Journeys In Between

Justified Without Knowing It

Over lunch the other day I was browsing through "What St Paul Really Said," by N T Wright, when I came across an awesome bit he wrote on the doctrine of Justification:

Galatians 2 offers the first great exposition of justification in Paul. In that chapter, the nub of the issue was the question, who are Christians allowed to sit down and eat with? For Paul, that was the question of whether Jewish Christians were allowed to eat with Gentile Christians. Many Christians, both in the Reformation and in the counter-Reformation traditions, have done themselves and the church a great disservice by treating the doctrine of 'Justification' as central to their debates, and by supposing that it described the system by which people attained salvation. They have turned the doctrine into its opposite. Justification declares that all who believe in Jesus Christ belong at the same table, no matter what their cultural or racial differences (and, let's face it, a good many denominational distinctions, and indeed distinctions within a single denomination, boil down more to culture than doctrine). Because what matters is believing in Jesus, detailed agreement on justification, properly conceived, isn't the thing which should determine eucharistic fellowship. If Christians could only get this right, they would find that not only would they be believing the gospel, they would be practicing it; and that is the best basis for proclaiming it.

There follows from this a vital and liberating point, which I first met in the works of the great Anglican divine Richard Hooker, an for which I shall always be grateful. One is not justified by faith in justification by faith. One is justified by faith by believing in Jesus. It follows quite clearly that a great many people are justified by faith who don't know they are justified by faith. The Galatian Christians were in fact justified by faith, though they didn't realize it and thought they had to be circumcised as well. As Hooker said, many pre-Reformation folk were in fact justified by faith, because they believed in Jesus, even though, not knowing about or believing in justification by faith, they lacked assurance, and then sought to fill this vacuum in other ways. Many Christians today may not be very clear about the niceties of doctrine; but, however inarticulately, they hold on to Jesus; and, according to Paul's teaching, they are therefore justified by faith. They are constituted as members of the family. They must be treated as such. This is not to say, of course, that justification is an unimportant or inessential doctrine. Far from it. A church that does not grasp it and teach it is heading for trouble. It is to say that the doctrine of justification itself points away from itself. Believing in Jesus - believing that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised him from the dead - is what counts.

I had one of those moments of recognition, which happen so wonderfully frequently with this guy, in which I found him articulating my own thought trails far more profoundly and succinctly than I ever could.

Not sure if it has the same impact on you, but I'd be interested in your response.

Missional Prayer

How should people pray for missional type folk? Every now and then I get some charismatically inclined person asking me whether I have sufficient "prayer cover" to keep me safe from all the demonic attacks I must be subject to, mixing with the unsavory types that I do (that is, you). The truth is, I am not even sure I want that sort of prayer, given the underlying xenophobia it often springs from, but that doesn't mean I don't want people praying for me. Not at all. So I've been thinking about missional prayer over the last few days and came across a request from Paul in Colossians 4:2-6 which I think ain't a bad guide:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

How's that sound?  How would you pray for people engaged in mission?

Postscript: I have learned that prayers are needed for Andii over at Nouslife, and for his family, and particularly for one of the children. There's one way how we should pray.

Christianity and Science: Damned Either Way?

In “Humble Apologetics”, John Stackhouse highlights some curious inconsistencies with how Christianity is viewed in popular consciousness:

Another sort of widespread belief regarding other religions is particularly ironic in the light of the supposed opposition of science and Christianity. Those of our neighbours who are in fact disaffected with science, technology and modern life in general – and their numbers are growing – often include Christianity in that contemptible package. Western civilization, so the story goes … has brought us sexism, racism, environmental degradation, imperialism, and a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Christianity has enabled these disasters with its domineering God, its licence to exploit nature, its privileging of males, its motifs of God’s chosen people rising above all other nations. Because Christianity has been part of this destructive complex, it should be set aside in favour of religions that have kinder gods, or none; religions that cooperate with nature, or at least ignore it; religions that make no gender distinction, or perhaps even privilege women; and religions that no longer elevate one nation over another. Thus Christianity is not condemned as the enemy of “good” modernity but is implicated as a conspirator in “bad” modernity.

