In the Midst (The Ministers of God, Part 2)

"...in all things we commend ourselves as the ministers of God with much patience: in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in floggings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings...." II Cor. 6:4-5

Paul just established that every one recreated by God has been tasked with one ministry: the proclamation of the gospel of reconciliation, reconciliation with God (II Cor. 5:17-20). Now he shows exactly what such a life ought to look like, starting with a hard truth: we prove ourselves to be the ministers of God in every situation, even and especially in the worst situations. Paul list three specific situations here: the personal, the social, and the ministerial.

"...in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses...." All of these words point to times of personal headache and heartbreak. (As a matter of fact, in the Greek both "afflictions" and "distresses" carry the idea of "pressure".) Many things will constrain us in our personal lives. Jobs will fail or go bad. Relationships can die or sour or never work out at all. Bills must be paid and futures planned for, and yet money is tight near to strangulation, and everything is uncertain. Coworkers can anger us, family can frustrate us, and strangers can annoy us. It is in the midst of these things, of the constant pressures and dire straits of daily living, that we are to prove ourselves to be the ministers of God. This is not about being pious do-gooders or starry-eyed somnambulists but rather new creations (II Cor. 5:17). Above and beyond the immediate hard situations in our personal lives, we let God and his over-arching, ever-working redemption inform everything that we do. "Yes, times are tough and life is life, but God is still God, and He and His kingdom are mightier than even the toughest troubles that I face."

"...in floggings, in imprisonments, in tumults...." All of these words point to times of social turmoil and upheaval. This is true in any nation today, whether it is the anti-Christian deathtrap that is China or the post-Christian acid bath that is America. The life of true faith will never be socially acceptable (unless it is watered down into some sort of blathering moralism or inconsequential spiritualism that no one in their right mind would disagree with because no one in their right mind would ever care about it). The real life of faith, the life of being a new creation where God and His kingdom are bigger than any and all present and future social orders, will always be unpopular (and in some cases, illegal), but we must live it nonetheless. We must prove ourselves to be the ministers of the gospel, even in lands where it is punishable (either physically or simply by becoming a pariah) as well as in lands where the social order is unstable and tenuous (which is the underlying idea in the Greek for "tumults"). In the midst of such things, we remain the ambassadors of a greater land to come. "Let every city of man crumble and fall. My hope and loyalty is built on nothing less than the city of God, which is as imperishable and immutable as its King."

"...in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings...." Here Paul is being self-referential. He is speaking to what he himself has endured while ministering to the Church. The idea is this: regardless of what specific shape the ministry of the gospel takes in your life, regardless of how the specific facet of grace God entrusted to you takes form (I Pet. 4:10), if you give yourself whole-heartedly to it for God, then you will many times wear yourself out. You will worry yourself to many sleepless nights, and you will lose heart as the world turns more and more against you and its people seem less and less inclined to hear you. In the midst of these things, of working out the calling that God has placed on every one born to Him, we must prove ourselves to be the ministers of God. It is not simply a matter of doing the work (for any unbelieving fool can do something "in the name of God" or "Christ"), but rather remembering who it is that is with you doing it (Phil. 2:13-16). Whether in personal pains, social disorders, or ministerial heartaches, God and His redemption must be ultimate in our minds and in our lives. "Yes, the way is hard right now, and yes the world grows darker even as I spread the light like mad. But I do not strive for victory, or run the race for the fastest time. Rather I endure all things because I love my Lord, because I am His and He is mine."

-Jon Vowell (c) 2012

The Only Social Ill (The Ministers of God, Part 1)

"[God] has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.... [We] are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were beseeching you by us. We beseech you on Christ's behalf: be ye reconciled to God." II Cor. 5:18-20

There is only one ministry in Christianity, and every Christian is called to it. It can and does manifest itself in many different forms and expressions, but the base is the same: the ministry is about "reconciliation". Now, what these verses make clear is that this reconciliation is not about income inequality or racial tension or class warfare. Rather, it is about the deathly separation between God and man and how that separation is bridged by Christ (vs. 21). In short (and interestingly enough), our ministry of reconciliation has nothing to do with our preconceived social ills but instead with a great and terrible spiritual ill, i.e., the alienation of man from God (and not from his rights or his self or other people's money). Our ministry is the proclamation of the gospel, and the gospel is that Christ died for us to bring us back to God so that we might live for Him (II Cor. 5:14-15).

This is simply practical mysticism (that hard yet necessary art). The gospel is the only solution for Sin, and Sin is the only true social ill, especially (but not solely) because it breeds all other social ills. It is Sin that makes the capitalist greedy for wealth and the socialist greedy for another man's wealth. In is Sin that engenders the hatred inherent in the racism and classism found in all races and classes. It is Sin that creates and feeds the pride and arrogance that informs all sectarianism and sexism found in all sects and sexes. It is Sin that breeds the corruption of politics, the anger of ideologues, and the idiocy of talking heads. It is Sin that creates crime and poverty, and it is Sin that makes both rich and poor turn to crime. Sin is the fountainhead of all the woes of the world, and only a return to our God can cleanse that spring and make it whole again.

Brothers and sisters, hear me. Build your shelters for the homeless and hopeless, and empty yourself in all shades of righteous social activism. Write your stories and your songs, and shape the culture with your precious and peculiar images and ideas. Live lives of holy morality, pure and upright and courageous amidst a perverse and crooked generation. Follow fiercely whatever unique facet of God's grace that has been entrusted to you (I Pet. 4:10). But know this: you are not here to follow some pet project of your own or to be swept up head over heels in every passing fad or fashion of politics and society. You are not here to make disciples to your own private ends. Rather, you are here to serve in God's ministry of reconciliation, to preach the gospel in word and deed and thought and in every way that you live and breath. If you do what you do (whatever it may be) for anything less than the proclamation of peace with the King of Kings, a peace wrought by the striven hands of Christ, then you are merely fitting bandages to broken bones, and all of your work is vain.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2012

The Hideousness of Modern Life (as explained by an Original Orthodox Rebel)

The following is an excerpt (pp. 20-21) from Dale Ahlquist's Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton. Here Ahlquist quotes Chesterton's remarks on the most key feature of modern life: its ugliness.

I think it may be cheerfully admitted that one of the strangest, largest, and most fundamental problems of modern life is...its ugliness. The world has grown richer and more complex, and more industrious and more orderly; upon the whole, it has grown more emancipated and more humane; but when all is said and done, upon the whole it has grown more ugly.... What can be the reason for this? [...]

I believe that the great source of hideousness of modern life is the lack of enthusiasm for modern life. If we really loved modern life we should make it beautiful. For all men seek to make beautiful the thing which they already think beautiful. The mother always seeks to deck out her child in what finery she possesses. The owner of a fine house adorns his house; the believer beautifies his church; the lover lavishes his lady; the patriot reforms his country. All these men improve a thing because they believe it is beautiful....

We do not make modern life beautiful precisely because we do not believe in modern life.... If we regarded the engineering of our age as the great Gothic architects regarded the engineering of their age we should make of the ordinary steam engine something as beautiful as the Christian cathedral....