Healthy Spirituality Studies in 1 John: Value of Tradition Sunday, April 20, 2008

Review Principles, 1 John 1:1-2:6  It’s real, not overly spiritual, affects real life  Joy is the motivation for encouraging others; in fact, properly understood, it’s the motivation for most things in life  God is the only One who is completely full of Light and He is the only One worthy of worship  We should walk in the Light (archaeology)

Review Principles, 1 John 1:1-2:6  Must have a healthy and realistic view of sin  Must marry this to a tremendous confidence in God’s loving forgiveness  Must find a safe and helpful way to have an on-going practice of confession  Healthy Spirituality veers away from sin yet understands how great a Helper we have if we do sin  Christ is both our mercy-giver and our helper

Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. Jer. 6:16

1 John 2:7-8 7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

The Value of Tradition  This passage has become a key message for me  Every year I begin the Ministry Skills & Issues class I teach at SSU with a talk based on these 2 verses  For me they are key to building an “ancient- future” church (Robert Webber’s term)

How does Light shine? But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day (Proverbs 4:18).

Assumptions of Justice There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Jew/Greek Slave/Free Male/Female

Implication So there's no going back; the Holy Spirit gives new wineskins and it's important to change. We don't want the paradigm of the New Testament Church; we want the paradigm of “just-before-Jesus-comes-again” (Ray Anderson, Professor of Theology, Fuller)

The “word that we have heard” Yet we need to remember the old commandment As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father 1 John 2:24

Leonard Sweet (Aqua Church) I am a virtual fundamentalist about content. I am a virtual libertarian about containers. Only in Jesus Christ did container and content become one. Jesus' comments about new wine in old wineskins reminds us that we cannot make an idolatry of any form or container. We must not elevate an ecclesial form to the level of authority or primacy that belongs only to the content. Unfortunately, much of the

Leonard Sweet (Aqua Church) church is as fundamentalist about containers as I am about content, and as libertarian about content as I am about containers. Too many churches will only pour living water into something they like or would pick up. A lot of churches are languishing because they won't trust the gospel to fit and fill containers with handles they don't like.

Leonard Sweet (Aqua Church) The mystery of the gospel is this: It is always the same (content), and it is always changing (containers). In fact, for the gospel to remain the same, it has to change. The old, old story needs to be told in new, new ways.

Leonard Sweet (Aqua Church) In fact, one of the ways you know the old, old truths are true is their ability to assume amazing and unfamiliar shapes while remaining themselves and without compromising their integrity.

Graham Cooke We need to find our security in intimacy with the Father, not in how we can expect Him to do things. The church usually has it the wrong way round: great security in methods, no security in who the Father is (rough translation).

Example: Life at the Congo  Biblical Witness Fellowship: Affirming Our Faith, A Study Guide for the United Church of Christ, 1984  10 Doctrines—4 columns each BibleTradition UCCBWF (current)

Specific Examples  Deity of Christ (p. 35)  Scripture (p. 43)  Mission of the Church (p. 71)  Human Sexuality (p. 59)

Principle So we need courage to break through unbelief and bring in the true new thing that God would like to do, and we need discernment to know which parts of our past way of doing things get to come along on the journey

Why Courage?  It’s hard to break through the inertia of an ‘encrusted’ tradition  There’s always risk involved  Past experiences of disappointment  Misery loves company

Sweet (Hamel & Prahalad) Four monkeys were put into a room. In the center of the room was a tall pole with a bunch of bananas suspended from the top. One particularly hungry monkey eagerly scampered up the pole, intent on retrieving a banana. Just as he reached out to grasp the banana, he was hit with a torrent of cold water from an overhead shower. With a squeal, the monkey abandoned its quest and retreated down the pole. Each monkey attempted, in turn, to secure the banana.

Sweet (Hamel & Prahalad) Each received an equally chilly shower, and each scampered down without the prize. After repeated drenchings, the monkey finally gave up on the bananas. With the primates thus conditioned, one of the original four was removed from the experiment and a new monkey added. No sooner had this new, innocent monkey

Sweet (Hamel & Prahalad) started up the pole than his (or her) companions reached up and yanked the surprised creature back down the pole. The monkey got the message--don't climb the pole. After a few such aborted attempts, but without ever having received a cold shower, the new monkey stopped trying to get the bananas. One by one, each of the original

Sweet (Hamel & Prahalad) monkeys was replaced. Each new monkey learned the same lesson. Don't climb the pole. None of the new monkeys ever made it to the top of the pole. None even got so far as a cold shower. Not one understood precisely why pole-climbing was discouraged, but they all respected the well-established precedent. Even after the shower was removed, no monkey ventured up the pole.

What Should We Retain?  Content  Wisdom  Moods  Things that are helpful or beautiful

‘Repeat without Repetition’  Trust: when you find a tradition, realize that it only became one because it answered the cry of human hearts in its day  Transplant: the familiar needs to be given "new meaning and power" in a new cultural context (it needs to be transformed without losing its essence)  Turbocharge: don't just speak about it; bring it back in a way "that fastens it on the memory and imagination" (this speaks of the importance of both art and participation)

What are Examples of This?

From the Taizé Community Jubilate Deo, Allelujah

Rock of Ages (Toplady, 1763) Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure; Save me from its guilt and power.

Rock of Ages Not the labour of my hands Can fulfil Thy law’s demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Rock of Ages Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

Rock of Ages While I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyelids close in death, When I soar to worlds unknown, See Thee on Thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.