Why I don’t say “but Sundays coming” on Good Friday

It’s a seemingly innocent phrase I know. But I’m concerned that it has actually created some serious struggles within many people’s relationship with God.

And I do think these kinds of phrases that “wish away” or “skip ahead” of the reality of Silent Saturday are a small example of the context that has created much of the deconstruction happening right now.

Because it’s one thing to say “but Sundays coming.” And it’s another thing to actually live with the reality of Silent Saturday.

For many, it creates a spiritual dissonance. It ignores a crucial reality of the Christian life.

And most times it reveals that we as Christians can misunderstand God, and thus miss His invitation into what He has for us in embracing Silent Saturday.

We can misunderstand when God seems to be silent.

We can misunderstand when God seems to be inactive.

We can misunderstand when God seems to be distant.

These misunderstandings are fairly consistent among God’s people historically and still today.

Many Christians (myself included for too much of my life) were not taught sufficiently how to understand when it seems like God is silent, inactive, or distant.

Though theologically most of us know that because of God’s self-revelation through Creation, Scripture, and Jesus – He could never actually be considered silent, inactive, nor distant.

It still feels this way many times for many people. And it’s a struggle to understand what’s going on when we experience these things…

And we aren’t the only ones who have wrestled with these realities.

Of course, Job is the most extensive story on God being seemingly silent, inactive, and distant.

However, we also see these realities in the final days of Jesus.

In his time in prayer in the garden where God appears to be silent.

In his time during the trial and beatings where God appears to be inactive.

And in his time on the cross where God appears to be distant.

Remember:

“He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief…He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away…He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave…”
Isaiah 53:1-12 (NLT)

So how do we understand these experiences?

I would propose that Silent Saturday holds the key to understanding them.

And most of us have not embraced Silent Saturday enough to have gleaned the lesson it has for us.

Either our emphasis is on Good Friday – usually focused on man’s activity of sin & repentance,

Or on Resurrection Sunday – usually focused on God’s activity of grace & salvation,

Has many times caused us to minimize or ignore completely Silent Saturday and what this day of “inactivity” means for us.

Silent Saturday is an invitation into the in-between, into the already-not yet, into the every day life experience of the Christian.

You see, the majority of experiences in life are those between the lows and highs.

They’re the times waiting on something or someone.

They’re the times where answers aren’t clear.

They’re the times that you know what’s next but aren’t there yet.

They’re the times when God is likely inviting you into knowing Him beyond your own activity or your need for His activity.

When He is saying:

Just allow me to be with you

and allow yourself to be with me,

without needing anything from me

or imposing an expectation on yourself that you think I have of you.

When He is saying:

Just be quiet.

Still your soul.

And trust me.

When He is saying:

It’s okay if you need to focus on the every day things of life,

just know that I’m in those too just as much as I’m in the highs and lows.

See, it’s the invitation of Silent Saturday that informs a full understanding of a relationship with God.

Something beyond simply being saved by Him or servants of Him.

But instead being His friends [John 15:15].

Without it we find ourselves stuck in the cycle of our continual need for God to constantly be at work “saving us from our sins.”

Death and Resurrection, while crucial components, are not the full Gospel story.

Burial is a crucial part of the story.

Silence is in the middle of death and life.

The space between Friday and Sunday is the space relationships are made of.

And it’s a space God is inviting you to spend time in this Holy Week.

Don’t miss His invitation amid the commotion of the cross and the crowds.

He’ll be there.

Expecting you’ll know Him.

In the silence of Saturday.

When we talk about deconstructing, what are we saying…

Are you even in the “church world” in 2021 if you don’t hear the term deconstruction at least every other day?

This past year and a half has proven difficult for a variety reasons. One of the main ones is how rapidly language is coming at people. Especially complex philosophical concepts that come out of very specific worldviews.

This is only compounded by the reality that most people don’t have the time to research these things. And thus sometimes don’t fully understand things before they decide whether it’s a helpful concept to describe their life or not.

Which is one of the reasons why I’ve started this Words Matter blog series.

If you didn’t know, the term deconstruction wasn’t made up this past year – though it may feel like it was to some. And it would take far more than this one short blog for me to explain it fully.

I’ve spent much of my adult life wrestling with philosophical concepts, especially those related to communication – like how we explain the experiences of our life. And the biggest tension within these conversations is that they all (whether someone likes it or not) come from a particular worldview.

[A worldview is a way someone thinks that helps them make sense of the world and then is ultimately determinative for how they will live in the world with others.]

In the case of the term deconstruction, especially in how it’s being used in popular Christian circles today, there are multiple problems. But the biggest is that if we look at the dictionary definition of the term, then we will see that what many are calling “deconstruction” in popular Christian circles is not likely deconstruction at all.

