John Kenyon
May 25th 2007, 06:30 AM
Let Peter the fisherman before he met Cornelius be a symbol of the conventional Christian in the conventional Church. Peter was a Jewish fisherman. Cornelius was a Roman Centurion in the Italian regiment stationed in Caeserea. In Acts 10 they face the requirement of forging a new Jewish-Gentile church.
Prior to this pivotal meeting Peter was a conventional Jewish-Christian. He was a fisherman who met Jesus of Nazareth, followed him, ate with him, slept on the road with him, and accepted his teachings. Peter deeply loved the man, accepted that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, Savior of the world, understood that Jesus would be crucified, and was willing to die with him, at least up until the moment of truth. With all this in his favor, he was nonetheless a religious Jew who saw Jesus as another Jew, saw God as the national god of the Jews, and saw true believers as Jews or converts to Judaism. He had a genuine, but conventional faith.
Conventional Christianity flourishes in regions of cultural uniformity because no outside forces challenge it. Mixed with national politics and patriotic fervor, conventional Christianity becomes a potent force. Prior to the twentieth century, the Popes in Rome require hegemony over the Roman Empire. King Henry VIII requires that the Crown of England be the head of the national Church. French Catholicism is more French than Catholic. During the French Revolution the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’ had a subtext called The Civil Constitution of the Clergy that attempted to seize control of the French Catholic Church for the new French state. In Germany during the reformation, Martin Luther believes that the head of State should choose the religion of the state, though I am slow to consider Luther conventional. When Hitler and the National Socialists rise to power, they form the German Reich Church devoted to subordinating conventional German Christians to the Third Reich. In Italy Mussolini seeks to co-opt the Papacy, and failing turns on the church viciously. In Spain, the monarchy is quite Roman Catholic, and in combination with the plenitude of Papal power has a profound influence in Central and Latin America up to this day. Recently, International Communism attempted to control the religion of the people of the Soviet Union with a state run bureaucracy called the State Office for Ecclesiastical Affairs. When it quickly failed, the Communist Party adopted more extreme policies to rid the Soviet Union of religion altogether. Conventional religion in the United States rejected outside political authority over it, but both clergy and politician can unite church and state in various causes. The American flag stands side by side the Christian flag in many churches.
Christianity does not exist in a vacuum apart from culture, nationalism and politics, despite the tensions among them. By analogy, before Peter the Fisherman met Jesus he is a zealot, intent on throwing the Romans out of Judea in the interest of a free Jewish state. The temple religion in Jerusalem is the conventional religion of the Jews, but oppressed by the Romans directly through King Herod. In turn the temple religion oppresses the people. Peter is a religious Jew, but opposed to the policies of the High Priest that seek concordats with Herod and Caesar for such things as crucifixions. Peter knows and loves Jesus, but if he never meets Cornelius, Peter just goes into all the world converting people to cultural, political, nationalistic Judaism, as he interprets Jesus of Nazareth. However, what does it mean for Christianity to be source of change? It means that Peter and Cornelius have to begin afresh the church of Jesus Christ in Caesarea.
Multiculturalism appears to resolve the tension, but ultimately fails the Church. Peter the Jewish Fisherman meets Cornelius the Roman Centurion from the Italian regiment. By what sign or symbol do they declare their new Jewish-Gentile unity in Christ to the world? Multiculturalism says that Peter should continue being nothing but a religious Jew and Cornelius should continue being nothing but a God-fearing Roman centurion. But the Holy Spirit brought together form a new order in the body and blood of Christ. Call it Judeo-Gentilism in Caesarea, one small step towards inheriting the earth.
Multiculturalism, therefore, sends a mixed message. On the one hand it says that it is jolly good to be Irish or African or Polish or Italian or Jewish. On the other hand, we must leave our neighbors to their own culture. So Peter the Fisherman agrees in part because he does not want to stop being Jewish, which is fine. Yet he knows Cornelius, and wants him to be a good Jew, too, in order to be a real Christian. In this multi-cultural scenario, he must resolve the tension by remaining Jewish and allowing Cornelius to remain Roman without making the effort to form the Judeo-Gentile synthesis in the body and blood of Christ.
White conservative Christians in the United States love Jesus, and so they want to convert everyone into white social, political and theologically conservative Christians so that they too can love Jesus. Black conventional Christianity can be no less ethno-centric. One always tends to side with the underdog in a fight, but what good is the world if Peter, the once oppressed Jewish fisherman, rules with an iron scepter, or if Cornelius the loyal Roman centurion rules? There is no change. No new culture. No new politic. No knew identity through Christ in the world and for the world.
Multiculturalism also wants its followers to accept that all cultures are equal, and therefore they all ought to be equally respected and protected at law. This has an appealing ring to a fair-minded person, and serves a purpose when it comes to minor issues like styles of dress, table manners, preferences in music, legal rights and other such matters. But all cultures are not equal. Christianity has the mandate to remain in deep tension with the most developed cultures in the world. It is the call to meet and move forward in this world with the politic of the body and blood of Christ.
