« Four From Last Autumn | Main | Only 74 Shopping Days Till Christmas »
October 11, 2007
Living in the Tension
Even though my day has been incredibly busy and I have miles to go before I sleep. How does one conjugate "sleep" in Greek? My day was extraordinary enough, though, that I feel compelled to mark it with a blog post. It was full of many types of richnesses and contrarieties that created a tension which made me stand up and pay attention.
The first part of my day consisted of lectures on preaching which I was required to attend for my seminary studies. The phrase “required to attend,” though, belies the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the first sermon in worship this morning and the three additional lecture-sermons throughout the day. Immediately afterwards, I called my brother and told him how much that Stafford Carson reminded me of some of the visiting preachers that would come to preach to the missionary community in the mountains of Pakistan during the summers. It was like water to my soul. I am not entirely sure I can articulate it properly, but the combination of a thoroughly grace-centered message with a consideration of how preaching is to transform lives, yes, even to convict people of specific sin, to have the Holy Spirit do surgery in their hearts was invigorating, and to me that, in and of itself, was instructive. Why do I feel such a lack of such preaching and emphases in my sense of the American church?
The rest of the day was a rich meal of learning from I Thessalonians 2 and 3 and Luke 24 how to preach messages that transform through the power of the Holy Spirit, preached by preacher/pastors who have let the Word and Spirit transform their hearts and lives, who work hard at preparing sermons and caring for their congregations and families. It was an amazing combination of wisdom about preaching and pastoring, which, well, obviously left a mark on me.
The most amazing moment of the day for me, though, was when a student asked Rev. Carson what he as an Irish Christian saw as some of the major weaknesses of the American church. After a very gracious caveat about seeing the weaknesses of another culture more readily than one’s owns, Dr. Carson said that in America that evangelical Christians have still not solved the race problem. After a long pause of absolute silence from the audience, he began to say “Well, perhaps I’ve gotten it wrong” and then corrected himself, applying his own injunction given to us earlier to not let a congregation muzzle one from preaching a difficult sermon the congregation does not want to hear. The moment was absolutely stunning. The silence of the audience said it all.
It made me appreciate that while I am not always happy with the state of affairs at my own church, New City Fellowship, in one way or another, and while I may grumble that I don’t get my own wishes down the line in the order of worship, that the enterprise is worth undertaking. This is a conversation for elsewhere, but the New City model of doing church and the concept of racial reconciliation, which once seemed to be held up as an ideal in the PCA, now seems out favor and the new emphasis is largely toward training black pastors to lead black congregations. I cannot resolve all the ins and outs of this here, I am neither qualified nor knowledgeable enough to do so, nor am I blindly defending the New City model, but I think that in some way perhaps some ground has been lost with this shift.
In the first sermon of the day, which was on Psalm 110, Dr. Carson said that Christ is, indeed, currently reigning over the world as King, even though it may not seem so at times, and that this should inform how we approach every sphere of life, including preaching. He referenced Habakkuk 2:14 that “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” And that very nicely introduces the second part of my day.
For house church tonight, it was planned that we were to visit some newly arrived refugee families that were being ministered to by the ministry of Worku Geremew, a dear friend of mine from house church. And I have to tell you that I did not really want to go, not tonight nor when we were discussing the plans earlier. But go I did, even with the need to study the aforementioned Greek pressing upon me. And I was blessed, as I knew in my heart of hearts that I would be, but also challenged to consider the tension presented in this post.
How could I put the two parts of my day together in a meaningful whole? How could I relish a rich theological feast in the daytime that seemed to have little bearing on ministering to the very basic physical and emotional and spiritual needs of two newly arrived families from Africa? One family had not even had the most basic need of salvation met in their own lives as yet.
I do not mean to set these two in false antithesis, because they are not, nor do I mean grade the importance of each emphasis, I cannot, because each is as important as the other. And the ministry to an African family on a fundamental level is no different than ministry to any other family. I suppose I am simply highlighting a fault line that runs down the middle of me, and might I, perhaps not so humbly, suggest should run right down the middle of more of us. Quite honestly I am far more inclined to try to resolve the tension by simply sinking into the emphases from the first part of the day, to cater to the spiritual health of people in the West with a high level of specificity and care and theological reflection, and for what it is worth that is the area to which I feel called, and yet, and yet I am coming to believe that I cannot, must not, ignore the Church of Jesus Christ as it is spread across the world and consider its concerns. I cannot ignore issues of injustice and wealth, if only for the simple reason that my Christian brothers and sisters across the world possess great needs which the American church, and I as a part of it, are uniquely qualified to meet, not because we are better than them or any thing like, but simply because we have an abundance of resources, physical and spiritual, and to whom much is given, much is required. We cannot simply ignore the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ if we are to follow the whole counsel of Scripture.
Perhaps this is not so great a tension for others. It is for me. And in response, I must not, and I believe the church must not, seek an easily resolution. We should neither pit good theological instruction against practical acts of service and seeking justice, nor assume that any part of Chirst's church can do with out embracing both emphases. I do not believe that relief of tension that I experienced today can be had if we are to live biblically, in the now and the not yet of the Kingdom of Christ, which will one day cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
And, now, back to the Greek.
Church Life and Theology | By jackdas | 12:10 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://stlouisblogs.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1034
Comments
Thanks my friend, Neal, for the honesty that is reflected in this article.
I always view the American church as a wonderful church from my own experience back home. Missionaries, mostly from this land built hospitals, schools, dig water lines to rural areas, help bring irrgation to the farms, started bible schools. There are only few bible schools in Ethiopia. The best Theological school is founded by An American missionary during Communism in Ethiopia as underground Christian trainning center. Thankfully, Ethiopia is free of communism right now so the school became one of the best resouces of trained leaders in East Africa. I am saying all of this to show how the resources of this nation not only materially, but spiritually and intellectually are helping nations across the ocean. I believe American Christians are very much driven to give and help others but probably the church needs to learn to cross at a grassroot level, as it has already began, and at the leadership level to deal with situations like you saw across the Street. Thanks Neal for showing us the completness of living as a Christian leader while we are trying to deal with what I would like to call, "the Holy Tension."
Your friend Worku
Posted by: Worku Geremew at October 11, 2007 7:08 AM
We should neither pit good theological instruction against practical acts of service and seeking justice, nor assume that any part of Christ’s church can do with out embracing both emphases.
I think this is spot-on. Lately, I’ve found that it is during acts of service where I receive good theological instruction. For example, the other day, I was sitting with a kid really confused by the way God “played favorites”. I think she expected me to wax eloquent, but in my exhaustion, I admitted that I didn’t get it either. I felt like a huge failure after I admitted it to her. Later she saw me on the street and couldn’t wait to tell me her new theory—which was really wise. It was a weird kind of role reversal; I was getting good theological instruction from the kid I was supposed to be helping. But I must admit, I couldn't wait to go in and see what Dr. Collins had to say about the issue. ;)
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at October 11, 2007 4:02 PM
Thanks, Worku, for that helpful and gracious perspective.
Heidi, to be led by a child and Dr. Collins, eh? Sounds like a pretty good combination.
Posted by: Neil E. Das at October 12, 2007 8:18 AM
