For the Joy of the Journey

THE CHURCH (4) – Restoration

George May 20, 2021 THE CHURCH 1 Comment

What looks like a serious crisis may mark the moment of new life; what looks a sinister threat may in reality be a great opportunity.
Han Kung —THE CHURCH

The restoration plea is an earnest entreaty to bring back the church of our Lord into its original state. A plea to restore assumes that an original existed and was lost. The restoration plea assumes a pattern existed and could and should be restored.
G K Wallace (church of Christ evangelist)

My church history came in a Restoration Movement context. A movement that sought to restore the whole Christian church based on visible patterns set forth in the New Testament; its momentum came from a conviction that the Church of that day, divided and contentious, was no longer the New Testament church. Unity and peace could only achieved by restoring the the one true Church.

Aspirations of the Restoration Movement, though commendable, were misguided and ultimately failed to build unity or restore an idealized New Testament Church in Acts.

Today’s angst about church is similar, in many ways, to Alexander Campbell’s 18th/19th century days. The opening words of his Declaration and Address are eerily familiar:

FROM the series of events which have taken place in the churches for many years past, especially in this Western country, as well as from what we know in general of the present state of things in the Christian world, we are persuaded that it is high time for us not only to think, but also to act…
Alexander Campbell — Declaration and Address 1809

As I wrote earlier, I share an opinion that the church is headed in the wrong direction. Hopefully, that conclusion has been reached by thoughtful examination of proper criterion as suggested by Kung.
If leadership becomes convinced the church is headed in the wrong direction, what should they do? Any answer will be formulated around perceptions of “wrong direction”.

If the measure of church health is attendance and growth, Gallup’s report on church membership decline, most likely,will be met with “turn around” strategies — doubling down on what has worked in the past, blaming culture influence and expounding on the need to get back to “the basics”.
In my past, the meeting would have concluded with either, plans for an extended Gospel Meeting, or in later years, a new class or conference on church growth. In the most desperate circumstances there would be a change in Preacher / Pastor. Of course, no elders would resign or be fired.

Little or no consideration is given to the possibility that the existing church had become misdirected. As Kung points out: “All too easily the Church can become the prisoner of the image it has made for itself at one particular period in history.” The restoration movement became a prisoner of the image of the church in the book of Acts, most specifically, Acts 2:38 -47

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

From that, an abstract and idealistic ecclesiology developed which described an ideal rather than the real church. As Kung observed, such an ecclesiology might attract unthinking admirers, but it would fail to move, even repulse, a thoughtful critic.
Kung continued: “Only a realistic and concrete view of the church, as opposed to an idealistic and abstract one, will enable us to point out to the critic who only sees the negative side of the Church that the faults, whether real or imagined, do not touch the most profound and essential in the Church.”

In my limited view and experience, contemporary efforts to restore, renew, renovate, et al, are centered in idealistic and abstract, rather than realistic and concrete views of the church. Like the Restoration Movement and similar movements in church history, relying on idealistic and abstract ecclesiology they are destined to fail.

A troubling questions to be addressed: “What make me think I can grasp the vital fundamental dimensions of the Church?”
Kung’s declaration is even more troubling. “Only the believing Christian can do that.”
More to come.

Still on the journey.

So Much to Think About

George May 17, 2021 Notes Anthology 1 Comment

Self-awareness
Self-awareness is being able to not just feel your emotions, but observe yourself feeling your emotions; to not just have thoughts but to observe your thoughts as though they weren’t yours; to not just have beliefs, but to question those beliefs.
This self-observation—or the mind that watches itself—is at the root of mental and emotional health. It is a skill that we can practice and become better at. Therefore, knowledge is gained and wisdom is practiced. While knowledge is accumulated, wisdom is honed. While knowledge can be lost, wisdom lasts forever.
Mark Manson

Prison Prayer Request
Posted on 5.10.2021
As I’ve shared, after a long absence due to COVID, chaplain volunteers have recently been allowed back to the unit on Sundays to participate and preach in the prison worship services.
I preached in two services yesterday. In one of the services, we had a moment where the men could come forward for prayer. Three men came to me and we shared in a time of prayer.
The request that struck me was from Robert. Robert was heavily tattooed, even on his eyelids. Obviously, an intimidating appearance. But as Robert shared his prayer request, tears started to fill his eyes.
Robert was a stutterer. And he wanted prayers for his speech. When he’s anxious or emotional, he can’t express himself. What he carries on the inside cannot make it to the outside. In fact, Robert shared that the reason for all this tattoos is that they communicate the important things that he cannot. He has etched his heart on his skin.
I prayed. For the healing of Robert’s speech, but mostly for his pain, his frustration, his embarrassment, his shame.
I left the unit thinking about Robert. We’re all carrying on the inside some fragile thing, our external facades masking some shame or deep frustration. Looking at Robert, you wouldn’t know the pain he carried. When we gaze at each other we can’t see what is hidden on the inside. Like Robert, we’re all carrying, even hiding, some private fragile thing.
Richard Beck

What Happens?
Russell Moore’s powerful and anguished words, “What happens when people reject the church because they think we reject Jesus and the gospel?” He continued, “What if people don’t leave the church because they disapprove of Jesus, but because they’ve read the Bible and have come to the conclusion that the church itself would disapprove of Jesus?”

