The Christian Story

1986-11-19·Sermon

John M. Buchanan
7:00 a.m, Study Series
October 15 - November 19, 1986

Gabriel Fackre - The Christian Story

INTRODUCTION

1. The Gospel as the "Biography of God"

The confusions
cult religions , new Right - and the

Possibilities of this time make the study necessary.

The book is for students, not browsers.
it is a systematic approach to doctrine.

2. Narrative Theology

Recovery of imagination is happening.
Recovery of story telling - see Keillar
Three distinct, overlapping forms of Narrative
Theology:

a, Canonical story - Bible

b, Life Story - experience

c. Community Story - Christian Tradition

3. Coring (p. 10)

p.16

Is there a core - or a pleuralism of ideas, stories?
Gabriel Fackre et al say yes - “there is an
out-thereness of biblical truth."
2nd Century Church had to focus...produced
"Rule of Faith" - Apostles Creed.
3rd & 4th Centuries had to be clear about
basic faith re. distortions. Produced Nicene Creed.
"All statements bear marks of their age" -
the issues and the language of the day.
But there is a core of tradition ~ in Bible and early
Church.
Creation, Fall, Covenant, Christ, Church, Salvation,
Consumation.
Transtation
Fach age must restate story in light of its own concerns -
translate ~ e.g. Freedom —- liberation story in 20th Century.
"whether one's translation of the Gospel is really
heard or understood...depends on how deeply the
translator is immersed in the world and has learned

its idiom."

Authority

What are authoritative materials for the work of theology?

Bibie

b, Life and traditions of Church

Setting in world of experience

Each is distorted by some ~ when it becomes only source

of authority.

Bible tells basic events - the substance of the
story.

Christ event is central for all the rest of the Bible.
All Bible seen through Christ. See p. 20

Church - past and present,

"Fathers and mothers havé bequeathed us the faith ~
brothes and sisters help us believe and live today.
World - "General human experience in all its

variety, richness, ambiguity." (p. 23)

Perspective
"Fhe views we hold are shaped by where we stand."
for sit in pews) p.26
Here the distortions in authority occur:

Bible alone - fundamentalism

Church alone - ecclesiasticism

Experience/World - both secularism and

evangelicalism

"The elements of authority do their work in getting
the Story straight when they are bound together, and
when each is honored for the gift it brings to the rest--
a source, resource, and setting.” p.28
"The art of perspective therefore is to learn to relate
but not to capitulate to the culture out of which that
perspective grows." p.29
Student must locate own perspective - “modest but
meaningful cultural awarenesses to which our theology

must be alert." p.30

Metaphor #1 ~ The two dominant motifs of our age's

perspective are:

the visual media and the Visionary Phenomena
TV - telecommunication Rising expectations —-
Castro, Ortega, John F.
Kennedy, Martin Luther King,
Ghandi, Mandella

To be authentic any retelling of the Christian story
in our time must take into account the above vision,
particularly, points to the future.
Metaphor #2 - Light - what we need to see the right vision.
Logos - As what light to see by.
Metaphor #3 - Liberation and Reconciliation
Twin theme. which is the "translation key" for modern
retelling of Christian story. p.34
Why? Gabriel Fackre usés hiw own method of measuring
authority..."a perspective is viable when by the power
of the Holy Spirit it rises out of contemporary experience,
is tested by the traditions and life of the Church, and is
legitimated by Scripture." p. 34
Cite - worldwide experience of liberation (p. 34, bottom)
and reconciliation (peace) {p. 35)

The word GF will use for these two motifs is Shalom.

D. Shalom - Freedom from sin/death and reconcilation with

God, human family and nature.
“Shalom envisages the end of every bondage and the
overcoming of each alienation." p.36

This is the captivating, inspiring vision we have allowed
to erode and be replaced by a shabby, literalistic
fundamentalism.

The reality of 60's and 70's crushed the vision for many
and they reacted/retreated - cults, narcissism, despair -
as the visionaries were assassinated.

So the story must incorporate the reality of the vision's

shadow, negative side ~ "bondage and alienation."

Revelation

"Phe Christian Story is not just a statement of who we are, but
an affirmation about the way things really are. It make truth
claims." p. 40

The Revelatory Process

Image of God in us is blurred but not gone. The original

light is not aitogether out.

The remainder of the natural light of creation shines
through human achievements of the good, the true, the
beautiful, p.43
Art - beauty - justice - truth ---"breakthrough of light"
The natural light breaking through.
Covenant Vision
Ged showing humanity, through Israel, the way to Shalom -
(Pillar of Fire, Exodus)
"The Holy Spirit gives the gift of illumination to the community
of faith and to individuals - in moments of insight - Eureka!
The story/vision must be -
Coherent - any reading of story which does not honor
the work of the Holy Spirit in science - will be off target.
The Spirit of Shalom is living presence in the world in
feeding the hungry, doing justice, making peace.

Intelligibility

Continuous - with Christian past and Church

Derivative — from Bible

PROLOGUE - GOD

John 1:1 - is prologue to whole story. Christian should read
it first -— “the architect's plan for the universe,"
Forevision

Logos. - contemporary meaning is vision.

God has a plan, a "dream"

Biection - “the eternal decision, to fulfill the secret
purpose whatever the cast." p. 37

Empowered Hopes

Christian talk about God is not abstract - i.e."God is

ominopotent"...but active.

"Whatever we say about God, the central character of

the Christian story, must be drawn first and foremost

from the central event in that epic, Jesus Christ." p. 08
Holy Spirit

- ig the source of God sufficient to living the vision

to reality.

The Trinity

Envisioner, Vision, Power

Augustine used psychological metaphoe ~ memory,
understanding, will.
God is one - not these three faces (persona) of God

To know Jesus Christ is to know what the Eternal Vision is. p. 61

Masculine Imagery of Trinity

Jesus Christ relates to human beings and envisions a world
that transcends the patterns of dominance and submission
that characterize this faliten world..."there is no male
nor female" {Gal, 3:28)
"The everlasting Purpose transcends our divisions
and imperialisms.”™ p. 62

There is a tradition of feminism imagery:

Advent Hymn - Wisdom on High - "her" op, 63
Middie Ages - Prayers to Christ - he and she

An inclusive Vision cannot arise from a less~-than-

inclusive Envisioner.
God is divine parenthood fulfilled.

Tt is more difficult to recast liturgical language, but
rewarding because it expands our consciousnous of God.
But - biggest problem is prayer which is intimate
communication. We don't use "parent" as model of

address.
Perhaps time will come when we overcome limitation of
our language - in the meantime, personal model of

address is important.

God became human is a male - in a patriarchal society
(who would have listened to female?) - but in a way
that challenged the image and tradition and stereotype.
Letty Russell suggests she for Holy Spirit.

(ruach is feminine; pneuma, neuter)

Language ultimately is human, thus finite, limited:

it is important to keep liturgy and prayer personal
communication and not recede into new abstraction.

Free To Be Together - God's Dream

"Manifest in Jesus Christ is a holy Love active in

liberating the world from the tyranny of sin, evil, and

death, and reconciling humanity, nature, and God." pp. 66/67
liberation from enemies for reconciliation -
t+.e. Shalom -— the freedom and unity of all things.

Ghapter I CREATION

Creation is the opening chapter of a plot conceived in
eternity.

Why Creation? Oldest theological question.

a. Oldest answer ~ God doesn't need creation.

b. God creates because of “overflowing love."

K.B. "God does not will to be God without the world."
God creates covenant partner, free to respond to holy
law ~ to be in Shalom.

Thus Freedom in Creation is major theological motif.

"The intention of God requires in the covenant partner
a real freedom to respond to the invitation... .Genuine
life together can rise only out of a love born in freedom." p. 69

The whole cosmos is part of the story - all of nautre -

stones and stars. The vision of Shalom includes harmony
and reconcilation in nature and between humanity and
nature (life together} ~ original sin perhaps no where as
clear as in our estrangement, alienation from nature and
our misuse of it,

Nature is perfect and good in its natural state.

HUMAN NATURE

Freedom comes full flower to say Yes or No to God.
Freedom and ability to enter into deepest intimacy with God.
Imago Dei
i.e. the clarity of sight {to see the Vision) and the
eminent capacity to respond to it...includes our reason
and our spirit (the mysterious ability to reflect on
on our ourselves - to transcend self — RN)
Our "original righteousness" — our capacity for the return
of God's overture of love, p.72

CREATION OUT OF NOTHING

Means — Nature is not holy - not God - (as if it were
created out of the stuff of God).

Nor was it made from pre-existing matter (which is

basis of ancient dualism).

Being as such ig Good - Augustine.

"God invented matter, therefore he must like it." W. Temple

SCIENCE AND STORY

No conflict - Bible not astrophysics book.

(Science - is evidence of Spirit.) JMB

New support from Science for premise of Christian story.
a, There was a beginning.
b. History is 4 process, progression.

CREATION AND TRINITY

First person is Creator, but other two are involved.
“Creation is a making, done by the Envisioner according

to the Vision and enabled by the Power of God." p. 75

CONTINUING CREATION

United Church Creed used present tense - “Ged calls worlds
into being."

"The divine creativity is not limited to the beginnings of the
world. The continued existence of the world depends on

the freedom of God to re-create, to perpetuate this great

experiment in Shaiom." p. 76

Edit. ~ G.F. lacks literary grace and imagination. His
prose is tortured, difficult, not easily read.

Chapter Ti FALL

Adam - Humankind, "His saga is ours" p. 77
The point is not that we should not pursue knowledge, but
that we must be responsible about our decisions,
Also, it is not that sexuality, sensuality is source of evil
"a foreign body in the blood stream of Christianity which
has done untold damage."
Sin - p. 76 - Great paragraph,
"turning inward of self away from God, neighbor and nature.
An ego trip inward.
Qur vision replaces God vision — then ultimately

sin is idolatry — pride.

Sin prompts escape from freedom - into concupiscence (power)

or acedia fapathy)

Christianity is suspect of power,

Theology relies on other disciplines for support (often }

Philosophy ~ existentialism points to the "universal anxiety

that comes about by living ai juncture of the finite and
infinite." p. 79 Sin is resuli of trying to cope with
ambiguity. {RN}
It even infects our religion - "pharisecism."
The effects -
Rift between humanity and God
Nature
Neighbor - War
So we turn pruning hooks into spears - in complete reversal

of God's vision.

