The Voice of the Church
in the 21st Century
In 1993 John Carroll, Reader in Sociology at
Since then postmodernism (the fragmentation that follows
humanism) has made an even bigger impact on the sanctity of marriage, on
corporate ethics, on liability insurance...in fact on the whole spectrum of
private and social life. Western
civilisation—founded as it was on the philosophy of the church—is being
destroyed from the inside out! Satan
too has exploited the weakness of his prey by launching devastating attacks
like September 11 and
Yet in the midst of the postmodern chaos has sprung up from
within the secular world—indeed the academic world—the beginnings of a
spiritual revolution! Just last year
John Carroll brought out a new book called The
Western Dreaming: The Western World is Dying for Want of a Story. Carroll, is right now teaching his students
through a mixture of concepts, stories and paintings.
Secular university culture is beginning to change! Indeed it is beginning to throw some bright
light on the very foundations of Christianity, and on just why the Church has
lost spiritual authority in the world.
In Chapter 2 of his 2001 book John Carroll says that the
Magdalene story in the Gospels is one of those great expressions of Christian
worldview that, traditionally, set the direction of European culture. He says that the 20th Century left us without
any such story—except for the Princess Diana story, which has, he believes, an
interesting, if minor and hidden, parallel with the Magdalene story.
I do not agree with all of Carroll’s insights into the
Magdalene story (if you read his book you will be equally surprised at a few
things he says), but to meet such a recognition of spirituality and godliness
in a prominent 21st Century secular academic must surely be a signpost to
encouraging times! Let’s read the
original story in Matt. 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50 and John
12:1-9! We can leave aside the scholarly
debates about the details and recognise simply that there was a sinful woman
whose childlikeness of heart struck a chord in the heart of God. [1]
The wisdom of the Magdalene story
Whoever she was, the woman who anointed Jesus in the home
of Simon was totally overcome by the wonder of God in Jesus. The importance of the story to Jesus is
proclaimed in his words, “I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached
throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of
her.” (By the way, how often do we tell
the story?) Let me set the scene as
Carroll imagines it, taking some of his imagery, as he does, from a Raphael
painting:
The
scene is Magdala, a fashionable resort town by the
There
is a commotion among the servants at the villa entrance. Suddenly, the dozen or
so other guests around the table are startled to observe a woman bursting
through, and gliding her way quickly and silently to stand behind Jesus. The
colours of her velvet dress dazzle the stately marble columned room, a flowing
ruby patterned with deep-green leaves, and green sleeves extravagantly fluted,
embroidered with gold. One of its loose shoulders has slipped down, exposing
silky olive skin. She wears gold bracelets, and red toenails draw attention to
bare feet. In spite of the casual restraint of a yellow ribbon, auburn hair
spills abundantly down her back. Fiery dark gypsy eyes flash around the room,
then settle.
Jesus
senses her close behind him—he has been watching the wide-eyed stare of Simon
tracking her, the host pale and stuttering with rage. Now he looks around and
sees this unknown woman sink to her knees, tears from lowered eyes streaming
down her cheeks. He recalls noticing her across the street on his way here, how
she had suddenly looked at him and stopped, as if she had seen a ghost. She
must have followed him.
She is
bent low, loosening her hair, which cascades down, obscuring her face. He feels
the tears splashing onto his dusty feet, which gentle hands caress, hair wiping
them, then being kissed, then wiped again. She never looks up, and he sees her
mouth hanging open in voiceless anguish, so pained and empty that she wants to
sink out of existence, at the shame of what she has done with her life.
Was it
miracle or curse, that infinitesimal speck of time in the street when her eyes
were opened? The instant that changes a life, catching her unawares, has been
like concentrated acid dropped on tender skin, the more caustic for him having
been no more than the mirror. He senses her fighting against a huge weight of
humiliation crushing down on her drained and tainted body.
One
hand fumbles to find some hidden pocket, from where she produces a small
alabaster flask. She uncorks it, and pours rare and costly perfumed oil onto
his feet, tenderly massaging, regularly on impulse breaking her motion to kiss
them. Tears continue to flow from bloodshot eyes. The large, airy room is
filled with the powerful fragrance of myrrh, enough
to
induce a dreamy intoxication in the guests if their host's darkening mood had
not infected them.
Jesus
recovers from his surprise. He concentrates, bathing her in his own meditative
gaze. Now he knows her, and his own mind. Meanwhile, the resentment of Simon
spears at him across the table, the host mumbling under his breath that if
Jesus were who he claims to be, he would know the immorality of this woman. And
to let her touch him!
So
Jesus turns to face Simon and poses a riddle. A man is owed money by two
others—one owes five hundred denarii, the other fifty. Neither had anything, so
he forgave them both their debts. Which one will be more grateful?
Simon
tentatively replies with the obvious answer. Jesus tells him that he has judged
rightly, but turning to the woman, he launches into a stern rebuke:
Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered
into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no
kiss: but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. Mine
head with oil thou didst not anoint: hut this woman hath anointed my feet.
Wherefore I say unto thee: Her sins,
which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is
forgiven, the same loveth little
Simon
flushes bright red with humiliation and rage and confusion. From the moment
this gutter slut violated the sanctity of his home, he has been subject to
insult upon insult. The great teacher whom he invited in as his guest of honour
has offended him, in front of his closest friends and most prestigious
associates, all intrigued to meet the rumoured miracle worker. This so-called
holy man now indulges that notorious whore's excesses as if he were one of her
after-dark visitors. Not only that, but he makes fun of Simon by posing him a
riddle so simple that any schoolboy could work it out, yet punishes him for
solving it. Then he questions Simon's hospitality, which has been proper, it is
true, but then this is a God-fearing household that wastes not. And how can the
servants be expected to proceed normally with their washing duties when chaos
descended from the moment of Jesus' entry?
Worst
of all is the confusion. Simon is an intelligent man, well read, and practised
in discussion. He prides himself on his scrupulous understanding. Jesus has
just reversed the logic of the riddle, which had love following from
forgiveness, with the more that is forgiven, the greater the debt of gratitude.
Moreover, the teacher had repeated that logic in his last utterance. But he has
deliberately baffled them with this scandal of a woman, forgiving her because she loved. How can that be: has
he got it the wrong way round? In any case, we know the nature of her love.
This dear woman who anointed Jesus was totally overcome by
the wonder of God in Jesus. It broke her
heart and she cried uncontrollably as she saw
divine love. God loved her, even
her. But what is unique is the purity of
her love. Humanly we cannot possibly
explain it. Many people talk about the
depth of her gratitude to Jesus for God’s forgiveness. But it seems that the divine beauty in the
story is that she loved Jesus before she knew anything about his
forgiveness. Yes her heart would
receive. But she had not come to Jesus
to ask for something, even though it would have been appropriate to do so.
Her love was transcendent.
It was worship. She didn’t want
in any way to “possess” God. She was
utterly captivated by the wonder of God in Jesus. She gave her heart to God. And there was not a spark of
self-consciousness about her love. It
was utterly childlike. Simply, she was
blown away. The disciples would do
anything for Jesus, but Jesus had this woman’s heart. I personally am still
discovering the depth of this. Her
attitude was Theistic! Yes, it was transcendent.
The joy of reflection
During the 20th Century, the culture of much of the world’s
cities lost transcendence! In some cases
the church lost transcendence! Some
people do not have a philosophy. Many
people, even some Christians, choose not to be reflective. They don’t ask “big” questions. They don’t ask “why” questions. They don’t get a “big picture” of life and
creation, let alone of God. Some
people—yes even some Christians—have no conscious philosophy of life. We are going to Heaven but we don’t really
know what for! Our life can be guided by
certain quite unconscious and never examined presuppositions!
