The New Christianity: A Quest for the Radical Center by Ken Wilson

Transcription

1 The New Christianity: A Quest for the Radical Center by Ken Wilson Last week: We considered the New Christianity, a recombinant Christianity drawing from treasures of the past & the power of the future to meet the challenges of the present. A re-formation as the Holy Spirit works a new context shaped by the Internet and the millennial generation. Review: Liturgical Social Justice Evangelical Pentecostal. In old days, each quadrant isolated; even today corner dwellers who claim a corner on the truth. But the dynamic of the Spirit is toward the border blending going on and ultimately toward the Center. Vineyard is a border blending movement: Empowered Evangelicals: Bringing Together the Best of the Evangelical & Charismatic Worlds. The Quest for the Radical Middle. The New Christianity is the Quest for the Radical Center. Vineyard heritage: intimacy. Whether in worship or in the ministry of the Spirit. As the future breaks into the present a third avenue of intimacy is opening: intimacy in prayer, mediated via treasures buried in Liturgical quadrant (silence, fixed hour prayer, contemplative) All this is part of a move to the Center. The Center Abraham and Sarah were called to, a City whose builder and maker is God. A New Jerusalem, a heavenly City, a place we've never been before.

2 The move toward the Center is a pilgrimage. A main theme of Bible. The Bible is a collection of travel stories--everywhere you look, travel stories (Abraham-Sarah, Jacob-Rachel, Return from Exile, Jesus, Paul's missionary journeys.) We haven't found what we're looking for because we're citizens of a City not of this world--so for now, at least, we are a Pilgrim Nation. What does it mean to be a Pilgrim Nation on a quest for the radical Center? Pilgrimage: In Biblical times pilgrimage was a duty of all Jewish males. Three times a year, the able boded were obliged to go on a sacred journey to Jerusalem, for the high feasts of Israel, centered in the temple, where God's presence was most intensely known. We first meet Jesus at age of 12 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for one of those feasts. His life ended with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So we know certain things about pilgrims.. Pilgrims come with their treasures. They come bearing gifts from their cities of origin. The best of their flocks & herds & produce. 3 wise men who came on pilgrimage to holy land from the East brought treasures: gold, frankincense, myrrh. As individuals we bring treasures, the best of our flocks... (Josh new Christian, "don't give up the Elvis thing ") As we move toward the center we don't leave our corporate treasures behind. We bring them with us! (Things like love for the Bible, work of the Spirit, works of compassion) From every quadrant we're to bring our best. Pilgrims come without excess baggage. Only room for the best of our flocks & herds & produce. Everything else, we have to be willing to leave behind. You can only check so many bags on this flight. We bring our tribal treasures, but we leave behind or hold more loosely to our tribal loyalties. Each quadrant represents a megatribe in the Christian landscape. Within each tribe loyalties form, some of which are holy (eg marriage, friendship, respect for leaders); some of which are not. It's not always easy to tell difference. In the Social Justice quadrant one could make the case that there's been a certain blind loyalty to the Democratic party, right or wrong. In the

3 Evangelical quadrant there's certainly been a blind loyalty to the Republican party, right or wrong. (In my humble opinion.) But when it comes to political parties, Jesus is an equal opportunity offender. It's a sad fact of our sinful shadow side that we employ contempt for outsiders to reinforce tribal loyalties--including religious loyalties. This blinds us to treasures in other quadrants. Some things we dismiss out of prejudice rather than spiritual discernment to our everlasting poverty just because it doesn't come with an "Evangelical" or "Pentecostal" or "Vineyard" trademark. Irony: Vineyard never would have become the Vineyard with that attitude. Wimber: We must be prepared to eat from "dirty spoons." Fear of contamination, though, could keep us from treasures God declares clean, just because the corner dwellers in our tribe treat them as unclean. It's the old "guilt by association" trick. As a Pilgrim Nation, we bring our tribal treasures, but we leave behind our tribal loyalties or hold them more loosely Pilgrims come alongside.strange bedfellows. Planes, Trains & Automobiles. John Candy & Steve Martin find themselves as fellow travelers, by necessity rather than personal choice. Hilarious scene as they room together in a motel [DVD 28:03-29:30] When pilgrims first set out, they travel at first with their own kinsmen. As tight knit group travels along, people from other towns, other tribes join the procession. Smell different, talk different, think different. Farther you go pilgrimage, the greater the differences...because this is a Great King we are traveling to see, and Great is his Fame, drawing all sorts of people, and Great is his Wisdom to set us all straight once we arrive. Ourselves no less than our mixed up and wrong headed fellow pilgrims. Five years ago, on vacation, I heard the still, small voice say, "Pay attention to what I'm doing with Liberals." I didn't know if he meant political or theological liberals or both. But that was drawing me forward on the Quest for the Radical Center. A few months ago, James Rodhenhiser, pastor of a church with strong roots in the Liturgical & Social Justice quadrants asked if Vineyard and St. Clare of Assiss Episcopal Church could do a Lenten study on two books,

