Uncomfortable

This week's lectionary readings from Micah have got me thinking about the fact that Gospel can be (nay, always is) uncomfortable. The message of judgment for Jerusalem was not welcomed. Nevertheless, the Old Testament always (I think) mingles grace with its judgment. The tree is cut down but there will be new growth from the stump (Isaiah)


This strikes me as apt for our society at the moment. And I look forward to reading David Bentley Hart’s The Atheist Delusions (see also Nick Baines' blog) as to what that might mean if his thesis is anywhere near correct.


The today I come across the words of David Bosch in the magnificent Transforming Mission, quoted in Alan Hirsch's The Forgotten Ways:


"Strictly speaking one ought to say that the Church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it... Let us know that to encounter crisis is to encounter the possibility of truly being the church." This makes me look upon the idea of the Reformation Church as continually being reformed in a new, much more dynamic light.


I realised some time ago that I have lived much of my life seeking stability. If only I can understand this or that, or achieve the other, then all will be well and there shall be peace in my soul.


How tempting it is to want to preach the same message to the world, in these days of crisis.


But Micah and Bosch will not let us do either, either to the wider world or to the church - and indeed in myself. The continuing crises and struggles are part of our Cruciformity (to quote the title of an as-yet unread book.) Gospel means embracing these, wherever they may lead. Be it in church life, or personal struggles, or the way that I find myself more and more challenged to really 'see' the huge struggles of those I meet every day (echoed in newspaper headlines).


I must not flee these challenges but meet them head on. This is the calling of Christ.