[The following quote is from a lecture given by Dr. Larry Crabb called "Experiencing the Trinity: Trinitarian Community and Spiritual Formation". This has obvious implications for how we relate to one another in our house churches. It's easy for me to think that a home church "model" will automatically create the kind of community that Crabb talks about here, but that just isn't true. When it comes to pursuing Trinitarian community, we "home church" folks must be just as intentional as our brothers and sisters in other church models.]
“Final reality, the final nature of things, is a certain way of relating that is foreign to me naturally. The way the Trinity relates among themselves defines reality. Reality is a certain kind of ‘relationality’, a certain kind of community which [Jesus prayed would] be reproduced in the Christian community.
In John 17 [we learn] what the Lord wants to see happen most as He is headed to the cross, praying in His high priestly prayer. He was saying, ‘As a result of My death, I want to see Christians form small groups like Ours.’ If that’s true, then I suggest it isn’t too much of a leap to suggest that all good marriage counseling, all good parenting counseling, all good counseling about sexual addiction, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety…needs to center on people learning what it means to enter in to a certain kind of relating style. And until we focus on ‘relationality’, I don’t believe we’re getting to the core of reality in our souls.
Are we specializing in our churches on moving people toward Trinitarian-like relating through spiritual conversations? If we are, I believe we have a church. A church is not about simply doing lots of good things. It’s not about merely behaving morally. It’s not about merely…discovering your voice, finding out who you are, using your gifts; it includes that, but essentially it’s about being in community, being with others the way the three Persons of the Trinity are with each other. We need [our spiritual leaders] to value Trinitarian relating above all other goods; above evangelism, above mission, above youth programs, above every other good thing that churches do.”
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8 comments:
Jimmy,
I finished a book recently – "A Community Called Atonement", Scott McKnight – in which he argued that much of the misunderstanding and miscommunication over the theology of the atonement is due to various communities of the faithful seizing on a single biblical metaphor and ignoring, or minimizing, the importance of all others. Like McKnight, I have for some time been deeply suspicious of theological reductionism. (I once heard the gospel reduced to “Love God and love your neighbor.” Well, if that’s all there is to it, then a lot of blood and ink were wasted in the living and writing of the Gospel.) I catch a whiff of those same reductionist tendencies in Crabb’s discussion of the essence of church. I can’t be sure of his intent without greater context, but I am suspicious. “Essentially (there’s that word that makes me squirm!) it’s about being in community,” he says. Well, sure. But you could also say, “Essentially it’s about submitting to the Lordship of Christ,” or “Essentially it’s about loving God and your neighbor,” or “Essentially it’s about [fill in the blank].” It’s not that I disagree on the importance of Trinitarian-like community. It’s just that the concept has no specific meaning until you flesh it out. And when you do, you’ve moved beyond the essence. The essence alone is not enough; you must have the details. Einstein once said, “You should make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.” I think that holds, here.
Also, I’m no Greek scholar, but Crabb’s paraphrase of John 17 -- “As a result of my death I want to see Christians form small groups like ours.” – seems way off base. Jesus is praying for unity of the whole body, not for unity of individual small groups. Again, without a fuller context I can’t be sure, but it seems Crabb’s personal conviction is driving his exegesis.
As for the main thesis – “We need [our spiritual leaders] to value Trinitarian relating above all other goods; above evangelism, above mission, above youth programs, above every other good thing that churches do.” – I think Crabb would be hard-pressed to substantiate that with Scripture. Again, I must hedge a bit because I don’t have the full context. If I understood him more fully, I might agree a lot more.
I do agree with Crabb that we need to focus much more on being (relationship) than on doing. So, I’ll take away that reminder from the article. Keep challenging us with your posts. I like best those that I don’t necessarily agree with; they make me think and occasionally (not often enough, I fear) even change my mind.
Peace of Christ,
John
John:
As always, your thoughts are insightful and incisive. I appreciate the dialog.
As you said, I think you'd agree a lot more if you were more familiar with Crabb and the context in which he's speaking. I'll try to address your concerns.
I understand your concern about reductionism and Crabb would most likely agree with your concerns. But I think when it comes to essentials, he may actually be on to something here. Jesus said that He had been given authority to give eternal life to His people and then He defined eternal life as "knowing You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:2-3). He goes on to speak of His desire to see His people share the oneness that He and the Father experience in the community of the Trinity. We were made for this eternal life that is a participation in the life shared by the Trinity. Eternal life is knowing/experiencing communion with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. We can't get more central and essential than this. It might be said that all the other essentials you mentioned, the Lordship of Christ, loving God and loving others, etc. flow out of this eternal life of communion with God (Paul called it being "in Christ" and "Christ in you") for which Jesus is praying.
