Note: This is an article from Christianity Today about Lesslie Newbigin. An influential thinker on the church and its message to a pluralistic, secular society, Newbigin puts forward the idea of the gospel as public truth. If you work as a witness in the campuses, this article will help you.
It was an unlikely adventure to launch a global ministry—a tediously long bus journey from Madras, India, to Birmingham, England. It was an unlikely background for a champion of the gospel to emerge from—the theologically liberal Student Christian Movement. It was an unlikely age at which to unintentionally initiate the emergent and missional church movements—age 66 after 35 years of cross-cultural missionary service. But Bishop Lesslie Newbigin made his most important contribution and did his most profound thinking in his 70s and 80s. Can this man, whose birth centenary was celebrated in December, help today's church navigate a critical period of change?
American Christianity is a long way from disappearing, but it is embattled. Newsweek magazine, bus placards, and best-selling books are all proclaiming the death of Christian America. Over the past 35 years, American confidence in religious leaders has dropped significantly—and dropped farther and faster than confidence in leaders of other institutions. Of those under age 30, only 3 percent hold a favorable view of evangelicals, compared with 33 percent who hold a favorable view of gays and lesbians. The 2009 American Religious Identification Survey showed a 10 percent dip in the number of self-identified Christians while also reporting that the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent.
These figures come as no surprise to someone from the other side of the Atlantic. The European church has long struggled with plummeting attendance. The most optimistic reading of our latest church attendance statistics describes the U.K. as "pulling out of the nosedive." Penn State's Philip Jenkins sees Europe taking the lead as the "acids of modernity" (journalist Walter Lippmann's term) dissolve the Christian foundations of a continent.
Others, like sociologist Grace Davie, see Europe as the exception, the only place on the planet where the church is in decline and facing increasing marginalization. Despite the best efforts of the militant New Atheists, we have ended up not with secularism but with religious pluralism.
In the face of alarming statistics, secularist attacks, and media scaremongering, the church has an important ally in Lesslie Newbigin. His writings continue to call the church to its missionary vocation in the midst of cultural change and ideological pluralism.
Newbigin was born 100 years ago on December 8, 1909. After completing theological studies at Cambridge University and working briefly for the Student Christian Movement, he left for India in 1936 to labor as a missionary, evangelist, and apologist. There he was instrumental in bringing together the Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches from India, Pakistan, and Burma into one ecumenical denomination: the Church of South India. On his return to England, he was shocked to find that the West was as urgent a mission field as the East. Refusing to settle into retirement, he wrote prolifically, issuing a clarion call to the Western church to rediscover its missionary mandate.
This was not merely a response to the declining state of the church, but the result of Newbigin's wrestling with the interplay of such enormous ideas as election, modernity, contextualization, the end of Christendom, and missional ecclesiology. Seeing the bigger picture of the gospel has inspired many of Newbigin's readers to grasp more fully the interaction between gospel, church, and culture. Three major themes stand out as particularly pertinent to our time.
Bigger than we think
When I speak with students around the world, I find them confident in their ability to present the gospel. They tell me that God loves me, that I have sinned, that Christ died for me, and that I need to believe in Jesus to get to heaven. Their confidence is reassuring, but their content is worrying. Doctoral students and seminarians often seem to have no deeper grasp of the gospel than do Sunday school children. The gospel they present has been reduced to a personalized product that offers the ultimate bargain—exchanging spiritual poverty for eternal riches. The problem with much of our evangelism is not what we include but what we omit: the Holy Spirit, the church, persecution, obedience, mission, reconciliation, resurrection, and new creation.
The gospel according to Newbigin challenges this thinking in two distinct ways. First, he calls us back to a gospel that brings personal reconciliation with God, but also a gospel that connects us with God's reconciling purposes in conscience, culture, church, creation, and cosmos. Second, he calls us back to a gospel that is more than a series of bullet points, a story that centers on the flesh-and-blood character of the divine Christ.
Newbigin's call is earthed in his careful exposition of John's gospel, but it draws as well on thinkers such as Martin Buber, Michael Polanyi, Hans Frei, and Alasdair MacIntyre, synthesizing their reflections into a powerful, unwittingly postmodern-friendly apologetic. Newbigin encourages us to tell the stories of the gospel as part of the grand sweep of the biblical drama. This is vital if an increasingly biblically illiterate generation is going to hear the gospel for the first time. We must explain that the stories of Jesus, true both historically and experientially, are the only way to understand how our individual stories make sense, and we must demand a personal decision to follow the Lord of all history.
As Newbigin explained in 1994, "The true understanding of the Bible is that it tells a story of which my life is a part, the story of God's tireless, loving, wrathful, inexhaustible patience with the human family, and of our unbelief, blindness, disobedience. To accept this story as the truth of the human story (and so of my story) commits me personally to a life of discernment and obedience in the new circumstances of each day."
As we tell the Jesus story, we draw people to him as a person worthy of allegiance rather than as a proposition to be evaluated.
The gospel as public truth
In God Is Back, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge cite economics as the reason Christianity has fared better in the United States than in Europe. They argue that the disestablishment of the American church opened a free market in which religious ideas flourished while their European state-backed religious counterparts disintegrated along with other politically enforced institutions. This insight offers us hope that European-style decline is not the future of global Christianity, and that the American model may hold the key to the re-evangelization of Europe.
But there is a danger in free-market spirituality. Christianity becomes just another lifestyle option. As we become more aware of the multiplicity of worldviews and religions, and as we rightly value diversity, we can grow increasingly reluctant to commend the truthfulness of the Christian message. Privatized relativism is a real danger for the church. We are tempted to vacate the public square, avoid evangelism out of fear of offending others, and retreat into ghettos. The only alternative seems to be to try to impose Christian values on the wider culture by exerting moral muscle.
Newbigin offers a third way. He challenges the post-Enlightenment separation between so-called objective facts in the public realm (taught at school and presented without the need for the preface "I believe") and the subjective values of the private world of religion and ethics. He argues that the church needs to humbly yet boldly enter the public sphere with a persuasive retelling of the Christian story—not as personal spirituality, but as public truth. He takes the logic for this public dialogue from the scientific community. A scientist does not present research findings as a personal preference, but with hope for universal agreement if the findings stand up to investigation. In the marketplace of ideas, we should likewise present the gospel not as personal preference but as truth that should gain universal acceptance. This allows us to commend the faith with the humble admission that we might not have exhaustively grasped the truth, but that we have truth that needs to be investigated and seriously engaged.
The gospel in community
I remember being in a crowded living room in Birmingham as a group of university evangelists and apologists sat at the feet of a very old man who needed a magnifying glass to read his tightly typed notes. He explained that the bottom line of his whole theological project was "the doctrine of election." That was my first encounter with Newbigin, and after immersing myself in his writings for five years, I discovered that his entire missiology revolved around that idea. God's people are elected to join in God's mission to call others to God in keeping with the Abrahamic calling, "blessed to be a blessing." There is therefore a dual purpose: God wants to reconcile people to himself, but also to reconcile people to each other. The election of individuals cannot be separated from God's election of the church: we are elected to be God's missionary people.The church is, by its very nature, missional.
This has two major implications. First, the church, not the individual, is the basic unit of evangelism. A community that lives out the truth of the gospel is the best context in which to understand its proclamation. This insight is at the heart of courses like Alpha and of the best examples of church planting and church growth.
Second, the unity of the church matters to the mission of the church. Disunity undercuts the gospel of reconciliation that we claim to bring to the world. Newbigin the evangelist's own lifelong commitment to church unity throws down the gauntlet. Whatever we need to do to help this generation to hear the gospel, we need to do together.
As Newbigin wrote, "I have been called and commissioned, through no merit of mine, to carry this message, to tell this story, to give this invitation. It is not my story or my invitation. It has no coercive intent. It is an invitation from the one who loved you and gave himself up for you. That invitation will come with winsomeness if it comes from a community in which the grace of the Redeemer is at work."
Over the past 100 years, the church has made a global impact, and God has proved faithful through every cultural shift. He can certainly be trusted for every new challenge the church faces today. Hearing Newbigin's call to present Christ publicly with courage and humility, in all his glory and with the integrity of a united church that lives his message before a watching world, should fill us with eagerness to prove God faithful in our day and over the next hundred years.
Krish Kandiah is executive director of churches in mission for the Evangelical Alliance U.K.
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Following our Servant Lord
I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister. (Matthew 20:28)
The idea of servant leadership has become quite popular; it has been completely secularized, as Christmas and Easter are secularized. What I mean by secularized is that people use the words but deprive it of any connection to the Biblical ideas surrounding it. The concept of serving people is no longer a Christian ideal. Now even sportsmen like Tiger Woods and Manny Pacquiao, despite their marital problems are careful about their reputations in order not to diminish the quality of their service to their fans. Multimillion dollar corporations are careful so that their products provide the kind of service that would bring the highest satisfaction to their customers.
Christians and churches buy into that mentality and it colors their understanding of ministry.