In the same breath, multiculturalism is deeply invested in the notion that objective truth and superior values do not exist in a religious context, either, so beating drums and dancing to Voo Doo gods must be greeted on an equal plane with worshipping Jesus, Molech, Diana, Dagon, Allah, Shiva, and Caesar Augustus as high god. The recent attraction to oriental religions so appealing to so many bored with conventional Christianity signals a healthy interest in an alternative to the failure of Peter the fisherman and Cornelius to work the problem today. In their own day they did work the problem. The cross and the resurrection of Jesus became the cause of unity among Jews and Gentiles; the gifts of the Holy Spirit, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were the visible signs for all to see. And significantly, the Holy Spirit was driving the gospel out of Jewish Jerusalem into the gentile world. Both the cost of discipleship and new life in the resurrection, therefore, came under attack from within conventional Jewish-Christianity. Soon enough the Holy Spirit and the sacraments became divisive and schismatic issues in the conventional Church, leading to the shedding of the blood of countless thousands, and still frustrating the ecumenical movement today. Conventional Christianity, like conventional Judaism, will crucify Jesus again for asking them to “Change, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Continuing with our symbols, Peter the Fisherman and Cornelius the Roman Centurion realize their responsibility is to change the world beginning with them, to create something new and better and visible in this world. Peter cannot participate in the enterprise without offending the conventional Jewish-Christians in Jerusalem. It is hard enough for him at the personal level. Cornelius is free to choose his religion before Caesar, but only so long as he burns incense to Caesar as a god incarnate on Earth. In the multicultural religious scenario, they resolve the tension by agreeing that Peter should continue worshipping God only as a Jew, and Cornelius should be a Christian that burns incense to Caesar. The Holy Spirit rejects this.
Outside the mandate of multiculturalism, both Peter and Cornelius are at enmity with the world. What they produce in Caesarea is the church militant and highly dangerous to themselves and others. It has no other agenda but to follow the apocalyptic and eschatological Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and raised from the dead. I am content to say that this is not the racially, economically, politically, socially, and culturally segregated church visible on the corners of most cities and towns throughout the United States today, love Jesus though the people in them may. In some cases the particular church has not yet been challenged, but in many cases it has declined to accept the challenge.
Finally, we cannot avoid being a part of a culture or long avoid these difficult, traumatic changes. In fact, Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead demands that we make them, demands that we change and construct the new world order of perfect justice and peace beginning in our own time, place and circumstances, because he will build it with us or without us. The great commission is a complex challenge in this global era, far more so than for one Jew and one Roman in the first century Middle East. But the mandate can be found in Genesis 1. It is a recurring theme throughout the Old Testament. It is at the heart of the gospels and the remainder of the New Testament canon.
What do you say?:teeth:
Prior to this pivotal meeting Peter was a conventional Jewish-Christian. He was a fisherman who met Jesus of Nazareth, followed him, ate with him, slept on the road with him, and accepted his teachings. Peter deeply loved the man, accepted that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, Savior of the world, understood that Jesus would be crucified, and was willing to die with him, at least up until the moment of truth. With all this in his favor, he was nonetheless a religious Jew who saw Jesus as another Jew, saw God as the national god of the Jews, and saw true believers as Jews or converts to Judaism. He had a genuine, but conventional faith.
Conventional Christianity flourishes in regions of cultural uniformity because no outside forces challenge it. Mixed with national politics and patriotic fervor, conventional Christianity becomes a potent force. Prior to the twentieth century, the Popes in Rome require hegemony over the Roman Empire. King Henry VIII requires that the Crown of England be the head of the national Church. French Catholicism is more French than Catholic. During the French Revolution the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’ had a subtext called The Civil Constitution of the Clergy that attempted to seize control of the French Catholic Church for the new French state. In Germany during the reformation, Martin Luther believes that the head of State should choose the religion of the state, though I am slow to consider Luther conventional. When Hitler and the National Socialists rise to power, they form the German Reich Church devoted to subordinating conventional German Christians to the Third Reich. In Italy Mussolini seeks to co-opt the Papacy, and failing turns on the church viciously. In Spain, the monarchy is quite Roman Catholic, and in combination with the plenitude of Papal power has a profound influence in Central and Latin America up to this day. Recently, International Communism attempted to control the religion of the people of the Soviet Union with a state run bureaucracy called the State Office for Ecclesiastical Affairs. When it quickly failed, the Communist Party adopted more extreme policies to rid the Soviet Union of religion altogether. Conventional religion in the United States rejected outside political authority over it, but both clergy and politician can unite church and state in various causes. The American flag stands side by side the Christian flag in many churches.
Christianity does not exist in a vacuum apart from culture, nationalism and politics, despite the tensions among them. By analogy, before Peter the Fisherman met Jesus he is a zealot, intent on throwing the Romans out of Judea in the interest of a free Jewish state. The temple religion in Jerusalem is the conventional religion of the Jews, but oppressed by the Romans directly through King Herod. In turn the temple religion oppresses the people. Peter is a religious Jew, but opposed to the policies of the High Priest that seek concordats with Herod and Caesar for such things as crucifixions. Peter knows and loves Jesus, but if he never meets Cornelius, Peter just goes into all the world converting people to cultural, political, nationalistic Judaism, as he interprets Jesus of Nazareth. However, what does it mean for Christianity to be source of change? It means that Peter and Cornelius have to begin afresh the church of Jesus Christ in Caesarea.
