the story we find
ourselves in
Post-colonialist
Post-secularist
Post-rationalist
Post-communist
The Christian Church is apremodern movementthat became a modern institution and now
Post-capitalist
must adapt to aPostmodern context
Post-nationalist
Post-institutionalist
Post-patriarchal
Post-Christendom
Postmodern shifts
solidarity
humility
methodology
liturgy
mission
networks
story
Question 1:
What is the shape of the
biblical narrative?
(A pre-critical question)
Eden
Heaven
Fall
Salvation
Fallen History/
Fallen world
Hell
Platonic Ideal
Platonic Ideal
Fall
Into
Aristotelian
Real
Atonement,
purification
Aristotelian
Real
Hades
Pax Romana
Pax Romana
Civilization,
development,
Rebellion
into
barbarism
colonialism
Barbarian/
pagan world
assimilation
Destruction,
defeat
Is there an
alternative
understanding?
sdrawkcab gnidaer
Rick Warren, Billy Graham, John Wesley (or Calvin), Luther, Aquinas, Augustine,
Paul, Jesus
reading forwards
Adam, Eve, Sarah, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, Jesus
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation
G
e
n
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
e
s
i
s
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
G
HUMAN
DESTRUCTION
e
n
e
s
i
s
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
HUMAN VIOLENCE
HUMAN EXPLOITATION
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
G
HUMAN
DESTRUCTION
e
n
e
s
i
s
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
HUMAN VIOLENCE
HUMAN EXPLOITATION
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
G
e
n
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
e
s
i
s
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation
Needed: a fresh and
coherent way of telling
the story of the Bible
... the story of Jesus ...
and our story too.
Creation
Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over
the waters... And it was good. (Genesis 1:1)
Crisis
Creation
Crisis
Garden - hunter/gatherers
Field - herders & crop farmers
River valley - towns & cities
Tower - walled cities/ civilizations
Calling
Creation, Crisis
Calling
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your
people and your father's household and go to the land I
will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation/ and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,/ and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you
I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him…
(Genesis 12:1-6)
Creation
Crisis
Calling
Blessed to be a blessing
Rejoining God’s story of
creation.
Captivity
Revolutionary insight:
God is on the side of the slaves.
Ex. 3:7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have
observed the misery of my people
who are in Egypt; I have heard their
cry on account of their taskmasters.
Indeed, I know their sufferings,
8and I have come down to deliver
them from the Egyptians, and to
bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing
with milk and honey, to the country
of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the
Israelites has now come to me; I
have also seen how the Egyptians
oppress them. 10So come, I will
send you to Pharaoh to bring my
people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’
Captivity
28
Captivity
Getting slaves out of Egypt: 10
plagues
Getting Egypt out of freed slaves: 10
commandments
Conquest
Conquest
The Bible, God, and violence:
An evolving understanding ...
Pointing forward.
Conversation
Creation, Crisis, Calling, Captivity, Conquest
Conversation
Priests, prophets, poets,
sages, storytellers
through calling, journey, slavery, exodus,
conquest, judges, kings, civil war, exile,
return, continuing domination
Creation, Crisis, Calling, Captivity,
Conquest, Conversation ...
Christ
Christ
Domination - Romans, Herodians, Sadducees
Revolution - Zealots
Purification - Pharisees
Accumulation - Wealthy Judeans
Victimization - Galileans, Samaritans, poor
Isolation - Essenes
Jesus - Another story …
Christ
Kingdom of God …
Calling everyone into
reconciliation with God, one
another, and creation
Christ
Cross …
God forgiving, not seeking revenge
God revealed in an vulnerable
victim
Victory of non-violence
Christ
Resurrection ...
Vindication
Ascension - enthronement
Bestowal of Spirit on “all flesh”
New Embodiment of Christ
Creation, Crisis, Calling, Captivity,
Conquest, Conversation, Christ ...
Community
Community
empowered and united by the
Holy Spirit
for mission
for the good of the world.
Consummation/Celebration
Creation, Crisis, Calling, Captivity,
Conquest, Conversation, Christ,
Community
Consummation/Celebration
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you
know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
(I Corinthians 15:58)
Creation, Crisis, Calling, Captivity,
Conquest, Conversation, Christ,
Community, Celebration
There are many reasons to
compare our churches to an old
male tortoise …
Closing suggestions:
1. Cultivate patient urgency.
There are many reasons to
compare our churches to an old
male tortoise …
Closing suggestions:
3. Add, don’t subtract.
There are many reasons to
compare our churches to an old
male tortoise …
Closing suggestions:
3. Innovate and imitate.
There are manyClosing
reasons
to
suggestions:
compare our churches to an old
male tortoise
…
4. Turn toward the young Encourage
Support
Protect
50
51
52
54
55
the story we find
ourselves in
Fr. Vincent Donovan:
Religion is our own creation. Its horizons are necessarily
limited to our horizons. Since it is our creation it will serve
us. In a time of social, political, and economic upheaval, we
look to it as that one, solid, taken-for-granted basis to our
lives. It leads us to cling to the forms and structures with
which we are familiar and which we have found
comforting. At the dying of an age and the birth of a new
one, religion will be in the forefront of those institutions
clinging desperately to that immovable rock of unanalyzed
assumptions.
But revelation shatters that rock, disturbs our horizons,
presents a God who is not like us at all, a destabilizing and
surprising God who cannot be used to justify all our
projects; instead, One who asks us questions we do not
want to hear. (The Church in the Midst of Creation, p. 118)
Never accept and be content with unanalyzed
assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the
people, about the church or Christianity. Never be
afraid to ask questions about the work we have
inherited or the work we are doing. There is no
question that should not be asked or that is outlawed.
The day we are completely satisfied with what we
have been doing; the day we have found the perfect,
unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer,
never in need of being corrected again, on that day
we will know that we are wrong, that we have made
the greatest mistake of all. (Christianity
Rediscovered, 146)