Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Godrulz’s mention of chaos earlier prompted me to reflection and consideration. (Uh,oh!) One of the greatest challenges facing the church today is this issue of how we view not only the world around us, the multitude of cultural expressions even at the local level, but above all how we see God relating to the world and particularly the church. This ferment within the church is challenging the very way the church does business.
Even the world (of business) is increasingly moving away from the corporate model of management and opting for more organic approaches to leadership and tasking. Maybe the Greeks and barbarians are getting it faster than the church. What is evident in creation is beginning to take hold of the way
they do business. At stake for the church are our own kingdoms of command and control, the old top down hierarchies.
Joseph R. Myers has a wonderful little book that just came out:
Organic Community. In it he distinguishes between a theology of God as master planner and/or creator of organic order.
A theology of God as master planner implies that God has a purpose, even ONE purpose for your life, “
God has a plan for your life” and your TASK is to find THE job, THE spouse, THE house, THE whatever. In this model God only invites cooperation in his master plan, not collaboration.
A theology of God as creator of organic order allows for collaboration with him. We are privileged to participate with him in the forming of our future. He invites our ideas, our energy, our creativity, our perspective. God gives up a measure of control to facilitate relationship with us and to demonstrate his love. He allows us to make choices and through his Spirit offers counsel to help us choose wisely.
The underlying question, which meets with great opposition from the command and control model, is do we see creation as a master blueprint to manipulate and control or do we find more organic ways to live and work together that compliment what we see in nature and even in society? Even the societies of social insects express this truth! (Pr 6:6) “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” That is every bit as much about organic order as it is laziness! For the church the question is
“Do we see God as a master planner or as creator of organic order?
I think the issue of how we view time is an important one (that we will probably never resolve) but not the most important one. Once again the Greeks, the Hebrews, and the keepers of the Empire are allowed to set the agenda for discussion and exercise their determination to dominate and control the Christian world view. Will we Christians ever learn? We have our work cut out for us; that’s for sure.
Philetus
PS. My hobby is myrmecology, prompted by Pr. 6:6 early in my life. Ants make great pets and teachers! The tendency is to try and control them rather than learn from them. My wife likes the former approach, nevertheless, I have one crawling on my desk at the moment anyway.