Back on Track

Somewhere along the lines, probably in order to grow the institutional model of the organizational church, we abandoned the ethic of Jesus Christ. The good news is that the cultural evolution in which we currently find ourselves is forcing the Church of Jesus Christ to find its way back to the ethic of Christ, that upon which it was originally based.

Those are pretty bold statements. Let me do a little more explanation.

The historical Jesus stood for grace from within an institution of law. The tradition in which Jesus was raised taught that persons who failed to live up to a standard of law were defiled. Worse, they defiled those with whom they came into contact. Those persons were to be avoided. They were to be ostracized, rejected and expelled from everything in which the "good and righteous" ones were involved. There were no jobs for them, no Temple or synagogue, no interaction, no inclusion, no hope and no solace. If persons differed from the proscribed normative standards of those who were in power, then they were left outside to look, forever, at the fortunes of others.

Jesus rejected the normative standards that were set by the exclusionary and judgmental power elite, who interpreted and applied the law according to their own desires. Jesus learned, contrary to their applications of law, to exercise mercy and love for every person, whether or not they belonged to the "good and righteous" population. In fact, Jesus found response in those communities of rejection and shame. He found there an openness to a practical grace that is reflected in the archetype of Crucifixion and Resurrection, where persons are called, enabled and equipped to go out of their way in an effort to improve the lives of others. Jesus brought grace and tore down the citadels of exclusion and judgmentalism.

Paul continued, and likely expanded, the theology of grace by concentrating exclusively on the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ as the ethic from which faithful men and women are directed to act. In Paul, the ethic of Christ is fully articulated.

But Paul's grace is rejected in the early Church. The ethic of Christ is supplanted in the formula for leadership in the developing institutional Church, post-90. The formula is called "Apostolic Succession." In Apostolic Succession, only those who can trace their theological lineage back to one of the original disciples may claim authority in the developing institutional church. This was, of course, a rejection of the theology of grace in Paul and, by extension, removal of the ethic of Christ as the guiding foundation for following Christ.

Soon after 90, the early developing Christian tradition rejected the theology of grace in Paul and, in the void, embraced again the theology of law, orthodoxy, rule and regulation. Within a century of the historical Jesus, the developing institution that used his name rejected the his grace.

Through the ages, especially through the promise of the Great Reformation of the 16th century, it looked like the Protestant Church of Jesus Christ may have acted to recover the theology of grace that we learned in Jesus and Paul. Instead, we fell back into denominationalism and additional division. The ethic of Christ remained in subjection to the orthodoxies of institutions and organizations. The needs of those institutions and organizations supplanted the ethic of Christ in the practical work of the Church.

Since 1968, however, there has been a cultural shift afoot. That shift has ushered in an age of acceptance and diversity that is unprecedented in the annuls of history. The culture began moving toward something that looked a great deal like the ethic of Christ. It distrusted the motivations of institutions, organizations and governments. It rejected authority for authority's sake. It looked suspiciously on those who claimed natural rights of privilege and began to question statements of superiority.

The institutional, organizational, orthodox-driven denominations began to diminish. The cultural standards for faith-based organizations shifted from power to servanthood. Those institutions that remained faithful only to their own rule of law have fought hard against the cultural evolution and have, at least somewhat, delayed it. But the cultural evolution toward acceptance and natural rights is inevitable. It will continue to develop, no matter the objection of those who have been mired in their own orthodoxies of control and manipulation.

This is great good news for the Church of Jesus Christ. Thanks to the cultural evolution that is unfolding around us, we can embrace again the theology of grace in Christ Jesus. We can embody again the archetype of Crucifixion and Resurrection from Paul. We can begin again to put in place a practical theology through which all persons are served, where we work for universal human rights, and where we spend our time, energy, talents and money on making the world a better place for everyone. For everyone. Every one.

God is at work in the cultural evolution in which we find ourselves. And that cultural evolution is advent of an ecclesial one. Thanks be to God for getting us back on track.