Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Do You Need A Spiritual Breakthrough or a Radical Realignment?

     Many times we are guilty of repeating words that sound good in Evangelical Christianity without thinking of the logic of their meaning. One such word is breakthrough. What could be better than seeking a spiritual breakthrough in our life? We ask God for a breakthrough in our finances or a relationship or a job or even in a worship service. What we usually mean by this language is that we are stuck in a natural situation and need God’s supernatural power to break-through from His world to our own.

     I am not trying to split theological hairs or make a semantic mountain out of a molehill but I believe there is an important issue involved. When we use the terminology of a breakthrough we can be guilty of an unbiblical dualistic worldview

      Let me explain. Dualism simply means there are two. It has a long and varied use in the history of philosophy. Simply put it can mean there are two realms; good and evil, a spiritual realm and a natural realm, visible and invisible, sacred and secular, and God and the devil. The revelation of God in the Bible implicitly and explicitly rejects this view. There is only one universe and it is God’s. God and Satan are not equally presiding over opposing kingdoms, fighting it out to see who can be victorious; rather the Bible presents God as sovereign over all and who mysteriously allows evil to serve His own purposes for a determined period of time.

     This unbiblical world view makes it into our churches when a preacher makes the erroneous statement: “God has cast a vote, Satan has cast a vote and you have the deciding vote.” The logic of this statement implies that God and Satan are equal and you have more power than both!

     This unbiblical worldview makes its way into the modern church growth movement as well. In the Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex where I live there are an abundance of church starts based on the premise that God will grow a church that is relevant to modern life. I have had people knock on my door and ask what kind of church I would like to see in the community. The idea they present to me is that we want to build a church people want to attend. I take this to mean that God is in His world and I am in my world and God would like to break-through and show me He can be relevant to my world. I rather think that I am the one that needs to adjust to His world. The whole idea that God must be made relevant to His own world has always been an unusual one for me to understand.

     The leading “scientific” worldview of our modern era is naturalism or more specifically reductive naturalism. According to those who hold this view, everything must be reduced to a natural explanation. There is no room for “spirit” or anything that cannot be observed naturally. Therefore if man exists we must seek a purely natural explanation for his existence. Modern technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that shows part of the brain “light up” when the body is presented with certain stimuli have led some of these scientists to go as far as giving a “natural” reason for a person to have a certain religious disposition.

     What does all of this have to do with the language of “breakthrough?” When we speak of God breaking through or “interrupting” our life we are inadvertently giving credence to a dualistic worldview.

     Scholar James K.A. Smith writes in Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy:
Thus phenomena that might be described as “miraculous” are not instances of God “breaking into” the world, as if God were outside it prior to such events; rather, they are instances of a unique and special mode of participation that always already characterizes creation (p.102).
    Simplifying all of this, I would say what we need is not a “breakthrough” but a radical realignment of our lives to the already present Spirit. Jesus was continually calling people to do this very thing. In John 21 the exasperated, demoralized disciples have gone back to what they knew best; fishing. The only problem is these expert professional fishermen are not catching anything. At this point a mysterious figure from the shore exhorts them to align their nets from the left side to the right side. When they obey Jesus and radically align their lives with His word, purpose is fulfilled and resources flow.

     When Mary and Joseph traveled from Jerusalem back to Nazareth after the festival, they “supposed Jesus was with them” (Luke 2:44). When they discovered that he was not they did not pray for a breakthrough but radically realigned their lives with his presence back at the temple.

     I have been accused of thinking too much through the years and this may be one of those instances but I truly believe words have consequences and it is important to have a world view that is based on Truth. I will certainly not be in the habit of rebuking anybody for using the term breakthrough, I may even use it myself, but it is important to understand what our words mean. After all, it is the Truth that sets us free.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

The Scars Made The Difference

     One of the ways Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, changed the presidency (and I believe he changed it as much as any president) was to reward friends and eliminate foes in federal positions. Although common today, it was not a traditional practice by his predecessors. Jon Meacham’s brilliant biography, American Lion contains a great story about how Jackson was moved to rescind one such political replacement decision.

     The Postmaster of Albany, New York, General Solomon Van Rensselaer, was a veteran of the War of 1812. He was also a Federalist and a supporter of Jackson’s opponent John Quincy Adams in the presidential election. When Van Rensselaer was informed of his termination he journeyed to the White House to make an appeal to the President himself.

     After waiting on Jackson to finish with his guests for the evening he approached the President. Meacham recounts the story:

     “General Jackson, I have come here to talk to you about my office.” Van Rensselaer said once he had the president alone. “The politicians want to take it away from me, and they know I have nothing else to live upon.”
     Accustomed to such pleas and committed to his course, Jackson said nothing. Desperate Van Rensselaer moved to strip off his own clothes.
     “What in heaven’s name are you going to do?” Jackson said. “Why do you take off your coat here?”
     “Well sir, I am going to show you my wounds, which I received in fighting for my country against the English!”
     “Put it on at once sir!” Jackson said. “I am surprised that a man of your age should make such an exhibition of himself.” Still, recalled Benjamin Poore, a journalist who recorded the story, “the eyes of the iron President were suffused with tears.” Van Rensselaer took his leave.
     The image of the scarred old man stayed in Jackson’s mind overnight. “The next day Messrs. Van Buren and Wright called at the White House and were shown into the President’s room, where they found him smoking a clay pipe.” Apparently unaware of Von Rensselaer’s preemptive strike the previous evening, Wright began to make the case for sacking him. Jackson “sprang to his feet, flung his pipe into the fire,” and virtually roared at his two friends.
     “I take the consequences, sir; I take the consequences,” Jackson said, “By the Eternal! I will not remove the old man – I cannot remove him. Why, Mr. Wright, do you not know that he carries more than a pound of British lead in his body?” The postmaster was safe.
The scars made all of the difference.