We Know the Shrine is Void: Sacralizing the Status Quo

I had a friend that once was going in a different direction -- a radical one.  The life they were pursuing was selfless and Kingdom-oriented and hard and unpopular.  Their family and many normal people opposed them.  Then, something happened and they changed course.  Recently, I was talking with this friend and listening to their description of their job and life.  They felt happy, content.  The job was easy and they had friends.  Their family life was good.  They had just bought things like a car and a house.  They had cute little children running around.  We didn't talk about the past -- about what they once said they wanted to be and do.  As I listened I felt discouraged as I realized that I had nothing at all to say that could "tempt" them back to the radical path.  If comfort and contentment are what you want and the Kingdom is no longer interesting to you, I simply don't know how to compete.

And then I think about how the Church basically celebrates this kind of life anyway -- sacralizes it through media and books and bad movies and ridiculous Christian book stores and endless pats on the back and retweets of all the right things.

Years ago I stood in a field in Memphis and heard preacher-types tell a bunch of young people (I was one of them) to go and be martyrs for the sake of the Lord Jesus.  They didn't tell us not to take them too seriously -- which, I think, in retrospect is what they might have meant.  I did take them seriously and its a bit too late to turn back now.  I have often felt like Peter in John 6 after the Jesus had alienated thousands of people with a really weird sermon that seemed to be about canabalism -- "Where are we going to go, Jesus?" 

I read somewhere recently the phrase "sacralizers of the status quo".  I don't recall from where I read it, but it stuck.  I've been mulling it over and find it almost haunting me.  Then, I turned to Kipling (which I do sometimes when I can't sleep) and read this:

L'Envoi (Departmental Ditties)

The smoke upon your Altar dies,

    The flowers decay,

The Goddess of your sacrifice

     Has flown away.

What profit then to sing or slay

The sacrifice from day to day.

"We know the Shrine is void," they said,

     "The Goddess flown --

"Yet wreaths are on the altar laid --

     "The Altar-Stone

"Is black with fumes of sacrifice,

"Albeit She has fled our eyes.

"For it may be, if still we sing

     "And tend the Shrine,

"Some Deity on wandering wing

     "May there incline;

"And, finding all in order meet,

"Stay while we worship at Her feet."

I know the scene of Kipling's poem both in the literal and metaphorical sense -- as did he.  There is little difference between the two in terms of their danger and appeal.  Keeping up the cult of an absconded deity is much easier than going after the Living One.  Keeping up the vanity of the status quo is much easier than trying to change the world -- and nearly everyone else knows it!  And once someone or many people have decided upon the status quo as the preferred thing -- and then developed a means for sacralizing it through innoculizing spurts of activism, religious sentiment, and first world theologizing -- well, it is very difficult to drag someone away from that Altar.  Very difficult indeed.

पञ्चमहयजन(Maha Yagna): Five Daily Disciplines for the Devotee of Jesus

By mikaku

What follows is the Nepali version of the "Five Daily Disciplines for Devotees of Jesus"  (पाचवटा  प्रतिदिन् अनुशासन). For the one who has given their life to the Lord Sri Jesus, these yagnas are acts that can be done daily as an expression of devotion (bhakti) and faith (biswas).  I will include below the Nepali and English translation.

पञ्चमहयजन

[Five Great Sacrifices / Disciplines]

१. इश्वर यजन [Discipline of God-worship] 

तपाईंको प्रेम जीवनभन्दा श्रेष्ट छ, यसकारण मेरा ओठले तपाईंको महिमा गर्नेछन. (भजन ६३:३) [Your love is better than life, so my lips with glorify you. (Bhajan 63:3)]

२. शास्त्र यजन [Discipline of Scripture Study]

तपाईंका वचन मेरा गोड़ाका निम्ति बत्ती, र मेरो बाटोको निम्ति उज्यालो हो. (भजन ११९:१०५) [Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path (Bhajan 119:105)]

