“Out-live, out-die, out-think”
CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER 28 July 2023
Friends in Christ, as notifiied last week at church, this Sunday I am away at the Deans' Conference, followed by the Undeceptions Conference in Melbourne, with three days' annual leave in between.
On the plane coming down I re-read Peter's Jensen's editorial in The Global Anglican journal from December 2022. I found it very helpful with my particular week ahead, and I thought I'd share a taste with you. Peter cited a book by Cambridge Classicist T. R. Glover (1869-1943), The Jesus of History. Glover discusses what he calls one of the greatest wonders that history has to show, namely the triumph of the gospel of Jesus in the ancient world. Christianity replaced:
the great pagan religion, with its enormous strength, its universal acceptance, its traditions, its splendours of art and ceremony, its manifest proofs of its gods - everything that, to the ordinary mind, could make for reality and for power; to show how absolutely inconceivable it was that it could ever pass away.
What a contrast the Christian gospel and the church which grew from it:
Then comes the Christian Church - a ludicrous collection of trivial people, very ignorant and very common; fishermen and publicans, as the Gospels show us, the baker and the fuller' as Celsus said with a sneer ... [Yet] Where is the old religion? Christ has conquered, and all the gods are gone, utterly gone. They are memories now, and nothing more. Why did they go?
Glover answers his own question with these telling words, 'The Christian Church refused to compromise'.
Archbishop Jensen says it should make us think about our own times, especially among the Western churches. He thinks we should own Glover's further analysis:
How did the Church do it? If I may invent or adapt three words, the Christian 'out lived' the pagan, 'out-died' him, and 'out-thought' him'.
Out-thinking means knowing the world better than it knows itself, so we can offer careful critique of what is so often failing, and also that we must learn again to trust the truth of the Bible.
Out-living will involve avoiding the radical individualism of the West, and serving in true community in the local church (and not just the church as institution). Are we living that community out, or tempted to leave it to professional ministers?
Out-dying means understanding that the gospel of Jesus is often offensive to the ways of the world, aince it declares that one man has been resurrected from the dead and is Lord of all and is coming to judge the world. This means people can't just choose their own DIY and libertarian lifestyles.
But as Peter rightly says, it is that message that changed the world.
"To embrace it is to die. Repentance is like that... To live for Christ is the way of the cross... and in some cases will lead to persecution and death itself. But it is the cross which grows the church."
My summary is very brief and inadequate. But his article greatly encouraged me as a pastor, and you can download a PDF of the article, along with his other editorials from last year, among other articles, in the Global Anglican 2022 Digital Digest.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney