"A Community"

I finished reading Scot McKnight's book A Community Called Atonement yesterday, and so in classic Scot McKnight fashion, I will now blog about it. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the Jesus Creed blog. He blogs through a number of books... pretty good reading)

Before I picked this book up I knew relatively little about atonement theories. I knew there were a few, and that Penal Substitution was the dominant one in evangelicalism, but I couldn't really name any of the others. Actually I bought this book on amazon with the specific hope that I would learn more about the atonement theories. He does talk about them some, I feel like I have a better sense of what an atonement theory is, but not really what each one is about.

But that wasn't the point of the book. The main metaphor in the book is a bag of golf clubs. He says that just as no one goes out on the golf course with just one club, we shouldn't approach Christianity through only one atonement theory. The metaphor seems to work, though I was a little hazy on what game of golf itself represents in the metaphor. I think it must just be Christianity as a whole, or maybe Christian Theology.

But the ideas of the book do more then explain atonement theories. First, he shows the basic things all atonement theories have in common, then he explains what that should mean for Christians.

That's the part that I want to talk about. What does the atonement mean for our lives?

Scot describes atonement as "identification for incorporation" by which I think he means this: God in Jesus identifies with us so that we can be a part of what God is doing in the world. This, Scot says, is a commonality that all atonement theories have- it is the bag to hold the clubs.

Another idea that runs throughout the book is people as "cracked Eikons", Eikon being a word for image, in this case the image of God. Cracked as we are, the work of atonement is the restoration of Eikons, and ultimately the incorporation of those Eikons into the mission of God.

What I love about this language is the emphasis on justice and mission. As Christians, we're not just "evangelists" trying to "win souls" we're broken people participating in the mission of God to restore all the broken people. And it's not just about the afterlife; it's about life now, and it requires action.

Too often, it seems, we try to make Christianity into an intellectual pursuit while ignoring the injustice and oppression around us. "Know the right stuff, believe the right way, and behave yourself" thats what we're told it means to be a Christian. I believe Scot McKnight, and also the New Testament, give us a different mandate:

Accept the atonement.
Share the atonement.
Do the work of the atonement.
Live in a community called atonement.

Justice

I've been thinking about Justice a lot lately, and I've found some interesting insights in the book I'm currently reading, A Community Called Atonement by Scot McKnight. Scot's basic ideas so far (I'm about 3/4 through the book...) are this: The Atonement, however we are to understand it, is ultimately about restoration of relationships between ourselves, God, others, and the world. He then explains that this relational view of atonement leads to a relational view of Justice, insofar as practicing justice means doing the work of healing relationships with God, others, and the world. I'm doing kind of a bad job of summarizing, so you should just read the book, but my point is this: The work of justice has to be about redemptive relationships. This is something that's going to take some more processing before I know what it looks like in my life, but I know that it's something I want to spend my life doing: working for justice wherever I happen to be.

One way I feel I can do that is in the midst of disagreement. I feel like God has been showing me more and more that beliefs are often the result of dramatic and painful experiences in people's lives. I've been learning that people believe differently things --about God, about religion, about everything-- simply because they have experienced life differently. Pain, or the avoidance of pain, has this amazing power that causes us to contort our beliefs into shapes that are least painful. We see many examples of this every day, and probably most of the time we don't even realize it.

For me, this is where justice comes in. I believe it's a form of injustice in our society when we tell people they must believe all things exactly the way we do. Now please don't misunderstand me, I still believe there are certain universal truths that are non-negotiable. But for me, that list has been melting away at an alarming rate. And what's more, the way I react to someone who disagrees with me has changed dramatically. I used to get really defensive and try to explain why my way was right, and more and more I find myself simply trying to understand why someone believes they way they do. This has lead me to much more peaceful and healthy relationships with people around me, and a more peaceful state of mind in general.

I don't know what God has in store for me next in life, but I do know that whatever it is, I will be working for justice, and I will be doing it through redemptive, relational ways. ways that hear and understand the pain behind belief.

My Call

A lot of people lately have been asking me to explain my "call to ministry," and this is not really an easy thing for me. It's looked a lot of different ways over the years, and sometimes even nonexistent, and yet it remains. I have been learning these past few years to broaden my idea of "God's Call" from something specific like a job to something broad like a general frame of mind. God has called me to peace. God has called me to openness. God has called me to understanding.

I will follow that call.

A lot of times God's call also sounds a lot like my wife. Now I know this is a totally lame cliché that old pastors whip out at their own retirement parties, but it also happens to be true for me. I would be frothing lattés and wondering where my life went wrong if it weren't for Sarah, and now together we are looking forward to a new chapter of life and ministry. Right now I know more about what I don't want to do then what I do (one word: evangicube) but I know God will bring us to something that's right for us. Either that or I will have a lot to write about this fall...