३. पितृ यजन

[Discipline of Honoring Parents and Elders]

आफ्ना बाबु र आमालाई आदर गर, कि जुन देश तिमीहरुलाई परमप्रभु आफ्ना परमेश्वरले दिनुहुन्छ, त्यहाँ तिमीहरुको आयु लामो होस्. (प्रस्थान २०:१२) [Honor your father and mother, so that you will live long in the country that the Lord your God gives you. (Prasthaan 20:12)]

४. मानुष्य यजन [Discipline of Service to other People]

समस्त व्यवस्था एउटी वचनमा पूरा भएको छ, "तैंले आफ्नो छिमेकीलाई आफूलाई झैँ प्रेम गर्." (गलाती ५:१४) [In one word the entire law is completed, "Love your neighbor just as yourself." (Galaatee 5:14)]

५. सृष्टि यजन [Discipline of Creation Care & Stewardship]

आफ्नो निम्ति पृथ्वीमा धन-सम्पत्ति नथुपर, जहाँ कीरा र खियाले ती नष्ट पार्छन् र जहाँ चोरहरुले गर फोरेर ती चोर्छन्. तर आफ्नो निम्ति स्वर्गमा धन-सम्पत्ति थुपार, जहाँ कीराले वा खियाले नष्ट पार्दैन, र चोरले पनि चोर्दैन. किनकि जहाँ तिम्रो धन हुन्छ, त्यहीँ तिम्रो मन पनि हुन्छ. (मत्ती ६:१९-२१) [Don't keep treasures for yourself on earth where insects and rust can destroy and where thieves can break into your house and steal.  But keep for yourselves treasure in heaven where insects and rust cannot destroy and where thieves do not steal.  For where you treasure is, there your heart will also be. (Mattee 6:19-21)]

At TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali, we have had a fruitful summer of study on these topics during our weekly satsangs.  I recommend utilizing these for the creation of storying sets.  That is, we have found many narratives from the Holy Scriptures that can be used to illustrate and teach the above disciplines.  

Funny things I Saw Today on Facebook

I'm off today folks.  Monday.  Every week.  Of course people keep calling me.  Well, my official communication with the outside world today will be to share the following funny images with you all.

Now that's funny stuff!

And now for something even funnier . . .

Hallowing Thy Name in All Things: Possessio as the Aim of Contextualization

Thanks to a recent comment on another post by "Jim", I have come across an article by my friend, H.L. Richard. I am posting below a link to the article and strongly encourage any of you that are interested in contextualization issues to take a look. H.L. and I have spoken in my home about the concept of possessio as distinct from the earlier missiological concept of accomodatio. He was the first one to tell me about the Dutch missiologist Johan Herman Bavinck (although I already had 1 Cor. 3:21 bookmarked on my phone's Bible app with just such an application in mind). Anyway, I really love the article that H.L. has written and find myself heartily agreeing with it. Please do check it out. In case you don't have time just now, here is the Bavinck quote that H.L. provides:

Here note that the term “accommodation” is really not appropriate as a description of what actually ought to take place. It points to an adaptation to customs and practices essentially foreign to the gospel. Such an adaptation can scarcely lead to anything other than a syncretistic entity, a conglomeration of customs that can never form an essential unity....We would, therefore prefer to use the term possessio, to take in possession. The Christian life does not accommodate or adapt itself to heathen forms of life, but it takes the latter in possession and thereby makes them new....Within the framework of the non-Christian life, customs and practices serve idolatrous tendencies and drive a person away from God. The Christian life takes them in hand and turns them in an entirely different direction; they acquire an entirely different content. Even though in external form there is much that resembles past practices, in reality everything has become new. The old has in essence passed away and the new has come. Christ takes the life of a people in his hands, he renews and re-establishes the distorted and deteriorated; he fills each thing, each word, and each practice with a new meaning and gives it a new direction. Such is neither “adaptation,” nor accommodation; it is in essence the legitimate taking possession of something by him to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth. (Bavinck, Johan H., An Introduction to the Science of Missions, 1960.)

