I am excited to announce that Alexia Salvatierra is going to be a regular monthly writer here on Release The APE. She is excited to partner with us to help fill out the role of the prophet Biblically and in today’s culture. We are so excited to have her join our team! You can read more about her in her bio below the post.
While the call to social transformation is increasingly common in the evangelical world, it often seems to be an extra-credit project. Prophets are nice to have around but not an essential part of preaching the Gospel. (Of course, real prophets are not always nice to have around – but that’s next month’s blog!)
I think that CEO of World Vision USA Rich Stearn’s book title says it well – “The Hole in the Gospel.” When the transformation of the whole world is not a core component of the preaching of the Gospel, then we are making our God too small and our witness suffers. My 21 year old daughter’s generation is particularly sensitive to the presence of the “hole” (or the absence of the whole); one of her friends said to me recently that she is only interested in a Jesus that transforms the world.
Why is the prophetic dimension of the Gospel so critically important? One of the church fathers said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” At Pentecost, the first disciples emerged from the upper room to preach the Gospel in all the languages spoken by all of the hearers. Actions are a language. What do our actions say about our God? We read in James that “faith without works is dead.” How does our message communicate consistently that our God is alive? Of course, this can be heard as an argument for social action but not necessarily for prophecy (defined as the speaking of truths and the living out of truths that change whole communities and societies – not just individual lives.) We only understand that the full communication of love requires the biggest possible transformation when we realize that it is not only the fact of God’s love that we need to communicate but also the full power of that love. Satan is the king of this world, but the kingdom of God is breaking into the world and it is neither weak nor impotent. As the old Irish hymn based on the Magnificat says, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, “the world is about to turn.”
Bishop Medardo Gomez of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador presides over a church body that serves the poorest of the poor in his country. They have churches spread through the most remote mountains and the most broken down urban slums. During the civil war, Lutheran pastors were often killed for standing up for the basic human rights of their congregants and neighbors. When the right wing death squads killed four Jesuit priests at the University, they went afterwards to search for Bishop Gomez.
The Bishop was out of the country at the time, so they took the cross which hung on the wall of the cathedral. On Ash Wednesday, the members of the congregation had written all of their individual and collective sins on the wood of the cross, including the torture and persecution carried out by the death squads. The captors of the cross called it a “subversive” cross. When Bishop Gomez returned, instead of hiding out in fear, he recruited the ambassadors of various countries to accompany him to the military prison and demanded the return of the cross. They returned it to him and it now hangs in the cathedral under a sign that reads “The Subversive Cross.” Pastors of the Lutheran church of El Salvador are still being martyred – now no longer by death squads but by powerful gangs; their fearless resistance to evil and their protection of the victims of injustice in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ still costs them their lives. I wish that every Lutheran seminarian in the U.S. had to spend a year with the Lutheran Church of El Salvador to learn whole Gospel discipleship. The prophetic gifts and role are not separate from evangelism; they are intrinsically and intimately intertwined – part and parcel of the Gospel.
[This was written in response to “Evangelism Must Be Tied To The Prophetic“]
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As an evangelist I would agree with Alex’s insistence above for a whole gospel. The good news is not a private spirituality, but an announcement of the Kingdom of God in word, deed, and power.
Nevertheless, I confess to an unease with the prophetic tradition when it suggests that the transformation of the world must be ‘core component of the preaching of the gospel.’ Articulated this way it seems to leave the barriers between soteriology and justice in tact while insisting that they must be communicated together.
I believe that we need to leave these categories behind and find language, symbols, and stories that will accomplish what these old divisions could only do in part.
For example, both evangelism and justice have been largely contrived and pursued (for the last 100 or so years) through voluntary societies (including mission agencies). These have emphasized, perhaps rightly, the role of human agency and responsibility in the work of transformation. But is the message of the gospel really about human agency? Is it really our job to ‘build the kingdom of God’ through our effort in witness and social justice? Or is this misleading and potentially subversive to the gospel of grace?
Yes we need prophets and evangelists! Yes we must proclaim the good news in words, deeds, and power (love). As we do, let’s remember that the gospel is primarily an announcement about the creator God, the lovely and glorious world God made – horribly deformed by sin, and God’s plan to reconcile and restore this world to himself. Let’s then go out to be a foretaste and sign of God’s reconciliation in word, deed, and power.
I appreciate, Jason, your thoughtful response. Yes, as a Lutheran I particularly appreciate the emphasis on God’s action rather than our action — can never be said too much. I think it is really important though to also always emphasize that God’s action often or even usually comes through us, not just around us. When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we don’t just pray that God’s kingdom come and His will be done outside of us but also in us and through us — so that He will be all in all. I once had a student ask me what percentage of our labor fell to God and what fell to us – and my impulsive answer was 100% — 100% God and 100% us — meaning of course that we can do nothing without Him but we also must always exercise our free will to accept His will and live in obedience. Lutherans have particularly fallen into the cheap grace trap historically — often I imagine with the best intentions. Explicit language is important in exhortation….and I also do appreciate your point that we have to be vigilant that our language does not reinforce separations — while making sure that we are explicit enough that our human sin does not allow us to wiggle out of God’s expectations.