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I
am simple soul and claim no great theological knowledge which
is why I feel at home with Saint Francis, but I am also irritated by the
factions within English Christianity because they dilute resources and thereby
fail to serve our Saviour. The divisions are not just denominational. All
the factions I know of operate in both the denominations I belong to. Nearby
is a church having trouble with its building and has to meet in a school.
Not half a mile away another church is about to lose its minister and already
has only one service on Sundays. Why cannot they get together? basically
because one is into Alpha and the substitutional theory of the Cross. The
other cannot accept this interpretation. Have they discussed it? NO! the idea of sharing resources simply has not crossed their minds.
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The two churches above could be labelled
Liberal and
Evangelical
respectively but I do not intend to discuss that dichotomy. The former
seem to me to be in danger of throwing out the baby with the bath water and
at its extremes the proponents are simply atheists and refuse to admit it.
Happily they are unlikely to to make much progress. Evangelicals worry me
because they are increasing in leaps and bounds under the banner of Alpha
and could lead the Church into grave intolerance. Indeed that is already
happening on the Gay issue. I have no idea whether buggery is an enormous sin, but
I am very certain that the merciless attitude with which homosexuality is vehemently condemned by many evangelicals
is a sin and a grave one. Indeed not just grave but frightening. But I do
not want to discuss that either. I have been looking for an antidote to
Alpha
and I had high hopes for the
Journey Course. Maybe it is just me but I found
that disappointing. However its author John Vincent (leader of Ashram) has
just republished his
Radical Jesus
so I thought it would be interesting to compare some of what he says with
what Nicky Gumble says in Alpha. I shall refer to these authors as simply
V and G in what follows.
To my surprise and delight they begin with the same conclusion
Jesus is God.
V makes the point that Jesus behaved as if He were God. G would accept
that too but finds it necessary to spend many words on justifying belief
in the Resurrection. G quickly goes on to
Why did Jesus die? and answers
it unequivocally that He was a substitute sacrifice for our sin. V hardly
mentions sin except that Jesus took upon Himself the ability to forgive them
and, since he relies almost exclusively on Mark's Gospel and wants
to concentrate on following the
Radical Jesus, says next to nothing about the Resurrection.
Obviously G would have no problem with either
repent or
believe but V, interpreting these two words as
change yourself completely and
trust yourself to the good news, goes on to claim a big difference with what he calls the
Revivalist Preachers.
Later he makes the point that Jesus is neither fundamentalist nor liberal,
citing His attitude to the scriptures, but Radical and his view can be summarized
by saying that discipleship begins with the feet i.e. following Jesus rather
than believing with the head or the heart.
I have some sympathy with this view, it has long troubled me that Alpha makes no reference to
take up your cross and follow me in any practical sense. G likens the Church to a football match where
thousands of people desperately in need of exercise watch twenty two footballers desperately in need of a rest. But the work he has in mind for the lazy majority is almost exclusively telling others about Jesus.
After much thought I have come to the conclusion that the dichotomy
between these two is nothing more than the old one between faith and works.
For me Wesley is the best advocate for putting the two together, not
either/or, but
BOTH. he asks:
Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart? Can you cry out My
God and my All ? Do you desire nothing but Him? Are you happy
in God? Is He your glory, your delight, your crown of rejoicing? And is
this commandment written in your heart "That he who loveth God, love his
brother also"? Do you then love your neighbour as yourself?
But it is very clear from Scripture also that the Church,
the Body of Christ, needs all sorts of workers. Certainly some to tell others
about Jesus but also people who do many other things. From 1Corinthians 12: Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences
of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all. These are verses 4 to 6 but the whole chapter is about the Body of Christ and its different parts working together
The best example, however is the fact that when Jesus was asked for the Greatest Commandment, He replied with two;
Love God and Love your neighbour . The first requires Faith, the second
Action, end of argument, but it is worth quoting my favourite words from
Wesley's Covenant service:
Christ has many services to be done; some are easy,
others are difficult; some bring honour, others bring reproach; some are
suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary
to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves, in others we
cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves. Yet the power to do all
these things is assuredly given us in Christ, who strengtheneth us.
Why cannot we all do what we are called to do? and
respect others who are called to do something different, rejoicing that
we all serve Jesus our Lord.
Who can fail to be moved by the opening procession
of
the Athens Olympic Games, where not only Iraq and other Muslim
countries
were represented, but North and South Korea came as one team. Just
think what the Church could achieve if its disparate bits marched
together.