Well, as requested, I'm posting the complete bibliography to this series, which has now drawn to a close (As an aside I should note that Richard Bauckham's God Crucified should really be on this list as well but I only just finished reading it now. Bauckham's reflections on how the one God is revealed in the humiliation of Jesus ties in well with much of what I have said about becoming the Father through a Spirit-empowered cruciformity. Furthermore, I feel that this series actually helps to show how a “Christology of divine identity” and an Adam Christology belong together [I mention this last point because Bauckham argues that Tom Wright “tries to have his cake and eat it too” when he brings those two motifs together in his chapter on Phil 2 in The Climax of the Covenant]).
Bibliography
Ateek, Naim Stiffen. Justice, and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1989.
von Balthasar, Hans Urs. The von Balthasar Reader. Eds. Medard Kehl, S.J. and Werner Loser, S.J. Trans. Robert J. Daly, S.J. and Fred Lawrence. New York: Crossroad, 1997 [1980].
________. Explorations in Theology IV: Spirit and Institution. Trans. Edward T. Oakes, S.J. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1995 [1974].
________. Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter. Trans. Aiden Nichols, O.P. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2005 [1970].
________. Prayer. Trans. Graham Harrison. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1986 [1955].
Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics I.1: The Doctrine of the Word of God. Eds. G. W. Bromily and T. F. Torrance. Trans. G. W. Bromily. London: T & T Clark International, 2004 [1932].
________. Dogmatics in Outline. Trans. G. T. Thompson. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959.
Bartos, Emil. Deification in Eastern Orthodox Theology: An Evaluation and Critique of the Theology of Dimitru Stanisloae. Carlisle: Paternoster, 1999.
Bell Jr., Daniel M. Liberation Theology After the End of History: The refusal to cease suffering. London: Routledge, 2001.
Brueggemann, Walter. Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.
Cavanaugh, William T. Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism. London: T & T Clark, 2002.
Dempster, Stephen G. Dominion and Dynasty: a theology of the Hebrew Bible. New Studies in Biblical Theology 15. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003.
Doe, Jane. The Story of Jane Doe: A Book About Rape. Toronto: Vintage, 2003.
Dunn, James D. G. Jesus Remembered. Christianity in the Making Vol. 1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
________. The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Ellul, Jacques. Hope in Time of Abandonment. Trans. C. Edward Hopkins. New York: Seabury, 1977 [1972].
Goldingay, John. Israel’s Gospel: Old Testament Theology Vol. 1. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003.
Gorman, Michael J. Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.
Gutierrez, Gustavo. We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People. Trans. Matthew J. O’Connell. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2003 [1984].
Haurwas, Stanley. The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.
Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation. A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.
Moltmann, Jurgen. In the End – The Beginning: the life of hope. Trans. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004.
________. The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions. Trans. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortres, 1993 [1987].
________. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. Trans. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993 [1985].
________. The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God. Trans. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993 [1980].
________. The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology. Trans. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993 [1975].
________. The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ a the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology. Trans. R. A. Wilson and John Bowden. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993 [1973].
________. Theology and Joy. Trans. Reinhard Ulrich. London: SCM, 1973 [1971].
________. Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology. Trans. James W. Leitch. New York: Harper & Row, 1975 [1965].
Moyter, J. Alec. The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1993.
Nellas, Panayiotis. Deification in Christ: The Nature of the Human Person. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1987.
Nouwen, Henri J. M. The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homcoming. London: Doubleday, 1992.
Stavropoulous, Chistoforos. “Partakers of Divine Nature” in Eastern Orthodox Theology: A Contemporary Reader. Ed. Daniel B. Clendiner (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003 [1993]), 183-92.
Thompson, Michael. Isaiah 40-66. Peterborough: Epworth, 2001.
Valantasis, Richard. Centuries of Holiness: Ancient Spirituality Refracted for a Postmodern Age. New York: Continuum, 2005.
Walsh, Brian J. and Keesmat, Sylvia C. Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004.
Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodoxy Way. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993.
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary Series Vol. 1. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1987.
Westerman, Claus. Isaiah 40-66. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
Wright, N. T. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
________. Paul: in Fresh Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.
________. The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
________. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God Vol. 3. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.
________. “Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans” in A Royal Priesthood? The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically. A Dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan. (The Scripture and Hermeneutics Series Vol. 3. Eds. Craig Bartholomew, Jonathan Chaplin, Robert Son, Al Wolters. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 173-93.
________. “The Letter to the Romans: Introduction, Commentary and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Series Vol. X (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002), 393-770.
________. What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Saul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.
________. Jesus and the Victory of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God Vol. 2. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
________. Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
________. The New Testament and the People of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God Vol. 1. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.
________. The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992.
________. The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993 [1991].
Young, Edward J. The Book of Isaiah: Vol. 3. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.

4. Conclusion: Reflection, Motivation, Consummation (conc.)
The “End” of the Story: Resurrection, Consummation and Theosis
Up until this point, our focus has been upon telling and participating within the first four movements of God’s Story (movements which span from “the beginning” to the present day) and we have only briefly alluded to the fifth movement –- the concluding movement of consummation and of the new creation of all things. However, a story-shaped people lives with both remembrance and expectation, because the story contains both past events and promises for the future. Telling God’s story is remembering our future just as much as it is remembering our past. Therefore, we will conclude by reflecting upon the movement of consummation and, in this way, complete this prolegomena. Within this conclusion we will draw from Eastern Orthodox sources in order to recover the notion of theosis and thereby fill out the work done by the Protestant and Roman Catholic sources that have been our main dialogue partners so far.
The mission of God within the movement of consummation is thoroughly trinitarian. The Father will return to be personally and physically present with his creation. He will heal all wounds, wipe away all tears, and make all things new. The Son will return in glory to consummate his kingdom, to subject all the powers, and to complete his victory over sin and death, over exile and hell. The Spirit will be poured out on all flesh and in this way God will be all in all. In this way, the story of God-with-us will reach its wondrous conclusion and just as at the beginning of this study, so now at the end we discover that all of this occurs through resurrection. The event of the general resurrection of the dead is at the core of this movement. Therefore, just as the mission of the Church is founded upon Jesus’ resurrection, so also it reaches its completion in the resurrection of all people to new life.
