I’ve seen Gerhard Lohfink’s Jesus and Community: The Social Dimension of Christian Faith show up in so many footnotes that I finally decided to check it out for myself. It’s not often that I almost read a book translated from German into English in one sitting, but I couldn’t put this one down. I promise to post some quotes from it in the days to come.
In my series from Exodus this summer, I repeatedly told my congregration that God’s primary concern was not to save indivividual slaves from Pharoah. Rather, the two major goals of God’s Exodus project were to make a name for himself among the nations and to create a people for himself out of a bunch of slaves named Israel. Eventually, these two goals were combined so that Israel’s presence in the world as a holy nation was meant to bring glory to God’s name.
I find no evidence in the gospels that Jesus’ goals were all that different. Jesus’ ministry was not so much about saving individuals from the consequences of sin as it was about gathering a community around himself who would bring glory to God’s name. Of course, the inviduals caught up in this gathering were saved from the consequences of their sin, but the individual person or even the “soul” of that person is not the ultimate aim of the gospel. It’s the creation of a transformed community that is the prototype of a transformed world.
That’s what Lohfink is talking about.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Those German dudes, all hopped up on their beer and what not (pun intended) sure knew what they were doing, huh?
Well, some of them. Not the crazy Nazi types, at least.
Good thoughts, Wade.
It was good to meet you and learn from you at “Summit” in Columbus last weekend.
Grace and Peace,
Jeff
Exactly Wade! We are the Church, not rampant American individualism. And community is how the Gospel is expressed. Far more difficult than lone ranger style, I think.
? lex orandi lex credendi
? the law of prayer is the law of belief
This is a poignant theory. It serves to answer some of the criticisms and common stumbling blocks of those opposed to the Bible’s truths. In the light of your recent post about measuring the effectiveness of the church, however, this adds yet another degree of difficulty to that effort. It seems that “we” like nicely wrapped stories… especially success stories, conversions, testimonies, etc. about individual tribulations. We identify to the individual much easier than the whole. Understanding that God’s intention is to create a “people” or a “holy nation” takes the ability to measure our success rate even further from view. (…Not necessarily a bad thing).
Another thought – should we assume from this that God is willing to sacrifice a given number of casualties to His goal of creating this nation since “the individual person or even the “soul” of that person is not the ultimate aim of the gospel?” Does this serve to comfort us or intimidate us on an individual level?
Thinking out loud,
Lance.
Ie- are we a nation of individuals or an individual nation? Maybe both?
Lance,
Interesting thought. I would think sacrifice is only performed when external limitations require giving something up to achieve a goal. Given God created all potential limitations, I don’t think his plan would require losing any one person, although it’s most likely that people would be lost. I hope that isn’t circular reasoning or merely semantic – there’s just no example of God being glad to keep the faithful son when the prodigal son leaves.
Sounds like an excellent book, Wade – can’t wait to check it out!
Charles,
Very good point. Certainly God wants all of us back, but the reality is that by giving us freewill, the potential for sacrifice exists — the unfortunate byproduct of freewill, unpleasing as it may be.
Thanks for the insight.
Lance.
where do scriptures like leaving the 99 to go after the one fit into this? It seems to me that God does care deeply about the individual.