More from chapter 1--Page 20
"We have not shown in recent decades that we have much stomach for this message that the apostle Paul called a 'stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, 'folly to the Gentiles' (Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 1:23). Far from clashing with the culture of consumerism, American religion appears not only at peace with our narcissism but gives it a spiritual legitimacy."
Obviously our culture is trying to do away with truth and discomfort. Rather than lose weight, we demand larger seats on planes. We use euphemisms galore and flock to the happiest place on earth to escape what we all know to be true--that we are sinful and can't change.
Rather than allow the message of the cross to confront our deepest need (to be reconciled to God by God through God's justice, wrath, mercy and grace) we have, at best, cheapened the cross to be an entry point, an example, or a piece of fire insurance. In my personal experience, we have called people to the truth of the cross, but haven't done a good job of teaching the full ramifications of salvation through faith and by grace. The common congregant knows little of their belief. Who will tell them? Certainly they won't learn it on their own. People need teachers and pastors and elders--those who can teach them how the cross isn't supported by Americanism and selfishness.
Page 21
"...the message of American Christianity has simply become trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant."
We so long to give people what we think is good news. We could be compared (quite easily) to the Pharisees who thought they were carrying the good news with them. Their news was bondage to the law. Our nice sayings and "relevant" messages of God's love aren't confronting people in their sin, showing them how inadequate they are as compared to a Holy God. In other words, many seem to be floating through a "Christian walk" wondering if they really still need a savior or not. Our soft words and glib conclusions don't carry the tone or the weight of scripture. We are walking by the beaten traveler--rather than reaching down with news that there is one who has rescued them--we take a seat next to them and strike up a conversation--and work to convince them that they aren't really that broken.
Each of us is wretchedly desolate! Each of us has no ability at all to respond to life--for we are replete with death. Sin doesn't just trip us up, but it has closed all faculties that would communicate to us that we are dead. Dead in our transgressions...objects of wrath (Eph 2).
It is only by Grace that we become privy to our state of shame. There is nothing to affirm within us, except that we need a real savior...later Horton references this powerful scene from ER.
We need forgiveness and need a savior. That savior is only found within the careful and complete teaching of scripture. Horton elaborates:
Page 21
"I think our doctrine has been forgotten, assumed, ignored, and even misshaped and distorted by the habits and rituals of daily life in a narcissistic culture. We are assimilating the disrupting and disorienting news from heaven to the banality of our own immediate felt needs, which interpret God as a personal shopper for the props of our life movie: happiness and entertainment, salvation as therapeutic well-being, and mission as pragmatic success measured solely in terms of numbers."
He is saying here what I have felt for a long time. We need GOOD TEACHING and right doctrine! We need truth! Last night I was at one of the great cultural rites of passage we have--a high school graduation. Our true cultural colors came shining through the whole event--we love to feel good! Every speaker talked with such gooey positivism, one would think Utopia had been discovered and refined on their high school campus. No one spoke what was true. No one confronted real life. It was all a mushy farewell and congrats...I am so glad our Savior bore real pain and shame to pay the price for my very real sin!
We don't need gooey good news! We need the real Good News, which only comes in the context of the real bad news! I am a sinner, saved by grace.
Horton quotes Methodist bishop William Willimon:
Page 25
"In conservative contexts, gospel speech is traded for dogmatic assertion and moralism, for self-help psychologies and narcotic mantras. In more liberal speech, talk tiptoes around the outrage of Christian discourse and ends up as an innocuous, though urbane, affirmation of the ruling order. Unable to preach Christ and him crucified, we preach humanity and it improved."
Insightful. I appreciate Horton's ability to raise the conversation above the din of the liberals vs. conservatives. He is able to communicate how both "camps" have missed the mark and later describes how both have contributed to secularism and humanism.