In the movement of consummation God’s mission to create humanity in his image will be completed. Indeed, as Moltmann argues, humanity was created to be God’s image, not according to God’s image; therefore, humanity is created “in the direction of” God’s image, and the true likeness of God is not to be found at the beginning of the story but at its end. In the movement of consummation, humanity, indwelt by the Spirit and shaped by Jesus, will be the true reflection of the Father -– although now we only see this reflection “as through a mirror darkly,” in the movement of consummation God’s image will be fully revealed. This approach to the telos of humanity fits well with the tradition of theosis and deification that has been sustained within the Eastern Orthodox churches. Appealing to the Church Fathers -– especially to St. Athanasius, who argued that “God became man, so that we might be made gods” -– Orthodox theologians argue that the purpose of life is to be participants within the divine nature as we enter into union with God (and with one another). However, because of Western Protestant and Roman Catholic discomfort with the language of deification, it must be noted that this doctrine does not lead to pantheism or polytheism. The focus is upon union, not confusion or fusion, with God. To enter into theosis is simply to be a creature of God in the way that God intended one to be -– deification is the fulfillment of our creatureliness. Indeed, deification is a convenient shorthand way of referring to the missio Christianus that has been developed within this paper. Although all humanity has been gifted with the image of God, it is only those who participate within the missio Dei as a Spirit-empowered, cruciform, abandoned, and Fatherly people, who truly bring that likeness to bear within the present. In the movement of overlap the people of God begin to model what it is to be caught up within the perichoretic relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit. In the movement of consummation all of creation will be caught up into that relationship.
Of course, this concluding movement is not the end of God’s Story, nor is it the end of the story of God-with-us. This ending is but a new beginning. These first five movements are only the start of the grand narrative of God-with-us. These movements are but a part of the labor pains that accompany new life. From the fifth movement onward we move into something completely different. We are caught up into the perichoretic relationship of the Father, Son and the Spirit. We are transformed into the fully unveiled glory of the children of God, the world is made new, and justice and peace embrace within the unbroken reign of God’s reconciliation and shalom. Little wonder then that biblical visions of this movement of consummation are so inundated with scenes of worship that overflow with spontaneity and joy. Yes, all things will be made new. The transforming love of the One God –- Father, Son, and Spirit –- will triumph over all things, even godforsakenness and hell.
We have only begun to taste and see the ever deeper, ever more wondrous, life and goodness of our Lord. Therefore, let us persevere as those who are empowered by the Spirit to become the cruciform revelation of the Father in the remaining places of abandonment that persist for just a little while longer, and in our persistence let us remember that the night is passing and the day is at hand. Therefore, we join with the communion of the Saints and in our worship anticipate the day when all creation will rejoice in the presence of God.
Glory be to the Father; glory be to the Son; glory be to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
__________
Sources:
Emil Bartos, Deification in Eastern Orthodox Theology: An Evaluation and Critique of the Theology of Dimitru Stanisloae.
Jurgen Moltmann, In the End — The Beginning: The life of hope and God in Creation.
Panayiotis Nellas, Deification in Christ: The Nature of the Human Person.
Christoforos Stavropoulous, “Partakers of Divine Nature” in Eastern Orthodox Theology: A Contemporary Reader.
Richard Valantasis, Centuries of Holiness: Ancient Spirituality Refracted for a Postmodern Age.
Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way.

4. Conclusion: Reflection, Motivation, and Consummation (cont.)
Motivation: Hope, Faith, Love, and Courage
There are four characteristic virtues that motivate the Church as she participates in the missio Dei –- hope, faith, love, and courage. Hope, already addressed in some detail in our discussion of the journey into godforsakenness, is fundamentally a characteristic a people who are shaped by God’s Story. Hope recalls God’s past actions, it remembers the Father’s creative activity, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus that ended exile, and it remembers the out-pouring of the Spirit that causes the new age to burst into the present. Therefore, the Church hopes that such actions will also define the present experiences of Christians. Furthermore, this hope is strengthened because a hope that is rooted in God’s story also remembers God’s promises. Therefore, hope motivates the Church to move into the missio Dei; indeed, hope makes a movement into the missio Dei seem like the only natural thing to do as Christians.
Faith has also been discussed in some detail in this paper, although those who are accustomed to understanding faith as “believing” certain propositions may not notice this at first. Throughout this paper faith is understood as faithfulness to God’s covenant with us. Therefore, the Church is motivated to participate in God’s missional activity because this is what is required of God’s faith-full covenant partner. Faith here is understood as cruciform obedience, modeled on the cruciform obedience of Jesus. The Church is motivated to engage in God’s mission because God commands us to engage in this mission. The gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness – of God’s covenant faithfulness. Therefore, the Church that proclaims and embodies the gospel is to be the revelation of God’s faithful covenant partner.
However, the largest motive in all of this is that of love. Underlying Christian hope and Christian covenant faithfulness is a movement into love. Indeed, it is love that underlies the entire missio Dei for it is love that leads the Father to create new life, it is love that leads the Son to embrace godforsakenness, it is love the leads the Father and the Son to send the Spirit into the world, and it is this Spirit of love that empowers the people of God to be a loving and a beloved people. God-With-Us is revealed as the Lover of all creation, and all creation is revealed as God’s Beloved. The story of God, and the story in which we live is, essentially, a love story. As Gorman says: “love is not primarily God’s being but God’s way of being; it is not primarily God’s essence but God’s story. It is as story of self-giving love.” This is the kind of love story that we would be inclined to call a fairy tale. We would be forced to say that such a love story is simply too good to be true… were it not for the cross of Jesus. The cross reveals that this love story is so good that it must be true! Therefore, the Christian mission is simply to participate in the movement of God’s love, and to show that this love is not too good to be true by moving into godforsakenness. As von Balthasar so eloquently says:
There are experiences of absence within this ever-present world of God’s grace, but they are forms and modes of love. Such were the experiences of the prophets of the Old Covenant, of the Son of God on the cross and in the darkness of his descent into hell; such are the experiences of all those who, in their several vocations, follow the Son. These are the redemptive paths of love as it traces the footsteps of sinners in order to catch up with them and bring them home.
