Narnian Anti-Navel-Gazing

C.S. Lewis said, "We read to know we are not alone." If that is so then, apparently, millions feel impressively accompanied upon reading what Lewis wrote. And we shouldn't be surprised at this. Who comes away from Surprised by Joy without the sensation of having gazed into a mirror of their own soul? Who among us reads Screwtape without the suspicion that someone has been spying and eavesdropping on our own chats with the devil's errand boys?

It is ironic how Lewis' power to map so much of the universal, human, experiential terrain coincided with intense aversion for intentional introspection. Lewis discovered the "inside" of himself (and others), not deliberately, but as a by-product of his search for something outside himself--eventually God. Lewis' distinction between self-centeredness and selfishness proves instructive here. The self-centered person (which Lewis was not) fastens his attention upon himself and how he is viewed by others. The selfish person (which Lewis was) craves time and space for the pursuit and enjoyment of something other than himself. Both fixations endanger the soul but the distinction is significant.

What animated Lewis was not himself, but worthy objects of love outside himself. What saved him was the discovery of the one object of human devotion worthy of complete love, indeed of worship--the only true God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Once Lewis realized that it was yearning for God that produced the experience he called "Joy," his interest shifted from that experiential by-product (precious gift though it undoubtedly was) to the giver Himself. I suspect Lewis' insight illuminates a paradox at the heart of Christian discipleship--he who saves his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for Christ's sake will save it.

Emerging? Yes! Neck Veins Protruding? Maybe Not! Nuts? I Don't Think So.

No I am not completely up to speed on the emerging/emergent lingo but I have a strong suspicion that there is a "right wing" to this movement. I think Ed Stetzer puts them under his "relevance" category (the other categories are "revisionist," and "reconstructionist"). And as I learn about these right wing emerging pastors and their churches I, like much of what I find.For one thing they seem to be happy Calvinists--yes I said happy Calvinists. Where were these guys when I was young and smoldering and needing to be smacked!

And they are missional, which might mean that they are so busy actually sharing the gospel with lost folks and discipling believers and planting churches and being authentic all over the place that the anti-Calvinists and Arminians end up doing most of the brow furrowing and neck-vein protruding, and head scratching.

And they seem to be able to emerge without pretending not to know that the God who inspired the Bible views homosexual behavior as sinful whenever it occurs. Given this, wouldn't it be unloving to pretend that He hasn't told us that? I suppose if you just got started reading the Bible and stumbled upon a liberal commentator or two who argued that the passages that two millennia worth of commentators were sure prohibited homosexual behavior really condemned child abuse, well, hesitance to take a stand could be a sign of admirable modesty. But, after six years or so (and that is how long it has been for some emergent gurus who have hem hawed on the subject) the admirable modesty interpretation starts to lose its luster and we have to wonder if somebody needs to learn how to research a topic.

And some of these mainly happy reformed guys do urban! That's right, they go into cities--real cities with tattoos and piercings and grime and loud bass guitars and those silly patches of hair the guys sport and they actually plant churches. WOW!And they believe things. They have stout old sounding doctrines and lots of old orthodox stuff that they have not yet learned to be ashamed of for some reason and Bibles too. They have Bibles and they read them and they think the Bible is the Word God too, don't they? Tell me I am not wrong. They are like a dream come true. And even though my generation invented "cool" which means that we will always be more cool than this new upstart Reformissional crowd, still, they do seem to be a different kind of cool that the SBC might need just now. I hope I am right about most of this and if I am--please Lord--do not let these Right Wing Emerging Christians bolt the SBC just yet.