So you want to know what the emerging
church is? This is the place to start...
For a downloadable PDF file of this
piece, click here.
Ever since the birth, ministry, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, faithful people have been wrestling
with the question of what Good News Jesus brought to the world and
how we might talk about it. Although Jesus spoke quite clearly and
demonstrated God’s love in undeniable ways, the nuances and
core of this revelation has been discussed and debated among Christians
and non-Christians alike, with many asserting that they have the
best answer. Although we may not be able to fully grasp the Good
News in its entirety, it is absolutely necessary that we talk about
the nature of the Gospel, our context today, and the need for the
Good News in that context. Living in an age of post-modernism and
post-Christendom, we must be honest about the dynamic aspects of
the Gospel, but also faithful to the loving and living God that
invites us into relationship with the Divine and the whole human
community.
How one begins their exploration of the Gospel has important implications
about how the Good News is defined and its impact perceived. Walter
Bouman says, “The starting point for how one gives an account
of Christianity is of critical importance for [providing a systematic
theology]. The starting point determines two things: (1) how a particular
account of Christianity is organized; and (2) where one makes one’s
foundational apologetic case for Christianity” (20). In an
attempt to organize my own thoughts about the Good News of God,
I personally tend to begin where Douglas John Hall begins, with
the suffering of humanity and God’s entry into that suffering.
However, I recognize that I tend to approach the Gospel in this
manner because of my own experiences and my tendencies in ministry.
I have experienced and witnessed a lot of suffering in my life and
have spent a lot of time wrestling with the question of where God
is in the midst of it. My approach to the Gospel tends to reflect
this personal spiritual journey as I share with others this struggle
to find Good News in the midst of a broken world. However, I also
acknowledge the fact that my experiences and gifts have led me to
often try to “fix” things, and that more often than
I should, I approach ministry with this mentality. Thus, it is natural
for me to embrace a theological system that seeks to identify the
brokenness in people’s lives and speak to them Good News that
will bring hope and assurance in the midst of their suffering and
sin. While this starting place and approach are very often helpful,
Bouman’s explanation of the importance of one’s starting
place reminds me that it is only one starting place and that there
are other good approaches that speak to the different questions
and dynamics of the Gospel.
Rather than choosing to follow one of the countless systematic theologians
who have advocated one starting place or another for a theology
of the Gospel, or blazing our own path, the Gospel might best be
served by adopting the combined wealth of these approaches. I am
not suggesting that we arbitrarily start anywhere, that we proceed
in a non-systematic manner, or that we blend starting places and
create a melting pot of systems. Rather, I propose that we begin
in different places at different times depending on the immediate
context and apologetic task. If Bouman is correct that the starting
point determines where one makes one’s apologetic case for
Christianity, we must be willing to vary our starting point depending
on the apologetic task at hand. The reality is that different people
are in different places in their lives at different times. While
I would tend to approach the Gospel by starting with suffering,
this may not be the best starting place for every other person where
they are. In fact, it is probably not even the best starting place
for me at all time because it focuses on the suffering in my life
and I am not always suffering. At times, the Good News might be
most helpful and actually Good for me by beginning with God’s
creative action. I think we could all agree that in a newspaper,
the definition of good news changes depending on the context and
who is reading it. Likewise, the Gospel is Good News because it
begins and ends where one is in their lives, speaking to the root
of his or her experience in that time and place.
I have talked a lot about the importance of “local”
contexts (the places in which individuals find themselves in their
lives), but it is also important to acknowledge the wider context
that shapes the human community. Because even the world context
is different from place to place, I shall focus primarily on the
North American context. The reality is that we live in a post-Christendom,
post-modern age. Christianity is no longer the norm of human practice
and spirituality, and fewer people are familiar with the stories,
traditions, and teachings that shape Christian living. It is in
this age more than any other since the earliest centuries after
Christ that the church is in need of the apologetic task. Although
we live in a post-modern world with a post-modern mentality, many
people (including Bouman) advocate a modern approach to this task.
Even those outside the church expect a modern solution and explanation
to the existence and relevance of God, even though they receive
the Christian apology with a post-modern mentality (Conder 129).
Along with other post-modern trends, such as the emphasis on community,
this post-modern mentality involves a broader understanding of truth
and a general skepticism that refuses to grant automatic authority
to sources such as scripture and tradition. Thus, as we preach and
teach the Gospel in our context today, we must be willing to admit
that we cannot pin down God or even the Gospel. As a theologian
of the cross would argue, as soon as we believe we have the answer,
we have completely missed it. There is no “correct”
starting point, nor is there any one system that can fully encapsulate
the living God, just as there is no single symbol or metaphor that
fully depicts the Divine. The fact is that God is beyond our full
knowing, and we can only talk about God in ways that acknowledge
the limitation of our words and our reason. Although this might
be disparaging, there is Good News in the knowledge that God is
beyond our understanding, and there is wonder to the mystery of
God, which is embraced and welcomed in a post-modern worldview (Rollins
18-19). Nonetheless, we are called by God to the task of theology
and proclamation of the Gospel with a variety of approaches, not
so that we can explain the answer, but so that through conversation
and relationship we might live in the questions.