Multiculturalism appears to resolve the tension, but ultimately fails the Church. Peter the Jewish Fisherman meets Cornelius the Roman Centurion from the Italian regiment. By what sign or symbol do they declare their new Jewish-Gentile unity in Christ to the world? Multiculturalism says that Peter should continue being nothing but a religious Jew and Cornelius should continue being nothing but a God-fearing Roman centurion. But the Holy Spirit brought together form a new order in the body and blood of Christ. Call it Judeo-Gentilism in Caesarea, one small step towards inheriting the earth.
Multiculturalism, therefore, sends a mixed message. On the one hand it says that it is jolly good to be Irish or African or Polish or Italian or Jewish. On the other hand, we must leave our neighbors to their own culture. So Peter the Fisherman agrees in part because he does not want to stop being Jewish, which is fine. Yet he knows Cornelius, and wants him to be a good Jew, too, in order to be a real Christian. In this multi-cultural scenario, he must resolve the tension by remaining Jewish and allowing Cornelius to remain Roman without making the effort to form the Judeo-Gentile synthesis in the body and blood of Christ.
White conservative Christians in the United States love Jesus, and so they want to convert everyone into white social, political and theologically conservative Christians so that they too can love Jesus. Black conventional Christianity can be no less ethno-centric. One always tends to side with the underdog in a fight, but what good is the world if Peter, the once oppressed Jewish fisherman, rules with an iron scepter, or if Cornelius the loyal Roman centurion rules? There is no change. No new culture. No new politic. No knew identity through Christ in the world and for the world.
Multiculturalism also wants its followers to accept that all cultures are equal, and therefore they all ought to be equally respected and protected at law. This has an appealing ring to a fair-minded person, and serves a purpose when it comes to minor issues like styles of dress, table manners, preferences in music, legal rights and other such matters. But all cultures are not equal. Christianity has the mandate to remain in deep tension with the most developed cultures in the world. It is the call to meet and move forward in this world with the politic of the body and blood of Christ.
In the same breath, multiculturalism is deeply invested in the notion that objective truth and superior values do not exist in a religious context, either, so beating drums and dancing to Voo Doo gods must be greeted on an equal plane with worshipping Jesus, Molech, Diana, Dagon, Allah, Shiva, and Caesar Augustus as high god. The recent attraction to oriental religions so appealing to so many bored with conventional Christianity signals a healthy interest in an alternative to the failure of Peter the fisherman and Cornelius to work the problem today. In their own day they did work the problem. The cross and the resurrection of Jesus became the cause of unity among Jews and Gentiles; the gifts of the Holy Spirit, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were the visible signs for all to see. And significantly, the Holy Spirit was driving the gospel out of Jewish Jerusalem into the gentile world. Both the cost of discipleship and new life in the resurrection, therefore, came under attack from within conventional Jewish-Christianity. Soon enough the Holy Spirit and the sacraments became divisive and schismatic issues in the conventional Church, leading to the shedding of the blood of countless thousands, and still frustrating the ecumenical movement today. Conventional Christianity, like conventional Judaism, will crucify Jesus again for asking them to “Change, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Continuing with our symbols, Peter the Fisherman and Cornelius the Roman Centurion realize their responsibility is to change the world beginning with them, to create something new and better and visible in this world. Peter cannot participate in the enterprise without offending the conventional Jewish-Christians in Jerusalem. It is hard enough for him at the personal level. Cornelius is free to choose his religion before Caesar, but only so long as he burns incense to Caesar as a god incarnate on Earth. In the multicultural religious scenario, they resolve the tension by agreeing that Peter should continue worshipping God only as a Jew, and Cornelius should be a Christian that burns incense to Caesar. The Holy Spirit rejects this.
Outside the mandate of multiculturalism, both Peter and Cornelius are at enmity with the world. What they produce in Caesarea is the church militant and highly dangerous to themselves and others. It has no other agenda but to follow the apocalyptic and eschatological Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and raised from the dead. I am content to say that this is not the racially, economically, politically, socially, and culturally segregated church visible on the corners of most cities and towns throughout the United States today, love Jesus though the people in them may. In some cases the particular church has not yet been challenged, but in many cases it has declined to accept the challenge.
Finally, we cannot avoid being a part of a culture or long avoid these difficult, traumatic changes. In fact, Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead demands that we make them, demands that we change and construct the new world order of perfect justice and peace beginning in our own time, place and circumstances, because he will build it with us or without us. The great commission is a complex challenge in this global era, far more so than for one Jew and one Roman in the first century Middle East. But the mandate can be found in Genesis 1. It is a recurring theme throughout the Old Testament. It is at the heart of the gospels and the remainder of the New Testament canon.
What do you say?:teeth: