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The task of the church
Melba Maggay
EVANGELISM AND SOCIAL ACTION
After almost two decades of debate, social
concern is now entrenched as a part of the church’s agenda.
However, there are at least two errors which occasionally surface
when attempts are made to define the relationship between the two.
The first error is to confuse evangelism for social action, and
social action for evangelism.
Evangelism is social action
This mistake is made by those who argue that the
surest way to change society is to change the people in it through the transforming power of the gospel.
Sinful structures are made by sinful men and, therefore, our task is
to strike at the root of social problems, which is sin. Hence, the
slogan: ‘Change people, change society’.
Although a case could be made for the liberating
power of authentic Christianity in people who live the faith,
experience shows that having more Christians does not necessarily
ensure a just society. For the past decade and a half, for instance,
there has been tremendous growth in ‘born-againism’ in the
Philippines, but so far this has not resulted injustice and
righteousness in that society.
There are at least two possible reasons for this
failure. One is that people may experience saving faith, but may not
necessarily move towards the far-reaching social implications of
that faith, either due to lack of understanding or to a failure to
obey. One’s Christianity may be so undeveloped that it has little influence in the places where
it should matter and where it should bear witness sociologically.
Another reason is that society is complex and
does not lend itself easily to facile generalizations on how to
change it. Would that justice were merely a
matter of personal obedience. Unfortunately, there are entrenched
powers and monstrous structures we need to address and contend with.
There is such a thing as organized injustice, which calls for
thoughtful social analysis and complex
solutions. You may have an army of bleeding hearts tending the
sorrowful and the hungry, and yet not see an end to the causes of
the hunger and the thirst. Unjust social structures require more
than the presence of changed individuals. Evangelism is not a
cure-all, and cannot substitute for concrete redemptive action in
our political and social life.
Social action is evangelism
This mistake is made by those who say that the
struggle for justice and human dignity is evangelism in itself. To
denounce all that hinders human wholeness is to proclaim the work of
Christ, which is the liberation of people and the world from every
force, power or structure that oppresses and dehumanizes. This
rightly recovers for us the cosmic dimensions of what we mean by
witness and salvation; things that, for so long, have been
understood in subjectivist and pietistic terms. It tends, however,
to lose sight of the proclamation aspect of the gospel, the
fact that it is news, a
thing you shout from the housetops or send a town crier for. It also
tends to gloss over the equally important demand for personal
repentance and righteousness.
The second error is to dichotomize, that is, to
make unbiblical distinctions between what is ‘secular’ and what
is ‘holy’, or between what belongs to the realm of ‘nature’
and what belongs to the realm of ‘grace’. Social action, for
instance, is said to belong to the realm of the temporal and the
physical, and evangelism to the realm of the spiritual and the
eternal. Understood in this way, evangelism naturally takes priority
over social action in the minds of many Christians. Helping the
poor, while part of our duty, is secondary to the task of discipling
the nations. Meeting temporal needs is something that all people can
do. Evangelism is something that only Christians can do. The one is
good for this world only, the other is significant even for the
world to come.
In this there is, clearly, an inability to see
life as a whole, to see all of life as being subject to the lordship
and the redeeming power of Jesus. The work of Christ is seen either
in purely political terms as in some variants of liberation
theologies, or in purely personal terms, as in mostly evangelical
church communities. There is no longer any sense that all of life,
when lived in the presence of God, is sacred: the very ordinary and
prosaic act of giving a cup of water can become a sacrament, a
touching deed that will always be remembered,
on par with obviously supernatural acts such as the casting out of
demons (Mark 9:38—41).
In this work, we shall try to steer clear of the
tendency either to polarize or to wed in an unholy synthesis
evangelism and social action. At the same time, we would like to
push further the often repeated thesis that while the two are
distinct, both are parts of our Christian duty. We would like to go
so far as to say that the gospel not only has ‘social implications’,
but that its very substance has a social character. Social action is
not just an implication, an addendum to the gospel; it is an intrinsic part of the gospel. Preaching
the gospel is more than a verbal exercise; it is
an engagement, a living among men and women that serves notice of
the kingdom that has come.
The gospel of the
kingdom
What is the relationship between evangelism and
social action? Our answer to this question depends largely on our
answer to the question: what is the gospel? If evangelism is telling
the good news, what is the news? What was the new thing Jesus sent
his disciples to tell?
The answer is clear enough: ‘Preach as you go,
saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Heal the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons’ (Matthew 10:7—8).
The news is that the long-awaited kingdom, its reign of peace,
justice and righteousness, has finally come. The Messiah, he who is
to come, dwells among us.
