Elias Dummer Christian, Husband, Dad, Musical Worship Leader, Songwriter, Thinker, Nerd. Hamilton, ON | Nashville, TN RECEIVE POSTS BY E-MAIL! Email address: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER 1 Feb SPECTACLE III: WHY THE BIBLE ISN’T YOUR LOVE LETTER POSTED BY: ELIAS DUMMER 2 DAYS AGO IN DEVOTIONAL, IDEAS AND WORSHIP, SPECTACLE, THEOLOGY 4 COMMENTS Share this: Twitter13 Facebook217 Google LinkedIn Email Tumblr Reddit Digg Individualism, Image and Faith Continued from SPECTACLE II: I Did It My Way Have you ever been to a church service where the sound technicians aren’t skilled enough? It’s painful! We’ve all been there. When an instrument is too loud, even one that sounds good on its own, it quickly becomes a distraction for the listener and throws everything off balance. It detracts from the experience of the music for the listener and performer alike. So I begin today with a caveat: as I try to talk about how individualism effects us, I am not advocating that ‘individuality’ be muted completely but rather set in balance. As I pointed out in my previous post, there is a marked difference between affirming ‘individuality’ and blindly accepting ‘individualism’. Just like finding the correct mix of instruments and singers, even good ideas are much more beautiful when the parts that play together, play together well, and at a volume that best serves the whole. And frankly, it seems to me that when it comes to our present form of Protestant Evangelical Christianity, ‘individuality’ is getting awfully close to something like a bad and blaring 80′s guitar solo. A few years ago a video made the rounds with churches positioning scripture as God’s personal love letter to each of us. Did you see it? As nice as it seems, something about it rubs me the wrong way. It’s not that I don’t believe God loves each and every one of us – I definitely do – but it seems incomplete and misguided. First, I should point out that it’s quite a different message from that of the Bible itself. Paul sure talks about a letter, and it’s a love letter from God too, but there’s a pretty major difference: this letter is for the world and it comes in the shape of us. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. - 2 Cor 3:2-3 A love letter is unique in that the subject is also the recipient, it is both to you and about you. Reading the Bible with even a hint of this could lead you down the road of believing that you alone are the end-point of the Christian faith and that the Bible is God’s chosen medium to reach you. Once you’ve personally received your love letter, the task of Christ is finished. I believe this is rooted in the false assumption that The Bible is written from the same individualistic outlook that our culture promotes. It seems to me that while God is for you, he isn’t just for you. The Bible, too, while for you in a way, isn’t just for you – it’s the story of God’s faithfulness to us, His people, the Church. In Paul’s ‘letter’: the subject is God, we are the medium. The recipient: all the world. We, the Church, are to be known and read as the letter. The emphasis is on pointing the world to Christ. On the other hand, the assumptions of individualism treat spirituality as something that is added to our lives – a means for personal fulfillment and self-improvement, a way to improve our own self-image. Instead of Jesus saving us as persons into his Body, He becomes our ‘personal savior’, certainly, but perhaps in the way that a wealthy person might have a personal chef or a personal assistant: a friendly and personal cosmic chauffeur to heaven. Discipleship is similarly reduced to practices of self-improvement instead of Spirit-driven disciplines into Christ-likeness. Suffice it to say that our culture’s preoccupation with self-image is, for the Christian, potentially idolatrous. When serving our ‘healthy’ self-image trumps our role as image-bearers we are usurpers to the throne. Let us make mankind in our image - Genesis 1:26 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. - 1 Cor 15:49 We were made not to be endlessly self-aware and self-conscious — preoccupied with self-image — but to be bearers of the image of Christ — self-aware and Christ-conscious. This is represented in the two-fold nature to being made in the image of God: It is both descriptive and prescriptive. It is descriptive in that we are intrinsically and individually valuable to God. We are each loved by God (and hopefully each other) as persons. But it is also prescriptive in that the intent for humanity was for us to be image-bearers: we were to function as the image of God within the Created order. Like Paul suggests in 1 Cor, Jesus is called the ‘Second Adam’ for precisely this reason. He has restored us from our fallen nature and, by the power of His spirit, enabled us to live out this intended vision for humanity. Our lives aren’t simply canvases for self-expression but beautiful works of art in God’s lovingly designed mosaic. If God is Trinitarian (three-in-one) then God is in perpetual plural/singular relationship with Himself. The relationship of self to community within the Godhead is a both/and relationship. It then stands to reason that to know God fully requires community – something our individualistic, ‘personal Lord and Savior’ Evangelicalism has quieted to a whisper.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 02:19:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015