Category: Urban

Idolatry: a defective social construction of reality for the Christian (part 1)

1/8/2018

I am reading or have read recently a number of books that seek to explain how we arrived at our very distinct demographic and mostly ethnic divisions that exist today—urban, suburban, and now exurban. (I will leave the rural landscape for others who have studied it more adequately.) Amid these books I am also learning how we have developed a functionally dependent class, mostly non-white, that live and try to survive in the most dense urban areas of our country. Much of what I have read affirms my own writing on the subject, which found its way into chapter 5—“Idolatry and Poverty: Social Action as Christian Apologetics”—of my book, Wasted Evangelism: Social Action and the Church’s Task of Evangelism. Below is a three-part adaption of the latter subsections of this chapter.

Idolatry promotes a defective social reality for the non-poor Christian

In his Nature and Destiny of Man, Reinhold Niebuhr observed that idolatry is making the contingent absolute, something relative into “the unconditional principle of meaning.” Luke Timothy Johnson points out that, when we consider something as ultimate, this is worship, not just what our lips or cultus ritual render, but in the exercise of our freedom in service to that which we consider absolute and unconditional, and, thus, derive our significance.

It is, however, not just an image fashioned with gold and silver that provides the danger and potential of idolatry, for the Bible is clear, such man-fashion idols are no-things (Isa 41:21–24; 44:10; Ps 115; 135; Acts 14:15; 1 Cor 8:4; 10:19; Gal 4:8). Johnson reminds us that “important idolatries have always centered on those forces which have enough specious power to be truly counterfeit, and therefore truly be dangerous: sexuality (fertility), riches, and power (or glory).” It is the body of knowledge that accompanies the object and the habits of service in worshipping the objects (i.e., idols) and, then, the social and cultural habits that follow that develop an everyday “world,” with meaning and definitions for relationships (repeated action, mundane habits), that objectifies reality and maintains significance and plausibility (its symbols and corresponding institutions). Our socially constructed world, then, is reality formed by our service of worship and sustained (validated) through the habits and experience of everyday life.

Idolatries are socially constructed and then objectified through routines of daily life, making, as Johnson points out, “the relative absolute, the contingent necessary, and the end-all that which is neither end nor all.” The result is a distorted construction of reality for the Christian, whose whole orientation can be in conflict with the reality of the inaugurated presence and outcomes of the kingdom. As far as biblical revelation is concerned, “Idolatry [is] the Big Lie about reality.” This is equally true of economic realities and social-locations that form everyday habits of non-poor Christians as it is for those who worship multiple gods or idols. This understanding of the function of idolatry is affirmed by Berger and Luckmann, who remind us reality itself is socially constructed.

As far as biblical revelation is concerned, “Idolatry [is] the Big Lie about reality.”

However, to understand fully the non-poor’s everyday reality, it is simply “not enough to understand the particular symbols or interaction patterns of individual situations.” It is how the “overall structure or meaning” within “these particular patterns and symbols” are experienced. As we seek to apply the gospel that is embedded with texts regarding idolatry (e.g., the overwhelming number in Mark’s own gospel) and, as well, texts indicative of relationships toward the economically vulnerable, it is important to understand how the social-location experienced by many non-poor Christians was formed and its implications for their (i.e., the non-poor) participation in the outcomes of this social-location.

Religion once offered an integrating principle that helped provide a “life-world” that was “more or less unified.” But, modern life not only provides a less unified everyday life, now religion often aligns itself with the socio-economic forces that help sustain the plausibility of our faith, which can then inoculate the non-poor Christian from the idolatrous forces embedded in their social-location. Over time new symbols and signs (lawns, yards, gated communities, commutes and highways, social status, shopping malls, upward mobility, the market, double-entry accounting, etc.) that permeate the social-location the modern non-poor Christian experiences as everyday life compete with biblical symbols (e.g., the words of God, the cross, redemptive-historical acts of God in history, etc.). Johnson reminds us, “Prior to any action or pattern of actions we might term ‘Christian’ is a whole set of perceptions and attitudes, which themselves emerge from a coherent system of symbols, and an orientation toward the world and other humans, which we call Faith.” In fact, the very habit of experiencing the fragmented, often unintegrated social-locations over and over everyday might feel like freedom bestowed by our socio-economic system, but actually weakens the plausibility of biblical faith to inform our home world.