Apart from love, the Christian mission is both impossible and nonsensical. Without love, one cannot remain in places of godforsakenness. Without love, moving into places of godforsakenness appears to be utterly foolish. Alas, I can only conclude that the marked absence of Christians in places of godforsakenness and the marked loss of the declaration of the end of exile are simply the symptoms of a Christianity that has been co-opted by the elevation of self-gratification over and above the call to love God and to love one’s neighbor.
Furthermore, it should be the passion of love, and not “apocalyptic” speculation, which gives the missio Christianus its urgency. Contemporary “apocalyptic” speculations urge the Church to engage in missions because the cataclysmic end of the space-end universe is imagined to be imminent. This is problematical for two reasons. First of all, these speculations entirely misunderstand the function of apocalyptic literature within Second Temple Judaism. Apocalyptic literature was not written to describe the end of the world; it was written to reveal the heavenly perspective on contemporary events, and it was a subversive mode of writing favored by oppressed groups. It is unfortunate that a form of literature that should only further the subversive nature of the embodied Christian mission has been misunderstood and co-opted by those who want to use it to enforce a strictly dualistic and apolitical approach to missions. Secondly, such speculations of exactly when Jesus will return are rather detrimental to the Christian mission. They are repeatedly proved wrong and, instead of motivating missional activity, they end up driving Christians away from missions altogether. Indeed, because of such speculations the word “missions” has almost become a dirty and embarrassing word to many Christians under thirty-five. Instead of speculating about when Jesus will return, the love that motivates the missio Christianus should be defined by a longing for Jesus’ imminent return. Because Christian love is suffering love, Christians long for the day when all suffering will cease. Our movement into the groaning places of the world does not lead to speculation about when Jesus will return. Instead, it inevitably leads to the prayer of the Beloved who is separated from the Lover: “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
Finally, it must also be noted that it is love that provides Christians with the courage to journey into cruciformity and godforsakenness. As 1 Jn notes, “there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” The author of 1 Jn is emphasizing the fact that Christians have come to realize that we do not have to fear God’s judgment, but the same point applies to the Christian approach to mission. Because we no longer fear God -– because God is for us –- we no longer fear any places of exile, or any other powers. Therefore, it is all the more significant that the most repeated command in the biblical narrative is this: “Do not be afraid.” Only those who are filled with the courage that love provides will be able to fully participate within the missio Dei. It is those who are not afraid of loneliness or brokenness that can journey into cruciformity and godforsakenness. Indeed, those who are filled with love’s courage are able to see through the virtues of “necessity,” “practicality,” and “responsibility” and realize that too often these virtues are simply justifications used by those who are too afraid and too apathetic to move fully into the missio Dei. Fear, and the “virtues” it inspires, are simply the result of loving one’s self and that which belongs to one’s self (be that possessions or one’s personal family) too much and loving God and one’s neighbor too little. Those who are filled with God’s love will be those who have the courage to be irrelevant, impractical, and irresponsible and, in that way, participate faithfully within God’s mission.
__________
Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology IV, and Prayer.
Jacques Ellul, Hope in Time of Abandonment.
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
N. T. Wright, Following Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, and The Letter to the Romans.

4. Conclusion: Reflection, Motivation, and Consummation
Reflection
At this point we have completed our (brief?) overview of God’s missional story and the way in which Christians are to participate within that story. Like any telling of a story, this telling contains particular nuances, shortcomings, and biases. Indeed, a particular shortcoming of this rendition is the almost total neglect of the significance of the sacraments for living within this story and for engaging in mission. Furthermore, a greater engagement with a broader range of scholars, and with more of the specific biblical texts would greatly aid this model. However, as with all models, this model chooses to selectively highlight particular parts of the biblical narrative, which means that it also neglects others. Thus, if this prolegomena is to become a more complete missiology these issues must be addressed.
However, as suggested in the introduction, these shortcomings are not completely negative in nature but rather are an inevitable consequence of any spirituality of mission. As suggested by M. D. Chenu, all theological systems, are simply expressions of spiritualities, and this model is no exception. We are in agreement with the sentiments of Gustavo Gutierrez when adds to Chenu’s thinking and says: “our methodology is our spirituality.” Therefore, we must recognize that, despite our desire to sketch the big picture of the Story of God-with-us, this paper reflects a certain context and certain experiences. The prolegomena to a narrative spirituality of mission that is developed here is but a contextual expression of a spirituality that has developed from my personal rootedness within the inner-city. This missiology has been definitively marked by my relationships with homeless youth, prostitutes, criminals, drug addicts, and many others who are abandoned simultaneously by their families, society, and the Church. All spiritualities are contextual; indeed, even our affirmation of Jesus’ resurrection –- the event that is the true foundation of all Christian missiologies -– is always a contextual affirmation. As von Balthasar says, “The Church has never spoken of the Resurrection of Jesus in distant or uncommitted terms but gripped and confessing.” Having been forced to recognize the reality of godforsakenness in the experiences of those on the margins -– and in my own experiences alongside of them –- I find any missiology that does not deal explicitly with that theme to be insufficient as a missiology that addresses those on the margins. Thus, just as this spirituality is contextual, it is also experiential. However, it is equally a contemplative spirituality –- one that has spent some time praying about and contemplating these things. Active experiences within a local context do not take away from the contemplative elements of this spirituality, for contemplation can only take place within the context of ongoing discipleship.
However, I do not expect my proposal to be treated as anything more than an “interesting idea” by those who have only known Christian attempts to replicate heaven, and who know little about the hells in which so many people live today. To borrow the words of Jacques Ellul, “if you are not flayed alive by God’s abandonment, if you are not torn apart in the very depth of your being by the delay of his return,” if that is not the reader’s experience, then I suspect that this prolegomena will have little impact upon the reader’s actual approach to living as a part of God’s mission. However, the Spirit can move through many mediums and it is my hope that the reader will be encouraged to move from the place of reading to the place of intimacy with those who are still in exile today. Unless the reader goes on to become the Father through a Spirit-empowered cruciformity, this paper will have failed in its intent. Thus, I reveal my motivation for writing this paper –- and this leads naturally to the question of that which motivates the Christians mission within the Church and the world. Before we can conclude this paper way must address that question more explicitly.
