The Church as Ecosystem III The Politics of Eden

In my last blog, I compared the church to the Garden of Eden.  The church is Eden reborn, initiated among people, but eventually spreading to all creatures. It begins the reversal of the Fall and the realization of God’s peaceful kingdom, where swords are beaten into plowshares and the lion lays down with the lamb. 

As I mentioned before, this is an impossible state for the world at this time. Lion do not lie down with lambs, the eat them.  Sheep will not flock with lambs, they avoid them.  Just so, people in their natural state do not leave the weak unmolested, neither do they trust strangers.  Strong men compete for leadership while the timid run in fear.  It is dangerous world and we are always either fighting or fleeing aggression.

We understand why we should fear aggression.  But what we often misunderstand is that fear can be more dangerous to us than human predation.  Once I was chased by a bull, even though I had done nothing to the bull. The bull had no reason to fear me or to resent my sudden appearance in his pasture, yet he came at me with those big horns, and would have gored me if he caught me.  His only motivation for his sudden attack was fear.    

People behave the same way. We hurt each other more out of fear than of a desire to conquer.  An anxious bull is more dangerous than a lion with a full stomach.  A frightened man with a gun is more likely to shoot you if you accidently wander into his yard than a robber would in a robbery. The robber has to have a reason to shoot once he has your money, but a frightened man does needs no reason but his own fear. 

Churches fights are rarely over exploitation or aggression, but the fear of it.  Old church members fear the stranger, because they think they will change everything they love.  Young people fear the old, because they think old people resent them. Innovators fear traditionalists.   Both sides fear being forced out of their comfort zones. This would not happen in Eden, where both aggression and fear were banished.   It can only happen when neither side trusts or believes that God is in control. When we believe it is our responsibility to purge the church, and that God is not capable of doing it, then we have adopted the politics of the jungle, not the politics of Eden.

In the Kingdom of God cooperation replaces force.  In a cooperative society people realize their mutual need for people who differ from themselves.  Differences are not dangerous, but exist for our mutual benefit. Diversity brings prosperity. There is a free exchange of ideas and goods and all benefit.   A sheep does not mind being food for a lion, provided the lion can wait until the sheep is dead of natural causes.  It is only when we view differences as a threat to our own entitlement that we turn on each other. In a truly cooperative society, people with differing views and interests can live together for our mutual benefit. 

This cooperative state it not natural to us.  It can only exist where God through Christ is acknowledged as the true Ruler and Head. 

Over the years, people have tried many ideologies and schemes to bring about a peaceable society.  The Tower of Babel was such a scheme.  Roman Empire was another.  The Romans established their world over much of the world by force of arms, but they never were anything but the biggest bullies on the block.  Islam was another such scheme. The word “Islam” means “peace,” yet of all religions today it is the least peaceful. Another scheme is socialism, where the leaders enforce cooperation by restricting private ownership.  The result of this was not the Marxist utopia, but Fascism and the Soviet Union.  Their combined attempts at restoring the Garden without God resulted in more death and destruction than all the previous empires of humanity put together. The reason for the failure is obvious.  Eden did not happen because of Adam and Eve, but because God made it work. It was His idea and His direct leadership that made the lion lie down with the lamb.  Only in Christ can Eden be restored, and peace reign on the earth.

Whenever people get organized and try to enforce the politics of cooperation, thy only make matters worse. They become infected with either aggression or fear or both. It’s not a change in governmental structure that makes a restored Eden possible, but a change in the structure of the human heart.  Only in a world where Christ has satisfied our hunger and where His protection has set us free from fear, can lions and the lambs get together again. 

People must change for the world to change.  Our natural greed and desire to rule must be curbed.  Even more, our fear of losing what we have has to be curbed as well, and we must become secure in the love of God.  We must grant each other the right to their own human dignity, and freedom to behave as themselves, and not take ownership of others, even for what we regard as their own benefit. 

There are no shortcuts to the kingdom, no magic formula or governmental structure that will bring about the new Eden. Only God can do it. In the meantime, all we can do is to try to keep the principles of the Kingdom in our own hearts, without imposing them on others.  We must tell others about Christ, but we must not present ourselves to others as if we were Christ, with authority to tell them what to do with their lives.  Only then can we hope to contribute to restoring an Edenic world.