We are continuing our series of homilies following some of the theological themes presented in the Nicene Creed. We have been lingering on what we are to learn from the phrase: We believe in the Holy Spirit. Our reflections on the Holy Spirit have, in turn, brought us back to the question of what it means to affirm our confidence in what God is doing in the community he has called to be his body on earth: the church. So, we spent a bit of time talking again this week of the importance of seeking God and his blessings within the context of Christian community. We have reiterated this point several times while reflecting on the person and work of the Holy Spirit because it is so very important to realize that God's intention for his people is that they receive grace from one another as often as we receive grace from him.
We went on to talk some about a passage of Scripture that reveals the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and encourages us to seek his presence so we might be drawn deeper into the love shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Colossians 3:1~4 & 12~17
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then
you also will be revealed with him in glory.
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meek-
ness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each
other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Even though the Holy Spirit is not mentioned by name in this passage, he is everywhere present in what the apostle is talking about. It is the Holy Spirit who unites us to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who brings us the blessings of grace and mercy that come to us from Jesus. This particular role of the ministry of the Spirit is spelled out in the following from Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23
All of this talk of the Holy Spirit can seem quite ethereal; and, to some of our ears Paul's exhortation to set one's mind on the things above (see above passage) seems mushy and slippery. So, it helps to unpack what he is saying in light of our overall knowledge of the gospel. As James Dunn put it, Paul is not encouraging us here to describe the furniture of heaven when he beseeches us to set our mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. The New Testament authors regularly use the metaphors of their thought-world to describe the victory of Christ over evil and sin signified by his resurrection from the dead and this is the sort of language Paul is employing here: richly metaphorical. What Paul has in mind here is to encourage us to fix our thought patterns on what has been accomplished for us in Christ! This pattern of thinking is given to us, in turn, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us. Here I find Luke Timothy Johnson's thoughts to be a help: "We have a model for a life transformed through the Holy Spirit in Jesus.... The pattern of the human Jesus' own character.... is to be the pattern of the Spirit's transformation of human existence: 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God (Gal 2:20).' Paul, therefore speaks of 'putting on the Lord Jesus' (Rom 13:14) and of 'putting on the new person which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.... Christ who is all in all (Col 3:10-11). (Luke Timothy Johnson in his book, The Creed).
So, what can seem too ethereal to be of practical help is really in the end very practical advice for daily living. We are to see the events in our life according the pattern of our baptism in Christ. We have died with Christ and we are now made alive to the newness of life that is his resurrection. Our moral failures, our sins, do not determine our future because our death with Christ give us the freedom of forgiveness which is released each time we repent. Similarly, the external conditions of our life's circumstances do not have the authority to give us marching orders. What may seem to be a pattern of hopelessness (e.g. how many of us are feeling in the wake of the economic crisis) is not to be the pattern we conform our lives to. We are to live in hope and love knowing that the only death that matters is the death we have already died in Christ. So, we are to keep after the things that are good and belong to the world to come even in the midst of trying circumstances (e.g. we keep giving, loving, and working towards the future because we know the future through Jesus.
Questions for discussion:
1. Why is it important to have confidence in what God has promised to do through the Spirit in the church? Why is it important to think in this category as well as thinking in terms of what God has promised to do for each of us individually?
2. What role do you think prayer plays in helping you grasp what Paul is asking us to do in setting our mind on "things above"?
3. Setting our minds on the things above requires discipline. Do you cringe at the thought of understanding grace through the disciplines of prayer, worship, etc.? How does one approach the spiritual disciplines without being moralistic?
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Homily Recap 2.15.09
We continued in our series of homilies that are based roughly on the theology of the Nicene Creed. This week we reflected a bit on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the community of the local church.
Jesus made clear to his disciples in an astounding promise that he would would always be with them:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." John 14:15-17
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20
We have come to understand through the witness of the apostles in the rest of the New Testament that his promise is kept through the sending and presence of the Holy Spirit in and among the people of God who follow Jesus in faith and repentance.
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God." Ephesians 2:19-21
There is much discussion and speculation about the particulars of when and how the Holy Spirit resides among and animates Christian people. What many Christians agree on, however, is that the Spirit is God's presence in and among his people for the purpose of progressively bringing a person's whole life into the fellowship shared by the Father, Son, and Him. But the emphasis in the New Testament is never on the individual as separate from the work of the Spirit in the community; thus, any conversation about the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of God's people must be a conversation about His relationship to God's people in the context of the Christian community of the local church. Hence, it is ironic that a passage like 1 Corinthians 12 comes up so often in discussions among Christian people in the context of who has what spiritual gift, how one might know what gift one has, and how one might acquire a certain gift, etc. This consumerist, individualist approach to the gift of God's spirit in and among God's people causes us to miss the heartbeat of this portion of 1 Corinthians: "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good". How God's spirit manifests Himself will be unique within the context of each person's life, but this heterogeneity of spiritual experiences are from the same God whose plurality is joined in unity (three-in-one). So, the work of the Spirit in and among God's people is to enable and empower us to be uniquely ourselves while serving one another through the one Jesus. The point of all of this is that the community should, without diminishing the uniqueness of any of our members, see our unique lives as gifts of God's grace to one another for the common good.
'Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
This is how Rowan Williams talks about the topic at hand:
".... the community lives in the exchange, not simply of charisms...... but of stories, of memories. My particular past is there, in the Church, as a resource for my relations with my brothers and sisters - not to be poured out repeatedly and promiscuously, but as a hinterland of vision and truth and acceptance, out of which I can begin to love in honesty. Mycharism , the gift given me to give to the community, is my self, ultimately; my story given back, to give me a place in the net of exchange, the web of gifts, which is Christ's Church. My self is to be given away in love, not because it is worthless, but because it is supremely precious, given to me by the hand of God as he returns my memory. Out of my story, the Spirit of the risen Jesus constitutes my present possibilities of understanding, compassion, and self-sharing. My identity as lover in the community is uniquely coloured by the loves in which I have already struggled, failed, learned, repented: they are the reason for my present love being in this 'key' or 'mode' rather than that, the irreducible particularity of my gift..... love in the mode that emerges from the past that is yours and no oneelse's , out of the process in which you have learned to accept yourself. Begin to see yourself as gift, love it as gift, from God's hand, and learn how the neighbour too is a gift, to himself or herself, and to you...... the state of 'fallen' humanity.... a chain of mutual deprivation, robbery with violence: here we see how redeemed humanity inverts this system to be a chain of mutual gift, exchange of life. And the pivot is the learning of ones' own self as gift, allowing it to be returned -whatever the initial pain or shame - by the risen Christ, hearing one's true name from his lips." (Williams pp. 37 and 38 of Resurrection, Interpreting the Easter Gospel).
