I saw this pentecost grid blog
post this morning, and my awareness of my “Churchlessness” hit me especially hard. I am not one who believes that “any old Church will do”. It’s like saying that to pick a life mate, one must just make the plunge and just choose someone and go with it. There’s somethig to that, since this is the nature of commitment. But also, in the nature of commitment, is placing one’s trust in the process.

Hauerwas, in The Peaceable Kingdom:

God’s Kingdom, God’s peace, is a movement of those who have found the confidence through the life of Jesus to make their lives a constant worship of God. We can rest in God becuase we are no longer driven by the assumption that we must be in control of history, that it is up to us to make things come out right.

I see practically NO churches interested in even addressing the problems we face in this violent world, a violence headed and “led” by the forces which call themselves the architects of the “war on terror”, and so unleash their own terror (but they deny its terror attributes by claiming it is “fighting for freedom” (and before that, it was protecting ourselves against weapons of mass destruction”.) I have read people saying that Hauerwas does not approve of Churches getting involved in politics, and that Jim Wallis and his “God’s Politics” is just a “Religious Left” version of a group just like the Right who wishes to impose their religious views on the rest of the country. That is SUCH HOGWASH! And it basically ignores Wallis’ argument that he makes in God’s Politics, and has strssed for decades (like “BEYOND the Religious Right and Secular Left” , the subtitle of the Soul of Politics). And there’s no “imposition” involved in confronting the powers with the consequences of their policies. Indeed, Heauerwas DIRECTLY addresses this in The Peaceable Kingdom:

He serves the authorities by confronting them.

He then quotes from a commentary on Mark:

“Jesus confronts the authorities with the nature of God’s rule and with the seriousness of their offenses against it, but he does not impose his authority on them. After each confrontation, he noves on, leaving the authorities to choose their response. He is not a military messiah who uses sword or manipulates the crowds to impose his authority. He does not even fight to defend himself, and he endures the consequences of his opponent’s scorn”
Donald Mickie and David Rhodes, Mark as Story 1982 Fortress Press p. 109

The Peaceable Kingdom , p.81

Then I have a problem with the lack of a serious communal structure of Church life, even among, (and seemingly especially among the Churches who are are outspoken about war and the present scandal of accountability in this government for what their real goals are). There seems to be this modus perandi that tho speak it is enough; that we are somehow supposed to be able to sustain this protest ourselves, by talking about it. That would be a logical first step, but then there is the question of what kind of alternative life do we model? If we are not called into this connversation of a people following the way of Jesus by being invited into a way of life and a radically accountable and committed fellowship, then the political strife seems to be come the end all.

This is the Pentecost that the Progressive Christian movement needs (not to say that it isn’t happening, because I know it is in some places). I just need to find an involvement locally, or I should be asking the question of whther I should not be seeking this out in whatver locale, in whatever city, if this being on journey with a transformed and transforming community is of the importance and priority that it should be.