deep church, deep wells
23 Jul 2009
What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Steven writes… Recently one of the conversations begun by Jason on this blog – MacGyver & Bricolage – moved both myself and an online acquaintance to go back to read about cultural identity and class/caste systems of oppression before we seek to understand taking our bricolage deeper and then “using whatever is at hand.”
As I was re-reading Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian scholar and the father of “liberation theology”, this passage stood out to me as relevant to the discussion:
“Christianity is the way by which the Spirit leads the new “messianic people,” the church, through history. This historical journey is a collective one because an entire community accomplishes it. It has a comprehensive character also inasmuch as every aspect of human existence is caught up in the process. In the spiritual tradition we find many examples of how these biblical perspectives influence the understanding of the spiritual journey to God. The different courses undertaken by Christians throughout history in their following of Jesus lead, moreover, to a reorganization and new synthesis of the main focuses of the gospel, in accordance with the demand of a given age.”
The historical aspect of Christianity/the Church that Gutiérrez brings forth here – it seems to me – is intimately tied to what Jason and friends have been getting at with the whole ‘Deep Church’ perspective. If our drinking from the wells of the Church does not go deeper, to imbibe and digest the deep church traditions and wisdom available to us, we stand in peril of repeating the mistakes of the past or face our new challenges without a full quiver of arrows.
The objection and question often raised about God as Liberator and Leader of His liberated people is: Why is the journey taking so long? Especially when we look at the Exodus in a spatial analysis, the journey from oppressive Egypt to the promised land is rather strikingly short. Why are the newly liberated people of God being lead around in the wilderness? Why does the journey seemingly go on and on?
Gutiérrez answers this poignant line of questioning following from the text of Deuteronomy 8:2-6, but then goes on to say: “The important thing here is the mutual knowledge of Yahweh and the people, which is compared to that of a father and son. The time in the wilderness was a time of testing that enabled…growth in mutual love, for, as we know, the biblical word “know” has the connotation of intimacy and affectivity.
Such, then, is the deeper meaning of the journey through the wilderness; it gave unity and direction to what might otherwise seem simply dispersion and wandering.”
It is the same for the Church – the gathered of Jesus Christ – throughout history. The journey of the Church and Church history may seem rather a dispersion and a wandering, unless we realize the deeper aspect that YHWH-Elohim in Christ Jesus through the Spirit is brining generation-upon-generation into the mutual knowledge and love of a gracious and all-encompassing God.
The journey is the key aspect, because instead of dropping the truth into us, rather we learn and grow relationally with each other and with God. Therefore, we can and should look back on the historical interactions of God with the Church to contemplate and glean the wisdom inherent in the story God is telling through His Church, and thus come to our part of the story with God.
This story-aspect of drinking from the deep church wells is very much in alignment with primary instincts of postmodernity. Yet there are a few assumptions in church-thinking from the aspect of post-modernity that emerge in this discussion.
The first one that comes to mind is that following Christ doesn’t need to be religious or even tied to a religious institution named after Jesus, i.e., the Church. That there exists a religion raised up in Jesus’ name is fine for those who need it, but the universal Church is made up of more than those who practice the religion based on Jesus and his message/mission.
I have had several conversations along this direction lately, and while we haven’t come to any good conclusions, it makes me ask: Is this freedom and in the direction of a ‘generous orthodoxy’ or is this fractured-thinking locked into a Western-individualist, privatized and consumerist cultural mindset? “We all drink from our own wells”, right? (I look forward to more of these kinds of conversations…they just teach me so much…)
Anyway, for myself, I want to drink not only from my own well in 21st Century America, but of the wells of my friends and cohorts from other cultures, and particularly from the deep well of the Church, so that we all together can embody that mysterious statement from Ephesians: “…the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church.” A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. ~Henry David Thoreau
What do you think?
· Is Gutiérrez right about the significance of the journey?
· Has drinking from the deep well of the church impacted your life and spirituality?
· If we have gained some of the perspective and wisdom from history, has that helped in a bricolage/MacGyver kind-of-way?
· an following Jesus be non-religious or even irreligious?
6 comments
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Comment by rodney neill
5.27 pm on 23 Jul 2009
The double command to love God and another people is the connerstone of my understanding to follow Jesus as a road, path or journey as it combines transcendance(loving God) and practical outworking (loving other people). Even though non-religious people might be very humane caring people to remove the transcendant dimension of relating to God from the Christian story is such a reductionistic move as to cut the heartbeat from the living faith of Christianity…the materialistic death oF God theology leads to a cul de sac.
Being inspired by the life stories of people from the past within the Christian tradition has impacted me = John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Simone Weil and Savonarola are a few of mine…the Quakers would be an example of one movement.