We deliberately set ourself against neighbors and
nature, which is to say God.

The original image continues to entice us ~ we remember

"Faint recollection of Eden."

Paul struggles with it.
"The good which I want to do, I fail todo...." Ro. 7719

"Who will save me from the body of death," Ro, 7:23

Paul's anguished cry is profound Christian analysis of
human condition ~ realistic, sober and suspicious of
all human claims of utopie and perfectibility.
EVIL
Historically attributed to demons or Satan, Even though
the imagés are not ours, the reality of evil in God's
world is still with us
GF suggests new metaphorses: Psychological, sociological,
political, geclogical, medical -
The mystery of principalities and powers.
The fundamental temptation is to seize power.
"The acquisition of power for self-serving ends precipitates
the Fall.” p. 84
Does this shed light on existence of evil?

GF - it does and

Is there a perversity within nature?
DEATH
History and man - alienation/separation from God, which

is result of Sin.

PROVIDENCE

God keeps taking care of his Vision.

We are free te reject, but God keeps at it....
healing, rebirth, growth — keep happening in nature
and history,

"In the history of nature and humanity, there is a law
of Shalom at work." p. 87

‘There is aiso a tender and individual care operating
which numbers the hairs on our heads and marks the
sparrow's fall."

Chapter IJ] COVENANT

Primal Covenant - in Creation. “God does not will

to be God without a life together with the world in
freedom and peace." p. 89

Now - the Particular Covenant

COVENANT - "the sclemn promise to fulfill a declared
purpose" - i.e. God's word to fulfill the Vision.
"Covenant in biblical perspective is the stubborn,
unswerving commitment to the Shalom God wilis for
the world,..but more,,.a pledge to execute this

purpose through a particular people.

EXODUS AND LAW

"God does a deed among his people that enacts the
Dream of liberation and reconciliation." pp, 90/91.
Exodus is pivot - makes them a visionary people -
and begins, in their history, a rhythm of promise
fulfillment.
Part of the Covenant are the laws of the New Land -

"the precepts of Shalom - a realistic law, for fallen

world - kept alive by priests who celebrate it and
make atonement, sages who meditate on it and expand
it,

Law ~- produces Temple and Cult

THE PROPHETS

(One of best treatments of what the Prophets are about.)
They see the Vision of God ~ Shalom.

- Animial world, encompasses humanity, healing between
nations and in soul of individual. pp. 92/93

The people who bear the Vision and remind rest of world
of what God intends, are rejected and hated.

Anti-Semitism p. 94

WHERE DOES THE COVENANT LEAD ?

Why do good people suffer - bearers of Covenant?
OT answers: God will make it right.
A vuture event will put things back...
either in history/or outside history.
A Messiah will come to do either or both, and the
Messiah himself will suffer.
Chapter IV_ JESUS CHRIST: PERSON AND WORK

{Incarnation and Atonement)
THE PERSON CF CHRIST: INCARNATION

Who is he? Many modern and ancient answers, most
of which say: 1. One of us: Spiritual

4, Unlike us: Human
Early church identified "heresy" - warnings ~-

at Nicea (325) - Chalcedon (451)

The Biblical Witness

L. Christology from earliest texts - “new quest for
historical Jesus."

2. From above ~ doctrines, depending on assembied
proof texts.

GF will do little of both.

The Deity of Christ

Context is John 1 - eternal framework for incarnation.

™ Jesus Christ, the eternal Vision becomes flesh.

The Journey of the Logos

A difficult but interesting exercise,

Peace acts in a fashion commensurate with that end.

The Sinlessness of fesus
(defending Docetism at the last barricade ?)

Sin - is blindness to the lisht:

Sinlessness of Jesus is “unclouded vision”

which made Jesus "incapable of sin" ~— not

petty moral transgression -
"Here the Dream is displayed in human history, one
that disctoses who God is and exposes who we are.“ p, 113
"The declaration of sinlessness ~ is the assertion

that in and through the attitude and action of Jesus

of Nazareth we have un unobstructed view of ultimate

reality." p. [14

The Unity of Christ

Chalcedon 451 - One Person, in two natures - without
confusion,.change, division, separation ~ etc."
Nestorians, et al ~ "A schizophrenic Christ with a
double personality."

Unity must be maintained ~ and grounded in God,
"The unity of Jesus with God is to be found in their
common Vision, What God projects on the screen

of the future, the man of Galilee sees." op. 118

THE WORK OF CHRIST: ATONEMENT

Ecumenical consensus on Incarnation, but none on
atonement.
Sources are: J]. Biblical Data
2. Tradition - i.e. the issues, problems
faced by Church, the response to which
was a theory of atonement.
Ala Pelikan on Christology - “Questions and issues ina
given milieu make their presence put on a doctrine of

Atonement." p. 122

Role Models (4 Classis Atonement Theories)

Jesus as Example and Teacher

Problem - Lack of knowledge/truth.

