I don’t want to lose track of the Christian part of Post Woke Christian. Part of the reason I started this was because the only significant pushback to “Wokeness” is coming from particular Christian communities that I have significant theological differences with. Generally conservative Evangelical, or fundamental. Which makes sense as they are quick to look for doctrinal issues. In this case it is helpful. In others, not so much. That being said - I want to make sure that I’m getting some of my theology out there as I think it will be helpful for Christians of all stripes, not just ultra reformed/neo Calvinist folks, to see the challenge that the Church and the Culture are facing from Critical Social Theories. Without further ado, here was my meditation for the Lord’s Supper a few weeks back.
My Junior year at a Christian High School - we did an entire semester on the book of Romans. My teacher had us memorize Romans 12 for extra credit. Which, I admit, I needed, not because of a lack of knowledge of the Bible, but because I had an aversion towards completing homework. This is probably part of the reason I never finished my undergrad. But I digress. At that point in time, I was already leading worship with regularity for our large youth group wirth our youth praise team, as well as at least monthly in Sunday morning services and was deeply connected to God through music. So seeing “Spiritual Act of Worship” in Romans 12 struck a chord with me.
Paul has just finished in Romans 11 a doxology, a praise hymn of the time. And then goes right into Romans 12 telling us what a spiritual/reasonable act of worship is; giving yourself as a living sacrifice to God. That reminds me of 1 Corinthians 6 - “your body is a temple”. The Holy Spirit has been given to you as a deposit on the age that is to come. We no longer need to go to a geographically located place to find God because God’s Spirit is within us. And there is no greater sacrifice than to give yourself; your hands, your feet, your talents to participate with God as he patiently works to redeem the cosmos. The groaning creation longs for the end of decay and evil, Paul says just a couple chapters before. And we groan along with it. And therefore, we live proleptically, that is to say, with a sure anticipation. We have faith and hope that God is going to redeem all of creation because we believe in Jesus and his resurrection. Therefore we live as if the new world has already arrived despite the obvious fact that it hasn’t. I suspect that that is what Paul is getting at when he places utmost importance on “renewing your minds”.
So what does offering our bodies as living sacrifices look like? Paul describes it well in Romans 12. We also see it in the Beatitudes. You may not have thought of it before, but many scholars believe that Romans 12 is intentionally drawing on Jesus’s words from the Sermon on the Mount. Both of these passages, it seems to me, are the ethical manifesto of the people of God. Our best act of worship is giving God everything we’ve got. Even when it doesn’t make sense. Even if it might get us killed. It's loving your enemies, not repaying evil with evil. It's associating, intentionally, with the lowly. Not claiming to be wiser than you are, living a life of intentional humility. Being patient in suffering. None of those things are easy. All of them sound a lot like the life of Jesus. Especially the last part:
“ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;[g] for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
It's hard not to see the parallels to what we are celebrating with this meal. We really like to focus on the spiritual dimension of Jesus’s death. What we don't often think about is the ethical dimension. And if how we live and use our bodies is our spiritual act of worship, then it seems to me important to think about how Jesus lived. We used to sing “he could have called 10000 angels” - its true. If we believe that Jesus had all power in Heaven and Earth, and I do, he could have died quickly. He could have just showed up at 33, got killed, and gone home. But I think that Jesus’s life and example, the ultimate one being the Cross, is teaching us something; something about the ethics of the age that is to come, of how to love our enemies. Because while we were His enemies, when we put Jesus on the Cross and cried “crucify him”, he said “Father forgive them… they don’t know what they’re doing”. The God-man without sin, the God-man with all power, willingly chose to take on the worst humanity had at its disposal, from the most powerful empire the world had ever seen, who kept the “peace” by hanging folks on crosses in public as a stark reminder that you don’t mess around with Rome. He willingly took it on, and in doing so, as Colossians 2 states, he “disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross”. God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
May we in this meal remember that we too are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Holy God-
As we eat the bread that represents your broken body, and drink the cup that represents your blood, help us to renew our minds and be able to see not the world that is passing away, one of violence, strife, hate, disease and death, but the world that is coming, where the lion lays down with the lamb, where swords are turned to plowshares and spears are turned into pruning hooks and where we learn war no more. And give us strength to try again when we fail.
In Jesus Name, Amen