must realize that the kingdom of God intersects this world within the spirit of man.  When we try to make a distinction between people and governments, or people and corporations, we do so at the expense of the people who make up those governments and corporations.  It has always about people and the choices they make in relation to God and His ways. 

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 5:1 – 2

What Is the Church?

A while back I started writing on the church, with the intent on exploring what it is from the Christian perspective.  While reading, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, by N. T. Wright, I came across this compact definition in the chapter called, "Believing and Belonging"

"The church is the single, multiethnic family promised by the creator God to Abraham.  It was brought into being through Israel's Messiah, Jesus; it was energized by God's Spirit; it was called to bring the transformative news of God's rescuing justice to the whole creation."  (p. 200)

I would change this to say "it is energized..." and "it is called..."  since that process is still going on.  That said, I liked the summary.  Wright continues to explore the church using a number of helpful metaphors found in scripture.  He looks at it as a river, a tree, and a family.  He does well to redirect our thinking beyond the many outer forms that divide and confuse, and focus it on the heart of the Biblical narrative.  Within this context, it is easy to see the church as the prophetic community it was meant to be.

Longing For You, My God

The following scripture meditation was inspired by a Misty Edwards set in the IHOP Prayer Room, which was itself inspired by Psalm 42.

      As a deer longs for flowing streams,
      so my soul longs for you, O God.
      My soul thirsts for God,
      for the living God.
      When shall I come and behold
      the face of God?  Psalm 42:1 – 2

      Deep calls to deep
      at the thunder of your cataracts;
      all your waves and your billows
      have gone over me.
      By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
      and at night his song is with me,
      a prayer to the God of my life.  Psalm 42:7 – 8

      O God, you are my God, I seek you,
      my soul thirsts for you;
      my flesh faints for you,
      as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
      So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
      beholding your power and glory.
      Because your steadfast love is better than life,
      my lips will praise you.
      So I will bless you as long as I live;
      I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
      My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
      and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
      when I think of you on my bed,
      and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
      for you have been my help,
      and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
      My soul clings to you;
      your right hand upholds me.  Psalm 63:1 – 8

My Soul Cries, My Soul Cries, My Soul Cries for you, my God.

Mini Book Reviews: 12 Marks and Prophetic Imagination

This post is to provide a couple mini reviews on two books that I have recently finished reading.

A while back I read Walter Brueggemann's book, The Prophetic Imagination.  I have referenced the book and concepts in numerous posts on this blog, and will likely continue to do so.  Brueggemann's hypothesis is:

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture. (p. 3)

He explains that the "alternative consciousness to be nurtured, on one hand serves to criticize in dismantling the dominant consciousness. ... On the other hand, that alternative consciousness to be nurtured serves to energize persons and communities by its promise of another time and situation toward which the community of faith may move."   Later he clarifies the alternative toward which prophetic imagination energizes is God's freedom and justice.

Prophetic Community relates to the Christian faith and Christopraxis in that the Church is called to be such a prophetic community.  Jesus' teachings of the Kingdom of God is such a prophetic imagination.  Many groups such as the New Monastic communities are attempting to life out prophetic community.

Another book I just finished reading is Schools for Conversion:  12 Marks of a New Monasticism, edited by Rutba House, which is itself a New Monastic community.  This book is a collection of 12 chapters, each written by some of the proponents of contemporary New Monasticism. These 12 marks provide a general framework that defines New Monasticism.  It will not tell you how to live out prophetic community, but will lay out some guidelines that are consistent with the teachings of Jesus and the Christian tradition for such a community.  It strikes me that this book would best be read and discussed in some kind of small group.  I am hoping to do this with some of my own community.  As I do that, it might lead to future posts on this blog.

Why is Attending College a Good Thing to Do?

People who follow this blog might ask why I am writing on this topic.  How does going to college relate to the Christopraxis -- practicing the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  Others might have found this post while searching for the question on the Internet, and you might not be Christians and might be tempted to hit the back button and go to another link.  For you, I urge you to continue reading, because I am writing this post with the intent on making it relevant to those who do not profess the Christian faith, or any faith at all.  My primary motivation is to provide some helpful insights for young people who are considering whether they should attend college.  It is also my hope to show how this topic does relate to the practice of Christ.

What do I mean by college?

First, I want to say that by college I am primarily referring to undergraduate and graduate higher education.  However, I am also thinking of post secondary (after high school) vocational training.  Vo-tech training is typically focused on learning a skill, such as auto repair, carpentry, computer technology, or other such skills.  The reality is that some people are gifted with their hands or with artistic gifts so such training may be a good thing to consider.  However it is more focused, and often will only open up very limited opportunities.  A formal college education is more general, and is designed to  provide a framework for a wide variety of work.  A college education is something you can build upon after graduation.

In theory, a high school education is supposed to give you a basic set of skills, so you can continue on with career studies.  Sadly, high school graduates do not always have all the skills and knowledge their education was supposed to give them, so the first two years of college often make up this gap. 

There are people who are exceptionally gifted who manage to by-pass college and do great things.  However, most of my readers will not be a Steve Jobs (founder of Apple Computer) or Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), who will go on to make billions and change the world without a higher education.  For most, college is the path to acheiving life goals.  I suspect even people like Jobs and Gates will advocate a college education.

Why is college a good thing to do?

With the above as an introduction, I will attempt to be concise and give you some bullet points on why it is a good thing to go to college.

