Kingdom Ethics in the Local Church
Larry Bollinger
Our Inseparable Mission
One of the joys of the doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene is that
we do not have to enter into the troublesome debate between evangelism
or justice and concern for the poor. With in the Wesleyan tradition there
is no conflict between acts of mercy and justice and necessary proclamation
of the gospel and propagation of the message of holiness. Ours is a gospel
of word and deed. Our manual even argues that they are inseparable:
903.4 The Church of the Nazarene believes this new and holy way of life
involves practices to be avoided and redemptive acts of love to be accomplished
for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors. [ . . . that Jesus
commanded His disciples to have a special relationship to the poor of
this world;] One redemptive arena of love involves the special relationship
Jesus had, and commanded his disciples to have, with the poor of this
world; that [Christ’s] His Church ought, first, to keep itself simple
and free from an emphasis on wealth and extravagance and, second, to give
itself to the care, feeding, clothing, and shelter of the poor and marginalized.
Throughout the Bible and in the life and example of Jesus, God identifies
with and assists the poor, the oppressed, and those in society who cannot
speak for themselves. In the same way, we, too, are called to identify
with and to enter into solidarity with the poor and not simply to offer
charity from positions of comfort. We hold that compassionate ministry
to the poor includes acts of charity as well as a struggle to provide
opportunity, equality, and justice for the poor. We further believe [that]
the Christian’s responsibility to the poor is an essential aspect
of the life of every believer who seeks a faith that works through love.
[Finally, we understand] We believe Christian holiness to be inseparable
from ministry to the poor in that it drives the Christian beyond their
own individual perfection and toward the creation of a more just and equitable
society and world. Holiness, far from distancing believers from the desperate
economic needs of people in this world, motivates us to place our means
in the service of alleviating such need and to adjust our wants in accordance
with the needs of others. (Exodus 23:11; Deuteronomy 15:7; Psalms 41:1;
82:3; Proverbs 19:17; 21:13; 22:9; Jeremiah 22:16; Matthew 19:21; Luke
12:33; Acts 20:35; 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 2:10) [Manual, 2005-2009].
It’s ironic that in the past 100 years there have been entire church
movements more passionate about making their distinctions in one camp
or the other. It seems these distinctions have become more important than
Christ-given responsibilities to make disciples and love one’s neighbor.
The enemy to evangelism is certainly not justice and mercy and likewise
the enemy to justice and mercy is certainly not evangelism. You might
argue from Scripture and social concern that the enemy to both is the
disjointing of the two because they are far more complementary than they
are exclusive. If both are understood then they are powerful partners
for our task in reconciling this world to God.
A Biblical Understanding of Kingdom Ethics and Justice
When we think of justice we often think of the statue that sometimes
sits outside of courthouses of a blindfolded women holding up a balance
scale implying that no matter who you are you get treated equally under
the law. One does not have to look very hard in our justice systems to
see that some people are often represented as more equal than others.
The biblical idea of justice, however, actually goes beyond equality
with regard to law and speaks to the ethics of God’s Kingdom and
peaceable reign. Kingdom ethics speaks into unjust social-systems and
lifestyles. While our salvation frees us from personal sins, a kingdom
perspective on biblical justice compels us to consider our collective
sins and reflect on how our salvation and justice bear witness one to
another. A Wesleyan perspective of holiness expresses itself in kingdom
ethics that obliges us to engage both.
Kingdom Ethics: Beyond Compassion
My wife and I served as missionaries for the church in the Philippines.
Through an interesting chain of events, we developed relationships with
a family who owned a clothing manufacturing company that exported their
products to some well known retailers in the United States.
They asked us many questions about why we were living in the Philippines.
As we explained we were missionaries with the Church of the Nazarene and
that our work specifically was in the area of compassionate ministries
they became very curious and a light went on in the husband’s mind.
He said, “Oh, you work with your church to help poor people!”
Yeah, something like that, I said. A smile came across his face as he
exclaimed, “My wife and I help poor people, too! In fact once a
year around Christmas time we have a special dinner at our house for some
poor people. It happens to be in a couple of weeks. Please come and join
us.”
We gladly accepted his invitation but I was not completely prepared for
the lesson I would learn at his house. His party was a true blessing to
the families that attended. His servants carried in tray after tray of
delicious food and laid them out on long buffet tables. We all ate like
there was no tomorrow.