This would also alleviate the last concern you mentioned. This communion with God within communities that reflect the community of the Trinity will overflow with all the evangelism, mission, youth discipleship, and every other good thing that churches should do. This seems to me to be the biblical pattern. Take Ephesians for example: Paul spends more than half the book talking about communion with God and the community that it develops (chapters 1-4) before adressing the more "practical" outworkings of that communion with God and community with one another in the rest of the letter.
Your point about Crabb's paraphrase of John 17 is well taken, but the oneness of the whole body has to be expressed in Trinitarian oneness in each smaller, local expression of the body (call them small groups, house churches, whatever). In fairness to Crabb, I don't think he was trying to offer a translation as much as an application of John 17.
I think Crabb is trying to strongly emphasize the relational essence of church that has been lost among the programs and productivity of the American church today. A cursory read of Acts leaves no doubt that these early churches knew a level of community and relationship that few American Christians can begin to imagine today.
I'm enjoying the dialogue! Thanks John.
Jimmy
Another thought about reductionism. Jesus might be accused of this when He "reduced" all of the Law and the Prophets down to the two Great Commands of loving God and loving others. This does not diminish the entire Old Testament nor does it mean that all those commands and case laws were a waste of time and ink. I think that Jesus, the Master Teacher, wants us to grasp the simplicity of life with God without sacrificing its depth, complexity, and mystery. Loving God and loving others sounds simple, but one can spend a lifetime learning and living the depths of those two commands. As Jesus indicated, it takes the whole counsel of God to unpack them.
Just some thoughts.
Jimmy,
I really appreciate your second comment; it gets at the true nature of my concern. I do not disagree with anything in Crabb's quote -- I might express some things differently, but that's of no consequence. But whenever one reduces the Gospel to one thing -- or ever two as Jesus summarized the Law -- there is an inevitable loss of clarity. I attended a conference once where a speaker made an interesting point. He said something to this effect: "Stop trying to love people. Just be kind to them." His point was that we often say the most important things are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves (sound familiar?), when in reality we don't really know very well what that means. So, we start with something we do know -- just being kind -- and find that, by doing that repeatedly, we are transformed into loving people.
Now, back to Crabb. Suppose I agree that the most important thing for church is Trinitarian relationships. That begs the question of how to achieve that. And, as always, the devil (OK, bad phrase) is in the details. So now, we find ourselves necessarily enmeshed in all the other things that Crabb views as secondary. It may be that he is simply reminding us not to lose sight of the ultimate goal when we are engaging in the "daily-ness" of church; if so, I totally agree.
One last thought (and I apologize for wearying you with all this): Crabb's emphasis is not unlike that of Eastern Orthodoxy for which the ultimate goal is theosis -- unification with God, i.e., participation in the life of the Trinity. Now, for our Orthodox brothers and sisters, for example, the goal of prayer is theosis. But they do not say, "Simply come before God in prayer and focus on theosis." No. They say, "Come before God and pray the Jesus Prayer repeatedly. Fast. Worship. The full life of the church will transform you and God will grant you theosis in his own time." Something like that is what I see going on in the NT. Yes, Trinitarian relationship may be (almost certainly is) the goal. Now, stop eating meat offered to idols if it offends a brother. Leave his wife alone. Take care of the widows. Stop getting drunk at the agape meal. Stop suing one another. Work for your living and share with others. And a thousand other things, and perhaps by so doing you will just find the Trinitarian relationship you've been looking for.
There really is another point I want to discuss here about cultural lenses, but the garbage and recycling beckons. That, too, is part of a Trinitarian relationship with my wife -- mutual submission and sacrifice!
I'm really enjoying our conversations. I appreciate your humble spirit, your servant heart, and your keen mind.
Peace of Christ,
John
John:
Yes, this is fun! We learn in community when we can talk through issues and sharpen each other. I like it.
Your point about "love" losing its punch is perhaps one reason God has used so much time, space, ink, blood, sweat, and tears to illustrate and elaborate on what it means to love God and love others. The implications of love run deep and wide.
I agree with your point about the everday disciplines/practices helping us to enter that Trinitarian reality for which we were made. That's what I was getting at in my comments about Ephesians earlier. You've made it clearer here. Thank you.
Thanks too for the "theosis" thoughts. You are a great resource for understanding that branch of God's family.
Grateful for you,
Jimmy
Oops, sorry. Somehow my last comment was posted 3 times! So I removed the extra two. Operator error!
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