Morning Everyone,
When I got in the car this morning the BBC World News was letting me know that the Netherlands had elected a new government. The Christian Democratic leader was stepping down as prime minister. Now I’m not much on world politics but I am aware, through my reading, of the Christian Democratic Party in both the Netherlands and in Canada because, if it wasn’t founded by Abraham Kuyper, then he was at least of big part of it at the turn of the 20th century.
Mr. Kuyper was prime minster of the Netherlands for a time. His book Lectures on Calvinism which came out of a series of lectures that he gave at Princeton University is a classic, though I understand from others I have read, that it is best in the original Dutch. (I’ll add ‘Learn Dutch’ to the list of things I need to do. With the list I’ve got, I should get to that about a thousand years after I’m in heaven).
Anyway, thinking of Kuyper and the elections reminded me that a nation can’t be changed from the top down. Kuyper was a great man of God, who had great influence in his country for awhile but in the end most of what he worked for was lost in the flood of unbelief that ended up drowning the 20th century.
I wish we would learn from our mistakes or that we could at least look at history and learn from it but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Kuyper was full of ideas. His influence was worldwide, but it was worldwide in a very restricted and narrow sense. He influenced many intellectuals but his ideas never trickled down to the masses. For the most part, the works of Abraham Kuyper and those he influenced have been trapped in an egghead universe never to see the light of day in the real world.
That saddens me because they are the ground work for a full orbed Christianity that is sorely lacking in our day and age. It saddens me because though these ideas managed somehow to trickle down into my brain I would venture to say that 90% of those of you who will read this have never even heard of Abraham Kuyper and wonder why I spend your precious time talking about people you’ve never heard of.
I speak constantly of the need to think Christianly in every area of life and that type of thinking is an outworking of Kuyper’s thought filtered through several of his students of the 20th Century. Even though I harp on the need to think Christianly, both in these weekly blurbs and to my congregation, I am also becoming aware that such thinking alone isn’t enough; we have to do Christianly in every area of life. It is in our actions which flow from the way that we think that people see the gospel applied in the real world. And when they see it then perhaps they can hear it.
I am beginning to see that this was Jesus' model for changing the world. He demonstrated the gospel by turning water into wine. He demonstrated the gospel by healing 10 lepers; but only one of them heard. We on the other hand spend all our time speaking the gospel ,but it seems as if no one gets healed, or very few. I think part of that is the languages that we speak.
The church speaks in many different tongues and the majority of the time we do so without an interpreter. When we do speak the language of the people we usually end up gutting the message of any real depth so that those that hear are able to incorporate the message into their life without having to change. From that perspective we end up with salvation without repentance – we end up with a non-christian gospel. In such cases, even though we live and breath scripture, it is a scripture that is our buddy and not our Lord. We have nothing to fear from such a buddy and everything to gain, so we think, but because we have nothing or no one to fear we end up with no wisdom and knowledge because the fear of the Lord not getting a new buddy, is the beginning of both wisdom and knowledge.
Another language that we speak is eggheadese. We understand the depth and meaning of scripture in $5 dollar words and Doctoral gibberish but that depth and meaning never makes it into the real world because first, people with that kind of education and understanding don’t usually have to live in the real world, they live in academiaville, which is nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you try (yeah right). And second, everyday joe’s don’t digest $5 dollar words, they choke on them.
What we need is for God to raise up interpreters and teachers. We need people who can translate the gospel in the fullness of its meaning without dumbing it down, and we need people who can teach us to do the gospel in the midst of everyday lives.
In the last year, I have seen people come to or should I say return to the gospel, or maybe just hang around it, in their time of need, but when the need was gone, life went back to the way it was. That’s not coming to the gospel. Reading the bible is not embracing the gospel, learning theology is not embracing the gospel, going to church every time the doors are open is not embracing the gospel. I’ll be honest I’m not even sure you can embrace the gospel in church anymore. Because if you’re not embracing it the rest of the week, in all the other places you go then you don’t know what the gospel is. The good news changes people. It transforms them (albeit VERY SLOOOWWWLLLY) into new people.
The good news is supposed to transform the way you see and think about everything – you should not be able to watch tv, go to work, or even be intimate with your spouse in the same old way because you are a different person. We don’t like to think that way, but that is what scripture seems to say, wait... it's what scripture does say.
The old you should be dying, the new you should be getting stronger. We don’t like it because that makes the good news intrusive and well, we don’t want anything intruding in our lives. We are the great self absorbed generation – it is the MY Generation . Unfortunately, the WHO were right (not the world health organization but the rock band) when they sang:
Change it had to come We knew it all along We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same And history ain't changed '
Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war
I'll move myself and my family aside If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky For I know that the hypnotized never lie Do ya?
There's nothing in the street Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again
But of course, the song ends with the infamous line: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
And that really is the crux of the matter, isn’t it? If you put on the clothes of the good news but your boss remains the same, you don’t have the good news. When we start to change bosses then our lives will change, our families will change, our communities will change, our nation will change.
Until then, as Led Zeppelin sang: The Song Remains the same.
Grace and Peace, Brad
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