‘Kingdom’ is a political term, and Jesus’
messiahship was understood by himself and by his hearers as having
to do with more than just the ‘soul’. When Mary heard of the
good and joyful tidings that the Lord himself was to grow in her
womb, she immediately rejoiced that here was one who would bring
down the mighty from their thrones, who would fill the hungry with
good things and send the rich away empty (Luke 1:46—55). When
Jesus announced his messianic career, he put it in unmistakably social terms:
it would bring ‘good news’ to the poor,
release to the captives, sight to the blind and liberty to those who
were oppressed (Luke 4:16—21). His coming marked ‘the year of
the Lord’ to the Jews of his day, a reference to the Jubilee Year
when debts were cancelled and property was redistributed according
to the old tribal allotments.1
There is an obvious political and social
element in Jesus’ personality and work. The idea that he is king
is a provocative one. It is natural that it should
serve as an occasion for suspicion (2)as to his political intentions. Contrary to the
notion that his is a purely spiritual kingdom, scripture is clear
that he is not just king over the human heart, but that he is king
over the Jews, a nation seething restlessly under the yoke of
Roman rule.3 He never said that his kingship was not in
the world. It was simply not of the world (John
18:36).
This social element, quite strangely, has
been lost in present-day preaching. Jesus’ lordship has been
subjectivized, confined to the narrow boundaries of one’s
personal life. It is rarely understood that because he is king
over all of life, we may have confidence to make every human
institution subject to his will and purposes. The powers that be
have been defeated. When we say ‘Jesus is Lord’, it is not just a confession,
it is a cosmic and social fact.4
The process of conversion has likewise been
unduly spiritualized. Repentance is described as merely a turning
from one’s personal sins, and occurring mostly in the individual’s
subjective consciousness. A dichotomy has been made between faith
and works, such that it is
now possible to speak of becoming a Christian without becoming a
disciple, and of justification as merely an abstract legal status.
This split is alien to scripture. As has been
pointed out, justification is not just a legal abstraction, it is a social reality. To be ‘justified’
is to be ‘set right’ in one’s relationships; it is a ‘making peace’, a breaking down of
the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile: ~... the relationship between divine
justification and the reconciliation of men to one another is not
a sequential relationship. It is not that "faith" occurs
first as an inner existential leap of the individual.., and then
God operates a change in him which enables him to love his
brethren... These two cannot be distinguished in Paul’ .~ Alternatively, conversion does not take
place in two moves—first, a conversion to Christ, and then a ‘second
conversion’ from Christ to the world.6 Both occur in
a single act.
Clearly,
it is
inaccurate to speak of social concern as a ‘product’ of the
new birth, an indirect result’ of gospel proclamation. It is
part and parcel of the Christian message. The gospel is
intrinsically prophetic. T. S. Eliot is right when he argues that
‘The church’s message to the world must be expanded to mean
"the church’s business to interfere with
the world".’7 The gospel when faithfully preached
always turns the world upside down.
To speak of Jesus as Lord is to demand subjection
of personal and social life under his kingly rule. To call for
repentance is to ask people to turn away, not simply from their
individual vices, but from participation in the collective guilt of
organized injustice. To invite people to come in faith is to
challenge them to walk in trusting obedience, to know God in the
agony of commitment and concrete engagement in the life of the
world.
Truly, the gospel is more than a set of things to
believe about Christ. It is a radical call to come under the
discipline of the kingdom, bidding a rich young man to sell all that
he has to give to the poor, or a corrupt tax collector to go and
repay all he had robbed. After all, Jesus tells us, what will
separate the sheep from the goats is not their ability to spout
pious doctrine. It is their constant readiness to visit the sick,
clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty
(Matthew 25:35—36).
It should be noted that when Jesus sent out the
disciples, his instructions had two components. One was propositional:
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’. The other
was experiential: ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
lepers, cast out demons’. There is a verbal as well as a visual
aspect to this kind of witness. The proposition does not stand
alone, it is backed up
by realities. It is not enough to say that the kingdom has come;
such things as the healing of the sick must stand as proof (see Luke
11:20).
It seems clear from this that evangelism is more
than something we say; it is
also something we do. To speak of Jesus is not only to say
things about him. We also need to show what his character and power
are like.
Evangelism as ‘show and tell’ clears up much
of the fog in heated debates over the subject. Some who see it as a purely verbal activity tend to isolate
it into a sideshow by itself, simply a matter of
preaching and listening. Some who see it from
its purely social aspect tend to reduce it into
mere social work. In contrast, there is a fullness, a holistic
quality to the growing awareness that ‘evangelism is not just a
testimony to God’s acts in Christ, but a participation in those
acts’ .~
That we need to see
it this
way springs from the recognition that evangelism needs a context, a
setting in which the things we say about Jesus become truly
incarnate. The Word must take flesh;
it does
not and was not meant to stand above the world and its need. The
saving power of God needs to be made visible, otherwise it is only empty words.
