If Jesus Came to Preach Today

In Chapter 16, McLaren suggests that if Jesus came in person to our world today, his core message would be the same (the Kingdom of God is in your midst) but the images/parables he would use to open up his vision for the world and God's kingdom would be quite different. He suggests a couple of eye-popping images that he believes would dominate Jesus' preaching today:

1. Divine Peace Insurgency... To address the global security crisis, McLaren believes Jesus would call us to be part of a movement, an "insurgency" to expel the occupying forces of the suicide machine that is creating mistrust, wars and terrorism around the globe. As he puts it, "If this world is indeed the creation of a good, holy, compassionate, wise and just God, and if it has been conquered and occupied by this destructive, unholy, merciless, tyrannical, stupid and devious system we are calling a suicide machine, then Jesus came to launch an insurgency to overthrow the occupying regime. But this insurgency can never use weapons of the occupying regime; otherwise, it simply becomes another manifestation of it. So it is a merciful... wisdom... hope... generous... courage... compassion... faith... and peace insurgency."

2. God's Unterror Movement... To confront what he calls the "global equity crisis" McLaren believes Jesus would call us to a movement to change the unequitable realities created by poverty and wealth, power and powerlessness living side by side. As he says, "the equity gap that separates rich from poor renders them enemies rather than neighbors, so everyone is caught up in the ultimate vicious cycle of terror and counter-terror... hate and counterhate. We can only escape by defecting from this whole vicious, suicidal system. When groups of seemingly disparate people defect and band together in the way of Jesus, they form what we might call unterror cells... who secretly plot detonations of hope... explosions of spontaneous kindness... flying airplanes of generosity into towers of need, and plant improvised encouragement devices by roadsides and in neighborhoods everywhere, seeking God's kingdom and God's equity."

How do you respond to these ideas? Do you think McLaren is right? If Jesus walked the streets of your town, would he be calling us to "peace insurgencies" and "unterror cells"? Or do you think his message would be different? And if McLaren is right, how would you respond???

Week #5: Reframing Jesus

McLaren suggests, in chapter 10 and following, that the way we understand and frame Jesus' ministry while he was on earth changes everything about how we seek to follow Jesus! He suggests that the traditional ways of framing Jesus' purpose on earth are limited, and do not include the fullness of Jesus teaching and acting... and that we need to consider an emerging set of interpretations of the gospels. I highly recommend that you read his treatment of these topics for yourself! For this space, allow me to summarize just one of his key points:

As McLaren points out, the traditional understanding of Jesus' purpose is that he "came to solve the problem of 'original sin', meaning that he helps qualified individuals not to be sent to hell for their sins. In a sense, Jesus saves people from God, or more specifically, from the righteous wrath of God, which sinful human beings deserve because they have not perfectly fulfilled God's expectations, expressed in God's moral laws. This escape from punishment is not something they earn or achieve, but is rather a free gift they recieve as an expression of God's grace and love." I think all of us find this understanding of Jesus' purpose quite familiar, and maybe even comfortable.

The emerging perspective (which is coming from a very careful reading of the gospels) that he names goes like this: "Jesus came to become Savior of the world, meaning he came to save the earth and all it contains from its ongoing destruction because of human evil. Through his life and teaching, through his suffering, death and resurrection, he inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth and hope that can never be defeated. This seed will, against all opposition and odds, prevail over the evil and injustice of humanity and lead to the world's ongoing transformation into the world God dreams of. All who find in Jesus God's hope and truth discover the privilege of participating in his ongoing work of personal and global transformation and liberation from evil and injustice. This is not something they earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they recieve as an expression of God's grace and love."

Clearly, McLaren is calling us to consider a shift away from an emphasis on individual salvation for the sake of protection from eternal damnation to hell... to an empahsis on the salvation of the entire planet through individuals and groups of Jesus-followers working together to bring heaven on earth. This is not a denial of the reality of heaven after death for believers. Rather, it is a turning away from personal, individual salvation as an end-point... and turning towards the idea that our moment of faith in Christ is the beginning of a lifetime of heaven here on earth, as we come alongside Christ in bringing hope, love and justice to all persons!

How do you respond to this shift in focus???

Week #4: What is Your Framing Story?

A major theme of the book is an examination of the ways that each individual person, each organization and each society is driven by it's dominant "framing story." A framing story is a guiding principle that guides everything we think and do. In my own family, part of our story is that we are "outdoors people." I grew up along streams and lakes fishing with my father and grandfather in the spring and summer... and the stories told in the car while journeying to those places shaped who I am. The stories told and experiences shared with those men taught me respect for wildlife, good practices of care for the earth, and gave me a grateful appreciation for God's creative goodness and love. In retrospect, I am sure I learned as much about what it meant to be a human being, a Masland and a person of faith on those trips than anywhere else, even church! That framing story still shapes who I am to this day... how I treat people, how I view creation, and how I take care of myself on days off. Likewise, our corporate framing stories provide the same kind of guiding principles to us as groups of people.

