Jesus, a former Marxist professor and me

My former headmaster, Toby S. (not the Marxist I am refering to in the title!), said this about the legacy of the Reformed Church.

"Our legacy is one of fat theology books and church splits. And of course there are notable exceptions, but generally, it appears we've done a fairly dismal job of putting hands and feet on our (supposed) theology. Our circles are primarily ideologically driven/maintained rather than geographically/parish focused."

That is so true and it is equally true that the most effective ministry (perhaps even the only ministry that is ultimately effective) is personal ministry. Jesus public death on the cross would not have meant a thing if He did not have a personal ministry to the disciples and others in his close circle. Jesus death has significance on all different levels, but if he had just been a hermit before he died, no one would have cared. The significance of his death goes far beyond the legal transaction that took place, the fact that he paid the debt for my sins. It is impossible to serve God without serving those around us.

I know a professor who says that he used to be Marxist, but now when he reads Marxists he can't get past their religion. He's frequently pretty cynical about teaching. He said that he might have trouble arguing with a student who answered one of his essay questions by saying, "Who gives a crap?" Of course the student doesn't have the credibility to say something like that, but this professor does. He said he doesn't get any real satisfaction from his job anymore, that his family gives him happiness now, but not writting for his peers. He made fun of the old professors who still stand around joking about how dumb students are, about how they don't know the basic facts of history, like what decade the Civil War was. "Of course they're dumb!" was his recognition. "Why should they care about Bizmark's rise to power aided by the king and on the backs of the working men?" which was something that he used to care about as a Marxist. The marxists believed that economics influenced culture, which influenced politics. "It was was a beautiful theory," he said, and that must be why he believed in it.

But now this particular professor, in his historiography class, which is a class about methods of historical analyis and writing, says that people who pick any one of those three things (economics, culture or politics) as being preeminant and controlling over the others, make him nervous. I guess I'll have to be careful not to be too precise in my methods! But as a Christian, and one who goes to a church with an optimistic eschatology, I tend to believe that culture is more of a substrata than either economics or politics. In the marketplace people exchange things, in the political arena they fight for things, but as members of a culture we adopt a way of living. Jesus started a culture, a way of living, accompanied by certain beliefs, but primarily a way of living, which has outlasted countless governments and changes in economy. And that culture is built on the foundation of personal ministry, beyond just the ministry to our families, though that is important. Therefore Christians have a historiography, which corresponds with their way of life, and that truly is beautiful! May thy Kingdom come, Lord Jesus!