__________
Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale, and Prayer.
Jacques Ellul, Hope in Time of Abandonment.
Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells.

3. Living Within God's Story: The Missio Christianus (conc.)
Becoming Gospel-Bearers and Summation of the Missio Christianus.
Becoming Gospel-Bearers
The final point to be emphasized within this section on living within God’s story is that of the subversive nature of the missio Christianus. Because we live within the movement of overlap, we live in the midst of the tension between the old age and the new age. Indeed, Richard Hays suggests that the overlap of the ages is defined as a time of “cosmic conflict.” Jesus has triumphed over the powers but, for a little while longer, they continue exercise authority in resistance to God’s kingdom. Therefore, as a kingdom people, our missiology presents a revolutionary alternative to the powers. Indeed, by founding our missiology upon the resurrection, we have founded it upon a revolutionary doctrine. The notion of resurrection was always about the new age breaking into the here-and-now, which is why the Sadducees -– the compromised Jewish leaders who benefited from the status quo –- were so eager to deny its existence. The Sadducees, content as they were with the things were, denied the possibility of the resurrection. Consequently, any affirmation of the resurrection of Jesus is “political dynamite!” Tom Wright goes on to fill this thought out in greater detail:
No tyrant is threatened by Jesus going to heaven, leaving his body in a tomb. No governments face the authentic Christian challenge when the church’s social preaching tries to base itself on Jesus’ teaching [apart] from the central and energizing fact of his resurrection.
Resurrection overthrows death, the ultimate power of tyrants, and shows that all things matter and are claimed by God.
The subversive nature of Jesus’ death and resurrection are developed in the political theology of Paul’s gospel, which leads Paul to directly challenge the Roman Empire. This is increasingly becoming clear in contemporary Pauline studies as the previously overlooked nature of Paul’s terminology is become evident. Words like Kyrios, Soter, euaggelion, parousia, and dikaiosyne were all employed by the cult of the Emperor – Caesar was Savior and Lord, the gospel was good news about Caesar, the parousia was the triumphant return of Caesar to the people that he liberated, and the establishment of justice, peace, and righteousness was the accomplishment of Caesar – even the title “Son of God” was claimed by Caesar. By applying such language to Jesus – who died under imperial condemnation – Paul is radically subverting Caesar’s empire, and maintaining the radical politics established by Jesus’ use of the thoroughly political motif of the kingdom of God. Indeed, as Tom Wright says, to suggest to a Roman audience that salvation came through a cross would be akin to slapping the listeners in the face! And to claim that “Jesus is Lord” is, as Wright goes on to say, “the sort of thing that people had to be put into prison for saying… [therefore,] we should not be surprised to discover that that was where Paul was when he wrote half of his letters.”
Of course, as should now be clear, an anti-imperial stance should not be seen as unique to Paul within the context of the Roman empire – subversion and opposition will occur at all times because it is the inevitable confrontation of the gospel with all other powers. After the crucifixion of Jesus, after the subversive affirmation of the one God of the biblical story as the creator of all things, and after being filled with the subversive Spirit of the resurrection, the people of God must inevitably become a counter-cultural community. The good news of the Lordship of Jesus, the empowerment of the Spirit, and the reign of the Father, proclaims to all other rulers and powers that their time is up – their power will no longer be recognized or accepted. All rulers that claim to offer freedom, justice, peace, rights, and salvation have now been revealed as powers that corrupt the very things they claim to offer.
Thus, the Christian participation in the Father’s mission of life-giving and goodness-making requires Christians to live as a people absolutely committed to pursuing peace in a world where the powers rule through violence. In the embrace of cruciformity and godforsakenness that is a part of the Son’s mission, Christians carry this commitment so far that they choose to be killed rather than kill, they choose to be harmed rather than harm. In the embrace of humility, Christians reveal that the power of the Spirit found in weakness is greater than the forceful power wielded by the rulers. In a world where oppression is maintained through fragmentation and cycles of deepening division, Christians participate in the Son’s mission of ending exile and proclaim forgiveness and reconciliation. The Christian community proclaims that “the agonistic logic of rights is replaced by the peaceable logic of reconciliation.” Forgiveness opens the world to God’s future because it denies injustice the last word, and refuses to allow past wrongs to dictate what comes next. In a world where lies are the justification of so much evil, and where so many have bought into self-deprecating and self-destructive notions of who they are, Christians participate in the Spirit’s mission of transformation by speaking truth and comfort. In a world where people have increasingly become isolated, homeless individuals, Christians offer a community, a Church, a return home. In a world of death, dying and meaninglessness, Christians proclaim God’s Story – God’s subversive good news – and offer the resurrection life of the new age here and now.
Living Within God’s Story: Summation of the Missio Christianus
The mission of the Church is to be a community of Gospel-bearers. They are to become Spirit-people, thereby becoming the Son and the Godforsaken, and thereby becoming the Father. The missio Christianus is to live within God’s Story as God’s faithful covenant partner and, concomitantly, as the imago Dei, God’s true humanity. In this way, the Christian mission is to be God-With-Us. Christians are the presence of the Spirit within the physical world, the presence of the Son with the godforsaken, the presence of the Father with his creatures, and the presence of the overflowing perichoresis of the Trinity in a world that is still broken and longing for reconciliation.
Participating in the mission of the Spirit means that God’s Spirit-people bring transformation; they bring resurrection life to a dying world. They bring light, guidance, and truth into places darkness, confusion and deception; and they bring comfort into sorrowful places. Participating in the mission of the Son means that God’s cruciform people journey into the deepest places of exile and godforsakenness in order to bring about the end of exile. As God’s child-heirs, Christians go forth faithfully embodying the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins. Finally, participating in the mission of the Father means that God’s vice-regents are agents of new creation, of new life, of new goodness, and of blessing. As God’s faithful covenant partner, Christians continually proclaim the subversive good news of God the Father, Son, and Spirit, to both the Church and the world. In all these things it is the mission of Christians to hope, to wait, to cry out, and to suffer, but to also rejoice, play, rest, and celebrate. In this way, Christians continually maintain the tension between the cross and the resurrection. They are liberated from their sins, so that they can suffer the consequences of the sins of others. They are called out of exile so that they can descend into hell. They are healed of their own brokenness, so that they can share in the sorrows of those who still weep. The mission of God’s kingly, priestly and prophetic people is to rule just as humbly as their kingly, priestly, and prophetic God rules.