Gaining a reflective understanding of Christian worldview
enables us to enter fully into the discovery of divine love. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.”
How many Christians in ministry spend quality time simply beholding the presence of God? Is God more important to us than ministry? Is God more important to us that evangelism and mission? Is the beauty of our relationship with our wife more important to us than our ministry?
This special woman who anointed the feet of Jesus, in
opening her heart to pure love, saw God in Jesus. Seeing the wonder of God’s glory and feeling
the wonder of God’s mercy and love, she never even thought to say sorry or
plead for forgiveness. She was too far
down in her life to try any religious tricks.
She knew that, within her, there were no answers. But the presence of Jesus captivated
her. She was so lost in the love of
Jesus and in the vision of God’s purity and truth that her heart simply broke
to pieces in a cloudburst of tears. She
was totally overcome, transformed and anointed in God’s Spirit (yes, before
Pentecost). Her spiritual lights were
turned on and she saw God! Heart was
plugged into heart. In a staggering
moment she saw that God created us first for relationship. I think that is what the story is really
about. Unlike Simon she had no religion
to overcome.
So is relationship
at the centre of our Christianity? Is relationship for the sake of
relationship the cornerstone of our worldview?
Nothing else will bring the full anointing of God’s Spirit upon us. Nothing else will bring spiritual authority
to the church. I submit that Carroll is
touching on the very reason why the church has so little credibility in today’s
world.
Those who take time out to be reflective will discover a music to life that transcends the wonder
of anything they have ever known! We
must allow God, by his Spirit, to develop us in philosophical reflection! God wrote the New Testament in Greek and (I
suggest) he
planted some of the first Gentile churches in the Greek
culture because the Greek people were reflective. In the market place they would sit and talk
for hours, in the ancient equivalent of today’s coffee shops. (The Greeks of course also worked!)
Above all else, Christianity means encounter with God. Knowledge
without encounter means nothing. But, on
the other hand, the most vivid encounter in the Spirit, without a God-given
philosophy of life, leaves us almost stillborn.
When we talk with people, what do we talk about the most? Do we empathise and discover the person in the person, and the wonders of God in the
person? Or do we talk most about the
things that we do (which of course
need to be talked about too)?
Our Australian culture
The conductor of a well-known French symphony orchestra was
asked (on ABC FM by Margaret Throsby) how he would like to live in
The meaning of life
What does Christ show you to be the first purpose of life? Yes
one sentence that keeps coming back to me lately is the three-word sentence in
1 John 4: “God is love.” The verse doesn’t say “God loves”, which he
does. Rather it says God is love. As we walk
with Jesus and enter into the heart of God, so our heart becomes a little like
God’s heart. How could a wonderful piece
of music be born of anything but inspiration that comes from divine love?
So all creativity is meant to be inspired by the heart of
God—everything from building houses to teaching to running a business or governing
the nation. Whatever the practical
outcomes—and there must be practical outcomes—nothing has ultimate meaning
unless it is birthed in divine love and divine inspiration. Everything in life is meant to flow from our
relationship to God! This is true
biblical Theism. Talking even of the
physical universe Colossians 1:17 says that, “in Christ all things
consist.”
That is of course why 1 Corinthians 13 implies that what we
do is not as important as who we are. In
our Australian culture, many (but by no means all) Boomers (particularly men,
and that is somewhat natural) find their identity in what they do. But many of the X generation, and more
especially of the Y generation, have questioned this worldview. And, thinking of seniors, well, the standard
‘grace’ for food was often “Bless this food to our bodies, Lord, and us to your
service!”, as if at any moment of the day life was first about service. In a course last year one student from
overseas shared how in the church in which she grew up, Christianity, as she
had heard it, was about two things, belief
and service.
