Oddities

We Had a Choice, and We Chose…

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(Back in August 2006, I wrote a post entitled The Real American Christian “Either/Or. If you haven’t read that post, please do. Today’s post riffs on the ideas found in that post.)

I had an opportunity to drive to see my youngest brother in Illinois before he left to do linguistics field work and data collection in Alaska. My middle brother and his family joined me on the trek west. Having attended a local Bible college, that brother has volunteered as a youth minister at his church for so long that he’s into his second generation of teens.We talked about many topics on the drive to Carbondale.

 

While discussing the state of the Church today, he made the following statement:

If you take a look at the average Evangelical Christian family in this country, they may talk about choosing to follow Jesus, but they didn’t. They chose money. That explains everything.

George Barna, the pollster who routinely looks at the state of the American Church, has noted that Evangelicals are more concerned that their kids get into elite colleges than that those same children follow Jesus Christ. The reasoning for that seems obvious. Graduating from an elite college means a higher-paying job.

 

Yesterday, I made this comment about men:

I want to believe that a man can work a sixty-hour week, spend quality time with his wife and kids, be involved in his community, find time for leisure, and still be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. The kind of man who prays big prayers and knows God intimately for those prayers. The kind of man who readily leads many others to his Savior and disciples those same people to maturity. I want to believe, but I don’t know any men like that.

 

I’m not saying that a man like I describe can’t have an earnest desire to serve the Lord. But I question the ability to follow through on that desire. It’s a case of allegiance. Two masters; which will the average 9-to-5’er (or 8-to-6’er, as the case is today) serve?

Every survey out there on the state of the Church in 2008 notes drop-offs in attendance, participation in activities, and general involvement. The Church in this country is in poor shape. We have more megachurches than ever before and less spiritual health.

Meanwhile, the lost are proceeding to hell in an endless stream.

Who is actually doing the work of the ministry today? It’s a handful of people, mostly full-time Christian workers. It’s hard not to look at the way we do ministry in America 2008 and not see that most of us have stepped out of the ministry role Jesus commended of us and handed it off to someone else accompanied by a small envelope filled with a few bucks “earnest” money. That passes for active ministry in most people’s lives.

And why not? We’re making the big bucks. Why not farm out our responsibility to someone else? It’s The American Way™!

But it’s not Jesus’ way.

As I noted yesterday, I want to believe that the average Christian man working a middle management job in some cubicle in Conglomo Corporation can make a difference for Christ. But I don’t see it. Hey, Bob, have you met the new guy in HR?I see that same man’s large suburban tract home, his boat, his trips to Disneyworld, his 401k account, but I don’t see any impact for the Kingdom. Not when all the accounts are tallied and the bill comes due. Yet this passes for acceptable Evangelical living in America 2008.

When asked if he would deny Christ, I’m sure that man would vehemently say no. And yet he appears to every day because in all the things that matter he’ll never choose Jesus. He’ll choose comfort. He’ll take the money and run. And he’ll make darned sure his kids can take the money and run, too, even if that means Jesus ends up the also-ran in his children’s lives.

I don’t want to think that it’s all about the Benjamins, yet it seems like it is. I know that I have difficult decisions to make in that regard, decisions I didn’t ever think that I—or any other man my age—would need to make. Perhaps our concessions to our Industrialized Age have forced our hands. Maybe no middle ground exists any longer. It just may be that all we can do is fall into line or else wind up scavenging for food from the neighborhood dump. Who wouldn’t want to avoid that fate?

And so we made our choice.

Ragnarok, Recession, and Real ID

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Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
—Acts 11:27-30

Anyone who’s read this blog long enough knows that I have continually warned that this country and the Christians within it are in for some lean, mean days ahead. “We are not ready” has been my clarion call, a warning I continue to see ignored by Christian leaders in this country. They seem absolutely oblivious to the last recession this country weathered, having learned no lessons on how to prepare our churches for going through tough times. I firmly believe those days are creeping up on us, yet we blithely go on, ready to be caught napping in what should be our shining hour of preparation.

And while I’m not so stuck on myself that I think my puny voice can sway Christian leaders, don’t any of them care? Even one smidgen?

I’m not ready to say the end is upon us, but it sure smells like Ragnarok around here. That term, lifted from Norse mythology, refers to the time when the gods fall. And if there’s ever been a time for us to stand back and ask if we puny gods are falling, 2008 seems an apt time.

The Bible tells us we set ourselves up to be like God and have paid for it. We Americans have set ourselves up to be the arbiters of all things, the pinnacle of 21st century Man, but our hubris may be catching up to us.

