The Courier Times – New Castle, IN | Religious perspectives – A pastor reflects with hope on Thanksgiving

 

Saturday, November 22, 2008 Religious perspectives – A pastor reflects with hope on Thanksgiving By REX ESPIRITU First Presbyterian Church Saturday, November 22, 2008 During the months of November into December, there are two scenes I envision at times that give me pause for reflection. One is marked by a frenzied business observable on black Friday after Thanksgiving Day. Another by contrast is more subdued and somber to the eye. In the economic climate of this election year, the latter view draws my heart and mind toward further exploration. These days, I can imagine folks trudging slowly through the commercial marketplace of life in the cold arctic tundra of the North American holiday season. In my mind’s eye, I can see people just going through the motions, trying to get by and make it to the other side of their current financial predicament. If I were able to probe more deeply into the psyche, I can maybe even perceive of myself or a neighbor nearby in the world of our emotional thought life doing the same. In a mystical moment, I turn to look and stare outside the window of the pastor’s study. And I wonder to myself, thinking, you know, this could be a picture of any two of us: a neighbor next door, and me. There we are, just getting by, attempting to make it through the winter of our discontent, hoping the heating and utility bills remain low enough with today’s price of gas. As the freshly fallen snow comes to rest upon the frosty frail ground, I think about what has befallen us in recent days, not only as a country first, but also as a planetary population of humanity. In the ongoing global saga of the human race, it appears we now face especially in the U.S. the consequences of our consumerism, materialism, greed, and neglect of stewardship. In an ever-expanding quest for more to satisfy our insatiable thirst for instant gratification, we can now conceive of ourselves being undesirably and undeniably depleted of resources, burned out in the never-ending pursuit of “happiness” and “the good life” of a sought after American dream at others’ and one another’s expense. In a self-centered, self-serving, increasingly individualized and secularized culture of entitlement, we may search for a quick easy fix where none exists for our rescue no matter what kind of planned bailouts our elected officials and expert economists may devise and attempt to implement. And skeptically, cynically some might suspect these unparalleled propositions could once more be earmarked on their and their cronies’ behalf. While the wearying winds and wintry weather wears on, the opening words of that timeless classic English novel among the writings of Charles Dickens comes to mind from ‘A Tale of Two Cities’: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…” Sometime after Election Day, when fires were burning in southern California, I read of one pastor from the west coast who shared a curious phrase with the rest of the virtual universe. I was intrigued by their short thought provoking statement, promulgating over the internet through their status update comment in the electronic realm of the world wide web portal sites of Facebook and Twitter notifications that “it is a fecund time.” A time in which we are – as a multicultural, multinational, globally interconnected people on earth – at a crossroads, with many burdens to bear and much fruit-bearing yet to be borne, if only, for the time being, in our imagination(s). And yet, something has been a brewing. Change is a coming, and has now already come. In the midst of an unprecedented economic downturn upon our 232 years young democratic republic, accompanied by its intricate effects on the global economy while wars on terror continue, did we really just now, only a moment ago, amidst all the suffering and chaos, witness the increased rising of voting by a generation of citizens, young and old alike, exercising their civic duties anew toward the breakthrough of service in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people with the advent of the first African-American President-elect in the new millennium? This is huge! This is big! This is heavy! In the tsunami’s wave and wake of centuries following a dominant Western culture of enslavement and intercontinental prejudice, it is in a word, monumental. Those among us of different colors who, in this society of wealth and privilege, have personally experienced bigotry in their lifetime are faced with a new reality. In the face of one cross-cultural person of prominence with whom we may now find ourselves identifying as a transforming, presiding influence, we could very well be experiencing a paradigm shift toward a new political and even newer religious landscape. Our lives and life together in this multi-national country of firsts, I sense, has turned a proverbial corner and will now and forever, never be the same again. This is first, in a sense, an undiscovered country. There is yet more to be fully revealed and realized in its larger ramifications for the dawn of a new era in inter-national leadership and human relations. This, I believe, is a God-given opportunity of a new and great adventure for us all to consider and experience together as a people being and becoming transformed by grace. As I heard Dr. Martin E. Marty remark from his theological distillation of Niebuhr last week at a seminar and luncheon in Indianapolis with Senator Richard G. Lugar on the subject of religion and politics, we are as sober-minded leaders in community, together tasked with renewed zeal and fervor to approach the times with “hopeful realism and realistic hope.” And biblically, the apostle Paul’s writing in Scripture informs us that as a people of God, we are called to such a hope that does not disappoint. Especially on the occasion of the first major holiday weekend celebration following a historic presidential election during a uniquely American season of Thanksgiving, I cannot do otherwise, but find myself giving thanks. For such a season as this, I am beginning to believe that we have been raised and blessed to seize the day and make for a fruitful, fruit-bearing time. With stark challenges to tackle, wonderfully awful agendas to aspire toward, and massive obstacles to overcome, we shall indeed, Lord willing, overcome as a nation, indivisible. It starts with the audacious optimism of expressing our profound gratitude for not only what we have and where we are now, but also for what we do not have and where we are not now in a place to be. It is a decision over a contrast of choices in which we can choose to acknowledge and submit to the sovereign Lord of history, or acquiesce and submerge into a sorry state of ungodly affairs, void of purpose or direction. In this day set aside for giving thanks, we are afforded an opportune window of time in which to pledge anew our allegiance for one another’s better future under the Almighty in Whom alone as our currency suggests we would trust, even as the early pilgrims did with their newfound friends on that first Thanksgiving celebration together upon a New England terrain. May we, each and every one of us, find ourselves appreciating where and when we are with this truth in mind: That we are all children of a loving God – our ever-caring provider whose grace is sufficient and whose mercy abounds. In view of this, it is appropriate for us once again to recount our blessings with grateful, thankful hearts. As we continue to wait in the hope of Advent, let us renew our commitment to the Lord, ourselves and neighbor alike in the redeeming and reconciling work of ministry and mission for the common good. As the Word of Scripture imparts comfort, may the Lord bless us and keep us to find favor and peace with one another on earth as it is in heaven. The Rev. Rex Espiritu serves as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New Castle.
Content © 2008 the Courier-Times
Software © 1998-2008 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved

http://thecouriertimes.com/print.asp?ArticleID=229862&SectionID=25&SubSectionID=42

How are Christians to present the gospel in a postmodern world?

I am rereading [and was beginning again to exegete] the article linked in a post I made last January on rex.espiritu.net referring to the thoughts of N.T. Wright. In the course of doing so, one paragraph from another related link seems appropriate to include here. In an article on Christianity Today, James W. Sire provides a brief review of N.T. Wright’s recent book.

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: Why Christianity Makes Sense
by N. T. Wright
HarperSanFrancisco
256 pp.; $22.95

Echoes and Voices from Beyond

N.T. Wright argues that Christianity better comprehends our deepest human longings.

Reviewed by James W. Sire | posted 9/01/2006 12:00AM

…Wright’s emphasis on the present and future of the kingdom of God is a corrective for those who think that the point of Christianity is “to go to heaven when you die.” God, Wright argues, is bent upon putting “the whole creation to rights.” “Earth and heaven were made to overlap with one another,” the author writes, “not fitfully, mysteriously, and partially as they do at the moment, but completely, gloriously, and utterly.” Our task as Christians is to join our lives to that great end.

Following are modified excerpts from Tim Stafford’s interview with N.T. Wright in Christianity Today magazine:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/january/22.38.html

Mere Mission
N.T. Wright talks about how to present the gospel in a postmodern world.
Interview by Tim Stafford | posted 1/05/2007 04:00PM

Your book “Simply Christian” speaks to people outside the faith, in what must be a conscious imitation of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity….

There’s an old evangelical saying, “If he’s not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all.” That was always applied personally and pietistically. I want to say exactly the same thing but apply it to the world. We’re talking about Jesus as the Lord of the world—not the Lord of people’s private spiritual interiority only, but of what they do with their money, with their homes, with the wealth of nations, and with the planet.

You put less emphasis on Jesus’ claims to be God-come-to-earth, and more on his forceful activity, doing what only God can do.

…until we look hard at Jesus, we really haven’t understood who God is.

