The Audacity of Love! | Compassionate Radicalism

 Joe Noland continues his thoughts on “flaming liberal” Christians

I‘m encouraged by The Rubicon’s philosophy and willingness to print all sides, very rare in a traditional, conservative culture, “culture of another day,” as so perceptively phrased by one contemporary writer.

Jesus was faced with the same dilemma, albeit, comparatively different, technologically speaking. His ideology spanned the gamut from conservative to liberal, his liberal constituency being in the minority, obviously. It was Jesus’ example that led Paul to later write, “I am all things to all men that my all means I might save some,” leading him out of an ultra fundamentalist viewpoint, toward a more radical expression of mission.

To paraphrase another writer, what separated Jesus (and Paul) from His contemporaries was “the audacity of love.” By definition, a compassionate lifestyle is about as liberal as it gets, simply because the love that Jesus exemplified, and the Holy Spirit solidified, knows no boundaries, this being the very foundation of our holiness doctrine. In this respect, I submit that Jesus and Paul were freedom flaming liberals, as opposed to legalistically fomented conservatives.

So it was at the beginning. Sadly, as our movement has matured, so have its boundaries, thus framing our holiness thinking legalistically instead of missionally. It has become more fashionable to preach and write about it, sometimes pompously, other times creating a “have” and “have not” exclusive club mentality in the process. The “doing” has taken precedence over the “being” - “Doing the Most Good!” Admittedly, I too have been guilty of getting the sequence wrong more often than not. I touch on that sequence in the seminal post of this series: http://therubicon.org/2009/09/jesus-christ-flaming-liberal/

 I expand on this thought in my book, Lean Right, Love left: Balancing the Body:

“There is room for radicalism in the church, to be sure, but spiritual radicalism should be differentiated from secular radicalism. Let’s not confuse the two together, as we so often do. When you study the modeled life of Jesus, the distinction becomes extraordinarily clear. He was as radical as they come. I like to refer to His brand of radicalism as “Compassionate Radicalism.”  (Note: The words “radicalism” and “liberalism” being interchangeable here).

 ”Walter Brueggemann, in The Prophetic Imagination, gives further clarity to this kind of radicalism when he writes, “Jesus, in his solidarity with the marginal ones, is moved to compassion. Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural, but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness. In the arrangement of ‘lawfulness’ in Jesus’ time, as in the ancient empire of Pharaoh, the one unpermitted quality of relation was compassion. Empires are never built or maintained on the basis of compassion. The norms of law (social control) are never accommodated to persons, persons are accommodated to the norms. Otherwise the norms will collapse and with them the whole power arrangement. Thus the compassion of Jesus is to be understood not simply as a personal reaction but as a public criticism in which he dares to act upon his concern against the entire numbness of his social context.” (End of Brueggemann quote)

“The emphasis here is on the “hurt” as opposed to the condition that created the hurt. The focus is not on the leprosy; it is on the person who is suffering the resulting banishment, stigma, and pain. The focus is not on prostitution, adultery, homosexual or heterosexual liaisons; it is on the person(s) who will inevitably suffer the hurt, both self-inflicted and “norms”-inflicted, which will invariably accompany these lifestyle choices. Medical and social researchers take the condition seriously (doing), whilst Christians take the hurt seriously (being). In Pharaoh’s time the law was all that mattered. In Christ’s time compassion mattered more. Compassion is the preemptive counterpunch that will topple the forces of evil.”

You can’t get more radical (or liberal, or audacious) than that!

I wonder… in our modern day power arrangement have we reverted back to the law mattering more? Does our holiness thinking now have a legalistic tinge to it? Have we once again expanded the boundaries? Do we preach it better than we live it? Is sanctified living (and the good accompanying it) generated from our “doing” (focusing on the condition rather than the hurt) or is it coming from our “being?”

Perhaps we need to rethink the sequence pattern. Maybe we need to put the “audacity” (radicalism) back into our holiness being.

Writer: Commissioner Joe Noland’s ministry can be summed up in three words: chaos, creativity and controversy - three elements implicit in any successful innovative endeavor. Cecil B. DeMille, renowned producer of Biblical epics, once wrote, “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.” Joe’s mantra reads, “Creativity is my drug of choice.”  Access Joe Noland’s complete bio, among other things, by clicking into his website.

1 Comment to The Audacity of Love! | Compassionate Radicalism

1. I had never heard of The Rubicon until now.

   I was particularly intrigued by their post on Fundamentalism and violence.

   Thank you for sharing. I will read your blog regularly.

   DP
DP on November 24th, 2009

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