The Book of Jude
June 1, 2014 | Patrick Preheim
This week Anita reminded me that each book in the Bible has something to tell us about God. Easy for her to say, she didn’t have to preach on Jude or even be present to hear my muddled thoughts. There were times this week I sorely wondered about the madmen who voted Jude into the Biblical canon. Jude is, perhaps, the book of the Bible I like least. I love the intro and great benediction at the end, but the middle part doesn’t work for me. My complaint with Jude is not its primary theme—that the message of salvation should not and can not be separated from ethical behaviour (“Intro to Jude in The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible (NRSV), 473-474 of N.T. ). No, this is an important question for progressive Christians who like a little wine with their meal as well as the child evangelist eager to coax a confession of Christ. The relationship of God’s salvation to our daily living is important stuff. What bothers me about Jude is its tone. It is judgemental and condescending—a lethal combination. It reminds me of the arrogant and caustic letters sent to the Canadian Mennonite and sometimes this church office. Jude and these other letters demand an accounting of certain faith practices of this congregation. The book of Jude, then, becomes an opportunity for us to clarify our faith. Today I offer three models that are important for me in holding together the concepts of salvation & ethics in my practice of progressive Christianity.
The first comes from Brian McLaren and can be found in his book Naked Spirituality. His model speaks of the spiritual journey in a framework of four stages: simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony. It has been my experience that these four stages are cyclical rather than merely linear. I am indebted to Stephanie Epp for her brief description of these four stages.
The first is simplicity, the season of spiritual awakening. Simplicity provides essential lessons and a foundation for the journey. In this stage everything is knowable and the world is viewed in dualist terms of right vs wrong. The focus is on having the right answers and doing the right things in order to be with the right guys.
Complexity is the second stage. Here we begin to translate right belief into right behaviour, and knowing how to apply faith in a complex world is a complex task. Idealism reigns and one believes everything possible. Moral ambiguity, ethical dilemmas, exposure to other great religions challenge the simple faith first learned. At this point there is either an entrenchment of earlier beliefs or an openness to new ways of being faithful. Efforts to translate the simple faith into living, however, expose the foundation in such a way that frost heaves and potholes may develop. Enter stage three...
The third stage is perplexity, the season of spiritual surviving. The inability to fully know and understand God fractures faith. Everything is relative. What matters most is brutal and authentic honesty. There are no solutions, answers or consolation in sight. Doing the right thing becomes more a function of habit than intention. A person may doubt their faith and even abandon it for awhile. There is a mystery that is being sought and faith becomes a quest.
The fourth stage is harmony, the season of spiritual deepening. In this stage a certain kind of simplicity is regained as one begins to accept the limits of knowledge. The focus is on being wise vs unwise. In harmony one realises that every statement about God cannot fully contain God. There is a yielding of self to the great mystery we call God.
The book of Jude would ask, “How do these ideas hold together the message of salvation and ethical behaviour?” First, this model affirms that God is present in every spiritual condition we might be living through. In the language of Psalm 139, “there is no place we can go from God’s Spirit or flee from his presence”. Just as God is Lord of the seasons of the land so too is God Lord of the seasons in our life. To know that God is with me and among us is salvation. And this understanding undercuts the world’s call to claim ourselves as God or to anesthetize ourselves with the worldly pleasures that distort our sensitivity to God. Further, this theological insight ought to make me more compassionate with those in other stages. People and congregations resting in a simple faith have a place in this congregation and in Mennonite Church Saskatchewan and will do ministry out of this stage more effectively than me. That is important. And there is a place for people and congregations wrestling with the complexity, the perplexity and the mystery of faith and the ethics of that faith. The body of Christ requires diversity to share the gospel and discern faithfulness, and McLaren’s typology offers it.