__________
Sources:
Daniel M. Bell Jr., Liberation Theology After the End of History: the refusal to cease suffering.
William T. Cavanaugh, Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism.
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament.
N. T. Wright, “Paul and Caesar,” What Saint Paul Really Said, Paul in Fresh Perspective, and The Resurrection of the Son of God.

3. Living Within God's Story: The Missio Christianus (cont.)
Becoming the Trinity? (Mystery and Dependence)
It must be emphasized that the missio Christianus is the mission of the Church as a corporate body. It is only as a part of a people that any particular person can participate in the missio Dei. To properly discern the Spirit, one must be a part of a corporate body; to be able to persist in cruciformity and in places of godforsakenness, one must be a part of the Church; and to exists as the revelation of the Father, one must be a part of the people of the new covenant that rules in the way that God rules. Of course, the fact that it is the community of faith that acts as the fullest revelation of God leads one to wonder if we can also speak of a movement into becoming the Trinity. Indeed, many theologians are making exactly this argument today, restoring the notion of a “social trinitarianism” to current Christian dialogue.
However, not all have embraced this notion, and Karen Kilby is an articulate and consistent opponent of it. Kilby argues that social trinitarianism engages in a particularly problematic form of projection that makes it distinctly problematic. As Kilby says: “what is projected onto God is immediately reflected back onto the world and this reverse projection is said to be what is in fact important about the doctrine.” Thus, the perichoresis said to bind together the persons of God, is simply an imaginative description of the best of what a given author thinks should bind humans together. Therefore, Kilby warns against attempts to make the Trinity “relevant” and argues that the Trinity is only important in the sense that it allows us to read Scripture in a way that recognizes the divinity of both Jesus and the Spirit, while maintaining that God is one.
Kilby’s desire to exercise caution in the application of trinitarian doctrines should be respected. Certainly this doctrine has been abused in the past. In particular, the notion of the “eternal subordination” of the Son to the Father, has been used to impose an eternal subordination of women to men. In fact, Hans Boersma holds to precisely this notion – even though he critiques social trinitarianism using precisely the same arguments as Kilby! Given such past abuses, it is understandable that Kilby is concerned about too rapidly applying the doctrine of the trinity to whatever gender-perspective is dominant at any given time. However, one must realize that the application of the doctrine of the Trinity to the subordination of women is essentially an abuse of the doctrine – the ecumenical creeds of the Church, and the witness of Scripture all emphatically affirm that the members of the Trinity are co-equal. To try and apply this doctrine to subordinate women is simply “obfuscating terminology to uphold male hegemony.”
However, not only is Kilby’s critique insufficient (she begins by dialoguing with Karl Rahner, Jurgen Moltmann, Colin Gunton, and Patricia Wilson-Kastner but only engages in a concrete critique of Wilson-Kastner -– perhaps the most insignificant of the four), she also overstates her case. The fact is that the triune nature of God is just as significant for Christian living as any of God’s other attributes. Shall we suggest that God’s holiness is only significant as a description of God’s character is it is revealed in Scipture? Certainly not, for we are called to be holy as God is holy. Shall we suggest that God’s love is only significant as a description of God’s character within the biblical story? Certainly, not for we are called to love as God loves, and thereby be perfect in the way that our heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore, as a part of our call to love as God loves, we are also called to model our communal living upon the triune nature for God, for we are called to be one with each other in the way that the Son and the Father (and the Spirit) are one. Therefore, although using the doctrine of the Trinity to affirm gender inequalities is a case of “the tail wagging the dog” the application of the doctrine of the Trinity to affirm a community of radical equality is a natural consequence of this doctrine.
Consequently, we can conclude that the Church, the corporate people of God, reveals the communal nature of the imago Dei. Furthermore, the notion of perichoresis, is an appropriate notion to describe the nature of this communal interaction – and, contra those who want to argue that appeals to social trinitarianism and perichoresis is a new (and, therefore, suspect or heretical) doctrinal fad, it must be noted that this notion dates back to the early Church Fathers. The Church is to be the Spirit-Empowered, cruciform, Father-like revelation of the Trinity as it participates in the missio Dei. All of these elements – empowerment, suffering, being God’s vice-regents and the true humanity -– are fundamentally communal in nature. Living within the story of God is not primarily something that individuals do, it is primarily something a group of people does, and individuals only participate as a part of this people-group. As Michael Gorman says in his concluding reflections on living within God’s Story: “The ‘Church’ lives the story, embodies the story, tells the story. It is the living exegesis of God’s master story of faith, love, power, and hope.” Therefore, the community of people so united with one another and with the broken world that they chose to travel into godforsakenness, actually become, in that process, the imago trinitas.
However, having arrived at these conclusions, the doctrine of the Trinity also forces us to retain a particular element of mystery when we speak of God and of the missio Dei. After all, as we have tried to note, every member of the Trinity is involved in every aspect of that mission. Father, Son, and Spirit all take part in the movements of creation, exile, out-of-exile, overlap, and consummation. Furthermore, the inner perichoretic relationships of the persons of the Trinity also go beyond what we can comprehend or experience, even in our most intimate relationships. Any missiological formulations or reflections upon God are only reflections upon a vision that we have begun to comprehend but will never fully comprehend. As with any human words, whether those be the words of theology, the words of biblical scholars (or even of the bible itself!), the words of missiologists can only bear witness to the Word – they are not the Word in and of themselves.
