The Grace and Peace Revolution

I think that fifty years from now (if we haven’t decimated ourselves as a species), church historians will look back on our time as one of the most challenging yet beautiful times in the history of Christianity.

One could say the Gospel has completely broken free of Christendom.

Or one could say that Christendom gave birth to the Gospel. Perhaps you might say Mother Church carried the Gospel in the womb of her theology, liturgy and spirituality. And now she has given birth.

However you chose to frame it, the reality is that the first Jesus movement of the 1960’s and 70’s was birthed within Evangelicalism. This one is being born outside of Evangelicalism but within Evangelical hearts and minds. There are simply tens of millions of disaffected Evangelicals and Charismatics who, for one reason or another, needed to leave Institutional Christianity but retained a deep love for Jesus, respect for Scripture and who are on a deep spiritual journey. That journey is all about experiencing God as Abba, revealed in Jesus and fully present to us and with us by the Spirit. This is an Abba whose heart swells with love for all creation and every person, everywhere. This is a Child of God, the second Adam, the True Human, the Only True Language of the Abba who became just like us in order to liberate us, who only listened to the voice of his Abba. This is a Spirit whose presence brings joy and laughter, whose witness to Jesus is pure and unalloyed, who invites us into the divine dance of the One God.

Christendom early on came under the spell of sacred violence, especially during times of persecution. You can read how poorly the bishops treated one another at councils and synods galore.  In a way you could say that Christianity went into exile back then and is only now coming home.

Behold,

It is a new time.

It is a time to speak about the really radical, incredible, vivacious, healing grace, mercy and peace of God for everyone, no exceptions.

The walls of The Violent God theology have been breached, its weaknesses exposed, its arguments cast down. Every day more and more of the Gospel pours over breaches and every day more and more people are questioning the theological fitness and value of a God who is in the business of killing and torture. Christians can no longer tolerate Christendom.

For a long time, perhaps 15 or 20 years, some more, some less, tens of millions of people in the United States alone, thought that they were alone in thinking God might just be good after all. Many were disenfranchised by their families, and or religious communities. Then along came the Internet. Social media began joining up these people. Small groups have formed almost everywhere. Some groups are very small, but they are vibrant. These groups are in big cities and small villages, on every continent. They are like the early Christian house churches, not starting with much, investing in each other and their communities, all the while on a journey to find a group identity.

Our message is about the abounding graciousness of our God. Our God is not some far off deity, nor some mystery to be feared, nor a withholder who had to be bribed. Our God went and solved everything. Dusted and one.

Our message is about the peacemaking God, a God who has no interest in war, or retribution, who makes peace with us at the cost of an only child. We, who have blood on our hands, are blessed by this God. As blessed we bless others who have our blood on their hands. With our Abba we live and move and have our being in the light of love. Our ethics and our theology begin and end in the spell binding story of God’s demonstration of love for humanity.

Grace, God, theology. Peace, Us, anthropology. Both sides of the Great Commandment. Our ethics reflect our theology and our theology is born of our choice for peace, not as the world seeks peace, but peace as Jesus has demonstrated: freely forgiving and loving, even or perhaps, especially, the enemy other.

The Gospel we acknowledge requires new wineskins. Our goal is to acknowledge the great and significant way we speak of our God as One, yet also as Abba, Child and Spirit. We do not begin our theology with a series of attributes and then try to fit Jesus into that box. We empty the box of all attributes, good or bad, and simply put the name, Jesus of Nazareth there. Jesus is not only the new wine, Jesus is also the new wineskin.

Jesus is incarnating the very presence of God in  tens of thousands of these small house groups as well as larger churches, mainline churches and even a few mega-churches. Christianity is changing because she is getting healthier.

We didn’t start the Grace and Peace Revolution. It has a long and storied history going back a long way in church history. It even went secular in the 1960’s. There has been an explosion of Jesus studies since then. We know more about Jesus and his cultural background than any single other person of antiquity. Add to this mix the hearts of tens if not hundreds of millions crying out like Luther, “Where is a gracious God to be found?” The fields are ripe for harvest.

Brian McLaren has been heralding this revolution, Shane Claiborne in America and Jarrod Saul McKenna in Australia are showing people how it can be lived, Greg Boyd, Sharon Baker (Putt), Anthony Bartlett, and many other scholars write about it and continue to breach the fortress of The Violent God.

The trumpets of Grace and Peace have been blasting about the walls of Christendom and those walls are crumbling and “A New Kind of Christianity” is coming into being.

This is a movement that needs three things urgently: resources, mentors and a network.

It will need all manner of liturgical, theological, spiritual, catechetical and musical resources, especially quality musical resources. It needs mentors for a whole budding crop of men and women from all sorts of backgrounds, many of whom are fairly new to this understanding.

A big part of envisioning this delightful web of inter-connections this past week has been to dream the big picture, anticipate needs and then craft a plan to meet those needs.

The Grace and Peace yeast has done its thing for 2,000 years. The one Loaf, the Body of Christ, is alive with extraordinary possibilities.

Viva la Revolution!