As Johann Blumhardt lay dying in 1880, he spoke a blessing over his son Christoph (1842-1919). The blessing was that Christoph might conquer in the strength of Jesus, the Victor (see previous post).
Christoph, like his father, had trained as a pastor. He was, by all accounts, a fiery preacher. The novellist Hermann Hesse recalls him saying that a Mohammedan with a real and honest heart is closer to God than many Christians.
Blumhardt grew increasingly disillusioned with the established church, so he returned to Bad Boll and assisted his father with the work there until Johann's death passed the mantle to him. He held healing crusades, which carried the same power his father had known.
But Christoph was on a different, more radical road. "A Christian must be born twice", he wrote: "once from the human to the spiritual, and once from the spiritual to the human". In other words, a spirituality or church commitment which had no interest in addressing the sufferings of people and the ills of society was a comfortable lie.
In a letter which he kept secret for years, he reproached his father for three failings:
1. His individualism. Johann had compassion on each person, and for that person to know the healing power of God was sufficient evidence of the in-breaking kingdom of God. Christoph had a more developed notion of God's kingdom: a rulership that included all things, the universe, the earth, nations and structures.
2. His view of the Church. Johann was too accepting of a religious system which his son had come to see as a preserve of the middle-class, concerned only with power and influence.
3. His view of mission. Christoph saw his father's model of outreach as simply feeding a church which was a mere extension of imperialism. His son saw the more 'cosmic' aspect of the kingdom of God - that it was a Body hastening the return of Jesus Christ by shining as a light in darkness, a 'city on a hill' (Matthew 5:14). His father had acted as if the Kingdom was part of the Church; for the son, the Church is part of the Kingdom.
I think that it's a perennial cry that those dissatisfied with 'doing church', fed up with hiding behind old and motheaten liturgy, are fertile ground for God to suggest alternatives. I so admire the real bridge burners, who, like Cortez, deliberately 'leave all behind' Years ago, the JA used to sing a song "Not for nothing are we leaving all behind, not for nothing are we laying down our lives..." God is a master or re-presentation, making his glory and grace accessible and relevant to successive generations.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, John. It puts me in mind of the early Moravian mission teams, setting out for other continents, knowing that great hardships might come their way, but as they left the home shore they would sing: "The Lamb is worthy to receive the reward of His sufferings".
ReplyDeleteThe JA have a chorus based on that, too.