Answer — Christ, teacher and example of knowledge/truth.

"In Jesus‘ words and deeds we learn that God is Love

and that we are called to be loving. ...Atonement

means changing hearts and minds of human beings

so they will love God and neighbor."

a. Strength - takes seriously Jesus Galilee teaching.

b. Weakness - Doesn't take sin seriously. We need
good news, not good advice.

Jesus as Substitute and Savior

We require drastic action because we are in deep
trouble.

Problem/issue - is sin/guilt - "Because we are
trapped in our sin, we cannot do what the Example

and Teacher says we must do. We need a4 Source.

Old Tradition
a, Anselm's “satisfaction theory" (p. 126}
feudal system - extraordinary sacrifice
wins favor.
b. Reformation —"penal substitutionary"
c. Sacrificial theory ~ Offering pleasing to God,
In ali, an obstruction to reconciliation is removed,
Most people believe one or the other of these - and
it does take the human condition seriously.

Weakness - reductionism - “Its tunnel vision of the

Work of Christ does not allow Galilee or Easter or

finally Bethlehem to enlarge the significance of Atonement..."
"T love Jesus but I hate God." - thus it denies Incarnation —
i.e, to see the work of Jesus as the work of God, not

a work done by God to Jesus” - or by Jesus for God.

also preoccupation with personal cleansing of sin/guilt -
overshadows "Vision" of Shalom to which the Galilean

Christ beckons us.

Also, Easter becomes an appendage.

3. Jesus as Congueror and Lord

Historical crisis/oppression often stimulate the

1936's Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor

Lib. Theol. today ~

Issue/concern - Evil and death in history.

Christ, in this theory, meets and defeats the
foes of God, evil and death - thus, Easter is
the focus - the victory - "That God raised JC
from the dead signifies the victory over the
powers of evil, and finally also victory over
death in the deepest meaning, the death of hope
for the wortd," p, 131 This is strong stuff
for oppressed people,
Weakness —- tends for curselves personal sin -
- personal culpability is mot given its due -
- expectations for history are too high - utopianism
becomes narrow fanaticism -

- Little focus on tenderness of Galilean Jesus.

4. Jesus as Presence (totally inadequate treatment J)

Issue is transience ~— personal mortality.

Space and time are transformed by Christ's

having become part of them - as dye colors water.
Good summary chart on p. 135

THE THREE-FOLD WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

(GF's view of Atonement)
Prophet/Priest/King

1, Prophet and Seer

Jesus stands in OT tradition of ones who "see the
Vision of God and make it plain,..Hé caught sight
of and pointed toward the coming Kingdom in which
the will of God would be done on earth as weli as
it is in Heaven. He is the revealer of the future of
God," p. 137 ~ See more on the Vision ~ What
Jesus saw/taught.

The ground and goal of the Vision is Agape , the

boundless, unconditional Love which produces Shalom, p, 138

"The cost-benefit analysis of Agape show a pre-
posterous balance sheet: its bottom line is
written in the red of crucifixion, Agape is
spendthrift," p. 139
Jesus enacted - as wellas taught. "He did
what he said."
As prophet, he also disclosed the depth of our
aversion to the Vision (sin)
The final ground of Shalom is divine Agape,
Prophet points te intimate relationship with
God ~ Abba.

2. Priest and Sufferer

Prophet tells new vision ~ priest deals with gap
between vision and reality of where people are.
We are judged by Christ's life.
The Cross - an attack on the Vision and on
God himself - it is God suffering for us and
with us a vulnerable Ged.

( - do more here)

3. King and Liberator

Christ overcomes the last enemy.
The battle is joined at Bethlehem, fought in
Galilee, and won on Calvary (Easter.)

“On resurrection morning, Christ beats down Satan
and all his hosts and destroys death, The very
worst that the world hurls at the Vision cannot
finally extinguish the Light of God (Col. 1:13).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that evil

in all its forms—-the ills of the flesh, the disasters

of nature, the holocausts of history~-do not have

the last word. The enemy does not control the

fguture. The intention of God to bring the kingdom

cannot be turned aside; Shalom will be! And as doom

is spelled for the powers of evil, and sin is overcome

by the divine mercy, so too death meets its match.

When Christ rose from the grave, he signaled the
death of death and the coming of Life, Easter means

that the Vision ef God is victorious over its foes

and the reconciliation of all things is the destiny
of the Great Experiment of creation. ‘Courage!
The victory is mine; I have conquered the world'
(John 76:33). pp. 147/148

What really happened on Easter?

1. Physical body raised.

2, Spiritual body raised,

3, Physical body raised and transformed.

4, Nothing

5. Resurgence of faith,

GF votes #3

Easter is continuing event in history.

“And from that elusive event in our own history when
a soft answer turns away wrath, 4 power structure is
humbled, and systemic change occurs by the life and
witness of a Martin Luther King, healing happens, or
the sting of death is removed through the agency of
suffering love. But these are just clues, for until
the final reckoning with evil and death in that eschatological
toal toward which history now drives, suffering love
continues as crucified love, and the Kingdom comes as

portent and firstfruit and not fulfillment." p. 149

Theodicy

“| .in defense of God's goodness and omnipotence
despite the presence of evil." p, 150
Problem is based on our view of power - no

potentate/monarch,

Shared Work of Prophet, Priest, and King

"Christ brought us at-one-ment, liberation from

sin, evil and death, and reconciliation with God,
neighbor, and nature." p. 153

The deed of Christ begins with prophetic work.

He saw and shared Vision of God ~ but with Him
the Vision becomes enfleshed ~ and then lived out -

finaily culminating in his suffering for the Vision,

and victory over its foes.

CHAPTER V - CHURCH: NATURE AND MISSION

Ascension/Pentecost - Scripture account of ascension

is bridge from Christ to Mission of Church,

Pentecost ~ the power of divine light descends,
allowing them to see the Vision and speak the
language of a new Kingdom.

- consistent with the incarnation, it happens to
ordinary folks. Whatis created at Pentecost is
Visionary Community - the dawn people, children
of light.

The Gifts of the Spirit and Marks of the Church

Gifts

1. Kerygma - The report of Good News, proclama-
tion of Gospel — the story is told.

2. Leitourgia - Church celebrates story. “The
prayers and songs of the Church keep the people
of God in communion with the Vision of God."

3. Diakonia - The Spirit empowers us to see the
needs of brothers and sisters - Care in body and
spirit.

4, Koinonia - Being together, sharing, life together.

Marks - Classics from Apostles' Creed.
i, Victory ~ oneness
2. Holiness
3. Catholicity
4. Apostolicity
Protestant formula has always been - “Right
preaching of the word and proper administration
of the sacraments."
MISSION
The Spirit does not create community to tell
and celebrate story to itself - but for Mission.
"Light and fire are for warmth and power. Inreach
is fulfilled in outreadh." p. 166
The Vision leads the community outside ~ to share.
1. Deed- Mission is diakonia - empowered to see
the invisible, Church thinks and does ~ the
unconventional, unthinkable, miracle -
2. Word - Mission is telling, showing, 4s well as
doing. (No parochial evangelism!) - “getting
the story out, flinging the Christian Faith in the

air." p. 168

3. Cali ~ An invitation to respond.
Growth is an “expectation of mission,"
The debate on strategy is necessary, but the
hope/expectation cannot be disputed.

4. Confirmation ~ "The structures of power that

took offense at the Good News, in this case,

are made up of a military-political—ecclesiastical
complex which felt its hegemony threated by the
visual and verbal signs of the New Age." p. 169
see Acts -
"Confrontation with authorities and principalities
is a mark of mission," p. 169

Pater/fohn — ML, Worms - MLK, Birmingham -
Bonhoeffer - Pilate, Christ in Pilate

Confrontation — for what purpose?

To call to accountability all structures of power
and authority - to Christ's reigh.

Gonfrontation is risky busingss.

Sect and Church

Somewhere the call to radical obedience must
be honored - to keep church from seitling in
too comfortably -
exclusiveness verses inclusiveness
We need to value both models of Church.
GF says there is room for “Church within church."
p. 173

Church, World, God

God's grace in the world, as well as in the Church,

THE MINISTRIES OF THE CHURCH

Cite confusion re "ministry" Clergy/laity.
Renewal moments have reduced sense of identity
for clergy.

General Ministry and Special Minisiries

"Baptism is ordination to General Ministry" p. 176
Some must be custodians of the Memory and
Celebration - “ears and mouth and eyes" of the
Body ~ without which body would be deaf, dumb,
blind -

But body needs to walk, work, run, dance

Why not commission laity for Mission? - As in
ordination of deacons - and commissioning for
membership ~

See summary on p. 180.

Note: — no reason not to ordain women.

Order and Orders

Congregational ~ (electronic church negates)

Presbyterial

Episcopal

Office of Bishop exists everywhere - dome don’t
name it. Puture Church should.

THE SACRAMENTS

"They are the sign language of faith, the visible Word

which portrays and declares the Good News of libera-
tion and reconciliation, They are the happenings that
give visibility to the Vision of God. But they are

gestures of the Church which do what they say. " p. 184

Baptism

Modern uneasiness about baptism,
Scripture and church tradition are full of it.
"Baptism is the enactment of the Church's vision
of parental embrace in the Prodigal Ston story..." p. 186
(GF does not - and could/should - call in support
from other disciplines - like child psychology)
What happens ? yp. 186
1. Baptism - is placed in environment of the Vision,
2. New relationship
3. Personal claim and cail

Grace and Faith in Baptism

Grace is always present. Parents furnish the faith.
Grace saves when received by faith.

Housshold Baptism

Obviously part of early tradition, Contemporary
expression is the too comfortable habit of having
baby “done* as initiatory rite ~

Integrety of membership becomes issue ~ so
confirmation needs to be seen as sacred part of

Baptism process.

SUPPER (GF simply wore out here!)

