Chapter 2: A New Apostolic Era

If we are going to think about a new “apostolic” era, let’s begin by making the distinction between “disciple” and “apostle,” since some may think the two roles synonymous. A disciple is a learner; a follower. The disciple has chosen to listen to a particular teacher with the intention of learning something new and of following in the path of a particular leader. An apostle is one who is “sent.” The word “apostle” is based upon the Greek word, “apostolos,” and means “one who is sent away;” as a messenger or ambassador. The apostle is the bearer of information to others presumably uninformed. To speak of a new apostolic era, to me, means to consider new means by which apostles—or bearers of God’s liberating love—bring the news. Or, it may mean the renewal of apostleship or a re-sending of the faithful.

Zscheile describes some religious and spiritual realities of our contemporary society that cry out for a different sort of apostleship. He observes that many people he and you and I know care deeply and live consciously. They are “constructing their own narratives of meaning and purpose and building their own expressions of community.” Here are people who seek meaningful lives and the company of others and yet, writes Zscheile, “The churches in their area have not meaningfully engaged them, and while they may be seeking God, they’re not seeking a church.” (p. 32) What a telling observation! We who live and serve in traditional church settings need to know and think about the fact that there are many people seeking a deeper spiritual life, seeking God, who are not even considering the local church as a place where God or community may be found. This condition rings true to me as the mother of four children, none of whom attend church and all of whom are actively engaged in meaningful work that contributes to the lives of children, women, the poor, and the oppressed.

Even more provocative and disturbing observations come out of the research cited on pp. 34-35 of the book, one piece of which is this: “a young adult is more likely to become more actively involved in church if she or he grows up in a nonreligious home than in a mainline Protestant home.” What does this say about how we are Christians in the mainline? It begs questions like, “Does our faith show in the way we live our lives?” “Have we loved the church more than God, so that our children have seen only faithfulness to an institution and not faithfulness to life-giving gospel imperatives?” And how do we change that?

Zscheile’s reflection on the historic secularization of western society and the “excarnation” in which “religion became disembodied,” and God “came to be seen as distant from daily life” (p. 36) helps us to see a cultural and religious progression that has significantly impacted the Episcopal Church. My own experience echoes Zscheile’s description that “many church members struggle to name God’s presence or activity in their daily lives or the world,” (p. 36) and yet I find this is changing the more we look, together, at scripture and share our stories unselfconsciously.

Finally, Zscheile declares the potential for the Episcopal Church to offer a new way toward spiritual growth, communal faith, and the work of the gospel in the world. He writes, “Anglicanism offers a richly textured Christianity with ancient roots, expansive sources, a living commitment to justice and reconciliation, and space for people to explore, question, and grow along the way….Its historical embrace of whatever cultural context it finds itself in mandates that it speak the language of the people.” (p. 41) If we can get past traditionalism, elitism, and a lack of clarity and if we could find in ourselves a sense of urgency to fuel renewal, then we might rediscover our identity as a sent people.

This material reflects upon Chapters 5 and 6 of Zscheile's book.  We talked a little bit last week about accepting or receiving the hospitality of others and how that reverses the traditional paradigm of the Church going out and giving to the needy or going out and bringing Christ to the world.  Here is an entirely new orientation to discipleship.  Well, actually, not new at all, if we look at Luke 10.

Still, all the movement to “get out into the neighborhood” and to “go see what God is doing out there,” and to “join God in God’s work outside the confines of our daily environment” still begs the question HOW?  Last week, we suggested that it is time to SHUT UP AND LISTEN, a rather harsh advisory, but strong and true and urgent.  We can begin by listening wherever we are for where we hear God and our neighbor.  And perhaps we are doing this all the time but not very consciously and certainly not intentionally.  So, if I hear that someone’s child seems “stuck” in an unhealthy behavior, do I simply hear the information and move on to the next topic, or do I “stay” with that person and “be” with him in his concern and join into further reflection with him on his child.  Do I look and/or listen for where God is in this? 

There is an endless list of “conditions” of people to which Jesus would have us be present and to which he would have us bring peace.

What if someone feels the need to respond in a larger way than individually to an issue bearing upon her life, say, school bullying or violence?  Is her passion or intention a sign of God’s presence?  Do we join with her in whatever way we are able and become part of what she has initiated, totally apart from our church life?  What is the connection there?

Is this what is meant by being “missional,” “seeking the world’s hospitality” and “living as disciples?”

p. 84:  “Disestablishment invites a new form of public engagement that depends instead upon our lived identity as disciples of Jesus rather than a privileged social location.  James Davison Hunter uses the phrase “faithful presence” to describe this form of engagement—being present faithfully to God in worship, to each other, to the tasks and vocation God has given each of us to do, and without our spheres of relational influence.”

The life of Christians “points beyond themselves to a heavenly citizenship, which gives them their true idenity, yet also calls them to share in the struggles and suffering of the world.”  P. 88

“…discernment must be a way of life for Christian disciples and Christin communities seeking to participate in God’s reign.  It is a cultivated capacity for attending to God’s presence and movement—for seeking and serving Christ through the Spirit.

“Incarnation means translation and adaptation.”  P. 101…in Christ we see God “translated” and “adapted” for human understanding.  (Look at all the sacrificial theology that fits perfectly into the tradition of animal sacrifice practiced by many religions for millennia before Jesus.)