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The reformation we need Amos 5: 18 – 24 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 28 Dec, 2008 JOHN SHELBY SPONG is a famous retired Episcopalian bishop, and a stirrer. He famously wrote a book, called, A new Christianity for a New World. He calls for a new Reformation. But what does he want? He denies that belief in God is meaningful. He denies the virgin birth and the resurrection. He says that prayer has no meaning. He says that Churches use fear of hell to control people’s behaviour. He denies the Fall, he denies miracles, he denies the sacrifice of the cross. That’s just a start. Still, I agree with him in some things. I agree that we must reinvent the church. I am convinced that things have to change. And I agree with him, that we communicate our basic beliefs abysmally badly. Who listens when we speak? I usually preach a fairly straightforward Biblical sermon, but I want to talk this morning about where we need to change. 20 years ago in The Australian Baptist Magazine, I said we need to reinvent the church. I used an article by the theologian, Thorwald Lorenzen, and an interview with the Baptist Pastor from Leichhardt, together with my own ideas. I got a lot of flak. People didn’t want change. They said that we have it all right already, and we don’t need to change anything. I’ve recently said in Baptist and in Pentecostal groups that we need to change, that how we present our Christianity must change. So what program do I envisage? You and I together are guineapigs in an experiment. If it works, we will be pioneers; if it doesn’t, we will still have been groping towards answers, which is better than doing nothing. So let’s look at what I think we should be like, in terms of our beliefs, our attitudes and our activities. I want this to be a starting point.
Beliefs for a new millennium Above all, in our beliefs, we must be Christ Centred, Charismatic, and Catholic. Paul wrote to the Romans, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. There is no theology exam. to get into heaven. We do not turn up at the Pearly Gates at five to nine, ready to write. Is Jesus Lord? Is he alive from the dead? That’s it! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, Again, For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Why do Evangelical Christians argue about the respective places of Jesus and the Bible? Some say that Jesus is primary, some say the Bible takes first place, because that is where we find out about Jesus. That is nonsense. Yes: the Bible is where we find out about Jesus. Actually, it is the first place where we find out about Jesus. Jesus is the aim of it all. Without him, the Bible is empty, mere pious legends. And, of course, we find out about Jesus from many other sources as well. He is alive! We meet him in each other! We meet him as we walk throught life with him beside us. If we don’t know him through our own experiences, we do not have saving faith. If we do not learn about him through the testimony of others, we are in a dead church. The Bible is the defining guidebook, but Jesus is absolutely central. As he himself said, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. To know God, we need to see Jesus. Sometimes I travel in places I don’t know, I take a map or directory with me. But I also need detail. I need to see town names and individual street signs. If those signs are vandalised and unreliable, my directory still keeps me on track. But, without signs, I wouldn’t know if I had driven too far, or still had a way to go. The Bible is my Jesus directory; my experience is what I have gained in my travels already; the testimony of my brothers and sisters are signposts along the way. I need them all. So keep Jesus above doctrinal quibbles! I enjoy and value doctrine. I have that kind of mind. I know that good doctrine will keep us from bad decisions. But I reject the appeals of those who would make us place doctrines above relationship with Christ and with each other. Put Jesus first! Next, I want to emphasise that we must not only be Christ–centred, but we must also be Charismatic. I don’t mean that I want you all speaking in tongues or falling down at the front of the church. I am comfortable with people speaking in tongues, but please get personal indemnity insurance if you want to start falling over in the church. And I don’t mean that we should sing nothing but Hillsong hymns. I mean that we must be empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit! said Paul. ...the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. That’s what Jesus taught. And the Corinthians knew very well that 1COR 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. A Charismatic church is one which allows the Holy Spirit to equip and empower it for every good work to which it has been called. Third, we must be Catholic. I don’t mean we have to follow the Pope in everything. I am not getting a bullet-proof Pastormobile made. I am not going to start wearing red shoes -- click the heels together, and suddenly you are in Kansas. I mean we have to be inclusive. We have to hold to those basic beliefs which we share with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. There has been too much squabbling in the family. This is the whole problem with fundamentalism. It isn’t content with a right relationship with Jesus through faith, and an openness to the Spirit’s guidance. It has to revisit the fundamental doctrines and re–emphasise them. All anyone needed to do was say, “We hold to the historic Christian faith: to the deity of Jesus, to the authority of the Bible, to the virgin birth, to the atoning death and the bodily resurrection, to the coming judgment... there isn’t a lot. Those things and a couple more. We believe them. Let’s hang onto them, but let’s not get so focused on them that we disfellowship each other over whether the Bible’s inspiration is verbal or dynamic. How many of us even know what those terms mean? If you acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour, if you believe that God has raised him from the dead, and if you seek to follow him, you are my brother, my sister, my family. When I talk about revival, that is the kind of church I dream of: one where Jesus is at the centre, where we are a close-knit community in the Holy Spirit, and one where we have warm and loving fellowship with our fellow believers wherever we find them. These are not new ideas, but they are ideas which are not practised nearly enough!
21st Century attitudes We are facing some of the greatest crises in world history. There are very few people who deny we have an environmental crisis on our hands.The science of global warming is overwhelming, despite the deniers. And, even if it is mainly natural warming, how can we possibly continue pumping more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which can only make any natural trends even worse? We have the greatest financial instability for 70 years. It may not lead to a depression, but we don’t know where it will end. One thing is certain, though: the poor will be hit hardest. When you are on $20 000 000 a year — and some executives are — those offers to take $1 in salary next year are laughable. The interest on your bank account would keep a Sudanese family alive for half a decade and you would still have enough to live on quite comfortably. In the Pacific, they expect global warming to cause seas to rise even further, less land to be available for farming, more people to starve. What developed country will send them aid? The world is awash with refugees. We panic if twenty Iraqis arrive in a leaky tub. In parts of Europe there’s an Albanian gypsy woman on every corner, with a drugged child on her lap, begging for coins. Refugees cross the land borders between countries in a way the world hasn’t seen since the Völkerwanderungen of the 5th Century, only the numbers are thousands of times greater. Terrorism is on the increase, and countries are imposing horrifying measures to control it. Only this week, a man had his camera taken by police because he was filming them conducting an operation on the street. How many times has justice been done because someone had a camera and filmed police brutality? Men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds are evil, as we read in John’s gospel. It has been said that it is almost a distinctive of Baptists that we are evangelistic. And we should preach the gospel in season and out of season. But, if we are not first concerned about justice and righteousness, we will preach a false gospel, because a gospel that is not concerned with putting things right is no gospel at all. When Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, he told them to preach that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and to heal the sick and cast out demons. One part of their ministry was evangelistic; the other two were to do with meeting the material and emotional and spiritual needs of the people they went to. When fundamentalism began to take over among evangelicals, our social edge was blunted. People were too worried about keeping away from error to risk standing up for righteousness. People were too focused on purity of doctrine to think about justice. Amos tells us how things must be: AMOS 5:23 Away with the noise of your songs! Any church which does not have a passion for justice and righteousness does not have a passion for God, because God is a God of justice and righteousness. He says our religion stinks unless we are doing those things first and foremost. I was reading about the Wayside Chapel yesterday. They have a new pastor. Over the past few years, the budget has risen from $300 000 to several million, and people support them. The reason is that they are committed to the welfare of the people they serve, and people see that, and are drawn to it. We are surrounded by people who will go under soon without a supportive community. The Kingdom of Heaven is like mustard seed which grows up into a large shrub. We are part of that plant: we are branches in God’s planting; but we also exist to provide shelter in our branches for the birds of the air. When people discover that we really care, they will be part of us. In the middle ages, the monasteries took in the poor, the sick, the old. They provided for travellers, and asked for no payment. Most of those they supported were a drain on the monastic resources, but they did it to show God’s love. Do we show God’s love regardless of the cost to ourselves? What does the Lord your God require of you, but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) We are a good church. In the past fortnight, two people have told me that they find us warm and welcoming. Even so, I notice little them–and–us divisions among us which should not happen. Justice demands that we ensure that never occurs!
21st Century action The final thing I want to talk about is how we should act in the world we live in. We read of the early Christians, ACTS 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. They did a few things:
Francis Schaeffer taught that these were the basics of being a church: the basic form, and we are free to do just about anything else. The important point is that this is a revived church. It is a church community centred on Jesus their Lord. He is central, his Spirit pours down from him as head, and anoints every one of them. They spend time ensuring that that blessing continues, and, as we read in the same passage, signs and wonders follow. A church built into a community is a church which God blesses. It is a church with restored fruitfulness. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. (2Chr 7:14) People who turn back to their God and let him bless them will discover that fruitfulness returns, because the land is healed. And that fruitfulness will be seen both in our proclamation of the kingdom of God in Jesus our Lord, and in the mighty deeds we do to bring about goodness in our world. We used to be pew-sitting copies of the Anglicans, and then we followed the Pentecostal model. The more I see of it, the more I believe that the mega church is the wrong model and the family gathered in a home is the right one. We need to move towards being little cells of believers, scattered across the land, doing justice, preaching Christ, and being disciples.
Summary There is so much more that can be said. But let’s determine to break free from the old patterns wherever they try to dominate us. Let’s fully turn our eyes upon Jesus, and expect that, under his Lordship, we can be filled to overflowing with his Spirit. Let’s be open and inclusive. Let’s be inventive. Bring a Psalm, a hymn, a spiritual song, and share it with the community. And, above all, let’s listen to the voice of Jesus who says, I am making all things new! AMEN |
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© Peter R. Green 2008. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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