Discussion Questions:
1. What benefit is it to you to think about God's promise to be present in and among his people? Does being reminded of this make a positive difference in how you practice your faith? If so, how?
2. What do you think Williams means when he says that we must learn to see ourselves as "gift" from "God's hand"..... "returned...... by the risen Christ"?
3. Do you think of yourself as gift in the way Williams suggests above?
4. How does seeing yourself as gift shape the way you think of your responsibilities to those in your community?
Jesus made clear to his disciples in an astounding promise that he would would always be with them:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." John 14:15-17
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20
We have come to understand through the witness of the apostles in the rest of the New Testament that his promise is kept through the sending and presence of the Holy Spirit in and among the people of God who follow Jesus in faith and repentance.
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God." Ephesians 2:19-21
There is much discussion and speculation about the particulars of when and how the Holy Spirit resides among and animates Christian people. What many Christians agree on, however, is that the Spirit is God's presence in and among his people for the purpose of progressively bringing a person's whole life into the fellowship shared by the Father, Son, and Him. But the emphasis in the New Testament is never on the individual as separate from the work of the Spirit in the community; thus, any conversation about the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of God's people must be a conversation about His relationship to God's people in the context of the Christian community of the local church. Hence, it is ironic that a passage like 1 Corinthians 12 comes up so often in discussions among Christian people in the context of who has what spiritual gift, how one might know what gift one has, and how one might acquire a certain gift, etc. This consumerist, individualist approach to the gift of God's spirit in and among God's people causes us to miss the heartbeat of this portion of 1 Corinthians: "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good". How God's spirit manifests Himself will be unique within the context of each person's life, but this heterogeneity of spiritual experiences are from the same God whose plurality is joined in unity (three-in-one). So, the work of the Spirit in and among God's people is to enable and empower us to be uniquely ourselves while serving one another through the one Jesus. The point of all of this is that the community should, without diminishing the uniqueness of any of our members, see our unique lives as gifts of God's grace to one another for the common good.
'Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
This is how Rowan Williams talks about the topic at hand:
".... the community lives in the exchange, not simply of charisms...
Discussion Questions:
1. What benefit is it to you to think about God's promise to be present in and among his people? Does being reminded of this make a positive difference in how you practice your faith? If so, how?
2. What do you think Williams means when he says that we must learn to see ourselves as "gift" from "God's hand"..... "returned...... by the risen Christ"?
3. Do you think of yourself as gift in the way Williams suggests above?
4. How does seeing yourself as gift shape the way you think of your responsibilities to those in your community?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
homily recap 2.8.09
We continued our series of homilies that are based on some of the theological ideas presented in the Nicene Creed. Having just finished a 3 part series on redemption we moved on to reflect on the church as God's gift of community to those who are being redeemed. The church community is the context where God nurtures, teaches, and keeps his promises to his people.
This Sunday we considered the sacrament of baptism and reflected on what God says to us through this symbol. The notion of a sacrament, often defined as a visible and tangible sign of an invisible reality, is itself such an ethereal concept that one might wryly suggest that we need a sacrament to make the concept of sacraments real to us. In that observation, however, lies a hint of what is beautiful, true, and mysterious about the two sacraments Jesus left the church. To offer an analogy from what one Christian thinker, Maritain, has said about art: because it is God's world, a creation made in love and granted freedom, "things give more than they have". As Jesus took on the flesh and blood of this creation to show us the God who we cannot see, he left us physical stuff for us to act upon and through in order to reveal to us that which is invisible.
Some thoughts on the sacraments:
Regardless of what one thinks happens when one takes communion (I am referring here to the debates over transubstantiation, consubstantiation, the memorial view, and spiritual union) doesn't one have to admit that Jesus meant for there to be something unique about the connection between the physical act and what it speaks of; consider that the words of institution form 1 Corinthians 11 cited below teach us that the physical act of eating and drinking reveal the spiritual reality of the gospel - in Paul's words, it is the act of eating and drinking that speaks. Similarly, with baptism (see quotes from Romans 6 and Colossians 1 below), it is the physical act of baptism that Paul is referring to that proclaims the gospel and physically reveals a spiritual reality (e.g. circumcised with a spiritual circumcision... when you were buried with him in baptism).
"For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes."
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life...."
"In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."
In my opinion, for too long the debate over the meaning of the sacraments has centered on the questions of how and if they convey grace in and of themselves. The better question, I think, is how does God use these symbols together with the "tokens of trust" given to the church's common life (e.g. worship, prayer, community, etc) to be with us and speak to us? This is why we are encouraged to say that we believe in the church (actually, the Greek is that we "believe the church"). What we believe is that God works in us in a particular kind of community - the church. This is not to diminish the uniqueness, integrity, or importance of our individual relationships with God, rather we are taught that our individual relationships with God do not offer a context in and of themselves for the fullness of human flourishing. Rowan Williams, in his book (Tokens of Trust), talks about the church in this language: "Breathing the air of Christ, Christ becoming the 'atmosphere' in which we live....... isn't only about being in a state of peace but about being in what some would call a 'dynamic equilibrium'. Our peace is what it is because it is a flow of unbroken activity, the constant maintenance of relation and growth as we give into each others' lives and receive from each other, so that we advance in trust and confidence with one another and God."
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you think of the church (Grace Chicago, for example) as a gift of God to you and the context where God wishes to help your flourish as a human being?
2. Luke Timothy Johnson, in his book on the Nicene Creed (The Creed), says that "no one of us believes as much or as well as all of us do communally." Agree? Disagree? What is he saying? Expand on his thoughts?
3. Do the sacraments offer a context that help you in your life with Christ each other? I remarked on Sunday that baptism offers us a pattern that helps us read our lives rightly. Do you see baptism in this way?
4. Confessing the Nicene Creed, and participating in the sacramental life of the church reminds us that we confess a mystery revealed to us. Is it important to acknowledge the aspect of our faith that is mystery? If so, why? If not, why not?
This Sunday we considered the sacrament of baptism and reflected on what God says to us through this symbol. The notion of a sacrament, often defined as a visible and tangible sign of an invisible reality, is itself such an ethereal concept that one might wryly suggest that we need a sacrament to make the concept of sacraments real to us. In that observation, however, lies a hint of what is beautiful, true, and mysterious about the two sacraments Jesus left the church. To offer an analogy from what one Christian thinker, Maritain, has said about art: because it is God's world, a creation made in love and granted freedom, "things give more than they have". As Jesus took on the flesh and blood of this creation to show us the God who we cannot see, he left us physical stuff for us to act upon and through in order to reveal to us that which is invisible.
