JESUS: THE FIRST EMERGENT LEADER
Oct 29th, 2007 by John
Delving into the JESUS THE RADICAL PASTOR Archives, let’s revisit the series about
JESUS: THE FIRST EMERGENT LEADER.
I am going to do a series on “Jesus: The Emergent Leader.” I’m doing this because I think a lot of emergent leaders are under a boatload of suspicion and outright rejection because they happen to part ways with “the assured results of USAmerican evangelicalism.” Because some leaders “see” the world differently than the way USAmerican capitalist culture conditions people to see life, they are railed upon as departing from the faith. As my friend, Jeremy Bouma, writes: the use of the term “heretic” is wrongly pinned on some (emergent-conversation) people.
The title of the series is “Jesus: The FIRST Emergent Leader” because if all I hear and read about the “emergent movement” is valid, then Jesus would be under the same evangelical suspicion as most emergent leaders/thinkers/writers. Jesus is now captive to a consumerist, self-indulgent Christian culture that has more in common with “Rome” than with Romans (the book by Paul). USAmerican evangelical piety is primarily red, white and blue. And God forbid that we say anything negative about johnny-one-note, Right Wing Republicans.
Why would I label Jesus “emergent?” Jesus lived in liminal space. Liminal space is threshold space between two massively different “rooms” or ways of seeing/interpreting life. For Jesus, liminal space was between the era of Moses, Writings and Prophets and his own era of Messiah-come, God-incarnate, extravagantly dispensing “grace and truth.” He had to affirm the value of his own people’s history and at the same time confront them on their great and devastating departures from the meaning of their history. Emergent leaders honor the past, with Robert Webber’s classic “ancient/future” phrase. Yet, emergent leaders face the future and proclaim that the past will not survive the new conditions of now and tomorrow. Jesus did the same thing.
In this series I will endeavor to make the case that if Jesus were alive on earth today, I think he would have coffee with Brian McLaren and talk “God,” would discuss the treasure and use of the Bible with Walter Bruggemann and Eugene H Peterson, would have in-depth discussions with Richard Rohr, SJ, about mystery and wonder, and would bear hug Jim Wallis for speaking on behalf of the poor and for justice. Jesus might even read Blue Like Jazz and A Community Called Atonement. Jesus would probably avoid most of our renown Bible-teaching, culture-mimicking churches and visit every AIDS clinic in the States.
Jesus was the first emergent leader/pastor/teacher. His calculated reference to “new wineskins” was his way of saying, “Don’t you get it? The world is changing big time. And it’s not just me that is doing it, but Herod and his sold-out-to-Rome-cronies, the zealots and their bloody violence, the Sadducees and their luxurious comfort, the Pharisees and their micro-management religion, the Romans and their stifling empirial power and the Greeks and their dualistic way of thinking–all these things suggest a global upheaval and we are no longer able to live ‘in the good old days.’ ”
I will examine Jesus’ emergent views about:
1. A massive worldview change: from Hebraic to Hellenistic,
2. God who is a rough and tumble, get down and dirty, relational Being, not some sterile “ideal perfection” (though God is perfect); we know a God who acts and not just thinks,
3. The Bible as “story,” and not “propositional truths” or a deposit of theological nuts and bolts,
4. Social convention and new ways of seeing people,
5. Redefining everything–the failure of Judaism and mystery religions to get the job done,
6. Particularism: there in no such thing as mass-produced spirituality or a pre-packaged or one-size-fits-all gospel…for all people at all times everywhere, and
7. Real community: the very human company of explorers, not arrivers.
As I observe it, the emergent conversation is about these things and so much more. Jesus, thankfully, took the lead.
Popularity: 3% [?]
WOW! This sounds like a great, EDGY series! Look out for Ken Silva, though
-jeremy
You seem to me to be more political than theological. If you are a leftist, that’s fine and well. But to dress up your politics as religion is despicable. If you are so much against capitalism, why not move to Venezuela or Cuba. Good riddance!
Bob,
Welcome to Jesus the Radical Pastor. You are obviously new. You may want to do some more reading on my dad’s insights before spouting off hateful nonsense, maybe your eyes might be opened just a bit. Thanks for the laugh by the way.
