NILS VON KALM reflects on why the church needs to hear once again about the importance of God’s heart for the poor and marginalised…
Ever since I first became a Christian in my mid-teens, I have felt a call to speak to the church.
I still remember sitting in the backyard at Mum’s place when I was about 17, thinking about my faith and what God would want me to do. The quiet voice which came to me confirmed that speaking to the church was what I felt most clear about. Even then I didn’t see the church consistently living out what I read in the Bible. I often wondered why this was the case. As a shy teenager, I naturally assumed that I must be missing something and that as I kept growing in my faith I would eventually realise what it was.
A COUNTER-CULTURAL LIFE: Jesus Christ, here depicted in a detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, gave the church a mandate to serve the poor and marginalised which has often gone unheeded by the church, says Nils von Kalm. PICTURE: Edal Anton Lefterov/CC BY-SA 3.0 (image cropped)
“Jesus I saw through the lives of people like John Smith, King and Bono. This was the Jesus who went to the poor and the outcast, the Jesus who turned over the tables in the temple and blasted the religious people of his day for their hypocrisy. Above all, it was the Jesus who was totally and utterly committed to God and God’s kingdom.”
What I came to realise though was that the church needed critiquing for the way it so regularly missed the mark in living out the way of Jesus.
A year or two later I became influenced by the teachings of people like John Smith and Martin Luther King as well as the music of U2 (particularly the passion of Bono which came out of his Christian faith).
Smith was the first preacher I ever heard who talked about the Gospel in terms of the here and now, and not just about being saved and going to heaven when you die. What I remember about hearing him back then was his unflinching conviction about justice being central to what the Gospel is about. For Smith though, it was more than speaking about it; he was known as someone who walked his talk and therefore spoke with prophetic authority. There was a reality about him that I didn’t see in many other preachers.
Martin Luther King, Jr, was the same. I saw his incredible passion for the Gospel. His speeches still give me goosebumps, especially the one he gave the night before he was assassinated, when he spoke about having been to the mountaintop and having seen the promised land of justice for his people. Such conviction, such courage and such love. King showed me what love really was. He showed me that it wasn’t just about being nice to people but it was about standing up for what is right, even – and especially – when it is unpopular.
And then, of course, there was Jesus. But it was the Jesus I saw through the lives of people like John Smith, King and Bono. This was the Jesus who went to the poor and the outcast, the Jesus who turned over the tables in the temple and blasted the religious people of his day for their hypocrisy. Above all, it was the Jesus who was totally and utterly committed to God and God’s kingdom.
For this teenage Christian, on the brink of manhood but feeling more like a boy, these characteristics attracted me because they reflected what I wasn’t. The people I was being influenced by were used by God I believe to convict me about having more courage, more fearlessness and more genuine Christlikeness. But I didn’t see much in the church to draw me to this Jesus. What I saw instead was a cautiousness about issues of justice; they were considered a nice thing to do but not really Biblical; certainly not as Biblical as saving souls for heaven.
Why is it that the church has moved away from the teachings and life of Jesus?
In the 30 years since those days of growth and exploration, I have seen an encouraging move in the Australian church towards taking issues of justice much more seriously as a Gospel imperative. But when I teach about this in Bible colleges, the classes are still very small and sometimes don’t even go ahead because of lack of numbers.
So what is it that has led the church to move away from the imperative of doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8)? This verse from Micah is for me the John 3:16 of the Old Testament, but it is only in recent years that it has gained traction as a ‘go-to’ verse for many Christians.
While going into much detail about the reasons for the church straying from its mandate to follow Jesus to the poor and marginalised is outside the scope of this article, let me delve very briefly into some of the factors that has led to this.
The period known as The Enlightenment, or The Age of Reason, around the 18th century, challenged the idea of belief in God as a way of explaining the world. Instead, reason and rationality came to be seen as more realistic. With the rise of modern science, humanity was seen as being able to solve the world’s problems on our own. The resultant reduction of Christian faith as having anything to say in the public sphere meant that it came to be seen primarily as a space for private spirituality and an escapist heaven.
“With the rise of modern science, humanity was seen as being able to solve the world’s problems on our own. The resultant reduction of Christian faith as having anything to say in the public sphere meant that it came to be seen primarily as a space for private spirituality and an escapist heaven.”
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Social Gospel movement arose partly out of a reaction against Enlightenment thinking. With it came the idea that humanity is basically good in nature. This idea was severely dented though as a result of events such as the sinking of the Titanic and the onset of World War I. If the ‘unsinkable ship’ could go down on its first voyage, and humanity could be so destructive as to engage in a world war, it didn’t say a lot for the premise that humanity was naturally good.
Around this time, as a reaction against the Social Gospel, Christian fundamentalism arose and gained its foothold. A series of books called The Fundamentals was published in 1910 that put forward subjects that were considered as essential to Christian belief. None of them were concerned about the social aspects of Christian faith.
While the Enlightenment and Social Gospel movements had largely European roots, Christian fundamentalism arose out of American Christianity. As Australian culture is so heavily influenced by America, the Australian church has similarly followed suit. As a result, we still have a large section of the Australian church which believes that saving souls is the only real form of Christian mission.
The American influence has also been tied to our politics. When being political as a Christian is reduced to concern about abortion and gay marriage, but you are considered a liberal if you care about the poor, it is clear that our allegiance has moved away from Jesus and become too attached to a political agenda.
Staying true to what matters
Today, as someone considered middle-aged, I still see the church as needing to be evangelised as much as the rest of our culture, albeit in a different way. While much progress has been made towards taking Jesus more seriously, there is still much work to do.
If you’re anything like me you can become very frustrated at what is wrong with the church. The very nature of religious faith is such that we are generally very set in our ways and to acknowledge we could be wrong can seem like a denial of what holds us together as humans. It is a difficult task to critique what you are part of, especially when your most ardent criticisms come from other Christians.
The bottom line for me though is to constantly examine myself to make sure my ultimate allegiance is to Jesus. Without that we cannot claim to speak with any authority or integrity to the church. The prophetic task requires us to be close to our ultimate source, the One in whom everything else in existence holds together. Only then will the task of evangelising the church be done with any great effect.
