I have been very exercised recently for a number of reasons;
1/ Extended conversations with my teenage children about Sex trafficking (Initiated by the recent LZ7 track!)
2/ The dialogue online concerning the relative merits of Kony2012 campaign.
3/ Spending a morning praying for Street Children in Senegal (Talibes) and Prostitutes in Cambodia. 4/ Recently listening to a Dr M Loyd-Jones podcast - in which he refers to the state of 'apostasy' that the Church had got itself into at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th Century, as it cared so much for social, justice and poverty issues that it ceased to preach the gospel. (His words of course!)
Now, where do my kids find their place in the midst of all of this? Our discussion centred around how meaningful is it to download a track and feel justified that you are doing something about sex trafficking? Is that simply consumer activism ... would we be so concerned to spend our 69p if we weren't getting a download out of it. Are we simply getting onto a band wagon of getting it to number 1 in the download charts or are we really exercised about the abuses? How connected are the millions who downloaded the track now? ... a few weeks later?
They had no answers, and neither did I! Except that I guess youth will always be radical, it is the nature of youth. Before I was a Christian I was a college student ... and was very exercised by CND and 'Save the Whale' the 'cause du jour' of the mid-80s!!
I was also reminded of an article that I read a few years back in the Guardian, which was a study of how effective Gap Years (including Missions trips) were in actually changing peoples lifestyles ... the findings were pretty grim reading. Those who were exercised by 'visiting poverty' in their late teens, early twenties did not seem to translate that into different giving patterns later in life, or different values of what is important. No doubt they badgered and annoyed their friends for a while, as they themselves grappled with reverse culture shock, seeing the wastage and excess of life in the west - but eventual regained the same equilibrium they had before they went. (I am no longer a member of CND nor do I give anything to 'Save the Whale' ... so I am writing as one who was as unnaffected by youthful zeal as anybody!)
So, how can we not only raise awareness but change lifestyles to allow people to make a real difference in a sustained way. My kids had sufficient interest to go online and find out how else they might take action, time will tell if it makes a difference, and how much encouragement from a parent is useful!!!
As for the issue of prayer - I confess that I find it incredibly difficult to know how to pray! For myself I think all systemic corruption, poverty, injustice etc are ultimately expressions of the human condition - thus, whilst we might fight for equality, justice etc. If we do not, at the same time, fight for deliverance from the human condition, sin, through the proclamation of the gospel, we are only scratching the surface. (Which is probably what MLJ was getting at!)
I would love to have a pair of glasses that I could wear myself, and share with others - that would help us see spiritual poverty in all it's grimness, as easily as we can see material poverty, to see spiritual bondage as easily as we can see the prostitutes enslaved by their masters, to regard the injustice of ~40% of the peoples of the world still classed as unreached with the gospel as much as those who live under brutal regimes and governments. It is much easier to give money to the poor, or sign a petition online, or feed a hungry person than it is to go and live a compassionate life before them 24/7 ... it is much easier for our emotions to be tugged by what we see than for our spirits to be burdened by what we can't see. (Actually, we do have these glasses ... it is called Spiritual Discernment - which we need to exercise with more care and attention!)
What is the work that the Church is to be about ... what is the Father's business? In the midst of trial and suffering Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:18 "We fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" Some people who live in the worst possible situations can know wonderful freedom in Christ, and some who live in freedom are horribly enslaved.
I am a little wary of some of the usage of Old Testament quotes ... when God was speaking to His covenant people, sharing His expectations of how they should, as His covenant people, live their lives. When we speak to other nations there is a wildly different dynamic in play ... and I don't see much in the New Testament that was aimed at unbeliever's in terms of lifestyle expectations. The change of lifestyle comes with the change of heart ... If I say that the Kingdom grows one person at a time I am not being trite ... but I am greatly concerned if a cause or theology drives a desire to see the world changed without seeing people changed and the gospel of Christ being the central theme that drives everything.
Pressing on! ...
1/ Extended conversations with my teenage children about Sex trafficking (Initiated by the recent LZ7 track!)
2/ The dialogue online concerning the relative merits of Kony2012 campaign.
3/ Spending a morning praying for Street Children in Senegal (Talibes) and Prostitutes in Cambodia. 4/ Recently listening to a Dr M Loyd-Jones podcast - in which he refers to the state of 'apostasy' that the Church had got itself into at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th Century, as it cared so much for social, justice and poverty issues that it ceased to preach the gospel. (His words of course!)
Now, where do my kids find their place in the midst of all of this? Our discussion centred around how meaningful is it to download a track and feel justified that you are doing something about sex trafficking? Is that simply consumer activism ... would we be so concerned to spend our 69p if we weren't getting a download out of it. Are we simply getting onto a band wagon of getting it to number 1 in the download charts or are we really exercised about the abuses? How connected are the millions who downloaded the track now? ... a few weeks later?
They had no answers, and neither did I! Except that I guess youth will always be radical, it is the nature of youth. Before I was a Christian I was a college student ... and was very exercised by CND and 'Save the Whale' the 'cause du jour' of the mid-80s!!
