A Conspiracy of Love

Following Jesus in a Postmodern World

Kurt Struckmeyer

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781498234498, 9781498234511
• eBook ISBN: 9781498234504
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Ministère chrétien

Before there were worshippers of Jesus, there were followers of Jesus. Before there were organized churches with creeds and doctrines, there were small communities of love, equality, and sharing dedicated to the practice of Jesus' teachings and committed to a wholly new way of living.Today, the churches of the Global North are in decline and younger generations no longer seek meaning there. Traditional "church Christianity" is gradually giving way to some new way of faithful living. From a Nazi prison cell, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer imagined a future "religionless Christianity" consisting of contemplative prayer and righteous action in the secular world. A Conspiracy of Love presents the contours of such a faith based on the "way" of Jesus. It calls us to become troublemakers, revolutionaries, seekers of change, and agents of transformation engaged in conspiracies of love to establish justice and peace in a postmodern world. It offers many different people--those who remain in the church, those who have left, and those who have never ventured near--with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.

part 1

the way of Jesus

chapter 1

following Jesus

Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?1

—Thomas, the disciple

Millions of people throughout the world call themselves Christians. From Roman Catholics to Protestants, from fundamentalists to liberals, there are many different perspectives about what it means to be a Christian. One can become lost in the complexity of beliefs, dogmas, moral injunctions, and religious rites.

But in a larger context—that of daily life—it is often impossible to distinguish one Christian from another, or even a Christian from a non-Christian. Most Christians blend in with the values, lifestyles, economics, and politics of the predominant culture of their society.

But it wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time, Christians stood out from the crowd.

Like many other great religious leaders, Jesus taught a way or path to his followers. His teachings point to an understanding of the religious life as a journey. He spoke about alternative paths encountered on the journey—the wide path and the narrow gate.2

He talked about seeking3 and entering4 the kingdom or reign of God. These are active words. They imply doing something, moving from where we are to someplace new. These are not words of correct beliefs and doctrine, but words that call us to get up and get going.

Jesus called people to follow him in a way of living. As a result, the earliest members of the Jesus movement were known as followers of “the Way.”5

believing or following?

Lots of people believe in Jesus. They just love him to pieces. They worship and adore him. They praise his name. They invite him into their hearts and accept him as their Lord and Savior. But not many people are willing to follow him.

For the most part, believing in Jesus is really accepting a series of propositions about Jesus—that Jesus is divine, that he was perfect and sinless, that he died for our sins, that he will come again to judge humanity and to establish his kingdom. But this kind of belief does not necessarily take the teachings of Jesus seriously. One can conceivably believe that Jesus is the Son of God and yet still lead a self-centered life, ignore the cries of the poor, and demonstrate disdain and even hatred toward people of other races, cultures, or sexual orientations. In fact, this happens all the time among those who call themselves Christian.

All of this believing, loving, and worshipping Jesus is largely an internal experience, sometimes highly emotional in nature, and although it is frequently expressed in a corporate setting, it is often intensely personal and private. But following Jesus is not an internal state. It is an engagement with the outside world in a tangible way.

Some Christians are embarrassed to discuss their beliefs, while others are more than willing to profess their faith in public. Some may wear a cross as jewelry to symbolize devotion to Jesus. But publicly proclaiming Jesus as Lord is still not the same as following Jesus. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” Jesus once asked.6

Following Jesus is about listening and doing. It is about putting into practice the things that Jesus taught. It is about a lifestyle of peace, justice, generosity, forgiveness, inclusion, and compassion that sets one apart from others.

discipleship or church membership?

Churches often put a focus on discipleship. However, it has been said that some churches that claim to be teaching discipleship are just making “good church people.” The call to increased worship, study, and stewardship often results in people who simply serve the institution of the church but do not make a significant difference in the larger world.

Being a disciple should be radically different from not being a disciple. It involves much more than worship attendance, bible study, or service on a church committee. Admittedly, those can be important parts of a Christian’s life. But they are merely food for the journey, not the journey itself. Hopefully, they provide nourishment, not a detour.

Discipleship should result in people who lead a radically different type of life, who are clearly counter-cultural, who are markedly different from the rest of the world—certainly different from the majority of Americans, including most American Christians.

Jesus calls us to transform the world. He calls us to spend our lives in the service of the least, the lost, and the lonely. That kind of life goes way beyond serving as an usher, a choir member, or a Sunday school teacher in a local congregation.

The content of true discipleship is found outside of the walls of a church in places where people are hurting, where people are hungry, where people are oppressed, where people are denied justice, where people are dying. This was where Jesus was engaged, and this is where he calls us to spend our lives, our resources, and our energy.

cheap grace

In The Cost of Discipleship, German Lutheran pastor and theologian Die­trich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) described the difference between what he called “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” 7 Cheap grace, he proposed, is grace that is offered and accepted without a commitment and response from the believer. It is grace without transformation. It is grace without servanthood. Costly grace, said Bonhoeffer, moves us to respond to the call of Jesus, even to the point of giving our lives on behalf of others as Jesus did.

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) called the typical Christian response admiring Christ as opposed to following Christ.

What then, is the difference between an admirer and a follower? A follower is or strives to be what he admires. An admirer, however, keeps himself personally detached. He fails to see that what is admired involves a claim upon him, and thus he fails to be or strive to be what he admires.8

The issue before us is whether we want to move from being admirers, and even worshippers, to being followers. If we want to take that step, then the question is “What does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus today?”

Is Christianity a set of beliefs, or is it a way of life? If it is a way of life, what kind of life does it involve? Is it delineated by following a clearly drawn moral code, or is it a more open and compassionate response to the situations that confront us daily? Does it involve our finances and our politics? What does a life of faith that is honest to Jesus look like? Even more precisely, how will this life of faith be expressed as we enter the postmodern world?

We live in a very different age than the pre-modern people to whom Jesus spoke in the first century. The early modern age began with the Renaissance and the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century and reached a peak in the scientific revolution of the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment. The rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries formed the late modern age, which is now rapidly transitioning to a postmodern age. In the pre-modern worldview, religion provided all the answers to the creation of life, human purpose, and ultimate meaning. In the modern age, science began to displace religion with answers based on reason and investigation. Today, postmodern people are rejecting both religion and science as a source of truth. They feel that these two approaches have equally failed us.

Postmodern people are witnessing a lack of coherence in American churches between orthopraxy (living rightly) and orthodoxy (believing rightly). To postmodern generations, the way a Christian lives speaks louder than any belief that Christians may profess. Christian behavior Monday through Saturday is more important to young peopl...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface: losing my religion
• Introduction: not just for Christians
• Part One: the way of Jesus
• Part Two: Jesus and the Christ
• Part Three: the path of transformation
• Part Four: a conspiracy of love
• Bibliography