God's irascible self

(First a bit of name-dropping.) I once heard Walter Brueggemann preaching at Knox Church in Dunedin and was expecting an academic talk full of words I might or might not understand.

Instead he gave a wonderful and accessible sermon. I've forgotten the content (!), but not the effect.

Jason Goroncy has just posted a copy of 19 theses by Brueggemann on his Per Crucem ad Lucem site (the site's title, by the way, is translated as towards the light by way of the cross on another site, though I'd prefer something as succinct as the original Latin: from Cross to Light). These 'theses' are entitled, A Script to Live (and to die) by.

Brueggemann replaces the commonly-used word, 'worldview,' with 'script,' which is a helpful change, and then points out in the 19 statements how we follow a script in our society of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socialises us all, liberal and conservative. You may or may not agree.

He goes on to say that this script not only makes us unhappy, it is a failure. He then goes on to say that the alternative script is rooted in the Bible and offers a counter to the prevailing script. The key character in the script (and I think he means us to read 'character' as like a character in an ordinary play or film script) is God, the God of the Trinity.

I like what follows in thesis 12:
The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must be taken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.

Great stuff! (Photo is of an exhausted Brueggemann after having nailed his 19 theses to a local church door - just kidding!)

Tom Brackett has begun an interesting process in relation to Brian McLaren's preentation to the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. The original address in on video here, but Tom has helpfully laid it out in a very readable format.

What he proposes to do is video brief interviews with people who have engaged with McLaren's presentation, as they answer follow-up questions to McLaren's claims about the American Episcopalian Church. He's looking for both 'I dream of a church where...' statements as well as practical 'next steps' comments. The aim is to offer a sense of vision to new leaders in the Episcopalian Church.

McLaren states that this is 'The Episcopal Moment' - a moment of opportunity and possibility, precisely because of the challenges. He then lists four advantages that denomination has, and four disadvantages, and ends with five elements that are required for movement forward:
1. a 'bring them in' spirit
2. a 'let's experiment' spirit
3. a 'we're beginning again' spirit
4. a 'transcend and include' spirit
5. the Holy Spirit!

Each of these elements is explained in more detail on Brackett's blog. Whether your church is Episcopalian or something else, what is said here is well-worth thinking about: do we want to bring them in? Are we prepared to experiment? Have we a sense of renewal? Are we prepared to overcome things that hold us back, and accept people who aren't what we think they should be? Have we 'room' for the Holy Spirit? (Not such a silly question!)

Play and Theology

I was alerted to this quote by Robert Jenson on the Inhabitatio Dei blog, which is run by Halden Doerge. Jenson is coming to Dunedin as the University of Otago’s Burns Lecturer, and will lead a half-day seminar at the Knox Centre on the subject of the Eucharistic Church being a Missional Church on the 13th March, 2009.

Play is meaningful action that does not need to seek its meaning in some achievement exterior to itself. It is what we do because we do not have to. It is action to which the future opens as gift rather than as burden. The life of the Trinity is sheer play. As play with the Trinity, liturgy is anticipation of life in the Fulfillment–the closest we get to freedom. It must be admitted that liturgy-as-play is a rather rare occurrence in America’s recognized churches.

Robert W. Jenson, Story and Promise: A Brief Theology of the Gospel about Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973) pg 184.

Missional Church

Len Hjalmarson, who runs the Next Reformation blog (and writes for various other places, such as Allelon and Next Wave online magazine) beings his latest post, Missional Church, in this way:

Over the past two years, two convictions have been growing for me. First, that apart from a Trinitarian mooring, our attempt to rebuild a whole gospel and a foundation for mission will go astray. Second, the church is an alternative (kingdom) culture, founded on a new covenant. Frankly, these points have become so critical in my understanding of God’s kingdom purpose as storied in the Old and New Testaments that I can’t imagine a new reformation unless we take them seriously.

I admit that “Trinity” is not an easy theological concept, and also that the particular formulation rising from Chalcedon in 451 needs reinterpretation — but Triune is the nature of God and is reflected in our humanity. A right vision of God roots a right vision of humanity, and apart from that right vision we won’t get mission right either. The heart of God’s mission is in creating a new humanity.

Afraid of the Holy Spirit?

Mark Driscoll (looking slightly worn out in the photo) spoke to a bunch of Anglicans in Australia recently. He listed 18 obstacles to evangelism in Australia - as he saw it. One of them stood out to me:

8. Many of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit. You don't know what to do with Him, so the trinity is Father, Son and Holy Bible. You are so reactionary to pentecostalism that you do not have a robust theology of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls people into ministry. He also empowers people for ministry. You don't have to be charismatic but you should be a little charismatic, enough at least to worship God with more than just all of your mind. The word charismatic here means prosperity, excessive, bizarre. In London, it means you're not a liberal. Don't get hung up on all the terminology. Do you love the Holy Spirit? Jesus says the Holy Spirit is a ‘He' and not an ‘it'." Ministry cannot be done apart from the Holy Spirit - I think that is in part leading to the lack of entrepreneurialism and innovation, because if it's not already done and written down, you're suspicious of it.

I don't think the Aussie Anglicans are alone in being afraid of the Spirit. Even Pentecostal churches in NZ don't seem to have quite the life they had back in the 70s and 80s, when there seemed to be a real Holy Spirit move.