At the opposite end of the theological spectrum stands a large number of ministers, priests, and congregations who take an entirely different view of what the issue is in the gospel. The gospel, or "good news," on this view, was that God himself stood behind liberation, equality, and community; that Jesus died to promote them, or at least for lack of them; and that he "lives on" in all efforts and tendencies favoring them.
A pretty quick summary of what roughly half the churches in the United States lean towards. One might even say my own church leans that way, since it quite adamantly does NOT lean to the right (see previous posts for summary). However, leaning left and leaning right are not the only two options available. We can always stand straight up, and we tend to rise higher when we do. This is my view of the direction my own church faces. It's the reason I go there, and will continue to go there, until I find a church that does an even better job of it; though I am skeptical to find such a place.
Let us carry on now where we left off.
The older liberal theology died and was resurrected in the form of a social ethic that one could share with people who had no reliance on a present God or a living Christ at all. Total inclusivism of all beliefs and practices except oppressive ones, such as the exclusivism of traditional Christianity, was the natural next step.
Love everyone no matter what their beliefs or practices and do so in the name of Christ. Christ showed people love by his dying, and we should do the same. In essence, the message of the Christian left is: Love Wins. Yes, I am quoting the title of the recently controversial book by Rob Bell, which I have read. It's actually quite good, as might well be imagined from something written with the objective to reveal the existence of God's love to all people.
However, in the same way that the "gospel of the right" takes the wonderfully good act of Christ's death and resurrection and lofts it up to the highest standard of the flag pole, so the "gospel of the left" does the same with Christ's love. Where once we had a foundational characteristic of Christ and Christians, now we have an ideal to want and to worship.
The real Jesus is "one who identified with and loves the oppressed people and those who are different," calling us to do the same.These words express the redemptive vision of the Christian left. But there is a problem with the precise nature of redemptive love. In this world where there are so many things called love, which love is it that is God?
A fair question. Why are we worshiping a difficult-to-define characteristic of God rather than God himself? Why focus on the love of God over the justice or mercy or righteousness or holiness or faithfulness or mightiness or creativeness or timelessness of God? Is this the view that we have of Jesus' life?
True, he did say, "A new command I give to you, love one another." (John 13:34) He also said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus commands quite a bit of love from us. It seems to be of great importance.
But we're missing a key point here. Just as salvation by faith begins or starts the Christian walk, so a life characterized by love is a natural conclusion to becoming a Christian. One produces Christianity, the other follows from it. In neither case does either define it. And that is the crux of the issue.
Which is better, to build your life starting on the second story of a building (any building) or to lay the foundation for your life on solid ground and never start building? In once case you have great potential. In the other you have ungrounded and unguided progress. In a trustworthy building, one step should natural progress to another to produce a completed work ready to stand the test of time. But we live in a society of shortcuts and limitations. Willard ties it up quite nicely in the following:
Could we have a bumper sticker that reads, "Christians aren't perfect, just committed to Liberation"? Quite possibly. The current gospels exhibit the very same type of conceptual disconnection from the personal integrity of believers.
And both lack any essential bearing upon the individual's life as a whole. They concern sin guilt or structural evils (social sins) and what to do about them. That is all. Overall abundance of life and obedience to moral standards that we all know to be valid have no inherent connection to the gospels of sin management. Being "right" or "left" makes no difference on this basic point.
Okay. We seem to have gone backwards from our kingdom living into our kingdom stagnating, but now that we've identified where we are actually starting, perhaps we can now move forward. Before, the eternal life we witnessed before us was trapped by misinformation and misdirection. We liked the idea of it, but our current "gospels" prevented us from actually believing that it could or did exist.
Let us brush aside our preconceptions and focus on finding the true gospel that Jesus spoke. It's time to knock down our poorly constructed and right/left leaning views of Christ and start building anew from a solid and fresh foundation.This is my goal today, tomorrow, and everyday after as we continue to traverse the pages of The Divine Conspiracy. Until next time, I bid you good reading.
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