This reflection upon the mystery of God, should also lead missiologists to a radical dependence upon God – not only in places of godforsakenness, but also in all parts of the missio Christianus and in every form of proclamation. It is only God who can prove himself, and every encounter with God is dependent upon God’s initiative. Encounters with Jesus cannot be fabricated, they depend entirely upon Jesus’ “will to be recognized.” Just as resurrection is an act that entirely depends on God’s power to bring life out of death, so also the radical in-breaking of the new creation is something that can only be accomplished by God. These conclusions do not lead to any sort of fatalism, resignation, or abandonment of mission. Rather, they further the movement into humility that is required of the people who partner with the humble God.
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Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale, and Prayer.
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I.1: The Doctrine of the Word of God, and Dogmatics in Outline.
Kevin Giles, “The Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God and the Contemporary Gender Debate.”
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Colin Gunton, The One, the Three and the Many.
Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells.
Karen Kilby, “Perichoresis and Projection: Problems with the Social Doctrine of the Trinity.”
Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, and God in Creation.
Karl Rahner, The Trinity.
Patricia Wilson-Kastner, Faith, Feminism and the Christ.

3. Living Within God's Story: The Missio Christianus (cont.)
Movement 4. Becoming the Father
However, the conclusion that Christians become the godforsaken in order to become the image of the Father, does not state our case quite strongly enough. As the godforsaken, Christians already are the revelation of the Father. This is so because the humble, crucified, dead, and then resurrected Jesus is the fullest revelation not only of the Son, but also of the Father. Thus, Moltmann argues, the crucifixion requires a “revolution in the concept of God.” Jesus’ choice to die in a place of complete abandonment is performed, as Gorman says, as an act of “family resemblance” and this means that “Cruciformity is the character of God.”
The corollary of this is that we must engage in an equally radical revolution in the concept of the imago Dei. Just as God and the cross are “inextricably interrelated” so now the imago Dei and the cross must always go hand-in-hand. Because Jesus is the imago Dei, Christians, by becoming the imago Christi, thereby become the revelation of the gloria Dei. By becoming the Son, in all of his godforsakenness, Christians become the presence of the Father in the godless places of the world. For as long as creation is broken those who are a part of God’s new and true humanity will be revealed as those who embrace godforsakenness.
Therefore, the Christian process of discipleship must not stop at emulating the Son –- is if such emulation is possible in isolation from emulation of the Father. Henri Nouwen insists that the ultimate question is that of becoming the Father. The Father cannot remain “the Other” as we move into our Christian identity. “My final vocation,” Nouwen writes, “is indeed to become like the Father… what greater joy can there be for me than to stretch out my tired arms and let my hands rest in a blessing on the shoulders of my home-coming children?”
Becoming the Father means that Christian share in the Father’s mission of reigning by creating life and goodness. Participating in the mission of the Father as Creator -– whose original act of creation was already an act of new creation, and whose act of creating goodness added new goodness to a state that was already good –- means that Christians cannot settle for simply sustaining goodness as it exists right now. The act of sustaining the status quo belongs more to the movement of exile and not to the movement of overlap within which the new creation is already breaking in. Christians will always be actively bringing forth new life and moving ever deeper into the processing of giving birth to that which is good. Therefore, becoming the Father means participating in a movement of ongoing transformation. In bringing forth life and goodness, Christians fulfill the mandate of God’s vice-regents and reveal the way in which the Father rules. As John Goldingay says: “As the exercise of God’s authority is designed to free human beings to be themselves, so the exercise of human authority is designed to free nature to be itself.” This is why the reign of God’s vice-regents is also marked by the humility of the Father, Son, and Spirit. God’s delegates affirm life to such a degree that they are never willing to take life – even if that means they must lose their own lives. God’s vice-regents affirm goodness to such an extent that they are never willing to settle for “the least of the evils” –- even if that means that they must suffer the consequences of evil themselves. Once again we discover a reign that contradicts, and stands in subversive opposition to, all other powers. Over against all the powers that argue that they are “Sons of God,” that they are the image of God, and that they share in the authority of God, Christians argue that God’s Sons, God’s image, and God’s authority is revealed in the form of humility that embraces abandonment. In this way, Christians become the revelation of God-With-Us. Christians, by becoming the Father, become the presence of God with creation!
Finally, becoming the Father means participating in God’s rest, pleasure and celebration in and with creation. Becoming the Father means becoming God’s festive Sabbath-people. Indeed, as Moltmann notes, the movement of the Sabbath is the necessary corollary to the movement out of exile, and they cannot be separated from each other –- no movement out of exile really brings liberation unless it results in Sabbath, and there is no real Sabbath without freedom from exile. Just as the creation narrative of Gen 1/2 culminates in God’s day of rest, so the missio Christianus will culminate in a time of universal shalom, and this is precisely what is anticipated when the people of God rest, play, and feast together and with the world. Such rest is possible, even within the hells of godforsakenness, because Christians realize that God is not only in the process of saving the world, God already has saved the world. God is not simply bringing us out of exile, he has already defeated exile once and for all. Rest is not an act of surrender or resignation – rest is a proclamation of victory! Therefore, even as we root ourselves within the last strongholds of death we can live there as a peaceful and joyful people that “only has to wait” for God to return and make all things new. Indeed, even this playful resting is subversive to all other powers that either do not allow rest, or use games to further their domination. In opposition to these games Christians play with the freedom of beloved innocence, and in this way becomes possible to anticipate liberation in playing and, as Moltmann says, “with laughing rid ourselves of the bonds which alienate us.”
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Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer.
Walter Brueggemann, Old Testiment Theology: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy.
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Jurgen Moltmann, God in Creation, The Way of Jesus Christ, Theology and Joy, and The Crucified God.
Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son.
Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmat, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.

3. Living Within God's Story: The Missio Christianus (cont.)
Movement 3. Becoming the Godforsaken
The ultimate movement of redemptive suffering is Jesus’ death as the Abandoned One. Jesus’ greatest triumph over exile comes through his descent into godforsakenness and hell. Therefore, it is also a part of the missio Christianus to enter into, and experience, this place. Indeed, the lonesomeness of Jesus on the cross, which gives birth to the Church, should also stamp a particular characteristic of lonesomeness onto the Church. As von Balthasar suggests, the Church is first truly born when, from the cross, Jesus gives his mother to the disciple that he loved, and gives that disciple to his mother: “this is the assembly of two acutely abandoned people gathered around the Abandoned One… How could the birthmark of this origin not continually brand such a community!” Indeed, there is a sense that, even as we live within the movement of the overlap of the ages, we live within a time of abandonment and loneliness because Jesus has departed and ascended into heaven.
At this point, it seems to be a general inclination to think of “the dark night of the soul.” However, I want to maintain a certain amount of distance from that notion for three main reasons. First of all, the notion of the “dark night of the soul” is far too individualistic. The notion of godforsakenness that we are exploring has far more to do with corporate experiences of exile where God abandons people, not just one person. Secondly, the notion of the “dark night of the soul” is far too internal and otherworldly. The notion that godforsakenness is an internal experience that one has within one’s “soul” is not very useful when one tries to explore notions of exile that have to do with bodies, with economics and with socio-political issues. Here, we are speaking of the dark night of the family, the dark night of the community, the dark night of a nation, the dark night of a people. Finally, we are distancing ourselves from the notion of “the dark night of the soul” because we feel that the more biblical notions of exile, and Jesus’ descent into hell, are more accurate lenses through which to explore our movement into godforsakenness.
Just as with our reflections on cruciformity, so now we discover that Christians have been saved from hell so that they can follow Jesus’ footsteps and descend into hell. Following Jesus means passing through death and darkness. By the Spirit’s power, Christians participate in Jesus’ descent and this culminates in “being dead with the dead God.” Some have tried to argue that Jesus’ godforsakenness has put an end to godforsakenness once and for all but, given the preceding argument, Jacques Ellul seems to be more accurate when he argues that Christ and the cross do not put and end to godforsakenness but reveal “the ultimate possibility of this abandonment.” God’s out-of-exile people are called out of exile so that they can move into the deepest places of exile in order to bring exile to an end. Just as we are called to “take the pain of the world into ourselves and give it over to Jesus so that the world may be healed” so also we are called to take the godforsakenness of the world into ourselves so that those in the hells of exile might be able to discover Jesus there with them.
By fulfilling this movement into godforsakenness, Christians simultaneously fulfill the commission that Jesus gives to his disciples to go out making disciples, and the creation mandate within which humanity is told to fill the world. Instead of being cast out Christians are now sent out as God’s heralds. Instead of being scattered, Christians go forth to gather people into the body of Christ. Instead of being torn from the Holy Land, Christians are commissioned to go forth and claim the whole earth as God’s Holy Land. Thus, the movement of the people of God into exile actually manifests the way in which Jesus overturned the exile of Israel, of the nations, and of humanity.
To discuss cruciformity and the embrace of godforsakenness within a prolegomena to a narrative spirituality of mission is one thing. To actually go forth carrying a cross, to actually descend into the hells of this world, is quite another thing altogether. Such notions may sound like a noble romance or an exotic adventure -– until one actually begins to experience such things. When one actually begins to experience places where God is absent and silent, when one experiences pain and sees one’s loved ones experience pain, such illusions are quickly dispersed. One quickly realizes that to be godforsaken with the godforsaken means journeying into a very real, and very devastating state of brokenness. This is not romantic, it hurts too much. This is not noble, it is too ineffective. This is not an adventure, it is a nightmare.
When Christians begin to come to these conclusions they can be certain that they are located where the Church should be –- in the depths of exile -– and, although it may seem impossible, they must remain in those places. Furthermore, Christians must absolutely refuse to manipulate or create the type of salvation that they claim can only come from God. Christians go forth proclaiming the salvation won by Jesus and, like Jesus, rely entirely upon God to bring that salvation to pass. The Christian movement into godforsakenness is, therefore, not a fundamentally pragmatic movement -– it is a movement entirely dependent upon God’s grace. Having observed how false saviors, and human attempts at salvation, consistently degenerate into further violence, as the oppressed go on to become the oppressor, Christians must rely entirely upon God for salvation. As is suggested in Isaiah, those who try to create fire through which to see and be saved, only ever end up burning themselves. It is God’s faithful servant who walks steadfastly into the darkness trusting entirely to God for salvation. The key characteristic of the servant is faithfulness, not relevance, pragmatics, or success as it is defined within the market economy.
Therefore, those who journey into godforsakenness will be defined by three actions: hoping, waiting, and crying out. Hope, so regularly neglected within the dialogue of comfortable Christian churches, is absolutely essential to Christian living and must be recovered. Of course, until Christians journey into cruciformity and godforsakenness, hope will be marginalized. When one is comfortable, when one is (mostly) satisfied, or when one is simply too busy to deal with other things, hope plays only a minor role – being mostly focused on the hope of “heaven.” However, once one journeys into places of pain, brokenness, and great discomfort, hope must become central; for, without hope, one cannot remain in those places. Hope is, as Jacques Ellul says, “an absurd act of confidence.” It is the affirmation that the God who is not with us, is no God at all. Hope, as Dan Bell Jr. argues, is “a wager on God.” The God who remains silent cannot be the God of the biblical narrative. Therefore, hope in places of godforsakenness borders on blasphemy. It rejects God’s silence and absence. In the provocative words of Ellul, hope says: “I summon you [God] not to be an idol, not to act like a false God, since I know that you are God. I summon you to speak, since you are the Word.” Furthermore, hope realizes that it is exactly our movement into exile that is the proof of God’s proximity. Secondly, just as the servant who walks into darkness, refusing to light his own fire, God’s hopeful people refuse to take matters into their own hands. They wait for the Spirit to come, they wait for the Word to speak, they wait for the Father to act. They are a people who have “bet their whole lives” on God’s promises, and they wait in expectation of the fulfillment of those promises –- realizing they cannot fulfill the promises themselves. Finally, God’s people who become the godforsaken are a people who cry out. Like Jesus (and the Psalmist) they cry: “Our God, our God, why have you forsaken us?” knowing that God will respond to that cry by coming with the power of the resurrection. Like Israel in slavery, they cry with groans that reach to heaven, knowing that God will “hear,” “see,” “remember,” and “come down” to bring an end to exile. Like all creation that still groans, they situate themselves at the groaning-places of the world and direct that groan to heaven, knowing that the Spirit takes up that groaning, and makes it salvific. The groanings and the tears of God’s people will persist for until the day when God is all in all. Of course, this waiting, hopeful, painful cry, that appears to border on blasphemy, is actually a cry of worship, for it recognizes that everything depends on God – it is a grabbing hold of God and refusing to let go. It is the kind of cry that only the people who live within God’s story can make, for the people who live within God’s story are those who remember what God has done and what God has promised to do.
