Sometimes i think the greatest impediment to finding Jesus are people who claim to have ‘found Jesus’. Nietzsche said: “the last Christian died on the cross”, and Mark Twain said: “If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be–a Christian.” I think religion has subverted the Jesus movement, and misinformation about what a Christian is, has poisoned a lot of hearts.
Some questions (please respond):
- Is the idea of church a lost cause?
- Is it inevitable that whenever a group of Christ-followers get together they’re going to sour the freedom that Jesus tried to bring?
- What is the essence of an authentic Christian and what makes him or her any different from those who don’t claim to be Christians?
- Is the church a lost cause–what should it look like/feel like if it were what it’s supposed to be?
Great site! Here are some meandering replies:
1. It depends upon what you mean by the “idea” of church? Some people have idealized versions of this (in the most Platonic way of ‘idea’) that simply do not square up to the reality of the messiness of the church. The church, as the mystical and corporate body of Christ, as it is made up of the real stuff of life. I think it requires a good vision of what the church actually is before one declares whether or not it is a lost cause. It may in fact turn out that some of our ‘ideals’ of the church are better left as lost causes because Christ has something better for us. Another qualifying question (in the vein of Alasdair MacIntyre) could be, “Whose idea of the church?” The Roman Catholics have a different idea of the church than the Eastern Orthodox, and then there are all of us Protestants who have widely-varying ideas of what it means to participate in the City of God. Some Protestants actually pride themselves of having some sort of ironic ecclesiology of no ecclesiology.
2. I do not think this is inevitable. It is however, likely. We are promised that whenever 2 or 3 are gathered in Christ’s name, Christ will be in their midst (Matt 18:20). The “in my name” part is rather important, because 2 or 3 people can also gather to gossip and slander others. What’s more, is that two or three people can also gather in Christ’s name and still conjure up some really bad theology and not be constructive, which is why, I would argue, that we need the whole body of Christ to sharpen one another.
3. Essence? At the very least, love of God and neighbor, embodying the fruit of the spirit and engaging in the works of mercy. These tend to be pretty distinctive. It’s true that many non-Christians embody much of these (perhaps not love of the Triune God), but engage in many of the the other fruit that is synonymous with the Christian life, and I have no hesitancy to work along side them, displaying the love of Christ to the best of my ability.
4. So no, I do not think the Church is a lost cause. I think it is a kind of paradoxical “nomad city” that consists of people defined by the notion of “gift”: creation itself is a gift that is good (Gen 1:31), and we are each a gift from God, living through God by God’s Holy Spirit, and going to God in the eschaton. This life, for starters, as defined by gift is therefore defined not by taking, but by giving — gift exchange; the notion of ‘wealth’ becomes radically subverted when we realize that we each have gifts to offer each other, not masses of ‘money’ which we horde from one another which gives us ‘power.’ As gifts from God and to each other, we also are defined not only by the forgiveness of our sins in Christ, but by forgiving each other (7×70 ) and bearing each other’s burdens. Christian marriages that end in divorce are devoid of patience, forgiveness, and are ultimately lonely. And as Christ’s bride — the church — we are called to forgive others and love others and bear each other’s burdens because Christ did all of this first for us. Any kind of politics must be first defined not by the politics of ‘left’ and ‘right’, but must be ordered by the gift of the cruciform love of the cross.
Nietzsche makes some good points, although he was ultimately haunted by Christ in his own rejection of him, as de Lubac notes. And, although he didn’t have very much of an actual ecclesiology to point to, Kierkegaard’s critiques of Christendom are rather spot-on for us today. The Christian life isn’t easy, but the Church is filled with people who think they have “found Jesus” through their own cheap grace when it is Jesus who found them by the painful obedience of the cross. The better answer to, “When were you saved?” is not “When I was 5 years old at camp,” but rather, “about 2000 years ago.”
Peace,
Eric
Great thoughts, Eric. I think ‘messiness’ is a perfect descriptor. I tend to think the disintegration of church comes when the over emphasis is on the cognitive/informational side–thinking right; or on the behavioral side–being good. While both of these are profoundly relevant the core, i think, is neither informational nor behavioral but rather relational.
Peace to u2
Victor