Restoring the Sacred Canopy
Introduction
Historians of social culture (Thomas Luckmann; Peter Berger) see religion as the “sacred canopy” which every society builds over its world to give it meaning. This leads to the creation of Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish or “Christian” nations. In recent decades however secularisation (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00168890.2015.1002361) has taken over modern societies, like Australia. Whilst the “Christian Australia” of my childhood was nominal in spiritual substance, it was, in practice, very real. Where “canopy” stands for culture, religious or secular, it is a dynamic human construction of values and worldviews that constantly alter. Praying recently, I believe we are on the threshold of the re-enchantment of Western culture (read James K. A. Smith on this). This transformation must begin with the Church: “for it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household” (1 Pet 4:17). The reformation we need to recover a canopy involves “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). The Spirit is working to stretch out mental canvas to see “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20) as to how we envisage the rule of Jesus. However, from ancient times, various “isms” e.g. Platonism, Gnosticism, Arianism, moral relativism, Liberalism, capitalism, fundamentalism etc., have demonically corrupted the Church into thinking Jesus’ reign can be restricted to zones less than “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Eph 1:23 cf. Eph 4:10; Col 2:9-10 etc.). This error is called cosmic dualism.
Christ Over All
Enter an Eastern Orthodox building and glance upward at its dome and you will behold the image of the exalted Jesus reigning over the universe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Pantocrator). This icon has deep biblical foundations. The “firmament/dome/vault/expanse” of Gen 1:7 comes from a Hebrew word meaning a hammered-out plate (Ex 39:3) representing a canopy stretched over the earth below. In relation to the canopy over which Christ now rules, Isaiah prophesies of the End, “Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there (the Church) a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glorywill be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” (4:5-6 cf. Rev 7:15-16). This end-time new creation vision of a bridal canopy over the cosmos (Heb huppah) inspires us (Rev 19) to rule with Christ.
The Prophetic Vision
Prominent Dutch politician, Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), famously declared at the opening of a Christian university: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry ‘Mine!’”. This is surely the vision the Father set before Jesus motivating him to become flesh at the supreme cost of his own life (John 1:29; 1 Pet 1:19-20; Rev 13:8). It is a vision given to Peter, and to me, here in Perth in 1994; “Heaven must receive him (Jesus) until the times of restoration of all things, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (Acts 3:21). We must be possessed what grips our heavenly reigning Lord, an ardent desire to see every sphere of life and culture “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14), a glory which is now that of the exalted humanity of Christ (Isa 6:3>John 12:41). Every dimension of the creative arts, business, politics, law, education, technology, science, sport… will eventually see the glory of the Lord Jesus (Rev 21:24). An expression of the sacred canopy might practically be restored through the Church in two concrete interconnected ways.
A New “Clapham Sect”
The radical difference between the recent passionate, though fleeting, moves of God at Asbury and Southeast universities, and the classic 18th-19th century revivals, whose impacts still endure, can be seen in terms of their connection to the supremacy of the Lamb of God. The famous “Clapham sect”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Sect, pioneered, not only the emancipation of slaves, but school reform, the launch of the Bible Society, missionary organisations, labour reforms and so on. These leaders, were NOT, like so many contemporary Evangelicals-Pentecostals, infected by the error of cosmic dualism. Genuine revival must not be restricted to “sacred sites” like churches, motivated by a vision of the Lamb ruling the cosmos. I.e. ruling “all things”: the business world, the creative arts, finance, education, politics, law, technology etc. The “new wineskin” holding the “new wine” of the gospel (Luke 5:37-38) is a divine human P/person, the Lamb of God seated on the throne of heaven (Rev 5:6). Communion with the Lamb (John 15:1-11), is the indispensable prerequisite for ruling the world, beginning in the present age. The Western Church is being prepared for this cosmic role (Rev 19:7; 21:2).
Repentance and Cleansing
John the Baptist declared to the religious hypocrites of his day, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8). Paul promised the Church that it can “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom 5:17), but only as she does “nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit… in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:3-5). Likewise, by the time wrote Revelation John was no longer an angry self-righteous “son of thunder” (Mark 3:17) nor a vengeful racist (Luke 9:51-56) nor a man aspiring to the right or left side of Jesus in his kingdom (Matt 20:20-21).He was a geriatric broken by witnessing decades of the suffering of the Church whilst filled with the relentless love of God. Only such degrees of suffering are adequate to prepare us to reign with Christ in his kingdom (Eph 3:1, 13).
Conclusion
I am, hopefully, neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but someone who by God’s grace can “distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14). If the new wineskin capable of retaining the new move of God is the P/person of Christ himself, so this wineskin must also consist of an assembly of matured men and women who can test/discern/father the dynamics of this move from the heavenlies (Eph 2:6); just as the Clapham group did centuries ago. “Above all else”, spiritually and realistically, this group, and all similar shepherding ministries (1 Pet 5:1), must, like the early Church leadership, be “devoted to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4). Jesus and the apostolic-prophetic rhythm (Eph 2:20) of praying and sensing the leading of the Word of God is a foundation indispensable today. Here is a kingdom call essential to every place (Rev 11:15) that is far wider than any dualistic emphasis that undermines the ongoing indissolubility of “the Word made flesh” (John 1:14; 20:27; 1 Tim 2:5; Rev 5:6). “Glory to God in all things” (Chrysostom)