I am indebted to Stackhouse for pointing this out, because in the past I had this happen to me on a number of occasions without realizing what was going on. The typical scenario: person with grip against Christianity starts castigating it for its Dark Age mentality and opposition towards science … but by the end of the conversation is castigating it as responsible for all the evils of science. The shift is sometimes hard to pick when you’re in the middle of such conversations, but lay it out like this and self contradiction becomes absurdly apparent. Ever experienced this yourself?

BBQ Jesus

The Sydney Morning Herald launched a photo gallery themed around the "Great Aussie BBQ" yesterday, in honour of Australia Day, and it just happened to feature another Mambo Jesus image which I reproduce here for world wide consumption.

Could this be a veiled reference to Hamo, the backyard missionary?

Is Jesus socially relevant?

Is Christ a model for Christians in the public sphere - for radical political action when it comes to issues like war, and for radical economic action when it comes to issues like exploitation - or is his relevance for Christians limited to the private sphere?

Is it legitimate to for Christians to distinguish between family ethics and business ethics, or do such qualifications undermine our claim that Jesus is Lord of all? Should we only speak of ethics, without qualification?

Should the relevance of Jesus for the personal and political aspects of our lives be clearly distinguished? Or is this split between the social and spiritual relevance of Jesus in the minds of many contemporary Christians the greatest false dichotomy of all?

Christianity in Australia

Questions of Identity

What does it mean to be a Christian who’s Australian? What does it mean to be an Australian who’s a Christian? These are questions I thought would be interesting to explore today on Australia Day.

I find Australian Christian identity a challenging topic to write about, not only because Christianity is in massive transition in Australia and across the globe, but also because Australian culture is in massive transition as well. With the impact of globalization and immigration it's harder than ever to define what being an Aussie actually means. And, well, what it means to be a Christian is more debated now than it has been in centuries.

So I don’t have all the answers here, not by a long shot, but I think I have a go. If only to help me clarify my own questions.

Learning to hear our accent

For starters, I have found however that it’s easier to grasp what it means to be a Christian in Australia when I am hanging around people who are not Australian and not Christian. Engaging with Hindus, Wiccans, Buddhists and do-it-yourself Spirituality seekers in Australia on the one hand, and with American, British, Canadian and South African Christians on the net on the other. I become more conscious of my 'accent' when I'm not at home.

So what is our accent? What's the shape of it? I found Gary Bouma had some interesting things to say on this in "Australian Soul":

...Australians do religion differently with much less use of neon lights and much less explicit public spirituality. But that does not mean religion and spirituality is not present; they are just different (Bouma, 2006, 33)

...Australian norms and expectations associated with the dimensions of patterned relations with the transcendent, religious; and spiritual include:

intensity: a strong tendency towards the subdued, laid back
expressivity: a strong tendency towards the shy, withdrawn and not exuberant
frequency: a strong tendency towards infrequent or occasional attendance
periodicity: annual/biannual participation is more acceptable than weekly
cyclicity: a tendency for participation to occur early and late in the life cycle
consistency: a low level of consistency between belief and practice is accepted
singularity: persons are expected to identify with one religion
proximity: the transcendent is expected to be distant, localised and diffuse
efficacy: the transcendent is subject to influence, trustworthy and effective
access: the transcendent is to be access directly and through professionals
social location: religious groups are expected to be on the margin, not central (Bouma, 2006, 35)

Some hints that emerge

I find this summation matches my own experience in many respects, and therefore, somewhat suggestive of a number of things:

• Firstly, that hard core Christianity is somewhat at odds with average Australia, particularly where expectations of high commitment and high participation are concerned (however, Bouma goes on to note that lower commitment groups have lower retention rates so catering for low commitment is not necessarily the way to go)
  

• Secondly, that hard core Christianity, Australian style, will still look laid back, shy and overly comfortable with being marginal from an American perspective (it should be no surprise, considering this, that the gap between established church and emerging church is much narrower in Australia)

• Thirdly, that some of these characteristics are not necessarily a bad thing. I've never found highly strung Christianity to be particularly Christ like (but then, as an Aussie, I would say that wouldn't I!)

But what I find most intriguing about this though is what it suggests about our understanding of God. Is our understanding of God distant in comparison to other cultures? And could our distance from the world scene and our own environment figure in here somewhere too? More to explore!

