"Viewing people from the perspective of who God is making them into in Christ transforms our entire attitude. And focusing on our interdependence as the body of Christ transforms our commitment. Scripture doesn't envision Christians apart from a local church, nor the local body apart from the entire church."
-----Notes on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, from the Faith in Action Study Bible (World Vision)
"I don't want God to accept me the way I am. I want God to transform me, to make me perfect. Of course, the church rightly says to people, 'We want you to know the joy of the life of what it means to worship God.' But you're going to need a lot of transformation to be part of this kind of community because your life cannot remain the same when you become a member of the church of Jesus Christ. All your desires and loyalties must be directed to the worship of God, and that means, for example, you're not going to be a good American anymore. You're not going to believe that church and flag go easily together. And it may well change your friendships. You may not be able to be friends with some because their way of life is corrupting.
I don't believe in the 'you are accepted' ideology. It is a way of our escaping the necessity of judgment on ourselves and a way to ensure we will have shallow souls. I'm not for accepting people the way they are. As Mark Twain observed, 'About the worst advice you can give anyone is to be themselves.'"
-----Stanley Hauerwas
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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3 comments:
I put the Hauerwas quotation in to rile you up. I do believe that at it's fundamental level grace is acceptance. But grace doesn't stop there, grace moves you further up and further in. It is not cheap, it is ambulatory, it moves, and if it doesn't move, it isn't grace. In this sense Hauerwas is quite right. In the sense that he's overstating, he's a bit off. But admit it, you need a good kick in the butt.
How odd that I can't be a "good American anymore" by directing all of my "desires and loyalties" to the worship of God. Where's the incompatibility? What's wrong with rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's? Is there something fundamentally non-Christian about being a good American (being loyal to Caesar), preventing me from being loyal to God?
Maybe it would be easier to be a "good Englishman". I like the old 37th Article of Religion:
XXXVII. Of the Power of the Civil Magistrates.
The King's Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England, and other his Dominions, unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign Jurisdiction. Where we attribute to the King's Majesty the chief government, by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended; we give not our Princes the ministering either of God's Word, or of the Sacraments, the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify; but that only prerogative, which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself; that is, that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal, and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil-doers.
The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.
The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death, for heinous and grievous offences.
It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars.
I assume he means that your citizenship in heaven trumps your citizenship in America. You can render to Caesar the things that are his, but it doesn't mean you condone what Caesar does (killing people, promoting greed, destroying creation, etc).
But I have nothing wrong with paying my taxes.
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