God’s Distinctive Alternative? – Part 1

Paul writes – A few weeks back I referenced an article written by Mike Riddell. It was the first of a series of reflections on St. Paul (the original request from the editor was three articles. I hear from a reliable source that that has now been increased to four. Indeed in the latest issue Jul 09 Mike brings his series to a close by "ring[ing] out those bells"). You can find my post (referred to above) here and the article it links to, here.

Mike’s latest reflection on St. Paul (sadly not online) draws on St. Paul’s letter to the Roman church(es) – “Betwixt and Between: Romans 8.”  While not a lengthy article it gets to the heart of Romans 8 – the place we find ourselves between who we are now, and our better selves – the often dim awareness of our deepest or truest self and the invitations extended to us to become more fully human “in Christ”

 

As Mike writes: “And yet… and yet. We find ourselves caught between two realms, two realities, two eras. We are in that uncomfortable position of announcing something to the world that we find ourselves incapable [if we’re honest and have a healthy self-awareness] of demonstrating… and so we groan [along with all creation]. We ache, we lament, we suffer – caught in the agony of longing for what has not yet arrived…”

 

My own life journey honors the truthfulness of this very human confession. I too am “betwixt and between”. Our churches, comprising as they do, human beings, are likewise “betwixt and between”.

 

Stanley Hauerwas advocates (rightly I think) that without an adequate embodiment of the gospel the truthfulness of the Christian story is not borne witness too, and it cannot be a genuinely liberating, reconciling and healing narrative. “... For Hauerwas practices and how we are followers of Jesus take precedence over ideas and talk about Jesus. “...It is the practices of the churches liturgy which supplies the story of the Christian faith, rather than themselves being the consequence of, or justified by, and anterior theoretical account.” The gospel is a story that gives the church and individual members a way of being in the world. Indeed it is a community-forming narrative whose centrifugal character induces mission and enables the church to properly be a gift to the world “not by trying to reform the world [here Hauerwas differs from the likes of Graham Ward – see his Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice, p. 9] into God’s Kingdom, but by witnessing to the presence of that Kingdom in their lives as a political apologetics...”

 

Without human and relational em-body-ment we run the risk of effectively underwriting a disembodied church, i.e. the emphasis of our churches is on a solely rational apology that is unsupported by the truthful witness of embodied distinctiveness, i.e. the argument is put, “if the Christian narrative is good news, let us first see it in your living. Our distinctive living makes intelligible to the significance of the Jesus-story.

 

For Hauerwas it is the explicit change of lives that displays God’s intention and active working for the transformation of the whole of creation through the active Kingship of Christ in the world. Indeed, it is only, Hauerwas believes, as the church becomes more distinctive (from “glory to glory”) that the story carried in its sanctification can be seen and experienced. Our sanctification, individually and collectively (as churches) is a substantial witness to the presence of Christ in the church, and the wisdom of God mediated through the sanctifying work of grace, Word, and Spirit in our lives. 

 

But, it’s precisely here that the point of tension is for me. Indeed, I’m more inclined to call it the place of paradox! If the Jesus-story is “good news” for my humanity, my human becoming, how is my journey a witness to this good news? How is the all too human journey of a local church “good news” in its local context, particularly given that a good many statistics indicate that “church goers” are no different ethically or behaviourally than those in the wider cultural context? Does this seeming lack of gospel distinctiveness in our various cultural contexts undermine the public announcement of “good news” centred on Jesus of Nazareth?

 

To be continued.  

Comments

[rodney neill]

hello Paul

I am still very much involved in church activities even though I feel like a fish out of water most of the time - your last para paradox is something I really can identify with. I look foward to your next post.

Rodney

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Rodney. Great to hear from you and pleased you could find something to identify with. I can readily empathise with your "I feel like a fish out of water most of the time", and that isn't necessarily an unhelpful place to be as Alan Roxburgh and others remind us...