Sin
Sin is so seductive and its strategies can seem so reasonable. In fact, sin is so deceptive as to make standing against it not only humanly unreasonable but culturally untenable, not only unloving but insensitive.
J D Walt

Follow your dreams…
A few years ago I was the commencement speaker for my son’s High School graduation. During the talk I made a very uncommencment like observation. I said, “During commencement addresses you’re supposed to tell the graduates to ‘follow your dreams.’ But if the research is to be believed, that is bad advice. What we dream for often doesn’t make us happy.”
Richard Beck

Live by the Spirit
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5.25) For years now, Strictly Come Dancing has been a highlight for those who are into such reality shows. What makes for a good performance is timing, movement in unison, anticipation of the moves, mutual understanding, shared enthusiasm, familiarity with the music and rhythm, and practice; lots and lots of practice. If we keep in step with the Spirit, and perform the music of Scripture with practised precision, then we become like those Paul described as those who live by the Spirit, and receive the promise: “The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Jim Gordon

The Kingdom of Man
In the Kingdom of Man, the seas are ribboned with plastic, the forests are burning, the cities bulge with billionaires and tented camps, and still we kneel before the idol of the great god Economy as it grows and grows like a cancer cell. And what if this ancient faith is not an obstacle after all, but a way through? As we see the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, of choosing power over humility, separation over communion, the stakes become clearer each day. Surrender or rebellion; sacrifice or conquest; death of the self or triumph of the will; the Cross or the machine. We have always been offered the same choice. The gate is strait and the way is narrow and maybe we will always fail to walk it. But is there any other road that leads home?
Paul Kingsworth

Christian corporations
…all too many American Christian institutions are corporations first. They’re perpetually-existing legal entities who confront each and every scandal with a single prime directive: This ministry must endure. It is too important to fail. It cannot die.
David French

View from the front porch.
It has been a busy few days, rehearsal and dinner, wedding and reception, family visiting. It was all good and great memories abound.
I cautiously predict spring has arrived, sweet smelling lilacs, stunningly beautiful rhododendrons, green grass, warmer mornings are undeniable evidence.
—
Linda’s van slowed and stopped. “I lost Archie.” she lamented, “he passed unexpectedly on April 28.”
I had been missing him, but with cool weather and my absence, I expected he would appear with spring,—walking to Cluckers to buy lottery tickets for Linda. His wife Linda and I never met but Archie walked past regularly and we often talked. A gregarious person, in his jeans and suspenders, looking like he might have been working in his garden, he shared a lot. He took pleasure in walking the one mile round-trip to buy the lottery tickets for Linda. Unable to get out, lottery tickets brought her some joy, he said. He was willing to do what he could to make her happy. “I love her,” he said, “I finally found a good one, she’s my third wife. We’ve been married 27 years.” “I’m her fourth husband.” Amused, I tried to do the math…
I never got to hear the whole story.
I miss Archie. As I think about he and Linda, I am thankful that they found each other. I am thankful that Archie stopped to talk. I may just buy her some lottery tickets.

Still on the journey

THE CHURCH (3) Hans Kung

George May 8, 2021 THE CHURCH 4 Comments

Already as a youngster, Küng recalled coming home “radiant” when he realized “I can swim … the water’s supporting me.” For him, this experience illustrated “the venture of faith, which cannot first be proved theoretically by a course on ‘dry land’ but simply has to be attempted: a quite rational venture, though the rationality only emerges in the act,” he wrote in his first memoir.A lifelong lover of nature, Küng spent much time in its environs — swimming almost every day of his life and skiing up to age 80 during brief holidays in Switzerland. Skiing helped him if only for a few hours to “air my brain and forget all scholarship, often defying the cold, wind, snow and storm,” he attested in his memoir.Almost all of his books were composed in longhand as Küng sat on his living-room-sized terrace in Tübingen, close to the banks of the Neckar River, or alongside his Lake Lucerne home in his native Sursee, Switzerland. Sunshine and fresh air pervade his texts as much as do research, history, exhaustive scholarship, and analysis of and solutions to specific theological and philosophical problems.

