We live in times when people are losing hope. I am reading that the postmodern generation, generally the twenty-somethings in college and beginning adulthood, is a generation without hope. They look at the state of the world, with chronic anxiety, economic unrest, and world conflict, with little hope for a bright future.
Many of these people emerging into adulthood come from troubled homes. They have become all to accustomed to dysfunctional relationships, broken promises, and putting on a false front. They are used to a life where things are not what they seem. They note how the great institutions, including the church, the modern generations created in the 20th century have failed to keep promises and deliver the goods.
They view the world as not what it seems, and if they ever open up, will tell you they carry a lot of pain. They are discouraged. They are without hope.
That is not unlike Jesus’ time. By the time Messiah was supposed to come people were losing hope. Upon release from captivity the Hebrews experienced maybe 20 years out of 400 in complete freedom and safety. The rest of the time they suffered under one brutal world regime after another. By the time of Jesus there had been a cultural invasion of the Greeks followed by a military invasion of the Romans. The Hebrew way of life was all but gone.
Then came an obscure and eccentric prophet named John, who kept to himself in the wilderness and bellowed incessantly about the need for repentance before the Messiah came. In his own way he sparked hope. People began checking the prophecies, particularly in Daniel, and counted the days it said would lapse before Messiah’s coming. They were nearly complete! Prophecies and psalms were read, proclaimed, and prayed. Hope arose.
Hope was manifested in Jesus, a rabbi and prophet from Galilee. He seemed to pick up where John left off, speaking of a new kingdom spoken of by the prophets of old. His kingdom would be different from the Jewish nation. It would include anyone who would come. It would begin in the present but not be fully in place until after the resurrection. It would replace the religious and social institution that had been so carefully built in Jerusalem.
The method Jesus used to foster hope was to gather disciples to train for and rally around his message. Apparently there were several levels, from the greater following of multitudes who came to here him, to the 120 or so who followed him everywhere, to the twelve he specifically recruited, to the three he spent a good deal of time with. These circles had varying levels of commitment, and it was the most committed who were used to change the world with the message of hope.
During the 20th century we so institutionalized the church that it became more like a school and a club than the church Jesus described. It fit well into the industrially driven, institution-building culture of the last 100 years, reaching its peak in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now, at a major hinge or turning of history, industrialization and institutionalization are giving way to more relationship-oriented economies. We have shifted to a service-based economy and we are seeing more importance placed on relationships. Postmoderns emerging into today’s world crave relationships.
It seems like a great time to revive the relationship-based system of making disciples that Jesus used. Perhaps we need to think less in terms of institutionalized settings, like classes and clubs, and think more in less formal ways of making relationships and gaining the trust of skeptical people so they will open up and say what’s on their hearts, and so that we can speak into their lives. So that we can say something about hope.
It seems to me that if we can do what Jesus did . . . if we can somehow attract attention to the awe and majesty and mystery of God . . . we might could gain the trust and commitment of a few who will learn by example and precept, and be charged with the hope of changing this hopeless world, in the same way Jesus’ disciples, all barely twenty-somethings, bravely left Jerusalem to fan out into a hostile pagan world, and changed the world.
Many of these people emerging into adulthood come from troubled homes. They have become all to accustomed to dysfunctional relationships, broken promises, and putting on a false front. They are used to a life where things are not what they seem. They note how the great institutions, including the church, the modern generations created in the 20th century have failed to keep promises and deliver the goods.
They view the world as not what it seems, and if they ever open up, will tell you they carry a lot of pain. They are discouraged. They are without hope.
That is not unlike Jesus’ time. By the time Messiah was supposed to come people were losing hope. Upon release from captivity the Hebrews experienced maybe 20 years out of 400 in complete freedom and safety. The rest of the time they suffered under one brutal world regime after another. By the time of Jesus there had been a cultural invasion of the Greeks followed by a military invasion of the Romans. The Hebrew way of life was all but gone.
Then came an obscure and eccentric prophet named John, who kept to himself in the wilderness and bellowed incessantly about the need for repentance before the Messiah came. In his own way he sparked hope. People began checking the prophecies, particularly in Daniel, and counted the days it said would lapse before Messiah’s coming. They were nearly complete! Prophecies and psalms were read, proclaimed, and prayed. Hope arose.
Hope was manifested in Jesus, a rabbi and prophet from Galilee. He seemed to pick up where John left off, speaking of a new kingdom spoken of by the prophets of old. His kingdom would be different from the Jewish nation. It would include anyone who would come. It would begin in the present but not be fully in place until after the resurrection. It would replace the religious and social institution that had been so carefully built in Jerusalem.
The method Jesus used to foster hope was to gather disciples to train for and rally around his message. Apparently there were several levels, from the greater following of multitudes who came to here him, to the 120 or so who followed him everywhere, to the twelve he specifically recruited, to the three he spent a good deal of time with. These circles had varying levels of commitment, and it was the most committed who were used to change the world with the message of hope.
During the 20th century we so institutionalized the church that it became more like a school and a club than the church Jesus described. It fit well into the industrially driven, institution-building culture of the last 100 years, reaching its peak in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now, at a major hinge or turning of history, industrialization and institutionalization are giving way to more relationship-oriented economies. We have shifted to a service-based economy and we are seeing more importance placed on relationships. Postmoderns emerging into today’s world crave relationships.
It seems like a great time to revive the relationship-based system of making disciples that Jesus used. Perhaps we need to think less in terms of institutionalized settings, like classes and clubs, and think more in less formal ways of making relationships and gaining the trust of skeptical people so they will open up and say what’s on their hearts, and so that we can speak into their lives. So that we can say something about hope.
It seems to me that if we can do what Jesus did . . . if we can somehow attract attention to the awe and majesty and mystery of God . . . we might could gain the trust and commitment of a few who will learn by example and precept, and be charged with the hope of changing this hopeless world, in the same way Jesus’ disciples, all barely twenty-somethings, bravely left Jerusalem to fan out into a hostile pagan world, and changed the world.
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