Celebrating the Possibilities

Celebrating the Possibilities

Christianity came to the British Isles through the military conquests of the Roman empire. When Caesar’s soldiers left in the 4th and 5th centuries to deal with other threats and incursions into the empire, it left the church to continue without the influence of Rome. What developed in that nearly 200 years was the foundation of what we know as Celtic Christianity. It followed a different tack than the highly structured Christianity of Rome; women and men served in church leadership roles on more or less equal status; doctrine was not as important as relationships; symbols, images, metaphors, both graphic and poetic, were more appropriate for communicating the gospel than theological abstractions.

Two figures emerged out of this period which helped articulate the course that the Christian movement would take. One was Augustine of Hippo, a bishop in northern Africa. A man who came late to the Christian faith in his own life, but whose scholarship led him to craft a doctrine of original sin which would be a linchpin for the church –both Catholic and Protestant – for centuries to come. This “taint” would guide church dogmatics and the evangelism which arose from it. The other personality was Patrick. Born in Britain, he was sent to Ireland to convert the pagan tribes, commonly known as the Celts. Patrick’s approach was to stress the goodness that he saw in human nature; to emphasize the possibilities that were dormant inside each heart. Helping the Irish to imagine what they could become may have been Patrick’s most profound rhetorical achievement. Augustine saw the dark side of the human soul; Patrick saw the possibilities of what could happen if a person had a personal relationship with the Christ of the gospels. To his mission and evangelization work, Patrick utilized an indigenization of the gospel, putting it into the words and images with which these pagan peoples were familiar, and then guiding them to see the Lord Jesus Christ in those images. For Augustine, salvation comes through Christ rescuing us from sin and atoning for the consequences of the fall from grace. Patrick sees salvation as Jesus Christ completing the good work that God began in us.

In this particular Celtic Crossing, I wanted to provide some background to some of the work I am doing here in California. One of my responsibilities is to help congregations work through their mission study prior to seeking a new pastor or a new associate pastor. Such a mission study is mandated by our polity. One of the resources which I was given was a book written by Mark Branson which focuses on a study model called “Appreciative Inquiry.” Adapted from a business model that was highly successful, Branson shows how this model can work because its intent is to look, not at what is wrong with this congregation, but rather to identify what is right and to appreciate, to celebrate, that righteousness. The focus on many, if not most, mission studies is to identify what is broken in the church, and figure out a way to fix it. Oftentimes, what is wrong – or broken – in a church has to do with attitudes and platitudes. As you enable people to appreciate what is right and purposeful and stimulate their imagination as to where this congregation might be heading when the Holy Spirit is at the helm, you find that the attitudes and the platitudes start diminishing.

And now let me carry this to an even more personal level in relationships with family or with spouse. When problems arise, and they will, how should you respond? Initially, you probably find yourself projecting self-righteous attitudes which are supported by self-serving platitudes. Then you get around to trying “to fix the problem.” I would offer the alternative of appreciative inquiry into these compromised relationships. Articulate what you truly appreciate in that person first of all to yourself, and then later to the other person. It is not a matter of determining fault or right-ness or wrong-ness; it is a matter of seeing the possibilities in this relationship – and appreciating what those possibilities could lead to.

Last fall, I was at a retreat up at Zephyr Point, a conference center on Lake Tahoe, to hear Dewitt Jones, a former photographer for National Geographic magazine and now a speaker in great demand around the country. Dewitt uses his imagination and the images which come from his camera to celebrate what is right with this world. Even amidst the storms and darkness and the pain of life, his camera catches images which he is able to celebrate as possibilities for hope and justice.

This is a cruel and unjust world in which we live. We are a sin-sick and sorrow-worn people, justly deserving God’s displeasure. But in the midst of it all – both in church and in culture - falls the shadow of someone like Patrick who sees the possibilities for goodness, and life, and hope; who gives us a sense of mission to celebrate the possibilities rather than cursing the darkness.