God's Love (for you and everyone else) poured Into Your Heart and My Heart

Many have noticed that in the narratives of Jesus' resurrection appearances to his disciples, Jesus never says that, because he is risen, we also will rise. Jesus says this elsewhere (see, for example, John 11:25-26), as does St Paul. (See Romans 8:1; 1Corinthians 15:12-23) But the resurrection appearances in the Gospels are focused on mission. For instance, after appearing to his disciples and offering his peace to them, Jesus says to them, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (John 20:21) And at the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to, "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." (Matthew 28:19-20) 

We read of this mission in the Book of Acts, following a pattern repeated time and again. The Gospel of repentance and forgiveness is spread through face-to-face encounters. Not with an air of superiority, but in humility, requiring the evangelist to open their heart to their neighbour as the good news of God’s love is spread. 

 It is a beautiful culmination of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God sent the Son into the world to save the world. For no other reason than love. And through the love of God we see in the crucified Jesus, we are invited to fall in love with God. To let God’s love re-fashion our hearts and minds, so that we can know the height and depth of God’s love for us. That is part of what it means for us to have God's love poured into our hearts (through the Holy Spirit). The height, breadth, and depth of God's love for you poured into your heart. And with God's love for each of us in our hearts - refashioning who we are - we also have God's love for every other person poured into our hearts. And whatever else we do as we spread the good news of Jesus, all of it is based on us opening the door of our heart to our neighbour as we share with them (and live with them) God’s love for us all.

Pentecost, Ideologies, and the Reversal of Babel

The story of the Tower of Babel occurs in Genesis 11:1-9.  United by one language, a monochromatic humankind builds a monument to its own glory, a great tower. God ‘comes down’ to see this arrogant attempt at greatness, and scatters the people giving them many different languages to disunite them. One could read the story as an act of grace in a way, because God’s intervention prevents humankind uniting under a banner of uniformity. (A parallel to the human arrogance of the story of Babel is the great projects of human arrogance in the twentieth century – Nazis, Bolsheviks, etc. – and the way in which they crushed the diversity of the people under them, literally killing off the diversity that would not yield to their ideology.)

The account of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11) is, among other things, the reversal of the Tower of Babel. Pentecost was a Jewish feast day, and Jews from different lands (and languages) came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. The Holy Spirit allows the disciples to speak to the listeners in the tongues of the listeners. The Gospel unites the listeners not by squeezing them into the language of the disciples as though the gospel were an alien ideology, but the gospel comes to the listeners from the inside of their thinking and culture. It is a gospel for all people without uniformity.

This last point is very important in a world of ideology. The Holy Spirit did not work on the listeners to allow them to understand the language of the disciples. That would be squeezing the listeners into the culture of Galilee. And the church from then on would have had the licence to squeeze everybody into an original language and culture. Instead, the natural impulse of the church has been to enculturate the gospel wherever the gospel went by, for example, translating the Scriptures into the common tongue. In fact, if the Holy Spirit had worked on the listeners instead of the speakers, this would have been contrary to the Incarnation of God in Christ. God became human, entering into our very humanity, to be one of us, to speak ‘our language’.  This original mission of God in Jesus continued on the day of Pentecost, continues to be the driving force of Christianity.

A New Imperialism?

Dr Mouneer Anis

It is hard to know what to make of this. On one level it makes a good deal of sense that Africa, with its burgeoning Christian population and energy, will change Christianity, including the Western Churches. However, as reported it sounds a little too triumphalistic, even imperialistic. The missionary activity of African Churches in other countries will, presumably, be working with the churches in those countries, wouldn't it? Well ... given the actions of some Anglican African dioceses, one could be excused for thinking not. Some might say that it would be poetic justice if the shoe were on the other foot after the centuries of western ecclesial imperialism in Africa. While this is true, it would also be a possible example of the way in which human sin is ingrained across the generations, races and cultures. Original Sin, in other words.

A more nuanced response came from the Archbishop of Canterbury when he says that "God raises up different countries and cultures in different seasons to bear witness to his purpose in a specially marked way, and it may be that this is indeed his will for Africa in the years ahead."

Hard To Spread Gospel?

Traditional congregations complain that it is difficult to spread the good news. Well, yes, of course. The good news is countercultural and requires both dying and living simultaneously. Traditional congregations might also complain that it is difficult to know what to say and when. And that is very different from the first complaint. The first complaint is true and necessarily so. And I find that if I keep the gospel countercultural it is easier to know what to say and when because of the gap between gospel and the world. The less the gospel, or my living of it, is countercultural the more difficult it is to talk about it in a way that is engaging and more than platitudinous. If my life is no different to the world around, what is there to say? Some affirmation, but that soon becomes a little tired on its own. This might also give us a clue as to why the religious right focus on personal issues like sex. It is an easy target and saves having to ask harder questions about our acceptance of the world's ways over the gospel.

