Generosity...

After worship, my friend and colleague (and predecessor at First Church) reminded me that Hans Frei, one of the key neo-Barthian theologians of the post-modern era wrote: Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing.   That really resonates with me on two levels:

+ The first part of the quote speaks to the church being a community shaped by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is neither club nor social service agency - not that either is bad - rather the church has a different calling in the world. And all too often, without an under-girding theology shaped by the Cross, many churches come to  function as either one or the other or both. What I understand Frei to be saying first is that the church has been called to be Christ's body in the world - we only have Jesus to share - nothing more but never anything less. So, knowing Christ within and among us is our work/mission/calling.

This takes time and training and practice, yes?  This means that just showing up is not enough; it can be a starting point, but only a beginning. The letter to the Ephesians puts it like this: "I would not have you remain as children, beloved, being tossed to and fro by every wind of competing doctrine..."  No, we are to grow up -  to mature - to learn and practice how to embrace and be embraced by Christ in our daily lives throughout our lives.

Br. Curtist Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist - an Anglican monastic order in Boston - wrote that like St. Paul's own conversion born of Christ... this "is not an experience of a lifetime; rather it is an experience of how to life life all the time.  Every day, from dawn to dusk, we must make a good many decisions how we will respond to life: what we will say or do, what we will reveal or conceal, what we will keep or share.  So conversion is about our life-long turning and returning to Christ Jesus for his cues and for his power as we navigate life."

Some churches do a good job and teaching the life, death and resurrection of Jesus - they clearly know what they believe about Christ  and why- and they are equally clear about how to live and serve like him, too.  Some of these churches are liberal, some are conservative and some are a mixture of both left and right. Sadly, what happens all too many times when a church is clear about what its theology, however,is that it becomes judgmental of those who interpret Christ's invitation differently:  liberals condemn anyone to their right as fundamentalists - which is untrue - and many actual literalists believe that all those to their left arewishy-washy, I'm OK, you're OK, post-modernist abominations to the Lord  - another untruth... so first Frei speaks of generosity with and without orthodoxy.

+ Second, Frei goes on to speak of orthodoxy married to the generosity of God as a corrective to our tendency to serve as both  theological judge and jury for those who do church differently.  Here I sense, like Anne Lamott, he wants us to make sure there is room to show up - and just show up for as long as it takes us to be ready to go deeper.

In her book, Travelling Mercies, she tells of the time when her life was crashing to the bottom and ALL she could do was show up. Show up... and weep.  And there was room for her to sit in the back of the community and let out all her fear and pain and grief and anger during the hymns.  And then, in a time beyond all knowing, she was ready to go deeper:  deeper into Christ's love, her own wounds and the healing of God's grace.  And she did - she didn't stay stuck - but first she found a safe place to just show up.

And here's the thing, as she let herself be emptied, then God's generosity could work within her heart and mind and body.  Yesterday I spoke of God's generosity by quoting Fleming Rutledge - and here words are as sound today as they were yesterday - when clarifying the importance of an orthodoxy that is generous.


The word ortho-doxy (Greek for "right doctrine") has both positive and negative connotations. In a culture that prizes what is iconoclastic and transgressive, orthodoxy has come to sound constricted and unimaginative at best, oppressive and tyrannical at worst. But… we cannot do without orthodoxy, for everything else must be tested against it… (and that means that the) orthodox (traditional, classical) Christian faith should by definition always be generous as our God is generous; lavish in God's creation, binding (her) self in an unconditional covenant, revealing himself in the calling of a people, self-sacrificing in the death of his Son, prodigal in the gifts of the Spirit, justifying the ungodly and indeed, offending the "righteous" by the indiscriminate nature of (her) favor. True Christian orthodoxy therefore cannot be narrow, pinched, or defensive but always spacious, adventurous and unafraid.

The second part of Frei's challenge is to make sure that our certainty is just as open and wide and mysterious as God's grace.  Otherwise, we become like the clubs and social service agencies all around us; or worse, we become like the entertainment centers that fill our lives and minds with spiritual cotton candy but do not train us for life as disciples. Without generosity,it is all too easy for our theological commitments to become punitive and destructive. Lamott writes: Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. (Point one)  She also adds: You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. (Point two)   
 
Frei rings true to me: Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing.