I spent yesterday and today at NEXT: A Leadership Conference for Presbyterians. It was the expansion of a conversation that began with a small group of pastors about what is emerging within the PC(USA). A first expansion of this conversation happened in Minneapolis right before the General Assembly. I was part of the 40 or so people that attended that gathering. This conference in Indianapolis drew 350 people—pastors, elders, and over 70 seminarians. I’ll have more to say about this conference in the days to come, but here is the first thing I was struck by yesterday.
The opening worship service featured an incredible sermon by Scott Black Johnston called “Sent Into Exile”. It was a powerful statement about the current situation the church finds itself in. Scott set the stage for the conference, challenging us to think about the changing context of church in the 21st century. He drew a provocative analogy between the church today and the exiled Jews of the 6th century BCE.
Talking about the post-Christendom church as living in exile has become a popular theme, apparently introduced by Walter Brueggemann many years ago. While I can appreciate the power of this metaphor, and think that Scott put it to great use yesterday, I do wonder if exile is really the best metaphor for where we are right now.
Exile presupposes two things: a previous establishment and hopes for the restoration of that establishment. The exiled Jews longed for the restoration of their lost kingdom. If exile is the prevailing metaphor of our post-Christendom church, it suggests that our hope is the restoration of Christendom. I’m not sure that’s what we want. Or, if it is what we want, it is not what we need.
As an archetypal narrative, exile is a powerful story. It recognizes that something has been lost—perhaps even taken away. It gives voice to the longing for restoration. Even more, the biblical archetype of exile moves us toward that restoration. But, a return to Christendom is not the answer for the 21st century church.
In is brilliant book, The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann uses the story of the exodus from Egypt to talk about what the biblical prophets were doing in ancient Israel. This story of exodus partakes of the exile archetype but takes a different turn. Brueggemann suggests that when Israel escaped the oppression of Egypt and established their own kingdom, they eventually succumbed to the same imperial consciousness that they were liberated from. I would argue that the post-Christendom church has once again been liberated from this imperial consciousness and we must not insinuate—consciously or subconsciously—that we need to return to this way of being.
It seems to me, then, that for all of the evocative ways exile feels like a good metaphor for the state of the church today, it is in fact a flawed metaphor that we should be very careful with. Rather than exile, I think we should talk instead about the emergence of the kingdom of God.
When Jesus came on the scene announcing the arrival of God’s kingdom, he was clearly suggesting something other than empire. The emergence of God’s kingdom in opposition to the Roman Empire is a much better narrative in which to locate the contemporary church.
God is not calling the church today to return to that from which we have been exiled. God is calling us to participate in the emergence of something completely new. Christendom was the church corrupted by imperial consciousness. Rather than see ourselves as exiled from that, let’s open our eyes to the new thing coming into existence all around us.
Great summary and thoughts John. In my thinking of this currently popular exile image I have the same concerns you do for exactly the reasons you express. I agree that it is really pushing this metaphor if the return from exile is uncertain or eschatological. Instead, I like the metaphor of diaspora — the faithful scattered to be the church where they have found themselves as seed is scattered across a field.
John,
I think you’re right about this. The power of the exile metaphor is how directly it speaks to the first of those two criteria you mention, the loss of establishment. I keep thinking of Douglas John Hall’s “Disestablish Yourselves” imperative to North American churches. But to what end? So that a new establishment might be built up? No. As you say, our imagination needs to be trained on the new thing–the Kingdom of God thing–emerging in the midst of our disestablishment and . . . exile.
Thanks for this critique.
John,
Thank you for your reflection on this. You raise a good point, particularly about handling with care the second “assumption” of exile. I do want to point out that I think part of what made the metaphor of exile compelling for Scott (and for me) was that, while it acknowledges that the Church no longer holds the status it once enjoyed and abused during Christendom, the metaphor also assumes that God has not abandoned us, and that something new is emerging.
I also agree that we should not long for the restoration of our old sense of establishment (with its accoutrements of power, wealth, privilege, etc.) but is our anticipation of and participation in the emerging kingdom of God, not an anticipation of and participation in an “establishment” of some sort? Exile does purge us of our imperial consciousness. It also makes us aware of the destructive ways of the empire, not only to the Church, but to the world. And it makes us vulnerable to the empire. Largely because of that experience, as I heard Scott suggest, exile helps us to get our priorities straight about the fact that our call is to embody an alternative, which I think means being part of God’s work of establishing the kingdom of God on earth.
