circularthoughts

call me an atheist...

My current course at Fuller is called The Art of Evangelism. This week, for the course, I am reading Evangelism in the Early Church, by Michael Green. I have about 80 pages left to read.

One of the many things I’ve picked up from this read is how the early Christians were considered to be atheists by the Gentiles. The Gentiles (read for the most part as citizens of the Roman Empire) were confused by the refusal of the early Christians to pay homage to the gods of the empire. In other words, since the early Christians rejected the gods of the empire by saying there was only one true God, they must be atheists.

Clearly this was a confrontation between polytheism and monotheism. The empire and its citizens were polytheistic, having a god for everything that must be honored and respected if things were going to continue to go smoothly. By not paying homage to the gods of the empire the early Christians were thought to be seeking to undermine the empire and thus were seen as dangerous to the state.

It was also a conflict between a human made empire and the kingdom of God. 

I’m wondering if we still have this kind of conflict today?

I’m wondering if the gods of the empire could have morphed into what today we would call nationalism?

That may be a bit of a stretch, but, just in case, call me an atheist...

 

Conversion: Fast Food or Fine Dining?

My current course at Fuller is called The Art of Evangelism. The first book we are reading is called Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve, by Richard V. Peace, who just so happens to be the course Professor. In this book, Peace compares the dramatic, single-point-in-time conversion of Paul to the slow, progressive and even fuzzy (when it comes to when it happened) conversion of the Twelve. In doing such he is asking the question of which one is the norm. 

In Western Evangelicalism, the norm seems to have always been that of Paul. I was taught that I needed to be able to identify the specific point in time that I prayed to receive (trust) Christ. Failure to be able to do this was seen as a potential weakness in my own testimony that might cause doubts as to my actual salvation at some point in the future. Thus, our western evangelism is designed to fit this paradigm, in that we push for a decision.

Peace suggests that the conversion experience of the Twelve was more like a pilgrimage. It was a progressive revelation in which they first saw Jesus as a Teacher, followed by a Prophet, on to Messiah and then to God incarnate. In other words, he argues that the Twelve would have been hard pressed to pick out the specific point in time when the actually trusted Christ, but, their conversion was just as valid as that of Paul’s.

I’m intrigued with this idea of progressive revelation and progressive trust. I think that this “both/and” understanding of conversion might open the door to a more gentle, less confrontational/polemical form of evangelism, which would be a good thing, especially for those on the receiving end.

Bonhoeffer on community...

I recently completed a course for my seminary work at Fuller called The Ethics of Bonhoeffer. I first read Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship roughly 10 years ago. It has been a formative book for me. This course introduced me to much of his other works as well.

One of those was a little book called Life Together: Exploration of Faith in Community. This 122 page read is a deep discussion of what true Christian community looks like. Bonhoeffer wrote it while leading an underground seminary during the late 1930’s. The seminary had to be underground because of Nazi efforts to control the German church.

The key to this book is found in Bonhoeffer’s argument that any community founded on anything but Jesus is nothing more than a “wish dream.”

Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. (27).

I’ve seen this so many times. Churches, ministries and so forth are built around dreams and ideas that are close to Jesus, but, not Jesus. These dreams and ideas can take the form of a particular style of worship, they can be an intense focus on discipleship or even a certain way of preaching. Somehow, in the process, Jesus often gets left out, or minimized, or marginalized. 

I’ve been wondering lately if our pursuit of right doctrine can be one of Bonhoeffer’s “wish dreams” and thus a hinderance to community...

 

Four random posts on a random Thursday...

I have been out of action, when it comes to my blog, for the past week.  Today, I have decided to catch up on my posting.  The following is what could probably be four different posts.  I am doing them in one, well, because I am just too lazy to do four.  Today is your day!  Four somewhat unrelated, somewhat related posts for the price of one.

