Who do they say we are?

Or: Are we who we claim to be?

“Whoever, therefore, thinks that he understands the divine scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbour does not understand it at all”

Augustine. On Christian Doctrine.

God is Love and Light and in Him there is no shadow of turning. Yet how much do we do in His name that is not of Love? We take His name in vain and play ourselves false when we play church and neglect the only measure that matters.

“The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others. In particular, our own church will have to take the field against the vices of hubris, power worship, envy, and humbug, as the roots of all evil…It must not underestimate the importance of human example (which has its origins in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching); it is not abstract argument, but example, that gives its word emphasis and power.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffers. Letters from Prison.


If we use Bonhoeffers definition of church how much of church would be church? Many churches may even have ‘existing for others’ as part of a mission statement or strap line yet how they handle their money is often a give away as to what the organisation is really about. Perhaps taking love so seriously makes being church easier, for as mother Theresa would tell us is isn’t about doing great things but about loving greatly, person to person. It can start with us. It can grow as we come together. If we took love so seriously we’d have to rethink everything. Take evangelism as an example.

“Evangelism is that dimension and activity of the churches mission which, by word and deed and in the light of particular conditions and particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives, a reorientation which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Saviour and lord; becoming a living member of his community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth; and being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ.”

David Bosch. Transforming Mission.

We the “church” need to sit a while, listen to the gospel again. Embrace grace as the work of God to restore our brokenness in the context of a community of union with God and communion with others for the good of all and the world.

God Follows Me Everywhere

God Follows Me Everywhere

God follows me everywhere-

spins a net of glances around me,

shines upon my sighless back like a sun.

God follows me like a forest everywhere.

My lips, always amazed, are truly numb, dumb,

like a child who blunders upon an ancient holy place.

God follows me like a shiver everywhere.

My desire is for rest; the demand within me is: Rise up,

See how prophetic visions are scattered in the streets.

I go with my reveries as with a secret

in a long corridoor through the world-

and sometimes I glimpse high above me, the faceless face of God.

...

God follows me in tramways, in cafes.

Oh, it is only with the backs of the pupils of one's eyes that

one can see

how secrets ripen, how visions come to be.

Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Ruminations on Church and us.

I open with insights into our nature from wiser men:

“Instead of seeing God man sees himself. ‘Their eyes were opened’ (Gen 3:7). Man perceives himself in his disunion with God and with men. He perceives he is naked. Lacking the protection, the covering, which God and his fellow man had afforded him, he finds himself laid bare. Hence there arises shame. Shame is mans ineffaceable recollection of his estrangement from the origin; it is grief for this estrangement, and a powerless longing to return to the unity with the origin. Man is ashamed because he has lost something essential to his original character, to himself as a whole; he is ashamed of his nakedness. Shame and remorse are generally mistaken for one another. Man feels remorse when he has been at fault; and he feels shame when he lacks something. Shame is more original than remorse. The peculiar fact that we lower our eyes when a stranger meets our gaze is not a sign of remorse for a fault, but a sign of that shame which, when it knows that it is seen, is reminded of something that it lacks, namely, the lost wholeness of life, its own nakedness. To meet a strangers gaze directly, as is required for example, in making a declaration of personal loyalty, is a kind of act of violence, and in love, when the gaze of the other is sought, it is a kind of yearning. In both cases it is the painful endeavour to recover the lost unity by either a conscious and resolute or else a passionate and devoted inward overcoming of shame as the sign of disunion.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Ethics)

“This I do believe, that at each man's birth there comes into being an eternal vocation for him, expressly for him. To be true to himself in relation to this eternal vocation is the highest thing a man can practice, and, as that most profound poet has said; “Self-love is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.” (Soren Kierkegaard – Purity of Heart)

What if church were the people with whom we could be ‘naked’ and unashamed?

What if it became the safe and sacred space in which all Gods broken images could find acceptance and yet the holiness – the otherness of God?