Non-poor Christians are in danger of idolatry when finding themselves in need of affirming “this worldly” system and its institutions as God-given in order to be at home, plotting their lives on the societal map provided by social institutions rather than biblical discipleship in order to relate—comfortably, plausibly, securely—to the overall web of acceptable meanings in society. As Berger in Homeless Mind points out, because of the plurality of social worlds—work, school, play, third places, highways, commutes, home, shopping, church—in modern society “the structures of each particular world are experienced as relatively unstable and unreliable.” The separated sectors of our social world are rationalized and relativized, forcing the non-poor Christian to justify religiously this worldly system and institutions in order to feel less exposed and vulnerable and more relevant and secure. After decades of political alignment and religious justification, for the most part, the non-poor Christians living in the suburbs now feel at home.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I am the author of Wasted Evangelism: Social Action and the Church's Task of Evangelism, a deep, exegetical read into the Gospel of Mark. All royalties from this book go to support our church planting ministry in the Hill community of New Haven, CT. The book and its e-formats can be found on Amazon, Barns'n Nobel, (and most other online book distributors) or through the publisher, Wipf & Stock directly.

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Dangerous Sunday Morning Devotion: Can’t benefit from the milk if your can’t handle lactose

8/16/2015

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"So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites" (Exodus 3:8; cf. 3:17; 13:5).

"Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way" (Exodus 33:3).

A while ago, I was reading a novel about the investigation of a mysterious plane crash. It was a great read. Enjoyed it immensely. It was entitled Crashers, written by Dana Haynes. “Crashers” is the name given to Go-Teams who are sent in immediately to investigate airline plane crashes, leading experts from specific fields vested in determining the cause of the crash, so it never happens again. In the midst of the storyline, a character, not necessarily religious, ponders a rather curious thought that got me thinking about the church and the poor. She said,

"Land of milk and honey . . . Bloody lot of good it does if you can’t handle lactose and you’ve got diabetes to boot."

The book’s character was referring to the biblical concept of a Land of milk and honey, an Exodus reference about the Land of Promise, the Land of Gift, as “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod 3:3, et al.). This land was the promise made to the Israelite slaves, captive and abused under Egyptian rule, namely, that God would deliver them from Egypt and bring them to a new land flowing with milk and honey. Obviously, this was good news. Mostly the references to milk and honey simply mean the land would be fruitful agriculturally (the milk) and productive (the honey). The land would be a benefit to the incoming inhabitants. It would be workable, sustainable, a land that would allow a measure of self-sufficiency for the Israelites, who believed God and followed Him into that land.

But, the second part of the Crasher character’s thought--Bloody lot of good it does if you can’t handle lactose and you’ve got diabetes to boot—moved me to the numerous Bible references in Exodus and other exodus-related texts concerning the weak, economically vulnerable, and the poor who would be co-occupants of this land flowing with milk and honey (e.g., Exod 22:22, 24-25; 23:3, 6; cf. Lev 19:15; Deut 1:17; 10:18ff ; 16:19; 24:17, 18; Prov 23:10, 11; Jer 7:6, 7; Amos 4:1-2, etc.). It is so true, that if one is lactose intolerant, one cannot enjoy the benefit of milk. Nor, can honey be useful to someone who has diabetes. Bloody lot of good it does them.

It is so true, that if one is lactose intolerant, one cannot enjoy the benefit of milk. Nor, can honey be useful to someone who has diabetes. Bloody lot of good it does them.

