In Exile?

. . . You will leave everything you love most:  this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first. You will know how salty another's bread tastes and how hard it is to ascend and descend another's stairs . . ."

Dante... Paradiso XVII: 55-60

We are just starting to read Mike Frosts 'Exiles' with the aim of taking a section a month for reflection on just what does it REALLY mean to live as a Missional community.  This quote from Dante seems a good place to start... with stepping out of the place of comfort and security... leaving the people we love to experience life in a different culture, finding just how hard it is to walk a mile in someone else's shoes... finding how it is possible to sustain faith/identity without the cultural and structural edifices we have come to rely on.

I am aware that the metaphor of 'Exile' is an uncomfortable one... and may not work for all, especially in it's implication of punishment... but for me there is sense that it is a 'punishment' that could be helpful; a boot up the backside of complacency, a challenge to step out of the ghetto and ask the question "How CAN we sing the Lord's songs in a strange land?"  One of the first questions Frost poses is how do we transition from a Culture defined religion to a "story-formed community"?  In losing the cultural edifice we have to embrace the dangerous...

I suspect that the increasing marginalization of the Christian movement in the west is the very thing that will wake us up to the marvellously exciting, dangerous, and confronting message of Jesus.

In some ways the challenge of the first few chapters of "Exiles" is; how do we shake of the complacency and nostalgia off Christendom and embrace the dangerous story of Christ, how do we grasp the reality of the situation we are in and wrestle with the temptations to either retreat to a survivalist haven of self-preservation and nostalgia or simply give in to the prevailing winds of contemporary culture... how do we stand exiled from both Christendom and Consumerism?

... many, many more thoughts to come as we read through the book!

Technorati Tags: Books: Emerging Church: Mission: Religion: theology

Comments

[Kester]

Looks like a good read.

Exiles are, of course, 'out of place' and thus 'dirty'. And being dirt, they are thus the very thing to re-invigorate society - which is what the quote you give suggests.

I'm wondering how dirty we're prepared our missional practice to get? And, connectedly, how well are we identifying the pressures that force societies to 'purify'? My hunch at the moment is that it's not so much 'security' - as the politicians would have us believe it - but insecurity. We're becoming more introverted and paranoid.

Look forward to your further thoughts on the book...

[David]

First comment here Mark - great blog BTW.

I have read the first couple of chapters and have already bought three other copies to dish out to my unsuspecting friends! I have no problem with this metaphor, but feel comforted that someone has spoken what I feel. I don't think I am alone in this. I also think this is a metaphor that many of my friends who would not call themselves 'followers' could perhaps relate to.

Kester: are you saying that we seek separateness because it's comfortable? Not sure what you mean.

[Kester]

I think in many ways we do. Faith Popcorn identified the 'cocooning' desire in the 90's, and I think it has impacted negatively on society as a whole. 'Gated communities' are the apogee.

However, being a metaphor, exile has things going for it as well as against. We just need to make sure that we know which is which.

I think for the Jews around their '587', the exile experience was a struggle: between the prophets who tried to steer it positively into a formative experience whereby they would learn to accept 'the other', and those who used it to breed hatred of 'the other'.

How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? By harmonizing, and learning their instruments.

[Paul Walker]

I've just started a series of blog posts on Mike's book, and very much enjoying the discipline of reading it slowly.

The exile metaphor is particularly apt for the post-Christendom context where, quite literally, the ground is slipping out from under us. Only this evening I was talking with some church leaders from other local Anglican churches and being shocked - yet again - by just how much people haven't come to terms with just how much we've grown quite comfortable in our exiled state. Looking forward to this book being disturbing!

[Matt Stone]

The exile motif works quite well for me.

I draw great inspiration from the stories of Daniel, Joseph and Esther, people of faith who stood between worlds.

And I am quite comfortable with the punishment implications. Revelation warned that some churches would loose their 'lampstands' if they didn't sharpen up their act. I believe that is what we see happening in my land. I say we accept God's critique of the prevailing system and dig down into the stories of the heros of exile for inspiration. Clinging onto the holy nation / temple mount motif of the pre-exilic period is becoming increasingly counter productive.