Brian McLaren om Syvendedags Adventister

The remnant that doesn't want to be the remnant!
Brian McLaren er en forfatter som betyr mye for mange unge kristne om dagen. Med sin generøse og rause holdning og sin åpenhet for å tenke nytt, gir han mange av oss håp om en tredje vei, mellom de tradisjonelle konservative og liberale polene.

I avsnittet nedenfor snakker han om Syvendedags-Adventister - den tradisjonen jeg selv har vokst opp i.

In restorationist circles (Churches of Christ, Seventh Day Adventists, Plymouth Brethren, et al) one often finds a beautiful, sincere, childlike desire to follow Jesus whatever the cost and however lonely the road. This positive and often courageous desire can be a bridge to the protestifying definition of Protestant… My friend Samir Vesna, a brilliant former-Communist Croatian Seventh Day Adventist pastor (how’s that for a unique accumulation of adjectives?) offers a beautiful example of how reatorationists, and Protestants in general, can move from being Protesting Protestants to pro-testifying an generous orthodoxy.

Restorationists (and other Protestants gone defensive) often refer to themselves, Samir says, as a remnant. This remnant language is common in the Bible. For those who need consolation for small numbers, it’s an attractive blanket to wrap up in: we’re not small because we’re ineffective, or lazy, or ingrown, or otherwise unattractive; we’re small because we’re a faithful remnant! Everyone else has compromised. They’re taking the easy way. We’re the few, the committed, the faithful, the proud. (Oops.) Anyway, Samir has seen a lot of this remnant thinking in restorationist territory; he sees how destructive it is.

He was preaching the stories of Moses in Exodus, where God seeks to “renegotiate the contract” with Abrahm’s descendants in light of their repeated unfaithfulness. God says that he will abandon the Isralites at large and will let Moses become the patriarch of a new people of God. In other words, Moses represents the remnant; he’s the only faithful one left. What does Moses do?

In a stunning move, Moses says, “God, blot me out. Reject me. Don’t reject the people.” This loyalty wins God’s heart, and on Moses’ behalf, God relents from rejecting the Israelites. (This same pattern is seen in Paul in Romans 9 through 11, and of course, in Jesus’ whole life and death).

Samir asked his friends with a remnant mentality: What is a truly faithful remnant like? Its members do not turn inward in elite self-congratulation, smugly casting a critical eye of disdain on the rest. No, the faithful remnant “after God’s heart” turns its heart otherwise, outward toward the unfaithful, in loyalty and love. True faithfulness bonds the hearts of the faithful to their unfaithful neighbors.

Could this new understanding of the faithful remnant help restorationists, and Protestants in general, move from protest to pro-testifying.

Brina McLaren - A Generous Orthodoxy, side 141-142