Yes, we are saved only ever by the grace of God, and
through our personal belief in the death and resurrection of Christ. But the great commandment begins with the heart, and then adds mind, and soul
(life) and strength. And John Carroll’s
book The Western Dreaming is a wake
up call, not only to the contemporary culture but also to the church. The Twentieth Century demythologised the
heart of our culture. We no longer
dreamt visions or saw beyond the stars.
Let me tell you a story of a Year 11 student at a weekend Christian
schools conference for 11 and 12 students.
At the end of an evening session I invited my group (we were looking at Christian spirituality and philosophy) to wander outside into the vast and beautiful grounds and just, individually, find a spot and do nothing! Next morning I invited some sharing. This Year 11 girl said:
It was
really painful. I’ve had a very full
year. I love activity, and, sitting there
last night, I longed for something to
do. I really hated doing nothing, and it
got worse, but I was determined to stay there, doing absolutely nothing.
After
a while I glanced up and, through the clearest air I’d ever known, I saw a sky
like no sky I had seen before. I was
overcome by the sheer beauty.
I so
began to enjoy the wonder of it all that I could have stayed there for
hours. To my amazement I was actually
enjoying doing nothing. I had come
through something like the pain of the long distance runner.
But
then something even more amazing happened.
As time went by, in the joy of the stillness, somehow my eyes went
beyond the stars. God opened my
spiritual eyes and—I saw God.
May I
encourage you to stop and look up!
We can be so preoccupied as Christians that we clearly see
neither God nor the people in people.
And, because we sometimes have no philosophy, we simply get driven by
the secular culture around us! So we
must discover the wonder of stopping. We
must look up. But, too, we must reflect upon life! We must become philosophical. We must inspire one another to reflect! As a Christian culture we must become more
philosophical! And, as God has it, you
and I now live in a world that is searching for meaning as never before. It is a culture too that is crying out for
meaningful relationship, for genuine friendship. A new coffee shop is birthed every four days
in
Do you recall in Mr
Holland’s Opus, this big-hearted music teacher frustrated because he could
not help give and give his time to his students of music, even to the seemingly
hopeless, yet, because of it, could never fulfil the ambition of his life to
complete the writing of his orchestral symphony? Then you will remember that, some time after
Mr Holland had to leave the school, he was invited back to hear an amazing
orchestral performance. The story of the
movie closed with the words from the students, “We are your opus!” This
movie, like Chocolat, is typical of
the emergent culture in Western cities.
The coffee shop culture only came to
But if you think some of this talk about ultimate meaning
is fanciful, listen to Danah Zohar who lectures at
The
major issue on people’s minds today is meaning.
Many writers say the need for greater meaning is the crisis of our
times. I sense this when I travel abroad
each month, addressing audiences from countries and cultures all over the
world. Wherever I go, when people get
together over a drink or a meal, the subject turns to God, meaning, vision,
values, spiritual longing. Many people
today have achieved an unprecedented level of material well being. yet they
feel they want more. Many speak of an
emptiness [inside]. The ‘more’ that
would fill the emptiness seldom has any connection with formal religion. Indeed most people seeking some spiritual
fulfilment see no relation between their longing and formal religion.
What you see as
the most important thing in life defines your worldview. Is it friendship with God? (Do you give
God friendship?) Is it friendship with
others? Is it your creativity? Is it your career? Is it your ministry? Yes, all of these things, and more, are
vital. But the priorities you and I set
day by day, and the order in which we place them, define our worldview.
Life demands the continual anointing of God’s Spirit. No amount of philosophy in the human sense
will bring us to divine truth or divine love.
No amount of unanointed reflection will take us anywhere. But because God is love and is truth, in his fellowship we can feel true love
and in his fellowship we can see the
truth behind all truths. Humanly, this
will always remain a mystery. Our mind
is like a magnificent violin. Of itself
it cannot make music. But in the hands
of an artist it expresses love and truth.
The spirit within us, plugged into the Spirit of God, is the artist.
A practical definition of
worldview
In our cities there are some very well known chains of
hairdressing salons. The hairdressing
leaders who run these groups of salons have a certain philosophy for recruiting
and training staff.