What if atonement – ‘at-one-ment’ can't be found other than in the kingdom community as together we seek the Truth? Our eternal vocation is surely bound up in beneficence to the beloved community and beyond.





To borrow from Martin Luther King Jr: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”





What if church was where we become who we truly are?





Wouldn’t Truth then take on flesh, justice take root in our communities, and we become a living letter of Gods love and Way?





What if our gospel must be incarnated in order to be known?





Known among us and as seen as a living demonstration to those who are perishing from its absence?

A new humanity. A new Way.

If we could grasp Gods dream of Church would we want to know?

The inauguration of the new humanity took place at Pentecost. (See ‘The inauguration of the new humanity’). In as much as Luke is directing us to back to the first Pentecost to appreciate its promise and the beginning of its fulfilment. He also points back further to Babel. It was at Babel that Genesis records the Lord confused the languages of the world. (Gen 11). Here at the temple courts the crowds gathered for Pentecost heard their own languages spoken by the quickened believers. What does Luke want us to see? Firstly we must recap a little of the Genesis narrative below.

Gen 2:8
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

Gen 3:24
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Gen 4:16
And Cain went out from the faces of Jehovah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, toward the east of Eden.

Gen 11:1-2
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

Genesis has a direction, east, away from the sacred space that God had made for mankind. Away from His boundaries, His presence and Way. As man moves east Genesis records a spiral of violence. The tenure of the early story is fraught – in Gen 4:24 we see if things were bad with Cain and Able they’ve become ominously darker. Cain’s descendants are listed, seven generations in all, and according to rabbinic tradition are associated with the development of the arts of civilisation. (Sarna. The JPS Torah Commentary. Genesis). This view is supported by the brief narrative interspersed throughout. The ascription of the origins of technology and urban life to Cain and his line constitute an unfavourable judgement of mans progress on the part of the Narrator. A recognition that mans moral progress is frequently outrun by his ingenuity. Indeed the point is made that the civilisation described is founded on fratricide. This leads us into the Babel story. Genesis 11 is about the use (misuse) of our ingenuity. The innovation of bricks revolutionised methods of building. Mankind now exercises this new-found power to make their mark - that they may be godlike. The Narrator records Gods response:

“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”

Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Think about the worst exercises of power in history and you’re getting a hint at what the text is reaching at. Think Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the meticulous German engineering that went into Auschwitz.

Sin here is not viewed as merely personal choices to go another way that is not Gods. Here it is seen as the organising principle, an emerging system/society that is moving further away from God.

Gods’ will was expressed in his covenant with his image bearers. That they may “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”.
As His representatives they were to be about the business of family. They were to go forth – fill the earth – and co-create with Him. Expressing His care in ruling with Him together over the earth. Instead the Genesis narrative shows they centralised – came together for they’re own purpose. Unhindered in our ingenuity we create societies and systems that are anti-kingdom. Ethelbert Stauffer puts it like this:

“History of the second degree is that of guilt and the curse, which run like a red thread through the whole story. Does this mean, then that tragedy is the last word about human destiny? Classical man say no. The myth of historical fate is only penultimate. Wisdom’s last word is the myth of Empire.
The myth of fate begins with the realisation that guilt creates something new in history, which does not grow old. The imperial myth begins with the confession that man is sent to create something new that is not a curse but a blessing, or at least that one man is commissioned to overcome the curse of history by a word of blessing that creates a new situation in the world. Who is this man, this chosen one, who by his deeds is to refute the witness of tragedy? He is the statesman. And what is his work of blessing to which he is called? His work is Empire.” (Christ and the Caesars).

Rob Bell expresses it when taking about biblical Egypt.
“Egypt is what happens when sin builds up a head of steam.
Egypt is what happens when sin becomes structured and embedded in society.
Egypt shows us how easily human nature bends towards using power to preserve privilege at the expense of the weak….slaves being forced to make bricks all day, would understand the Tower of Babel story. They would say, “We know what happens when people start building empires out of bricks.”” (Jesus wants to save Christians).