Similarly, the poor and other economically vulnerable populations are exactly in this bloody fix: the poor and economically vulnerable are unable—because they lack access to power, to jobs, to resources; social barriers, educational gaps, demographic separation; gender bias and racism; unfair legislative policy, unjust local zoning laws; and, the presence of violence in their community—to enjoy what the land has to offer. The economically vulnerable and the poor cannot utilize the milk and they lack the ability to enjoy the honey (or, cannot be productive for the lack of abilities and barriers).

Now, of course, I do understand that many people are poor of their own doing—let’s get that out of the way. And, I point out, there are many who are wealthy and affluent who are so not of their own doing as well, but are so despite who they are as people or what they can and cannot do. As for sin, I take it those who are poor and non-poor are of the same, both equally sinners. Yes, of course sin can lead to poverty—and it, as well, can lead to wealth. And, please understand it can be someone else’s sins that make others face the conditions of poverty. So let’s stop with that game and offer a Christian response to assist those who are poor to move out of poverty and stop generational poverty. Let’s actually grasp our Christian obligation to address the causes of poverty. Now with this all said, I’d like to move to a second thought I have from the book Crashers.

Christian Crashers teams that address issues of poverty

The exodus line from Crashers got me going--Land of milk and honey . . . Bloody lot of good it does if you can’t handle lactose and you’ve diabetes to boot. My stream of consciousness kept flowing. In the real world of plane crashes the book’s story described, I was impressed how the gathered experts would be called in to act and move toward a crash and the airplane debris, examining the crash, determining the cause or causes, and put things in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. I like this analogy.

Would it not make sense that such a team—or teams—of Christians (and even inviting non-Christian experts, as well, where needed and appropriate) to descend on areas of poverty and examine the blight and determine the cause or causes, and put things in place to ensure it doesn’t continue (or at least to begin to ameliorate the incidence of poverty)? (Now, wouldn’t that be a worthwhile endeavor to fund!)

It is interesting, in the Bible’s story of Exodus, there is a shift between the first promised move toward the Land flowing with milk and honey at the beginning (cf. Exodus 3:8) and the latter part of the story in Exodus 33. In the latter chapters of the book of Exodus, we discover that even the Israelites themselves were idolatrous—not just the Egyptians. This idolatry was a threat to their future and prosperity. Yet, they would still be able to enter into the Land flowing with milk and honey (it was a promise); but God would not go with them because they had become a stiff-necked people (a reference to idolatry). The Israelites would inherit the land as promised, maybe even benefit from it, but God would not go with them.

So, it is in some way the same for the people of God in today’s world to inherit the blessing of God, but actually be without God’s presence. Very similarly, non-poor Christians can enjoy the blessings of God’s creation, yet be without God (because their affluence and lifestyle is idolatrous). They can look and sound like God’s people, but not truly, since they live idolatrous lives. And without repeating myself from a host of other posts, it is clear from the Biblical data and the gospel itself that Christians are to be associated with the poor and should be concerned about the affects of poverty. Although true of most economic cultures, yet especially true in a culture that promotes upward mobility, Christians ought to be concerned for those who cannot benefit from the blessings of the Land (i.e., the economic social and demographic location) and be active (as a Go-Team) that addresses the causes of poverty. Local churches harnessing Go-Teams to deal with the issues of nearby poverty is a remedy (and repentance) of our idolatries.

But who and where are these experts? Now that’s a good question. I am thinking of the human capital many nonpoor congregations have where there would be experts from the social service world, business, education, psychology, urban development and redevelopment, economists, bankers, medical experts . . . natural, Christian Go-Teams. Crashers. Christian crash teams that could go into a community affected by poverty, investigate the causes, and develop and implement actions that would ameliorate the causes of poverty and provide the means for the poor to benefit from the blessings of the land.

