Jesus doesn’t rely on Zoom

We have experienced a vivid metaphor for the spiritual life over the past year, but more by way of contrast than simile. Anyone who has used Zoom or equivalent tools is well aware of the limitations of virtual meetings. How does Jesus prevent our relationship with him from being virtual?

 

Three limitations  of virtual meetings come immediately to mind:

• Distractions from activity or items present in the room or on the computer, at home or in the office, making it difficult to focus. When you are in a room meeting with others, although not totally absent, these temptations are much fewer.
• Lack of side conversations with peers, before and after meetings. They have to be deliberately made as a separate phone call. No chance encounters, and ad hoc small subgroup discussions.
• Difficulty in building relationships. Not impossible, but it is very hard to develop trust and connection when you are talking to someone whose facial responses are shrunk to a 2 inch image on the screen.

Even (especially?) school children struggle with virtual learning for one or more of these reasons.

In some respects, our communication with God in prayer is even more disadvantaged:

• Distractions during prayer are immediate and physical, mental, or emotional.
• We can’t make small talk with God. At least, most of us attend to the business of prayer and then turn back to the matters of this life after we have done our duty. The meeting ends and we get back to work (i.e., the things of the world).
• It’s tough to build a relationship with God when we can’t see His face. Those few who do give descriptions that are awesomely terrifying. (Exodus 33:22) 

But God did not leave things this way. Jesus came to the earth to overcome these limitations. People in His presence would leave their homes and go out to the wilderness to hear Him preach. And while there, they had conversations with other followers, and with Jesus’ disciples. And they could look on Jesus’ face without fear (with a few exceptions). Beyond that, Jesus took the initiative to bring God’s presence and truth to people in person. (Matthew 11:1, Mark 6:34, 7:24, 10:1) 

Since Jesus is in heaven, or at least in a spiritual dimension not tangible, how does He overcome the limitations of virtuality. He may be right beside us but we can’t touch or see Him.

• We can talk to fellow believers at church. And we can see tangible results from God working in their lives, in the things that they do.
• The Holy Spirit - the elan vital of God - is within us.
• He answers prayers tangibly, with concrete works to confirm His power
• We share in His suffering, not just vicariously through communion, but physically experiencing a share in His persecution. It is there, when He is with us in the storm, that we truly learn His nature and character.

We are slow learners in this regard, but the spiritual dimension of humans can only learn in this (last) way. Not just a mental conversation with God.  We can have phone calls with Him (often) but we only grow through experience. The challenge of this life is to enter in. Tuition for this class was already paid on the cross, but we still have to do the homework and field exercises. Otherwise He remains just a voice, not unlike those we hear daily on Zoom.

Teddy Roosevelt, The Weimar Republic, and Modern World

The political implications of the comparison are obvious. Are current conditions conducive to political power being seized by a populist totalitarian party? But dimensions of this comparison include far more than populist politics & paramilitary partnership: economics, culture, and moral fiber, but do all these conditions simply reflect a deeper root cause?

 

In his article The Ghost of Theodore Roosevelt, Cameron Hilditch outlines the logic of populist politics and compares the “Progressive” Bull Moose Party to modern times. In effect, he asks if Donald Trump does not get the Republican nomination in 2024, will he form a third party, split the conservative vote, and ensure continuing Democratic hegemony in Washington? Hilditch does not address the Weimar Republic, in which  the November 1932 election resulted in no clear majority for any party, but enough Nazi power in the Reichstag to eventually make Hitler chancellor and rend democracy asunder. And the significance of the role of paramilitary actions by the SA in the ultimate outcome. 

Economics were clearly different from modern circumstances at present. The Weimar Republic was paying reparations imposed by the victors of the World War in 1918. This plus economic policy that resulted in runaway inflation damaged the postwar German economy far more than one year of pandemic-driven-panic policy vectors. But the runaway inflation of the Weimar Republic had a cultural implication. It removed any possible incentive to save, motivating everyone to spend money the same day they got it.  

