An Unorthodox Faith

A New Reformation for a Postmodern World

Kurt Struckmeyer

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781498234528, 9781498234542
• eBook ISBN: 9781498234535
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

The time is ripe for a new Christian reformation--a profound transformation of theological substance, not just liturgical style. Jesus never intended to create a new religion of rites, creeds, and dogma that offered an eternal reward in heaven. Instead he announced the subversive arrival of the kingdom of God--a social and economic revolution of the heart based on a lifestyle of radical love, lavish generosity, extravagant forgiveness, inclusive hospitality, compassionate action, selfless service, a passion for justice, creative nonviolence, and simple living. He invited his followers to transform their lives and change the world.A postmodern Christianity will call people to engage in the Jesus revolution--a conspiracy of love that rises up against the unjust systems of the world through everyday acts of kindness, compassion, and resistance. An Unorthodox Faith provides a framework for a faithful life based on the Way of Jesus--a way of living authentically and humanely for the sake of others. It offers countless 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 great detour

CHAPTER 1

losing our way

Jesus came preaching the kingdom, and what arrived was the church.13

—Alfred Loisy (1857–1940)

Around 6 BCE (Before the Common Era), a child was born to a peasant family in Galilee, a region of the Roman province of Palestine. His parents named him Yehoshu’a (yeh-ho-shoo'-ah)—Joshua in English. He was often called Yeshu’a (yeh-shoo'-ah) or Yeshu (yeh-shoo') for short. We know him today as Jesus of Nazareth.

During his life, Yeshu attracted attention in Galilee as a healer and teacher of uncommon wisdom. More importantly, he was a prophet, a radical social critic, and a voice for change. He challenged the conventional social and religious wisdom of his day and confronted the prevailing politics and economics of domination that brought increasing poverty to the weakest members of his peasant class. He taught an alternative wisdom and encouraged a distinct way of living with love, compassion, and generosity.

a revolutionary vision

Yeshu announced good news to the poor. He said that those who were destitute, hungry, and weeping were blessed by God—an amazing statement in any age. For Yeshu envisioned the creation of a radically different kind of society in which there would no longer be a great divide between the incredibly wealthy and the abject poor. He called this transformed community the “kingdom of God.” We might call it the “reign of God,” the “rule of God,” or the “governance of God.” It was an ambitious vision of a compassionate human social order modeled as if God, not Caesar or Herod, was in charge. Yeshu dreamed of a society that would elevate the lowly status of the poor and the outcast, the sick and the suffering, the hungry and the homeless. He sought a politics of compassion in which God’s protection of widows, orphans, and immigrants would be extended to all in need. His was a vision of a renewed humanity where people who had nothing would receive a fair share with those who had everything; where lost wealth, homes, and land would be restored; where debts would be forgiven; and where lives that had been wasted or stolen would be redeemed. For Yeshu, a time was coming when God’s reign would bring forth equality, justice, and peace, and those who worked to make this a reality would be known as the children of God.

Yeshu invited the rich to sell their excess possessions and share the proceeds with the poor. In particular, he called for the redistribution of wealth, which in an agricultural economy meant the reallocation of land accumulated by the economic elites through foreclosure on the debt of peasant farmers. Yeshu declared that the year of Jubilee had arrived, an ancient Hebrew tradition of forgiveness of debts and return of land from the rich to the dispossessed. In Yeshu’s vision, the low would be raised up and the high brought low to meet at a common level. He knew that when the spirit of generosity motivated people, there was enough to go around for everyone. Rather than a mad accumulation of wealth to provide security for an uncertain future, Yeshu taught his followers to trust God, to create a compassionate community to provide for each other’s needs, and to respond when called upon to care for and share their resources with their brothers and sisters. He taught his followers to reject self-centered affluence and to pray for sufficiency—just enough for tomorrow, “our daily bread.” Yeshu’s image of this mutually supportive lifestyle was a lavish wedding banquet in which everyone would feast abundantly and celebrate as a community of equals.

