Roll out the Revolution...

While doing my usual afternoon surf I came across this absolutely fantastic poster. It reads "Dec.25th - Revolution Begins. Celebrate the Birth of a Hero". This campaign is put together by a group called re:jesus (http://rejesus.co.uk/). The focus of their website is to provide churches with postmodern material to help people talk about Jesus in their missional settings (i.e. where they currently work, live and play).

Some of you will remember that back in the October 2005 issue of Precipice Magazine we included a couple of articles which connected the Gospel of the Kingdom with the theme of revolution.

People such as Brian McLaren have argued that perhaps the whole metaphor of "the Kingdom" is a little lost on contemporary westerners. After all, for most people, royalty is a long forgotten institution from a bygone and largely archaic era.

When one searches for an apt theme to use in today's society, perhaps "revolution" comes the closest. After all, what Jesus came to inaugurate and invite his followers into was a complete reversal of the present world order.

Even today, we are still discovering afresh the degree to which Jesus came to turn an upside down world- right-side up. McLaren's upcoming book, "The Secret Message of Jesus" deals with these very issues. McLaren, I think, refers to it as the "secret" message of Jesus because of the very fact that we have so often missed the full implications of the Gospel.

But it should not be secret at all. We should shout if from the rooftops- as they say. I think we too often "tame" Jesus till he is not much more than one of our domestic contemporaries. This is a dangerous road to follow; because of the very fact that his message was and is indeed a revolution. In fact it is THE REVOLUTION.

Despite the ground that has been taken in many ways by the "seeker-sensitive stream" of Evangelicalism, I think many "seekers" are actually longing to hear about something that stands apart from the smooth-sounding advertising slogans that have pummeled a generation or more with "nothingspeak". I think people will actually respond to the call of the revolution- not because it is easy, but because it is hard; not because it is nice- but because it is REAL.




Resurrecting Passionate, Faithful Scholarship

Earlier this week I received an early Christmas present via the friendly folks at Amazon. It was a rather voluminous work by Dr. N.T. (Tom) Wright titled "The Resurrection of the Son of God". So far I am definitely not disappointed. Wright's style is not only thorough and informative, but it's also lively. And that in itself helps it to stand out from the crowd of most "scholarly" works these days.

One of the reasons why I was interested in this particular book (which is the 3rd in a three part series) is because it was particularly impacting for one Anne Rice - of former Vampire fame, who is now a committed Christian and has recently released "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt"- a historical fiction account of a 7 year old Jesus of Nazareth.

Rice has herself spoken and written about the fact that while studying various "scholarly" perspectives on the resurrection, she was surprised to see how often people who were of a, shall we say- skeptical persuasion about the divinity of Christ, would jump to rather bizarre and apparently unwarranted conclusions regarding the historicity of Jesus and the roots of early Christianity.

This is interesting because Rice came to this conclusion while still a skeptic herself- so one cannot claim that there was some "believer's bias" working in her subconscious at the time. Not only did Rice perceive that Wright's scholarship seemed more genuine in its attempt to understand the events as they actually happened in and around Palestine some 2000 years ago, but she also made note of how gracious Wright was in response to his colleagues of a different persuasion. And again, that, to her, made Wright's approach stand apart from the crowd.

One final note about N.T. Wright: The thing that strikes me most about him is that his passion for quality scholarship is matched by his passion for God and the Kingdom. Wright himself has noted that his dual-passion often makes him a little less than welcome in both the Academy and in the Church. That's too bad. But I think that the deeply rooted false dichotomy that lies behind this trepidation is beginning to dissolve. None to soon in my book.

After all, if we believe that God is who He has revealed Himself to be, then we having nothing to fear from studying history. After all, as C.S. Lewis so aptly put it, it is not the Christian, but rather the atheist who "must be very careful of what he reads".




Beyond Liberal and Conservative Tags

While there many aspects of the Emerging Church conversation that I find very helpful, one that is not so helpful is the tagging of Emergents as "liberals". And I'm not talking about the tagging being done by people outside the movement, but by people within the conversation.

On several occasions of late I've come across websites saying such things as "Jesus is/was a liberal". Whether this bumper-sticker mentality is a reaction to the extreme right wing domestication of the Gospel or not is beside the point. I don't think this alignment with the opposite wing is any more helpful.

