Saturday, October 29, 2016

Sacred and Secular


Sacred and Secular
The Christian faith has penetrated to the core of human culture in the West through the revelation of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  In the deliberate, gradual movement of the Gospel, God unveils the sacred violent lie of culture, exposing each culture to the light of the Gospel.  As Jesus teaches, this revelation has Apocalyptic consequences for every culture exposed to it.  The West is religious because culture cannot exist without it.  By religion, I do not mean the traditional belief in God, judgment and immortality, but the myths, rituals, and prohibitions which unite a people, provide a unique identity, and a offer a heroic means of transcending death.

Our culture may be called "secular" because we we struggle to maintain our Western myths, rituals, and values in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, global world which is being exposed to the light of the Gospel.  Evangelicals decry the loss of faith and write books to convince others of the truth.  I rarely meet an atheist, but I meet vast numbers of practical atheists, who can tell the whole story of their lives without God.  What I mostly meet is people who have their own unique private spirituality.  This is a consequence of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

After listening to a recent interview from a prominent American pastor on the current state of the American church, I wondered, if Jesus came to America today would he be opposed, tried, and executed?  It makes one wonder whether we have been so accommodating to culture that he would be simply ignored.  I recommend reading the Dostoevsky's story, "The Grand Inquisitor on the Nature of Man" within the book, The Brothers Karamazov.

It is difficult for us to see because it is the air we breath as Americans.  Let's look at it from the perspective of Islamic terrorism.  When the US was attacked on 9/11, it was calculated by those who planned this as a deliberate attack on the "Crusader" religion of the West which promotes freedom, independence, material well-being, sexual freedom, and exploits the countries of the world, especially Islam's oil.

Americans saw this attack as an attack on our freedom, lifestyle, & way of life.  America believed in her innocence and quickly drew together in our common values which were attacked.  We saw flags raised, pledges recited, people overcame their differences (especially in government) to rally against a common enemy, we began singing the patriotic songs, initiating "God Bless America" as a part of our baseball games.  Imagine what the level of outrage would have been if athletes refused to stand in honor of the country following this event.

We enlisted hundreds of thousand of young men and women to become the sacrificial bearers of culture by giving their lives in the fight against this national affront. As a result, we sacrificed the lives of thousands of Americans and many western allies.  And, what is often forgotten, we killed hundreds of thousands in retribution through war and disease.  Now we are faced with an endless war in the Middle East that has drawn in Russia and Iran and Africa, with no resolution in sight.

We erected a temple to the dead at Ground Zero which is a constant reminder that our way of life must be preserved in memory of the dead.  It is place of solemn assembly where Americans go to remember that day and remember the sacred obligation it imposes on us.

One might disagree that this constitutes religion.  Yes, this is precisely what the Gospel does, it exposes the myths of culture and the idea that God is on our side.  It is because of the Gospel that we can see right through Islamic terrorism.  Because of Jesus, we can no longer start the engine of religion again and our attempts have apocalyptic consequences for the world.

The Gospel of Division

The Gospel of division.  In Matthew's Gospel Jesus states: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household." (10:34-36)  What does Jesus mean by this paradoxical statement made by the one whom we call "Prince of Peace?"

We witness it over and over in Jesus' ministry when he confronts the powers of this world, his teaching and his actions cause conflict and division.  Why?  Does he not preach love and forgiveness?   Doesn't he admonish us not to judge others?  Jesus reveals the inner workings of the human heart and culture which relies upon the proven method of people displacing their conflicts by pointing the finger at the one who is the cause of the disharmony being experienced within one's own life and in the larger culture.  Remember the judgment of the high priest, Caiaphas, who said it is necessary that one man die than the whole people be destroyed (John 11:50).  This is the founding principle of culture.  It is also the driving principle of social media: to distinguish ourselves from others, to proclaim the significance of our perspective, and to cast the stone of blame on others for the social discord we see taking place all around us. 
 
Of course, we don't see this within ourselves, we are pure and innocent, it is the others who are guilty.  This is precisely what Jesus reveals and what leads to division.  The focus of our attention is not on the object to be desired, but rather our conflict with another who desire matches ours.  We all have the experience of arguing simply to win the argument - the object of the argument drops out as we focus on the triumphing over our opponent.

How do we comprehend this?  Isn't Jesus the innocent victim of those who are seeking to blame him?  Was it not the envy of the religious leaders which led them to point the accusing finger at Jesus?  They are able to rally the fervent religious who have gathered for the sacrificial festival which commemorates God's rescue of the people through the sacrifice of the first born of their enemies.  The same voices that called out, "Save us", a short time before Jesus entered Jerusalem, now cry out, "Crucify."  How easily we are manipulated by the voices of those around us!  How fickle is the human heart!

No matter what you believe about the candidates running for President of our great nation, they are mirroring each other by seeking to gather support which will cast out the other in order to save us all.  Structurally, it is the same as the 1st century (and every other century and culture for that matter).  As the election draws closer, we see that the candidates are focused on each other and the issues recede into the background as their rivalry intensifies.  We are subtly led into the same logic as that which resulted in the blaming, convicting, and crucifying Jesus.  However, the difference is we live in the light of the Gospel.  We can no longer be united by casting out the one whom we perceive to be the cause of the disharmony.  Jesus reveals this in his witness to the religious and political leaders who accuse, convict, and sentence him to death.  His triumphant resurrection from the dead sets in motion the the victory of God against which the powers of hell cannot prevail.  

This is why their will be division, blame, separation, and the accusations of guilt.  We can no longer be united, even within a family.  This explains why we witness the tragic disruption of family life today.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has apocalyptic consequences for culture, especially for the culture which is global in reach through social media.  As the American author Flannery O'Connor writes in her apocalyptic vision of ordinary life, "Jesus thrown everything off balance."  The philosopher Nietzsche condemns the Christian faith for introducing empathy for others, weakening the will to power by the strong.  We no longer have the ability to unite ourselves by displacing our conflicts upon a sacred victim.  Instead, we are left with our futile attempts to blame the other and the deflect attention from ourselves, now with the click of a mouse or posting a message.


As believers, we are called to reveal the Gospel, offering love, forgiveness, reconciliation and redemption to the world which is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ which is received by faith and promises the future renewal of all creation.  That is the only antidote to the envy, rivalry, conflict, hatred, scapegoating, violence and murder which is is foundational to all human cultures.  As the Great Roman Empire experienced it's final gasps of life, St. Augustine sought to reassure his fellow citizens who witnessed the fall of the "Eternal City" of Rome that there are two cities - the City of Man and the City of God.  One will dash the hopes of all who place their trust in it and the other will endure with transcendent glory.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Beginnings

What is the Gospel?  The good news of God's love, forgiveness, renewed relationship, and renewed purpose revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus which is received by faith and promises the future renewal of all creation.