I’m trying to tie my hands back some to keep from giving away too much from books I’m reading – especially those I’m still chewing on.
My latest read, A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren is giving me some great insight as of the last few days. First off, I love the sub-title:
Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed- yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.
I just started part II today and I felt the first chapter on missional living really jump out at me and challenge me. Especially as we’re going through some of McLaren’s more recent stuff at our community group. I’ve had to do several weeks of background information/setup which I probably didn’t give justice or do in the most clear, concise manner but this past week we began looking at some of the ideas Jesus presented (and are presented elsewhere in Scripture) that seem counter-culture to the way we live and believe.
For example, this week we talked about caring for the poor and the year of Jubilee that was instituted in Deut 15. If that doesn’t sound counter-culture in America today I don’t know what does (other than Thou shalt not kill). We’re in a mortgage and credit crises because companies gladly lend money to anyone and everyone just to get them trapped under ridiculous interest rates that may even double after the first year or so. We have people borrowing money like crazy and living under the strains of debt day in and day out (not excluding our family). Yet God says, “Hey – I want yall to be different. I want you to be set apart. So every 7 years – I want you to forgive all your debts.”
WOW!
Forgive all your debts? Sure that sounds great if you’re the one who’s borrowed the money – but maybe not so great if you’re the lender. Yet God says I want you to build an economy of fairness and equity, not by hording all that you can like everyone else in the world – but by giving and then giving some more. And God even tells the Hebrews, if you know the year of Jubilee is coming up, just around the corner – don’t think to yourself I can’t lend this money because I won’t get repaid – for if you do “He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.”
Those are strong words, but God has told the Hebrews all along, “I will bless you, so you will be a blessing to the world.”
How often do we remember the first part of that promise and choose to forget the second? We’re so glad that we have a house, two cars, and extra money to spend, but we forget that God wants us as His people to use our blessings to bless others.
What would that look like in your life? I keep asking myself, “What would that look like in my life?” After all, I have a three bedroom house for my wife and I. Sure we plan on using all those rooms in the future for our kids. We’re doing our best to be good stewards of our money and plan ahead. But if a need arises am I going to hoard my guest room because it’s an inconvenience, or will I open it up so it can be a blessing to someone else?
I want to be missionally minded. That doesn’t mean I have to go overseas to knock on people’s doors and show them the Four Spiritual laws. But being missional makes more sense when you look at it as, being and making “disciples of Jesus Christ in authentic community for the good of the world.”
McLaren writes, “Christians are not the end users of the Gospel.”
Well, maybe in our current world they are – but they shouldn’t be.
My Christianity should be a benefit to everyone in my family, my neighborhood, my office and those who ride the bus with me. Not because I have the secret to the afterlife – but because I’m genuinely concerned about their life here and now. We tend to give people a key to heaven or a get out of hell free card and then we walk away, thinking we’ve done our job. So they go on living life thinking, “Wow! Jesus is great. I get to go to heaven when I die.” But what we don’t give them is a key to life right now. And after all, didn’t Jesus say, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”?
McLaren also writes, “Those who want to become Christians we welcome. Those who don’t, we love and serve, joining God in seeking their good, their blessing, their shalom.”
That gets me excited. That gives my faith a purpose – other than just a ticket to heaven.
“I seek to better understand Scripture not just for my own sake, but so I’ll be better equipped to serve God and my neighbors.”
McLaren continues this point several pages over and quotes one of his mentors, “Remember, in the pluralistic world, a religion is valued based on the benefits it brings to its nonadherents.”
Simply put, we often think religion offers benefits to its followers and catastrophic threats to the nonbelievers. We even have a tendency to do that among believers. “Well, you have MS, you must have a bad relationship with your dad.” or “You have cancer, you must not have enough faith.”
But all this does is motivate people to believe or to try and follow a religion closer simply out of fear and the desire for its benefits.
“I think the missional way is better: the Gospel brings blessings to all, adherents and nonadherents alike. For example, if Jesus sends people into the world to love and serve their neighbors, their neighbors benefit, and so do the people sent by Jesus, since it is even better to give than to receive… Even if only a few would practice this new way, many would benefit. Oppressed people would be free. Poor people would be liberated from poverty. Minorities would be treated with respect. Sinners would be loved, not resented… the homeless would be invited in for a hot meal. The Kingdom of God would come.”
Awesome.
God show me how to be a part of this Kingdom. May I not simply be thankful for your blessings, but may I also find ways to bless others with the blessings you’ve given me.