"Here is the presence of the Future.,.The Vision of
God is given visibility in the last supper. Christ
is Host, his disciples gather in communion with
him and each other, the wheat and wine of the
earth are consecrated." p. 190

Communion is-

Memory and Hope

Communion with Christ

Communion of Saints

Unity with the Earth

Sacrifice

Thanksgiving

CHAPTER VI SALVATION

Salvation from sin - for reconciliation/liberation/
Shalom. Salvation as process past, present, future.
See H.R. Niebuhr’s response to street Evangelist —
"T was saved by what Christ did; I am being saved

right now; I shall be saved when the Kingdom comes." p, 196

SALVATION NOW

Intense partisanship and intolerance within
Christianity on the issue -
GF reminds that basis is salvation by Grace

SALVATION FROM SIN

Freedom from sin must be accepted ~ excellent
exposition of grace - faith - pn p. 198

Grace is overflowing compassion/love of

parent - open arms

Faith is decision to respond to it: to enter

the open arms,

Further miracle is that even our faith

response is gift of God, p. 198

The Pilgrimage of Grace and Faith and Martin
Luther's story

Righteousness ~ not prize to be earned,
but gift given by God,

Ambiguities about law

Perversity in human nature can use law for
personal aggrandizement. "See how good Iam.

Who will deliver me?"

Grace and Faith in a Time of Vision and Reality

Same motive that called Luther to monastery calls

folk to movements - secular and - All

must confront reality of world and the danger of
despair - "occupational hazards of dreamers." p. 202

Pardon and Power

Forgiveness prompts resolution; grace becomes
sanctification; personal salvation becomes Agape
love for world.

SALVATION FROM EVIL

In form of principalities/powers - political, economic,

physical, personal, psychological -

"Where Christ is liberating now is where Christ was

liberating in the days of his flesh...wherever and

however bodies and minds are mended - Christ is present" p. 204
Where hungary are fed, etc., Christ is liberating.

"Salvation now is the presence of the Liberator,

wherever the shackles of human bondage are being

torn off and the oppressed set free. In our time we

discern his footprint in the struggles of the
developing nation to be liberated from colonial
domination, the ravages of hunger, and its own
internal political tyrannies. And we see it every-
where there is to be found the struggle of ethnic,
racial, and religious minority, the unfree majority,
the unrepresented young, the ignored aging and
elderly, the exploited women, the trampled

class and caste. Christ is alive and at work
wherever ‘the least of these’ raises a cry of
anguish and hope," p. 205

Liberation theology has focused here. Christ is
present also in defeat and despair and in times

of gross sin and evil, We are learning more about
the breadth and depth of evil. p. 206/7

The Saving Presence of Christ

As in Emmaus story, Luke 24:13-35

Christ of road and upper room,

He is present on road - incognito when little
happens, but also on intense, personal, upper

room experiences.

"Authentic faith keeps company the Christ of the
road as well as the Christ of the room, ...

To be with Christ is no serene stroll in the
garden.” p. 209

The Works of Love

Three categories - Heaven/earth/hell

Heaven - Cheek turning selflessness -

It will be trampled in real life, We need
reminders and examples - but "The perfect ethics
of heaven cannot be exported in packaged fashion
to earth." p. 210

Earth - "The work of love is to translate moral
vision into the reality of claim and counterclaim
...setting bounds - honoring and protecting
each person through moral law and legal code
from “universal axioms" ~ justice

come "middle axioms" - equal rights legislation.

The danger always is legalism.

Hell - Direct confrontation with evil - love in
ambiguous circumstance —

Revolution

Just War

Abortion

Marriage — divorce
All ethics are situational: Christian ethics are
contextual - one part of context is situation:
other part is Gospel and Grace.
Contextual always depends on the community
for help in decision making. “What is Church
saying about this?”

SALVATION PROM DEATH

Personal mortality - but power of death is separation

from God,
Resurrection is more than promise of personal

immortality ~ it is freedom from power of death

Christian hope knows that mortality is not the
last fact about us, nor is death the last word about
world and history.

The final conquest of death awaits the full

day, but the sting has been teken away.
Despair paralyzes —- Hope mobilizes -
Christian strides into future - confident of God.

SALVATION BY CHRIST ALONE ?

New awareness of pluralism ~ and world religious ~
all searching: “the Scandal of particularity"
“plural shock has resulted for many in christological
heart failure." p. 219
Alternative positions:
1, Common care of truth in all religions.
2. Best in each joined in global faith (Bahai)
Conservative Christien position is imperialism ~
"Ours or nothing."
GF cites Barth and Rahner ~ on Christ as unique

but effective for alt: a new universalism.

CHAPTER Vil CONSUMMATION
(Eschatology)

Three versions of eschatology

lL. Concerns about personal mortality

2, Concerns about end of world/Aime/history

3. The critical, decisive moment of choice-encounter
with Christ ala Bulimann an existentialist theologian.

Eschatology is important - NT is full of it.

MYSTERY AND MODESTY

in critical times the temptation has always been to
try to say too much, and to forecast the end in very
precise terms.
Premillennialist - rapture, tribulation, return of
Christ and 1000 year reign, etc.
Postmilleannialist - Same thing, but Kingdom will
come within history.
Modesty is best, not detailed travelogues.
What is certain is the importance of eschatology...

in Christian thought.