We’ve moved the strength of our economy overseas where others now manufacture and create what we buy. Increasingly, even our food is foreign. Crippling debt, the prolonged demise of our most cherished industries, and our unquenchable lust for cheap goods are killing America, yet we can’t seem to snap out of our mania. When greedy corporate wolves are allowed to run amok through our economy, taking it all for themselves and leaving the middle class with an empty chicken coop, should we surprised that we’re bordering on economic collapse?

I find it bewildering that the tone of The Wall Street Journal has only recently turned pessimistic on our economy. The “R Word”—recession—is now cropping up in editorials, though some forward-thinking economists were saying in the fall of 2006 that the our economic strength was illusory. Real world wages continue to drop, and people are dealing with crushing increases in the cost of energy and food, which, last I looked, were staples of life.

I’ve been furious all week after reading a hopelessly clueless George Will editorial in which he decries politicians who pander to the “death of the middle class” adherents, especially within the middle class. I could care less about the political portion of that diatribe, but the astonishing elitism of Mr. Will, wealthy columnist and talking head that he is, just slays me.

Will trots out a figure saying that the number of households in this country with incomes over $100,000 has doubled. He also says that the number of households under $30,000 has stayed the same. Wow, sounds like this middle class death knell IS a fabrication. That’s until we realize he compares today’s figures against 1979.

1979???

We all know about lies, damned lies, and statistics, but c’mon! You don’t need a degree in math to see how frightening that is given cost of living increases over thirty years. A $30,000 household income from 1979 would probably translate into at least a $50-60,000 income today, so if anything, the number of households stuck at $30,000 from nearly thirty years ago is a massive indication that something is horribly wrong in the middle class.

Same goes for the $100,000 income. All $100,000 incomes are not created equal. If you live in the Bay Area of San Francisco, I can tell you from personal experience that $100,000 is just squeaking by. That may sound insane from the standpoint of those unfamiliar with the cost of living in other regions of the country, but trust me on this. I still freak when I note that a property like ours in some parts of the country would go for way over a million dollars. My wife and I lived in the Bay Area and the crushing cost of living stunned us. I’d like to take away all but a $100 grand of George Will’s income and plunk him down in Palo Alto, CA and see how much he enjoys being “rich.”

What an ivory-towered dingbat.

So The Wall Street Journal finally starts to cave and wonder where this mysterious talk of recession comes from despite the fact that wages for most people have been stagnant for years, some people are desperately clinging to their jobs, and the costs of housing, energy, and food have skyrocketed.

What pains me is the American Church’s joint inability to read these distressing signs. It’s as if they simply don’t want to see. Yet check out the passage that opens this post. The early Church prepared for problems. In fact, they listened to their prophets and sprang into action. But where are our prophets? And in lieu of prophets, why can’t we seem to heed our own common sense? Yet I can’t think of one major Church leader in this country talking about economic issues and how the Church must face them.

I had a pastor in Detroit last year send me an e-mail asking what was going to happen should half the people in his congregation become unemployed. This is no joke, folks. Who is speaking to that kind of scenario? What national pastor/writer/speaker is addressing what we need to do should it come down to that in our churches? With Chrysler and Ford teetering on collapse, that pastor’s flock may have more than just half its people in dire economic straits.

And don’t even get me going on this hellish piece of neo-con anti-Americanism called Real ID. I don’t hear anyone in the American Church talking about this little 666-let. Link to FoxNews story on Real IDI get a reprieve of sorts since I’m old enough to linger till the second wave of ownership of this mandatory national ID card. And by mandatory, I mean you won’t be able to fly on an Airplane after 2014 or enter a federal building without having one of these anti-Constitutional pieces of garbage. Some claim Real ID will be required for certain monetary transactions, too. Scary? Oh, I’m sure it will get scarier when they find a way to sell the current opposition by tying it to personal medical records. “Sir, what should happen if you get into a car accident and the EMTs don’t have access to your Real ID? Well, sir?”

Trust me; it takes a lot to push me into the cabal of conspiracy theorists.

I don’t care what your eschatology is, though; Real ID is a real nightmare, especially for Christians. Yet who out there is fighting this in the name of Christ? No one that I can tell. In fact, it’s the hardest-core liberals who are screaming loudest. I never thought I’d be bedfellows with the ACLU and some of the wackier environmental groups out there, but at least they’re actively trying to shoot down Real ID.

So I sit here typing wondering why the Church of Jesus Christ in America gives not one hoot about any of these issues. Have we become so numb? I’m not saying that we can stop a recession or prevent the erosion of our civil liberties on our way to a one-world government, but to not even stand up and be counted? And what about putting systems into place to help us Christians prepare to live through these trying times? Sure, some think we’re going to be raptured out of the mess, but the sword that is Pascal’s Wager cuts two ways.

What is wrong with us?

We are SO not ready.

The Marriage of Word & Image

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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
—John 1:14

When I think about many of the battles that rage in Christianity today, I can’t help but think that most result from a kind of theological blindness. We have beheld Him...We easily fall into oversights that see our position clearly, but cannot see what our opponents believe is obvious.

