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LORD, the weak were oppressed.  Wrong was called right.  Those in power abused their position.

So you sent forth a king.  Through him you brought justice.  You lifted up the weak.  You tore down the powerful.  You made right right once more.

Now, LORD, send forth us.  Let us be your agents of righteousness.  Use us to bring justice for all. 

[image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soggy-semolina/488549731/]

In Matt. 8-9 we witness the power of Jesus’ word, the fruitfulness of his preaching, and the way he carried on conversation with others about the kingdom.  Jesus’ verbal witness provides an opportunity for us to reconsider the way in which we verbalize the kingdom today.  In a culture once informed by Modern and Christian stories, the American church could assume that the average person-on-the-street already had a basic worldview consistent with the Christian faith and just needed guidance understanding some of the smaller “pixels” of the Christian story.  In an increasingly Postmodern and Post-Christian America, however, the church must assume that the average person-on-the-street has little to no knowledge of a Christian worldview.  Ministry should therefore focus on sharing the larger story (the “image”) of Christianity rather than merely small pieces of that story (the “pixel”).

It has often been said that where Moderns “believed” then “belonged” when it came to church and faith in Jesus, Postmoderns “belong” then “believe.”  That is, Moderns first had to work through their intellectual issues about Jesus (”believe”), then they were willing to join the faith/church (”belong.”)  Postmoderns, however, often “try out” the life of faith in the Christian community first (”belong”) before they come to full acceptance of the teaching/doctrine of Jesus/the church (”believe”).  The Postmodern path toward faith is more experiential than intellectual.

In a recent post, Richard Beck provides a fascinating exploration of this theme:

Jesus said he was “the way, the truth and the life.”

That is, we have the following order:

1. Truth: I believe in Jesus
2. Life: Because of this belief I get to go to heaven
3. Way: And maybe, but this doesn’t always happen, I’ll begin to live more like Jesus

What I was arguing for in the last post was this kind of sequence. A reversal of the traditional order:

Things go in this order:

1. Way: I begin to follow the path of Jesus
2. Life: I discover that in losing my life I find it
3. Truth: And maybe, but this doesn’t always happen, I’ll begin to believe the claims about Jesus to be true