As I said I just have many questions. Hopefully this will stimulate a few more for you!

Australia Day Synchroblog   

This post is part of the Christianity In Australia synchroblog which a number of Australian Christians are participating in to celebrate Australia Day. For more on Christianity in Australia see:

• Andrew Hamilton at Backyard Missionary
• Ben Thurley at Ben's Blog
• Rodney Olsen at RodneyOlsen.net
• Geoff Pengilly at The Healing Project
  
• Andy Porteous at Not Yet Finished
• Paul Robotham at A Christian's Blog
• Chris Summerfield at A Churchless Faith
• Christina Aitken at Sojourn
• Heather at A Deconstructed Christian
• Geoff Matheson at Amateur Theology
• Deborah Taggart at The Bright Side
• Rob Hanks at Pump House

Australian Emerging Women Leaders

I received a request from Julie Clawson today that is very appropriate for Australia Day:

Hi -
Over at the Emerging Women blog we are starting a new series which will highlight the stories of women leaders in the church.  The purpose of this is to raise awareness of how women are serving God and to encourage women who often feel like they can't find female role models to learn from.  We are seeking to interview women involved various leadership positions in the church who are also connected (in ways however large or small) to the emerging church conversation.  We have a great group of women to feature so far, but at the moment they are all American.  I would love to feature the voices of women from around the world and was wondering if you could possibly help out with that.  If you know of emergingish women leaders in Australia it would be a huge help if you could let us know about them. 

Thanks!
Julie Clawson

Is this of interest to some of you? I think it would be fantastic for some of the Aussie women who drop in here to get in touch with Julie and join in. Email her at julieclawson (at) gmail (dot) com if you're interested in Australian women having a voice in the conversation. And let me know if you do as I'd like to link whatever you write here too!

Holy War and Christianity

How do we reconcile the Old Testament and New Testament on issues such as war and violence? I recently left some comments on John Smulo's blog in response to such questions and I thought I would reproduce it here as this is a very important issue for me personally.

Best book I ever read on this [Jesus and pacifism topic] was The Politics of Jesus.

And proper answer to this question does take a book.

To summarize it a little though, this is not a question Old Testament folk would have asked and it actually creates a kind of false dichotomy between the two testaments. What would have struck them about their history is that "God fights for us"! Dancing round the walls of Jericho would hardly be accepted as a responsible military strategy by neocons in the Pentagon. It is startling just how much the ancient Hebrews relied on God's strength and not their own in their wars. In fact, fighting in strength was sometimes taken as a sign of unfaithfulness.

So where does the New Testament fit in? The cross is the climax of this history of "God fighting for us", the taking this truth to it ultimate conclusion. Through the cross God dethroned the ultimate weapon of militaristic governments - the power to take life - and reveals the true power that governs this universe. The Kingdom of God will not come through the sword; if we see the Kingdom as our first priority the sword becomes useless.

So what are your thoughts? Both on war generally and the Bible specifically?

Arming in the Aftermath

Grace and guns, do they go together? Nausea came over me this evening as I read in Christianity Today that some American megachurches are thinking about arming up to provide additional security against crazies and to secure their cash. One hell of an argument for downsizing church if you ask me. What sort of gospel message does this send out?

Islamic Jesus to make TV debut

Muslim apologetics has hit the silver screen. Christian Today reports: 

An Iranian director says the movie he has produced on Jesus according to Islam is the Muslim answer to Western productions such as Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ".

While Nader Talebzadeh praised Gibson's "Passion" as admirable he added, however, that it was quite simply "wrong".

When I first came across this I though, hmmm, this could create some interesting openings for conversation between Christians and Muslims, if handled sensitively. And it seems that is one of the intents of the director, for he states:

"By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity," he said.

However, the more cynical side of me says, that's a big if. There are some on both side who seek dialogue, but aren't always the ones in the media spotlight now are they! Still, that doesn't mean people like us can't make the most of an opportunity.

One of the questions the film obviously raises is, can both views of Jesus be correct? I suspect affirming that will be a stretch for even the most hard core relativist, which then raises the question, well which one is more correct and how can you tell?