Apocalyptic Welcome

Visit Shawn's blog at westmanpreacher.blogspot.com/

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Hi Shawn:

That term we are appreciating Apocalyptic Welcome just came to me during my first response to you. But the reason I love it is that it suggests that, like our Scriptures, that our ability to mimic Christian Scriptural intent is not only formative for discipleship, but momentous. When we talk about Jesus Christ and his cross as Christians we believe that there is something one-of-a-kind about it, and I say that the same thing is true about Christian generosity because it illumines the Jesus who attempts to reconcile all of humankind and all of the cosmos by resisting the temptation to immerse himself in the various political systems of exploitation and weasling.

In his book Mission Mover Tom Bandy gets right to the point when he talks about how the Church bureaucracy gets excited when a new candidate shows up to join the ministry because it's another resource for them to harvest for their own purposes. Here's what he says:

One worries about the credibility of judges: all these denominational officials, professors, and personnel committees, chosen by popular election and political appointment, and preserved in office by political maneuvering and academic tenure. They all have perspectives they hold dear and agendas to protect or pursue. They are all "servants of the system," but they also see themselves as "reformers of the system," and they all know you are a potential voting member of the denomination and future alumnus of the seminary. They will more likely understand and accept your calling if it fits their agenda and leverages their vision of reform. (Bandy 70)

I don't know about you, but I call this one of the most dangerous elements in the politics of the Church. This is one reason our mainline denominations cannot grow numerically. I actually should go further and say that this is a reason why it is completely impossible for our denomination to grow. Truth is relative. In Greek philosophical logic we would say that relative Truth would be the opposite of absolute Truth, however, for Christians relative Truth is the opposite of Jesus Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the life." We don't have to debate whether Truth is relative or absolute because for us it's none of those. For us, Truth is Jesus Christ.

What I'm getting at here is, perhaps, a nuance that is, I think, very important for us as Christians, as those sitting on the sidelines of the Church. As the United Church of Canada it is impossible for us to attempt anything other than being a "welcoming and inclusive Church" because we have no vision of Scripture and a very shallow Christology, which I think causes us to respond to the world with no substance. We cannot go deeper into our call to justice other than making political statements about war and free trade because we don't know the heart of Jesus Christ. We have been led astray. We spend all of our time teaching ourselves techniques to make our congregations grow like "Living the Welcome" and really I see a lot of that stuff as attempting to scratch a concrete surface.

On the other hand, I would say that the Apocalyptic Welcome is the generosity that knows that the whole world is depending on our ability to not buy into what the world calls politics and what the world calls welcome. We aren't about attempting to include people because we want to grow our congregations and increase the offering receipts. We are about including as many people as possible because Jesus Christ is deeply in love with all that has been created by his hand. We aren't about developing relationships with blacks, indigenous North Americans, Chinese and Korean Christians, and deepening our dialogue with Jews and Muslims because we want to show the world that we are open-minded and sophisticated. We are about doing that stuff because Truth (Jesus Christ) commands us to be generous people looking to build fulfilling, peaceful, and loving relationships with each other that God's reign might be fulfilled here on this obscure planet in the Milky Way.

Apocalyptic Welcome says that the cosmos groans and God is moved by our audacity to actually reach out with our ears and be formed by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Apocalyptic Welcome says that the entire universe (or all of creation) is at stake in our generosity.

Peace,

Adam