Holiness and Mission...
"What does God want with us? He wants us just to be, and to do. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and when we come to that He will shake the world through us."(C Booth)
"True holiness will not keep us from the world, but drive us into it in faith" Riddell.M (1998)There's been a very helpful and essential excavation of holiness at Matt's. I think mainly boiling down to the semantics of 'process' or 'crisis' and whether the former represents a lowering of the bar. I found myself concluding that there seems to be more 'crisis in process' and more 'process in crisis' than meets the eye . However I'm left to wonder what good is 'process' without results; what good is 'crisis' without a resultant holiness that transforms our communities in word and deed?
Catherine Booth's has a stern warning in her 'Papers on Godliness'.
"We want sanctified humanity, not sanctimoniousness (the curse of a great deal of religion of this day)"Later she asks...
"What does God want with us? He wants us just to be, and to do. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and when we come to that He will shake the world through us."This isn't really a rant, a making of a point, it is more a me thinking out loud, here is what I am left mulling through - is holiness without Christ-like mission the slippery slope to sanctimoniousness? Andrew in comments has helpfully outlined the holistic nature of holiness so there can't be such a thing as a locked trophy cabinet of dust covered holy lives? Is the sanctimoniousness that Catherine Booth speaks of born of - what is the point unless distinct lives make a distinct incarnational difference to where we are called?
Brian Russell at realmealministries and lecturer at Asbury (evangelical bible college) starts an exploration of Holiness and the Mission of the People of God (read it here)
Some snippets that got me thinking...
"The issue is not forgiveness. Of course, God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus offers forgiveness for all who believe, but God wants more. God wants to transform our lives. God wants to shape us and recreate us so that we reflect not merely our own strengths and weakness; gifts and imperfections; character traits and flaws, but more and more each day we will begin to reflect the character of Jesus Christ."He points to the importance of Holiness to Mission...
"The key however is to see the relationship between mission and holiness. If these are not bound together, mission becomes ineffective because mission fundamentally is the reflection of God’s character to the world in order to connect that world with the Creational interests and intentions of God. Mission is only God’s mission when God is reflected through its practice. ...All gifts and talents apart from a Christ-formed center are powerless to impact lives. Apart from holiness, we simply feign godliness while actually promoting worldliness. ... Holiness frees us for the sort of mission-focused ministry that Jesus dreamed about on the cross—a life altering, world changing movement of Christ-followers fully unleashed to go."and then the importance of Mission to Holiness ...
"the essence of true holiness that we His people through our lives and conduct witness to the rest of creation the reality of the invisible Creator God. We are God'’s representatives and agents. We may read this as a missiological mandate: God created people to be reflections of the Creator God. ... Thus, from the beginning of Creation, we see that humans were born for a purpose. One in which mission and holiness cannot be so easily separated."Once the propellant nature of holiness to drive us - as sanctified humanity - into the world is lost, consecration diluted - do we need to stand up to Booth's accusation - however well intentioned we might be - of sanctimoniousness?
Comments
By Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)
I stand by the door.
I neither go to far in, nor stay to far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man's own touch.
Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.
Go in great saints; go all the way in -
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.
There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. 'Let me out!' they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door -
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But - more important for me -
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
'I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.