Deconstruction can be defined as “the breaking down of an idea or concept into smaller parts to look at how it can imply things that it may not overtly state.” I did this kind of work (though not expressly called deconstruction) in my undergraduate degree. I understand the point of a process like this, how to do the process, and the importance of doing it from a healthy place and not a place of pain (or anger, or dissatisfaction, etc.).

Deconstruction as a philosophical construct and a means of analysis is one thing.

“Deconstruction” as a word Christians are using to explain a more generalized “question everything” mindset seems to be quite another thing.

Basically, whether intended or not, it has become the catch-all term for people wanting to “flip tables” or “burn everything to the ground” or whatever other colloquial phrase we want to use. I get that desire. Believe me, I do. But in my estimate it is not the intention of such an analysis, nor a healthy mindset with which to enter into such a process.

[Spoken as someone who has entered into such a process in an unhealthy way before, and it was very unhelpful and actually caused me to be unable to see the very things I needed to see for the process to be helpful.]

While some are correctly using the term, many are using it in ways that not only doesn’t fit the basic definition but more important doesn’t describe what it is they are actually experiencing (likely unintentionally).

What I’m about to say Christians know better than anyone: Sometimes what someone describes as the reality is not actually what the reality is. We as humans struggle many times to find the words to completely describe what is happening inside us or around us. We may be trying our best, and yet we can miss the full picture.

Therefore, we have to continually try to get at what people are actually experiencing. What are they trying to describe? Not just what word they are using because they’ve heard others use it to try and say “this is what I’m going thru.”

[This blog is way too short to get into this in an in-depth way, but deconstruction is also hugely impacted by someone’s worldview. If you’d like to do some more reading on stuff like this I suggest looking into books on worldviews like James Sire’s book “The Universe Next Door.”]

Which brings me to the main point of this blog: When we talk about deconstructing, what are we saying?

What is the actual experience we are attempting to explain to other people?

Are we just using a word others are using because it’s the word we’ve been told explains what is happening? Does it accurately describe what we are going through?

As a Christian, this should also include us asking 2 other specific questions as followers of Jesus:

Does God (in the Bible) provide me with language to understand what I am going through?
Are there Christians in previous generations that have gone thru this experience before and have tried to explain it?

[An observation: I find much of this is happening in “protestant” circles where people have mostly disconnected themselves from the historic Church. There are those who have gone before us who have wrestled with the things we are currently wrestling with. It’s typically helpful to have “spiritual guides” who have walked the path we are walking who can help give us language to understand it. Too often today Christians are looking to words and concepts that come from those who have not walked the path we are walking (and it typically means that language will inevitably be describing quite a different journey or will be an incomplete description of the journey). I know we love to use “new language” for things in our American culture today. But many times the “old language” is the best way of explaining what it is people are going through.]

When I talk to many Christians today who would consider themselves “deconstructing” (and I’ve found it’s actually less people than gets portrayed on social media), I find that most are experiencing what other Christians who have gone before us have described as a “dark night of the soul” (John of the Cross), or “the wall” (Hagberg & Guelich), or “the second half of life” (Richard Rohr). And there’s several other descriptions that seem to fit in various ways.

This experience that people are attempting to describe as a part of the Christian journey is not unknown to Christianity. While we may be experiencing it as a new thing, it is also not actually new at all. Which shouldn’t surprise us since the Bible teaches us that there is “nothing new under the sun.”

God is not caught off-guard by it.

We are not the first generation of Christians to experience it.

We likely only didn’t see it coming because no one informed us that it would.

And it’s not actually the process of deconstruction for most.

Since words matter greatly, because they shape the way we navigate the world around us, I am suggesting we reframe the conversation using different language. Deconstruction does not seem to fit what many people are trying to describe as their experience. There are those who are actually participating in a genuine deconstruction, but most seem to be experiencing something else and need more helpful language to describe it.

[I know, because until I explored this experience more deeply, I would have used the word deconstruction to describe what I had gone thru multiple times in my life up to this point.]

The reality is also that we ultimately need to more often use Biblical language to talk about a Biblical faith journey.

That we should look to the language that is used in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

And that we should look to the language that is used by Jesus.

So, after much thought about my own experiences and much time spent listening to people attempting to describe similar experiences, my suggestion would be to focus on the concept of refining or purification.

Specifically a refining by fire.

Whether it’s in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Zechariah, Malachi, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Revelation or even in Jesus’ own teachings that direct us toward the imagery of the “refiner’s fire,” this seems to be a much more helpful imagery and concept for describing what many are describing that they are going thru in this season (and what I’ve gone thru several times in my life at this point, including a pretty serious one this past year and a half).