Within Christian story eschatology is expressive
in classic doctrines of:

Resurrection of the Dead

Return of Christ

Last Judgment

Everlasting Life

SCIENCE AND FAITH - No conflict. When conflict

exists between accounts in our story and what science
knows, we must choose science. Interestingly, science
supports the. basic framework of Christian eschatology -
i.e. There is an end to time/history/world as we know
it. If not by nuciear death or environmental polution,
then the eventual entropy - running down of universe
and sun.

THEMES BASHFUL AND BOLD

Different historic eras have emphasized different
eschatological themes ~ e.g. judgment looms
important where historic evil is

We need to honor all the motifs of history.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

An awesome thought! God's memory is total -

the Consummation reaches into every nook and

cranny of history: none is forgotten! What has died

is recovered.

Bodily resurrection - Creed inserted phrase to combat
Gnostic and Docetic heresies - which denied
bodies,

"Our bodies are part of God's final design." p. 228
We ate not disembodied souls waiting for the
release of death.

Resurrection of Dead has begun in Jesus Christ.

RETURN OF CHRIST AND PINAL JUDGMENT

Post resurrected Christ is not suffering servant
but triumphant victor.

The coming of Christ at consummation is linked to
the searching light of truth that holds all accountable.
(GF becomes literalist here.)

He vascillates between the necessity of a judgment
that will hold all accountable and the gracious forgiving
Lord of Shalom in the process. He paints himself into
a corner, the only solution for which is a form of
purgatory. He's not the first to fail into the trap.

On the nature of the judgment -

"To see the ugly fact of our self-centeredness and its
effects with blinding clarity is the excruciating pain
of judgment. More so indeed for those who have made
professions of loyalty to Shalom and have given lip
service to liberation and reconciliation. What
deepens the agony of this self-disclosure is the

other fact that comes clear in this moment of judgment-~

that the light of judgment is the light of Love.
The harshest judge of a conscience that knows
what it must do or what it should have done is to
know the hurt it has caused. To know that we
have broken faith with the One who has brought
ug to be, and to know the suffering we have
caused God, culminating in the act of crucifying
the Vision, that is horror indeed. p. 239

God's wrath is heaviest on agents of bondage,
oppression - those who exploit the weak -

But the Christ of judgment is also suffering
savior. P. 231 GF almost destroys unity of
incarnation he has argued so vigorously for -
“He is the advocate of the Father's Love before
the Father's Wrath." (This is more than | can
handle.)

For the judgment - what counts is faith demon-
gtrating love by feeding, healing -

What of those who have not heard?

GF rejects universalism - emphasized grace's

power to pursue the person after death -

(An almost silly proof text page-ful doesn't
help his argument ~ but seems almost defensive,
This is not his best chapter} -

Christ's saving work beyond death may have
been the rationale for "descent into hell" in Creed -
Missionary theology became sensitive to other

cultures and religions, and became less, not more

imperialistic —

HELL AND DAMNATION

Must we consign better part of humanity to hell?
What is it? Alternative scenarios
L, Light and Darkness - Fires of eternal hell -
See NT references.
2. Light and No Darkness - No hell - light for ali -
universal salvation
3. Light Overcoming Darkness
(Hegelian symthesis of 1 and 2}

God's grace continuing into future,

GF likes #1 for insistance on accountability,

but fails to keep basic Good News in focus.

NY views of punishment after accountability ~
is product of medieval concept of primitive justice.

GF returns to concept of God's stubborn love

that will not give up on us...Hound of Heaven -

In conclusion GF becomes more. mellow.

"There ig hell and judgment. But the last word in

the Christian Story is not that of a half-accomplished
purpose, but of a promise kept and a Vision that
becomes Reality...,.a modest (poor choice of word)
hope, with its eschatological proviso, leaving all

to God's will, yet shaped by the promise and power
of a God who will be all in ali." p. 240

EVERLASTING LIFE

lL. Reconciliation of Humanity with God.
2, Reconciliation of Humanity.

3. Reconciliation of Nature.

“God's is a cosmic Vision. Its fulfillment is the
restoration of ali things. The ecological imperative
of the Christian faith is grounded in this hope of
God for the created order." p. 243

AFTER DEATH ~ INTERIM ESCHATOLOGY

Postmortem existence is current hot topic- twa
different scenarios:
1. Soul detaches from body, returns to God
Immortailty of Soul, not really Christian, See p, 245
“Though the attempts are constant to force this teach-
ing of the immortality of the soul into the Christian
system, so much so that many pulpits in an
acculturated Christianity offer it as the yearly
Easter diet, it must finally be declared indigestible.
Christian faith has too profound and critical an
understanding of human spirit to consider it the
"divine" segment of the seif worthy of immortality,
and too high a view of the body to disdain and

separate it from our final destiny. Both something

less and something more must be said about our

penultimate and ultimate futures, p. 245

2. Death of body and soul (holistic death)
until Resurrection.

Although #2 is more scriptural, #1 has merit
in faithfully expressing the bond of love between
God and person in Christ which is unbreakable,
So, what happens? -

Sleep in God - "soul sleep"

“While awaiting the fullness of resurrection por-
tended in the Easter Christ, death marks a stage
on the way to that end, one in which the selfis
in some way alive and responsible in a fashion
we cannot comprehend, ‘having and not having’
who and what we shall be." p. 247

Eternal life, after all, begins now and extends
through death - “Nothing, St. Paul promised -

"will separate us!"