• Many of the young people I know are passionate about helping people, and making this world a better place to live.  They see the poverty in urban America, and want to jump in and make a difference.  Ruby Payne's book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is the textbook on generational poverty.  One of the primary factors for escaping generational poverty is a higher education, as I have defined it here.  If you are serious about helping the urban poor, you need to understand this.  I highly recommend Payne's book.
• While the circumstances of urban poverty in American are tragic, they pale compared to the circumstances of the poor in many third world and developing countries.  The poverty they live in is extreme.  Jeffery Sachs' book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, addressed the issue of extreme poverty.  This is the kind of poverty that kills people.  People in extreme poverty literally struggle to live every day of their lives.  Many do not win that battle.  Again, education is a key factor in eliminating this kind of poverty.  In reading this book, it struck me how a college education can make a difference, even if you are a tribal person in Africa or the Amazon.
• The world has many problems.  Poverty, oppression, environmental destruction, energy crisis, wars and other conflicts, and the list goes on.  These are not simple problems and they do not have simple solutions.  It will take creative ideas and innovation to really make a difference.  Aid workers, for example, know the need for technologies to give people clean water, medical supplies, agricultural understanding, and the many other things necessary to overcome these problems.  Each area has its own set of challenges.  A college education will help you to make a difference.
• One of the things all those who work with poverty will tell you is that often those in poverty do not understand how to escape.  Academics help you to understand these issues beyond the every day factors that you deal with when living in poverty.  A college education will help you to have insight and be able to work with others to make a difference.
• Some people excel by working with their mind.  For these people, a college education is a perfect fit.  Given the immense value of a college education, if you have an opportunity for a college education, you should take advantage of it.  Jesus told a parable of those who were given talents (a coin) to invest.  Some invested them, and reaped a return.  Others did not invest their talents.  The latter group were judged severely.
• Some people really struggle in school, and if you are one of them, you might be wondering if college is not for you.  However, I urge you to reconsider.  Most people do not fail college because they are not smart enough.  They fail because they do not try.  Most colleges, especially in America, have services to help you succeed.  If there is something you want to do that requires a higher education, then pursue it. 
• The movies "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Born into Brothels" document the lives of children who live in India's slums.  In both cases, the real kids who were in these movies were given a means of getting an education, so they could get out of the slum.  A higher education is the way out of poverty.
• Some people ask why they have to take all those "extra" classes, instead of just focusing on the subjects of their major.  Besides the fact that many times those other classes give students insight into things that they did not know about, causing them to change their major, these "extra" classes are designed to give you a broader skillset, so you can be more able to engage the challenges of life, and be more flexible as the demands of life change. 
• For Christians, a typical pastor has a four year college degree, followed by four or five years of graduate school.  The question is often asked why so much education is required, especially since spiritual maturity can come from a good understanding of scripture, and the annoiting of the Holy Spirit.  I have two things to say about this.  First, a pastor is called upon to minister to a wide variety of people and to meet many challenges in ministry.  Part of the reason for this vast amount of training is to give you time to mature and to give you a broader skill set to draw on.  Second, while you can perhaps learn a lot without this training, it often saves time and helps you to learn from other's experiences and mistakes.  Also, many go into ministry after the four year degree, and then continue in graduate school.  My own thinking is that by going that route, you have a better appreciation for what you learn when you are in graduate school, because you have had more time to enounter your limitations.
• If higher education is the way out of poverty, then that in itself is a good reason to pursue it, otherwise, you just add to the numbers of the poor.  More than that, though, if you have a sincere desire to make the world a better place and help the poor, than it is important to be a model.  One of the ways we do that is to get a higher education.
• There are many pastors and ministers that are doing their work without a higher education.  However, many times their lack of training is the cause of many problems.  My friend trains indigenous pastors in third world and developing countries for Campus Crusade for Christ.  He tells many stories of the problems these men and women face, and sometimes cause, without this training.  His work connects these men and women with college trained ministers who can help them to gain knowledge and insight they would not otherwise get.  Another friend runs a Ph.D program in a seminary in Africa, so Africans can have the ability to raise up leaders who can uniquely meet the needs of Africans.
• Another complaint might be that colleges are a system of indoctrination.  Yes, in some ways they are.  The ivory tower academics are often very much engaged in social engineering and indoctrination that you might not agree with.  However, you do not have to accept all they say or teach, and after you graduate, you can go on to make your own impact on society.  Also, you can engage them and bring an alternative view.  Another friend got a graduate degree in couseling, seeing the need in society.  He did not agree with all the secular methods taught in the secular school, but he completed his masters, and went on to get a Ph.D.  Now he is teaching in a secular university.  He likes to joke that he is "breaking the system from within," as he challenges his students to consider alternatives to some of the secular ideas he was taught. 
• God made us all unique and we have great potential.  College often plays a major role in helping us to discover and acheive this potential.  There is a vast array of opportunities open to people when they get an education.  Learning can be a life long pleasure.
• Oppressors of often succeed because the people they are oppressing do not have an education.  For example, there is a reason the Taliban do not want to educate women.  An education can help set the oppressed free.
• College gives you a way of messing up without hurting a lot of people.  You may fail a test, or a class, but you can always learn from your mistake and try again.  If you fail in a job, and you have a family to provide for, or if you fail in a ministry because you were not adequately prepared, then the consquences can be much more tragic.  This point is particularly important for young adults, who have not had as much life experience.
• Finally, college can be tough.  It takes a huge amount of time and effort.  It is difficult to have time for balance in life (spiritual or otherwise), especially if you are working on the side to pay for your education.  This is a reality of college.  Ideally, it is something you do with as much focus as possible, so you can get it over with as soon as possible.  However, life often will bring other challenges that requires extreme focus, and knowing you can do that kind of work is good preparation for those future challenges.

In case you have not seen the link to the practice of Christ in my comments, I will summarize in a couple bullets.

• Jesus taught us to care for the poor, oppresssed, and the afflicted.  An education can help us by better equiping us to deal with the realities of these things.
• Do not fall into the mistake of making a dichotomy (division) between the spiritual and the natural.  God wants us to depend on him in all that we do, including our school, our careers, and the every day aspects of our life.

