Gospel as Story
September 8th, 2008 by JohnO
The Gospel story is so significant because it has real power. When Paul writes in Rom 1.18 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation he is right on. A story, about what God is going to do, about Jesus and what he did, and about you is God’s power. Why? Because that Story has the ability to change reality here and now. More and more I am realizing that God’s salvation is less and less about the future date in which Jesus will separate goats and sheep. Why is that true? Because the goats and sheep are already manifesting themselves today. We should already know, by our actions, which side we are on. God’s salvation is not an ethereal concept! Go and tell the Jews who walked across dry land fleeing the Egyptians that God’s salvation is a feeling in your heart. They would laugh at you. Tell David who God saved from Saul an seated as the King of Israel about this ethereal salvation. No salvation is to be found today. Today is the day of salvation. We find it when God enters our life and changes us, all the way around, from the power of sin to the power of life.
Lot’s of stories have the ability to change reality here and now. Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech was just a story. But for the tens of thousands of people who heard it that day on the DC mall were struck by it. Most of those people knew they were listening to history. Most of those people took that story and made it their own. That story changed them and the way they looked at the world. This is why Story is powerful. His speech went to war against the prevailing ideas of the time, and won. God’s Gospel is even more powerful because God is behind. In that Story, God is actually going to war.
Why does this happen? Because when what Jesus did on the cross is received by a person, it changes how they think about the world, about God, and even about themselves. When God’s plan for the world is understood by a person, they understand not to abuse the world, that God has not left it, or them, behind – but in fact is working, even now, in them and through them, to redeem it all. And that is valuable to how you are going to see the world, and what you’re going to do in the world. You are then left with the decision to “convert” which really means, to live accordingly with God’s unfolding story. That is surely what the early Christians did. They didn’t stop being Jews and change religions. They were still Jews, they just continued on with what Jesus was doing – since God was clearly working with Jesus. They kept Jesus’ story going.
And when you choose to live according to God’s story you live a certain way. You don’t abuse the world, or others. You end up looking like Jesus. Everything that the Gospel has told you about how God sees the world impacts how you see others and the issues in your day. This is how God’s Story, the Gospel, undermines our worldview. This is how the Church is supposed to look different from the world. Because the Church will have the same worldview, because they have all converted according to the same Story. They don’t buy in to the world’s carnivorous ambition, abusive tendencies, or wasteful ways. They find their joy in what God is doing, what God is redeeming, not what the world is destroying. And they get involved in God’s redeeming work in the world.
John
So what does it mean to “abuse the world”? and what do you see as God’s redeeming work in the world?
God’s redeeming work in the world is being seen in so many places: taking care of your neighbor, whether they are next door, or starving in Africa, taking care of God’s creation, through preventative and active means, and of course being involved with other people intimately so God can redeem them to his Kingdom. Abusing the world would be the opposite of all of that. Exploiting third world countries, polluting and living with a general disregard for the planet and not caring about people.
we are to stop partnering with exploitative evil and instead partner with the victims of empire in an effort to share with them God’s future, the world’s future, and if they get on board…their future
I find that at times, it’s hard enough for folks to agree on what the Scriptures really mean, that to then reach some agreement on how I am to help the starving in Africa can be almost impossible. I also find that too many times we accept as true the world’s way of solving these problems and then somehow “Christianize” them and say that’s what the Church should do or think that the Christian thing to do is get the empire do something about the starving in Africa (since it, of course, has all the resources to really do the job). A number of years ago, due to certain people’s desire to help not abuse the world it was decided that DDT needed to be banned. This was considered the”righteous” thing to do. Of course the unintended consequence of this action by the world community was to lead to the deaths of MILLIONS of children in Africa. This incredible evil was not carried out be evil dictators or empire-hungry warmongers by by well-meaning bureaucrats in coats and ties who mostly loved their families and their neighbors and were against war and the exploitation of the poor. My point here is that it really is very hard to deal with some of these things in a world that is full of sinful, fallen people and is cursed by God.