Wolfhart Pannenberg touches on it in saying that sin is “the universal failure to achieve our human destiny” (Systematic Theology).

Scot McKnight brings these concepts together; image bearers (he calls them Eikons) are made for union with God, communion with others, love of self, and care for the world. Instead sin is seen as the choice to go it alone, to be free in the sense of independence, to achieve (like God) absolute freedom. Cracked Eikons he says: “when they coagulate into clusters, create conduits for corruption and they do so by creating systems that bring down equity and love in various relationships. When sin is defined in such a way that it involves systemic corruption, then atonement is released to become the restoration of the Eikon in all directions, a restoration that includes the undoing of systemic corruption. Atonement then becomes the act of God to create a kingdom people.” (A community called atonement)

After the expulsion from Eden the way back to Gods sacred space was barred. That here at Pentecost he has created a new Way and those who belong to Him are called to follow in it. In pointing us back to Babel Luke is showing at this Pentecost God has turned the direction of mankind around. There is a new direction, a new course; our story doesn’t have to drift east anymore. This is our new Exodus. Gods scared space has broken out of its bounds. The veil in the temple is torn. He is restoring the image (Eikon) and is leading/creating a new society. His newly restored Eikons are once again to be about the business of family. Once again we are invited to join together within ourselves, with each other and Him. Co-creating a new humanity, a prophetic society through His enabling Spirit.

I hope through these articles touching on Christ’s announcement and inauguration of His ecclesia to have covered significant groundwork for further discussion. Church is a word whose original meaning has travelled far from its origins. Now that some of the original meaning, nature and humour of it has been exposed it can help us dream a little further.

Shane Claiborne has been known to ask “Where are all the real Christians?” (The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical) He quotes Soren Kierkegaard: "The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly."

Perhaps the same may be said of us about church? If we could understand Gods dream of it would we want to know? What if it doesn’t look like our comfortable expectations? If we come to understand is anything required of us? What must we do now?

May we find the courage to understand His dream. To dream it with Him in all its expressions among peoples, cultures and places. May we take our place.

Ruminations on agents of a new humanity

What will we believe and therefore become?

We are all put here to bring hope, love and grace into one another’s lives. We bring beauty into this world, as we bring innocence, and the ugliness that we take with us when we leave is what we’ve made of ourselves instead of what we should have made.

Perhaps hell is less about fire than futility. Less about brimstone than isolation, less about physical torture than about despair. If so I’ve seen it in the eyes of strangers and friends. Lived in that ever decreasing space myself and imprisoned others for portions of their and my own life. Most of us would agree that the whole world feels broken. That more and more of us are more on our own. Loneliness curls in the heart like a worm. Eating hope and leaving behind hollow men and women. You can see it in our choice of heroes. These days they are actors, singers and power hungry leaders. How mad have we become when these people embody what a hero means to us? It been said that a civilisation spiralling down into the abyss often finds the spiral thrilling, and sometimes loves the promise of the depths below. People embrace the romance of darkness but cannot see the ultimate terror that waits at the bottom. Think of our media, news & entertainment: violence and sex are what sells - what we crave. Consequently the hand of extended Truth is resisted regardless of the goodwill that it offers. We have even been known to kill our would-be benefactors.

As agents of a new humanity what then should our articles of instruction be?

Perhaps creation, for it engenders wonder. For no matter what your beliefs, or lack of them, life spent without wonder is poor. Closed to Mystery and the possibility of the truly Transcendent, truly Other and truly Good.

Or perhaps that even in suffering, some of God's children have an inextinguishable joy, an unshakeable faith - that their speck of a life has meaning. Even within wrenching chaos their lives are lived in the belief of a larger purpose. A briefly glimpsed mosaic of the Truth of history.

