When aus.religion.christian gets up and running you
can leave these people to us ‘mainline’ Christians to handle.

In the meantime, here’s a paradigm to help us understand
what’s going on here:

Authentic Christianity is based on the notion of
‘Grace’: I am accepted by God, not on the basis of anything I
*do* or *achieve*, but purely because I am eternally loved. The
sectarian mindset has never really understood this, and adds something
else to grace – a spiritual gift (like tongues), a sacrament (eg.
baptism), adherance to a particular doctrine etc.

The best New Testament text I know on this theme
was penned by someone who fought ‘grace-plus’ battles in the first
century: Paul. (Then, Jewish believers wanted to add circumcision,
gnostics a doctrinal schema). ‘Accept one another, therefore,
for the glory of God, just as Christ has accepted you’ (Romans
15:7). Grace plus a particular mode of baptism? No. Grace plus
tongues? No. Grace plus fundamentalist orthodoxy? No. Simply pure
grace…

Two illustrations: [1] A visitor to an outback Australian
farm asked why they had few fences. How could you keep track of
your cattle without fences? Simple, replied the farmer/rancher:
‘Out here we dig wells instead of building fences. Cattle are
highly motivated to stay within reach of their source of life.’

[2] In mathematics a ‘set’ refers to a group of objects
which belong together, because they have similar properties. For
example a set of all odd numbers would include 1,3,5 etc. Some
numbers are included, others excluded. Most sets are thus ‘bounded’
sets. But some sets may relate to a central goal rather than a
boundary. For example, marriages increasing in intimacy: here
the crucial feature of the set is not a measurable boundary, but
the *direction* of movement towards (what is in this case) a relational
goal. (Dr. Ken Smith: how am I doing?).

Now it makes all the difference whether you think
of Christianity in terms of a bounded set or a centred set. If
you’re thinking in terms of bounded sets you’re asking ‘Who’s
in and who’s out?’ (The more sectarian the group, the fewer are
‘in’). ‘Where precisely is the boundary?’ ‘Who qualifies?’

But NT Christianity thinks in terms of a ‘centred
sets’ – ie. movement towards the centre, Jesus Christ.

‘Conversion’ begins, and continues this movement.
Ignorance, or degrees in theology, don’t count. The heinousness
and nature of past sins are irrelevant. The specificity of doctrinal
formulations don’t count either. It’s purely a matter of grace.
(But not cheap grace: such discipleship really costs everything).

So if we view Christianity as a bounded set, we’ll
pay a lot of attention to defining the boundaries.

Various slogans are keys to this mind-set. ‘Born
again’ is one of them. Yes, Jesus told one person on one occasion
he had to be re-born, but it’s interesting the apostolic sermons
used many other metaphors… Bounded set Christians use prefatory/
conditional statements beginning with something like ‘You’ve got
to…’ ‘You ought to…’ etc. (so-called ‘yorta’ prescriptions).

The saints knew better. Only a saint could make a
statement like this: ‘Those who are seeking God have already been
found by God.’ That’s grace.

Christianity is all about relating to the Centre…

(Acknowledgement: I have been helped here by an article
in the NZ. journal ‘Reality’ (Feb/Mar 1994) – ‘Wells or Fences?’
by Sheila Pritchard).

Related Articles:

• Henri Nouwen – more wisdom
• LIVING A WHOLE LIFE (Richard Rohr)
• Faith and feelings
• Beautiful video with a comforting message…
• Wisdom from Henri Nouwen

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