Periodically a chain will advertise for applicants to
attend a kind of “discovery” and “selection” week at their headquarters. On the first day the facilitators will
divide, say, 100 candidates into small groups.
Then one by one in each group the applicants will share where they are
from, a brief story of their lives to date, the things in life that excite them
most and their dream for their future.
Then in their groups (perhaps over coffee) the girls will engage one
another as they “discover” their newfound friends. The experienced facilitators will, in one
day, select out those girls who enjoy
people. Of course we all enjoy
people, in a sense. But the hairdressing
leaders are looking for those who spontaneously empathise, that is, those who enjoy other people for themselves, that is, those who find
it a joy to “discover” the wonders of other people and therefore who make those
other people feel good. In other words,
the hairdressing leaders are looking for those candidates who spontaneously and
unselfconsciously love other
people. This is the first criterion in
selecting candidates for training.
Tuesday begins with those candidates who have passed the
first and most important test. The
facilitators explain that the salons are not first about cutting hair. They are first about relating to people, about giving something to people. Then on this second day the facilitators,
through a new series of activities, “pick out” those girls who spontaneously love being creative. There is still no emphasis on ability in
cutting styling hair. On this second day the leaders want to know who
spontaneously loves playing music, or
arranging flowers, or designing clothes, or who spontaneously loves the skill and beauty of playing
tennis. The facilitators have ways of
selecting those applicants for whom creativity has meaning in itself. They are
looking for people who just have to
create, people who spontaneously love
being creative.
So summing up so far, applicants who naturally empathise
with others and whose hearts also love creativity, these people will make good
hairdressers for the salons—provided they pass one more test.
In the third stage of the week, the job of the facilitators
is to discover who amongst the remaining candidates prefers tennis doubles to
singles, who prefers playing flute in an ensemble rather than playing as a
soloist—in other words, who, amongst all the candidates, is more excited by
participatory creativity than by being alone in creativity. The sound that an ensemble creates is far
more than the addition of the individual sounds of the instruments. Music goes into a higher dimension as
instruments of different tones play in harmony.
And the leaders in hairdressing know that when people are happy together in creativity, an atmosphere is
generated that is uniquely wonderful..
So, in the way I have described, a selection is made of
hairdressing candidates. The chosen ones
are then taught the salon worldview—and hairdressing. The salons are not first about hairdressing;
they are first about people. I am not
saying that leaders’ eyes are not on money.
Of course they are in business.
(And business is as much in promoting the purchase of hairstyling
products as it is in cutting, shaping and colouring hair.) But these leaders in their field see that
business is more than money. Another
“get rich” book came out in 1999 by an extremely successful businessman, Brian
Sher, called What Rich People Know and
Desperately Want to Keep a Secret (Sydney: Pan Macmillan), in which we
learn that, if money is our first goal, we will never make much money! There has to be a higher purpose.
The approach of the hairdressing leaders I have described
represents a growing awareness in Western society, and certainly in
Let’s now think of the three things for which the leaders
I’ve talked about are looking for in their candidates. First a heart
love for others, a true sense of empathy.
When a woman comes into a hairdressing salon, what is she looking
for? The contemporary woman, of whatever
age, is looking for more than a hairstyle.
She enjoys unwinding. She enjoys
being able to talk with someone who takes an interest in her, who likes her for
herself, someone too who is outside her “circle”. She also enjoys being pampered. She enjoys the atmosphere, where all the
girls are having “fun” in what they are doing.
They enjoy life; they enjoy styling
hair.
In short, they enjoy looking
after you! They appreciate you as a
person, not as a mere customer. You are
welcome.
When a girl or woman first enters a good salon, a
hairdresser will approach her, introduce herself and offer her coffee and a
comfortable place to sit. Then, in an
empathic but very unthreatening way, the girl will ask her a few key
questions. “Have you had a good
week?” After a short time the
hairdresser has a “picture” of what makes this woman tick.