I was also reminded of an article that I read a few years back in the Guardian, which was a study of how effective Gap Years (including Missions trips) were in actually changing peoples lifestyles ... the findings were pretty grim reading. Those who were exercised by 'visiting poverty' in their late teens, early twenties did not seem to translate that into different giving patterns later in life, or different values of what is important. No doubt they badgered and annoyed their friends for a while, as they themselves grappled with reverse culture shock, seeing the wastage and excess of life in the west - but eventual regained the same equilibrium they had before they went. (I am no longer a member of CND nor do I give anything to 'Save the Whale' ... so I am writing as one who was as unnaffected by youthful zeal as anybody!)
So, how can we not only raise awareness but change lifestyles to allow people to make a real difference in a sustained way. My kids had sufficient interest to go online and find out how else they might take action, time will tell if it makes a difference, and how much encouragement from a parent is useful!!!
As for the issue of prayer - I confess that I find it incredibly difficult to know how to pray! For myself I think all systemic corruption, poverty, injustice etc are ultimately expressions of the human condition - thus, whilst we might fight for equality, justice etc. If we do not, at the same time, fight for deliverance from the human condition, sin, through the proclamation of the gospel, we are only scratching the surface. (Which is probably what MLJ was getting at!)
I would love to have a pair of glasses that I could wear myself, and share with others - that would help us see spiritual poverty in all it's grimness, as easily as we can see material poverty, to see spiritual bondage as easily as we can see the prostitutes enslaved by their masters, to regard the injustice of ~40% of the peoples of the world still classed as unreached with the gospel as much as those who live under brutal regimes and governments. It is much easier to give money to the poor, or sign a petition online, or feed a hungry person than it is to go and live a compassionate life before them 24/7 ... it is much easier for our emotions to be tugged by what we see than for our spirits to be burdened by what we can't see. (Actually, we do have these glasses ... it is called Spiritual Discernment - which we need to exercise with more care and attention!)
What is the work that the Church is to be about ... what is the Father's business? In the midst of trial and suffering Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:18 "We fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" Some people who live in the worst possible situations can know wonderful freedom in Christ, and some who live in freedom are horribly enslaved.
I am a little wary of some of the usage of Old Testament quotes ... when God was speaking to His covenant people, sharing His expectations of how they should, as His covenant people, live their lives. When we speak to other nations there is a wildly different dynamic in play ... and I don't see much in the New Testament that was aimed at unbeliever's in terms of lifestyle expectations. The change of lifestyle comes with the change of heart ... If I say that the Kingdom grows one person at a time I am not being trite ... but I am greatly concerned if a cause or theology drives a desire to see the world changed without seeing people changed and the gospel of Christ being the central theme that drives everything.
Pressing on! ...
Thanks for this...one of the greatest challenges we have as Christians is to live and presence (proclaim) the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.The OT covenant with Israel set out the framework for peaceable and just community and named shalom the fruit of loving God and neighbour. Poverty and injustice will always be affronts to the gospel in that they are the incarnational manifestations of lovelessness, greed, a turning away from the precepts of the Servant King. IN our desire to ‘court culture’ and its privileges we have often fallen into step with aspects of culture/economy/relationships which are counter kingdom- the Church in general has become way too vague about what those kingdom values actually look like in practise.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems with side-lining material justice issues) is that to do so is to ignore the Christian’s responsibility to live justly (righteously) as bearers of the full gospel of the kingdom. Many of the structural causes of injustice are effectively ‘unseen’ and they require prophetic discernment, study and prayer to uncover at times! Walter Wink speaks helpfully about the unseen Principalities and Powers which are responsible for much oppression and which are diametrically opposed to the realisation of the kingdom of God-that is to say that a comprehensive biblical perspective sees material injustice as a spiritual issue.
If we fail to examine and challenge the unjust structures of which we are often a part (especially in our globalised world), then we fail to let the gospel renew our minds and penetrate our lives. As you suggest, the task has often become facile and commercialised and I agree that some forms of arm chair commercialised activism need careful and responsible critique and often do not even address the core Power at work ‘behind the scenes’. However, injustice is a direct result of the absence of the kingdom in fuller measure and as such, the gospel of the kingdom will always be transformative in the here and now.
Interestingly, Paul himself felt the full force of the spiritual principalities and powers behind injustice and oppression when he delivered the (trafficked?) slave girl with the divining spirit. This effectively brought down the wrath of the principalities and powers behind imperial mindsets. Yet again, the preaching of the gospel necessitated the confrontation of materially manifested oppression (Paul was literally stopped in his tracks until he dealt with the power confronting him through the girl’s oppression). That he was thrown into prison indicates that the gospel was offensive because the material life of the kingdom that was manifest was a direct challenge to the material corruption and control of imperial economy…ie the gospel of the kingdom confronted economic injustice in the form of slavery and Paul paid for it by being imprisoned.
Important issues to be addressing…thanks for posting this.
Very nice post. I was concerned about the Kony thing too. The response seemed to be about the Western responder more than about the people being hurt. One person was upset about the criticism and posted "We are trying to create a global consciousness". Fair enough and also a good idea. But creating a global consciousness is about us, not the people being hurt. If the global consciousness does not lead to action that helps them, then it is just a way to feel good about our intentions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this ... It is a fresh reminder that the desire to do good is very different from the wisdom to act in such a way that good is done! Try and create global consciousness of an issue in a manner that seems to show no global consciousness of the culture seems somewhat counter productive to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this ... I agree entirely with what you have written - especially the last paragraph explaining Paul's experiences. It demonstrates what I believe to be the right order of 'cause and effect'.
ReplyDelete