Radical and Missional

This article was circling around about a month ago. One of my students asked me to respond to it.

I totally agree that you can make anything into legalism. As soon as you think you can earn your salvation, something is wrong. “All of our righteousness is like filthy rags.” (Isa. 64:6). 

I also agree that it is wrong to seek the kingdom of God for some kind of fame or YOLO experience. That is not what being radical and missional is about. It’s about enduring hardship and perseverance for the kingdom of God. We shouldn’t think about giving a year of service to work of God but a lifetime. Plus, there is nothing glamorous about serving the least in the world and sharing your faith with the lost. But that is building the kingdom and it’s worth everything.

With that said, I disagree with a lot of his comments. He balances his whole argument one two passages. First, he uses 1 Thess 4:11“aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.” I think we need to think about the context with this scripture is written. Paul was serving the Thessalonians, started a small church, and was forced away from some intense persecution. (Acts 17:1-10). Paul was advising the church to win over their neighbors in this time of great hardship through their quiet, peaceful existence. Paul was setting up a missional strategy for a persecuted church that may be applicable for the Middle Eastern and Chinese church. If Paul was trying to communicate what Bradley was interpreting him to say, Paul would have said, “Run. Get out of Thessalonica. Go start a gated community outside the city.” If Bradley’s interpretation that living a quiet, peaceful lifestyle was meant for all Christians, he would have never felt the need to go preach to Thessalonica in the first place. Paul modeled and preached radical, missional living.

The second argument is that we are only called to love God and love our neighbors (Matt. 22:36-40). But we need to make sure that we don’t interpret the word “love” according to our own cultural values rather than God’s principles. This is the same issue we see when people say Christians are against love when they are against homosexuality. We start defining what love is in our own terms. Jesus said love is giving up your life for your friends (John 15:13). He told his disciple we need to take up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). The life Jesus called us to live is radical and missional. The love Jesus called us to have is radical and missional. It’s not about having a cozy, affluent existence.

We also cannot interpret our neighbors in our own terms. The story of the Good Samaritan shows that our neighbor is the outcast and the suffering. In our global community, there are few that are out of reach of our influence as the affluent Americans. There are few people in the world who we can’t call neighbors. There are 160 million orphans living in extreme poverty today; we can and should do something. We need to care for the least of these as mandated by Christ. Our own cities are broken and following apart; we can and should do something. I think what is unique about cities that for the first time in history more people live in cities than anywhere else. The Church needs to be at the forefront of seeing their renewal. But anyone’s call to serve the poor and marginalized in rural or suburban areas are just as important.

Bradley says that many are leaving the Church because its setting standards to high. I disagree. I think people are leaving the Church because they are receiving a watered down gospel that says its okay to live lives just like everybody else accept you need to go to church on Sundays. The “being good” of the boomer generation still holds the most ground. Back in the middle ages it was the Christians who would run to the city to care for those dying of plague. They lost their lives for it, but the Church grew immensely. The Church seems to be growing the most where people are giving their lives to mission of God.

Even if Bradley is right and more people are leaving the faith because of the supposed “new legalism” I would argue that it is the rich young rulers, the father buriers (Matt 8:21), and those that are unwilling to hate all else are the ones walking away. Jesus turned away more disciples than we like to think about because of the high cost of discipleship. We should not be surprised when people count the cost and walk away as well.

Bradley is also just trading one supposed legalism for another. He is pretty much saying if I am a nice guy and keep my head low, I am okay. That will not earn your way to heaven either. Following Jesus is about faithfulness. If God is calling you to live quietly in the suburbs, be faithful (There a huge needs in the ‘burbs especially since it is receiving a huge influx of the poor).

If you find someone you want to spend a lifetime doing God’s mission with, get married. God can use you married or single. If you want to have kids, have kids and train them to follow Christ. Admittedly, raising kids is time consuming and makes doing other aspects of kingdom work harder, but it can be helpful as well. If you want to not have kids and give as much of your excess time and resources to help orphans, that is also honorable. But it doesn’t mean someone else isn’t following Jesus by having kids and raising them either.

I think the key thing is being faithful. Are you doing what you want to do because it is comfortable, or are you willing to sacrifice for the kingdom of God and follow Jesus?

A thought about Giving

Today I read Deuteronomy 26. I was struck by the ritual the Israelites did while presenting the first fruits of their labor. They would go before the altar and say,

“I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us... My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;  and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you,Lord, have given me.”

And or the third year tithe they would say,

“I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them. I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

I am taken by the ritual. There is something powerful about the declarations that they made. The declaration does brings a centerness on God that a passed bucket or an electronic transfer cannot compare with. Through the declaration the Israelites gave verbal praise to God as redeemer, provider, and creator. It recollects the history of God's goodness. They remembered who he was and why he is deserving of the sacrifice. 

Through declaration, the Israelites recognize that their offering is not really a gift, but it is already owned by God to be packaged to be given to spiritual leaders and the poor. 

Also, the declaration says that our offering cannot make up for a lack of righteousness, but is deeply related to our obedience in other areas as well. 

Lastly, giving is a sign of God's promise that he will care for our needs. 

In offering my tithe to the Lord, I need to learn to do it less out of habit or duty, but more out of praise.

Blogging

I thought about blogging for a long time. It’s funny though because I’m not actually a blog reader. I know people that have blogs and I feel guilty because I feel like I should read them, but I don’t. So here I am blogging. Ironically, if I were you, I probably wouldn’t be reading this. Don’t worry; I won’t make fun of you if you do.

So, why blog? Well, I’ve been thinking that I may need some way to bring together my thoughts. Supposedly, I’m an abstract thinker. When I think, I don’t process things linearly, but rather information will send cues to different parts of my brain than what other people tell me is the logical progression. I’m not sure what they’re talking about, but I just go with it. To me it’s all just thinking. However, thinking the way I do tends to draw conclusions in my head that may not always make any sense (hence the name of my blog). Through blogging I hope to process my thoughts out to gain some conclusions but I bet I’ll just end up with more questions. (You know you've been in InterVarsity too long when you end up writing a purpose statement for your blog.)

So why not journal? Well, I tried journaling ten years ago but I got out of it after around six months. It was a cool, but what killed journaling for me was that when I went back to look at some of my journal entries a year later, I was embarrassed about all the stupid things I was thinking and journaling. You’d think that would make me even less likely to blog, but I’m inclined otherwise (once again, hence the name of my blog). Well, I’m planning on never reading this blog ever again. However, it seems ridiculous to me to write something down for no one to read, therefore I blog. Also, I figure the few followers I may acquire might be able to enlighten me with what they think about the things I'm thinking and that just makes my day.

So, if you’re interested in reading the soulful verbiage of this neophytic wanderer, you are welcome.