Leah
daughter of the leftist political blogger, lol
Dad,
Maybe it’s from living down here amongst the southern baptists but I am starting to get really sick of so called “christians”. So many of these “christians” are so closed minded and judgmental. I think they should all get a refresher course in the life and ministry of Jesus. Do they actually think he’d be a conservative capitalist republican? Geesh. (No offense to conservative capitalist republicans, I’m know there are great people who are conservative capitalist republicans. But since when should it be an insult to insinuate that someone is other than this. It’s ridiculous)
Bob,
Jesus was quintessentially both theological and political. Maybe you have forgotten that to declare “Jesus is LORD” is a very political statement. Having never run for public office at any level, local, state or Federal, I am hardly more political than theological. I have been a pastor for some 30 years now and a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary.
Get the burr out from under your saddle and try to have a decent, humane conversation. By the way, I have been to Venezuela and I did not like it.
Leah,
I am grateful for your astute observations. Bob represents a segment of Christians who’ve lost the ability to have conversations, especially with people they apparently consider theologically or politically different. They have only two categories for thought and speech: right and wrong. And of course they think they are right and everyone who disagrees with them are wrong. Polite dailogue is too cumbersome and takes too much thought so they default to the only speech form they know: debate.
The irony is that people like this, who are at one level so CERTAIN they are right, get all worked up, almost threatened by different views than theirs. You’d think that if they were so confident in their views, they could be as peace with others who even may wrong. However, they need to take on the role of the Holy Spirit and they must “protect” people from the dangerous folk who think differently than they do. They think the whole world has to be confined to the ghetto of their little minds.
Bob,
All I have to say is…WTF?
Blogs are meant to be a place for conversation, questions, and idea-spinning…if you can’t handle that then mount your stead and ride off into the sunset, because even if John was a card carrying commie, who cares? Even if John was liberal, who cares? Thankfully, Jesus shatters and completely subverts flimsy, lame categories…for my, John’s AND your sake!
-jeremy
John
Great work, keep it up. Leah, good observations. So should anybody wonder why so many like Jesus but not the church?
It looks like Bob may be one of those “watchdogs” who trolls around the blogosphere looking for such “subversive” ideas so they can post on their blog about how evil those “emergent types” are and how they are doing such a great job of “contnding for the faith”.
Yea, you’re right. I just got off another site and was a bit upset by some things. Unfair of me. I will certainly take some time to look around. I apologize.
Bob,
I feel like we (other commentors and I) ganged up on you though that was not the aim, because commentors come in at will. You are free to express yourself. I know that feeling of reading and responding to things on other sites that really bug me. A good friend of mine just told me today not to go to those sites. We waste our time and all we do is get riled up. Apology accepted and God bless you!
Thanks, John. The book looks interesting. I read the sample page. I think I may order a copy. Hudsonville, huh. That’s only about 20 miles from me. Small world. Sorry, again for going off half-cocked.
Well, there you go, Bob! We can meet for coffee and talk about all these fascinating, if not frustrating things swirling around these days. Are 20 miles north, east or south of Hudsonville? I didn’t say west because I think that might put you in Lake Michigan.
Going off half-cocked is a weakness of the blog world and I have done it, too.
Bob,
I guess it’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover. My apologies for judging you and your intentions.
Hey John-
An amazing thing happen! The print from my blog just disappeared, and has been missing for a couple months. But fear not, it’s miraculously back again, though I’m missing everything that was(n’t) posted in the meantime. Hope I can talk you into coming back again soon.
-Dan Delion
…forgot to mention: finished your book. It’s great, and I recommend it to all.
-DD
OK, DD, I know who you are. Poking a little fun at my novel, eh? I stopped by your website. You’ve got some good stuff there.
JW
You are crazy and don’t know what you are talking about. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means you can’t make Him useless.
It is the policy of this website not to respond to “anonymous” comments.
Anonymus:
How odd. I love it when people think THEIR version of Jesus is THEEE version.
Weird…
-jeremy
Jeremy,
I agree with you. The person thinks that his/her construct of Jesus is that of the actual Jesus of 2nd Temple, 1st century Judaism. The arrogance to think that what he/she thinks of Jesus today is what Jesus actually was yesterday and will be tomorrow. Piety run amuck.
i think you would really enjoy the new book Brown Like Coffee at brownlikecoffee.com
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