Fenceless

Lately I seem to keep running up against people who challenge some of my most well-worn and most relied-upon mental images, the things that help me make sense of my world. Sometimes I have to mull on new things awhile and make sure that it isn't just clever phrasing that grabs my attention, but it's not a bad thing to be made to THINK once in awhile. Sometimes it is a gift -- the ability to suddenly see something that is worn and faded become new and colorful again. There are times that I've decided the original format was good enough... but the mental exercise is usually beneficial anyway.

Our ancient creeds come to us in similar ways -- they weren't written to state a new concept to that particular body of believers as much as they were written to RE-state in clarified form something that had been assumed, worn, and faded with use... something useful had been questioned with clever words and savvy doubters... and those tired old phrases didn't seem to measure up anymore. But when the council convened and the Scriptures were consulted, the Holy Spirit blew through with grace and made what was old and true beautiful again, and we are blessed today with glorious old words like these:

I believe in one God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And of all things visible and invisible:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
Begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
Very God of very God...



On a more modern and less signficant note, I find new phrasing and better examples of things to hold to in life on a regular basis. Sometimes, though, certain ways of thinking and certain words stick with me and become part of my "lens" through which I see life. For example, I often think of life in Christ like a field with picket fencing... in fact, I wrote about that recently. I have a tendency to live right next to the fence with my back to green pastures. I have a tendency to soul-wander. Those picket fences, like the law, become "pleasant boundary lines" when the woods beyond grow shadowy-close. I use this phraseology with the kids frequently.

Yesterday I read something that challenged this word-picture in my mind, and I'm mulling on it today. What do you think?

"Resisting cultural ideologies... is not a matter of keeping these theologies at arm's length as much as maintaining our focus on Jesus Christ despite pressure to focus on ourselves. An African Christian described it to me this way:

'You Americans think of Christianity as a farm with a fence. Your question is: Are you inside the fence or outside of it? We Africans think differently. We think of Christianity as a farm with no fence. Our question is: Are you heading towards the farm, or away from it?' "

The church's identity is not defined primarily by its edges, but by its center: focused on Christ, the sole source of our identity, no intruder poses a threat. No alien hops a fence, because there is no fence. Boundaries are determined by proximity to the Holy Spirit's centripetal pull, not by arbitrary human borders."
Kendra Creasy Dean

Ms. Dean was talking more about our tendency to erect barriers between each other, and between "us" and "them." But I thought the imagery was still provocative. There is a sacred even in the secular, and all is under the dominion of Christ.

Still, I guess the point is, THERE IS A FARM. And a farmer who waits to welcome His children home to it every day of our lives.
And there is more Good News: there is also a Good Shepherd on this farm who refuses to lose even one of His Father's sheep -- and He's not afraid of the big, bad wolf in those dark woods beyond.

For freedom Christ has set us free...
Gal. 5:1