27.03.2006
1. A Dream
Late on the morning of the 27th March I had a very clear dream. It appeared that I was on a building site in Perth, my friend G.P. (a builder) was there and I was having strong discussion with the workers. I was advocating the presence on site of a person who would deal with issues such as conflict resolution, but was having difficulty articulating exactly what I meant. My wife Donna, a schoolteacher, appeared from the background and said, “What you are talking about is like the pastoral care we offer to students in the school.” (It seemed to me, she and G.P. had an understanding I could not fully express.) The pastoral care in question was about the presence of Jesus in the marketplace. (I believe Donna is a pastor in the school world but not in the church. G.P. runs a business that employs many ex –criminals and the like who Jesus the Good Shepherd has gathered to him.)
I prayed into this dream between my awaking and arrival at South Perth Church of Christ and believe I received the following insights.
2. The “Excluded Middle”
(The term “excluded middle” is used by sociologists, missionaries and others to refer to a gap between the transcendent world of beyond (God, spirits, angels) and the world of the everyday senses.)
Upon awakening I sensed the dream was about the Incarnation, that what was needed to bring together the synthesis of the Sunday world of church and the Monday – Friday world of work was a fuller understanding of the Incarnation- the “the everyday hero” (Brian Medway) who wishes to inhabit the whole of creation.
The “excluded middle” between God and humanity (or heaven and earth) is not, as John Wimber (in his interpretation of Paul Hiebert) tried to argue, the presence of the supernatural (see “Power Evangelism” ch. 5), but the presence of the Word made flesh in all arenas of life (Eph1:21- 22;4:10).
The supernatural that is invoked in many of our churches today in terms of the “presence of God” (particularly in the realm of “worship”) is not that of the Incarnate Lord. There are many supernatural forces, but not all are the presence of Jesus (delineated in his saving history of birth, death, resurrection return). The real presence of Jesus (see below) will orientate us towards the world, not the church.
What the Father is seeking is the universalisation of the presence of Jesus. Where are the sheep (hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, prisoners) of Matthew 25:31- 46? The answer is they are everywhere, but scattered. Jesus died to bring into one all the sheep scattered abroad into one flock John 10:16; 11:52). The locality of the scattered sheep in the world is the key to the unity of the church.
3. The Union of Wills
There are two wills in the person of Christ (this is the agreed position of ecumenical councils of East and West in the mid seventh century), a divine will and a human will.
These two wills are in a perfect union that is eternal and which forever sustains the Incarnation of the Word made flesh i.e. the will of the Logos sustains an ongoing relationship with the human nature of Christ so that the Person of Jesus abides forever. (The cost of this union of wills, as perGethsemane, was the bearing of the wrath of God.)
Hebrews 10:5 (a text quoted by Brian Medway in his prayers at the start of the meeting) can verify this framework. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he (the will of the eternal Logos) said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body (with a human will) have you prepared for me”. The will of the Logos was united to the will of the man Jesus in the flesh (1 Tim 2:5) because this will was only to be found in the world.
4. Corporate Will
The above framework means that when we think incarnationally we must think in terms of a “corporate will” effected through a union of wills. The starting point is the union of the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the trinity. (These three wills are distinct but perfect in unity.) This unity is made accessible to us by the union of the will of the Son and the humanity of Jesus. This union was for the strict purpose of death and resurrection.
Unionof wills means coming under one rule; in true oneness, one will never rules the other. This process of willing – union is about transforming worldly kingdoms (plural) (Matt 4:8) into the one kingdom of God and Christ (Rev 11:15) through conformity of will (Compare Phil1:27“in one spirit, with one mind”.) (Pluralities of “empires” in the church reflect a failure to understand and participate in union of wills.)
5. Confused Paradigms
Most of Western Christianity for most of its history has lived with a confused paradigm in relation to God, the church and the world. This could be called a Constantinian paradigm. Functionally, it sees the church as operating as “chaplain to the state”. In this model, the church occupies the place of the Incarnate Christ (he is excluded from the middle – as per the empty space in the tables we imperfectly brought together at the meeting); the services of the church (in both the narrow and widest sense of the word) fill in the space between a distant God and the world.
This historical trade – off profits both church and world. It gives the ecclesiastical sphere a distinct dignity and autonomy; with ministers functionally operating as either sacrificing or preaching priests in buildings that, like the temple, can be called “the house of God”. It allows the state/world/marketplace to function with a degree of autonomy because of the transcendent nature of the deity who is removed from everyday life. (Paul exposes these fallacies as pagan in his Areopagus speech in Acts 17.)
Today, the dominant model of church allows “worshippers” to seek unbridled prosperity independently of the righteousness of God in their weekly lives. This is still a Constantinian paradigm even if superficially its dressings are post- modern. Underneath all appearances, those within this system are servants of the Empire in the same manner as Constantine. They never preach its demise under the judgement of God (Rev 18).
6. The True Paradigm
The true paradigm is Trinitarian and Incarnational. Through his death, resurrection and glorification, Christ unites the church and the world. At the end of the journey, the church and the world are co –extensive. (Revelation 21:2 “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” is equivalent to Revelation 21:9- 10 “9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,”)
The process of preaching the gospel, mission, evangelism etc. is a process by which the world and the church are eternally united through Christ. (It is the extension of the Incarnation.) This transformation is the final result of the sacrificial union of wills in Jesus that excludes him from nowhere.
7. Is Constantine a Christian?
Is the first professedly Christian emperor who ended the persecution of the church by the state a follower of Jesus? It would appear not, because the union of wills between the Roman Empire and the church that resulted in Christendom was initiated from the side of the world. This reversed the direction of the Incarnation and led to the “excluded middle” problem of a self-serving and worldly church we are still struggling to deal with in our day.
To conclude, the church will only find its true unity by aligning itself in the same direction as the Word aligned his will when he took on the humanity of Jesus Christ, that is, in an alignment with the world. (Ex- centric rather than self- centred.) Such a direction would turn the church inside – out and lead to it’s discovering that its unity is not in itself but in the city in which it has been positioned by God. (Hence the location and diverse people in the original dream.)
The call of the church is to conform the city in every place and called by every name (Toowoomba, Melbourne, Canberra, Launceston, Sydney, Perth etc.) into the one city of God which comes down from heaven – even itself. From this perspective, the church realises it and the destiny of its city are one.