Let me illustrate what I am saying. Two weeks ago I had to pass by Iloilo because I have some meetings to do there before proceeding to Boracay. Along the way it is quite instructive to see how local churches name themselves. Here is a church that defines itself as “fundamental,” another as”conservative” another as “Bible”, another as “apostolic” and of course “Roman Catholic.”
Why do churches have such titles? Who are the intended receivers of these titles? Muslims? Hindus? Atheists? These religions could hardly care whether you are fundamental or apostolic. These words are meant to measure the people in those churches against other Christians.
They are conservative because other Christians are liberal.
They are Bible because other Christians are unbiblical.
They are apostolic because other Christians are modernistic.
They are Catholic because other Christians are narrow and nationalistic.
Whether churches or individual Christians we have a tendency to look at ourselves through the lens of other churches and the implied message is, “We are better than you are.” We have more money. We have more influence. We have more power. Join us.
That reminds of two churches I saw one evening in Singapore. One had a large building capable of seating perhaps a thousand. If it has a sign I didn’t see it. But there are spotlights that highlight the design of the building. It was a building meant to convey success and wealth. Next to it was a very small chapel, I think only five meters across. I calculate maybe less than 50 can be accommodated within. But it had a large blue neon sign blazing at the top of the building. What does it say? “The True Church.” We may be small but we are true. We may be small but we have the power of God.
Indeed implied in service is strength for those who are too weak cannot serve. There is no service if we have nothing with which to serve. No capital to use for our resources. But any form of power in itself is dangerous commodity.
In the late 1980’s a born again general by the name of Efrain Rios Montt, seized power in Guatemala through a coup d’etat. Evangelical leaders in the United States rejoiced and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were very supportive of him and became his friends. With Rios Montt in power there was much talk about introducing reforms in Guatemala that would result not only in evangelizing the country but also in eradicating poverty.
These were false hopes. His vision of the rule of law was a military junta that subjugated the opposition, silenced freedom of the press, and created military tribunals with the power to impose the death penalty. In a short time, 600 villages in Guatemala were reduced to ashes. In 1982 alone over 10 thousand native Indians were killed and tens of thousands more were annihilated by death squads in the following months.
The regime of Rios Montt, the first born-again president of Central and South American went down in history as the most violent that the American continents have ever produced. Rather than exalting the rule of God, he diminished it. He corrupted the meaning of what it means to be born again.
There is no doubt that Jesus had power. The devil saw it. But Jesus saw what game the devil was playing and resisted it.
Since we are in quoting Scripture hope to emulate Jesus, not sportsmen or captains of industry, how do we understand what he meant by serving and not being served?
For that we have to go back to the way he understood his mission. And we find that in Luke 4 where Jesus said,
18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
Is Jesus saying that salvation is limited to the poor alone? No. Is he even saying that the poor are to be given preferential treatment in his ministry? To some extent yes. But it goes beyond preferential option. It is looking at the world from the lenses of the world of the weak, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.
Jesus defined his mission through the eyes of the underprivileged.
How did he do that?
First of all he identified himself with them. There is a distinctive odor to poverty. You who have served among them know that. It is the odor of the earth, of animal dung. And that is the odor with which Jesus was born into. Jesus was familiar with animals. He spoke of sheep and cattle, fish and sparrows. He was familiar with the hard life of shepherds, farmers, and fishermen. He did not shun prostitutes and publicans. He walked with them and ate with them.
But there is more to than solidarity with the oppressed rather than being a tool of oppressors. Jesus leaned towards the outcasts, the dispossessed, and the weak as the mirror whereby to understand the mission of God in the world.
The lepers, the woman with the issue of blood, the Samaritans—these were the untouchables of Jesus’ day. Jesus not only touched them but allowed them to touch him.
The woman with an issue of blood, she touched Jesus and was healed. Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Wasn’t that rather insensitive, to expose this woman’s uncleanness to the crowd? He could have let her have what she needed, her healing and release her. But could she go back and be restored into the life of her community? No. Why? Because how could they know she was healed? She would be healed but remain an outcast.
In exposing this woman to the crowd, Jesus was acting as the priest who pronounced healing upon the unclean so that she could return to her community not only healed but reconciled. Once again her children could touch her, and she touch them.
In the healing and restoration of the bleeding woman Jesus is saying that God is calling the outcasts to himself. Jesus presence in society is a beacon of wholeness to those who are bleeding. The bleeding woman’s healing and restoration is a sign of reconciliation between those who are out and those who are in, between those who benefit from the rewards of a corrupt society and those who are left behind, the sick and the stragglers and the lost.
If indeed the church is the body of Christ in the world, if the church is the living presence of Jesus in the world, then the church can be no less a sign of that same healing and reconciliation that happened to the bleeding woman.