What we need to do is get beyond this one-dimensional conservative/liberal tagging altogether. The way I see it, Jesus was a political force that confounds our contemporary understanding of both of these terms. Because the Gospel of the Kingdom is, as C.S. Lewis put it, an "upside-down message" to the ears of "this World", it should be no surprise that Christian convictions do, at times, frustrate both the contemporary "Left" and "Right".

I say this because at any given moment, on any number of issues, our Kingdom-informed perspectives could and dare I say- should- lead us to convictions that fall on either side of the slightly false "liberal" and "conservative" socio-political chasm that our Western (and more specifically American) society has imposed upon us.




Ignorance and Religiosity

In regards to the emergence of the Emerging Church movement one of the things I find most interesting is how few "lukewarmers" there are out there. Most responses to the "conversation" seem to be either optimistically praiseworthy, or absolutely chasm deep- negative.

Personally, I don't have a problem, nor do I believe any of us should, with people coming down on different ends of the argument. As long as opinions are expressed with genuine Christian charity and some degree of postmodern objectivity (for those who have ears to hear let them hear).

However, far too often I find this charity and semblance of objectivity is almost completely absent from many responses. For instance, recently I came across a site (which shall remain nameless) that had turned its homepage into a series of sensationalistic headlines against many contemporary Christian leaders. And in this case, the cyber-stones were not only being thrown at Emergents like Brian McLaren (though he of course was front and center) but also at rather mainstream figures like Rick Warren- author of the most wide-spread, mainstream Christian book of the last several years. In Warren's case, he was being charged guilty by association. In McLaren's case of course, he was being portrayed as a modern-day anti-Christ.

In the case of McLaren, the sensationalistic headline quoted him as saying that "Christianity is too limiting"- full-stop. The headline was not qualified in any way whatsoever. As such I'm sure a less informed individual might draw the conclusion that McLaren is suggesting that the ways and words of Jesus of Nazareth are "too narrow". Of course, anyone who's read any of McLaren's work knows that such comments are in reference to institutional Christianity- not to the Gospel or to Jesus himself.

To be fair, I will say this though, I do hold out the possibility that the people who frame such headlines really do not understand that distinction I have outlined above. In that case, ignorance is the issue, not lack of charity. But even if ignorance is the issue, I can't help but think that a form of religiosity is the motive behind such blinders being used in such a blanket wrap of all thoughtful dialog and opinion.




Chinese Democracy?

It is so easy for members of a democratic society that has grown out of a decidedly Judeo Christian ethic, to bite the very hand that feeds. While many people still optimistically suggest that it is the innate goodness and fairness of humanity that is leading the world down a path of democracy and human rights, the testament of many nations suggests otherwise.

A country like China is a prime example of what society will produce when separated from an underlying cultural belief in God. This past week has seen two separate disasters demonstrate just how little Chinese democracy exists, and just how little the ruling elite value the lives of individuals.

First there was a cover-up following an explosion that saw highly poisonous Benzene and Nitrobenzene pour into the Songhua River- a major fresh water source for people living in cities along the river. In this incident, Chinese officials, wary of bad publicity in the global village, waited for days before letting people know of the dangers. By then, many people had been drinking the poisonous, cancer-producing water for something like three days or more.

Right on the heels of this incident came a mining disaster (the latest of many in mainland China) that saw multiple casualties. It is estimated that Chinese mines (widely believed to be the most dangerous and unprotected in the world) were responsible for something like 20,000 deaths0 in 2004 alone. Despite concerns raised by Chinese and the global community, the Chinese elite push on with unsafe industry- more interested in pushing the surging Chinese economy forward in the global marketplace.

When one is reminded that many places in the world do not share the West's values for individual human rights, individual dignity, and equal access to justice and opportunity, it should rise up in us a righteous desire to see the Kingdom of God roll like a river across the globe- "to the very corners of the globe".

In our Evangelical emphasis on individual, "fire-insurance" salvation marketing, we often forget that the charge Jesus gave us was to let justice roll like a river- with a more holistic sense of shalom- all over the world. Recent events in China and countless other locations, remind us that we have much work yet to be done.




A Scandal of Violence

A recent report out of the University of British Columbia brings interesting news in terms of the state of violent conflict in the world. What would undoubtedly come as a surprise to many swamped by daily horror via the evening news, the "blogosphere" and elsewhere, the number of armed conflicts in the world actually dropped by 40% in the ten year period from 1992-2002. And in terms of the most horrific wars, those causing 1000 deaths or more, the rate actually dropped by 80%. Again, this would come as a shock to many people.