That’s a long way of saying that I think you’re right. I just don’t know that that the ideas of restoration or establishment have to be problematic.
Reggie, first of all I LOVED the way you led communion yesterday, especially the way you handled the invitation to the table.
Secondly, I think what’s at the heart of the alternative you’re saying the church needs to embody is a concern for the things that the Kingdom of God is concerned with: the poor, the captive, the blind, etc. I think the reflex John is warning against is the one to measure the post-exile situation in terms of the church’s own security or status.
The metaphor is compelling though, because, the more I think about it, even if it doesn’t adequately address the second assumption John raised, it so powerfully speaks to the first.
Rocky, agreed.
hi john. i love how you are always challenging and pushing.
i read your blog from time to time for that reason and of course
because i do appreciate your thinking and insight. i just want to
submit the people in exile looked and longed for restoration and
re-establishment of the kingdom. when that kingdom came it didn’t
look a whole lot like what they were looking and longing for. there
i see the power and appropriateness of the exile metaphor. in exile
God does not abandon his people, in fact they learned God is with
them even apart from their land and temple. yet, without exile you
cannot have the emmergence of the kingdom. perhaps, what i hear you
saying is christendom is not what we are looking for anymore (at
least some or many of us), especially it’s acceptance of the
empire’s way. instead being in exile in a post-christian world
leads us to discover God at work in our midst, without our
traditional attachments such as buildings, denominational
affiliation, pastoral authority, empire and national influence. i
think exile pushes us to look for not christendom, but the
emmerging of what God is already up to in our contexts with a new
confidence and hope. i just don’t think you can preach kingdom of
God without exile so i would not want to scrap it. don’t the two go
hand in hand? i think the exile metaphor is a good description for
us today. many want christendom and many understand christendom
restoration is about embracing the emmerging kingdom especially
when it already looks much different from what we expect and long
for. exile helps prepare me for learning to discover God even in my
perceived abandonment, the strange land and despair of our time.
exile helps me realize when God is at work bringing about a new
heaven and new earth, it doesn’t often look like what I want and
long for it to look like. just a thought. peace.
Good writing! I appreciate your work. I agree that exile is
a dangerous metaphor if it implies a future restoration to a status
that has been lost. I further agree that the emerging Kingdom of
God, in distinction from the ruling empire, is a better way to
focus it. But those of us who grew up in the imperial church and
have experienced disestablishment probably need to keep using the
concept of exile as we talk about the future. There are still too
many vestiges of the old days we want to hang on to, and too many
unconscious thoughts of return still lurking in our minds. For an
old guy like me, it is important to know and keep being reminded
that things are never going back to the way they were, and my
habits of thought and practice have to keep being reinvented for
the new place in which I am living. There are still too many of us
who don’t really believe this is happening.
Thanks, all, for these thoughtful and helpful comments. I certainly understand the power of the exile metaphor and I put it to use myself. But I still feel compelled to push back a little on it as the most appropriate metaphor for where we are right now.
I’m probably overly concerned about mapping all the elements of this metaphor, and the historical realities of the Jewish exile, onto our situation. The fact is that the Babylonian captivity of Judah never really ended. Rather, the subsequent history of the Jewish people is that they remained in captivity (with some notably periods of exception), even in their homeland; all that changed was the imperial power that controlled them. My fear is that we too will remain captive to an imperial consciousness, whether it is one imposed on us or one that we allow ourselves to embrace once again.
The exile metaphor is serviceable, as long as we are clear that whatever is next for the church on the other side of restoration, it will be radically different from the pre-exilic days.
In the end, it may be most helpful to consider what is similar about all of these metaphors drawn from the biblical narrative: the liberation from oppression in Egypt; the Babylonian exile and restoration; the emergence of the Kingdom of God during the totalizing reign of the Roman Empire; the resurrection of Christ after the horror of the cross. In each of these, God brings about a radically new situation. In each of these, the children of God are radically transformed into something new.
John, I’ve incorporated your thoughts in my ongoing exile reflections on the Theology and Worship blog: http://tinyurl.com/4tscsye