2 And I, when I came to you, brothers,[a] did not come proclaiming to you the testimony[b] of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men[c] but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV
Anyone can get people to follow them—all they have to do is open a building, put a few banners out the front, print a couple explainer leaflets and people will come. It all sounds like the 1989 film Field of Dreams, in which Kevin Costner plows over a portion of his corn field to build a baseball stadium because of a dream in which he hears, “If you build it, they will come.” I know this is true because I was once a part of this kind of attractional model of church. Heck, I belonged to the established church who didn’t have to do that anymore because they had built themselves a solid brand and people were talking about them, their Pastor and their many programs. Mind you, I mean nothing but good will towards the established church, and churches who are attempting to become established.
I know this may come as a shock, but there really is no getting around participating (in some way) with the established church. We can parse words and try to say that organisations don’t matter and that theological statements are copy and pasted and all of that may be true, but to ignore the symbiotic organisation in which the church dwells is just as bad as being oblivious to its existence. In light of this, Paul’s words about stripping back his message of all other wisdom save the wisdom of Christ and Him crucified is essential to learning to live with one another and with the organisations which vie for our attention and attendance. Jesus may have eaten with the disenfranchised tax collectors and sinners in their homes but he also ate with the enfranchised religious elite in their homes. Both received the blessing of His presence and the effect of His teachable moments.
Still, I shake my head when we equate redeeming God’s people with reaffirming trust in the establishment. It is the natural way of things that symbiotic organisations will ebb and flow; rise and fall. Rebranding happens and if we learn anything from the experience, we learn not to put so much trust in the new establishment that is taking place. My go-to for these times is my namesake, the prophet Daniel.
Daniel lived and served under eight kingdoms in his exile, and represented God in the court of every single one of them. These include successions and conquering by neighbouring kingdoms. No one gave Daniel a life time achievement award for His service or a 60 years of service trophy because the symbiotic organisation in which the people of God found themselves kept changing around them. And yet, Daniel delivered the same words of God in one king’s court to the next and it didn’t have anything to do with preserving their kingdoms or re-establishing trust in the established kingdom. Daniel lived in a time of extreme political unrest when the free worship of God was at the whim of the prevailing ruler. Daniel and anyone wise enough to heed his council placed their trust in Daniel’s God—not Daniel himself nor the king under whom Daniel served. The only one who never rebrands, is never conquered and never changes is God!
Religion has a bad name and what that means is that it is constantly being rebranded. New kings succeed old kings or conquer in a devastating split of opinion and new kingdoms rise and fall like the seas and I believe that we should let them. These kings are only for themselves and the establishment of a kingdom for their children’s children. No matter how aligned they are, for now, with seeking the wisdom of God, we must not renew or place our trust in these establishments nor their leaders or we will fall with them instead of rising from the ashes of each successive kingdom to take our place as the eyes, ears and mouthpiece of God for a new generation. It is only that religion; those practices which reassert our reliance and trust in God alone, which survive the purifying fires of revolution. They are the precious stones and metals with which we build our lives and which no fire has the heat to melt or destroy.
Please don’t hear that everything that has come before is of no use and that we must start new again this great love religion. If we look to the past for the modes which full reliance on God has taken we will find them. I am currently working my way through Jesus through Medieval Eyes by
who writes here on Substack. In her book, Dr Hamman walks us through the images and concepts of Jesus which individuals in the medieval church trusted in and learned from and with whom they walked, sometimes against the prevailing kingdom of thought. It is a stirring and at times disturbing journey in which my own images of Jesus are challenged through the eyes of my siblings who lived in another worldline. Their voices and images persist as proof that what they built their lives on survived their mortal ends.I do not attend anywhere currently due to my life situation. As such, I am in the wilderness writing to my siblings in Christ who have the great opportunity of meeting together in whatever capacity and within whatever symbiotic organisation they find themselves. People will look and determine that you are in cahoots with your king and that your trust and assurance is in the kingdom in which you find yourself. I urge you strongly to dissuade them of that notion. Pray loudly and in full confession while among your siblings in Christ. Show vulnerability in the presence of your God and others will see that your faith is in Him, that your guidance is from Him and they in turn will see your good deeds and glorify God who is in Heaven.
Meditate on these things.
Notes:
If you are interested in the work of Dr Grace Hamman you can find her here:
Thanks for the kind words about Jesus through Medieval Eyes!
Amen to this.
Also, I had a similar experience in reading Dr Haman's book. So glad I did.