After dinner, children stripped down to the bare essentials and gleefully
jumped into his swimming pool while adults made off to have a merry time
singing old Frank Sinatra songs in the Karaoke room. They gave away door
prizes and no one left empty handed because every family received a large
bag of rice that would probably sustain each family for weeks.
His hospitality, in this event, for the poor was unmatched. It was a
lesson to us all. I can only imagine what it must have felt like for families
who were routinely in difficult circumstances to be invited to such a
place. It must have been the event of a lifetime for them.
“This is great!” I said, “Where do all of these people
come from?”
He said, “Oh, we have invited some of the poor workers and their
families that I employ in our factories.”
The irony hit me like a ton of bricks.
I suddenly had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. His
guests were both beneficiaries and victims. According to the ethics of
God’s Kingdom, he scored a 10 for hospitality and another 10 for
compassionate acts of mercy. However, he scored a zero in the area of
biblical justice. For all I knew, the shirt on my back was made in his
factory.
Understanding a biblical and Wesleyan view of kingdom ethics involves
us in the business of going deeper in our response to injustice, from
addressing the symptoms and results of poverty and marginalization (i.e.
a lack of food and education for a family) to asking and addressing why
persons are poor and marginalized. It can be complicated because we soon
find ourselves entangled in systems and structures, powers and principalities.
The compassionate will give a man a fish, the development worker will
take the next step and teach a man to fish. The just, however, questions
at hand include: Who owns the fish pond which is the means of economic
production? What value do we place on the human capital that helps bring
these goods to market? When our economic systems require that some of
the hardest working people need our compassion just to survive, then injustice
lies within the system.
There are billions of people that are expert fisherman, coffee growers,
or seamstresses, and so on. However, their children still go hungry and
remain uneducated. They live on a dirt floor. They are only able to afford
one meal a day, if that. They don’t have access to basic health
services. But, they work harder in one day than you or I do in a week.
Meanwhile, many of us are able to buy two Sunday shirts for the price
of one on sale racks. We strive to be “good stewards” of our
income at our local church by buying the least expensive coffee to drink
in our Sunday School hour, while these low prices perpetuate unlivable
wages for coffee growers and while in our Sunday School class where we
learn of God’s salvation, but not always of His justice. God’s
stewardship, as an expression of kingdom ethics, is different than ours
and it extends into world systems that generate both wealth and poverty.
My friend had not committed a crime or done something out of context
for our global economy, nor had the exporters, the distributers, the retailers
or the consumers. It was all legal and appropriate, and yet, still somehow
unjust according to gospel standards.
This particular sin is social, communal, corporate and systemic. What
do we do with these kinds of sins when we find ourselves guilty by compliance?
What do we do when our apathy and ignorance outweighs our God-oriented
stewardship in our decision-making process as consumers? These are not
easy questions, but they are important ones. They are ones we are called
to wrestle with.
Sometimes our compassionate acts inadvertently reveal the degree of our
own hypocrisy.
Kingdom Ethics in the Local Church
Not all of the stories of injustice are thousands of miles away. You
will find them in your neighborhoods—whether it be disparity in
access to quality education, the treatment of the immigrant, access to
healthcare or the rights of the unborn child. As we engage these issues
in a holistic, thoughtful and loving manner, our demonstrations of the
kingdom ethics of the gospel will coincide with our proclamation of the
good news and we will become powerful witnesses for Jesus Christ to the
glory of God.
1. Incarnating kingdom ethics: Do your evangelism and community outreach
go hand-in-hand with your acts of mercy, food pantries, education and
vocational training and other sorts of poverty alleviation? Then add to
your works by continuing to ask the question why? Why is poverty in your
local community? Continue to act according to the gospel as you find answers
to these questions.
2. Incarnating kingdom ethics: Make yourself and your congregation aware
of global injustices. Begin to change your habits locally, in some small
way, in order to influence and diminish the global demand for oppression
and exploitation.
3. Incarnating kingdom ethics: Be prophetic on behalf of the poor and
the oppressed. Find ways to speak God’s truth into the institutions
and social systems that bind us together in our collective sin.
As we incarnate kingdom ethics and do these things, in some small way,
we join with the Father as He answers Jesus’ prayer: “Your
Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
For more information on steps toward Christian awareness and action visit:
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
ncm.org/awareness/fairtrade/ and
ncm.org/act/compassionatelifestyle/
Larry Bollinger is Director of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries.
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