a passage from an essay

Much like the God that Christians and Jewish people witness to in the Torah, I am learning quite a lot about living in relationship. Through some rather difficult lessons in Genesis’ first eleven chapters, our God learns that to be in relationship, to truly know and love the other in all her or his humanity, costs. God is hurt time and time again. First, by Her new creation’s disobedience, then by a rift in brotherly love, then by the violence of all humanity, then by God’s own reaction to that violence, and finally by humanity’s desire to displace their trust in God and put it in their own self-made security.

Relationships grounded in reality, in freedom, and in love involve suffering. This is compassion, the fertile soil from which relationships sprout. The fruit of these relationships between God and humanity, sisters and brothers within humanity, and between humanity and all of creation is discipleship. Since God, Godself, is relationship and each one of us finds our own identity in relationship it simply follows that discipleship’s own genesis is in the experience of knowing God and the other.

Ultimately, the incarnation, human experience of Jesus, and His own execution at the hands of the Empire and religious authorities exemplify most poignantly God’s compassionate relationship with humanity. God’s experience, in a very real way, is the human experience. The flesh and blood, incarnational ministry of Jesus, the God who suffers, is the example that we disciples in ministry are called to follow here in this time and place.

Ministry, now more than ever, must be intentionally incarnational and relational. Our context is marked by depersonalization, dehumanization, and systemic violence. People complain of community breakdown, nations ignore their own sick and poor while indiscriminately killing thousands for the sake of “security,” and churches and communities built solely upon common affinity diminish the suffering of relationships that opens the doors to compassion.

It is no longer effective or even an appropriate expression of discipleship and mission to simply invite a friend to church on rally Sunday. Mission cannot be contained by church walls or convincing others to align their worldviews and intellectual understanding of God with our own. No, the Church must meet people where they are and truly come to know the other in all of her or his humanity. Jesus did the same in eating with tax collectors and sinners. In the aftermath of Christendom, the Church has the opportunity to re-form itself in dialogue, to be honest about hypocrisy and failure, to be more fully human. Moreover, now is a time to participate in God’s re-creational work.

This relational understanding does not diminish the political task of the Church. As long as there is economic injustice, violence, and oppression, and as long as everyone the world over participates in these ills (either by direct involvement or complicity), the task of the Christian Church is necessarily political. Christians either supports the status quo or challenges the oppression of that same status quo. A church that takes seriously the call to discipleship will be intentional about its political task and will work for justice against the oppressive powers and principalities of the status quo set against God. This occurs both in relational acts of charity that truly get to know the other who is negatively affected by the powers and principalities in the world, and in works of advocacy and justice. Practically, the political task of the church must begin in local communities. The challenge of the pastor is to help the other disciples see how larger systems are at work within their own community. This personalizes oppression and is the only way to invite the congregation to the works of charity and justice to which we are called.

Justification by Coma (Dr. Sundberg)

In light of the distance between this post and the last, I will briefly summarize life in the last few months. Busy.

Last semester ended well. I enjoyed and did well in my classes. Christmas break was very relaxing. I'm sure I saw many of you. There was some drama around the reception hall for Pippi and my wedding. It went bankrupt and we lost our $600 deposit. But we found a new, less expensive place and will be getting hitched on Friday August 13. Friday the 13th. Spooky. Then I took a class for J term in Chicago called the Dimensions and Dynamics of Urban Ministry. We dealt with the pastor's role as prophet, and confronting violence, economic injustice, and racism with the gospel. Through that class I really came to understand how deep my passion is for ministry in the city. I feel so called to see the world and theology from the bottom up and to minister from this place. I got the incredible honor of meeting the kind and intelligent Jeremiah Wright and Father Pflager. If you don't know who they are, google the names, they are two prophets worth knowing.

After the class, I basically watched horror movies for three weeks and got ready for the semester by reading and taking care of administrative stuff. Recently, I was nominated for the FTE's Ministry Fellowship. I am pretty excited about that and will let you know how it goes.

Now I am taking Systematic Theology: Creation and the Triune God, Reformation History, Galatians and Thessalonians, and Pentateuch. A full load, but a fun one. I was going to talk about a new meaning for faith and salvation in our changing world, but I am tired, I'll do this soon.