OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT

Last Maundy Thursday, we concluded our column with a proposition that our advocacies for justice, growth and prosperity, moral integrity and greening the environment could only make sense “only when we transcend the world view that God’s creation is considered accidental.” Even Spinoza and Einstein had to admit that the whole universe represents the geometric order of an intelligent creator. One being must have caused life and everything else including matter, energy, space and time, something that the evolution of some primordial soup would have difficulty explaining. This is the uncaused first cause. Allan Sandage, winner of the Crawford Prize in astronomy, equivalent to the Nobel Prize, argued that while God is a mystery, He is the explanation for the miracle of existence, “why there is something instead of nothing.” Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design (2012) attempted to explain that the universe literally popped into existence because of the laws of nature. Quantum theory describes how particles like quarks appear and disappear without any apparent cause. Unfortunately, Hawking and those who subscribe to quantum theory would not tell us where those particles originated from, and who legislated those laws of nature. Christ’s resurrection plays a crucial role here. This physical world is important, and it makes sense of the intergenerational concerns for more justice, for higher level of economic growth and its more equitable distribution, for a stronger sense of decency and morality, for preserving a more sustainable environment. Christianity becomes a gospel for a world in search of a brighter hope that our blighted society is not exactly in conformity with God’s grand design. There is a space to offer an alternative to a state of affairs that fails to promote righteousness, peace and joy.  There is a space for man and government to shape and implement public policies that surpass the past. Christ’s original Ekklesia, or Church, being the agency of His kingdom, the one He founded on the rock in Matthew 16:18, and the same one which the gates of hell will never overcome, combined Scripture-based ethics and Spirit-filled commitment on social issues. As Ed Silvoso’s Ekklesia (2017) argued, the Church addressed four key social issues namely, poverty, slavery, female servitude and the degradation of the family. While the Church was spiritual, it was never irrelevant in society. It was indeed a spiritual entity but was granted governmental jurisdiction in the world to transform world systems for the better. Poverty was central to Christ’s basic teachings as He declared in Luke 14:8 that He was anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor. But by no means this implies a cold preaching without a corresponding compassionate social action. The Good News to the poor translates to food for their empty stomach, clothes to those without shirts, and wealth to the moneyless. Poverty is the first manifestation of the gates of hell on earth after the fall of man. The believers shared everything that they had which was held in common. The Bible is full of narratives that no one among them was needy including the widows of the Hellenistic Jews who first complained they had been neglected (Acts 6:1-6). Christian strategy reached farther than simple generosity of its adherents that allowed those with more resources to level the playing field by giving to those with less. What is today known as corporate social responsibility was surpassed. Christianity exhorted believers to avoid stealing, but instead start laboring, performing with his own hands what is good so that there is something to be shared with the needy among their lot, until all of them become productive members of society. Paul himself introduced the concept that “the laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18). No one should look down on labor. Such was not an act of charity, but rather an empowering act of leveraging on God’s gift to man including the ability to create wealth. Christianity also taught against slavery as when Paul reconciled Onesimus, the run-away slave and his master Philemon exhorting the latter to accept the former “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother…both in the flesh and in the Lord” (Phil 15-16). The Church elevated the status of women in society by teaching that in Christ “there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Paul himself named a number of great women of the faith who exercised leadership in the early Church including Priscilla and Lydia as well as repository of His own teaching about His own resurrection — Martha — and as the Living Water — the Samaritan woman. If as early as Joel, both sons and daughters were to prophesy and both men and women bondservants were to receive His spirit, who are we to prevent women from exercising their right to vote, or even to speak in the Church? Finally, the Church also restored the family. The family is supposed to be indivisible with the Ekklesia as captured in the Greek word “oikos” meaning both the household and the household of relationships. When salvation came, it came to the “oikos,” the households of believers including those of the taxman Zaccheus, the centurion Cornelius, Lydia, Titius Justus, and Crispus. Just as a family head expects his children to behave well and preserve the family name, Christ also declared that He came to do the will of His Father and that is to save whoever is lost, and to recover what the enemy has taken. Today, the family fabric is weakened by the influence of drugs and other vices. The Church, which was instructed by Christ to occupy until He comes, must labor to restore the centrality of God’s precepts both in the home and in the marketplace. Our faith should make it possible for the Church to be brought from the pew to the city square, and the many islands of the Philippines. Paul’s experiences of defeat and triumphs in bringing the Church closer to the people should be instructive here. Paul suffered severe setbacks in both Pisidian Antioch and Thessalonica even as major revivals initially rocked these key areas because of the opposition from the religious groups. They felt threatened, so they forced Paul and the other disciples to leave, ending the mighty acts of God. But in Corinth and Ephesus, Paul and the other believers were favored by the government because they contributed to the transformation of these cities. Families and households were converted and became instruments of change. The transformation occurred not in the synagogues or temples, but right in the marketplace. Paul’s enemies were instead driven away by public servants like Proconsul Gallo who observed the changes happening in his city. As a result, the Gospel penetrated the city and changed the hearts of men. All they did was to address the common denominator of poverty among these areas, and that made all the difference. “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.” (Psalm 140:12)