In McLaren's words: "If our framing story is wise, strong, realistic, and constructive, it can send us on a hopeful trajectory. But, if our framing story is dysfunctional, weak, false, unrealistic or destructive, it can send us on a downward arc, a dangerous, high-speed joyride toward un-peace, un-health, un-prosperity and even un-life." (p.67)

He continues: "If our framing story tells us that we humans are god-like beings with god-like privileges... we will have no reason to live within limits, whether moral or ecological. Similarly, if it tells us that the purpose of life is for individuals or nations to accumulate an abundance of possessions and to experience the maximum amount of pleasure... during our lives, then we will have little reason to manage our consumption. If our framing story tells us that we are in life-and-death competition with each other, that only the fittest will survive, and that every species is in violent struggle to compete... then we will have little reason to seek reconciliation and collaboration and nonviolent resolutions to our conflicts.... But, if our framing story tells us that we are free and responsible creatures in a creation made by a good, wise, and loving God, and that our Creator wants us to pursue virtue, collaboration, peace and mutual care for one another and all living creatures, and that our lives will have profound meaning if we align ourselves with God's wisdom, character and dreams for us... then our society will take a radically different direction, and our world will become a radically different place."

What do you think about McLaren's idea of "framing stories"? Is he right about the power of our framing story to drive us in different directions? What do you believe is the dominant framing story in our culture? In your own individual life? In your church? And, how are these framing stories different from what you believe God has in mind for you/us.

Week #3 The Sin of Overconfidence

In Chapter 5, McLaren discusses the history of the development of "post-modernism" and why he sees it as a gift to all of us that MUST stay! He gives a myriad of examples of "Christian people" displaying overconfidence, and the ways this attitude has led to systemic sin. He notes that each of the following atrocities were carried out by people who called themselves Christian and were displaying excessive confidence in who they were, and what they should have and do:

1. The Holocaust in Europe... exterminating everyone who was not "like us".
2. European countries that had held sway over multiple nations for years, creating suffering before, during and after their release in the middle of the 20th century. England had "colonial holdings" in India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon, Iraq, Tanzania, Sierre Leone, Kuwait, and South Africa. France in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Algeria. The people of these nations had suffered under the ruling hand of England and France. And, they have suffered in the violence that followed the colonists pulling out.
3. The Civil Rights movement showed the ways that white privilege had held non-whites in systemic poverty for hundreds of years... an example of over-confidence that we are still learning to let go of!
4. The mis-treament of Native Americans could only have happened with white Europeans believing in "manifest destiny"... the idea that God had given the land to us! This confidence led to the suffering of millions.
5. The environmental crisis has also come about because of our overconfidence... the extinction of species, the pollution of water and air, etc. have occured because we believed we could have and do everything we wanted, and the earth would continue to sustain us.

As he points out, post-modernism is simply a way of describing people who have come to terms with their "second thoughts" about human over-confidence. In McLaren's mind, this humility to admit that we CAN do wrong is the beginning of wisdom, and the first step toward true repentence, and fruitful change.

This chapter reminded me of the story of the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis. How do you respond to this section of his book?

Week #2: An Incomplete Gospel?

In chapters 2-4, Rev. McLaren tells what led him to writing the book "Everything Must Change." For years he had been haunted by two questions: What are the biggest problems facing our world? And, what does Jesus have to say about these things? He had this constant feeling that the Christian church was missing something. He wondered why the world's largest religion (33% of the world's population!) had made so little progress improving the devastating problems of the world. He had this nagging feeling that Jesus' vision for his followers was much bigger than we were living out.

He tells two stories about encounters with Christian people in Africa, who said some very powerful things. One is the son of a pastor who pointed out that he had basically heard one sermon his whole life: "You are sinners who will go to hell if you do not repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus is coming back soon, and if he does and you are not saved, you will go to hell. So, repent and believe the good news!" However as he grew he looked around him and saw incredible suffering, and he wondered why his pastors never preached on these things. All around him was genocide, violence, poverty and corruption. As he read the scriptures, he was sure Jesus would care about the people suffering under these realities in this world. And yet, the leaders of the Christian church were silent. He asked, "Did God only care about our souls going to heaven after we die? Were hungry bellies unimportant to God? Was God unconcerned about the children crying, the mothers hiding, the fathers crouching by windows unable to sleep because of gunfire?" These questions were at the core of McLaren's decades long struggle.