Idolatry Instead of Faithful Discipleship

Kyle Strobel, over at Theology Forum has an excellent post on being a healthy church movement. His criticism below should not be directed at evangelicalism exclusively. See here for the full post.

"I have been thinking, as of late, about the various strategies in evangelicalism to navigate the marketplace of ideas. It seems to me that the typical evangelical strategy to “win” (sorry, I don’t mean this to be polemical (yet) but I can’t think of another word which is accurate), is simply to create something of a boys club. In other words, we surround ourselves with people who both agree with every word that comes our of our mouth and who won’t actually attack our views in any significant way. This is enough, in itself, to be idolatry, but it rarely stops there. The next step is to start a movement. A movement, in these terms, is nothing more than simply organizing leadership and adopting worldly strategies for kingdom building. Once teaching, leadership and dogma can be disseminated, there is a twofold turn outwards: First, a turn outwards to evangelize – not Christ as much as the movement itself - and, second, a turn outwards to attack anyone who thinks differently. The latter turn stems from the inherent fundamentalism in evangelicalism which equates difference with danger."

Identity vs Intelligibility?

In an early journal article Jurgen Moltmann suggests a helpful continuum to understand the history of the church. He suggests that the church moves between the two poles of relevance and identity; in the world but not of the world, incarnated in the world with a citizenship in heaven. If it moves too far to one side there is a reaction the other way. Mission and evangelism follows this continuum. Think of those churches that focus on ‘personal faith’ as a gathered community to the extent that their sectarian nature makes them irrelevant to the world around. Of course, they would say that is the whole point! Calling people out of the world that is passing away. Or consider those churches for whom their Christian faith seems little more than an overlay upon existing views on society, human relationships, etc. So relevant that they have merged back into the world around them! Mission and evangelism requires both identity and relevance. We are a people called out, yet God sent the Son to save the world. Remove the admonitions concerning justice from the Bible and it would almost be readable in one session! The goal is to integrate the continuum, although, as Moltmann says, different ages reflect different emphases.

In the current turmoil in the Anglican Communion we can see this continuum and the conflict arising within it at work. Today we might use the term intelligibility rather than relevance. (I'm being kind here because deep down I think the temptation is to be relevant, which implies that irrelevance is just around the corner.) Of course, both poles in the current debate would claim that they are being both faithful to their Christian identity and intelligible, although in a candid moment the right would admit identity is more important to them and the left would admit that intelligibility is key for them. When a parish, diocese, Province or Communion holds together those from opposing poles then we have integrated the continuum. That is, communion prevents the narrowness that an emphasis on one pole or the other necessarily brings.

All Are Sinners Implies the Need for Evangelism

One of the hard things about coming to faith (or a deeper faith) is to admit that we have to change our ideas and lives. The underlying principle is that we are wrong and the inherited faith is right (to put it crudely; yes I know it is not about being right and wrong, but the crudity has its point). We have to learn afresh how to be human, have our ideas and expectations turned over, and act differently. (If it were not so Christianity seems a little superfluous.) It applies to all of us, and does not matter how long we have been people of faith. This is partly why I have more sympathy for evangelism than many others in the progressive wing of the church. There is a tendency amongst progressives to eschew evangelism because it assumes that the 'targets' are missing something that they need and we (the evangelists) have. For many progressives this smacks of colonialism. And, of course, it can be the face of a crude colonialism. Despite that, the gospel does assume that there is a lack within us, and that only God can fill this lack, and God has done this in Jesus Christ. All people must hear and respond. This understanding need not be colonialist, and in fact, it could be argued that those who hold out for a 'universal religious experience expressed in multiple ways' approach might just be the ones pushing the colonialist wagon! But more on that later. Three points that might go someway toward a more positive appraisal of the evangelist's task.

• All have sinned, and all need the saving grace of Jesus Christ. No exceptions, and self-righteousness is explicitly contrary to the inner logic of evangelism. Don't judge evanglism by the repellent aspects of smug/I'm saved Christianity.
  
  
• All need what they do not have naturally, and this deficit is present in each of us and in every culture. There is no basis for pride (on the part of the evangelist) in this; quite the reverse. We should all be joined together by the bonds of humility and the knowledge of our continuing need. Whatever we have received through Christ is pure and unadulterated gift. Even faith is a gift. (One of the problems with smug Christianity: it becomes a work.)
  
  
• God has chosen to bring salvation through a means that is not universally available naturally. The good news of salvation must be brought to each and every one of us. That is, the good news of God's salvation in Christ is spread by the simple, and profound, act of opening our doors and lives to our neighbours. How very humble and un-selfrighteous. Indeed, how very Christ-like.