Center of Gravity

This blog is in response to an interesting post by Paul Louis Metzger entitled The Religious Right, Left and Wrong View of the Christian’s Political Life where he discusses the church as a political community…but not as we might think.

 

What is the center of gravity on our lives? Around what do we find our lives revolving...or does all of life simply revolve around us? I recently re-watched what I consider a very insightful movie filled with layers of metaphors, Rise of the Guardians (2012). In it the Russian accented Nicholas St. North (Santa) says to an ambiguous Jack Frost, “Let’s get down to tacks of brass... What is your center?” He used a Russian stacking doll to show Jack all the different layers of who he was, with his own center being wide-eyed wonder. Jack Frost had yet to find his own center which proves to be crucial in the plot of the movie. What is the very core descriptor or quality of your identity? It was a great question to ask. It is a question we all should think about answering.

We have considered previously the ramifications of finding our core/name in what God says about us, naming ourselves or being named / labeled by others. But perhaps what Metzger hints at in this article is that such a question should be asked of us corporately. He issues the call to look deeper into our understanding of the church,

“The visible church is often viewed inside and outside the Christian community as a voluntary association of religious individuals. In such contexts, the church is a means to an end of a more foundational social allegiance, such as the state, market, or nuclear family.”

 

These words cut deeply into our flawed theology of the church. Is he right in his grave assessment of the Christian community—that it is seen as being “a voluntary association of religious individuals” and at its core “a means to an end”? I think my friend is correct and mourns the shallowness of relationship that results from such a flawed theology of the church. The biblical view of the church is not as an effective (albeit temporary) means to an end. It is the very center of gravity in the great plan of God. It is not designed to be political in the advocacy of individual agendas of profit, ease, and happiness—yet it does advocate.

Nor is it designed as a tool to consolidate power and establish the platforms of liberal or conservative political parties—yet it is powerful. The Church is the “core” of humanity—humanity as it is designed by God to be. The Church is not a means, but an end—one that is still just beginning!

 

Dr. Metzger’s warnings about our low me-centered consumeristic view of the church need to be heard and heeded:

Christian nuclear families must guard against the impulse to shop around for the best religious family value package available in their midst. Our allegiance to the local church as individual Christians and religious nuclear families must be based on more than voluntary decisions based on passing whims and involuntary impulses and urges…we should see our fundamental social solidarity bound up with the kingdom of God in Christ who has bought us at the price of his own life; we belong to him. Without solidarity with one another, the church will not be able to be a compelling force of love for good, but will allow other publics to co-opt individual Christians for their competing narratives and visions of the future.

 

For Christians, “church” should not be something we choose to consume, or not, but the core of who we are. The church is our truest family and our truest identity. We have been born-again into it. It is not a matter of our choice as much as it is the calling of God. If we are Christ’s people the church is simply who we are collectively. If the church is who we really are at our core then we will be far more effective as an authentic political force for the good of the world than we ever could be on our own. A three-fold cord is not easily broken. We make a positive change in the world only as we remain in unity with each other as citizens of the Kingdom of God. The church is not a temporary arrangement in God's plan.

 

What’s the “center” of the Christian? It is the Church, the place where we dwell—together—with God. What is the center of the Church? It is the light of the love of Christ poured out for us, and through us, to the nations.

 

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there (Rev. 21:22-25)

 

 There will be no night (and no nightmares) there!