A higher education is not the only things we need in life.  It is a tool.  Some things like common sense, faith, and wisdom do not come from an education.  While you can learn about many things from an education, we also need to practice in life. 

I hope this helps you process through these issues in your own life.  If you have questions or comments, feel free to post a comment or send me an email.

The Mark of a Christian

I have been writing about various aspects of what it means to practice Christ.  In talking with a non-Christian friend of mine, he made the following observation:

In my humble opinion, modern Christianity is vastly different from Christ.  Sometimes it appears to me that Christ and Christianity are not connected at all!!!

These are not the words of someone who has an axe to grind against Christianity.  Indeed, there are Christian leaders today who are making very nearly the same observation.  In my friend's case, he actually has a lot of admiration for Jesus and his teachings.  He went on to observe:

The principles of Jesus are universal; Love thy neighbour like you love thyself; Turn the other cheek; forgive your enemies. I doubt how ma[n]y people, be they Christians or any other religion or even atheists can claim to truly follow these principles.  Once again, IMHO, people who can claim to fully follow Jesus, be they called Christians, or otherwise, are very very rare in this world.   

What would Jesus say about this?  The following verses come to mind:

He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  Matthew 22:37 – 40

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  Matthew 5:43 – 45

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34 – 35

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."   John 17:20 – 21

In citing these John 13 and 17 verses, Francis Schaeffer, in his book The Mark of a Christian, observes:

In John 13 the point was that if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has the right to judge that he is not a Christian.  Here [in John 17:21] Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound:  we cannot expect the world to believe that the Father send the Son, that Jesus' claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.  (The Complete Works of Fancis A. Schaeffer: A Christain Worldview, Volume 4, p189)

But Jesus did give the mark that will arrest the attention of the world, even the attention of the modern man who says he is just a machine.  Because every man is made in the image of God and has therefore aspirations for love, there is something that can be in every geographical climate -- in every point of time -- which cannot fail to arrest his attention.  What is it?  The love that true Christians show for each other and not just for their own party. (Ibid, p. 190)

So where does that leave us?  Are my efforts to practice Christ out of reach?  Is this something that can only be realized by a few?  If the millions of professing Christians have failed so utterly, then what hope do we have?  Yet there is hope.

My daughter and I were talking recently.  She made the observation that "a Christian is someone who is a follower of Jesus.  If we are not following Jesus, we are not Christians."  Part of me wants to say, "yes but..." because I (and my daughter) know that it is a mistake oversimplify when it comes to matters of faith.  Only God sees what is in a man or woman's heart.  However, in the most fundamental sense, she is right.  Perhaps if more professing Christians would take being a follower of Jesus' life and teachings more seriously, then the world would see within Christians something more authentically representative of Jesus and his teachings.  Perhaps some who are seeking to follow Jesus will be surprised to discover that they are a Christian!

Being a follower of Jesus is a life long process.  It starts with the realization that inspite of how far out of reach it may seem, it is something we want to do.  We can have hope of success because it is not up to us to be successful.  God enters into our lives and decission, and therein lies our hope.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:13 – 1 John 4:17

As I write this, I have been listening to Misty Edwards in the IHOP Prayer Room.  She is singing her song, "Let Me Love You More."  She sings:

"Cause when it's all been said, and when it's all been done
When the race is run, well, it all comes to love."

At a moment when she is singing in the Spirit, God sings back:

"I'm after your heart.  I'm after you. 
You are not a failure; just keep coming after me."

The following verses seems a fitting way to end this post.

      Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
      teach me your paths.
      Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
      for you are the God of my salvation;
      for you I wait all day long.
      Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,
      for they have been from of old.
      Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
      according to your steadfast love remember me,
      for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!
      Good and upright is the LORD;
      therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
      He leads the humble in what is right,
      and teaches the humble his way.
      All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
      for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.  Psalm 25:4 – 10