Missio Dei - #7: It's Reality

The majority of this series thus far has been focused on setting up a missional hermeneutic of the Bible (i.e. a way of reading and interpreting the Bible with the mission of God as a framework), as opposed to finding a biblical basis for mission. One of the distinctions between the two can be summed up by the word "authority". A biblical basis for mission hones in on texts that state a missionary imperative -- the Great Commission for example -- and with the Bible as our authority we must conclude that mission is expected of us. However, a missional reading of the Bible "explores the nature of biblical authority itself in relation to mission". It goes deeper than the "The Bible says it, I gotta believe it/do it" approach to authority. Much deeper.

When we think of the word "authority", what is the first image or thought that pops into our heads? Most likely it is some kind of military image, where the commands of a general are obeyed. We equate authority with the right to command, the right to give specific orders and expect them to be done. When we bring this idea of authority to Scripture, we make it a book of commands that we are expected to follow. The problem with this, as Wright points out, is that the bulk of the Bible is not command.

The Bible is much more laden with narrative, poetry, song, prophecy, letters, apocalyptic literature etc. This being so, what then is the nature of biblical authority? The relative lack of imperatives means it cannot simply be the authority to command, and so our understanding of authority must go beyond the usual military model and into something much more fundamental; the most fundamental thing of all in fact - reality.

The created order provides a useful analogy for this kind of authority. Think of gravity as an authority. It is something immensely freeing, allowing us to travel the globe by foot or by car or by boat. Gravity authorizes us to walk to the shop, to sleep in our beds. However, it also sets limits to that freedom. Jump off of a skyscraper and you will feel the deadly effects of the authority of gravity. Its reality dictates that you will not survive. To expect to fly through the air is to be ignorant of reality, and so while there is great liberty because of gravity, there is also a line that can be crossed.

Our reading of the Scriptures is an engagement with reality. Wright says that,

The authority of the Bible is that it brings us into contact with reality - primarily the reality of God Himself whose authority stands behind even that of creation.

This is how the poetry and song of the Bible are authoritative; not in the sense of giving us commands to obey, but in the sense of opening our eyes to what is real. When you read the Bible, you are not escaping into the realm of fantasy. Reading about a man coming back from the dead might suggest as much, but it shouldn't. If you believe in one creation, then a new creation in which the dead rise cannot be beyond the realms of possibility. In fact I would say it is as probable as the existence of planet earth. Not something that happens every day of course, but...

We must avoid reading the Bible with a sort of dualism that says in effect, "Here I am in reality. I need a bit of outside information from the Bible to help me cope or to tell me what to do". We must read Scripture as a text which tells it as it really is. It is a text not detached from our reality, but revealing of our reality. Its authority lies in the fact that the God who defines reality has spoken an acted in human history, and the Bible tells of His words and deeds. This also ties in with the essence of salvation. God's plan is not to remove us from this reality and place us in heaven. God's plan is to restore reality, which is where we are at right now. He has begun to do this, He has acted definitively to do this, and He will bring His plan to completion.

I asked before if there would be Christianity without the New Testament. The short answer is an emphatic yes. Why? Because of the reality of the resurrection. Peter didn't have a New Testament when he became a Christian. That which He acknowledged as supremely authoritative was not a text; it was a person - Jesus the Messiah, who redefined reality and to whom all authority was given.

And so, to repeat, our reading of the Bible is an engagement with reality. This relates to missio Dei in the sense that "our authority for mission flows from the Bible because the Bible reveals the reality on which our mission is based". Wright has three realities in mind here, which will be discussed next time.