“His words and his example are the constants as we leave our
old traditions and look to bring the church and the gospel into new contexts of
traditional radicalism” (Pg 102) begs the question of whether an institution
can truly bear the name and expresses the power of a leader and affect as
powerful and engaging as Jesus.
With all that we profess to know of Jesus, entangled with all that we
have engaged in and created under the banner of “The Church,” as an
organization, Hirsch leads us to the brink where we, the Church, must wonder if
we have created something so perfect that the imperfections of any human
construct cannot even begin to hold or exhibit the character and purpose of the
one after whom it was modeled. He writes:
“The authority to bring transformation to the church does not rest in
the person of the leader or group but in God’s calling. If this is so, then the
key to the revitalization of religious organizations is to reappropriate, or
recover, their founding charism” (Pg 101).
As I read stories of the First Century martyrs and those who
were gifted enough to have their stories be told beyond a generation, there
seems to be a commitment and purpose to their living within the larger
community that gave their individual perspective meaning. They were a part of a
movement, not an organized, well or even haphazardly run organization, and
their very lives and livelihood depended on the grace of the community to
survive. “…the pragmatic and the traditionalist. The institution of the church
(traditional and contemporary) is not without God, beauty, or blessing. And we
recognize that deeply spiritual people have tirelessly worked for their advancement”
(Pg 81). I am hard-pressed to determine if this what Jesus intended for those
who decided to follow Him, which was always about following his teachings and
living up to the ideals and consequences such a life would bring. There was
power found in being one of “the Way” or one who follows Christ, but as time
marches on the ethos of the movement changes, and the central figure in the
movement shifts from Jesus to what Jesus said and eventually back toward a
trite but true pondering – “what would Jesus do?”
To have an organization there are rules and policies in
place to maintain order and to signal direction and inclusion. Hirsch points to
some of the trappings the Church; such as, “running programs and services
and/or guiding the laity through liturgical complexities in order to help
people get to the God they are all meant to access directly through Jesus
anyhow” as one way we have divided the community into classes and categories to
serve a function that may not have been intended. Of course the early church
set aside individual for service and for serving in varities of ways according
to their gifts, but there is not a sense that some were superior to others
based on professional credential or financial status. In fact, status is a blurred line in the early writings and
seems to be frowned upon in Jesus rhetoric and expressions of inclusion and
engagement throughout his ministry. He paused for the young and the old; the
known and the unknown – all for the sake of showing love and extending grace where
needed. “At the beginning of this new century, we have never needed so
desperately to rediscover the original genius of the Christian experience and
to allow it to strip away all the unnecessary and cumbersome paraphernalia of
Christendom” (Pg 83). This is a challenge to strip away all of the extras that
create barriers between Jesus and the movement that directs others toward him
and his witness, which is what ultimately allows all to experience him. But, people encounter Jesus and
interpret their experience in ways the project a necessity of like-experience
upon others without acknowledging cultural or social location as a platform for
experience. Hirsch address this in the following: “What happens in the
beginning of a movement is that they people encounter the divine in a profound
and revelatory way, but with successive generations this encounter tends to
fade like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy” (Pg 86). Successive
experiences dampen or weaken and thus ritual and writings are created to shape
experiences, but those rituals and experiences are removed from the original
source and may not reflect the original intent or expression of the Jesus who
made it all possible. “But for the disciple, the simple truth must remain; one
cannot bolt down, control, or even mediate the essential God encounter in
rituals, priesthoods, and theological formulas. We all need to constantly
engage the God who unnerves, destabilizes, and yet enthralls us. The same is
true for our defining relationship with Jesus” (Pg 87).
It is obvious the Church, as an organization has sought to
do good in the world and in the lives of those who venture in and dare to bear
the name and character of Christ. However, what seems to be missing and lacking
in our present age is not new to the organization. In fact, what we experience
today was noted in the 17th Century by Blaise Pascal who “uttered these incisive words about the
spiritual condition of the Christianity of his day: “Christendom is a union of
people who, by means of the sacraments, excuse themselves from their duty to
love God” (Pg 88). If we, on some level, did not believe we, as an organization
or church, has strayed away from the path set by the Jesus we want to know,
love, immolate and share, we would not be reading a book with this title. There
is a longing to right the organization and move in alignment with what God
intended and with what Jesus said and did, but, as Hirsch writes, “To reJesus
the church, we must first look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether the strange
and wonderful God-Man has invaded our life with purpose and freshness. If
Christianity minus Christ equals religion, then Christianity plus Christ is the
antidote to religion”(Pg 93). We must strip away the pieces and parts of
ourselves that make us comfortable being a member, leader and participant
within an organization that stands over-against the principles of the Man and
the Movement that started what has diverted from original intent and effect.
Are there obvious
organizational trappings do you experience that make it impossible for the
Church as you know it to be a true reflection of the Jesus you want to know or
once knew?
How can the Church, as
you know it, be place where relationship and experience of Jesus is so
profoundly different from every other experience in one’s life that individuals
are able to revision and reconnect in ways that allow for and encourages the
kind of faith which unites with Christ and inspires beyond a set moment in
time?
Cedrick Bridgeforth is an elder in the Cal-Pac Conference and is the District Superintendent of the North District.
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