4 Brian McClaren's A Generous Orthodoxy & The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. McClaren is someone I've never read, but we come from a similar background and I know he's an evangelical, like me. Marcus Borg, I have read. Just enough to know I like him as person and scholar, but couldn't disagree more with his view of the heart of Christianity. At first I was reluctant. Borg? But then I thought, why not? The day when churches can exist in intellectual ghettoes is over. If there's a conversation to be had with those who like the ideas of Marcus Borg, why shouldn't we be involved in the conversation? Pilgrims come toward a common destination. We're not united by where we're coming from. We're united, or a least we tolerate each other, by where we going, the City of the Great King. This is a place we know by rumor & postcard: scent & feel; a whiff here, a twinge there. A place we know by longing, yearning and hope. A place we know by a citizenship conferred from the future into our present, like a seed in our hearts that's trying to burst into bloom. It's not a place we have mapped out like the back of our hands; we've only seen it with the eyes of our hearts, through a glass darkly.so we approach with a sense of wonder and anticipation and humility. From a pastor to a church being pulled toward the Center. 1. This is not a leap frog routine. No lurching from one quadrant to the next like we're all after the latest & greatest. This is a pilgrimage. One step at a time, from where we are, to where it is we're going. 2. Like James Collins in Good to Great says, "Preserve the core and expand the boundaries." In business that means, "Know what your core competencies are and do those well, and while you're tending to that core, expand the boundaries." A good strategy for us. Our core involves helping the lost & disoriented find their center in Christ, setting captives free by the power of the Spirit, showing compassion to the poor. Drawn to the treasures in other quadrants that help us do that even better and we expand the boundaries. 3. We don't all have to major in the things we're corporately drawn to. Beautiful thing about being a body with many members, each with it's

5 own function. I daresay, not everyone in the A2VC would know what "evangelical" means, much less use it as tag. Not everyone is meant to share my passion for fixed hour prayer. Or Linda Ressler's passion to pray over anything that moves. But by loving & accepting each other, we allow for a gentle influence over time that is the stuff of what it means to grow together into the fullness of Christ. 4. Like any pilgrimage, there are dangers & opportunities. Risk & reward, but no reward without risk. (We walk by faith not sight.) What's the opportunity? A Christianity that works better! The evangelical ascendancy in the United States is not so impressive as it seems. Evangelicals & Pentecostals have had enormous impact overseas, but, it turns out, have not increased percentage of people attending church since the 1940's. We've gotten richer and more politically influential, but is that the measure of the Kingdom? There's no indication of personal transformation among evangelicals on a broad scale in the United States. According to Ron Sider in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, rates of divorce for example aren't that different for people who claim a born again experience. The fastest way to lower the abortion rate would be for those who claim a born again experience to stop having them. When it comes to the choking influence of materialism, the percentage of giving is going down, not up, as evangelicals get wealthier (whereas it used to be 6% of income, it's now 4%. ) This compares with about a 3% giving rate in the traditional mainline Protestant denominations, which are widely view by evangelicals as being woefully lukewarm. Not much to crow about, I'd say. White evangelicals are more likely than Catholics and mainline Protestants to be upset if a black person moves in next door. This is transformation!? We boomers, many of whom were raised in Liturgical churches in the 1950's rebelled against the worship forms there, but the Millenial Generation is being labeled, "the non-contrarians." On the whole, they long for more rootedness, not less. They are not nearly as turned off by treasures in other quadrants as boomers are. And they represent the largest harvest field in American history! We're due for a more wholistic gospel that blends the best of all quadrants--a personal relationship with Jesus, the power of the Spirit,

6 treasures of contemplative prayer, and a robust concern for social justice! That's the opportunity! We sense the danger, feel the risk at different points. For those new to Christianity, it's the idea of being on a pilgrimage with others. We're wired by the culture to do our religion in private, but we're wired by God to walk with others. That's our tension point. For those with firm roots in one quadrant, the sense of danger presents with treasures beyond our tribal comfort zone. (Betty Bauerle's initial fear of fixed hour prayer: 9/11-muslim prayer.) If we have a joint study, some of the good people of St. Clare's, may fear they'll get tumped by some Bible Thumpers at Vineyard.) Countless young people from evangelical homes drawn to Vineyard because they are not at home among corner dwellers of their own tribe, but also hear voices in their head all the time, saying, "Beware!" That's the nature of pilgrimage. It's less dangerous to stay at home than to go on pilgrimage. But we can't get to our true home unless we do. There's risk and reward, but no reward without the risk. And so this calls for uncommon thoughtfulness, gentleness, understanding among & between us. Which ain't half bad, love being both the destination and the way.