Page 26
"Discipleship, spiritual disciplines, life transformation, culture transformation, relationships, marriage and family, stress, the spiritual gifts, financial gifts, radical experiences on conversion, end times curiosities that seem to have less to do with Christ's bodily return than with matching verses to newspaper headlines, and accounts of overcoming significant obstacles through the power of faith. This is the steady diet we're getting today, and it is bound to burn us out because its all about us and our work rather than about Christ and his work. Even important biblical exhortations and commands become dislocated from the indicative, gospel habitat. Instead of the gospel giving us new thoughts, experiences, and a motivation for grateful obedience, we lodge the power of God in own piety and programs."
What would most churches do without the above? Maybe we would rest on the sabbath? Maybe we would have less burned out staff members? Maybe laymen would more easily serve the community because we aren't demanding they serve every whim of the church?
Father, I ask you for great wisdom!
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4 comments:
Hi Isaac - I love that you are wrestling with tough questions, & this book cerainly raises alot of issues worth looking into. Adapting to our culture at the expense of truth is a mistake we cannot afford to make.
Without reading the book it's hard to know what the context of all the quotes are, but some of them seem a bit extreme...
He is absolutely right that we cannot come to Christ through any efforts of our own - it is ALL through His mercy & grace - lest any of us should boast...
However, the Scriptures also command us repeatedly to go, to come, to do, to be disciples, to be His reflection in a broken world - these are RESPONSES - these are ACTIONS - faith without works is dead.
Perhaps a key is the motivation behind our "works" and the source of the strength that enable us to do those good works. If we do them to EARN anything, we are doomed. If we do them on our own strength we are likewise doomed. But if we do them in response to the grace that has been extended to us, & by His power working within us, then it seems to me we are embodying the Good News & extending it to others.
Christians throughout the ages have been involved in changing the political & moral landscape (William Wilberforce, or Abraham Lincoln), the social landscape (Mother Teresa), they've built hospitals & dug wells & started educational systems. We are called to be about the Father's business.
So on that issue I guess I have questions. Of course we need to reject the feel-good, narcisistic positivism of our culture. Yes, we need to be less busy. Yes, we have neglected the teaching of doctrine & the Bible. But I can't read my Bible & escape all of the calls to DO as well as to BE. We have a part to play in responding to His love & saving power in our lives.
Guess after you hear my teaching tonight you might understand a little better some of what I'm meaning... I'll look forward to your feedback.
Tami
The great paradox between faith and works isn't an easy one to navigate, is it? I think Horton's exhortation is to Christian leaders, not to Christians (in general). His main point is that the gospel needs to be central to our message--not the entry point to a moralism.
Horton gives the example of Wilberforce, who was encouraged NOT to be a pastor, so that he could continue his Good Works outside the walls of the church. Thank God he did.
The gospel is so revolutionary and efficacious as to render amazing works within our lives. The preaching of the gospel, therefore, needs to remain focused on the Gospel. We have softened and shortened the Gospel and replaced it with socio-political-moralistic rhetoric.
The Father's business (as revealed through scripture) is the administration of justice on His Son, thereby redeeming his people to be his own, and catapulting the Good News forward into the world. His Grace saves us and changes us.
Great Christians will always make great change in the world (and should), but the mission of the church is to promote, preach and provide Christ. That is the distinctive--in an effort to "change the world" ministers have added to the gospel or neglected the primacy of the gospel.
Thanks for the dialogue...looking forward to hearing you teach tonight...
I was listening to a Matt Chandler sermon the other week and he was saying that Luke in Acts preferred the term follower of "The Way" to "Christian". He only uses the term Christian once in the book, and never again. Matt wasn't being dogmatic about it or stating that there is anything wrong with the term Christian, its just that The Way has a more active undertone while the term Christian may seem alittle...assuming?
DonnyTop--Interesting perspective. I am going to think about that for a while. I too want to be a follower of the way--which is more dynamic and less static...the question changes from "When did you become a Christian?" to "Are you following the Way?"
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