The great issues that face Christian churches

I have just returned from my 60-year class reunion at Wheaton College. I renewed relationships and spent hours in recalling and laughing while being well fed.

Wheaton College is a special place. There I was taught to think. I was exposed to excellence and integrity. I am grateful for Wheaton roots.

As a part of the alumni celebrations, the Wheaton Alumni Association gave an award for Distinguished Service to Society. Dr. William Lane Craig, 1971 graduate of Wheaton, was recognized. He is a professor at Talbot Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, author or editor of 40 books, and world-renowned among Evangelicals as a Christian apologist.

He made a major presentation on the subject “The Greatest Future Challenges to Christian Churches.” I looked forward to gaining new insights into the future of Christians and their churches. I was a little disappointed.

At the beginning, Dr. Craig informed his audience that he was going to limit his comments to intellectual challenges to Christians and their churches. He made a very rational defense of Christian thinking. I had hoped for a broader presentation that included social and political issues.

What Craig did, he did well. However he did not speak to my needs in my life journey with Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth.

When the festivities ended, and I left Wheaton, I drove south to my first home base in Central Illinois. I visited relatives. I drove back to O’Hare International.

Next was a six-hour flight to Alaska. I had some good thinking time. I came to some very personal conclusions.

The greatest challenge to my Christian life does not come to me as an external intellectual challenge. They come from a Christ who has been internalized. When I received Christ, true to my Evangelical heritage, I asked my savior/lord to take up permanent residence in my heart, mind and soul.

Paul encourages this experience. “Let this mind be in you that you find in Christ Jesus.”

When I was the pastor of churches, I often spoke to my congregations about our unconverted parts. We all have them. Some parts of our lives we yield to Christ’s leading with relative ease. However, there are two parts of my life that I find very difficult to abandon to God.

The first is my love of confrontation and conflict. I know it is encouraged by American culture. Some would argue that it is instinctive and rooted in our battle for survival and love of supremacy. The voice of Christ calls it one of my unconverted parts.

We now have the best Biblical scholars ever. They have developed research tools that amaze me.

Today we have a very good handle on what Jesus said and what he did not say. We better understand the cultural, historical, religious and social context in which he lived and taught.

With what I now know, I find it impossible ever again to see Jesus with a sword in his hand or in possession of a protective shield. The Jesus that I meet in the Gospels is a man of peace, who gently nudges me toward non-violence.

Love and kindness are the ways of Jesus. Jesus taught his disciples (and us) to pray that the kingdom of God might come to Earth. People of Christian faith can pray without ceasing, but until we collectively abandon the ways of violence and war, peace on Earth and the reign of God will never fully come.

The first great challenge to Christian faith in the future is the abandonment of the ways of violence and war. Love, peace and kindness must become synonymous with Christian faith.

The second involves the ownership of property. This is a key to understanding the teachings of Jesus.

He lived in a time and place of economic disparity. Jesus advocated a new celebration of the Year of Jubilee. The Year of Jubilee, according to the Bible, is the time when property and possessions were to be returned to the temple priests for redistribution among the tribes of Israel. This massive redistribution was to take place every 50 years.

There is no way we can avoid the clear Bible standard of limitation of private ownership of land in particular and wealth in general. By Bible standards, today’s wealth gap between the rich and the poor is so enormous that it is a complete affront to those who are wealthy and claim to be followers of Jesus.

The standard is clear. We are to be stewards of wealth, not owners.

Jesus advised one wealthy man to sell all that he had and give his wealth to the poor, then to follow him. Jesus ridiculed the man who kept building bigger and bigger barns to hold his wealth.

These two examples are not incidental to the teachings of Jesus, but are at the very core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The ignorant will cry out against the imposition of socialism. The issue with Jesus and Bible standards is not socialism, but stewardship. Christians are called upon to practice radical stewardship and to encourage others to do likewise.

One last word. The challenge of stewardship has a modern application to world environment. Stewardship cannot be understood only on the level of individuals. Stewardship is a major part of Christ’s challenge to churches, nations and the whole world.

The greatest challenges to Christians of the future are two in number. Peace and stewardship. All other concerns pale in their presence.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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