The Logic of Election

I know. We Christians do spend too much time thinking about and debating theology. It's not necessarily that theology is a bad thing; it's when theology becomes an end in itself and not a means to practice or worship that it becomes dangerous.

Let's take a classic Christian doctrine as a quick case study. All orthodox Christians (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) have a doctrine of election. Many disagree on the theological particulars. Is election referring to the individual person? Is it a communal election? Both?

Lesslie Newbigin, a famous missionary to India, believed that while not all Christian traditions would agree on the particulars of the doctrine of election, there was a beautiful "logic" behind the doctrine of election that all Christians could get behind.

For Newbigin, the doctrine of election was inherently mysterious. We cannot fully understand it. And we shouldn't try to! Nor should we spend all of our time debating over it. Although he was not calling Christians to embrace some form of doctrinal agnosticism, like John Calvin and Herman Bavinck before him, he knew how dangerous it was to probe the depths of the mind of God.

So what is this "logic" behind the doctrine of election? Well, Newbigin is a firm believer that good doctrine must always lead to practice and worship. While Christians can't spend their entire lives obsessing over the depths of the doctrine of election, they can easily hone in on God's purpose for election.

God's election is never merely to save an individual. Taking Abraham's election as our hermeneutic, we see that God elects in order to transform communities who then communicate God's grace/blessing into the entirety of created reality.

Yes. It's very easy to dwell in the "ivory tower" But I think it's much sweeter to come down and practice what you preach.

The Essence of Christianity

Bavinck boils Christianity down to the following sentence: 

"Christianity is no less that the real, supreme work of the Triune God, in which the Father reconciles his created but fallen world through the death of his Son and re-creates it through his Spirit into the kingdom of God"

(The Essence of Christianity)

Must Buy!

I just recently purchased Bavinck's collection of essays on religion, beauty, societal relationships, science, and many other topics. 

It is truly a gem. Biblically rooted; culturally sensitive. I am blown away at how Bavinck addresses issues that I am facing today in the 21st century. I haven't read all the essays yet, but I would definitely recommend the ones on Evolution and The Relationship Between Society and Christianity. 

Vacuuming for the Kingdom

Whatever Christianity is, it is not a philosophy in the traditional sense of the word. Although Christians should be interested in ideas and truth, the Christian faith cannot be reduced to just another "idea" or "ideology". Christianity is ultimately about a community's witness to the very real and historical person of Jesus Christ. You may doubt Christ's authenticity, but you have to admit that Christianity is unique in this regard.

Practically, Christianity's concrete and non-philosophical nature can be quite frustrating. If you're anything like me, you find it easier to talk about love and justice than actually practice them. In the Christian faith, you think about love and justice... but you also have to practice them. This means you can't stay in the ivory tower. You have to come down to everyday life and exercise your faith in very practical ways.

This week, my wife and I had a guest over to our home. All day, on a theoretical level, I thought about the nature of hospitality, why Christians were called to do it and how ultimately God was hospitable with us.

But then my wife reminded me that I had to vacuum our dirty floor in order for our guest to feel welcomed. This, she reminded me, was an integral part of being hospitable.

Believe me! It was much easier for me to contemplate hospitality then to actually practice it.

Hospitality: A Sign of Contradiction

I've just begun to read a new book by Christine Pohl entitled Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition.

I'm reading this book at the start of my first week as the pastoral intern at Redeemer Sugarland.

One of the things that I appreciate and admire about my friend/mentor/pastor Brad Wright is his incurable desire to cultivate community and "make room" for people in his life through the embodiment and enactment of hospitality. I would go as far to say that Brad embraces a hermeneutic of hospitality. Although he hasn't articulated this to me in these exact words, there is a sense in which he would say the best way to "read" the Christian story is (a) as a narrative in which God is opening up his Kingdom to strangers and outcasts to meet with them in communion and (b) that you can't really understand Christianity without practicing hospitality.

That said, I want to follow in Brad's footsteps. As St. Paul once wrote, I want to "seek to show hospitality".

But I don't want to be naive. I know hospitality is a form of death-to-self. It can be joyful but it is not always glamorous.

I'd like to end with this quote that really stuck out to me:

"A community which embodies hospitality to strangers is a sign of contradiction, a place where joy and pain, crises and peace are closely interwoven"

- Jean Vanier