‘The nicest liturgical words and the highest praise of Christ — unless backed by Scripture and understood by the people — are just not useful.’—Hans Küng

‘My theology obviously isn’t for the pope [I will do theology] for my fellow human beings … for those people who may need my theology.’ —Hans Küng

Continuing to examine my understanding of church, this post will use Hans Kung’s book “THE CHURCH” to set a framework for further inquiry. As I wrote earlier, “THE CHURCH” was a highly influential factor in reimagining my ecclesiology. It is has continued to be a reference over the past several decades.

The Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II, which took place from 1962 to 1965, was one of the most important councils in church history, and it profoundly changed the structures and practices of the church. It sought, in the words of Pope John XXIII, aggiornaménto, “to bring the church up to date,” and many of the council’s decrees did bring the church into the modern world. Although the reforms were welcomed by many, they produced internal disruptions greater than any the church has known since the Protestant Reformation.

Written in the shadow of Vatican II — Kung’s states the purpose for his book in the preface.
One can only know what the Church should be now if one also knows what he church was originally. This means knowing what the Church of today should be in the light of the Gospel, It is the purpose of this book to answer that question.

For Kung, Church always refers to the Roman Catholic Church, a point to be aware of in his writing, but the applicability of his observations and critiques are unmistakably relevant to the catholic [whole] church. There is some attraction to the idea of a “Vatican II” kind of council for the church today — to bring the church up to date— but the Protestant diaspora that followed the Protestant Reformation makes that impractical. You can’t herd cats.
Perhaps these posts can serve as a mini-council? Restoration II 🙂

A presumption shared among many Christians today, and motivation for these posts, is that the church is headed in the wrong direction. Holding that assumption, Kung says the vital question is: “… by what criterion are we to judge that the church is now headed in the wrong direction?”

Answering, Kung eliminates paths most frequently chosen in response to concerns that the church is headed in the wrong direction — adapt itself to the present — because to do so would mean adapting itself to the evil, the anti-God elements, the indifferentism in the world — or secondly, — hold fast to the past, because that would mean ignoring what is good and acceptable and perfect, holding to what has gone simply because to do so is convenient, less disruptive. Clinging tenaciously to the past in this way is no less dangerous than a misdirected adaptation to the present….therefore, that where adaptation to the present is inadequate, because it leads to modernism, clinging to the past is no better, for it leads to traditionalism.

How do we know the church is headed in the right direction? Kung answers:

…The Church is headed in the right direction when, whatever the age in which it lives, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is its criterion, the Gospel which Christ proclaimed and to which the church and the apostles witnessed. The church did not come about of itself. God himself called it into being as the Ecclesia, the body of those who answered the call, and this he did in the world, from among mankind. God himself convoked the Church in the call issued through Jesus, the Christ. This call is the Euangelion, the good news: the news of the dominion of God over this world, the news that the hopes and desires of man should be directed to God alone, the news of God’s love, and man’s love for God and his fellow men. …

The Church, therefore, is the pilgrim community of Believers, not of those who already see and know. The Church must never again wander wander through the desert, through the darkness of sin and error. Fo the Church can also err and for this reason must always be prepared to orientate itself anew, to renew itself.It must always be prepared to seek out a new path, a way that might be as difficult to find as a desert track, or a path through darkness.

There is however, one guiding light it is never without, just as God’s people in the desert always had a guide: God’s word is always there to lead the Church. Through Jesus, the Christ it has been definitively revealed to us. …
With the message of Jesus Christ behind it, the Church is headed in the right direction. Thus armed, it is empowered to take new directions, now and again must do in an attempt to perfect God’s rule which it so frequently inclined to forget.

He further observes:

The Church today does not impenitently leave things as they were, but reforms and renews its life, structures and teaching, adapting itself to the world as it actually is. But it has not just developed a craze for modernity: it is looking for its own origins, to the events that gave it life.
The Church must return to the place from which it proceeded; must return to its origins, to Jesus, to the Gospel. And as a direct consequence, this can only mean forward to a new future, the future God had in mind for mankind.

There is a lot to digest in these citations, only a brief portion of his preface to THE CHURCH. A dissident in the Catholic Church, Kung’s, critiques were a delightful, he voiced criticisms of the Catholic Church I had heard and repeated for many years. It was only when I began to look in the mirror that I realized how relevant he was to the whole church and for me, and the church of Christ in particular.

In listening to those who believe the church is headed in the wrong direction, which, ironically, may be our greatest point of agreement, there are two dogmatic positions — adapt to the present —or— hold fast to the past. Those who do not fall into those categories, most usually, are sympathetic to some amalgamation of the two. In any case, Kung paints us all into a corner.

I am confident that this brief look at THE CHURCH through Kung’s eyes will not scrub our windows clean, but perhaps, there is a bit more light coming through that will illuminate the path as we move forward. My next post will explore restoring the New Testament church.

Still on the journey.