This was likely a strong factor in the profligate lifestyle exemplified in the movie Cabaret, which was based on real life. (Not that lifestyles were much different in the U.S. in the roaring 20’s). A reasonable question would be whether the lifting of restrictions post-pandemic will trigger such profligacy worldwide (assuming there is a post-pandemic). 

Weimar culture included academic dimensions as well. “Critical theory” was developed to link social problems to social structures, rather than individual psychological factors. In other words, blame your problems on society and don’t accept responsibility for your own actions. Logical positivism advanced the theory that philosophy should adopt the bases and structure of empirical sciences. “Follow the science” - worship as truth our current understanding of nature. Heiddigger and Marcuse advanced other theories; one wearies trying to figure out what philosophers taught. 

What was at the time considered moral degeneration multiplied, including homosexual venues, prostitution, and drug use. And where were people of faith, who might have set the standard?  “Higher Criticism” advanced source criticism, form criticism, and redaction. We remember  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis at the end of World War 2, but he was only active a few years at the end of the Weimar Republic. What happened to the Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church, Germany the bastion of faith in Western Europe? Perhaps sectarian warfare over the centuries that had degenerated into jousting for political advantage alienated so many people that the Freethinkers League had 500,000 members in 1933; people so sick of Church politics that they joined together to advocate a theology of atheism. But that seems a symptom of the reality that churches, on the whole, were focused on power and theological points about doctrine.  Salvation through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and  development of an individual relationship with Jesus ceased to be their mission. Is this the underlying root cause of all the symptoms above?

Where do we stand today in the West? Have economic conditions resulting from pandemic panic further enhanced populist demagoguery and emboldened militias? Has religious hypocrisy so sickened the general public that any religion or lack of it is preferable over the truth about the creator and redeemer of humankind?

Beethoven’s music for the final act of His Story

The Som Sabadell video - May 19, 2012 street performance of final movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony in Barcelona - begins with a small offering by a little girl. A lone musician begins playing a tune that is only recognizable if you are familiar with this piece of music. Slowly more musicians with instruments appear and join in. As the music develops, the song is recognizable. Choir and the conductor appear as the music swells to its climax. The symbolism is unmistakeable.

Friedrich Schiller’s poem worships joy - one dimension of the fruit of the Holy Spirit - as the source of happiness and fellowship  and the object of celebration. The culminating verse in Beethoven’s adaptation of Schiller’s poem focuses in on worshipping the source of joy and fellowship.

Do you bow before Him, you millions?

Do you sense your Creator, O world?

Seek Him above the canopy of stars!

He must dwell beyond the stars.

But in the Incarnation, Jesus came to earth to seek and save the lost. He returned to heaven, but He does not dwell beyond the stars. (Matthew 18:20) He was that first lone musician playing the song of redemption. After His resurrection He was joined by a small, gallant band of believers. The chorus grew to be mighty. But what the music does not capture in its rapture is the rapture of the saints and the opposition that Jesus must overcome to establish His kingdom on earth. Like Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, triumphal worship in heaven focuses on the end stage. Even the lyrics that were written for this music in 1907 in English, by Henry van Dyke and sung as a hymn of the church, portray the process to the final consummation as ever upwards, with only the slightest hint of strife.

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love

Hearts unfold like flow'rs before Thee, op’ning to the Sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, Earth and heav'n reflect Thy rays;

Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain flow’ry meadow, flashing sea;

chanting bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest;

well-spring of the joy of living ocean-depth of happy rest.

Thou the Father, Christ our Brother— all who live in love are Thine.

Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the Joy Divine.

Mortals join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began;

Father-love is reigning o'er us, brother-love binds man to man.

Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife;

joyful music lifts us sunward in the triumph song of life.

What Jesus taught, and what history has demonstrated, is that as the gospel is spread throughout the world, many would accept it and become a family in Christ, but that it brings a sword to divide those who accept from those who reject. Ultimately the objectors will attempt to eliminate the gospel, bringing the apocalyptic unveiling of Christ. We can enjoy the music, but must remember that the ultimate plan of His story, to bring His kingdom on the earth, is not going to be a gradual spreading of that kingdom until all join in a capstone chorus. The cross must be embraced before the crown can be realized.