The Christian meditation movement which has been inspired by John Cassian ‘conferences’and the Rule of St Benedict has helped try to follow a pattern of daily contemplative practice and appreciation of spiritual disciplines
a few random musings in response to your questions
all the best
Rodney
Comment by steven hamilton
5.59 pm on 23 Jul 2009
thanks rodney…i really like the transcendent (encountering God) and emergent (encountering people in the journey) aspects of following Jesus that you bring up…they ring in my heart.
i identify with much of what you said. of course the quaker movement has deeply impacted my own tribe (vineyard), and i have been learning community and spiritual direction in their tradition as of late.
the contemplative practices and spiritual disciplines are at the heart of where i am as well
Comment by Charles
10.31 pm on 23 Jul 2009
The whole question seems to assume something that is not assumable, which is that there is a “right” answer. Think of the shape-shifters of science fiction, who assume different roles and abilities as history unfolds. Whether Paul draws from pagan mythology at the αρεοπαγοσ or quotes the Hebrew scriptures – even drawing from what looks like Greek notions of natural law – his point is something about God’s heart. As to your “wells” – Reading from the Church fathers brought my faith back when the “local church” not only did not have answers for its own teachings but reproved me for for those questions. That shape shifting might mean digging literal wells in Peru – it might mean busting a door down to rescue someone – it might mean doing nothing but feel someone’s pain with them, even if you never met them in real life. I want to encounter God but personally in the contemplative sense and relate to people as they need to be related to by me. Not “as they need to be related to” but “what am I supposed to do here” – i.e. What is on me. Maybe to plant! Maybe to water! Maybe to learn from [and demonstrate humility]. Maybe to argue with them. I suppose in an ideal Christian life God the Holy Spirit can “form” me into whatever is needed for that encounter – within the range of what I can express – if I am in a place of sensitivity. I don’t think it is something that can be “on” all the time; but it is a better model for Christian life than exclusively following some singular pattern.
I do not say that all speech and discourse in the church about “community” is suspect, but I do say that some of it is. There is so much projection that goes on theology, and this would be no exception. All of us know we are alone in the universe before God, and very often in the world. So the church offers “community” – fine and good; part of its design. But before you know it, you have in fact a “tribe” – your word – instead of a “community.” I have even heard someone in my local vineyard, speaking about tithing, say “this is [your way] of saying that you are with us.” Gee, and I was told it had to do with following something God had commanded. Go back and read that quote with the “with us emphasized in your mind. Truly “tribal” thinking, about who is “with” us [and who, I suppose, are against us?]. What are some other applications? Well, you’ve got “single’s ministries” that lay rules upon adult believing singles about “biblical dating” that have, essentially, nothing to do with biblical commands and everything to do with the projection onto the singles the fears of the leadership – or perhaps the memory of their own single days – onto people, sometimes with good but sometimes with disastrous results. I know of men who have been rebuked in these kinds of circles for having coffee with a lady outside of some church elder’s purview. How about apologetics? Show me a man’s apologetics and I will tell you 80% of the time in two guesses what his formative experiences in the church were like. If someone cannot see the cross because a dinosaur bone is blocking the view, we must like Paul be prepared to answer the man out of his well – not eliminate this guy with a smirk from our tribe because he is “intellectual” and we are “of the heart” or something. HE WILL NEVER GET TO THAT PLACE OF THE HEART if the way is not shown to him. The same Paul who said “the Greeks seeks wisdom and the Jews a sign, but we preach Christ” answered betimes the Jews with signs, and the Greeks with wisdom. And then preached Christ. When I grow up I want to be capable of all three. I want to be a shapeshifter for Him that can be what is needed for whatever I will find. Many Christian groups – like the quakers – have traditions and practices that were formed because of the circumstances of their time. It is a crashing non sequiter that this applies to individuals as well.
Comment by steven hamilton
10.55 am on 24 Jul 2009
thanks charles. i appreciate your comments; one thing though, i think you assume something about me and my post that i’m not assuming. i’m not assuming a “right” answer…i’m assuming a relationship that when encountered and fostered, possibly leaves us satisfied with unknown-ness (like Job)
peace
Comment by Ray Hollenbach
1.47 am on 24 Jul 2009
I’m both challenged and rewarded by your decision to quote Gutierrez, because Liberation Theology gets such a bad rap in U.S. evangelical circles. Your article reminded me of Chesterton: “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” The deep well of the church crosses political, ideological, and theological boundaries, as well as the boundary of time.
As to non-religious followers of Jesus: he peopled his first community with some pretty irreligious types! Someday there will be a great feast, and I think we’ll all be surprised by those with whom we sit!
Comment by steven hamilton
10.58 am on 24 Jul 2009
truly the surprises will be celebrated, and i look forward to celebrating them with you ray!
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