Some thoughts on the sacraments:
Regardless of what one thinks happens when one takes communion (I am referring here to the debates over transubstantiation, consubstantiation, the memorial view, and spiritual union) doesn't one have to admit that Jesus meant for there to be something unique about the connection between the physical act and what it speaks of; consider that the words of institution form 1 Corinthians 11 cited below teach us that the physical act of eating and drinking reveal the spiritual reality of the gospel - in Paul's words, it is the act of eating and drinking that speaks. Similarly, with baptism (see quotes from Romans 6 and Colossians 1 below), it is the physical act of baptism that Paul is referring to that proclaims the gospel and physically reveals a spiritual reality (e.g. circumcised with a spiritual circumcision... when you were buried with him in baptism).
"For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes."
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life...."
"In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."
In my opinion, for too long the debate over the meaning of the sacraments has centered on the questions of how and if they convey grace in and of themselves. The better question, I think, is how does God use these symbols together with the "tokens of trust" given to the church's common life (e.g. worship, prayer, community, etc) to be with us and speak to us? This is why we are encouraged to say that we believe in the church (actually, the Greek is that we "believe the church"). What we believe is that God works in us in a particular kind of community - the church. This is not to diminish the uniqueness, integrity, or importance of our individual relationships with God, rather we are taught that our individual relationships with God do not offer a context in and of themselves for the fullness of human flourishing. Rowan Williams, in his book (Tokens of Trust), talks about the church in this language: "Breathing the air of Christ, Christ becoming the 'atmosphere' in which we live....
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you think of the church (Grace Chicago, for example) as a gift of God to you and the context where God wishes to help your flourish as a human being?
2. Luke Timothy Johnson, in his book on the Nicene Creed (The Creed), says that "no one of us believes as much or as well as all of us do communally." Agree? Disagree? What is he saying? Expand on his thoughts?
3. Do the sacraments offer a context that help you in your life with Christ each other? I remarked on Sunday that baptism offers us a pattern that helps us read our lives rightly. Do you see baptism in this way?
4. Confessing the Nicene Creed, and participating in the sacramental life of the church reminds us that we confess a mystery revealed to us. Is it important to acknowledge the aspect of our faith that is mystery? If so, why? If not, why not?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
homily recap 2.1.09
This Sunday we returned to theme of redemption. We have continued to benefit from David Kelsey's insights gleaned from his wonderful book, Imagining Redemption. In this book, Kelsey talks about what redemptive difference Jesus can make to a family scarred by horrific events (see the last homily recap for context and the summary of what happened to this family). Kelsey uses the illustration of the reversal of foreground and background in a painting to describe the difference that Jesus can make to this family. "In the scene defined by Sam's family, after Sam's illness, his family's situation is the background. It both defines and frames the scene, that is, the context of each of the people in it. Within that context, Jesus' presence is accented or foregrounded as God's promise. At the same time Jesus is present in the scene as one person among many within one-and-the same context..... that context is profoundly unpromising, a living death constructed in part by Sam's family out of illusions and half-truths. However, if Jesus' presence in the family's life is indeed God's eschatological promise (by this Kelsey means that the risen Lord Jesus Christ brings the promise of the world to come to this family in the present, embodying the already of God's coming Kingdom in the midst of the not yet of this family's life) background and foreground are reversed. As God's promise of the imminent in-breaking of God's eschatological kingdom, Jesus' presence places Sam and his family in a new and profoundly promising context. Quite apart from anything else changing, we now must imagine the social institution that is created by God's performative utterance. That is, God's promise to all humankind is the context into which the terrible situation into which Sam's family is relocated." With this theological framework in mind we turned to the Gospel of John (21:1-17) and Jesus' third resurrection appearance to his disciples.
We find the disciples returning to fishing. Called by Jesus to be fishers of people these men had returned to being fishermen after the crucifixion. Into their midst the risen Lord Jesus comes and places their lives in a new context - the same new context that Kelsey refers to above. Within this new context Jesus gives Peter (and through him the rest of the disciples and us) a redemptive challenge: love the sheep, practice the Christian faith. Peter is being challenged to live into the blessings of grace and spirit animated life in the community called into existence by the risen Lord Jesus Christ, what Kelsey refers to above as the "social institution that is created by God's performative utterance".
While preparing this homily I thought about Jesus' redemptive challenge to Peter in light of an essay I recently read by Amy Plantinga Pauw, "Attending to the Gaps between Beliefs and Practices". In the essay Pauw observes that when thinking of spiritual formation it is always tempting to look at and emulate models of what she calls "exemplary discipleship". She suggests, though, that there are problems with that approach. Here is Pauw: "In exemplary cases of discipleship, the coherence of belief and practice is so impressive that it masks the extent to which beliefs and practices underdetermine each other. By contrast the ordinary struggles of religious people lay bare the ligaments that hold beliefs and practices together. Their struggles reveal how easily these connections become strained and broken when admirable beliefs fail to nurture admirable practices, or when vibrant practices fail to stimulate vibrant belief. The recurring gaps between beliefs and practices reveal that these two components do not by themselves comprise the religious life, and point us to the significance of the affective dimensions of faith. Desires and dispositions play a key role in connecting beliefs and practices". Pauw goes on to point out that it is by attending to the gaps where we discover "wanting to want" to serve and love God is what keeps us on track. Pauw: For us, as people of faith who want to want to love God, the communal setting of proclamation, sacraments, and confession frame our hopes for closing the gaps between beliefs and practices. In those settings we can reaffirm the truth about our dependence upon the richness of God's grace. Freed by God's assurance of forgiveness, we can dare to probe the corruption in our beliefs and practices, and our failures to connect them. Filled with thanksgiving and gratitude, we can pray for a creative and fruitful integrity between our beliefs and practices."
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you find yourself looking at those you consider to be exemplary followers of Jesus and feel that you come up short? Does this cause problems for you as you think about your own journey of faith?
2. What is masked by looking at those we consider to be exemplary disciples of Jesus as our models for our own journey with Christ?
3. What is revealed when we consider why we have gaps between beliefs and practices? What does Pauw mean by affections, desires and dispositions?
4. What can you glean from John's portrayal of Jesus' interaction with Peter as it relates to this discussion? Specifically, how is Jesus' challenge to Peter a way of inviting him to attend the gap between his belief and practice?
We find the disciples returning to fishing. Called by Jesus to be fishers of people these men had returned to being fishermen after the crucifixion. Into their midst the risen Lord Jesus comes and places their lives in a new context - the same new context that Kelsey refers to above. Within this new context Jesus gives Peter (and through him the rest of the disciples and us) a redemptive challenge: love the sheep, practice the Christian faith. Peter is being challenged to live into the blessings of grace and spirit animated life in the community called into existence by the risen Lord Jesus Christ, what Kelsey refers to above as the "social institution that is created by God's performative utterance".