Yet we must not merely ruminate and hope that we will see the kingdom come and His will be done here. We must join Him and do the work. This requires a coming together within us and with each other. It necessitates the assistance of circles of friends – reliable cadres of committed courageous souls.

I guess it all comes down to the following questions. What will we believe and therefore become?

The new humanity unveiled

Are we pursuing Disneyland in our churches on Sunday at the expense of our primary goal - God's Kingdom and his saving Justice?

The inauguration of Christ’s rival ecclesia (to Caesar's) was announced in the shadow of the gates of hell. (See ‘What is Church?”). It was not until Pentecost that His new humanity was truly birthed. I will elucidate a little of what Luke is communicating in Acts.

Luke is pointing us back to the first Pentecost at Sinai. Pentecost is known in Jewish tradition as Shavu'ot (meaning weeks) or Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah) as it celebrates the giving of the Torah on Sinai. Shavu'ot is also known as Pentecost, because it falls on the 50th day after the Passover. This harkens to the time between the Passover in Egypt to the Encounter at Sinai. A harvest festival, it culminates at the end of 7 weeks in celebration of the first fruits (usually wheat). It was the second of the three pilgrim feasts where all adult Jewish males had to present themselves in Jerusalem to the Lord (Ex. 23:14-15). Therefore many thousands of people would amass in the Holy City to present their offerings in the temple. All would have to ascended the southern steps to gain entry into the temple courts passing Mikveh (pits for ceremonial washing) on the way.

The Southern Steps – the route taken by pilgrims to enter the second temple. The Mikveh are by these steps.

We know from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus commanded the believers to stay in Jerusalem at his ascension and that they stayed continually at the temple. (Luke 24:50-53). Also in 1st century speak ‘the house’ referred to the temple – which makes sense of its use in Acts 2:2. (Ray Vander Laan, Faith Lessons on the death & resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, Zondervan). It is highly probable that the giving of the Spirit took place in the Temple or one of its courts.

Thus the divine drama unfolds in this theatre. Jesus died on Passover (as God’s lamb), was buried on the Feast of Unleavened bread (as the Bread of Life), rises on the Feast of First fruits (as the first fruit of those who will be raised to life and now sends his Spirit on Pentecost. What are we supposed to learn from this?

Luke invites us to compare the two Pentecost events by stressing the similarities. The fire, the earth shaking, both accounts even feature 3000 people. (Compare Ex 19:16-19, Ex 32:1-28 with Acts 2). Lets recap the events at Sinai. Sinai was a wedding of God to a people – ‘a cutting of covenant’. As weddings go this one was fairly colourful. Before the vows were even finished being exchanged the bride was in bed with some other guy. The result was a fight in which 3000 brothers, friends and neighbours died. Sinai was supposed to be about becoming a society who embodied God - joining Him in His work – becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Ex 19:5-7). However it hinged on ‘if you obey me fully and keep my covenant’ something they could not do (nor can we for that matter). Jeremiah looked forward to a day when this broken covenant would be renewed – as would God’s new society.

Jeremiah 31:31-33

31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,

"when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

32 It will not be like the covenant

I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.

33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after that time," declares the LORD.

"I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

Pentecost was nothing less than the restoration of Israel and the recreation of a new people of God. The covenant Israel had broken was renewed and written into the hearts of every believer. A new Teacher was given – the enabling Spirit of Truth. It easy to see why Paul wrote that ‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ (2 Cor 3:6). 3000 were added and baptised in the Acts account (probably in the handy Mikveh) – brought to life in Christ. The reversal of catastrophe of the first encounter was complete.

There were important Hallmarks of this new movement of the Spirit. Firstly Pentecost was associated with provision of the poor. The passage in Leviticus that spells out the details of the pentecos festival ends thus:

“'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev 23:23). No mere coincidence that this Jesus movement is hallmarked as new societies were poverty was made history.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45).