In terms of not partnering with exploitative evil, does that mean it would be a sin for me to shop at Walmart (which certainly exploits people in China) or almost any other multi-national company. Actually I’m pretty sure a lot of the food I buy may have been harvested by people who have been exploited. I’m not sure where this would end since we live in a fallen world and the default “setting” is that of sin, evil, and selfishness (which turns into exploitation when it comes to groups of people.)
My points in this comment are what I would consider somewhat secular. I have done that because the comments by both John and Sean sound a lot to me like something NT Wright would say and these are the types of things that he talks about when discussing things along this line. As much as I appreciate some of his scholarship on the Kingdom of God, the Resurrection and the hope of the Christian, his practical application has the ring of a spruced up “social Gospel” that I just don’t find in the teachings of Jesus or Paul. As much as my actions in the way I deal with the world may have an aspect of love or restitution (or even vindication) that will be what the Kingdom of God will be like, they are in no way part of that restitution and “setting things to right” that will take place only when our Lord returns.
I apologize ahead of time if I have read things into your comments. As always, communicating on this level leaves me feeling inadequate in that I have come up short in acurately expressed my thoughts.
My comments were inspired by a book I recently read by Shane Claiborne called Jesus for President. In it he talks about not partnering with the exploitative practices of corporate America. I’m not sure where I would draw the line (regarding buying Wal*mart stuff). The first thing is to get the right heart about things rather than just absorb the common mentality which is to look at God’s creation as cross between a landfill and an endless supply of resources to be used for our every convenience. In any case, I think our first task is to live out God’s dream of the future first in our own lives, then in our family relationships (i.e. the people we live with), then in our local body of Christ, then in our local community, then state,national, international. That’s not to say we can’t adopt a child or participate in some other international compassion program. But if we do so we had better be sure that we are at peace with God (living holy), that we have peace in our home, etc.
Even so, I think it is good to ask questions about whether or not we should support companies that exploit people to make a profit. I think we could also look at whom we buy food from, etc. Obviously these matters differ a good deal depending on where someone lives and what financial resources are available (like farmers’ markets are usually more expensive than mammoth grocery store chains). I think what attracts many of us to looking at these things is that we don’t want to be hypocrites who say we love people but then support the greedy, exploitative, and sometimes violent worldly mechanisms that oppress them.
I find a good precedent in the early Church for some of these things. The apostles in the book of Acts were feeding widows. That sounds like a socially active Gospel to me. In Roman territory, Christians were taking care of sick pagans. This sounds like a socially active Gospel. Bear in mind – I’m not “reducing” the Gospel to “doing good things”. I’m saying that the powerful eschatological Gospel that we believe in *ought* to come down as far as this social level (in addition to what it already is).
I am more and more convinced that, as Christians, to make a difference in this radically fallen world (as you pointed out) – we might have to hard things. Sometimes we might not come to a decision on an issue. There is no way we can know all the permutations of what could or might happen. But, that doesn’t mean we can sit idly by. And as Sean said, this all has to start appropriately, in our families, in our friendships, in our small groups and churches, moving outwardly into the local community, and ultimately the international community. We are a *whole* Church, there are tens of thousands of us that can lock arms and actually do something for good in this time.
And, as you warn, we should not think that our actions are deemed “righteous” because of who we are, or that we unilaterally have divine backing. We should not think that the Kingdom stamp goes on everything we do. We will not bring the Kingdom. But we can redeem one another and parts of this world. Are we not supposed to be the signpost of the coming Kingdom as the Church? Isn’t that part of the great Gospel Story?
I agree with you John, and Sean, its great to understand this. However you have to wonder why anyone would disagree and how some have missed this in the past. Lead every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Many many good points!
I think Jesus summed it up when he said, “Love God with all you are and love your neighbor as yourself”. Be kind and tenderhearted forgiving and supporting one another. We should not seek what others have, but seek to do good to others as a token of the goodness we have recieved of our Father in Heaven.