While preparing this homily I thought about Jesus' redemptive challenge to Peter in light of an essay I recently read by Amy Plantinga Pauw, "Attending to the Gaps between Beliefs and Practices". In the essay Pauw observes that when thinking of spiritual formation it is always tempting to look at and emulate models of what she calls "exemplary discipleship". She suggests, though, that there are problems with that approach. Here is Pauw: "In exemplary cases of discipleship, the coherence of belief and practice is so impressive that it masks the extent to which beliefs and practices underdetermine each other. By contrast the ordinary struggles of religious people lay bare the ligaments that hold beliefs and practices together. Their struggles reveal how easily these connections become strained and broken when admirable beliefs fail to nurture admirable practices, or when vibrant practices fail to stimulate vibrant belief. The recurring gaps between beliefs and practices reveal that these two components do not by themselves comprise the religious life, and point us to the significance of the affective dimensions of faith. Desires and dispositions play a key role in connecting beliefs and practices". Pauw goes on to point out that it is by attending to the gaps where we discover "wanting to want" to serve and love God is what keeps us on track. Pauw: For us, as people of faith who want to want to love God, the communal setting of proclamation, sacraments, and confession frame our hopes for closing the gaps between beliefs and practices. In those settings we can reaffirm the truth about our dependence upon the richness of God's grace. Freed by God's assurance of forgiveness, we can dare to probe the corruption in our beliefs and practices, and our failures to connect them. Filled with thanksgiving and gratitude, we can pray for a creative and fruitful integrity between our beliefs and practices."
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you find yourself looking at those you consider to be exemplary followers of Jesus and feel that you come up short? Does this cause problems for you as you think about your own journey of faith?
2. What is masked by looking at those we consider to be exemplary disciples of Jesus as our models for our own journey with Christ?
3. What is revealed when we consider why we have gaps between beliefs and practices? What does Pauw mean by affections, desires and dispositions?
4. What can you glean from John's portrayal of Jesus' interaction with Peter as it relates to this discussion? Specifically, how is Jesus' challenge to Peter a way of inviting him to attend the gap between his belief and practice?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
homily recap 1.25.09
We are presently using the theological themes that weave through the Nicene Creed as a guide to our homily series. This week we continued our homily series on redemption.
David Kelsey, a theologian on faculty at Yale Divinity School, has written a tremendous little book entitled, Imagining Redemption. He does not use the word imagine in the sense that many think of it as it relates to the ability to create fiction. What he means by imagining is to be able to see the world and our lives through the lens of God's redemptive promise. He wrote the book because he wanted to bring powerful theological ideas to bear on the messy and ugly situations that we find ourselves in. He urges that each of us needs to learn to recognize what we need redeeming from and then begin to imagine what God's redemptive promise can mean for us in the midst of the mess. More specifically, he exhorts us to to imagine what difference Jesus can make to us in this world in the midst of our messy lives while pointing out that far too often we think of redemption as mainly what awaits us in the world to come.
One important point that Kelsey brings out in his discussion is that part of growing in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ entails growing in our ability to imagine the world and our lives as the landscape of God's redemptive actions. He suggests that we need an interpretive guide, a kind of heuristic, in order to be able to see the world in this way. For instance, when we look at the evil that is still loose in the world - that we are sometimes profoundly impacted by and sometimes participate in - it can be hard to see the world or our lives as pregnant with God's redemptive promise. All we can see is hopelessness: a hopelessness that can come to distort our identities. Kelsey makes the helpful point that the resurrected Jesus Christ is present in our lives at all times and that he is the embodiment of God's redemptive promise; hence, God's redemptive promise is present to us, lovingly, as we go through the dark storms that otherwise look hopeless. Here is my silly illustration of what it is like to imagine Jesus' presence with us as God's redemptive promise. More than once or twice I have been in a coffee shop that is new to me and noticed something going on behind the scenes with the baristas at the espresso machine. From a distance, in line, it looks as if they are confused, don't know what they are doing, bickering even, as they pack the espresso, pull shot after shot, and then pour each one down the drain. Meanwhile the line lengthens and customers become impatient wondering when these incompetents will actually make someone a drink. However, as an espresso nut I can see from the back of the line that what they are doing is adjusting the grind, through a certain degree of trial and error, in order for the shots to come out the way they should. What looks like chaos to some looks like hope to me because I know that they know the difference between a shot well pulled and the alternative. I see something some others do not.
When we experience the horrors of evil and observe horrific events we can either see all of it as irredeemable or we can learn, through the lens of the gospel, to see these events in the context of what God has done, is doing, and will do through the person of Jesus; for, Jesus was a human being who experienced chaotic, horrendous evil but received God's redemptive promise of resurrection. To put it in the words of the creed:
"For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures"
So, Jesus comes to us in the midst of what needs to be redeemed as God's promise of redemption, bridging this world with the fully redeemed world to come and setting our lives in a new context. Because he knows these truths often remain too abstract for us to think about them in mundane categories Kelsey teaches this in his book in the context of the life of a family who underwent horrendous suffering. Here is a bit of their story as told by Kelsey:
"Just as he turned eight, a boy I will call Sam became totally paralyzed and spent three months on a respirator in a coma. The rest of the year he spent in a children’s rehabilitation hospital. He emerged with minor brain damage, learning disabilities, complex emotional problems and severe behavioral problems.
Under the strain of trying to cope with Sam, the family began to disintegrate. His mother suffered a psychotic break and was briefly hospitalized. At first when she returned home she was very depressed. Because neither the public school system nor his family could manage him, when he was 12 Sam was placed in the first of a series of residential schools that combined academics with programs of behavior modification. Several weeks after Sam’s mother returned home from the hospital her depression lifted enough that she felt she could take a part-time secretarial job. She continued in the care of a very able psychiatrist and seemed to be managing increasingly well. Then she killed herself.
Twelve-year-old Sam was certain that his mother had committed suicide because she was upset by his bad behavior that, he believed, had caused him to be sent away to school. He began acting out in dangerous ways, was deemed suicidal himself and was placed in a children’s psychiatric hospital. He lived there, attending the hospital school and fortunately being helped by a skillful therapist, until he was 15. The mother’s suicide, of course, was also deeply traumatic, if in less dramatic ways, for Sam’s two sisters and his father."