Context is something the preacher alone cannot
provide. For the Word to have a body, the church and its entire
gamut of gifts are needed. The whole body of Christ is to stand as
a sign, a visual aid to the kingdom that has come. It is important
to grasp that this body which makes the Word visible
is not limited to the local church. The ecclesia visibilis
is God’s people making the presence of the kingdom felt in all areas
of life, the leaven which permeates all of human activity. It is
the church in academia, the church in politics, the church in the
market-place.
It is precisely because the church has
retreated from the world that the gospel now lacks a context. We
have allowed the world to become secularized, and the church’s
influence to be narrowed within the four paltry walls of the local
church. In the process, the Word has become ghostly, a pale shadow
of the Logos who, as John describes, has been seen with the eye,
has been looked upon and touched with the hands.
The lack of a caring community that incarnates
the Word makes us more and more incapable of being
heard. The world no longer sees the big, strong hands that once
healed, broke bread, touched wounds and aches lodging in the human
heart.
This is not to say that we must take social
action to make the faith more credible. It is simply to recognize
that we are, as C. S. Lewis puts it, ‘impure
spirits’—people whose appreciation of things spiritual has to
be mediated through things material: a sign, a sacrament, a body that needs to be
fed before it can
begin to focus on things that are above.
We must always remember that we are not talking
to disembodied spirits. We are talking to human beings who cannot
hear us with a rumbling stomach. That is why we must take care to
put people in a situation where they can respond in a responsible
way to the preaching of the gospel. It is our duty to locate
people in an economic setting that makes the hearing of the gospel
possible. Otherwise, Ellul warns us, we might simply be throwing
pearls to the pigs. (10)
It is clear from all this that social action is
not an option; it does
not simply follow the proclamation of the gospel. It needs to be
done if the gospel is to be heard at all, especially in Third
World settings. It is part of the process we call ‘evangelism’.
It may be claimed that the term evangelism has a
specifically ‘heralding’ aspect which becomes obscured if we say
that everything that the church does is evangelism. For this reason
we prefer to use the term witness to denote all that the
church does to make itself shine like a city upon a hill. The word
carries with it the need
to have ‘presence’ as well as ‘proclamation’ in our
preaching of the kingdom.
Social action would correspond to the ‘presence’
aspect, and evangelism to the ‘proclamation’ aspect in its
narrower sense of ‘chattering’ or ‘announcing’ the gospel.
The relationship could be illustrated this way:
evangelism = PROCLAMATION
social action =
PRESENCE
kingdom witness
= GOSPEL
In summary, while evangelism and social action
are distinct, both are essential parts of our witness to the fact
that the kingdom has come. The proclamation of the kingdom has a
verbal as well as a visual aspect. For this reason, the church must
be both a herald and a sign. It must serve as a context in which the
saving power of God is made visible. Witness to the kingdom requires
more than preachers; it demands
the whole body of Christ to be visibly present in all areas of human
life. In doing so, the gospel is wholly preached, and men and women
are enabled to adequately respond to the prophetic demands of the
gospel.
Notes
1 See John Howard Yoder, The Politics of
Jesus, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids,
Michigan 1972, pp. 37ff.
2 Yoder makes a case to the effect that Jesus
would not have been subject to suspicion if the claims of the
kingdom had not clearly overlapped with the claims of Caesar. The
Caesar question simply pushed to the forefront the conflict of
loyalty implicit in the two claims.
3 When actually ordered to confirm if he really
was king of the Jews or not, Jesus answered, You have said so’
(Matthew 27:11).
4 The proclamation "Jesus is Lord" is a
social and structural fact, and constitutes a challenge to the
Powers... it follows that its claims are not limited to the
individuals who accept it, nor is its significance limited to those
who listen to
4 Yoder, Politics, p.
160.
5 See Justification by Faith’ in Yoder, Politics.
6 Emilio Castro, as quoted by SCAN, Partnership in Mission.
7 T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society.
8 Alfred Krass, as quoted by SCAN, Partnership in Mission.
9 Taylor, The Christian Philosophy of
Law, Politics and the State, Free
University Press.
10 Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom, Seabury, New York, 1967, 1948, p.141.
Chapter One from Transforming Society
by Melba Maggay, Regnum, 1994. Approved for Website by Regnum
Books, P. O. Box 70, Oxford,OX2 6HB. England and by Melba Maggay.
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