When the client comes to the chair, the hairdresser asks
her about a style. If it’s her first
time in the salon, she is probably looking for an “uplift” from what she has
been getting. She might say, “I want
something different, but I don’t know what!”
The hairdresser (who knows something about her by now) will open a book
of styles, flip the pages and say, “How do you like this?” Chances are the
woman will say, “That’s fantastic; let’s try it!” During the process of having her hair done,
the conversation (never imposed) develops.
The client feels “cared” for. She
feels that somebody values her. Many women in our society, though they have
family and may have many friends, are inwardly lonely.
Finally the client looks at the finished style. It’s transforming. She steps outside feeling like a new
person.
Now these hairdressing leaders may or may not know it, but
they are seeking to express some of the foundational keys in the biblical
worldview! Implicitly they acknowledge
that the first purpose in life is relationship—a giving of one’s self to others.
Secondly, the purpose of life includes a giving of one’s self to the creating of things that are good and
true and beautiful. Thirdly, the unity
of hearts is a special joy in creativity.
And these three things cover exactly what Genesis shows to be the purpose of life.!
I am not of course saying that God’s anointing rests on the
salons I have described. But, through
what John Stott and others call the ‘common grace’ of God (as distinct from
redeeming grace), there is some measure of spiritual light in everyone born
into this world. (John 1:9)
I have taken some time to open up part of the worldview of
some significant hairdressing businesses.
Such a worldview we don’t always teach in practical terms in our
churches! It gives us a real life
illustration of a major part of the heart of the biblical philosophy.
Our secular roles on earth are not simply “stewardship”,
though they involve that. At a higher
level, all creativity—even the driving of a truck—is a ministry of love to God
and to others.
In her 1998 book An
Authentic Life (ABC Books) Caroline Jones records the most significant of
her Search for Meaning interviews. Very early in the book come these remarkable
but deceptively simple words from Australian writer and cartoonist, Michael
Leunig:
I watched
a man making a pavement in
It seems that the man with the trowel rightly saw what he
did as a celebration of life. You and I
know that all true creativity is a celebration of—God. This is a form of love. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that God has set
eternity in our hearts. What does this
mean? As well as living in the
space-time world, we are already, every day, connected with eternity, through
God’s Spirit!
When we love a beautiful flower we are actually loving not
only the flower, but also God in the flower.
As in speaking of eternity in time, this is metaphorical language, but
do you get the message? When the man
with the trowel loves the beauty of what he is doing, he is loving God in that
beauty. A hairdresser said to me just
the other day, “I like cutting
hair!” Although this gifted hairdresser
may not know it, this is spirituality.
So while all of our creative joys and responsibilities on
earth are part of our stewardship, they are actually more than that. Ultimately our creativity is part of our love
for God. In the highest sense, all
secular work is born out of relationship.
And this explains why our huge corporations based on humanism are
falling apart! And, although Christian,
some churches are now suffering from the same disconnectedness.
Professor David Tacey, another academic from La Trobe University, in
his 2001 book ReEnchantment, challenges
the church to see that it will never impact the world for as long as its
philosophy contains a humanistic dimension.
He says that people do not want to hear about a God “up there” unless
they can see a God “in here” (in our heart).
I submit that the fragmentation around us in today’s world
is a wake up call for the church to see that everything in life must be born
out of relationship. Proverbs 11:11 declares that the lives of those in tune
with God bring God’s blessing “upon the city”. As God’s people walk with God and allow a
biblical philosophy to dictate priorities, then, and then alone, will revival
come upon the church. It is our hearts
and our lives that hold the key to revival, not our ministry (much as ministry
is needed). Out of revival in the church
would come a new prophetic voice to the nation.
With the new yearning for spirituality that our culture is
embracing,
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[1] Following church tradition
Carroll believes that the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus in the home of
Simon at