A Caution to Progressives: A More Excellent Way

Mark Galli, an Anglican who edits Christianity Today, reminds us below of something Stanley Hauerwas used to teach us repeatedly at Duke.  The task of the Church is not to transform the world, but to be the Church.  When we get confused about that, we tend to wander off into various forms of idolatry or clothe a practical atheism in priestly garb.....

What will become of those who have given their best years and their hard earned fortunes to the cause only to see that the world is not, in fact, transformed, or that they have sown the seeds of some bitter unintended consequence? Or what if the church never quite gets it and reverts to its old institutional self? I fear they may become bitter at the church and at God. It would be perfectly understandable if they did. It is a terrible thing to be disappointed by God when you've sacrificed all to promote what you think has been his purpose.

But it is in the midst of such disappointment—even inevitable disappointment—that we see afresh Paul's wisdom in encouraging us to be "obedient from the heart" (Rom. 6:17).

A more excellent way

The fact that everything we undertake will fail to produce the results we hope for is not a reason to do nothing. Far from it. The mistake we sometimes make is doing only those things we imagine will make a difference. When that is the case, our motive—the thing the drives us—is change. If change doesn't happen, or happen in the way we expect, we have no recourse but to fall into a funk. But there is a more excellent way.

That is the way of love, or more particularly, loving obedience. Jesus doesn't call us to make a difference in the world, let alone to transform the world. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:13-16), he does tell us that we will be "salt"—that is, we will preserve the world from complete self-destruction. No small thing that, but hardly world transformation. He also tells us we will be "light," that is, we'll help people see his truth. But when people see truth, often only hardness of heart sets in. Or worse: hostility erupts, and the bearers of the light are thrown into prison and killed, and the recipients of light remain in darkness.

Salt and light—that's about the extent of our effectiveness. Nothing about transforming the world through our efforts. Make no mistake: Jesus does indeed call us into the world to do stuff: preach, baptize, teach, and heal. But he does not promise results. Faithful diligence in such tasks will sometimes change lives and change communities. Whenever this happens, we can rejoice that God has permitted us to see him at work! But a lot of times when the church has obeyed faithfully, we've only received hardship—violence that seems to make things worse for victim and perpetrator alike.

The fact is that sometimes God calls us to do things that make no sense to those who calculate the effectiveness of every act. Like his calling a 20th century Albanian nun to comfort the dying of Calcutta in their last hour. Or like the 18th century Bartholomew de las Casas, who felt called to speak out against brutal treatment of indigenous people in the Americas—only to be completely ignored in his lifetime. Or going further back, like the patriarch who was told he should take his only son—the product of miracle and grace—and sacrifice him on Mt. Moriah.

Our God appears not to be particularly taken with efficiency, effectiveness, or our changing his world. He is mostly interested in our obedience. What he longs for is not people who make a difference in the world, but people who listen for his call and lovingly respond—no matter how absurd or impossible the command.

When the focus is on loving obedience to a loving Father, what difference does it make if it doesn't seem to do any good? What difference does it make if the world or church is not transformed by our lights? When our motive is results, we are bound to be disappointed, because we live in a tragically fallen world that is stubbornly resistant to transformation. But when we focus on obedience to a sovereign heavenly Father, who in love is redeeming his creation in his own time and way (often mysteriously)—well, how could we ever be dismayed?

In his providence, God has raised up in our day men and women who rail against church-as-usual, church-as-program, church-as-institutional-management. They are telling us something true and vital about the church. They are disturbing the religious establishment, upsetting our pious social order, causing a holy chaos! These are prophets in our midst whom we should honor, and for whom we should have ears to hear.

And for whom we should pray—that they would keep their eyes not on the prize of transformation, but that their ears may continue to hear and obey that still small voice that called them into ministry in the first place. Only then will they be among us, challenging and energizing us, even when things look as disappointing as ever.

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today. He is the author of of Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untameable God (Baker). 

via www.christianitytoday.com