Thus, by moving into the deepest places of exile and godforsakenness, by descending into hell, God’s Spirit-empowered cruciform people complete their participation in the mission of the Son. Marvelously, because this is the fulfillment of that mission, this is also the place where God’s people are most fully revealed as God’s true humanity. Shockingly, God’s people, when they move into places of godforsakenness, become, like Jesus, the fullest revelation of the Father and his glory! Christians become godforsaken so that they can become the Father.
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Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale, and Prayer.
Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline.
Dan Bell Jr., Liberation Theology after the End of History: the refusal to cease suffering.
Jacques Ellul, Hope in Time of Abandonment.
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ.
N. T. Wright, The Crown and the Fire.

3. Living Within God's Story: The Missio Christianus (cont.)
Movement 2. Becoming the Cruciform Son
As the head of the body, as the crucified and resurrected Lord, Jesus, the Son, is the prototype of all those who are lead by the Spirit. Therefore, as we concluded in our previous section, following Jesus in a victorious manner, means following his road to the cross. Unfortunately, this approach seems to conflict with the actual practice of many contemporary Western Christians. As Moltmann argues: “The idea of following Christ has been neglected by bourgeois Protestantism, because it no longer recognized or wished to recognize the suffering church.” However, if we are to be a cruciform people -– a people conformed to the crucified Christ -– there must be a dynamic correspondence in our daily life to the story of Jesus’ death. Our life in Christ must be defined as Paul defines it –- as the koinonia of Christ’s sufferings. Therefore, if we are to truly demonstrate our faith in Jesus, we must be a cross-shaped people. As Moltmann argues, in response to his own lament about the state of “bourgeois Protestantism”: “To believe in the cross of Christ… means to let oneself be crucified with him.”
However, this suffering is not simply suffering for the sake of suffering. There is nothing masochistic about the Christian movement into cruciformity. Nor is the Christian movement into suffering an act of resignation to the notion that “all life is suffering, so we might as well embrace it.” Indeed, following Jesus on the road to the cross is exactly the opposite of all such forms of resignation. Moving into active suffering is actually an act of protest against any form of reality that simply accepts suffering as it is. Cruciformity is “suffering against suffering,” it is suffering that is embraced in order to contradict the “reality” of ongoing suffering.
It is through cross-shaped lives that Christians continue the mission of the Son. It is by becoming conformed to the cross of Jesus that Christians continue to reveal the end of exile. It is through conformity to the cross of Jesus that Christians fulfill Israel’s mission to be a light to the world and fulfill humanity’s role as the imago Dei. By participating in the sufferings of Jesus, God’s cruciform people are revealed as God’s faithful covenant partner. Just as Jesus ongoing faithful obedience lead him to the cross, and revealed him as God’s Son and covenant partner, so also the ongoing faithful obedience of Christians will lead them to the cross and thereby reveal them as God’s faithful covenant partner. Just as Jesus drew onto himself the pain of Israel (as Israel drew on the pain of he world) so also, the church, in the Spirit, attempts to be for the world what Jesus was for the world. By suffering in this way, Christians participate in the missio Dei in the same manner that God does – with a great deal of humility, undergoing a great deal of humiliation. This emphasis upon humiliation takes away any romantic notions from Christian suffering. Christians will suffer and be rejected, they should not expect to be praised or honored for traveling the road of the cross.
Yet Christian suffering is salvific. Christians face cruciform rejection so that the world might be saved. This is not to negate the complete and total victory won by Jesus on the cross. Christians suffering is not an identical replication of Jesus’ achievement. Rather, in their suffering, Christians cause the salvation won by Jesus to burst into the present moment. This is what it is to “make of what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” As Tom Wright so aptly puts it: “[The church’s] role is to be Christ-shaped: to bear the pain and shame of the world in its own body, that the world might be healed,” therefore:
this is the vocation of the Church: to take on the sadness of the world and give back no anger; the sorrow of the world and give back no bitterness; the pain of the world, and not sink into self-pity; but to return forgiveness and love, blessing and joy.
Christians have been healed so that they can take on the world’s sickness; they have been given joy so that they can share the world’s sorrows; they have been made victorious so that they can lay down their lives. Therefore, those who want to offer Christianity as a grand escape from all personal suffering have fundamentally misunderstood the Christian identity. Perhaps such a proclamation will fill churches, but it will fill churches with a people intent on fleeing from suffering –- and in this way the church will craft a people who are fundamentally incapable of fulfilling the call to become God’s cruciform Son through the power of the Spirit.
Finally, it should be noted that the suffering of God’s cruciform people will not only be a suffering that they encounter as they engage with secular and pagan powers, and with a world that does not know the one true God. Indeed, a great deal of the suffering experienced by God’s people will come from within the body of those who claim to be the people of God. Jesus was crucified by the Romans, but he was handed over by the Jewish leaders. Jesus realized that Israel’s leaders -– her kings and priests and so-called prophets -– were actually opponents of God and God’s true people! Furthermore, Jesus’ experience was the standard experience of many within Israel who understood what it truly meant to live as God’s covenant partner. Therefore, God’s Spirit-people, God’s cruciform covenant partner, should not be shocked if she discovers that much of the worst afflictions she encounters come from within the church. Yet this does not mean that the church should be abandoned. Just as Jesus did not abandon Israel, so also God’s cruciform people must continue to journey in the midst of a church that wounds them mortally. We must heed the words of von Balthasar: “Jesus died for and in Israel; why should not the saints to that for the Church?” The mission of God’s cruciform people is to heal both the world and the Church. They suffer, and do so salvifically, in both of these places.
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Sources:
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology: IV, and Prayer.
Michael Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament.
Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, and Theology of Hope.
N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, The Resurrection of the Son of God, The Climax of the Covenant, The Crown and the Fire, and Following Jesus.