This article prompts the reader to think about what their responsibility towards the earth is today

Lockton, Harwood A

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Avondale College ResearchOnline@Avondale Theology Papers and Journal Articles Faculty of Theology 5-18-2002 What on Earth are we Doing? Harwood A. Lockton Avondale College, harwoodbelper@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://research.avondale.edu.au/theo_papers  Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Lockton, H. (2002). What on earth are we doing. Adventist Record, 107(19), 22-23. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty of Theology at ResearchOnline@Avondale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theology Papers and Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@Avondale. For more information, please contact alicia.starr@avondale.edu.au. to think about . . .Christ’s dilemmaFor some 2000 years Christians havegrappled with a dilemma that Christgave us – how to relate to our society or“the world”? My prayer is not that you take themout of the world…They are not of theworld, even as I am not of it… As yousent me into the world, I have sent theminto the world. —John 17: 15-19. Hence we are to be in the world butnot of the world. But how can weremain true to God while living in asociety whose core values are oftenantagonistic to those of God?Historical responses by ChristiansIt is possible to identify at least threemajor responses to this dilemma byChristians churches through the ages.Separation— or fleeing the wickedworld. Christians are called to “choosefor yourselves this day whom you willserve” (Josh 24:15), “come out of her mypeople” (Rev 18:4) and to be “as aliensand strangers in the world” (1 Pet 2:11).This stance was demonstrated biblicallyby Noah, Abraham and Christ, and his-torically by the early Christian church.The Adventist Church has descendedfrom the Anabaptist tradition as havethe Amish – perhaps the most famouscurrent example of a Christian commu-nity living separate from and “unconta-minated” by the contemporary society. Assimilation— This stance sees theworld as inherently good. It is God’s byboth creation and redemption. Biblicalcharacters such as Joseph, Daniel andChrist were fully part of their societiesand yet faithful to God. AfterConstantine (AD 313), church and statewere seen as complementary. Christiansbecame involved in a variety of socialendeavours: the arts, politics and socialaction. Such a stance maintains the rele-vance of Christianity to society but easi-ly leads to Christians becoming soassimilated into their society that there isno radical difference. Transformation— This stanceacknowledges both the good and evil insociety and works for a transformation ofsociety. Its focus is on bringing the valuesof the kingdom of God into the here andnow whilst acknowledging that a perfectsociety awaits the Second Advent. Biblic-ally the messages of the prophets ringwith calls to social and spiritual reforma-tion. Christ began his ministry through astatement implying social action (Luke4:18-19). Historically the Christian churchhas done much to transform society: suc-cessfully lobbying for the elimination ofinfanticide and slavery, bringing educa-tion and health care to the masses, pro-viding charitable relief and aid. Christ’s stanceEach of these positions has strengthsand weaknesses, and each is Biblical!Christ subtly combined all three stanceschoosing for each situation the appropri-ate response. He separated Himself fromthe value system of the world at thesame time as He was assimilated intoPalestinian society. He also establishesthe embryo of God’s “upside downkingdom” which has led to the socialtransformation of human society.Christ’s incarnational stance is well illus-trated by his metaphor of salt (Matt5:13): salt penetrates, transforms, pre-serves and is distinctive! It must be radi-cally different to make a difference but itmust be scattered and penetrate into themeat it is to preserve. Christians are notonly called to be a distinctive witness tothe grace of God, they are also called topreserve society and arrest its decay.Social involvement is an imperative notan option: “As the Father has sent me, Iam sending you” (John 20: 21).A theology of Christian social involvement If we are not yet persuaded of thenecessity to integrate social involvementinto our Christian lives and witness,John Stott outlines five Biblical doc-trines, any one of which “should be suf-ficient to convince us of our Christiansocial responsibility: the five togetherleave us without excuse”:1• God as the Creator of all – includingthe social and the spiritual;• Human beings as holistic entities inGod’s image – physical, spiritual, in-community beings; • Christ as the role model for Christianbehaviour – He healed the sick, fed thehungry, showed compassion;• Salvation – implies presenting to secu-lar society an alternative communitygrounded in the “upside down val-ues” of the Kingdom of God;• The double identity of the church as a‘holy’ people called out of the world,and a ‘worldly’ people, sent back intothe world by God to witness and serve.Social involvement isan imperativenot an optionThe blessed shall inherit the earth.What is our responsibility towards the earth today?22doingwhat on earth are we…COMMUNITYWITNESSHarwood LocktonEvangelism or social action?While many Christians accept theBiblical imperative of social involvement,some have constructed a false dichotomybetween evangelism and social involve-ment, believing that evangelism is totake priority.2 But the Bible clearly pres-ents an integrated view of our verticalrelationship – the spiritual that connectsus to God – and our horizontal relation-ship – the social that connects us to otherhuman beings. “I will make justice themeasuring-line and righteousness theplumb-line” (Isa 28:17).As any builder – or user of a building– will appreciate, the horizontal dimen-sion (the measuring-line) is just asimportant as the vertical dimension (theplumb-line): without either the structuralintegrity of a building will be in doubt.Our vertical relationship with Godinforms and motivates us in our horizon-tal relationships with others. And thesehorizontal relationships testify of ourvertical relationship. This is not a ques-tion of salvation by works – in fact thevery opposite as we let God’s grace cas-cade down and flow outward to others.Often Christian social action breaksdown barriers of mistrust and may leadto the winning of people to Christ.However the ‘entering wedge’ shouldnever be our motivation for engaging insocial action for two reasons. Firstly, it islikely to produce ‘rice Christians’ –Christian mission history is unfortunatelylittered with such examples and eventoday some wish to use ADRA as a bat-tering ram to prise open areas resistant totraditional forms of Christian evangelism.Secondly, the Christian is called byGod to do “good for goodness’ sake.”3Being socially involved in good workshas its own intrinsic value and Biblicalbasis. If as a result people come to per-sonally accept Christ then “Praise theLord!” – but that should not be ourmotivation. Indeed, God’s grace needsto be demonstrated in acts of disinterestedservice by Christians being good news asmuch as by proclaiming good news. Note also that the author of the GreatCommission (Matt 28:19-20) gave theGreat Commandment (Matt 22:34-40)indeed the Great Commandment isincluded in the Great Commission:“teaching them to obey everything Ihave commanded you” (Matt 28: 20).The Church’s responseWhat does this mean for the Churchand the Christian in the real world ofhuman need? Let us take the case of thepoor.4 The Bible is saturated with refer-ences to justice in regard to the poor andmarginalised (the widow, the orphan,the alien). The material meaning of thesetexts was not lost on the first hearerseven if we – affluent and privilegedwesterners – prefer to soften their mes-sage by reading only a spiritual mean-ing. The gospel commission does extendto such matters as the relief of sickness,hunger and poverty, and to the correc-tion of injustice and exploitation, bothsocial and economic.Christians can act corporately throughthe institutional church via organizationssuch as ADRA (the Adventist Develop-ment and Relief Agency) and ADRACare.ADRA is one of the most widespreadchurch-related aid and developmentorganizations in the world, and ADRA-Australia has an excellent track record inthe delivery of development programsin various parts of the world: one recentoutside evaluation of an ADRA-Australiaproject in Asia was that it “was possiblyworld best-practice”. ADRA is renownedfor its disinterested but clearly identifiedChristian service. Frequently ADRA-Australia personnel are called upon toadvise the Australian Government’s aidagency. Adventists can also act corpo-rately through various self-supportingAdventist social welfare organizationssuch as Asian Aid and InternationalChildren’s Care, as well as through ahost of other Christian and non-Christian social relief groups.However, I believe it is vital thatChristians also act individually and per-sonally and not just rely on a ‘remotecontrol’ approach by financially support-ing institutional agencies as essential asthat is. With the recent advent ofADRACare here within Australia thereare increasing opportunities forAdventists to be involved in the front-line of service. But there are also a multi-tude of needy people within our owncountries, indeed within our own cities,suburbs, towns and streets. Our world is fractured along the faultlines of class, ethnicity, gender and dis-advantage as any daily news bulletinwill readily attest. There is an urgentneed for Christians to create “communi-ties of grace” where God’s grace andlove are clearly demonstrated by gra-cious Christians. Our loving response toGod for His amazing grace should be tolet this grace cascade down to those inour communities and in our world whoneed to see and experience (as much ifnot more than hear of) God’s grace. Thisis something each of us can do individu-ally but also more powerfully in concertwith others. Would it not be wonderfulyif each of our local churches was knownas a centre that attested to, and dis-pensed God’s grace “on tap”.5Of Christ, the founder of the church,it was said he “went around doinggood” (Acts 10:38). The challenge for theinstitutional church and individualChristians is to do likewise. We reallyhave no choice! 1 Stott, John. Issues Facing Christians Today,London: Collins-Marshall Pickering, 1990:15. See also pages 15-25.2 For a discussion of the holistic view withinAdventism see: Cameron, Earl, “Evangelismand social involvement: not either/or, both”,Ministry, October 2000, pages 8-11; andMaynard-Reid, Pedrito, “Holistic evangel-ism”, Ministry, May 2000, pages 20-22. 3 Roennfeldt, R. “Doing good for goodness’sake: towards a theology of social engage-ment”, in Currow, S, H. Lockton, and D.Syme (eds), Just Act Just, Cooranbong:Avondale Academic Press, 2002.4 For a fuller treatment see Lockton, H. “TheChristian and social justice – does God careabout the poor?” in McIver, R. & Roennfeldt,R. (eds) Meaning for the New Millennium: TheChristian Faith from a Seventh-day AdventistPerspective, Cooranbong: AvondaleAcademic Press, 2000: pages 185-188.5 Yancey, Philip. What’s So Amazing AboutGrace? Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishing House, 1997. See especially page250 and the rest of Chapter 20.For reflection . . .• Suggest some practical ideas for supporting and caring for people in our own suburbs, towns and streets. 23

What on Earth are we Doing?

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What on Earth are we Doing?

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