holy Nazarenes

Pastor Steve asked the question about holiness in Bible study yesterday. he kept referring to Brother Mack and others who have come out of holiness traditions in the South and Midwest and noting that things are different now, that we don't have the same kind of distinctiveness that we used to have. i see three threads coming through this discussion of holiness, but i think that where we should be is somewhere in the middle of all three of them.

First, I see what Olivetians would lament as the Point Loma mentality, which is very much okay with not looking too different from the dominant culture--so much so that we don't really know how to be different from the dominant culture. In this thread, we love to use words like "Love" and "Grace" to define our religious belief. Our piety is most characterized by our permissiveness. We understand that each one is a sinner and that God forgives each one where s/he is at. God meets us and wants relationship with us. That frees us to be who we want to be as God affirms our lives, wants us to be happy and will have relationship with us no matter where we are in life.

Second, there is the stereotypical Nazarene thread that looks like women in high collars, midwestern parents who are concerned with the image of their children. It is connected with refusing to drink, to dance, to do anything on Sundays. In the case of Brother Mack's youth, this even looks like refusing to cook, buy gas (or anything for that matter), or play ball on Sundays. There is no or minimal jewelry: simplicity is highly stressed. But why? to be distinctive. Because all that stuff from which we refrain is worldly and therefore, by refraining, we become other than worldly. It is defined in a negative manner.

Third, there is the reaction to the second that does not want to be so worldly as the first. We recognize the death and the staleness of the second and reject that. but we do not want to lose that distinctiveness. This is where my parents are. So we reject some things, such as drinking, dancing (in certain ways) and being too hyperactive. But there is no premium on simplicity. We comfort ourselves from the stale legalism of the old-time nazarenes with the middle class comforts that we have convinced ourselves that we deserve. we don't party or have sex. But we still look like everyone else. we shop like everyone else, vote like everyone else. we live where everyone else lives. hell, we even watch the same TV shows as everyone else and probably the same movies. We try to define ourselves in a way that embraces both the grace and permissiveness of the first thread and the distinctiveness of the second.

(8 days later)
What bothers me about all of these is that each of them seem to be asking the wrong question. Rather than asking ourselves how we can align ourselves with the world in a way of least resistance, we should begin to look to the Scriptures and the Christian tradition in a way that sees them as normative for our lives and then try to figure out what is okay for us rather than what is not. we need to be stripped down into virtually nothing. We need to be broken, to be forsaken and forgotten by our world. In truth, the complacency and the complicity of the church with the world is something that must be judged. This may look like wandering, but stay with me.

We have lost what it means to be holy, but let us recognize that this is not a particularly Nazarene doctrine or even a doctrine that is particular to the Holiness congregations. Holiness is central to the life and ministry of the Church catholic. It is a part of the doctrine laid out at Vatican II and one only has to read Matthew 5-7 to get the clear picture that a church without holiness is no church at all. It is an organization based on some foundation that is other than Christ. If Christ is our head and Christ is holy, then of course we strive for holiness. Talking with John Wright today, he made the point that the Nazarene church is a renewal movement within the Church. We are not a group that exists to make our particular denomination normative, but in the preface of the manual, even, it says (in less words) that we are a group that exists to call the Church catholic to its greater purpose as the Body of Christ.

There has been some talk about Nazarene monks or something like that. Well, folks, here's the thing--as far as I can tell, Nazarenes started as monks. We may not be called specifically to celibacy but we are those who, with the grace of God, are called to humbly call the church back to its original purpose through holy lives. We are not here to be the denomination to which all denominations should aspire. we are not here to fit nicely into the religious marketplace in America, offering an option for those conservative Americans who need an outlet for their conservatism. We are here to serve the church by reminding the church of what it means to be holy and in that, to return to our purpose as the body of Christ.

From my perspective, not drinking is important because it reminds us that if we are not sharing life with people who have trouble with alcohol (so prevalent in our culture), then we are not living our call faithfully (this even informs the very elements of the Eucharist so that we do not use wine in the Eucharist). Refraining from sex until marriage is important because it reminds us that marriage is a metaphor of the relationship between Christ and the church as well as a creative act. Refraining from other addictions is important because it reminds us that our lives are to be lived under the kingship of Jesus Christ and no other. Watching what we buy is important for the same reason--because we are the people of God, not the people of our nation or the people of the marketplace. Offering hospitality is important because it reminds us that we are not our own, not to mention direct commands in the Scriptures. There is so much more to be said here but for the sake of your time, i would point you to the blog by the Order of Saint Stephen in my links. It says these things more eloquently and more completely.