A 2nd model-- Belonging, Believing, Behaving
I came across this idea of authentic church life from Stuart Murray. You can read more in his book Church after Christendom. I offer you two stories from that work:
His wife was a Christian and belonged to a church, but Ben was not a believer. He was a Jew and an agnostic. But over the years he watched and listened, developed friendships in the church, took part in various church activities and attended more regularly than many members. The church welcomed him and waited patiently. He imbibed their values and shared his own concerns, prayer requests and, finally, prayers. One day he called God ‘Father’. Shortly before he died, eighteen years after first attending the church, he was baptized as a believer.
Mary was in her late fifties. She had never been to church before and she knew nothing about what Christians believed. She sat quietly at the back. On her way home she found herself ‘speaking in this odd language’. The next day she returned various small items she had stolen from the office she cleaned and in the evening went to make peace with a neighbour to whom she had not spoken for twenty years. The following Sunday she returned to church, asking, ‘why am I doing these things?’ She too was soon baptized as a believer.
There is an interplay between belief, belonging and behaviour which resonates with many of us. Our beliefs and behaviour, for example, are often shaped by the company we keep. This model allows an equal place of process conversion to crisis conversion. The idea of “process conversion” rings true to my experience of faith, and maybe this is why I liked the typology. Being part of a community, a community like Nutana Park Mennonite Church, will shape belief and behaviour over time. Salvation, accepting the reality of God within us and among us, comes as a lightning bolt for some and a slow unfolding for others. Ethics are impacted by the stories we tell and the tough discernment we do together. For process conversion to be effective, however, a community needs to be clear about their beliefs. And this takes me to our 3rd model.
A 3rd typology: The Christ Centred model
Way back in the 1990s Michael King applied Paul Hiebert’s anthropological and missiological ideas to congregational life. In his book Trackless Wastes and Stares to Steer By he invites us to focus on the centre of our faith rather than the margins. Denominations of all stripes have traditionally focused on the rules and walls in the border lands separating member from the non-member, saved from the un-saved, ect..,. King suggested we look at and strengthen our centre. Be clear about what you believe, he might say, and act on it. People will either be drawn toward the centre or find themselves drifting away from the centre. Individual movement toward the centre, more than adherence to any given confession of faith or membership rules, truly determines belonging in any faith community. But the group needs to be clear about the centre of their faith.
It is my thought that our belief is reflected in what we do more so than in what we say. Our faith is ultimately revealed in what we do (read more in Joseph M. Marshall III’s Returning to the Lakota Way, 84-85). Compassionate people believe in compassion, that is why they act compassionately. A person can not claim a belief in compassion and then act harshly; it doesn’t work like that. Belief / faith is what we trust enough to do. In the setting of congregational life any claim to be a Christian congregation, a congregation believing in Christ, is either compromised or validated by its un-Christ like or Christ like actions. What we do reflects our faith.
So let me mirror back what I see as our centre—those things we believe because we do them. I would say we believe in gathering together for worship, study and fellowship. The youth gather on Tuesday evenings, the women study bible on Tuesday mornings, young adults gather on Sunday evenings to sing and Thursday evenings to discuss, forever in motion gathers three times a week—all this in addition to Sunday morning. This tells me that community worship, support and discernment is a core belief around here. I would say we believe in service. The volunteers from this congregation at the garage sale last week was overwhelming; that same day a host of others were up in Rosthern supporting at activity for RJC; volunteers help with the MCC sale, Venture Club, worship-- all this on top of the service with non-profit boards and community agencies. Service is a core belief around here. I could go on but you get the idea.
There are certainly areas to strengthen our core, but this is not a bad centre. King suggests several ways to maintain a strong core: tell stories, and do consider some guidelines for ethical behaviour for the different stages of faith present in any congregation (pp. 130-131). I would add ritual and communal spiritual disciplines as additional ways to strengthen a core.
Would Jude be amused or angered by my responses to his letter? I do not know. I agree with Jude that the message of salvation should not and can not be separated from ethical behaviour. I am fully aware that our personal and congregational life will be measured against this standard when we are called to an accounting. Until that day I will strive to love God and neighbour among the people I find myself. And God willing, that will be enough. Amen.
