Old ways new again

5 Ways the book Hope for the World, edited by Walter Bruggemann, gave me permission to think about things the way I've always kind of thought they were. But didn't seem to be able to express.

1. That God is at least as interested in what happens in this life that we already have as he is in a future life yet to come. Christianity, when considered as a religion, often seems to be more about what happens in some other life, not this one.

Our mission as Christ's disciple community, wherever we are located, is nothing more or less than to participate actively in this divine labor of faithful love. That is to say…
Christian Mission Is Not First Christian Mission but God's Mission (Missio Dei)
p. 17

We share a certain criticism of a missionary endeavor in this world that is essentially an expression of otherworldliness. Otherworldly mission cannot but deny the biblical connection between the Creator and creation, because it sequentially divorces the future of creation from the future of its Creator. In the "otherworldly" way, "hope," the necessary precondition to any yearning for "future," is destroyed already in the here and now.
p. 69

2. We need to spend more time sharing with one another in our own faith community about our faith. We should talk more and more honestly about why we do the things we do and think the ways and feel the ways we do about our faith, calling, understanding of God. This might inspire or motivate us then to go out into the world and live out our faith rather than just trying to tell them our story.

Perhaps for the foreseeable future, therefore, the rule, especially in the once-mainline churches of former Christendom, ought to be: In the church tell the story, in the world live the story.
p. 19

3. Frustration: In order to qualify as mission, the event or outcome of the event has to rise to some threshold or a good seal of mission approval that someone or group establishes somewhat arbitrarily, but generally involves conversion more so than transformation.

When the scientist works with conscience to find a cure for cancer, we see God's mission as hope in action. When people call for the forgiveness of debt of 'third world countries', we see God's mission as hope in action…When an investor in North America conducts business as if the children in Africa are his or her own, we see God's mission as hope in action…When communities opt for reconciliation instead of civil war, we see God's mission as hope in action…When Walter Brueggemann writes about the painful issues of the land, Africans see God's mission as hope in action…I know you want to stop me here, saying, "But these things are already happening." I answer, "Precisely my argument as well!"
p.80

4. There has got to be more to the Gospel than we hear about. "What the Gospel says" seems to be used as justification for me getting my way about how to do things and why.

Whatever has the prospect of becoming "gospel" must address the reality of the negating condition lying at the heart of the situation concerned. Gospel is good news because as it engages, challenges, resolves, or ameliorates the bad news actually present in the sphere of missiological concern. A gospel spoke to the human anxiety of "guilt and condemnation" when the dominant anxiety of its context is more nearly "meaninglessness and despair" (Tillich) would not be gospel; indeed, it would probably function repressively to distract the attention of its hearers away from their existential anxiety.
p. 83

5. Often on mission trips we visit poor communities and diverse belief systems and are impressed by how much alike we are in the songs we sing or in how we all have our trials and tribulations, etc. or we say how different we are and how much better "their faith is because they don't have anything, but they are so much happier than we are." Our differences are differences and there are of course similarities among us. I'm not sure we honor either of them as we might.

When dealing with plurality, it is important to avoid two pitfalls. One is an overemphasis on similarity; the other is an overemphasis on difference. The discovery of similarity forges points of connectedness, but it can also do harm if it fails to recognize the uniqueness of each individual subject. Historian of religion Wendy Doniger calls it the problem of "all cats being gray in the night."
p.109