The Holy Spirit leads into all truth if we do not actively oppose Him. Living lifestyles given to blinders will never let us embrace the fullness of God’s truth. Most of all, we will fail to see Jesus clearly.

How is it that we treat Jesus—as the blind men in the famous story treated the elephant—as pieces?

Any student of Church history can tell us about the rise of Roman Catholicism, the splinter with Eastern Orthodoxy, and the the coming of the Protestant Reformation. What we won’t hear, though, is how those churches chose which pieces of Jesus they wished to uphold.

The Catholics and Orthodox looked at Jesus and based their Christology on this idea:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
—Colossians 1:15

They chose to see Jesus through the lens of Image. Theirs is the theology of the incarnation, the Word becoming Image, God in human form for us to see and touch. He became like us so that He could perfectly redeem us. Image rules.

Protestants, as a reactionary move against excesses seen in the RCC, attempted the one-eighty and based their Christology on another perspective:

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
—Revelation 19:13

They chose to see Jesus through the lens of Word. Theirs is the theology of the power of the word spoken, the Word that was from the beginning, the expression of God revealed in the pages of Scripture. We become like Him by learning His word. Word rules.

Both sides will defend their positions to the death. Both sides will refute, debate, and cry, “Heretic!” should the other side question the hallowedness of their piece of Jesus and His Church.

And both sides are missing the point because Jesus was and is the perfect marriage of Word and Image. His Church, then, needs to reflect that whole.

Since most people here are Protestants, we’re highly familiar with a Christianity brimming with words. We make the sermon the pinnacle of our meetings. We place great emphasis on Bible study and biblical knowledge. Christians who focus on Word in our faith comprise the largest whole in the Godblogosphere. We’re soaked in Word.

I wonder, though, if our elevation of Word had brought the unintended consequence of nullifying Image altogether. If so, I believe it explains so many shortcomings in Protestantism today, especially the Evangelical strain of it.

I believe we Protestants must recapture the profundity of Image if we’re to understand Christ in His fullness, make Him known, and live out the fullness of the Faith He entrusted to us.

Why must we not neglect Image?

1. Christ was incarnate

Check the opening verse again. The Word became flesh! We should be careful to accept that truth as is. Some have said the Word became flesh and we Protestants have attempted to revert Him solely to Word again. A jest yes, but an astute one.

2. God uses Image to convey authority

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me.
—1 Corinthians 9:1-3

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life– the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us– that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
—1 John 1:1-3

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
—1 John 4:14

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
—Acts 10:39a

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
—John 3:11-12

3. God conveys His power through Image

And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
—Exodus 13:21-22

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
—Exodus 33:20-23
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
—2 Kings 6:15-17

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
—Isaiah 6:1-5

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
—Matthew 17:1-6

4. God communicates with us through Image

a. Through Christ

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
—John 14:6-9

If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
—John 12:26

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
—Ephesians 5:1-2

b. Through visions and dreams

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
—Genesis 15:1-3

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
—1 Kings 3:5

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
—Matthew 1:20

But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
—Acts 11:4-15

5. Image reflects our impact as the Church in the world

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
—John 13:34-35

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works….”
—James 2:18

6. God intends Word and Image to go together

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
—John 1:14

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
—John 1:32-34

7. We Christian are to reflect the image of our Saviour

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
—2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
—Colossians 3:9-10

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
—Ephesians 4:15-16

Recently, I pointed out one of the best blog postings I’ve ever read on the Web. “The Primacy of the Imagination” over at adversaria. Please read the whole thing. I guarantee you’ll have your preconceptions about the practice of the Faith challenged.

Yes, Catholics and Orthodox have spent too much time focusing on Image. Unfortunately, the Protestant response virtually ignores it. This despite the fact that 1,461 verses in the ESV include some variant of the word see. For this reason, I believe that to downplay Image is as big a mistake as ignoring Word.

We can’t divorce Word and Image. They are both powerful. We can hear God speak and live, but the power in the image of His appearance is so great that we would die if we beheld Him in His fullness. Yet His words give life.

We need to consider these truths when we live out the truth of the Faith:

1. Unbelievers will no longer take us on our word alone, but must see we manifest the faith we speak. They have heard with their ears, but now must see with their eyes. Why? Because our image didn’t match our word.

2. We have turned the Image of our faithfulness into nothing more than a systematic theology. By focusing so much on the written aspect of our Faith, we’ve lost the visual entirely. We also face losing sight of Jesus.

3. When we ignore the interplay of Word and Image, we negate the miraculous in our lives, especially charismatic gifts (an image of Christ in us) and God communicating to us through dreams and visions.

Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Word, the very Image of God. Behold Him, and heed His words.