the Gospel

I believe this is from Nooma 015 | You. This is what we are made, and saved, for.

christarchy

I like to think about what social structures and politics would be like if people really submitted themselves to Jesus as Lord. On a very simple level, I think it would look like Jesus in charge and everyone else equal yet submissive to each other. No command structures or authority hierarchies. No power struggles among men and women, rich and poor, young and old, modern and postmodern, Christian and not. Just everyone serving each other as best they can. Maybe it's idealistic, but I think it's what Jesus had in mind, so I'll risk a little idealism every now and then.

The folks at the Jesus Manifesto call it Christarchy as opposed to anarchy.

Here are some images and quotes that reflect the idea:


Just like the word "christianity" itself, the words "anarchy," "anarchism" and "anarchist" are abused terms. They are abused so often by the media, state historians and government officials that, by no fault of her own, the average person on the street only thinks of chaos, terrorists and random violence when the term anarchist comes up... Anarchism is a rich and powerful critique of modern society that Christians have at our fingertips. We do not wish to confuse Christianity with anarchism but we do believe that when Christianity is lived rightly it looks a lot like anarchism.
-Jesus Radicals


The world is soaked with mutual blood. When individuals commit homicide, it is a crime; it is called a virtue when it is done in the name of the state. -Cyprian





2000 years ago, the son of God was murdered by the state after preaching the subversion of arbitrary political authority and the renunciation of the chains of the temporal world, advocating absolute egalitarianism between all humans under and inspired by the infinite love of the one valid Authority, in preparation for the coming of His eternal kingdom. -Christopher Kilbourn


‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ Who are these? Those who imitate the Divine love of others, who show forth in their own life the characteristic of the Divine energy. The Lord and Giver of good things completely annihilates anything that is without affinity and foreign to goodness. This work He ordains also for you, namely to cast out hatred and abolish war, to exterminate envy and banish strife, to take away hypocrisy and extinguish from within resentment of injuries smoldering in the heart. Instead, you ought to introduce whatever is contrary to the things that have been removed. -Gregory of Nyssa




Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down. -Oscar Romero


You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers. - Origen


Love is freedom:



Anarchy is not chaos, but order with out control. -David Layson


That they may now understand that this is a new kind of warfare and not the usual custom of joining in battle, when He sent them with nothing He said: And so, marching on, show forth the meekness of lambs, although you are to go to wolves… for so will I best show my power, when the wolves are conquered by the lambs… For certainly it is a greater work and much more marvelous to change the minds of opponents and to bring about a change of soul than to kill them… We ought to be ashamed, therefore, who act far differently when as wolves we rush upon our adversaries. For as long as we are lambs we conquer; even when a thousand wolves stand about, we overcome and are victors. But if we act like wolves we are conquered, for then the aid of the Good Shepherd departs from us, for He does not foster wolves but sheep. - John Chrysostom


Alpha/Omega Anarchy



I gave food to the poor and they called me a saint; I asked why the poor have no food and they called me a communist. -Dom Helder Camara
Luke's comment: Or maybe today they would call you a socialist.


The cross-life of Jesus undermined all social orders based on power and self-interest.
-Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline)

a big bucket

So this Great Emergence recap thing just isn't happening right now. Right after I read the book it was fresh and exciting, but now it's like a book report. To steal from someone who I often steal from, "it's the difference between 'having to say something' and 'having something to say'." I don't want to just regurgitate a few quotes because it so misses the point of what the book is about. The whole purpose is to look backwards, and then dream forwards, and what happened was I started 'dreaming' about other stuff with friends, and I want to open that up here as well. Unfortunately I didn't get to any of the 'dream' part in the book, which is the fascinating part, but I really only wanted to recap this so my friends could be thinking about it and then we could see what pieces we can start to put into the puzzle. So, If you wanna know about it, call me up. Maybe I'll get back to it, I hope I do, cause it's really good stuff. But for now it needs to marinade a bit longer.

And it just felt way to dang formal, anyway!

In the meantime, I had a fun discussion with some friends here at Chris Sayler's blog on the topic of nonviolence and evil. Always good. Definitely read the comments.

I've also been talking about a Neue Ministry article on business practices in the Church, which has presented some great ideas. The topics have wandered around from business to specialized churches, to the causes and effects of specialization, to shared leadership... It's all on facebook, but I'll try to find a way to do a transcript or something.

I think I want to make this more of a "bucket" for random ideas that I want to share with people to get their ideas. Sort of a collective bucket, if you will. I enjoy that a lot more than trying to polish ideas and present a thorough case for some point or other. So expect more random and quirky posts in the future. Maybe.