October 20 2020
NEW TIMES, NEW FORMAT
Imagine a school where teachers only lecture, where students cannot ask questions, where they are taught only from one book, where there never is any homework or tests, where the outside world is hardly ever discussed or examined, where students sit facing one way only and, now during the pandemic, have limited interaction with others.
Well, that’s how most church services operate. No wonder it fails to attract young people, loses the middle age crowd, and basically becomes a geriatric assembly. In today’s cruel Covid-19 times, so suddenly different, the church needs a complete “metanoia”, a total revamping of its business plan. It begs to go back to the way Jesus brought his message. He first tried it the old way, by visiting his own church, but there they tried to kill him! For his home-crowd he was too unconventional, too ‘biblical’. He then already showed his disdain for organized ‘religion’, instead urged his physical neighbors and erstwhile buddies and blood relatives, to embrace LIFE and see God’s creation as holy. No luck at all: familiarity breeds contempt!
Take “The Sermon on the Mount”. But first some observations from a book, members of our church are discussing: “What CHRISTIANITY is Not”, written by Dr. Douglas John Hall. On page 56 he cites Karl Barth: “Doing Theology means having the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other,” illustrating that “the Gospel is not a fixed message,” especially now that we are approaching THE END. We have to recognize that we live in times where everything is different, where everything smells of finality, so the Message too must reflect this new situation: new times means new format. Away with the old, discredited, style of preaching.
That’s why we also need a new view on “The Sermon on the Mount”; that’s why need a new interpretation of what Jesus taught, sitting in the open air. Take note: Sitting ‘together’ outside creates intimacy with God’s created Word, and bonds people in multiple ways. Yes: church should be held outdoors, where possible, scattered in small groups, making dialogue possible, asking for immediate clarification, stimulating discussion. The old way smacks of ‘religion’ and ‘religion’ killed Jesus, and ‘religion’ kills the church.
Back to that ‘famous’ sermon. Let me single out a few lines:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Today we must see the Scriptures in the light of the Suffering Planet, and the forthcoming New Creation, descending as the Kingdom from heaven. These three beatitudes quoted above today especially relate to the wounds we have inflicted on the human spirit and God’s earth. Add to this the current Pandemic, and deep sorrow fills my heart, mourning for those who have died and suffer. Yes, it’s fitting to shed tears for the species that have disappeared, to feel depressed for a planet empty of plenitude and deprived of diversity, but full of our toys. Also the lack of human touch, the extra stress on family and work situations, makes us less human.
There’s so much willful ignorance, so much indifference for the Climate Change phenomenon that affects mostly the poor. Church Buildings are energy hogs, total depending on the automobile for access. It is time for people to cluster, to buy homes near each other, so that real physical community is possible. Every day I walk or run on the Canada Trail that cuts through our village. There I encounter very few walkers, but plenty of ATVs. I always wonder what sort of enjoyment these people derive from sitting on a noisy, polluting machine, drowning out conversations, obliterating natural sounds, exposed to dust and poisons. Nothing ‘gentle’ about it!
“Blessed are the gentle”; some translations say, “Blessed are those who claim nothing for themselves”. Of course, this applies to creation, to our natural world which we must treat with gentleness and utmost care, and which we will inherit when we NOW claim nothing for ourselves, because we will inherit this very earth. “Blessed those who are mourn”, because so much of our planet, including people, is dying unnecessarily.
We all have become immune to the cries of creation. Roman 8 comes to mind:
“consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of God’s children. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies.
There are some pronouncements by Jesus that have never caught on, such as “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.” (Matthew 19: 33-35).
I can imagine this having been the case in Jesus’ time when becoming a Jesus’ follower, when quitting the synagogue walk, when abandoning ‘the faith of the fathers’ created a terrible division in the household. Or, in the time of the apostle Paul, when people quit pagan worship and adopted Christ.
But today?
Yes, today too there is this same hostility evident.
The days, using carbon energy in abundance, are over.
The days seeing creation as holy and adopting a life-style reflecting this, are upon us: that creates tensions.
The religious days of going to heaven are over, and the days of gearing our actions toward the earth, are upon us.
The days of abundance, causing Climate Change, are over, and sobriety, wartime conditions, scarcity and insecurity everywhere, are upon us.
The days of gathering in large church buildings are over, and ‘small is beautiful’ also in worship, are upon us.
All that creates animosity, tensions, divisions.
Yes, we live in a different era, where thinking outside the box is required to attain a degree of sanity. Hence, NEW TIMES, NEW FORMAT.
The days of the Christian Religion are over. The future of Christianity does not exist in denominations of any kind because they promote religion. The future of the faith community is in personal dialogue and small group discourse.
Jesus died to save us from religion too, to free us from its burden. Bonhoeffer – just before his death – predicted the advent of a non-religious form of Christianity. That time has now come: we must be ready for the New Creation, which, in the last Bible book, states that “There is no altar there”. The days of religion are over: the time to LIVE to the full in the creation renewed by Christ, is upon us. Augustine has said, “Many who God has, the church has not; many who the church has, God has not.” Another reason to meet in the open: easier for others to join.
NEW TIMES, NEW FORMAT.