Over the years the family became to see their lives as defined by these horrible tragedies. Their identities became one with what had happened to them. Something that each of us would probably do if in their shoes. Kelsey goes on with the story and gently teaches us that seeing one's life in this way is a distortion and puts us in a situation where we do not acknowledge properly the redemptive presence of Jesus. Again, Kelsey:
"A problem with defining personal identity in the way Sam and his father do is that it distorts one’s identity by binding it to horrible situations in the past. The problem lies not so much with the horror as with the pastness. If what justifies one’s life and shows that it is indeed worth living is surviving a set of horrendous events, then everything that happens later and everything one does later must be interpreted and shaped by reference to those past events. One’s future is defined by, and so is in bondage to, an event in the past.
So, for example: As Sam slowly becomes more capable of managing his owi~ affairs, he still cannot allow himself to live more autonomously because of who he is. He has defined his identity as that of one made dependent on others by his disabilities. When possibilities arise that could expand the range of his life, he leaves them unexplored because they don’t fit his definition of who he is. When he gets part-time jobs for which he longs, he sooner or later sabotages himself by faking seizures. Although he wants to work the way everybody else does, and looks forward to the little bit of extra income it brings in, working does not fit his definition of himself as a person disabled by horrendous events. After a certain number of seizure episodes, his employers always let him go.
Sam shows some artistic talent. But when he is admitted to the school system’s adult education art class, he fakes seizures and is asked not to enroll again. He lives as though he must keep his self-definition as a survivor of horrendous events continually in the public eye. His old identity must not be eclipsed by the appearance of a new identity as "ordinary worker" or "talented young adult." As he matures in his ability to make and keep friends Sam does not form a social network for himself, for it is essential to his identity that he is one who has lost family. "Lacking a support system" is part of his identity.
So too with Sam’s father. Even when in young adulthood Sam’s life is supported and structured by a network of social agencies, his father continues to organize his own life in such a way that everything else is arranged around the edges of his perceived responsibility for Sam. Being endlessly responsible for Sam defines who he is.
Neither Sam nor his father could imagine or allow any new joyful event, any new creative accomplishment, any new friendship to be more definitive of who he is than the terrible events to which his identity has been bound by definition. Theirs are distorted identities, frozen in time and closed to growth."
For me, the most helpful point that Kelsey makes in his book is that we often lack the sanctified imagination to be able to focus our hopes on "the difference that Jesus makes" in our lives here and now - in the midst of the messiness of working out our salvation in a fallen world. Here is Kelsey again:
"The difference that Jesus in his passion can make to Sam’s and his father’s distorted personal identities can.... be imagined in terms of "the fellow sufferer" if we follow the Evangelists’ description of Jesus’ personal identity. It is important to stress that God’s fellow suffering in, through and under Jesus’ passion is not just God’s way of understanding what we go through. It is God’s own odd way of going about loving us, God’s concrete act of loving us in the midst of the most terrible circumstances we can go through. It is just that love that can redeem personal identities like Sam’s and his father’s from their distorting bondage to past events, for it is God’s love for them that grounds the worth of their lives. Neither the excellence of what they do as measured by some set of rules nor their awesome survival of horrifying events can do that. It is only God’s concrete act of loving them in the midst of the most appalling situations that makes their lives worth living. That alone can justify the time, space and resources they take up in living."
Questions for discussion:
1. Can you think of ways in which your identity has been distorted by events of the past in subtle or profound ways?
2. Can you imagine how God's redemptive presence to you in the person of Jesus can help you be open to the future in a redemptive way?
3. Does this discussion help you think about you relate to other people who also need to experience God's redemptive presence? How does it help you sympathize with them?
David Kelsey, a theologian on faculty at Yale Divinity School, has written a tremendous little book entitled, Imagining Redemption. He does not use the word imagine in the sense that many think of it as it relates to the ability to create fiction. What he means by imagining is to be able to see the world and our lives through the lens of God's redemptive promise. He wrote the book because he wanted to bring powerful theological ideas to bear on the messy and ugly situations that we find ourselves in. He urges that each of us needs to learn to recognize what we need redeeming from and then begin to imagine what God's redemptive promise can mean for us in the midst of the mess. More specifically, he exhorts us to to imagine what difference Jesus can make to us in this world in the midst of our messy lives while pointing out that far too often we think of redemption as mainly what awaits us in the world to come.
One important point that Kelsey brings out in his discussion is that part of growing in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ entails growing in our ability to imagine the world and our lives as the landscape of God's redemptive actions. He suggests that we need an interpretive guide, a kind of heuristic, in order to be able to see the world in this way. For instance, when we look at the evil that is still loose in the world - that we are sometimes profoundly impacted by and sometimes participate in - it can be hard to see the world or our lives as pregnant with God's redemptive promise. All we can see is hopelessness: a hopelessness that can come to distort our identities. Kelsey makes the helpful point that the resurrected Jesus Christ is present in our lives at all times and that he is the embodiment of God's redemptive promise; hence, God's redemptive promise is present to us, lovingly, as we go through the dark storms that otherwise look hopeless. Here is my silly illustration of what it is like to imagine Jesus' presence with us as God's redemptive promise. More than once or twice I have been in a coffee shop that is new to me and noticed something going on behind the scenes with the baristas at the espresso machine. From a distance, in line, it looks as if they are confused, don't know what they are doing, bickering even, as they pack the espresso, pull shot after shot, and then pour each one down the drain. Meanwhile the line lengthens and customers become impatient wondering when these incompetents will actually make someone a drink. However, as an espresso nut I can see from the back of the line that what they are doing is adjusting the grind, through a certain degree of trial and error, in order for the shots to come out the way they should. What looks like chaos to some looks like hope to me because I know that they know the difference between a shot well pulled and the alternative. I see something some others do not.
When we experience the horrors of evil and observe horrific events we can either see all of it as irredeemable or we can learn, through the lens of the gospel, to see these events in the context of what God has done, is doing, and will do through the person of Jesus; for, Jesus was a human being who experienced chaotic, horrendous evil but received God's redemptive promise of resurrection. To put it in the words of the creed:
"For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures"
So, Jesus comes to us in the midst of what needs to be redeemed as God's promise of redemption, bridging this world with the fully redeemed world to come and setting our lives in a new context. Because he knows these truths often remain too abstract for us to think about them in mundane categories Kelsey teaches this in his book in the context of the life of a family who underwent horrendous suffering. Here is a bit of their story as told by Kelsey:
"Just as he turned eight, a boy I will call Sam became totally paralyzed and spent three months on a respirator in a coma. The rest of the year he spent in a children’s rehabilitation hospital. He emerged with minor brain damage, learning disabilities, complex emotional problems and severe behavioral problems.
Under the strain of trying to cope with Sam, the family began to disintegrate. His mother suffered a psychotic break and was briefly hospitalized. At first when she returned home she was very depressed. Because neither the public school system nor his family could manage him, when he was 12 Sam was placed in the first of a series of residential schools that combined academics with programs of behavior modification. Several weeks after Sam’s mother returned home from the hospital her depression lifted enough that she felt she could take a part-time secretarial job. She continued in the care of a very able psychiatrist and seemed to be managing increasingly well. Then she killed herself.