Having addressed the context and need for multiple starting points,
we have come to the point of conversation about what the Gospel
is. Throughout the paper thus far, I have used “Gospel”
and “Good News” rather interchangeably because I consider
them to be much the same, though my use of each term has been intentional
in each place because, like the two sides of a single coin, they
each have slightly different definition but are the same thing.
The Good News is that there is a living and loving God that is with
us. It might be argued that this means my starting place is with
an incarnational theology, and perhaps that is true in this instance,
because of the fact that I am probably still a modern thinker trying
to live and converse in an increasingly post-modern world. My use
of the term “living” to describe God is intentional.
Rather than being the object of our speculation and theology, the
object of our wants and needs, God is a subject with whom we are
in relationship (Rollins 23). God is not defined by us, but has
self-definition. Although we often like to think that we know what
God is like, God continues to demonstrate that the Divine identity
far surpasses our expectations. Because our desires are often focused
on what we think will fill our emptiness and heal our brokenness,
it is truly Good News that God far exceeds what we would to believe
God to be. This living nature of the Divine is often expressed through
our discussion of the Trinity (whether or not we use that word).
We understand God to have an internal, immanent relationality that
is intertwined with an economic relationship with humanity.
This Divine economic identity is the Gospel revealed to humanity
in relationship. All of creation has meaning and purpose to its
life because it is given by God. There is joy in the knowledge and
experience that all that God has created is good. It is tempting
to focus on the suffering and sin in the world (especially for Lutherans),
but we cannot ignore the liberating experience the grace of God’s
creating work, and share in the joy of abundant life. Humanity is
invited to participate in this creation as co-creators. Adopted
into the family of God, our lives are given meaning and purpose
beyond what that would have if it were up to us. We are justified
not by our own works, but by the sheer grace of the God who created
us and loves us. Nonetheless, we do live in a fallen and broken
world where sin and suffering are prevalent. Rather than being distant
from this world, God loved the world so much that God entered into
it with the fullness of humanity. Through Jesus, the Divine love
for humanity was revealed through life and death. God entered our
world in human form to live among us, revealing God’s profound
love for humanity and out of that love, teaching us a new way of
life. Furthermore, through the life and death of Jesus, we witness
that God’s love is so great that there is nothing we have
experienced or ever will experience that God does not fully understand
and willingly share. However, God’s love is not simply solidarity
with the suffering (and joy) of humanity. There is resurrection
after death. Even death is transformed into life. Once again, we
see that God is not cannot be bound by our expectations and our
understanding. We would have God remove death, but instead God transforms
it into new life. God is a God of transformation. From the beginning
of time when God creates order out of chaos, through the inauguration
of a new age when God transforms death into life through Jesus,
into that new age when the Holy Spirit moves in and among humanity
transforming sinners into saints. Even in our time and place, God
continues to create and recreate in us and through us. We are made
new each day and every hour. Through the Spirit, we are called not
just into relationship with God, but into relationship with one
another. Commanded to love one another as we love God, this horizontal
relationship with each other is created in the image of our vertical
relationship with God so that all might know the Good News of the
live-giving and life-transforming power and love of the living God.
We preach the Gospel because God is love and life, and our recognizing
that presence in our lives is essential to our fully living. We
proclaim the Good News because the world needs to hear it. We think
that we do not need God, that we can make it on our own, but the
reality is that we cannot. God’s love and presence that transcends
our understanding and expectation is liberating and life-giving.
This Good News needs to be shared with the world because we think
we know what it is, but too often have missed it completely. Because
we cannot do it alone, we are called not as individuals, but as
a community and as a body, to share this Good News. As the church
proclaims the Gospel through word and action, that community and
those individuals become the means by which God is present and saves
the beloved adopted children. In the proclamation of the Gospel,
we bear God to one another. As the Good News is spread throughout
the world, hope (no matter where we are in life) springs forth.
We are not alone. God is with us, living and ever-loving.
Works Cited
Bouman, Walter R. “Models of Systematic Theology.”
Lutheran Theological Journal Vol. 37 (May 2004): 19-26.
Conder, Tim. The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing
Churches Into the Emerging Culture. Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
2006.
Hall, Douglas John. The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the
Suffering World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
Rollins, Peter. How (Not) to Speak of God. Brewster: Paraclete
Press, 2006.
|
