Day 33

In the final three chapters of this book Peterson points out some of the other ways in which people might choose to live their lives.

He begins by suggesting two very different ways which were around in Jesus’ day and writes:

“When Jesus says, ‘Follow me’, and we follow, he rescues us from the ways that Herod used to depersonalize people so that he could use them to serve his ambition, reduce them to mere functions. And Jesus rescues us from the Pharisee way that depersonalizes language so that it can be precise and pure in order to define an identity that is separate from the ambiguities of the world’s ways, that avoids personal participation with others who may well contaminate us, that achieves truth by using language that avoids personal involvement and separates users not only from what is wrong in the world but also from the entirety of God’s creation and covenant.”

The way of Jesus was within a world of relationships.

We need to ‘pray our following of Jesus’ and he commends using the prayer of Mary - I am the servant of the Lord - let it be to me according to His word.(Luke 1:38) At that moment Mary was being given the most tremendous honour - and yet she responds as a servant, a slave.

The way of Jesus is not that way of power over people or a way that reduces people to a set of rules It is the way of life, the way of relationships where in the words of Auden: - ‘everything becomes a You and nothing is an it.’

Next he turns to the way in which priesthood had become highly secularized in Israel by the time of Jesus. Peterson writes:-

“When we come across someone like the High Priest Caiaphas it is easy to be harshly critical of religion as such, but especially of institutional religion. The widespread interest in what is often termed ‘spirituality’ is in some ways a result of the disillusionment and frustration with institutional religion. Much of this new spirituality avoids all the trappings of liturgy and finance, fundraising campaigns and buildings, ecclesiastical bu­reaucracies and councils making hair-splitting decisions on theology, legislating and domesticating the Spirit. This new spirituality sets itself in opposition to all that. It encourages us to explore our higher con­sciousness, cultivate beauty and awareness, find friends of like mind with whom we can converse and pray and travel. Spirituality is an in­ward journey to the depths of our souls. Spirituality is dismissive of doc­trines and building campaigns and formal worship and theologians.

There is something to be said for this, but not much. It is true that the world of religion is responsible for an enormous amount of cruelty and oppression, war and prejudice and hate, pomp and circumstance. Being religious does not translate across the board into being good or trustworthy. Religion is one of the best covers for sin of almost all kinds. Pride, anger, lust, and greed are vermin that flourish under the floorboards of religion. Those of us who are identified with institu­tions or vocations in religion can't be too vigilant. The devil does some of his best work behind stained glass.

We live at a time when there is a lot of this anti-institutionalism in the air. "I love Jesus but I hate the church" is a theme that keeps reap­pearing with variations in many settings.

So it is interesting to note that Jesus, who in abridged form is quite popular with the non-church crowd, was not anti-institutional. Jesus said "Follow me," and then regularly led his followers into the two primary religious institutional structures of his day: the syna­gogue and the temple. Neither institution was without its inadequa­cies, faults, and failures.

The author suggests that a spirituality that has no institutional structures or support very soon becomes self indulgent and subjective and one generational.

And finally he turns to what he describes as the way of Josephus. He was a first century Jew who could be described as the consummate opportunist who in his lifetime sided with both Jew and Roman.

The Early Church was living and growing at a time when Zealots sought freedom from Rome. A Zealot was a person whose entire identity was shaped by the conviction that God and only God demanded allegiance and that violence was legitimate, even required, against the oppressor, the evil.

The early Christians did not turn to violence to further the message.

Peterson reflects on whether it is possible to retain the energy, focus and zeal of the zealot without the violence( both violent actions and violent words).

He ends by writing:

Herod, Caiaphas, and Josephus, all three in their lifetimes, were more influential and more effective than Jesus. The three protest movements prominent during the years when Jesus was announcing the presence of God's kingdom and when his resurrection church was in formation — Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots — all attracted far more followers than did Jesus.

And here's the sobering thing: they still do. We are faced with this wonderful, or not-so-wonderful, irony: Jesus — most admired, most worshipped (kind of), most written about and least followed.
But in every generation a few do follow Jesus. They deny them­selves, they take up their cross, and they follow him. They lose their lives and save them — and along with their own, the lives of many, many others.

Now comes the task of trying to reflect on the message of these three books which are the beginning of 5 book series on Spiritual Theology.

But it is the weekend. Annette and I are off to Stourbridge tomorrow to see the family.

AND - the telephone at the manse is not working. I have reported the fault to Virgin Media and an engineer will be on the way as soon as possible( that might mean next Friday according to the person I spoke to on the phone! She also said that I would be telephoned before the engineer arrived. I am afraid I had to point out that this would be difficult because our phone was not working). If you ring the number you will hear the ringing tone but it is not connecting. Watch this space for more news next week.