HISTORICAL HOPE

There are signs of fulfillment in this world - Shalom -
where sick are healed, captive set free —-

Christian hope is sober hope - which takes
human sin possible ~ but works for Kingdom because
it knows that it is coming...there is light in darkness.

EPILOGUE - GOD

The narrative story of God — in Trinitarian terms
focuses on divine behavior first, not divine attributes.
Theology is a perception/description of divine,
trinitarian mission.

- Creating, preserving - Envisionary — Father

- Liberating, reconciling - Vision + Son

- Redeeming - Power - Spirit

Now, as the tale unfolds, certain attributes of God
become visible - emerge - "modes of the divine being"
~ "modest glances toward a Light whose inner

reaches are finally ‘hid from our eyes’." p. 252

FORMAL QUALITIES (Modes of Divine Being)

Subjectivity - God is subject - events rise out of
a Self that purposes and chooses. God is
initiator.

(lf God is subjective - our experience of God

is personal, intimate, not observable,
analyzable from the outside, objective angle.

The danger is a too sticky piety, non-rationale,
finally anthropomorphism ~ in which God is a
projection of our own selves, feelings, €xperiences.

Reformation critiqued subjectivity.

But God is subjective; not exclusively, but
surely -

Transcendence

At the same time God is more than us -
Two classic attributes of Transcendence are:
Infinity ~- God is not is space: Space is in God.

Eternity - God is not in time: Time is in God. p. 254

iImmanence
God's involvement, intimately, with the world -
the “warm currents of grace that flow in nature,
history, relationships -
"“Immanence is our description of these happenings
that were, and are, and are to be in our time and
space,” p. 254

Immuta bility

God's unchangeableness, classically. Process
theology challenges it. GF uses term, but really
means steadfastness -

"God will not be deflected from the course - ...The
Story is about a stubborn God, steadfast in purpose."

Aill-Sufficiency

"Deity has all that is necessary to fulfill the Vision.”

- Not, however, based on our understanding of
sufficiency. "Our language about God must be trans-
formed by our experience of God - not vice versa,

(Fhis is what subjectivity really means.)

Omnipresence

We are never out of reach, See Ps, 139

Omniscience

God has all sufficient knowledge - a convoluted,
but important section -

God becomes all. GF argues foreknowledge as
well. Major enigma is: does this negate freedom
of will, choice? GF iries to say no - but inmy
mind, doesnt succeed. Seems to say that God
knows what our choices will be, but chooses not
to know, or something like that.

"By this biblical criterion, foreknowledge means the
grasp by God of the future in which the world shail
be won to the divine purpose. God both foreknows
and foreordains that Shalom shall be--divine election
in its encompassing sense. The foreknowledge of
God is grounded in the confidence God has in the
power of God, the Holy Spirit, to fulfill the eternal
purpose of God. Further, that foreknowledge must
include the range of options the world has to respond

to the divine invitation.

(continuing)
The omniscience of God in this context is the
foreknowledge of the possibilities of choice,
the scenarios of divine response and the ultimate
outcome of the struggle between the numan No and
the divine Yes. To believe in the all-sufficiency
of God's knowledge to pursue the Story to its
successful completion is to be prepared to affirm
this much,” p. 257

Bottom line for GF is that it is a real drama,
not a marionette show. {At least, he knows what
the issue is.)

Omnipotence

Almightiness

"By extrapolating from a fragmentary human experience
of power-~-the capacity to influence things--we are
inclined to interpret omnipotence to mean the power
to effect and control ali things." p. 258

We project on God our conception of power. In

ancient world it was oriental potentate.

"But the God of the narrative we have explored is

the God who is neither an autocratic regent or a
take-charge Western sheriff. This Creator gives

the world the space and time it needs io be what

it will be. This Liberator and Reconciler does not
act by force or fiat but by a vulnerable Love.

Indeed this Redeemer and Consummator shall be

‘all in all,’ but only so along a journey of

stubborn Love that stretches into eternity itself." p. 259

Omnipotence is understood exchatologically.

The power of God in creation is also power of seif-
limitation. -
"(od willed the world to have a fiatless freedom, for
in the Dream of God there is no solidarity that is

not freely chosen, no community that is not con-
sented to. That is the nature of the divine Love
which, by definition, cannot program or robotize

its responses. The self-limitation of God is the

risk taken that the world will say No to the invitation

to life together with God. Herein is the vulnerability

of God. The history of God and the world is the
Christian account of what God does about the
abuse of that freedom. Its center point is the
act of ultimate vulnerability when God plunges
into the world at Incarnation and receives the
ultimate rebuke on the cross." p. 259

The Power to bring about the vision is the
Holy Spirit

Election, Predestination and Paradox!

Material Qualities

Shalom - An invitation to liberation, peace,
and reconciliation,

Love - Unconditional Agape

Holiness —-

Suffering —-

MYSTERY AND MEANING

"When the whole Story is told and all efforts
at Theological clarification are made, we confess to
seeing through a glass darkly...” Whatever recounting

is done will never exhaust the heights and depths of

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