Are We a Danger to Anyone?
"...if Christians live faithfully, the world will seek protection from the church. The task of the church is not to retreat into its own enclave but to keep heading further out despite the dangers. Indeed, the very fact that we keep pursuing our mission means that we necessarily create dangers that otherwise would not be there if we had stayed home...We live in a world that is dangerous to the church because of our church's self-deception that Christianity has tamed the world..." (Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon, Where Resident Aliens Live, p. 30)
Ever since last Saturday's shooting in Tuscon, I've been thinking lots about what it might be like for the Church to receive those tragic events and, instead of simply offering a few religious platitudes, get off our pews and charge out into the world with the reconciling message of Jesus.
What would it be like if Christians got involved with debating politicians -- regardless of party, on the merits of specific policies in light of our understanding of the Gospel?
What would it be like, if, instead of praying for peace within the comfort of our worship spaces, we became "warriors for peace" (a favorite Hauerwas phrase) and agitated for peace in the public sphere?
What would it be like if "respecting the dignity of every human being" became, not just a poetic line in the Prayer Book, but the marching orders for activism as we worked to transform systems which, desensitize us to the "image of God" in our fellow human beings?
I'm not suggesting we attempt to bend society to our will, or to attempt to make it "more Christian". Redemption isn't our work -- that belongs to God. Proclamation is our work. Giving voice to the Good News is our work. Being agents for healing, wholeness and new life is our work. This is dangerous work -- because it will threaten the status quo. Yet the healing, wholeness and new life such work can facilitate will spring up in all sorts of unlikely places -- legislative committee chambers, courtrooms, soup kitchens, prison cells, Habitat for Humanity build sites and countless other unexepected locations. Salvation comes where the Gospel is proclaimed and lodges in the hearts of those who hear it...and I suspect it most dramatically shows up in places far removed from a church building.
The events of last Saturday (as many other events in recent years) starkly remind us that our culture isn't "Christianized". There are dangers afoot. And yet, the call to the Church is to follow Jesus, wherever he leads -- out into the places where we are exposed, vulnerable and at risk. We may just get ourselves killed. But, until we are willing to engage the Gospel mission with abandon, I suspect ecclesiastical anemia will kill us long before "the world" will.
"...if Christians live faithfully, the world will seek protection from the church. The task of the church is not to retreat into its own enclave but to keep heading further out despite the dangers. Indeed, the very fact that we keep pursuing our mission means that we necessarily create dangers that otherwise would not be there if we had stayed home...We live in a world that is dangerous to the church because of our church's self-deception that Christianity has tamed the world..." (Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon, Where Resident Aliens Live, p. 30)
Ever since last Saturday's shooting in Tuscon, I've been thinking lots about what it might be like for the Church to receive those tragic events and, instead of simply offering a few religious platitudes, get off our pews and charge out into the world with the reconciling message of Jesus.
What would it be like if Christians got involved with debating politicians -- regardless of party, on the merits of specific policies in light of our understanding of the Gospel?
What would it be like, if, instead of praying for peace within the comfort of our worship spaces, we became "warriors for peace" (a favorite Hauerwas phrase) and agitated for peace in the public sphere?
What would it be like if "respecting the dignity of every human being" became, not just a poetic line in the Prayer Book, but the marching orders for activism as we worked to transform systems which, desensitize us to the "image of God" in our fellow human beings?
I'm not suggesting we attempt to bend society to our will, or to attempt to make it "more Christian". Redemption isn't our work -- that belongs to God. Proclamation is our work. Giving voice to the Good News is our work. Being agents for healing, wholeness and new life is our work. This is dangerous work -- because it will threaten the status quo. Yet the healing, wholeness and new life such work can facilitate will spring up in all sorts of unlikely places -- legislative committee chambers, courtrooms, soup kitchens, prison cells, Habitat for Humanity build sites and countless other unexepected locations. Salvation comes where the Gospel is proclaimed and lodges in the hearts of those who hear it...and I suspect it most dramatically shows up in places far removed from a church building.
The events of last Saturday (as many other events in recent years) starkly remind us that our culture isn't "Christianized". There are dangers afoot. And yet, the call to the Church is to follow Jesus, wherever he leads -- out into the places where we are exposed, vulnerable and at risk. We may just get ourselves killed. But, until we are willing to engage the Gospel mission with abandon, I suspect ecclesiastical anemia will kill us long before "the world" will.
posted by FrGaryB | 1:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home