DETROIT, Mich. — Dr. Mark Labberton, Presbyterian minister and president of Fuller Theological Seminary, set forth a vision of church living today as God’s people in an exilic reality. He used the Old Testament book of Daniel, which he described as being “held prisoner not by the lion’s den but by the felt-board,” to help the church see what a faithful witness in exile looks like.
He said that too many people view the faithful life as lived in the promised land. Acknowledging that the ultimate promise of God that His people will live with Him in the promise of heaven, the reality of life on earth is as much about living in exile. Daniel helps us understand what it looks like to establish ourselves as a peculiar people who live faithfully “no matter whose house we’re living in.”
With wit and wisdom, Labberton continued his Bible lesson. Daniel 2, he said, begs the question, “When the oppressor has a spiritual crisis are God’s people willing to,” (referencing Jeremiah 29), “seek the shalom of the city?”
Ultimately, Labberton said, Daniel 3 is about “the mesmerizing rhythms.”
“Idolatry always works best in mesmerizing rhythms,” and, Labberton contends, “mesmerizing rhythms are a common human captivity.”
The greater danger is not the fire
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not captivated by the mesmerizing rhythm of worshiping the image of an idol set up in Babylon. They knew that the fire was not the greater danger. Evidenced by their response to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3: 16, “we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.”
The perspective of faith in the faithfulness of God to redeem them either from the fire or from a life captivity through the fire set them utterly free. “They were free to live faithfully in exile,” Labberton said.
The freedom of the exilic life, he said, is “unhooked life in the midst of mesmerizing rhythms” of the idolatry of our day.
The professor instructed his audience about the purpose of exile as a tool of discipline by God. Israel’s exile was not the fault of the Babylonians no more than the Church’s post-Christendom exile is the fault of non-believing people today. “We get to exile,” Labberton contended, “because we are participants in a world where God’s people have failed.”
Our current context is not that of the promised land but “we are minority in a setting where we worship a peculiar God and do peculiar things,” Labberton encouraged.
Turning his attention to the issues confronting the PCUSA and noting the departure of many friends and colleagues to other expressions of the Presbyterian family of denominations, Labberton said, “I’m not going to ECO because I don’t see any seam that separates us in any way.” Continuing he said, “We are part of the same social reality.”
The question Labberton would have Presbyterians and all Christians ask is how can I live as a peculiar person in Christ “whatever house I happen to dwell in?”
All of the things that separate us “are real,” Labberton acknowledged, but then added, “but what’s more real is living unhooked from the mesmerizing rhythms of our” preferred partisan idolatry.
“The greater danger is the idolatry, not the fire,” he repeated.
Idolaters Anonymous
He then confessed that “my idolatry is not the idolatry of statues, is the idolatry of wanting reality my way — the way I want reality to be and then whining when it’s not.” Continuing, Labberton said, “What I want to be is to be set free from that idolatry and bow down to the Lord of all reality.”
The professor/pastor then asked, “Are we hungry to be faithful to only one God? … Do we want to live in freedom, following an enemy loving God?”
Admitting that doing so “does not solve the problems of dislocation,” Labberton challenged the PFR/FOP audience to embrace the reality of “dislocation as the place where God’s people are meant to be.” He contends that we are not called to leave but to live a faithful, dislocated life in the exilic reality of our generation.
Labberton is the president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, the author of several books and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Presbyterians for Renewal and the Fellowship of Presbyterians have recently announced the merger of their two organizations. Paul Detterman has been serving as the executive director of both PFR and FOP for the past year. The president of PFR is Bill Teng and the president of the FOP is Jim Singleton. They will hold a national gathering in Dallas in August, in partnership with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
7 Comments. Leave new
We are to be faithful whatever denominational “house” we find ourselves in. Yet it’s never idolatrous to desire the reality of orthodoxy and embrace it. Those who fail to are living in exile from the truth, and shouldn’t view themselves as outsiders from the surrounding secular world.
Forget about living as exiles in the non-Christian world; how about living as exiles within our own denomination!
Labberton’s oily words are seductive, yet have little to do with Scripture. He should be running to ECO (or, similar), rather than disingenuously saying that he sees no seam separating us.
Yeah? How about the heresy of denying Scripture.
100% correct about being in exile, but he missed on the reason being “the idolatry of wanting reality my way.” Our false gods of today are the man-made “ologies” of man’s sciences. We turn to psychology and sociology to discover why things happen and to seek what to do to correct things. We look to man’s cosmology and biology to tell us how we got here and to tell us what is truth. Much of the Old Testament is now relegated to mythology. Man’s anthropology tells many within the church that the Bible is not the Word of God, but the product of man’s own thinking and customs. These are all the false man-made gods that we pledge our allegiances to, thus turning our backs of the one true God.
Doug, I think Labberton’s point is NOT one that denies scripture or orthodoxy. Instead he is calling us to be faithful in the midst of an idolatrous world, culture, and even church. Our faithfulness should not exhibit itself as separatist Qumran-type communities, but as Christ-bearers amidst a people that reject the gospel and obedience to Christ. Creating a new denomination (ECO) or going to another denomination (EPC) really doesn’t accomplish anything except tell everyone that you’re a true believer. Whoopy-do!
Anybody have a link to Dr. Labberton’s speech please?
I am glad that the Rev. Mark Labberton has encouraged members to remain in the PCUSA and to continue to strive together in ministry. There are always going to be issues that divide us, but what unites us is much greater. We are united by Christ.