“go ye” and Gandhi
Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi: “May it not be that ‘Go ye unto all the world’ message has been somewhat narrowly interpreted and the spirit of it missed? It will not be denied, I speak from experience, that many of the conversions are only so-called. In some cases, the appeal has gone not to the heart but to the stomach.”
-Speeches and writings of Gandhi: p.336, Feb. 14 1916
Gandhi’s reflections come out of his horrible experience as a child in India seeing people convert to Western ways in ‘Christian drag’ and not to Christ.
Some thought on mission and ‘go ye’
- Have others too experienced people “Go[ing] Ye…” but not making disciples, that is, students of the nonviolent way of Jesus?
2. The biblical passage which Gandhi is referring to is Matthew 28:18-20. In part it reads, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. Is it the ‘mission’ of the God revealed in Jesus if we are not teaching people the practicalities of what Jesus taught? If we teach a theory of atonement and neglect to teach ‘converts’ to live Jesus’ way have we really made disciples? If we don’t teach giving to the needy in secret (instead of calling a press conference), to pray for God’s will of justice,peace and joy to be done (instead of our will or the will of our nation), to seek first God’s transforming presence (instead of careers or our agenda) to first remove the plank from our own eye (instead of judging others) and to love our enemies (instead of bombing them) have we really made followers, students, disciples of Jesus?
3. Gandhi talked about “so-called” converts where the appeal has gone not “to the heart” but “to the stomach.” In your experience do evangelists today invite people ‘take up their cross’ and follow Jesus in the way of love come what may? Or simply appeal to peoples stomachs?
4. What might it look like to prayerfully seek to embody an alternative to the “so-called conversions”, the “appeals to the stomach” and “go[ing] ye” without calling people to obedience to the ‘royal law’ of Love?
For going deeper:
what difference to mission might it make if we were to spend time meditating on Matthew 28:18-20 inlight of Matthew 5-7 while praying for a ‘conversion of the heart’. Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount daily for his mission, how much do we for Christ’s mission?
) Steve I don’t think there is anything wrong with substitutionary atonement (you’d have chop out a bit of the N.T. to get to saying it’s ‘wrong’!) but when it’s not the only understanding of atonement in the New Testament and has got a history of being distorted with some horrific ethical implications and can leave God the Father looking like being completely different in nature to the Son (which is to leave orthodox Trinitarian theology . That said we shouldn’t ditch it, just work on our explanations of atonement so they do Jesus justice. Their is a great “Four Views” book Called “The Nature of the Atonement” with Gregory Boyd, Joel Green, Bruce Reichenbach and Thomas Schreiner”. Other big influences on me are people like N.T. Wright, René Girard, J Denny Weaver or have all raised really helpful questions for me.
Hi Jarrod, Here are a couple of responses…
First, I think it is a great indictment on the nominal afrikaan church that it refused to show hospitality to a soul such as Ghandi when he flirted with Christianity…
…But it is an equally great indictment that Ghandi embraced the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount but refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord who brings in the Kingdom of God. Ghandi denies the deity of Christ.
Ghandi writes in his autobigraphy:
“my difficulties lay deeper. it was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who belived in him would have everlasting life. If God could have sons, all of us are His sons. If Jesus was like God, or God himself, then all men were like God and could be God himself. My reason was not ready to believe literally that Jesus by his death and by his blood redeemed the sins of the World….” and so on….
Jarrod you are right to provoke nominal Christianity, Jesus does that in Matthew 6. It seems you risk having a rose coloured Ghandi if you don’t apply that same critique to Ghandi’s relationship with Jesus. He wrote enough to work out what that was like.
Further, I come from a conservative tribe, but it seems to me that you have set up a straw man and called him “A conversionist.” Perhaps you could focus the target you have in mind for me, there are plenty of expressions of nominal Christianity that may deserve this. Authentic Christianity even the conservative strains of it have always called for the transformed life and discipleship to accompany new Birth, new life, etc…. Likewise the dominant imperitave in the Great Comission is “make disiples” not “Go”. These are disciples taught and baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” I don’t see Ghandi encouraging trinitarian discipleship.
I will check the log in my own eye and get back to you !
Gavin
Comment by Gav — August 29, 2007 @ 11:38 pm