Here’s to the supernatural
Last week I used Steve Jobs’ ‘Here’s to the crazy one’s’ speech as a launchpad for a reflection on the Christian reality that so much of God’s extraordinary and lavish grace is wrapped in the … ordinary (mundane). Just think about Bethlehem (a back-of-beyond type of place). This week, and picking up on a similar riff: Here’s to the supernatural.
For almost my whole life I’ve been part of what might be termed the Charismatic movement of churches. These churches believe ‘that all spiritual gifts and ministries are gifts of grace given by the Holy Spirit and are valid for today. There is something really beautiful about this type of church culture. James K. Smith, in his book Thinking in Tongues, would describe this charismatic culture as one that permeates with a ‘radical openness to God’. I love this genuine openness to God. I love this belief in the immanence of God among everyday people (like us). However, over the last decade, I’ve been observing a new emphasis in the Charismatic world that makes me nervous. What is it? Basically, it’s a new form of Gnosticism. Gnosticism can be dressed in various types of religious clothing (from first-century asceticism to 21st-century Christian festival-going), but at the core, Gnosticism is the rejection (or at least undervaluing) of the physical world in pursuit of something otherworldly (flesh = bad, spiritual = good). When we hear people eagerly talking of the Holy Spirit as an “it” and seeking after an impersonal power (or experience) we can be certain that some type of Gnosticism has got woven into our thinking. I’m sure many people who participate in these experiences are doing it with good hearts and a genuine love for God. However, here’s the rub… when we look to scripture we see an anti-gnostic wall of defence built into the very core of Christianity. What do I mean by this? The ordinary means of grace: preaching, baptism, and bread and wine don’t allow us to relegate the earthy and physical.
Preaching involves the physical – breath, vocal cords, teeth and tongues. It goes further by enlisting ears, minds and hearts. It also involves words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters. It holds together the written word with the living Word. No divide between the earthy and the otherworldly can be found in preaching. It’s the same when it comes to baptism. Regardless as to whether you believe in pedo (child) or credo (believer’s) baptism, you still use the fundamental element of water (H2O) and dunk, pour or sprinkle it over the person being baptised. They get wet! They drip and have messy hair (if they’ve got any hair!). Yet these same baptisms speak (preach) something utterly otherworldly (1 Peter 3:20-21; Rom 6:1-14)! What about the Lord’s Supper? Here we have earthy bread and earth-grown grapes (wine) that are chewed, drunk, swallowed and digested. There’s nothing gnostic about that! Yet, this same earthy sacrament, speaks, (preaches) about Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, our inclusion in the one universal church and the soon return of King Jesus (1 Cor 11:17-26)! Wowzers!
Here’s to the supernatural. Here’s to the supernatural reading of scripture and preaching of scripture and discussing scripture. Here’s to the supernatural dunking, pouring or sprinkling of water in baptism and the weekly supernatural activity of eating and drinking at the Lord’s table. Let’s never separate the earthy and ordinary that is used by God for the extraordinary (supernatural) transformation which takes place in people’s lives.
So here’s to the supernatural
Coming up next week… Pam and Katherine join me for a good old mardle
Adam Bradley, 17th October 2022