Why does this matter? Why would this language and imagery be more helpful?

And why do I think it’s unhelpful to use a term like deconstruction to describe what most are going thru during this season?

Because in a relationship with Jesus we have a foundation upon which everything is built. We have valuable frameworks that are built upon that foundation. And simply demolishing the entire thing (including the framework and foundation) will not actually produce the result some may think it will. It usually isn’t even what they say they want and is certainly not God’s desire based upon what we read in the Bible.

But refining fire language will help us navigate these things.

One important reason why a refining fire is more helpful language is that it places the emphasis of the process upon the fire itself (a consistent Biblical image for God) instead of on ourselves. Which is the reality of what we go thru anyways…whether we acknowledge it or not.

God is the one directing or allowing the process to happen. So we might as well just name it up front.

A refining by fire certainly does mean questioning whether things belong (are they actually framework or foundation, or are they easily burned up by fire?).

But it also means you acknowledge from the start that there is a foundation and a framework (made of stone and precious metal) that will remain when the questioning is over.

Which is why listening to Christians who have described this experience historically is also important. Because they remind us that this is an experience God actually meets us in and walks with us thru (and maybe even initiates). Even if it doesn’t seem like He’s there. And that the foundation and framework will remain (even though much of this experience may be disorienting).

It’s also helpful language because going thru a refining fire is evidence of faith.

It actually requires faith to enter the difficulty of the fire and come out the other side purified.

Philosophy and faith are not diametrically opposed. But that doesn’t mean all philosophical language is always helpful in navigating faith.

In this instance, I would say that the philosophical language of deconstruction is not helpful in describing this experience of the faith journey that many are currently going through.

So maybe we could try using the language of refining fire instead, and see what happens.

I mean, what do you have to lose? If you are someone who is already “questioning everything” (I’ve been there, so I’m not speaking negatively about doing that), then you might as well question the word you’ve been using to see if it accurately describes what you’re going through anyway…

If you’re interested in exploring this more, feel free to reach out. It’s a journey I’m on. Maybe you’re on it too. And it’s always helpful to have companions on this kind of journey.

This is a Reformation

I’m going to make a seemingly bold (and yet not really all that bold claim):
We are in a Reformation.

In actuality, we are always in “reformation.” This is why the reformers of the 16th century variety coined the phrase “semper reformanda” or “the church reformed, always reforming.”

It’s the reality that we are always being re-formed, if we are active in a relationship with God. On an individual level, being formed continuously into the likeness of Jesus. On a church level, being formed continuously into the body of Jesus for the sake of the world.

However, there are also times in history where there is noticeable change to how The Church organizes itself and is present in the world (or in actuality usually ends up divided in the goal of bringing change). It usually happens alongside noticeable societal change – which is many times indirectly related.

We have seen Reformations (big “R”) like this about every 500 years according to most church historians (it’s not a science, but it’s pretty close to being predictable).

And I would like to suggest that we are in the beginnings of another Reformation right now.

Years ago I heard people claim this was true about the different “nondenominational,” mega-church, or emergent church movements we were seeing. But that didn’t really pan out as an actual Reformation. All of that was really just progressions of what currently existed (whether organizationally or intellectually).

But what’s happening now.
Along all sorts of lines – the failures of celebrity leaders, the issues of racial disharmony, the seeming frailty of the current church models to withstand persecution, and the rise of The Church in the global South and East.
In pretty much every church, denomination, or network.
It looks like a Reformation to me.

The intense and widespread deconstruction that is happening (specifically among many American Christians) must be followed by a massive reconstruction that must look a lot different than what was in many ways falling apart anyways. And what is reconstructed must look more like the early church we read about in Acts.

That was then, this is now

The last Reformation in the 16th century was about The Church in the West returning to God’s intention, but the thing that needed to be addressed most immediately was a problem of right teaching.

This Reformation today is also about The Church in the West returning to God’s intention, but the thing that needs to be addressed most immediately is a problem of right relationship(s).

It has the same end: to return us to the original Scriptural vision of God’s New Testament people (see the book of Acts).
But it does not have the same means.

Right teaching is important, of course. We should never diminish that. And teaching and relationships are ultimately tied together. And so in the 16th century Reformation there was much to say about doctrinal issues – or what The Church taught. However, the context we are working with today is different than the context of the previous Reformation. And thus, the focus of the Reformation needs to focus on relational issues – how The Church lives.

Part of this is likely because we are in the age of information. Anyone can gain access to all the orthodox teachings of Scripture from excellent communicators of the truth (like The Bible Project). So what people need from The Church right now is less around the forming of correct ideas (though incorrect ideas need to be confronted) and more around the forming of right relationships – to God, to one another, and also to the world.

One leads to the other. And both things must ultimately be held together. But (to use a medical analogy) The Church in the West is hemorrhaging (specifically in America) – and not just numerically, spiritually as well. And to “stop the bleeding,” we must start with right relationship in order to be able to address right teaching as well.

Too many seem to have more of a relationship with their preferred idealized version of church than with the very God who establishes The Church. Too many purport to “know” the Truth without the evidence of being “known” by the Teacher.

And when teaching is placed above relationship (and not alongside of it), and then the correct value of relationship is also lost – it can morph the Gospel into a transactional proposition and not a transforming presence.

It also then influences the way we form relationships with other believers (inside the organized church especially). Churches end up connected by their ideology or vision statement or pithy sayings or denominational perspective, as opposed to by the Spirit that inhabits and knits them together.

We end up forming “Bible studies,” “Sunday schools” and “small groups” in highly transactional ways (not relational ways) and call those transactions “community” or “discipleship.” Of which they are rarely either.

Dissonance and Discipleship

This is a difficult critique of one’s faith or faith community. And I recognize that, because I’ve been living in this difficulty and leading in the church amidst this dissonance now for well over a decade.

I’ve seen how transactional I was taught faith was. I’ve experienced how transactional I was modeled church to be. I’ve noticed how transactional I was trained evangelism should go.

A dissonance has been created. In many cases, as The Church in America, we aren’t who we say we are. Which causes all sorts of discomfort.

That’s the problem with a Reformation really: it disrupts our comfort.

The current Reformation, while targeting ideas as well, is not as much about reforming the teaching of the church – as the most recent one was.

Instead, it’s targeting the values and lifestyle of the church, and is primarily about reforming us to live beyond the shallow and even nonexistent relationships the church has allowed to be counted as “discipleship” for far too long.

Jesus may very well have been after The Church’s “mind” in the last Reformation.

But it seems like Jesus is after The Church’s “heart” in this one.

Jesus may very well have been after The Church’s “mind” in the last Reformation.
But it seems like Jesus is after The Church’s “heart” in this one.
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What must change?

The mind will need to be renewed as well, no doubt. But the heart needs a complete reformation this time around.

Too many in The Church have allowed our hearts to be wooed by other lovers.

Politics. Business. Popularity. Comfort. Pride. Greed. Power.

And The Church has too often followed suit in idolizing the lovers of the hearts of its people and leaders.

Thus the need for a Reformation focused firstly upon right relationships.

And our brothers and sisters from The Church in the East and global South should be our guides. We must learn from them how to again live faithfully amidst the difficulties of this world. Leadership for this Reformation in The West will have to continue to emerge. But our best hope for recovering what we have lost is to mutually submit ourselves to our Church family that is thriving all over the world – and stop looking pridefully to ourselves for all the answers.

We must return again to the fullness of a love relationship with God – Father, Son, and Spirit; not merely a conversion transaction for the purpose of going to Heaven one day.

We must return again to the unity of a love relationship with one another – The Church actually being the church across a community, not merely allegiance to “my church.”

We must return again to the calling of a love relationship with our neighbors – for God so loved the entire world, not just the ones we perceive to be “like us.”

And the depth of spirituality that these right relationships will produce can be seen throughout the history of The Church, and is still seen all over the world in the places Scriptural Christianity is thriving. We see it evidenced in the church in Acts, in the early church mothers and fathers, in the monastic communities, in the awakenings and revivals in the West of the last several centuries, and continuing in the global South and the East:

Organic relationships that lead to spiritual family being valued over organizational leadership principles.
Rhythms of a shared life together being valued over religious services offered by religious professionals.
Spirit-led conversations that take place in the context of genuine friendships being valued over strategic “gospel presentations.”
Equipping believers to disciple those around them being valued over entertaining church attendees who simply “invite their friends” to a religious experience.
Grace-filled and generous servant leaders who model empathy and patience being valued over goal-oriented and gregarious influencers who rarely enter into the mess of the brokenness of their own life nor the lives of others.

Jesus is calling The Church in the West to once again walk thru the wilderness of a Reformation in order to return to the right relationship(s) He’s desired for us all along.

Will we follow Him there?

With that in mind, read the words of God to His people thru the prophet Hosea, as they are still no doubt His words to us today:

And now, here’s what I’m going to do:
    I’m going to start all over again.
I’m taking you back out into the wilderness
    where we had our first date, and I’ll court you.
I’ll give you bouquets of roses.
    I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.
You’ll respond like you did as a young girl,
    those days when you were fresh out of Egypt.
HOSEA 2:14-15 [The Message; emphasis added]