I am back from my moratorium of blogging and thought i would start with this. I have been listening to John Mayer's new CD and have been thinking about this song. Here are the lyrics:
"Belief"
(John Mayer)
Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing there mind from
The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time
Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they're not going easily
Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you're trying for
Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon
For the war that's raging on inside
Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no ones going quietly
We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this
If belief is what we're fighting for
What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand
Belief can
Belief can
The first verse reminds me of a struggle that I've gone through learning how to balance what i have coined as 'offensively prophetic v.s. relationally prophetic'. The point is that most of the time people don't just change what they believe by being yelled at, protested against or getting someone elses version of truth shoved down their throats. All this is not to say there is not an appropriate place and time to be offensively prophetic but most of the time we should be relationally prophetic.
Mayer points out the obvious fact that we all have epistemology's whether we recognize them or not and they range from everything to nothing at all. He also says that we often use our beliefs not only as defensive armor but as an offensive sword as we defend ourselves and combat others. Mayer, whether he knows it or not in some ways correctly exegites the postmodern culture that has rejected the modern attempt of apologetics, reason, and science, to prove rationally what others should and should not believe in. Don't get me wrong in all this correct belief is important and orthodoxy is important, but if it is not matched with orthopraxy then we have failed as Christians. On that note Lesslie Newbigin is correct in speaking about the postmodern/emergent/missional character of the church by saying that "the only hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation (group of people) of men and women who believe it and live by it."
Mayer points out the obvious fact that we all have epistemology's whether we recognize them or not and they range from everything to nothing at all. He also says that we often use our beliefs not only as defensive armor but as an offensive sword as we defend ourselves and combat others. Mayer, whether he knows it or not in some ways correctly exegites the postmodern culture that has rejected the modern attempt of apologetics, reason, and science, to prove rationally what others should and should not believe in. Don't get me wrong in all this correct belief is important and orthodoxy is important, but if it is not matched with orthopraxy then we have failed as Christians. On that note Lesslie Newbigin is correct in speaking about the postmodern/emergent/missional character of the church by saying that "the only hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation (group of people) of men and women who believe it and live by it."
1 comment:
Thanks for pointing this out. I have to listen to it.
You comment, "Mayer, whether he knows it or not in some ways correctly exegites the postmodern culture that has rejected the modern attempt of apologetics, reason, and science, to prove rationally what others should and should not believe in."
I think that is correct. The Christian task, then, is a suffering love. Only by a witness of the true hospitality of God in Christ will the world believe. Our evangelistic efforts flow in and out of true community.
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