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Dangerous Sunday morning devotions: Ephesians 3:1-13 is scaring the hell out of me

8/10/2015

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Sometimes we should be deeply impacted by a text of Scripture, not so much as an encouragement or a comfort, but seriously scaring us to death. We are conditioned to seek solace, comfort, encouragement, even exhortation, in the Bible. We are told and, perhaps, have taught others to hold on to its promises. But, this is only half right. We should be consoled by texts meant to console, yet scared to death by texts meant to slay us. Ephesians 3:1-13 is one such text of Scripture (despite most preachers never presenting this path of relevance or application from this pericope of Paul’s words–at least to my knowledge).

“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, n whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Here some of my thoughts that arise from Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus:

What are we (those claiming “a call” to ministry, whether as a lay-person or a vocational church calling) willing to suffer, so those outside the churched can find access to the Father (3:11-12)?
Whatever we think of the issues facing the church today, we need to fully affirm that “all,” indeed, have access to the Father. This means we cannot and should not determine by design, default, or naïve unintended consequence that bar or hinder some from such access; then, “all” isn't “all.” This, then, is surely not the gospel. We can believe every person or demographic has access to the Father (i.e., brain-theological affirmation), but our attitudes, bias, prejudice, and lifestyle may demonstrates otherwise. So, in the end it is not just what I think, but how I live, where I live, my choices, my habits, and my actions that determine whether I truly believe all human beings have access, now, to the Father through Jesus Christ.
This passage is the minister’s (or lay-leader’s) fulfillment (that is, our obedience) to Jesus’ words “take up your cross and die” and the application for His words, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” Reread Paul’s Ephesian text here, vv. 1–13, and say it ain’t so. You will hear Jesus’ words behind Paul’s: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles . . .” The apostle to the Gentiles understood the gospel Jesus, and so commissioned the church to engage and bring it to the ends of the earth. Do I take up my cross and die for those outside of the faith? Do I serve and live in such a way that my body and life is a ransom for the many outside the church?

I recall, now too many years ago to acknowledge, telling some bible college students that were complaining about the rule that all hats, including baseball caps, were to be taken off inside a campus building:

“If you can’t take off those caps now, what makes you think you’ll be able to die for your faith in some god-forsaken land when all indication seems to indicate that God has abandoned you?”

Here's the rub: I have had to eat and stumble over these same words myself. Where is my (our) sacrifice today? Where is my sacrifice, my willingness to suffer—really suffer, not just figuratively suffer, but real suffering—for those outside who are in need of access to the Father?

Who is willing to actually do for others outside the church what Paul did on behalf of the Gentiles? Inner city teens and children facing the odds of continued poverty or, even, death at the end of violence in their neighborhood. Or, as Christians in the Middle East living with an ISIS target on your head? Are the trendy missional Christians preparing to sacrifice their lives in tough urban centers, lonely rural towns, or in the Middle East—planting churches and doing ministry in unsafe streets and neighborhoods or right in the path of ISIS? Where are these “called” Christians?

Within suburban and exurban American church life, our comfort is our god way too much. We confuse our desire to be safe, secure, and well resourced with God’s peace about our callings (as ministers and, as well, as lay-leadership).

This text scares the hell out of me. Paul’s inspired words are calling me way beyond my comfort zone, beyond safety to fulfill Jesus’ call and the gospel’s obligation to die to myself so others can have full and free access to the Father.

Where is my sacrifice, my willingness to suffer—really suffer, not just figuratively suffer, but real suffering—for those outside who are in need of access to the Father?

If you are a Christian (especially a Christian leader), you shouldn’t be able to read Ephesians 3:1-13 with any measure of comfort either—and it should scare the hell out of you, as well. The question remains, nonetheless, where will you go? To whom will you go to? With whom will you live and ministry so that all, that is those now outside the church, may have access to the Father?

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Idolatry: a defective social construction of reality for the Christian (part 1)

Idolatry promotes a defective social reality for the non-poor Christian

Dangerous Sunday Morning Devotion: Can’t benefit from the milk if your can’t handle lactose

Christian Crashers teams that address issues of poverty

Dangerous Sunday morning devotions: Ephesians 3:1-13 is scaring the hell out of me

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