OrganicJesus.org

Hey everyone. We're back and blogging here at OJ. Sorry for our hiatus.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the options before me as the consequences of peak oil approach my own life and community. As is evident in my previous posts, I have felt strongly about staying in the city as long as possible during petrocollapse. But since November I've been seeing a woman who has a considerably more nomadic heart than I do, and it's caused me to rethink what strategy I'd like to take for being part of God's counter-cultural insurgency amid so trying of times as peak oil seems to present. Should things go well between this gal and I, I'm wondering what path we should take.

To be sure, there are a few options on the table. I'd categorize them as "the Shire," "Solidarity in the City", "National Flight", and "Nomadic Wandering". Could some of these be more biblical than others. Are some outright wrong? Are some more viable than others.More on these options under the fold.

I've begun reading N.T. Wright's "Christian Origins and the Question of God" series, a three-volume behemoth weighing in at something like 1200 pages.  I don't expect to finish any time soon, but my project of reading it is far less ambitious than his work in writing it!

The first 144 pages of "The New Testament and the People of God" is about how to study the New Testament, how to read it, authorial intent, and narrative.  I considered skipping past it in order to get to the "real stuff," but my patience has been rewarded.

His treatment of story and narrative as a significant component of early/proto- Jewish -- and indeed human -- knowing is beautiful.  Wright suggests that narrative has an inherent transformative (even subversive) quality in that by entering into a conversation with someone whose life is deeply embedded in a story, we tend to walk away transformed by the encounter.  And what more true or more powerful story is there than that of the dynamic relationship between the Trinity, humanity, and creation?  Our story is one of paradise lost, community, new creation, and perfection through resurrection. 

Wright sums up his brief treatment of narrative with a simple cliché:  "the proof of the pudding is in the eating."  Perhaps this could be true of life among the people of God as well.

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For better or for worse, I've discovered that I tend to write far more boldly online than I will speak in person.  Because of this, it's not uncommon for others to read my words and click away with an image of me as oppositional, unreasonable, and perhaps militant.  In many ways, the form of my words has not fit its content.

So, my project:  disarm.

One of the most productive avenues I've discovered is cooperative service.  Several of my friends have strong roots in fundamentalist evangelical circles.  We love each other and have largely reached an understanding.  But when we find a space to publicly express our thoughts without reservation (think blogs), our words can breed division.

I spent six hours at a friend's house tonight eating, watching Monty Python, laughing, worshipping, and cooking for a group that serves lunch to homeless members of our community called Renovo.  Some of us have had our differences in the past.  But when you're standing together with rolling pins and covered in flour, it's infinitely easier to recognize each other's humanity and commitment to the mission of God.  Our cooperation broke down any divisions caused by hasty words, leaving instead a beautiful understanding of each others' life, work, mission, and calling.

The moment we stop talking to one another is the moment we've given up on God's dream for us.  Sometimes it just takes a little olive oil to get the productive words flowing. [*]


[*]  Feel free to substitute a beverage of your choice.

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[This is a minimally updated excerpt from an ethics paper I wrote last year. I'll follow up soon with a comparison to other ethical systems. I share it here because I think that the ethical framework with which I engage and anticipate the Age of Less is both illustrative for my other articles here, and could be an important contribution to the broader "missional" conversation. -- BDR]

This article will attempt to charter a system of missional ethics by hybridizing several other ethical systems together with the emerging theological themes of the missio dei, narrative and narrative truth, and the centrality of the Kingdom or Reign of God. It is very similar in form to narrative ethics, affective faith ethics, and kingdom ethics, but differs by painting it with gentle hues of inaugurated eschatology, and by its central incorporation of the missio dei in its interpretive schema. Missional ethics is teleologically oriented toward the inbreaking eschatological Reign of God, deontologically honed by following the model and teachings of Jesus Christ, narratively lived out in a particularly faith community partaking in the broader missio dei, and birthed out an affective response to the delivering God of the biblical accounts.