Who do we want to touch us? Who do we want to surround us? That is the issue.
After our Sunday service I hurry back to our ministry center where I have a little room. It is comfortable but it is not Boracay. I have to hurry back because there are people waiting for me to open the gate of our center. These are the homeless, street dwellers of Cebu. We minister to their spirit but we also minister to their bodies. About 100 of them adults and 60 children. While crossing from Jollibee a woman approached me and crossed the street with me. She is one of them. At the gate about a dozen or them were sitting on the ground or standing. But another dozen were lying on the ground, resting. Bare ground. There is a puddle of dirty water on the street. Don’t lie on the ground, I said. Come in.
One said, don’t worry pastor, this is our life.
There was a stab of pain in my heart. How could you say we are used to this? I wanted to go back and give them a lecture on cleanliness and on the image of God. But something held me.
Why am I reacting? Because I don’t want these people with their filth and their smell to invade and foul up my antiseptic space?
And where would I rather have this people to lie down? Near a place where sex traffickers are already watching over the growing bodies of their children? Where drug pushers are already at work? Where criminal lords are recruiting children to use?
Efren Penaflorida as you probably already know was a World Vision sponsored child. Through the help of strangers he was able to finish high school, then an associate in computer technology and finally an honors degree in education. I know similar people like him who have risen up from poverty. But as soon as they find a job they forget where they come from. They surround themselves with the kind of people they would like to become, sometimes reinventing themselves with a new name and a new background.
Efren chose to go back. He chose to look at his world from the vantage point of the scavengers and street dwellers. His life is in inspiration to others who dream of becoming heroes themselves. As I look at him I feel rewarded too.
To you in the literature ministry, you too will feel rewarded…
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to publish good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; …
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to inspire those who work among the outcasts and the bleeding of our society,
to the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to heed the call of Jesus to deny itself, take up its cross and follows Jesus…
then to that extent you too will feel rewarded.
Message to OMFLit Staff Cebu 9 December 2009
The idea of servant leadership has become quite popular; it has been completely secularized, as Christmas and Easter are secularized. What I mean by secularized is that people use the words but deprive it of any connection to the Biblical ideas surrounding it. The concept of serving people is no longer a Christian ideal. Now even sportsmen like Tiger Woods and Manny Pacquiao, despite their marital problems are careful about their reputations in order not to diminish the quality of their service to their fans. Multimillion dollar corporations are careful so that their products provide the kind of service that would bring the highest satisfaction to their customers.
Christians and churches buy into that mentality and it colors their understanding of ministry.
Let me illustrate what I am saying. Two weeks ago I had to pass by Iloilo because I have some meetings to do there before proceeding to Boracay. Along the way it is quite instructive to see how local churches name themselves. Here is a church that defines itself as “fundamental,” another as”conservative” another as “Bible”, another as “apostolic” and of course “Roman Catholic.”
Why do churches have such titles? Who are the intended receivers of these titles? Muslims? Hindus? Atheists? These religions could hardly care whether you are fundamental or apostolic. These words are meant to measure the people in those churches against other Christians.
They are conservative because other Christians are liberal.
They are Bible because other Christians are unbiblical.
They are apostolic because other Christians are modernistic.
They are Catholic because other Christians are narrow and nationalistic.
Whether churches or individual Christians we have a tendency to look at ourselves through the lens of other churches and the implied message is, “We are better than you are.” We have more money. We have more influence. We have more power. Join us.
That reminds of two churches I saw one evening in Singapore. One had a large building capable of seating perhaps a thousand. If it has a sign I didn’t see it. But there are spotlights that highlight the design of the building. It was a building meant to convey success and wealth. Next to it was a very small chapel, I think only five meters across. I calculate maybe less than 50 can be accommodated within. But it had a large blue neon sign blazing at the top of the building. What does it say? “The True Church.” We may be small but we are true. We may be small but we have the power of God.
Indeed implied in service is strength for those who are too weak cannot serve. There is no service if we have nothing with which to serve. No capital to use for our resources. But any form of power in itself is dangerous commodity.
In the late 1980’s a born again general by the name of Efrain Rios Montt, seized power in Guatemala through a coup d’etat. Evangelical leaders in the United States rejoiced and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were very supportive of him and became his friends. With Rios Montt in power there was much talk about introducing reforms in Guatemala that would result not only in evangelizing the country but also in eradicating poverty.
These were false hopes. His vision of the rule of law was a military junta that subjugated the opposition, silenced freedom of the press, and created military tribunals with the power to impose the death penalty. In a short time, 600 villages in Guatemala were reduced to ashes. In 1982 alone over 10 thousand native Indians were killed and tens of thousands more were annihilated by death squads in the following months.