To quote N.T. Wright : “God doesn’t give the Holy Spirit in order to let them (the eclissia) enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. The point of the Spirit is to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make that happen” Simply Christian (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 122.

This Hallmark was certainly borne out in the early church. Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian c 160 - 225 AD, lived in Carthage North Africa and is considered a Church Father. Here are excerpt from Chapter 39 of his ‘apology’- a defence against criticism of Christian Gatherings.

“I shall at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian society, that, as I have refuted the evil charged against it, I may point out its positive good. We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope.

Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape, i.e., affection [love]. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment, -but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly.

Give the congregation of the Christians its due, and hold it unlawful, if it is like assemblies of the illicit sort: by all means let it be condemned, if any complaint can be validly laid against it, such as lies against secret factions. But who has ever suffered harm from our assemblies? We are in our congregations just what we are when separated from each other; we are as a community what we are individuals; we injure nobody, we trouble nobody. When the upright, when the virtuous meet together, when the pious, when the pure assemble in congregation, you ought not to call that a faction, but a curia-[i.e., the court of God.]”

To conclude: Pentecost was the inauguration of a new humanity. The recreation of Gods new society; a new Israel. Each member of this rival ecclesia a priest – chosen to display and mediate the divine. The beginning of the realisation of the promise that was stillborn at Sinai now breathing with Gods new life. This ecclesia, new democratisation, would embody Christ and his will. The saving justice longed for and foreseen by the prophets would finally begin in earnest – achieved by the pouring down of the Spirit.

"But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24. NASB.

I choose Amos because it shouts a warning to all of us who have became comfortable with our worship, meetings and feasts but neglect His justice – indeed His Way. (Amos 5:21-23). I finish with a question. Are we pursuing Disneyland in our churches on Sunday at the expense of our primary goal - Gods Kingdom and his saving Justice?

A legitimate question

"If we have focused on only half the gospel, half the truth, then do we have the truth at all?"

----- Vincent Bacote.

"What’s This Life For?: Expanding the View of Salvation"In What Does it Mean to Be Saved?: Broadening Evangelical Horizons of Salvation (Baker Academic, November 2002).

What is chuch?

Are the institutions of the church, as they stand, compatable with Christ’s original vision?

The importance of context

Imagine you’d never heard of Martin Luther King Jr or Nelson Mandela. Now you’re given their greatest speeches to read & digest. Undoubtedly you’d find them insightful, inspirational they may even change you as you try to live out thier message. Yet how much more meaningful would the words be if you understood that they were written from under terrible systems of oppression. You knew about apartheid, the massacre at Soweto, and the race riots or had considered the bravery of Rosa Parks? You may well have extracted ‘timeless truths’ without this knowledge. While missing a wealth of timely truth. Truth that’s set in a time & place to real people. At the very least you’d be missing a whole dimension of understanding and the knowledge you gleaned would be patchy and how would you patch those holes? Obviously you can see where I’m going with this. Understanding the context of the scriptures and the words of Jesus is imperative to our fully appreciating and understand them.

What is church?

Before we dive straight into the words of Christ let us take a deep breath and take in some context first. It will come as no surprise to many that the english word church comes from the greek word ekklisia – meaning an assembly. However it may surprise you to know that this word in the 1rst century was not overtly ‘religious’. Perhaps its earliest use, from which it spread along with Greek conquest & culture is found in the city state of Athens.