…within postmodernity, people have tried to pay attention to the narrative without paying attention to the fact that it’s a true story.

This particular story is about the Creator and the real world; it’s not about a God who is only interested in our interior reflections or our spiritual progress, the Gnostic worldview.

The Gnostic conspiracy theory says that orthodoxy hushed up the really exciting thing and promoted this boring sterile thing with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And of course there’s a great lie underneath that. In the second and third centuries, the people being thrown to the lions and burned at the stake and sawed in two were not the ones reading Thomas and Judas and the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary [as recent writings like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code might purport(?)]. They were the ones reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Because the empire is perfectly happy with Gnosticism. Gnosticism poses no threat to the empire. Whereas Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do. It’s the church’s shame that in the last 200 years, the church has muzzled Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and turned them into instruments of a controlling, sterile orthodoxy. But the texts themselves are explosive.

But why has Gnosticism become so attractive just now? What is it about our times?

…In the middle and late second century, … A.D. 135. Jewish people who have clung fiercely to their Scriptures, as the desperate side of hope when everything seems to be going wrong, have lost.

Jewish Gnosticism emerges out of that failure… [of the second Jewish revolt] … So you say, there is no hope in the world, the world is a dark place run by evil, wicked forces who have no fear of God, no sense of spirituality. Therefore, the only thing is to turn inward.

… Gnosticism seems to many people like a place to find something good about oneself in the face of a hostile world.

[Like the second century,] we have neo-paganisms of the Right and the Left. On the Right you’ve got war and money, Mars and Mammon, calling the shots. If you oppose the necessity of going to war, you’re not quite sane. And if you say you’ve just been offered a job at double the salary but you’re going to stay with what you are doing, people will look at you as though you are mad, because the money imperative is just assumed to be all important. It’s not just that they disagree or think you’re stupid, they just cannot understand what you’re talking about.

And the same paganism is on the Left. Obviously sex, the goddess Aphrodite, makes demands. To resist those demands for whatever reason is just assumed to be completely incomprehensible. Somebody falls in love with the wrong person, off they go, and it’s just a shoulder-shrugging thing. Of course you’ve got to do that because this is the imperative, this is what our culture is all about.

How do you see the church’s mission in this context?

For generations the church has been polarized between those who see the main task being the saving of souls for heaven and the nurturing of those souls through the valley of this dark world, on the one hand, and on the other hand those who see the task of improving the lot of human beings and the world, rescuing the poor from their misery.

The longer that I’ve gone on as a New Testament scholar and wrestled with what the early Christians were actually talking about, the more it’s been borne in on me that that distinction is one that we modern Westerners bring to the text rather than finding in the text. Because the great emphasis in the New Testament is that the gospel is not how to escape the world; the gospel is that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Lord of the world. And that his death and Resurrection transform the world, and that transformation can happen to you. You, in turn, can be part of the transforming work. That draws together what we traditionally called evangelism, bringing people to the point where they come to know God in Christ for themselves, with working for God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That has always been at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer, and how we’ve managed for years to say the Lord’s Prayer without realizing that Jesus really meant it is very curious. Our Western culture since the 18th century has made a virtue of separating out religion from real life, or faith from politics.When I lecture about this, people will pop up and say, “Surely Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world.” And the answer is no, what Jesus said in John 18 is, “My kingdom is not from this world.” That’s ek tou kosmoutoutou. It’s quite clear in the text that Jesus’ kingdom doesn’t start with this world. It isn’t a worldly kingdom, but it is for this world. It’s from somewhere else, but it’s for this world.

The key to mission is always worship. You can only be reflecting the love of God into the world if you are worshiping the true God who creates the world out of overflowing self-giving love. The more you look at that God and celebrate that love, the more you have to be reflecting that overflowing self-giving love into the world.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today.

N.T. Wright is a world-renowned New Testament scholar—author of Jesus and the Victory of God, The Resurrection of the Son of God—and bishop of Durham in the Church of England. He is also a keen observer of culture. ct senior writer Tim Stafford caught up with Wright as he drove from meetings at Windsor Castle to his diocese in Durham. They talked about communicating the gospel in a post-Christian society.