Post 1: 

I joined a gym today.  We have a new place in our city called 10 Fitness.  It will cost me $10.00 per month, and there is no contract to sign.  What do you think about that?  Only $10.00 per month and I can lose that extra 10, OK 20, alright, 35 pounds I need to lose.  Well, I guess there is that part about actually going to the gym and using the equipment... 

I used one of those elliptical machines this morning.  OUCH!  I do feel good about getting started back with this.  I used to run about 3-4 miles per day, but I broke my toe in Pakistan and haven't been able to run for close to two years.  I'm hoping I can find a good combination of machines that will help me get and then stay fit.  I want to do what I am doing for a long time and being fit will help.

Post 2:

I started two on-line classes with Fuller this week; Mentoring and Christian Ethics.  So far, so good.  I am reading Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins, by Miguel A. De La Torre, for the Ethics course.  Good stuff.  Addressing the question of why we need to pursue an understanding of Christian Ethics, De La Torre says:

Neither the overall biblical text, nor the pronouncements of Jesus are silent or abstruse concerning the type of actions or praxis expected of those who claim to be disciples of Christ.  The prophets of old would answer the ethical question of what God wants of God's people in a very straightforward matter.  God was not interested in church services devoid of praxis toward the marginalized.  As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, "Do not bring me [your God] your worthless offerings, the incense is an abomination to me.  I cannot endure new moon and Sabbath, the call to meetings and the evil assembly" (1:13).  Instead, the prophets proclaimed justice for society's most vulnerable members as true worship, a testimony of one's love for God and neighbor. (page 8)

I have been on a journey in recent months.  That journey is one of coming to terms with the lack of balance in my own practice in this area.  How much of who I am and what I do as a follower of Jesus is centered in the seeking of justice (righteousness)?  Is it possible to pursue sanctification without loving my neighbor?  Who is my neighbor?  I think I am going to both love and hate this class...

Post 3:

Staci, Grant and I had a wonderful mini-vacation to Rocky Mountain National Park at Estes Park, Colorado.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and it began to snow later that night.  When all was said and done, it had snowed almost 14 inches.  We saw lots of wildlife, like elk, bighorn sheep and coyotes.  We relaxed with a fire in the cabin's fireplace.  Grant and I went snowshoeing and skiing.  It was an incredible time.  We came home late Tuesday night.  It was good to get away.  Here are some pictures...

Grant, Staci and Eric, standing on Bear Lake

Grant and Eric on the ski lift

Grant twisted his knee, but he is fine.  ;-)

bighorn sheep

elk

Post 4:

While we were in Colorado I read The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics, by Stanley Hauerwas.  This is an incredible book and the more I read Hauerwas, the more of a fan I become.  My favorite quote:

The less sure we are of the truth of our religious convictions, the more we consider them immune from public scrutiny.  But in the process we lose what seems essential to their being true, namely that we be willing to commend them to others.  For the necessity of witness is not accidental to Christian convictions; it is at the heart of the Christian life.  Those convictions cannot be learned except as they are attested to and exemplified by others.  The essential Christian witness is neither to personal experience, nor to what Christianity means to "me," but to the truth that this world is the creation of a good God who is known through the people of Israel and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Without such a witness we only abandon the world to the violence derived from the lies that devour our lives.  There is, therefore, an inherent relation between truthfulness and peacefulness because peace comes only as we are transformed by a truth that gives us the confidence to rely on nothing else than its witness.  A "truth" that must use violence to secure its existence cannot be truth.  Rather the truth that moves the sun and the stars is that which is so sure in its power that it refuses to compel compliance or agreement by force.  Rather it relies on the slow, hard, and seemingly unrewarding work of witness, a witness which it trusts to prevail even in a fragmented and violent world. (pages 14 and 15)

How much of who we are, what we do, as individuals, as the church and as nations, is untruth, the existence of which must be secured by the use of violence?  We have been empowered and sent to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) of the gospel of the kingdom.  Seems to me that there is a whole lot of defending going on and not enough witnessing...