The Assembly ( E)KKLHSI/A ) was the regular gathering of male Athenian citizens (women also enjoyed the status of “citizen,” but without political rights) to listen to, discuss, and vote on decrees that affected every aspect of Athenian life, both public and private, from financial matters to religious ones, from public festivals to war, from treaties with foreign powers to regulations governing ferry boats. When Aristotle describes how government was restored after Sparta defeated Athens in 404 BCE he says that this restoration happened when “the People became sovereign over affairs” (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 41.1)[1]. Now let us fast forward a little to the birth of Jesus.
Emperor Augustus rules the known world. An inscprition was set up on the island of Phila high up the Nile at the first waterfall: ‘The emperor, ruler of oceans and continents, the divine father among men, who bears the same name as his heavenly father – Liberator, the marvellous star of the greek world, shining with the brilliance of the great heavenly Saviour’. Later an Alexandrian Jew called him, ‘he who not merely loosened but burst the chains which bound and oppresssed the dwellers of the earth. It was he who led all the cities of the earth to freedom’. He was remembered at every prayer at table. So called divine, a kind of god-man he was little different in his asperations to that of the line of Caesars. In A.D. 69, the year of the four emperors, we find the the coins of Emperor Galba. Whom the spanish sibyl calls the divinely promised lord of the world. His coin bear the inscription SALUS GENERIS HUMANI – the Salvation of the Human Race. (E. Stauffer) [2].Galba believed that was what he was achieving (or at least that’s what he wanted everbody else to believe). I hope I am not labouring the point. In the world in which Jesus was born there was one Kingdom, Saviour, Lord of Lords, King of kings, Giver of Grace, there already was a proclaimed Son of God and his name was Caesar. The Ecclesia all belonged to and operated under his dominion. He dicated the form of these assemblies, who could and could not be a citizen, and therefore shaped the society they represented. Now that we have breathed deeply of the context let us turn to the words of Christ.

Mat: 16:13 – 18

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Ceaseria Philipi was not the regular haunt of good jewish boys. The hint is in the name. Philip Herod built the city naming it Caesarea Philippi to honour the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. It became a centre of Greek-Roman culture, known for its pagan worship. Particularly that of the god Pan whose worship consisted of sexual acts of surprising deviancy that often ended up in the panic of worshipers. Its status as Herod Philip’s capital city, with its significant Gentile population, reflects the city’s status as the power centre of Philip’s territory. If Jesus were standing with His disciples in front of this sheer cliff, it would explain His use of the metaphor "rock" used in His conversation with Peter. The word He used was petra, a term that would be used to describe a bluff. This seems likely as it was Jesus’ practice to teach in metaphors and parables that related to the physical context in which He was ministering, e.g. "fishers of men" spoken on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Let us consider ‘on this rock I will build my ecclesia’. For the first time Jesus makes this historic announcement and the choice of the setting is visual poetry. It was here in 198 B.C. a battle was fought between the Ptolemy’s (tolerant of the Jews) and the Seleucids’ that decided that fate of the Jewish people for the next 300 years. The Seleucids prevailed and were hostile to the Jews outlawing Judaism and forcing Greek culture and religion upon them. Here in the centre of Roman Imperial power in the region. Here where a temple built by Herod the Great to honour the god-man Augustus stands. Here under the shadow of Pan – the god of shepherds & flocks the Great Shepherd makes his proclamation. (R. Vander Lann)[3]. It is His intention to create an ecclesia. Can you begin to see the ramifications? He’s announcing the inauguration of a new society on the stronghold of the old. Proclaiming himself messiah (king) not only over Israel but also over the world. His ecclesia; his assembly of citizens as a Christocentric society representative of him. He is subverting the empire by unpicking its very seams. In Caesar the slaves serve the citizens in the ecclesia. In Christ male and female, slave and free are citizens and part of the ecclesia.

Please take the time to think about the next statement before going on.

The inaugaration of Jesus Christ's ecclisia had obvious political, social, economic & spiritual ramifications to every facit of a believers life.

Now let us consider ‘and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.’ At the base of this 100-foot cliff an underground river flowed from a deep cave called the Grotto of Pan. It was also known as the “gates of Hades (Hell)”. It was believed that gods used this cave to travel to and from the underworld. As you have already seen any talk about the separation of religion and politics in the society that Christ lived in beggars’ belief. Underlying that understanding is the awareness that the powers that be are not separate from the spiritual realms. Christ’s proclamation in this darkest of places is that he is going to build his new society not only in the shadow of hostile imperial might, false religion & perverse pagan culture but from it – out of it, on it. Let us elaborate further.