Twelve-year-old Sam was certain that his mother had committed suicide because she was upset by his bad behavior that, he believed, had caused him to be sent away to school. He began acting out in dangerous ways, was deemed suicidal himself and was placed in a children’s psychiatric hospital. He lived there, attending the hospital school and fortunately being helped by a skillful therapist, until he was 15. The mother’s suicide, of course, was also deeply traumatic, if in less dramatic ways, for Sam’s two sisters and his father."
Over the years the family became to see their lives as defined by these horrible tragedies. Their identities became one with what had happened to them. Something that each of us would probably do if in their shoes. Kelsey goes on with the story and gently teaches us that seeing one's life in this way is a distortion and puts us in a situation where we do not acknowledge properly the redemptive presence of Jesus. Again, Kelsey:
"A problem with defining personal identity in the way Sam and his father do is that it distorts one’s identity by binding it to horrible situations in the past. The problem lies not so much with the horror as with the pastness. If what justifies one’s life and shows that it is indeed worth living is surviving a set of horrendous events, then everything that happens later and everything one does later must be interpreted and shaped by reference to those past events. One’s future is defined by, and so is in bondage to, an event in the past.
So, for example: As Sam slowly becomes more capable of managing his owi~ affairs, he still cannot allow himself to live more autonomously because of who he is. He has defined his identity as that of one made dependent on others by his disabilities. When possibilities arise that could expand the range of his life, he leaves them unexplored because they don’t fit his definition of who he is. When he gets part-time jobs for which he longs, he sooner or later sabotages himself by faking seizures. Although he wants to work the way everybody else does, and looks forward to the little bit of extra income it brings in, working does not fit his definition of himself as a person disabled by horrendous events. After a certain number of seizure episodes, his employers always let him go.
Sam shows some artistic talent. But when he is admitted to the school system’s adult education art class, he fakes seizures and is asked not to enroll again. He lives as though he must keep his self-definition as a survivor of horrendous events continually in the public eye. His old identity must not be eclipsed by the appearance of a new identity as "ordinary worker" or "talented young adult." As he matures in his ability to make and keep friends Sam does not form a social network for himself, for it is essential to his identity that he is one who has lost family. "Lacking a support system" is part of his identity.
So too with Sam’s father. Even when in young adulthood Sam’s life is supported and structured by a network of social agencies, his father continues to organize his own life in such a way that everything else is arranged around the edges of his perceived responsibility for Sam. Being endlessly responsible for Sam defines who he is.
Neither Sam nor his father could imagine or allow any new joyful event, any new creative accomplishment, any new friendship to be more definitive of who he is than the terrible events to which his identity has been bound by definition. Theirs are distorted identities, frozen in time and closed to growth."
For me, the most helpful point that Kelsey makes in his book is that we often lack the sanctified imagination to be able to focus our hopes on "the difference that Jesus makes" in our lives here and now - in the midst of the messiness of working out our salvation in a fallen world. Here is Kelsey again:
"The difference that Jesus in his passion can make to Sam’s and his father’s distorted personal identities can.... be imagined in terms of "the fellow sufferer" if we follow the Evangelists’ description of Jesus’ personal identity. It is important to stress that God’s fellow suffering in, through and under Jesus’ passion is not just God’s way of understanding what we go through. It is God’s own odd way of going about loving us, God’s concrete act of loving us in the midst of the most terrible circumstances we can go through. It is just that love that can redeem personal identities like Sam’s and his father’s from their distorting bondage to past events, for it is God’s love for them that grounds the worth of their lives. Neither the excellence of what they do as measured by some set of rules nor their awesome survival of horrifying events can do that. It is only God’s concrete act of loving them in the midst of the most appalling situations that makes their lives worth living. That alone can justify the time, space and resources they take up in living."
Questions for discussion:
1. Can you think of ways in which your identity has been distorted by events of the past in subtle or profound ways?
2. Can you imagine how God's redemptive presence to you in the person of Jesus can help you be open to the future in a redemptive way?
3. Does this discussion help you think about you relate to other people who also need to experience God's redemptive presence? How does it help you sympathize with them?
Monday, January 19, 2009
homily recap 1.18.09
As we noted a couple of weeks ago - we will be moving along in our homily series with the Nicene Creed as a our thematic guide. In our first of the series we took up the teaching of God as the creator of all that is. A glance back at a couple of gleanings from this truth will help us move into our topic today. Here is a snippet from that homily recap: "the foundation of the gospel is based on God's love of his creation.... I am asserting that the purpose of redemption is the fulfillment of God's love for what and who he has made. This is different from the way we sometimes think of redemption. For instance, we often think of redemption in such individualistic terms (e.g. I am a sinner; God please redeem me) that we imagine God's love for us to be contingent on a decision he made in response to our groveling. Nothing could be further than the truth. He initiates redemption with us from the same heart that created - a heart full of love for the other."
This Sunday we came specifically to the topic of redemption. In the meditation which led us to the communion table we noted that it is often the case that Christians think of their need for redemption in two separate and distinct categories. Category One: we need redemption from because the world is broken; evil pollutes to varied extents all that there is, acting upon us and effecting our lives simply because the world is a fallen place and we live in it. Category Two: We need redemption from our sin, our failures for which we have responsibility. Though this two category approach is helpful in reminding us that there are sins we commit and for which we have responsibility to repent, it is unhelpful in other ways. The situations we find ourselves in which cry out for redemption most profoundly often exist partly because of our sins and partly because of evil that is done to us. Over analysis with regard to what percentage of the blame lies with us directly and what percentage lies at the feet of cosmic evil can lead to more mischief in the long run; many times it is best for us to simply cry out for redemption and ask God to make a new way for us to live in relationship to the mess from which we need to be redeemed. Theologian David Kelsey in his book, Imagining Redemption, puts it this way: ".... people actively sin in some particular circumstances. As often as not those concrete circumstances are themselves evil situations that, having befallen them, distort and break their lives. Those circumstance are the conditions of their sinning, not the consequences. It is not necessary to claim that the circumstances in which peple sin excuse them of responsibility for that sin in orer to acknowledge that, however much their sinning requires redemption, their circumstances do also. Conversely, people who undergo the most horrendous suffering....must respond to that suffering.....If they respond in sinful ways, then once again, a situation that needs one sort of redemption has become the occasion of the need of redemption of the other sort also."
