Christian politician, Christian education, Christian Marine, Christian Cop, Christian musician, Christian MMA, Christian ...?
In 21st century America, it seems that our individualized need for recognition have far outweighed the communal call of the church to, "...serve one another in love." (Galatians 5.13) The Apostle Paul is attempting to unite a church, divided over Christians wanting to utilize their individual systems of power to gain some type of influence over other people, usually those perceived as weaker than themselves. Paul therefore, alludes constantly to the central praxis of Christ's cross as being the symbol of our relationship to one another. In our current society, we also have utilized the "idea" of Christianity, making it into an adjective which has created people to think that Christianity is a stamp which justifies their need to gain a foothold in the world of power, privilege and status.
This end result of this problem is that the latter (Politician, Cop, Marine, etc.) informs the former (Christian) far greater than we will ever know. From a psychological perspective we constantly being shaped and formed by our society, by our experiences, and by our system of beliefs. So, in a society which has said that each individual needs to provide for themselves, our vocations as Christians end up shaping our Christianity, based predominantly upon an economic system which pushes people into these jobs, which may have detrimental affects on our lives in Christ. I do not have a definitive answer, but I do know that it is weakening us as followers of Christ.
I read Acts 2 this morning and I have difficulty imagining that the resurrection of Christ empowered people to do what they were already doing. Peter is preaching in the Temple and this is the reaction of the people, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37) What shall we do?
Here is their response: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
So a good question to ask would be, “Why does the book of Acts have anything to say for our present order?” Because, I believe as Christians, we hold to the stabilizing world that the Spirit of God continually forms through our mutual life together. We seem to have interpreted the text to make sense of the increasing amount of power associated with our economic systems, but I think we, as a community should allow the greater influence of the narrative to shape our lives, I think that the telos (the end result) of this interpretative framework is a greater reliance upon a shared life. We practice the task of the shared life, because we as human beings need to form habits, out of which will flow the creative emergence of nuanced ways of engagement with our society. Simply assimilating into the already existent created power systems will in the end diminish our ability to care for the needs of others.
The question remains, Are Christian politicians willing to lose their jobs for the sake of another? Are Christian Marines willing to say no, when asked to kill and face court marshal? Are Christian Educators willing to not exclude people from the knowledge that they have been freely given? Probably not, and why you ask? Because for far too long, we in North America have bought into the system that values the self actualized needs of people over the life of the community of faith. It also comes from the believe that I have somehow earned what I have. I can not get around the statement by Gore Vidal that we live in the United States of Amnesia. We forget as quickly as we learn.
Max Weber in, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has detailed that post-Reformation and especially post-Industrial Revolution, the church began its slow, insidious descent into securing power for human beings through our institutionalized vocations, which naturally would lead to teaching to that each person finds their purpose in what they do. We as Christians though affirm that our life in Christ is found in relationship with each other and with God. We affirm each human being as created in the image of God and thereby has innate value. We do not affirm people for what they can produce in terms of industrialized society, but by the value of love which produces fruit which other people can experience. Our Scriptures are written and attested to by those who were willing to suffer and still willingly offer love, peace, and blessings to those who by every definition of the term, did not deserve it.
So, when we really look at this issue, are we pursuing these vocations because we're following the call of God, or are we doing it because it makes us feel good about our positions? It gives us influence and power and status, and people look at us at great people.
This short clip from Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains this above mentioned task more appropriately.