Mat 5:13-15.
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."

During the first century the people of Galilee mixed salt with dried dung (a common fuel) to make it burn hotter. Over time however the salt lost the qualities that made it effective. So when it was no longer fit for being mixed with manure the “saltless” salt was thrown out. This is a good metaphor for the life of believers. As followers of Christ we should be mixed up in all that stinks about our world. Where there is darkness and dung we should be found. Part of it, but distinct from it, retaining our purpose and character. Note the city on a hill metaphor cannot be about individual believers but a people, an assembly, an ecclesia. The city on a hill can be seen as pointing to a society within a society, distinct yet emerging from within it. It is the green shoot of Pax Christi springing from Pax Romana.

Lastly let us consider: ‘ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ The keys refer to the authority Christ was giving to his ecclesia. In 1st century Palestine to forbid and permit reinterpreting the scripture and the practises that naturally flow from this action was termed binding & loosing. (Anchor Bible Dictionary)[4]. For example Josephus[5] mentions how the Pharisees claimed the power of binding & loosing. Their community called upon them to interpret scriptural commands. The Bible forbids working on the Sabbath, for instance, but it does not define what constitutes work. As a result, the Pharisees were required to rule on which activities were permitted on the Sabbath. They ‘bound’ or prohibited certain activities, and ‘loosed’ or allowed, others. So now this authority lies with the church. The right to rethink, discuss, debate, wrestle & pray through our interpretations of the scripture. Because maybe we missed this or that before and now we think we know more of what something means. Jesus says when we do that heaven will be involved: ‘and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’. We wont be alone in our enterprise for God will be with us. Exercising this power of course will dictate the shape, practice, humour and future of the church. It is this that I hope even now we are engaged upon.

To conclude the church was conceived as Christ’s new society emerging from within the old. Usurping, unpicking the very stitching and seams of the old. Eroding political, religious, cultural & economic divides in its new order. As such new believers in the 1st century were faced with certain knowledge of the radical changes that would affect their lives. Such vibrancy casts into stark relief the thought of the faithful being those who turn up to church on Sunday. They were given the privilege, the necessary right to review and reinterpret scripture not only in the light of the announcement of the inauguration of His ecclesia. It was that they might become just that. Emerging from their temple bound system with its religious & cultural divides. So they may come to the day when it is to be announced.

Rev 11:15
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

What then will we do with this knowledge? How does it affect our theology and the practice that comes out of it? Are the institutions of the church, as they stand, computable with Christ’s original vision?

A particularly thought provoking article I found in blogspace questioning the nature of church can be found on the link below. Its entitled what if church were invisible?

http://www.mendingshift.com/2008/03/03/what-if-we-were-invisible/

[1] Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.

[2] Christ and the Caesars. Etherlbert Stauffer. SCM Press LTD. London.

[3] Faith Lessons on the early church. Zondervan.Grand Rapids. Michigan.

[4] Anchor Bible Dictionary 1.743-45. (New York: Doubleday, 1992)

[5] Josephus War of the Jews, 1.5.2. The complete works of Josephus. Michigan., 1960.

A New Hope

Calling all the distressed, indebted and discontented souls (1 Sam 22).This is for those of us, who seek, who hear a call we cannot ignore & who walk on paths less travelled. This place is for us. I hope together we can dream, discuss and perhaps walk towards a new kind of church. If you have the gift of holy frustration & have spent long enough ‘tilting at windmills’ or having adventures in missing the point. Then may we recapture the gospel. Can it become ‘good news’ again instead of the ache of what could & should have been?

My next posting will be ‘What is church?’ I hope this space will become a nexus of hope. As followers of Christ may we find each other and explore our faith. I look forward to our discussions.