Later, he was in a meeting with a group of pastors in South Africa, and one young man who was working as a health care provider among the poorest of the poor in a refugee camp, says to the pastors: "You church leaders do three things and only three things. You constantly talk about healing. You constantly talk about people being born again. And you teach tithing. These things are doing more harm than good to the people in the camps! People on HIV/AIDS medication believe your words about healing, and they stop taking their medicatons, and the next thing you know, they are more ill than ever. The people do what you tell them to do to be born again, but then afterwards their problems are no better than they were before. And, the people tithe what little money they have, and the only people who are helped is YOU and your churches! What good is all of that? You are doing more harm than good! I am a believer. I love Jesus too! Don't you think Jesus is calling the church to do something to make things better for these people?"

These moments shifted everything for Rev. McLaren. How do you respond to these strong witnesses from believers in Africa? Do you think they are right? What DOES Jesus say about the poor, and the responsibility of believers? Does Jesus call us to simply make sure people's souls are saved? Or, does he call us to something more?

Week #1 A Multi-layered Crisis

In last week's Newsweek there was a brief interview with some pirates from Somalia. These modern day pirates had taken over a Ukranian cargo ship (filled with weapons including tanks!) off the west-African coast. They were demanding $3 million before they would set the vessel free. The interview was conducted via satellite phone. When the armed gunmen on board were asked why there was such an increase in Somali piracy, their answer was this: "In Somalia all the young men are desperate. There is wide unemployment in our country... they can arrest us if they find us, but that will never deter us. What we need is money... we know it is evil, but when evil is the only solution, you do evil." Can you imagine what you would do if you felt the ONLY solution you had to a problem was doing harm to others through crime?

This story seems an apt ilustration of the "suicide machine" that Brian McLaren describes in his first chapter (pp. 3-6). He talks about four crises that are bringing about a "perfect storm" in our world that is bringing suffering, violence, fear and despair across our globe. The four crises he names are:

1. A Prosperity Crisis: Great wealth for and high consumtion by a small percentage of the world's population. These wealthy few are consuming the earth's resources at unsustainable rates.

2. An Equity Crisis: The growing gap between the ultra rich and the extremely poor... which prompts the poor majority to envy, resent and hate the rich minority.

3. A Security Crisis: The increasing danger of violence, brought on by the intensifying resentment and fear of the two groups named in #2.

4. The Spirituality Crisis: What he names as "the failure of world's religions to provide a framing story capable of healing or reducing the three previous crises."

We don't have to read Newsweek to see examples of these realities playing themselves out. Over the past few weeks there have been series of local crimes against small businesses, with desperate people robbing convenience stores. We all have seen these kinds of things throughout our lives. Those who are richer buy nice things, and out of fear of losing them they build fences or install security systems to keep their neighbors out, or band together to make laws and hire police to protect them. Nations do the same things. And none of us would argue that we should do away with our police forces or that our nation should do away with our armed forces. For those of us who have much, these things seem perfectly normal and just.

One of the things that Rev. McLaren is doing in this book is inviting us to see all of these things from the perspective of those who are without wealth, without food, and without hope for anything to improve. He is suggesting that as believers in Christ, we must recognize our contributon to the problems, and take up our responsibility of changing the systems that are ratcheting up the multi-faceted crises in our world.

For now, let's focus on these questions:
How do you respond to his descriptions of the crises facing our globe?
Has he named the truth, from your perspective?
What is he missing?
Has his description reminded you of experiences you have had of this sometimes violent intersection between the "haves" and the "have nots"?
Where have you seen these crises living themselves out in your world?

Please write your reflections and responses by clicking on "comments". Be sure to also read what others have to say!

You are invited!

Welcome friends! Beginning the week of January 19, 2009, (and for each week afterwards for the next 10-12 weeks) I will offer up a small chunk of Brian McLaren's book entitled, "Everything Must Change", a brief reflection of my own, as well as a couple of questions to begin the conversation. Then, you are invited to reply.

There are a couple of simple ground rules for this discussion: First, we ask that you keep your posts relatively brief, so that others will WANT to read them! Second, we suggest that all comments to focused on the topic at hand. And most importantly, we ask that you be respectful of others! McLaren's book is provocative. Some of what he says will likely create a negative reaction in you. Some of what others say here may have the same impact, or worse! Within some boundaries, some of this conflict will be good for us all, because we will all grow! Please try to listen to people's words and try to understand their perspective before you respond. When you respond, please refrain from attacking, name calling, or demonizing those who disagree with you! Feel free to share your beliefs... but be respectful of another's right to disagree!

If you would like to take part, please order McLaren's book, read it with us, and jump in whenever you have a thought, a question, or a reaction of any kind to share.

Our goal is to be learning together as we listen well to Brian, to the scriptures, to one another, and through it all, to God. We believe that God will speak to us through you! So, please do not be shy. Buy the book. Read alongside us. And speak up! We are glad you are here!

Dave Masland