I am a postmodern Xer. And as a Buddhist new ager, so many years ago, what I wanted more than anything was a story I could trust and believe in.
It found me. I didn't find it. I was at a communion rail next to my Swedish girlfriend and I didn't believe or trust any of it. But the pastor still placed the bread in my hand: "The body of Christ given for you," he said.
And in that simple encounter so much was deconstructed. Without my rational consent, Jesus breaks his body for me. With all my distrust in authorities (my home was incredibly broken) and my distrust in any authority, even Jesus', he STILL dies for me. I wasn't consulted. I wasn't asked if it was a good idea. I wasn't asked to be on the divine committee assessing the human delimma and forced to come up with solutions to the human question and problem of sin/estrangement/slavery.
God simply acted.
As a postmodern person of faith, what I want to know more than anything else is that the story I am living in and out of is authentic: that it can be trusted, that it is worth trusting, and that at its very base I might actually be made free from my own slavery to the sin inside me and the broken human stories around me.
I think the church might have a shot if it can learn to tell the story of the God who acts once again. Not the story of the 12 step God, or the 7 habits God, or the Starbucks God. Let's face it. We all know that we're consumers and that when we get tired of one product, we're going to move onto another. Because we're just that fickle. And the self-help section of the book store isn't getting any smaller, is it?
I want and seek the God that's bigger than the 7 habits, or Starbucks. Don't give me a drink from the stale well. I want the LIVING WATER...
And while our culture is thirsty for living water, we keep serving up 12 steps, and the 7 habits, and Starbucks, and McChurch...and the modern lying metanarrative (on postmodern steroids), that life is all about me. And we can all smell the semiotic stench of death. I think this sounds suspiciously like the thing that got us thrown out of the garden...
I don't always want it, but I need it...to be caught up in a vision that's larger than my micro-reality.
2 comments:
"God doesn't consult us." That's so strange you would say that. I actually said the exact same thing in my sermon this weekend. God doesn't consult the world on whether God is going to change its heart or not. God does and has been doing this since the beginning of history. The promise to Noah, the blessing of Abraham, the guidance to Moses, the rise of King David, the rebuilding of a wall by Nehemiah, the announcement to Mary ... God doesn't look at opinion polls on whether our world wants to change or not. God changes it whether we ask for it or not. That's the amazing grace of it all. We are incidental, yet precious. We think way too much of ourselves especially since we're so early in the history of the cosmos. We're a drop in the bucket, but it all gets caught in the lie that it's all about us.
Cheers!
Well said Paul. I know I've used this language with you before...and perhaps I got it from you. We talk too much! God a little mutual formation going on...and it's all good, especially in the gospel you and I both so passionately serve.
Love you man.
Nathan
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