Anyway, terms like accommodation and adaptation are certainly related to the concept of contextualization (particularly the latter). However, they must not be understood as synonyms for it. Rather, contextualization for the Christ-follower is an intentional imitation of Christ's incarnation and, as Bavink and Richard has pointed out, is aimed at possessio -- of taking possession of all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and for His glory. I was reading from an old (non-missiological) book by Alan Redpath and find there a helpful insight. Redpath speaks of the "hallowing of God's name" in all things. He said that as a Christian worker "this concern will be uppermost in everything I do in my Master's name. Whatever service you or I may undertake, our first thought in it all will be, 'Is this for His glory?' Can I write 'Hallowed be Thy name' over that?" (Redpath, Alan, Victorious Praying, 1957.) While it wasn't in Redpath's mind, I believe that this ought to be a kind of operational question for the missionary and Christ-follower who examines some form, ritual, tradition, festival or other element from a given religio-cultural context. "Can I write 'Hallowed be Thy name' over that?" Not as it is perhaps, but as it could be once taken possession of and made to submit to Christ's Lordship. And it should certainly be our aim to write "Hallowed be Thy name" over as much as we possibly can!

It actually takes me back to a worship and missions project that I was involved with years ago in Paris, France. Those were the days when I was sang and played harmonica for a small-time Christian band. We spent a few weeks playing acoustic sets in various subway stations throughout the Paris, especially in the heavily North African parts of town. Of course we used the opportunities to distribute Bibles, Jesus films, and similar items but one of our driving motivations was simply to worship the Lord where he wasn't being worshiped. Yes, we were influenced by John Piper's famous adage, "Mission exists because worship doesn't." I find that same impulse with me today, driving me to take possession of those things, those traditions, practices, forms, and festivals over which I find no banner, "Hallowed be Thy name". I long to engage that thing, whatever it is. I long to bring the incarnate Lord Jesus to bear in, through, against that thing. I long to see that banner lifted up. Over a Nepali baby naming ceremony -- "Hallowed be Thy name". Over a traditional celebration of Dashain or Deepawali -- "Hallowed be Thy name". Over a language like Sanskrit -- "Hallowed be Thy name". Over all things and among all peoples -- "Hallowed be Thy name".

Okay, enough from me. Here is the link to H.L.'s wonderful article:

Mission Frontiers - All Things are Yours: "In a classic text on cross-cultural ministry Paul stated his policy of becoming all things to all men so that by all means he might save some (1 Cor. 9:22). This is sometimes treated as a specialist approach for experts in cross-cultural encounter, but the Bible presents it as a model for all ministry. It is exemplified in the incarnational pattern of Jesus who, due to the Father’s great love for the world, was sent as a true human being into a specific historical and cultural context to announce and effectuate salvation for the world."

Why our Worship Must be Multicultural

I'm doing some great reading today on diaspora missions. Came across the following fantastic passage.  Enjoy!

Our music and our worship must be multicultural, not simply because our society is multicultural, but because the future from which God is calling us is multicultural – Not just so that those from other cultures may feel at home among us but also so that we may feel at home in God’s future – Because like John of Patmos, our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.  Because we know and we believe that on that great waking up morning when the stars begin to fall, when we gather at the river where the angel feet have trod, we shall all, from all nations and tribes and peoples and languages, we shall all sing without ceasing, “Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, casting down our golden crowns before the glassy sea, cherubim and seraphim, Japanese and Swahili, American and European, Cherokee and Ukrainian, falling down before thee, who wert, and art, and evermore shall be!  Amen.”

-          Justo Gonzalez on Revelation 5:9

      If you are interested in reading more from Gonzalez, the above quote came from his book For the Healing of the Nations.