…fate operates when people give up…

Here’s some food for thought from one of my favorite thinkers, Jacques Ellul:

“There are moments when history is flexible, and that is when we must put ourselves inside to move the works. But when the atomic bomb is dropped, it is no longer the moment to attach a parachute to it. It’s all over. I don’t believe in a permanent determinism, in the inexorable course of nature. Fate operates when people give up; when the structures of and the relationships between groups, special interests, coalitions, and ideologies are not yet rigid; when new facts appear that change the rules of the game; then at these moments we can make decisions that direct history, but very quickly everything becomes rigid and mechanical, and then nothing more can be done. One of my greatest disappointments is the extreme incapacity of Christians to intervene when situations are fluid and their habit of passionately taking sides when it is too late for anything but fate to operate. They are pushing the wheel of a vehicle that is already rolling downhill by itself.” ( p. 106-7 In Season Out Of Season, trans. Lani Niles, Harper & Row, 1982)

Would you say we are in a moment when history is flexible?

What “new facts: have appeared in our time?

What does Ellul mean in saying one of his “greatest disappointments is the extreme incapacity of Christians to intervene when situations are fluid and their habit of passionately taking sides when it is too late for anything but fate to operate?” Do you agree?

What structures of and relationships between groups, special interests, coalitions, and ideologies are not yet rigid and that we can influence?

What is the point of all of these thoughts in a “social justice” context?

“The world is more malleable than you think. You can wrestle it from fools.”
~ Bono

Remember, it’s a systems thing.

Revisit the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 25-37) as a justice text.

There are more players in this admonition than just the unwitting victim, the cause of the situation in the robber, and the compassionate acts of a stranger. There is also the Priest and the Levite — consider them a pastor and a church elder these days. Jesus is saying a lot about those who pass by a situation such as this and allow it to continue.

Before this specific turn of events we would, while affirming that all men are sinners, assert that it is the individual actions of the thief that are the sinful cause of evil. In any given line-up we would count the Preist and the Levite as righteous and moral by comparison. Nevertheless Jesus chastises all as having done wrong in the eyes of God. Most, if not all, of us are inescapably part of the systems that enable/prolong injustice in this world. As a part of society and the human community we are a part of “the system.”

How do we pass on the far side of the road in our lives? Has the Church in America attempted to pass on the far side of the world? How are we to “go and do likewise?”

What is the presence of the Kingdom?

One of my favorite authors, Jacques Ellul, in his own words “constantly tried to show how the action of God through Christians could solve the problem of the world; that Christians are in such a situation (placed by God in this situation) that they can respond.” Even though he was very politically and economically astute his primary assertion was that “In order that Christianity today may have a point of contact with the world, it is less important to have theories about economic and political questions, or even to take up a definite political and economic position, than it is to create a new style of life.” ( Jacques Ellul, Presence of the Kingdom)

What do you think about these statements — be honest. Are Christians in the world to solve its problems? Are we uniquely instructed and equipped to respond? What is this new style of life we are to create? What would that look like?

What is the proper relationship between material wealth, discipleship, and justice?

Could living a just life in our culture of consumerism and materialism go something like this: Sell everything you have, give to the poor, get more stuff, repeat. Is that possible?

Read Mark’s and Luke’s account of the rich young ruler (Luke 18: 18-29, Mark 10: 17-31). What side of that conversation do you think you are on? What side do you think your church is on? Who has entered into true discipleship and who is merely religiously upright? How are we to discern whether we have a proper relationship between our wealth, the poor, and following Jesus?