This simple vision was a threat to the status quo of the conservative and comfortable economic elites in his society. They refused to give up their power and privilege and to share their abundance with the poor. As a result, the wealthy and powerful people of his society, in collusion with the Roman authorities, executed Yeshu as a social insurrectionist—a dangerous disturber of the peace. The Roman method of capital punishment for a member of the peasant class who dared to challenge the governing authority was crucifixion—a slow and painful death of asphyxiation on a cross that was fashioned from wooden beams. It was intended to be public, painful, and humiliating. The naked corpse was typically left on the cross to decay and be scavenged by carrion birds and dogs.

a compassionate community

After Yeshu’s death, a small movement in Palestine carried on his ideas. His followers claimed that his spirit had not died, but instead remained alive and permeated their lives, empowering them to live without fear of repressive authorities or the threat of death. These men and women were filled with the spirit of Yeshu, the spirit of God, a holy spirit. And this renewed spirit gave them the passion, zeal, and courage to carry on the vision of Yeshu, whom we call Jesus.

Biblical scholar Burton Mack (b. 1931) believes that much of what is commonly called the resurrection of Jesus was really a process of remembering and retelling the life and message of Jesus—a process that kept him alive within and among the people of the movement that he created.

Jesus’ life did not end with his death. That, of course, is the message of Easter. In these early communities of Jesus’ followers, his life continued in his ideas and teachings. The resurrection occurred in the activity of a group who sought to understand and then live out the message of Jesus. The spirit of his teachings was kept alive, but, as with all life, these teachings grew and changed with time.14

Clarence Jordan (1912–1969), a New Testament scholar and translator of The Cotton Patch Gospels once wrote that the proof of the resurrection was a transformed and spirit-filled community of his followers.

The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship; not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.15

The followers of Jesus began to live out his vision of a compassionate community, committed to the welfare of one another. Widows, orphans, the sick, the destitute, and the disabled were cared for. Shared community meals insured that no one would go hungry. Financial resources were pooled and distributed. This was a model of God’s radical new society based on Yeshu’s vision.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”16

contrasting worldviews

The people to whom Jesus spoke were trying to survive in what biblical scholar Walter Wink (1935–2012) has called the ancient “domination system,” a society characterized by unjust economic relations, oppressive political relations, and patriarchal gender relations. At the heart of any domination system, then or now, is a fundamental view of reality. It is a mental model of how the world works. In this paradigm, the ultimate reality of the universe is indifferent to human needs. People perceive the world as a cruel place, and realize that in a largely selfish world, others will be unconcerned and unmoved by a desire for mutual welfare—the common good of a society. As humans, we all tend to become anxious about the future, which fills our hearts with worry, insecurity, and self-concern. By and large, many of us find we cannot trust God or others to care for us and realize that we are ultimately alone and on our own in an uncaring and hostile dog-eat-dog world. At the root of this paradigm is the belief that we are ultimately separate from one another. If we see ourselves as mutually-exclusive beings, we must then prioritize self-reliance and self-sufficiency. In a world of scarce resources, we become competitors and ultimately become enemies. As a result, we must care for ourselves first and provide for our future security. We grasp what we can get and hoard it for tomorrow. We look to wealth, possessions, status, pleasure, power, and dominion over others to make ourselves feel better. But it does not work because it never works, and it’s never enough. Our greed, selfishness, and indifference to the needs of others simply confirm and perpetuate this paradigm. The perception becomes reality and is transmitted through domination system cultures from generation to generation.

Jesus offered a different paradigm, a different worldview, a different perception of reality. He believed that the ultimate reality of the universe is a God of love. For Jesus, it was important that our lives and relationships reflect God’s love. He taught that God’s love reigns within the lives of caring individuals who extend themselves for others and within a compassionate community that concerns itself with the welfare of all. The essential nature of love calls forth responses of empathy and compassion, genero...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• acknowledgments
• preface: a dissenting opinion
• introduction: a new reformation
• part one: the great detour
• part two: deconstruction
• part three: reformation
• part four: a new path
• bibliography