We continued in our homily to ask ourselves what we are wishing for when we hope for and ask for redemption. Knowing what God promises in redemption helps to shape our lives and refines our pursuit of God. Knowing what God promises in redemption helps us to look at, if you will permit the metaphor, the landscape of our lives in light of the in-breaking of the landscape that is the world to come. Sometimes it is helpful to recognize the uniqueness of what something is by realizing what it is not:
Redemption is not realizing more deeply the sympathy of God. It is, of course, a profound truth revealed in the gospel that Jesus sympathizes with us but this is not the most important part of what it means for God to promise redemption. Nor is redemption a putting back in place that which was lost the way it was before (God promises new creation - not a rolling back of everything to Eden). Neither is redemption simply the hope that everything will be OK after we die (Jesus had promised to make a difference in this world, even as he is the first-fruits of the world to come).
Redemption is the experience of the risen Lord Jesus Christ in such a way as we experience newness of life even in the midst of our ugly circumstances; in order for it to count as redemption it must make a redemptive difference in our circumstances, wherein we are changed and made more like Christ. The next two homilies are devoted to exploring what this free but costly grace looks like in the midst of our broken lives.
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you find Kelsey's point about needing "both kinds of redemption" in almost every situation that needs redemption to be helpful. If so, why? If not, why?
2. If you equate redemption with God's sympathy and sort of leave it at that what problems might this cause you and those with whom you have to do?
3. If you equate redemption as being mainly about what happens to me after I die what sorts of problems might this cause you and those with whom you have to do?
4. What is wrong with seeing redemption as God simply putting back together that which is broken the way that it was before?
This Sunday we came specifically to the topic of redemption. In the meditation which led us to the communion table we noted that it is often the case that Christians think of their need for redemption in two separate and distinct categories. Category One: we need redemption from because the world is broken; evil pollutes to varied extents all that there is, acting upon us and effecting our lives simply because the world is a fallen place and we live in it. Category Two: We need redemption from our sin, our failures for which we have responsibility. Though this two category approach is helpful in reminding us that there are sins we commit and for which we have responsibility to repent, it is unhelpful in other ways. The situations we find ourselves in which cry out for redemption most profoundly often exist partly because of our sins and partly because of evil that is done to us. Over analysis with regard to what percentage of the blame lies with us directly and what percentage lies at the feet of cosmic evil can lead to more mischief in the long run; many times it is best for us to simply cry out for redemption and ask God to make a new way for us to live in relationship to the mess from which we need to be redeemed. Theologian David Kelsey in his book, Imagining Redemption, puts it this way: ".... people actively sin in some particular circumstances. As often as not those concrete circumstances are themselves evil situations that, having befallen them, distort and break their lives. Those circumstance are the conditions of their sinning, not the consequences. It is not necessary to claim that the circumstances in which peple sin excuse them of responsibility for that sin in orer to acknowledge that, however much their sinning requires redemption, their circumstances do also. Conversely, people who undergo the most horrendous suffering....must respond to that suffering.....If they respond in sinful ways, then once again, a situation that needs one sort of redemption has become the occasion of the need of redemption of the other sort also."
We continued in our homily to ask ourselves what we are wishing for when we hope for and ask for redemption. Knowing what God promises in redemption helps to shape our lives and refines our pursuit of God. Knowing what God promises in redemption helps us to look at, if you will permit the metaphor, the landscape of our lives in light of the in-breaking of the landscape that is the world to come. Sometimes it is helpful to recognize the uniqueness of what something is by realizing what it is not:
Redemption is not realizing more deeply the sympathy of God. It is, of course, a profound truth revealed in the gospel that Jesus sympathizes with us but this is not the most important part of what it means for God to promise redemption. Nor is redemption a putting back in place that which was lost the way it was before (God promises new creation - not a rolling back of everything to Eden). Neither is redemption simply the hope that everything will be OK after we die (Jesus had promised to make a difference in this world, even as he is the first-fruits of the world to come).
Redemption is the experience of the risen Lord Jesus Christ in such a way as we experience newness of life even in the midst of our ugly circumstances; in order for it to count as redemption it must make a redemptive difference in our circumstances, wherein we are changed and made more like Christ. The next two homilies are devoted to exploring what this free but costly grace looks like in the midst of our broken lives.
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you find Kelsey's point about needing "both kinds of redemption" in almost every situation that needs redemption to be helpful. If so, why? If not, why?
2. If you equate redemption with God's sympathy and sort of leave it at that what problems might this cause you and those with whom you have to do?
3. If you equate redemption as being mainly about what happens to me after I die what sorts of problems might this cause you and those with whom you have to do?
4. What is wrong with seeing redemption as God simply putting back together that which is broken the way that it was before?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Homily Recap 1.11.09
This Sunday we celebrated Epiphany at Grace Chicago. We took up the traditional readings of Scripture and included, as we often do, T.S Eliot's, Journey of the Magi. Epiphany marks the transition between the seasons of Advent/Christmas and the time of the Christian year when we reflect on how we, the Church, are to join with Christ in the fulfillment of his mission. During Advent we reflected on our need for a redeemer, during Christmas we marveled that God comes to redeem humans as a human, and at Epiphany we come to know Jesus as the sovereign one who will redeem us through the establishment of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
During our time of teaching and preaching this Sunday we reflected on the theological meaning of the visit of the wise men. First, we noted that Paul taught that the mystery revealed in the gospel is that God's promise of salvation is as much for Gentiles as it is for Jews (Ephesians 3:6). This is what is pictured in the visitation of these strange men from the East. Likely astrologers and advisers from the Persian royal court these royal Gentiles honor Jesus as King and so fit into Matthew's overall message - God's salvation is meant for all peoples.
We spent the rest of our time thinking about what it means to reflect God's love in words and deeds to the whole world. Bringing the gospel to others raises the question of how we are to go about this mission in the context of our cultural setting. In this regard we urged that we ought first to consider what the gospel teaches us to think about other faiths. Here, we found Rowan Williams' comments helpful:
"Christian identity is to belong in a place that Jesus defines for us. By living in that place, we come in some degree to share his identity, to bear his name and to be in the same relationships he has with God and with the world. Forget ‘Christianity’ for a moment – Christianity as a system of ideas competing with others in the market: concentrate on the place in the world that is the place of Jesus the anointed, and what it is that becomes possible in that place.
There is a difference between seeing the world as basically a territory where systems compete, where groups with different allegiances live at each other’s expense, where rivalry is inescapable, and seeing the world as a territory where being in a particular place makes it possible for you to see, to say and to do certain things that aren’t possible elsewhere. The claim of Christian belief is not first and foremost that it offers the only accurate system of thought, as against all other competitors; it is that, by standing in the place of Christ, it is possible to live in such intimacy with God that no fear or failure can ever break God’s commitment to us, and to live in such a degree of mutual gift and understanding that no human conflict or division need bring us to uncontrollable violence and mutual damage. From here, you can see what you need to see to be at peace with God and with God’s creation; and also what you need to be at peace with yourself, acknowledging your need of mercy and re-creation." http://www.wcc-assembly.info/po/tema-questoes/documentos-de-la-assembleia/2-plenary-presentations/christian-identity-religious-plurality/rowan-williams-presentation.html
If I read Williams right, then what he is suggesting is quite profound - the gospel tells us how and what we should think about views of God and Christ that differ profoundly from our own. While remaining Jesus' loyal disciples we are not to seek power, manipulation, or control over those who see things differently; nor are we to insult, belittle, or antagonize the "other". It would be tragic indeed to act violently to others in the name of the one who, to paraphrase Luther, took his cross as his pulpit.
We continued the homily by cautioning against treating Jesus as a brand to be marketed. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, writing in Christianity Today, observes that many approaches to bearing witness to the gospel have been adversely influenced by the cultural values of individualism on the one hand and consumerism on the other:
"The de-churched nature of our theology makes evangelism hard to do without seeming salesy, because churchless evangelism unavoidably promotes a consumerist soteriology. When it's just you and Jesus, you (the consumer) "invite him" (the product) "into your heart" (brand adoption) and "get saved" (consumer gratification).... So, given this cultural setting, any salvation that needs a sophisticated sales pitch is a salvation that won't really do anything. It will make you holy the same way a new pair of Nikes makes you athletic—which is to say, not at all. It only changes your religious brand. Yet this is the only kind of evangelism possible when we separate salvation from life in the redeemed community, because it's in the redeemed community that God has ordained the enduring demonstration of his power, against which nothing can prevail." http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/january/10.20.html?start=1
So, we concluded our time of teaching on Sunday by asking God to enable us to faithfully bear witness to Jesus as a church community. We asked God to enable us to be loyal to Jesus, invite others to come into our community to hear and witness the gospel at work, pray for our conversion and the conversion of the world, and be respectful of those with other faiths.
Questions for discussion:
1. What does Williams mean (see above) when he says that we should not see the world as a territory where systems compete?
2. We noted that Epiphany is the time of year when we think a great deal of what it means to bear witness to Jesus as king and redeemer of the whole world. As one who follows Jesus in faith and repentance, how do you bear witness to Jesus as king and redeemer of the whole world? What does the summons to bear witness to Christ to others look like in your mundane life? How does the thought of being in a Christian community help you think about what your responsibility to bear witness to Christ looks like?
During our time of teaching and preaching this Sunday we reflected on the theological meaning of the visit of the wise men. First, we noted that Paul taught that the mystery revealed in the gospel is that God's promise of salvation is as much for Gentiles as it is for Jews (Ephesians 3:6). This is what is pictured in the visitation of these strange men from the East. Likely astrologers and advisers from the Persian royal court these royal Gentiles honor Jesus as King and so fit into Matthew's overall message - God's salvation is meant for all peoples.
We spent the rest of our time thinking about what it means to reflect God's love in words and deeds to the whole world. Bringing the gospel to others raises the question of how we are to go about this mission in the context of our cultural setting. In this regard we urged that we ought first to consider what the gospel teaches us to think about other faiths. Here, we found Rowan Williams' comments helpful:
"Christian identity is to belong in a place that Jesus defines for us. By living in that place, we come in some degree to share his identity, to bear his name and to be in the same relationships he has with God and with the world. Forget ‘Christianity’ for a moment – Christianity as a system of ideas competing with others in the market: concentrate on the place in the world that is the place of Jesus the anointed, and what it is that becomes possible in that place.
There is a difference between seeing the world as basically a territory where systems compete, where groups with different allegiances live at each other’s expense, where rivalry is inescapable, and seeing the world as a territory where being in a particular place makes it possible for you to see, to say and to do certain things that aren’t possible elsewhere. The claim of Christian belief is not first and foremost that it offers the only accurate system of thought, as against all other competitors; it is that, by standing in the place of Christ, it is possible to live in such intimacy with God that no fear or failure can ever break God’s commitment to us, and to live in such a degree of mutual gift and understanding that no human conflict or division need bring us to uncontrollable violence and mutual damage. From here, you can see what you need to see to be at peace with God and with God’s creation; and also what you need to be at peace with yourself, acknowledging your need of mercy and re-creation." http://www.wcc-assembly.info/po/tema-questoes/documentos-de-la-assembleia/2-plenary-presentations/christian-identity-religious-plurality/rowan-williams-presentation.html
If I read Williams right, then what he is suggesting is quite profound - the gospel tells us how and what we should think about views of God and Christ that differ profoundly from our own. While remaining Jesus' loyal disciples we are not to seek power, manipulation, or control over those who see things differently; nor are we to insult, belittle, or antagonize the "other". It would be tragic indeed to act violently to others in the name of the one who, to paraphrase Luther, took his cross as his pulpit.
We continued the homily by cautioning against treating Jesus as a brand to be marketed. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, writing in Christianity Today, observes that many approaches to bearing witness to the gospel have been adversely influenced by the cultural values of individualism on the one hand and consumerism on the other:
"The de-churched nature of our theology makes evangelism hard to do without seeming salesy, because churchless evangelism unavoidably promotes a consumerist soteriology. When it's just you and Jesus, you (the consumer) "invite him" (the product) "into your heart" (brand adoption) and "get saved" (consumer gratification).... So, given this cultural setting, any salvation that needs a sophisticated sales pitch is a salvation that won't really do anything. It will make you holy the same way a new pair of Nikes makes you athletic—which is to say, not at all. It only changes your religious brand. Yet this is the only kind of evangelism possible when we separate salvation from life in the redeemed community, because it's in the redeemed community that God has ordained the enduring demonstration of his power, against which nothing can prevail." http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/january/10.20.html?start=1
So, we concluded our time of teaching on Sunday by asking God to enable us to faithfully bear witness to Jesus as a church community. We asked God to enable us to be loyal to Jesus, invite others to come into our community to hear and witness the gospel at work, pray for our conversion and the conversion of the world, and be respectful of those with other faiths.
Questions for discussion:
1. What does Williams mean (see above) when he says that we should not see the world as a territory where systems compete?
2. We noted that Epiphany is the time of year when we think a great deal of what it means to bear witness to Jesus as king and redeemer of the whole world. As one who follows Jesus in faith and repentance, how do you bear witness to Jesus as king and redeemer of the whole world? What does the summons to bear witness to Christ to others look like in your mundane life? How does the thought of being in a Christian community help you think about what your responsibility to bear witness to Christ looks like?
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