Reaching Out

The week is over; Friday barely had time to get here and I’m already sitting in an airport preparing for a flight to Atlanta. It’s a radical experience to go from a highly academic environment to a cultural canvas of diversity and secularization in less than twenty minutes. Christological interpretations, intertextuality, eschatological inferences, and feminist Biblical interpretations disappear into the mental drain attached to the basement of my brain. I see only people, now. Different shades, colors, accents, haircuts, garb, dress, and religions float around me and I’m not invited to invade their space. So where do I take this Gospel I’ve been shown?

How does Duke theology fit into the context of everyday life? What is a Scriptural process in engaging the culture around me? In the midst of this confusion and a passive concern for the world, the only truth I confidently pursue is the heart of the Gospel manifested in my own life. “Remember your baptism;” my friend’s admonition to never forget my changed identity repeats itself through my mind. If we have faith and passion concerning the theology about God, then we must translate that same faith into anticipation for what God continuously initiates within God’s Creation.

The ongoing revelation of God to humanity finds expression as God so chooses. Therefore, Christians must remain ever vigilant in mind and spirit to observe the intimations of the Spirit within their surroundings. By doing so, one practices a type of involvement with the culture that identifies with the heart of Christ by constantly seeking for a way to approach the world. At times I wish I could simply know the mind of Christ and act accordingly, but then I face the possibility of lacking the necessary courage to act as Christ.

In my Church History precept we discussed the eschatological reality of being a part of the resurrected body of Christ. We are hidden with Christ, and made sharers in His death so that we may also share in His life. By this same power we are new creations, constantly exhibiting the truth of the Gospel in the face of doubt and resistance. Faith allows us to act; it brings our grace to fruition. The same grace of salvation, brought to pass by a saving faith, continually clashes with our sinful nature. This forces us to constantly shift our conviction from doubt to faith, trying to live every minute with purpose. Every conversation, action, deed, thought, and so forth possesses the infinite potential found in the ordained purpose of God. As a Christian I often feel as if the interaction with the world rests on my initiative or good planning, but God prepares the hearts of the people to respond to God’s call. We are agents of God’s Will, members of Christ’s body. We are not our own; we are bought with a price. I need not live afraid of what I’ve missed; rather, I should live with an intense focus on the present, every mindful of what God has done, is doing, and will do around me. With this in mind, being a passive-aggressive Christian doesn’t sound quite as bad.