The Wilderness Way #9

When my main image for what the church is facing is taken from the Exodus story and entitled The Wilderness Way, there are a number of other images applicable to our situation. One is of a seagoing voyage. In fact, some have characterized the church as the Titanic - "a ship about to sink but unaware of its fate.² (David Kinnaman and Gage Lyons, UnChristian, p. 121)

The Bible is quite aware of such images. Look at the image from the 27th chapter of the Book of Acts of the Apostle Paul's perilous nautical voyage to give his witness in the capital city of Rome. It is there he will offer his greatest triumph in the name of Christ and give his life as a martyr's witness. Instead of the church as the Titanic going down for the last time, the metaphor of Acts 27 is the church sailing through a storm.

Jettison the image of the Titanic. Embrace the voyage of the Apostle Paul to a new future prepared by God. The church is set sail on a new ocean of possibility and promise. It is perilous. We are sailing through a storm.

Wind and waves batter us at every turn. The ship is leaking and creaking.

There is, we must confess, dissension among the crew.

Passengers and other space holders on deck are mutinous. Some think that if we can just get a new executive officer (Pastor) everything will be okay.

(Please note that the Captain is Christ!) Others, typically executive officers, think that if we can just get a new crew (translate leadership), we¹ll make it.

Still others are convinced that we need to jettison the passengers (think pew place holders) and the ship will sail more smoothly. Some go so far as to say that if we chuck the cargo overboard (translate the unconverted and society in general) then we will have no more worries.

There are even some who advocate abandoning ship. (This means forsaking the church and by implication the gospel of Christ). If there is no more ship to care about then our problems are solved, they assert. We can just float like rubber ducks on the surface of the cultural storms. While appealing, this Kon Tiki solution is hardly storm surviving. Even the most culturally embracing among us recognizes the utter shipwreck of such a solution.

The back to Egypt committee (or if you prefer the Mayflower image, the back to England commission) has many adherents. We do not know what the future holds. We really don't! However unseen to us this day, the promised land of a new world lies in the future.

Let the image of Acts 27 guide our voyage. It is the story for sailing through a storm. I submit this is a better metaphor for what we are both facing and going through. We are not the Titanic plowing into an iceberg, but the fellowship (fellows, people, in the same ship) sailing through a storm. There are learnings to be gained for our time that guide, comfort and challenge us.

€ They did not hide in the false safety of harbor.

€ They acknowledged the reality of their voyage.

€ They risked storms.

€ They learned again to radically trust God.

€ They fed each other.

€ They resisted the temptation of execute the messenger (Reject

scape-goating.)

€ God will bring us safely to shore.

By: Bishop Mike Lowry On 3/6/2009

Topics: Bishop Columns