However, while this report is a welcome one, other reports shed further light on the darkness of the situation. In terms of violence against women, the world is apparently more dangerous than ever.

A wide range of violence befalls women across the globe; everything from infanticide (in countries like China that often discard female babies because they are deemed less valuable in a culture that dictates how many children a family may have), to domestic violence and sex trafficking.

The rates of violence suffered by women as opposed to males are so extreme that some have come to refer to this discrepancy as a "hidden gendercide".

Clearly we have a long way to go in achieving the kind of equality of value that Paul talked about where there is "neither male nor female, nor Jew or gentile, nor slave or free". Again, this is a message of the Kingdom that the world needs to hear.




Bono's Currency of Celebrity

Recently I saw a revealing interview with Bono on 60 Minutes - or some such program. As usual, the two things that Bono was asked, and spoke, most about, were the legacy of U2, and Bono's aid work in Africa.

One of things that caught my attention was Bono's comment that the way he looks at it, he has chosen to use the "currency of his celebrity" to make the world aware, and responsible for- the plight of Africans.

One of Bono's most appealing attributes is his pragmatic approach towards social justice. He openly criticizes what he calls "hippie justice"- which is rich on words and poor on action. Clearly, rather than feel guilt about his band's and his own personal fame and fortune, Bono chooses to use it to help right the wrongs of the world- all under the banner of the Kingdom of God.

I think we can learn much from Bono in this regard. In truth, we as westerners are all rich by the standards of the two-thirds world. And so in many ways we are in the same position as Bono. We don't see it that way. But then we are caught up in the fishbowl of the West.

However, rather than feeling guilty about our situation in the world, we would do much better to take the pragmatic approach that Bono does- and use our influence, no matter how large or small we perceive it- to help turn the tide of global inequalities.

Again, being caught up in the fishbowl, we might be surprised by how much we could really accomplish if we adopted such an approach.




C.S. Lewis: Against a Cinematic Narnia?

Over the last few days it has come to light, via a letter long forgotten, that C.S. Lewis was actually rather adamantly against a small screen (i.e. television) interpretation of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe- and the rest of the Narnia adventures. It's ironic that this letter has come to light only a week or so from the epic of all epics, big screen release of this very Narnian tale.

What is even more ironic (to my mind anyway), is that Lewis specifically mentions his distate for Disney in this very same letter. And of course, it is now the media juggernaut of Disney that is handling the marketing of the film. And all this goes to show that reality really is stranger than fiction.

It should be said however, that Lewis' displeasure of the idea of a live action version of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was mainly based on his sense that a film or televsion version of Aslan would look rediculous. By the cinematic standards of the 1960's that's most certainly true. Anyone who saw how hillarious Aslan appeared in the live action version the BBC put together a couple of decades ago would agree.

Today of course, CGI (Computer Graphic Imaging) has taken special effects to an entirely different level. And with that being said, it may very well be the case that a 2005 cinematic version of Aslan might appear not nearly as "blasphemous" to Lewis. Even so, many of us are still more than a little unsure of how well this story will translate into film. After all, sometimes CGI can make a film worse, not better.




Drucker's Revolution

Recently a man by the name of Peter Drucker passed away. Drucker was in some ways to the world of management what Einstein was to science. Drucker pioneered new ideas about management in the 20th century that are now so wide spread and commonly applied that you'd hardly know they were revolutionary only half a century or so ago.

Those of us with a postmodern sensibility were especially interested in Drucker's perspective on an overarching shift in Western society taking place in the latter part of the 20th century. In 1993, in his book, The Post Capitalist Society, Drucker wrote:

"Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation.... Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself--its worldview; its basic values: its social and political structures; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived.... We are currently living through just such a transformation. It is creating the post-capitalist society.... "

Drucker's approach to leadership was even expressed in the upsurge of the so called "mega-church movement" of the 1990's and on. Apparently Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life has a plaque with a quote from Drucker hanging in his office.

I find it interesting that Drucker's comments about societal shifts didn't express themselves differently in reference to the Church. It seems that the "bigger and better" strategy behind the mega-church movement would come in contrast to Drucker's observations about the tastes of the culture.

But then again, Drucker was a forward thinker; and maybe the sentiment expressed in the above quote will express itself more fully- 10-20 years after the original observation was made.



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