At this time and place, what would Christians have to do that is faithful to the gospel that would also cause them to be persecuted?
Or,
At this time and place, what are Christians doing that is faithful to the gospel that is also causing them to be persecuted?
Not that I'm looking for it, of course.
q1. We don't know anymore
ReplyDeleteq2. Nothing.
Ive often asked that question to people in Ireland. Thinking that my life seems to have a large amount of comfort and friends. Of course they are not a bad thing but doesn't HE say that we should be wary when everyone likes us? Always (and i mean always) the response I get has been something along the lines of well you actually are persecuted but you don't know it. When people slag you for your faith that's persecution!! What a load of crap.
The churches that i see doing the best work in Ireland often talk about powers and prinicpalities but what they are talking about is the individual demons that people have- depression, drugs etc. What I see in the NT is that people really got mad when the powers and principalities that are collective are challenged- I mean i think there is a bit in acts where people where so mad they threw handfuls of dirt in the air- the crowds lose it! That is my answer to q1. Go after the communal systems.
Go after the communal systems? Any specifics as to how that might be accomplished?
ReplyDeleteThe is a story in Acts about angry craftsmen in Ephesus complaining that Paul's creation of churches is putting him out of business, and that "the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship".
In short, Paul created churches that could name and dismantle idols. We tend to create churches that are founded on idols and serve idols in the name of Jesus.
start saying this recession/economic down turn is/may be a good thing in public?
ReplyDeleteObviously its bad if you're loosing your home/unemployed/struggling to make ends meet but maybe its like idols being dismantled?
Like the other day the BBC announced that thousands of jobs are going at BAE...yet from the Gospel point of view this was/is a company that makes weapons of war. If you went on the BBC and said this was good news what would happen?
I definitely agree that the economic sphere is a place where ordinary Christian proclamation and behaviour can "go after the communal systems". But I don't think the start should be telling the public that the recession is a good thing. I think the start should be telling the church what they should and shouldn't be spending their money on, and creating the kind of community that does not rely on financial prosperity for its life and well being. Only then does the recession become good news.
ReplyDeletenot sure....my brain is a bit scrambled at the moment.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't help wondering why recession mightn't be 'good news' already?
For example I just flicked open Revelation there when it talks about the fall of Rome a the end of chapter 18 and beginning of chapter 19. All those workmen and musicians out of work because of Rome's collapse yet the saints were rejoicing about it..not sure, just thinking out loud here..
My thinking is that proclaiming the recession as "good news" can only really happen in the context of the actual good news (or gospel) being lived out by the church. If a community of people want to say that unemployment and poverty and all of the other stuff that a recession brings is good news, then that community better be able to provide an alternative that makes such a claim intelligible.
ReplyDelete