This week I came across an article at the United Methodist New Service site with the headline, British Methodism: Staying Relevant in Wesley’s Homeland, which highlighted ways that Methodist churches in England are involved in various ministries and events to remain engaged in social, economic and political conversations in a secular age. For the twenty years that I have served as a UM pastor, the United Methodist Church in the U.S. has expressed concerns about “staying relevant.” Churches have launched “exciting” ministries, built alternative worship venues and sponsored cutting-edge conferences in order to be heard and seen among the noise and imagery blasted and pasted across a post-Christian landscape. I offer here my voice to the conversation of how the Church stays relevant.
The Church talks a lot today about connecting with a post-Christian culture, but the world was, in a sense, post-Christian even as Jesus hung on the cross. No sooner had passers-by at Golgotha glanced up at Jesus than they went on about their business, buying and selling, trying to make a living, and raising children. They quickly returned to the more immediate business at hand, surviving for another day the challenges of life in a cruel, unforgiving civilization that keeps promising happiness and security but never delivers. So, there’s a hint. The Church can remain relevant if it boldly calls civilization as constructed what it is, which is a fraud, and then offers to the world a Jesus who knew what to do in response to this fraudster known as civilization.
Biblical scholar and activist Ched Myers has argued that much of the Bible is a loud, relentless rejection of the violence and greed inherent in the civilization project. The Biblical narrative laments the dawn of violent, cruel, and destructive civilizations that made possible a level of war, poverty, famine and devastation never known to primitive peoples. Meyers argues that the Genesis narrative of The Fall is a response to humanity’s decline into civilization. The Jewish law could be seen as a remedial fix, and the way of Jesus as a new way to overcome the scourge of civilization, a salve, so to speak – salvation, in another word.
The first Christians sought to soften the suffering that accompanied civilization. The early church formed communes in order to share resources. The rich were encouraged to give to the poor. Wealthy business owners gave to Christian missionaries and Christian ministries. Christians stood up to emperors and kings, condemning their oppression and warring, even as they were dragged into the coliseum to face the fangs of fierce beasts or burning pyres.
Many centuries later, Methodists continued to respond to the Christian call to ease human suffering. They established clinics for the sick. They helped the poor get out of debtors’ prison. They offered education resources to the poor. They spoke out against slavery.
These faithful Christian efforts at reform and redress throughout the centuries were and are essential to the Christian witness. Jesus most certainly offered healing to the sick and encouraged compassion be shown to the hungry, sick and imprisoned, and these are ministries Christians should continue. Yet, we must never lose sight that Jesus communicated something more basic, something more radical than works of mercy as our primary purpose and role as disciples, as the Church.
For Jesus the end game was not eradicating poverty, teaching bourgeoisie morality, or installing governments to guarantee social and economic equality. The kingdom of God does not consist of winning the next election, taking over the statehouse or feeding the most people. As important as these objectives may be, they are not the main thing.
The main thing for Jesus was repentance (greek: metanoia), or a change of mind or worldview. This change of mind would lead us to live outside of the matrix of civilization, in thought and in action. Jesus’ talk of the kingdom of God redirects our attention and energy to the beauty and simplicity of uncivilization. As we learn to de-civilize our hearts and minds, we catch glimpses of the way the Father thinks and the way the Spirit moves. Understanding and appropriating this way of life leads us into a new relationship with God, self, others and all of creation. This new way ushers us into the kingdom of God.
Jesus introduces his idea of the de-civilized mind and heart in Luke 12:22-34:
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (NIV)
Jesus taught us to clothe ourselves with simplicity, and to permit the Father to rewild our hearts and minds, which have been hijacked and limited in scope by civilization. The Church remains relevant when it boldly echoes Jesus’ claim from Luke that civilization as constructed is a fraud. Civilization is a fraud, because it falsely teaches us there are only two possibilities in life – 1) scarcity and endless toil for the many, or 2) extravagance and decadent leisure for the few. In contrast, the kingdom of God is neither poverty nor extravagance but abundance, defined as sufficiency, enough. Civilization tempts us to seek extravagance and devote our precious and short lives to pursuing it. Extravagance becomes nothing less than the idol worship against which the prophets of old warned.
Isaiah speaks of a carpenter who plants a cedar, nurtures it, and harvests it to create something useful, but the carpenter is not satisfied with sufficiency. He is tempted to extravagance and so fashions an idol out of his abundance:
15 [the wood] is used as fuel for burning;
some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.
16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
“Save me! You are my god!”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
19 No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” (NIV)
Followers of Jesus warm themselves by the fire of sufficient abundance and joyfully and contently proclaim, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” The civilized mind and heart makes an idol and says, “Save me! You are my god!” Such people “understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see” past the insatiable desires of their hardened hearts and stiff necks, to use biblical characterizations.
Sufficient abundance is a liberating and transforming gift of grace experienced only through the way of Jesus. A church that teaches and offers this saving grace will remain relevant. The warm fire is the Spirit, and the Spirit will not be used to create idols. The Spirit is a fire that melts idols, heats our minds and hearts so that the dross of the civilized way is removed. What is left is relevant, essential. What is left is the soul, the redeemed soul. What is left is salvation made available to us through the grace of our Jesus dying on a cross. Christians would benefit from stopping and taking a look at this Jesus and see the fire in his eyes that warms our hearts and minds, as we contend with the idolatrous powers of civilization.
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