Prompt 28: July 1, 2023
What is a woman?
What is sex for?
Who deserves “human rights”?
What are people for?
Do we need masculinity?
Should we have nations?
Should we eat meat?
Is work necessary?
These are the questions of the zeitgeist. We modern westerners take for granted the hard-won theological, philosophical, and political foundations that allow us to answer such questions in a simple manner. Though we may have clear enough answers to these most fundamental questions, the fact that so much confusion over these issues occurs in our society should clue us in that things have gone terribly wrong; not only that other people are wrong, but that entire generations are being raised in perpetual confusion. When what is right is treated as wrong, we are living in the Upside Down. Before we take to arms in defending a christian culture or traditional values, or worse yet, to reflexively condemn our neighbors, let us first look at the pattern of God’s interaction with the world and our position in that mission.
Throughout scripture, a cosmic image is given where God is above in the heavens, and below is the miry depths. In the creation account of Genesis, God is always separating things and giving them identity; the way he does this is by reaching down to bring up the thing he has chosen: i.e (light, waters above the sky, land, plants, birds, land animals). This pattern reaches its climax when he raises man up from the dust and breathes his spirit into Adam. This is God’s first instantiation in the world, where he has personally come down to be part of his creation. Watch for miracles wherever this pattern manifests.
Image 1: Cosmic Exchange Between Opposite Poles of Reality
These patterns repeat throughout the scriptures, though they take different forms. Without belaboring the thesis which I lack the education to defend, I’ll point to Christ’s life and mission. When Christ tells Peter he will become a “fisher of men” (Matt. 4:19), he is describing the very thing he has come to accomplish and invites the church [which will be built on Peter (Matt 16:18)] into this ongoing mission of redemption. Christ descends from on high to the very lowest place to bring up the dead. The ultimate fishing expedition happened cosmically, it happened historically, and yet is still happening, personally, spiritually, and phenomenologically. And the Church has a role in this mission. This is why we use the ichthys (fish symbol) to represent christianity.
Image 2: Ichthys- Christian Fish Meme
Now back to the original issue of our upside down world: a phrase is often used lazily in christian circles to be in the world, but not of it. I don’t disagree with this trope, but it is often used by people who I find to be neither “in the world” nor “not of it”. The point being that fish aren’t caught from the highlands. There is a time and a place for sanctuary, but the mission requires a proximity to the mire. Love requires proximity to the mire. It may even require our focused walk upon the waters themselves. If you think you’ll be rewarded for such sympathetic action, or on the flip side, if you think this is too idealistic or that certain people really are hopeless, consider the story of one such fishers of men – Dirk Willems.
In 1596, religious hostilities were rampant in western Europe. Martin Luther’s reformation had opened a Pandora’s box of christian sects and beliefs, all of them fighting against the shifting theocratic polities of each kingdom. Dirk Willems was an anabaptist, a precursor to today’s mennonite or amish denominations, who was persecuted and imprisoned by the roman catholic authorities in Asperen, Netherlands. One day, he escaped. Lucky enough to have been starved on prison rations, he walked safely over a frozen pond in hot pursuit by his prison guard. The guard however, had not been starved, and with his full weight, he fell through the ice– an instant death sentence. What would you do? What would Jesus do? Willems stopped running. And out of that conviction only triggered by the Holy spirit, he went back to lift his captor out of death. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. Dirk Willems was burned at the stake shortly after saving his adversary.
If we are going to solve the problems of an upside down world, we have to be honest about why – that will inform us how to do it.
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all