The regime of Rios Montt, the first born-again president of Central and South American went down in history as the most violent that the American continents have ever produced. Rather than exalting the rule of God, he diminished it. He corrupted the meaning of what it means to be born again.
There is no doubt that Jesus had power. The devil saw it. But Jesus saw what game the devil was playing and resisted it.
Since we are in quoting Scripture hope to emulate Jesus, not sportsmen or captains of industry, how do we understand what he meant by serving and not being served?
For that we have to go back to the way he understood his mission. And we find that in Luke 4 where Jesus said,
18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
Is Jesus saying that salvation is limited to the poor alone? No. Is he even saying that the poor are to be given preferential treatment in his ministry? To some extent yes. But it goes beyond preferential option. It is looking at the world from the lenses of the world of the weak, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.
Jesus defined his mission through the eyes of the underprivileged.
How did he do that?
First of all he identified himself with them. There is a distinctive odor to poverty. You who have served among them know that. It is the odor of the earth, of animal dung. And that is the odor with which Jesus was born into. Jesus was familiar with animals. He spoke of sheep and cattle, fish and sparrows. He was familiar with the hard life of shepherds, farmers, and fishermen. He did not shun prostitutes and publicans. He walked with them and ate with them.
But there is more to than solidarity with the oppressed rather than being a tool of oppressors. Jesus leaned towards the outcasts, the dispossessed, and the weak as the mirror whereby to understand the mission of God in the world.
The lepers, the woman with the issue of blood, the Samaritans—these were the untouchables of Jesus’ day. Jesus not only touched them but allowed them to touch him.
The woman with an issue of blood, she touched Jesus and was healed. Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Wasn’t that rather insensitive, to expose this woman’s uncleanness to the crowd? He could have let her have what she needed, her healing and release her. But could she go back and be restored into the life of her community? No. Why? Because how could they know she was healed? She would be healed but remain an outcast.
In exposing this woman to the crowd, Jesus was acting as the priest who pronounced healing upon the unclean so that she could return to her community not only healed but reconciled. Once again her children could touch her, and she touch them.
In the healing and restoration of the bleeding woman Jesus is saying that God is calling the outcasts to himself. Jesus presence in society is a beacon of wholeness to those who are bleeding. The bleeding woman’s healing and restoration is a sign of reconciliation between those who are out and those who are in, between those who benefit from the rewards of a corrupt society and those who are left behind, the sick and the stragglers and the lost.
If indeed the church is the body of Christ in the world, if the church is the living presence of Jesus in the world, then the church can be no less a sign of that same healing and reconciliation that happened to the bleeding woman.
Who do we want to touch us? Who do we want to surround us? That is the issue.
After our Sunday service I hurry back to our ministry center where I have a little room. It is comfortable but it is not Boracay. I have to hurry back because there are people waiting for me to open the gate of our center. These are the homeless, street dwellers of Cebu. We minister to their spirit but we also minister to their bodies. About 100 of them adults and 60 children. While crossing from Jollibee a woman approached me and crossed the street with me. She is one of them. At the gate about a dozen or them were sitting on the ground or standing. But another dozen were lying on the ground, resting. Bare ground. There is a puddle of dirty water on the street. Don’t lie on the ground, I said. Come in.
One said, don’t worry pastor, this is our life.
There was a stab of pain in my heart. How could you say we are used to this? I wanted to go back and give them a lecture on cleanliness and on the image of God. But something held me.
Why am I reacting? Because I don’t want these people with their filth and their smell to invade and foul up my antiseptic space?
And where would I rather have this people to lie down? Near a place where sex traffickers are already watching over the growing bodies of their children? Where drug pushers are already at work? Where criminal lords are recruiting children to use?
Efren Penaflorida as you probably already know was a World Vision sponsored child. Through the help of strangers he was able to finish high school, then an associate in computer technology and finally an honors degree in education. I know similar people like him who have risen up from poverty. But as soon as they find a job they forget where they come from. They surround themselves with the kind of people they would like to become, sometimes reinventing themselves with a new name and a new background.
Efren chose to go back. He chose to look at his world from the vantage point of the scavengers and street dwellers. His life is in inspiration to others who dream of becoming heroes themselves. As I look at him I feel rewarded too.
To you in the literature ministry, you too will feel rewarded…
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to publish good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; …
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to inspire those who work among the outcasts and the bleeding of our society,
to the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to heed the call of Jesus to deny itself, take up its cross and follows Jesus…
then to that extent you too will feel rewarded.
Message to OMFLit Staff Cebu 9 December 2009
Marking Time
As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.” ( Luke 19:11-13 NRSV)
Some years ago I discovered Advent. I am talking about a season in the Christian year in which we celebrate hope.
It used to be that the second coming of Jesus was a hot topic in many sermons. We even have charts that showed such things as when the rapture would happen, what happens after the rapture, the tribulation, the battle of Armageddon as well as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Today all of these things seem quaint, as are songs such as He’s Coming Soon, and Mansion Over the Hilltop. Our songs today are all about our present experience of worship. To think of God as a very present help in time of trouble is a wonderful truth. But it is too narrow. And the result troubles me because too much of what we read and hear today is how to religion. Go to any Christian bookstore and you see that the titles that sell are practical guides on how to be a good father and husband. How to be a good mother and wife. How to succeed in your career. How to pray. How to worship. Etc etc.
Now there is nothing bad about these how to books. The only question that should bother us is what do these topics have to do with Jesus? I find that many of these books have a lot of things in common with the favorite topics used by motivational speakers such as Scott Peck, Og Mandino, and prior to them Dale Carnegie. How to Win Friends and Influence People.
What I am saying is take away the verses, take away reference to Christian churches and you find little that is distinctively Christian in many so-called Christian books. What they say could be said by an atheist or a Hindu or an Muslim.
How to religion is a religion of self-improvement; and a religion of self-improvement is a religion of self-salvation or works of the law.
The grand celebrations of the Christian church, whether it is Sunday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, or the Lent season which celebrates the salvation brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—all of these are celebrations of the acts or the works of God on our behalf and they put context into our practice of the Christian life.
There is a place for works in the Christian life. There is a place for improving ourselves in the Christian life. But as a result of salvation, not as an effort to save or redeem ourselves.
This is the reason why we need to put our efforts all of these how-to’s within the context of these grand celebrations of grace or our efforts will degenerate into works of the law and our attempts to win favor from God, from other people or even to improve the way we look at ourselves. That is self-salvation.
1. To sum what I have said, Advent is a way of refocusing our Christian life so that it is grounded upon what Christ has done to start our salvation and what Christ will do to complete our salvation. In other words, our works is a response to grace; and, because we do them through the power of the new life of Jesus in us, are themselves acts of grace.
2. Secondly, the Advent season helps us to find a reason for being. Why in the world are we still here? Let me illustrate what I mean.
Americans have a day they call Black Friday. Until Lonni told me what that means I thought it has to do with some massacre that happened in their history. Lonni told me it is a shopping spree when department stores outdo each other by offering huge discounts. It was more like worshipping at the temple of mammon.
Well, I have a friend in America who wrote me what he and his son did on Black Friday. “We are both typical males and got everything we thought of and then left the store. We even went on-line previously and bought items. Now women on the other hand would be at the store the whole day and then return half of the stuff the next day. The difference between the sexes!!!” To which I answered back, Long live the difference!
That’s it! You got what you want. Why stay any longer? I can imagine an American husband fuming in his car waiting while wife and daughter merrily hop from one shopping mall to another.
That’s the puzzle of salvation. The goods are safe in our hands. The logical thing is to enjoy what you haveWhat is the purpose of this time between the two comings? Waiting it out until God is done with his Black Saturday shopping? In the meanwhile, what do we do? Sit it out in church listening to sermons that bore you to death? Make sure the pastor and his family doesn’t starve? Make sure he rides a nice Pajero so he doesn’t embarrass you before other people? Be good and try your best not to lose your salvation?
No wonder we are bored.
In Jesus parable of the ten virgins all the virgins have to do is light their lamps and wait.
There is nothing so frustrating as to wait for the big thing to happen. The Cebuano language has a word that has no equivalent other Filipino languages. it is the word “tagihuwat.” It means waiting for the big break. It is waiting for that man to propose or for that girl to say yes. It is waiting for that notice from the Embassy saying that the petition for your immigration has been approved. It is teaching in a small school while waiting for the government to approve your application for ranking. But I think there is a word for it in English—marking time.
Tagihuwat is life being lived between neither here nor there. It means being frozen in a present existence that produces nothing. It is walking on a treadmill. It is life lived in the meanwhile. I am waiting for this to happen…in the meanwhile, I do this. I feel sorry for the tagihuwat. But I feel more sorry for the people who employ them. The tagihuwat’s heart is not in his present job. It is waiting. Just waiting. Marking time.
Just as pathetic are people who have high notions about serving God but never put it into practice. They talk about the mission field. But they can’t even relate to their friends. They talk about changing the world but don’t know how to change their bed.
They remind me of a story I heard. A stranger asked an old farmer how to get to the next town. The old man scratched his head and answered, “If I were you, I would not start from here.”
We’ve got to start somewhere but where do we start?
This is the point being made by another parable--the parable of the ten stewards. Most of us don’t really see this parable because we read it thinking it is the parable of the talents. But this is a different parable. There are ten stewards, not three. All are given the same amount. And then they receive this simple command, “Occupy till I come.”
The word occupy is quite interesting. It only occurs here. And the root is pragma from which we have the English word pragmatic…which means to be practical. The word Jesus used could be translated, “to put this money to good use” or “to invest this money” or “to do business with this money” until I come.
We start from the fact that in salvation the Lord has invested us with the capital of his grace. That’s the entire starting point. Now get busy! Do something about God’s grace. Be occupied until I come!
I remember how I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It took me a long time. But when the Spirit finally gushed out of my being, it was as Jesus said, living water flowing from my belly. For almost half an hour I was in ecstasy. My mentor, the man who won me to the Lord was waiting. While walking home he gently said to me, “Narciso, you’ve received a wonderful gift. Don’t use it all on yourself. This afternoon, join me. Let’s do some preaching.” That afternoon we went out street preaching. My knees were still trembling. I did not know what I was saying. But I got started.
Being occupied, being pragmatic, is the exact opposite of the tagihuwat interpretation of the present Christian life.
The tagihuwat Christian does not know what to do with his time while waiting for things to happen. But the pragmatic Christian has his work cut out for him. Capital has already been placed in his hands. How he invests that capital is up to him.
People who are not where God wants them to be have a great capacity for mischief. So if indeed there is a waiting period in your life, you want to make yourself useful,. be of help, but don’t get in the way. Inspire others; don’t be a source of discouragement.
Conclusion
Tagihuwat is certainly not in the vocabulary of Efren Penaflorida. He is a young man who put his conviction to work.
“From the muddy streets and wet markets of his Cavite City hometown to the flashy lights of Hollywood thousands of miles away. That’s how far teacher and civic worker Efren Penaflorida, 28, has gone and will go in his passion to bring education to out-of-school youths and very young children whose poverty may have limited their options to either jail or the graveyard.”
Penaflorida said, “I would rather do something than complain.” And he did something to change the situation that he saw. His made a difference. And so can everyone of us if we put muscle into our good intentions and if we put to work the capital of grace that God has invested into our lives.
Some years ago I discovered Advent. I am talking about a season in the Christian year in which we celebrate hope.
It used to be that the second coming of Jesus was a hot topic in many sermons. We even have charts that showed such things as when the rapture would happen, what happens after the rapture, the tribulation, the battle of Armageddon as well as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Today all of these things seem quaint, as are songs such as He’s Coming Soon, and Mansion Over the Hilltop. Our songs today are all about our present experience of worship. To think of God as a very present help in time of trouble is a wonderful truth. But it is too narrow. And the result troubles me because too much of what we read and hear today is how to religion. Go to any Christian bookstore and you see that the titles that sell are practical guides on how to be a good father and husband. How to be a good mother and wife. How to succeed in your career. How to pray. How to worship. Etc etc.
Now there is nothing bad about these how to books. The only question that should bother us is what do these topics have to do with Jesus? I find that many of these books have a lot of things in common with the favorite topics used by motivational speakers such as Scott Peck, Og Mandino, and prior to them Dale Carnegie. How to Win Friends and Influence People.
What I am saying is take away the verses, take away reference to Christian churches and you find little that is distinctively Christian in many so-called Christian books. What they say could be said by an atheist or a Hindu or an Muslim.
How to religion is a religion of self-improvement; and a religion of self-improvement is a religion of self-salvation or works of the law.
The grand celebrations of the Christian church, whether it is Sunday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, or the Lent season which celebrates the salvation brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—all of these are celebrations of the acts or the works of God on our behalf and they put context into our practice of the Christian life.
There is a place for works in the Christian life. There is a place for improving ourselves in the Christian life. But as a result of salvation, not as an effort to save or redeem ourselves.
This is the reason why we need to put our efforts all of these how-to’s within the context of these grand celebrations of grace or our efforts will degenerate into works of the law and our attempts to win favor from God, from other people or even to improve the way we look at ourselves. That is self-salvation.
1. To sum what I have said, Advent is a way of refocusing our Christian life so that it is grounded upon what Christ has done to start our salvation and what Christ will do to complete our salvation. In other words, our works is a response to grace; and, because we do them through the power of the new life of Jesus in us, are themselves acts of grace.
2. Secondly, the Advent season helps us to find a reason for being. Why in the world are we still here? Let me illustrate what I mean.
Americans have a day they call Black Friday. Until Lonni told me what that means I thought it has to do with some massacre that happened in their history. Lonni told me it is a shopping spree when department stores outdo each other by offering huge discounts. It was more like worshipping at the temple of mammon.
Well, I have a friend in America who wrote me what he and his son did on Black Friday. “We are both typical males and got everything we thought of and then left the store. We even went on-line previously and bought items. Now women on the other hand would be at the store the whole day and then return half of the stuff the next day. The difference between the sexes!!!” To which I answered back, Long live the difference!
That’s it! You got what you want. Why stay any longer? I can imagine an American husband fuming in his car waiting while wife and daughter merrily hop from one shopping mall to another.
That’s the puzzle of salvation. The goods are safe in our hands. The logical thing is to enjoy what you haveWhat is the purpose of this time between the two comings? Waiting it out until God is done with his Black Saturday shopping? In the meanwhile, what do we do? Sit it out in church listening to sermons that bore you to death? Make sure the pastor and his family doesn’t starve? Make sure he rides a nice Pajero so he doesn’t embarrass you before other people? Be good and try your best not to lose your salvation?
No wonder we are bored.
In Jesus parable of the ten virgins all the virgins have to do is light their lamps and wait.
There is nothing so frustrating as to wait for the big thing to happen. The Cebuano language has a word that has no equivalent other Filipino languages. it is the word “tagihuwat.” It means waiting for the big break. It is waiting for that man to propose or for that girl to say yes. It is waiting for that notice from the Embassy saying that the petition for your immigration has been approved. It is teaching in a small school while waiting for the government to approve your application for ranking. But I think there is a word for it in English—marking time.
Tagihuwat is life being lived between neither here nor there. It means being frozen in a present existence that produces nothing. It is walking on a treadmill. It is life lived in the meanwhile. I am waiting for this to happen…in the meanwhile, I do this. I feel sorry for the tagihuwat. But I feel more sorry for the people who employ them. The tagihuwat’s heart is not in his present job. It is waiting. Just waiting. Marking time.
Just as pathetic are people who have high notions about serving God but never put it into practice. They talk about the mission field. But they can’t even relate to their friends. They talk about changing the world but don’t know how to change their bed.
They remind me of a story I heard. A stranger asked an old farmer how to get to the next town. The old man scratched his head and answered, “If I were you, I would not start from here.”
We’ve got to start somewhere but where do we start?
This is the point being made by another parable--the parable of the ten stewards. Most of us don’t really see this parable because we read it thinking it is the parable of the talents. But this is a different parable. There are ten stewards, not three. All are given the same amount. And then they receive this simple command, “Occupy till I come.”
The word occupy is quite interesting. It only occurs here. And the root is pragma from which we have the English word pragmatic…which means to be practical. The word Jesus used could be translated, “to put this money to good use” or “to invest this money” or “to do business with this money” until I come.
We start from the fact that in salvation the Lord has invested us with the capital of his grace. That’s the entire starting point. Now get busy! Do something about God’s grace. Be occupied until I come!
I remember how I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It took me a long time. But when the Spirit finally gushed out of my being, it was as Jesus said, living water flowing from my belly. For almost half an hour I was in ecstasy. My mentor, the man who won me to the Lord was waiting. While walking home he gently said to me, “Narciso, you’ve received a wonderful gift. Don’t use it all on yourself. This afternoon, join me. Let’s do some preaching.” That afternoon we went out street preaching. My knees were still trembling. I did not know what I was saying. But I got started.
Being occupied, being pragmatic, is the exact opposite of the tagihuwat interpretation of the present Christian life.
The tagihuwat Christian does not know what to do with his time while waiting for things to happen. But the pragmatic Christian has his work cut out for him. Capital has already been placed in his hands. How he invests that capital is up to him.
People who are not where God wants them to be have a great capacity for mischief. So if indeed there is a waiting period in your life, you want to make yourself useful,. be of help, but don’t get in the way. Inspire others; don’t be a source of discouragement.
Conclusion
Tagihuwat is certainly not in the vocabulary of Efren Penaflorida. He is a young man who put his conviction to work.
“From the muddy streets and wet markets of his Cavite City hometown to the flashy lights of Hollywood thousands of miles away. That’s how far teacher and civic worker Efren Penaflorida, 28, has gone and will go in his passion to bring education to out-of-school youths and very young children whose poverty may have limited their options to either jail or the graveyard.”
Penaflorida said, “I would rather do something than complain.” And he did something to change the situation that he saw. His made a difference. And so can everyone of us if we put muscle into our good intentions and if we put to work the capital of grace that God has invested into our lives.
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