Chapter 4 - Servant-Leaders or Leaders of Servants

AD376-664
Book Outline (pg 37):

  1. The Cleft in the Churches
    1. By the 400’s a gap emerges between clergy and lay people
      1. Church Leaders gain power and live lavish life-styles
      2. Gap increases due to expectation of celibacy for priests
        1. Jovinian (monk) argues against: 
          1. clergy celibacy and 
          2. Immaculate Conception (Mary was a virgin her whole life)
        2. Jovinian’s ideas didn’t prevail.
      3. Church leaders taking on tasks of government
        1. due to the weakening Empire
  2. Southward, Ho
    1. Northern and Eastern European tribes moving south
      1. displaced by the Huns
    2. “Barbarians”: Gothic and Vandal tribes
  3. The Western Predicament
    1. Ambrose, Governor of Milan, Italy (370s AD)
      1. After Overseer of Milan dies, fight between followers of Arius and supporters of Nicene Creed
      2. Ambrose supports Nicenes
      3. Crowd wants Ambrose as overseer
        1. reluctantly accepts and is baptized
    2. Theodisius, Roman Emperor
      1. Made Christianity the official state religion
    3. Ambrose’s Challenge
      1. Mob burns down synagogue in Milan
        1. Theodosius orders the community to rebuild it.
        2. Ambrose protests (with openly anti-Semitic comments)
        3. Ambrose threatens to exclude the Emperor from communion
        4. Emperor backs down
          1. because there is no salvation apart from Church communion
      2. Theodosius’ soldiers kill 7000 putting down a riot
        1. Ambrose does exclude Emperor from communion
        2. Emperor repents (sackcloth and ashes)
      3. We begin to see the church and the government vying for power
    4. How Human Was Jesus
      1. Council of Constantinople (381 AD)
      2. Apollinarius teaches X had a human body but not a human mind
      3. Cappadocians oppose him.
      4. Theodosius (Emperor) convenes a Council of Overseers
        1. outcome: updated Nicene Creed affirming X’s humanity and unique deity
  4. The First Council of Constantinople (381 AD)
    1. Post-Nicene Options
      1. Tri-theism: always a threat, but never really happened
      2. Modalism:
        1. One God, Three Masks
          1. God is one essence that puts on different masks
        2. Problems
          1. Revelation is deceptive
            1. He comes to us as Redeemer, etc.
          2. Limits God
            1. God can only wear one mask at a time
            2. God becomes governed by time
            3. All three persons present at Jesus’ baptism
          3. The Father changes (Patripassionism)
            1. since God wears one mask at a time, God was fully emptied into Christ.
            2. All of God dies on the cross
            3. God is then subject to the changes of the created order
    2. Cappadocians
      1. Basil, Gregory Nazianzin, Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina
      2. looking for a way to say God is really one against the Tritheists and really three against the Modalists
    3. Orthodox Formula
      1. One Essence
      2. Three persons
        1. wanted deeper three-ness than masks
          1. real Father-ness
          2. real Son-ness
          3. real Holy Spirit-ness
        2. self-contained entity with its own independent powers of existence and action
      3. Perichoresis (dance around)
        1. orthodox formulation of the Doctrine of the Trinity
          1. based on how God has revealed himself in Scripture
        2. the Trinitarian God is the dancing God
          1. the persons of the Trinity work together so intently and naturally that the 3 are one organism, one being
          2. simultaneous cooperation
        3. important dimensions:
          1. God is a community of being
          2. God is a thoroughly relational being
          3. God is a dynamic being
          4. God is internally and externally related
      4. Split in the church
        1. the West tends to focus on the oneness of God
          1. and tends to treat the Holy Spirit as more of a force than a person
        2. the East tends to focus on the persons of God
        3. disagreement over the addition of “and the Son” to the ‘Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father’
    4. Theological Implications
      1. Human beings as image bearers of God
        1. what we say about the Trinity has implications for ourselves
        2. We are relational because God is relational
        3. Our capacity to think, feel, and act for the good of others are linked to our image-bearing
        4. God is also externally related: to us, to creation
        5. the patterns of love and respect in God’s inner life are also patterns of God’s outer life.
          1. this defines how we should relate to ourselves and others.
  1. The Eastern Situation
    1. Government tries to control the Church
    2. Olympias
      1. Wealthy widow (25 yrs old), rejects the Emperor’s cousin’s offer to marry
      2. Emperor seizes her property, returns it after she shames him, she gives it away again.
      3. Exiled under false accusations of arson
    3. John Chrysostom
      1. Chrysostom—‘golden mouth’
      2. focused on original intent in Biblical preaching
      3. Advisor to new emperor has John appointed as overseer in hopes of controlling him.
        1. John refuses to listen to the Advisor and decides to live like a monk instead of accept all the trappings of the church office.
      4. Demands holiness from everyone: clergy, citizens, government officials
        1. preaches against the Empress, she bribes him, he continues preaching, she exiles him.
  1. Silver, Gold, and … Pepper?
    1. constant mistreatment from Rome angers Barbarian tribes
    2. 410 AD, the Goths attack and conquer Rome
      1. pillaged city for 3 days before withdrawing.
    3. The Roman Empire is no longer invincible.
  2. The African Angle
    1. Where the Journey to Faith Began
      1. Augustine’s conversion experience: child singing “pick up, read!”
      2. Picks up the Bible and reads Romans 13:13-14 
      3. came from a life of pleasure-seeking, but his Mom was a Christian 
      4. thought Christianity was for the simple-minded
      5. heard Ambrose of Milan preach and Xnty became an option
      6. felt called to be a monk but did not want to be celibate
    2. Where the Journey to Faith Led
      1. spent some time in the desert
      2. ordained as elder then later Overseer of the church of Hippo
      3. struggle against Pelagius 
        1. Pelagius (Pelagianism)
          1. British monk went on Pilgrimmage to Rome
            1. expected to find the ideal city resembling the Kingdom of God
            2. disgusted at Christians lack of holy living
            3. blamed it on Augustine’s Confessions
              1. Augustine said, “I couldn’t help myself”
          2. Christians need to be moral people
          3. Morality is a choice.
            1. God commands us to be perfect. He would not command us to be perfect if we were not capable of it.
        2. Free will and Sin:
          1. we are capable of not sinning because we have a free will.
          2. we are born sinless
          3. we choose either to sin or act righteously
          4. Sin according to Pelagius refers to actual activities (lying, cheating, fornication, etc)
          5. Humans need help moving towards sinlessness—enter God’s grace.
          6. Nature of Grace according to Pelagius
            1. instructs us
            2. Christ
              1. lessons in good living
              2. stop doing bad things and you will be sinless
          7. salvation did not depend completely on God’s grace; people naturally possess the power to be holy.
        3. Augustine’s response:
          1. Criticism of Pelagius
            1. Trivializes Sin
              1. Sin is more than just bad actions
              2. There is something fundamentally perverted about our being.
            2. Trivializes Grace
              1. Grace is radical
              2. God does not just help us, he does all of it.
          2. Bondage of the Will
            1. when Adam sinned he gave up his capacity to choose good.
            2. because we are Adam’s heirs, we too are in bondage to sin.
          3. Original Sin
            1. Sin is not just an action or activity
              1. Actual sins are the symptoms. 
              2. Dealing with the symptoms does not cure the disease.
            2. Refers to the 1st sin: Adam and Eve
            3. The 1st sin is the origin of all sin
              1. sinfulness is about being who we are
              2. everything in us is tainted by sin
              3. we are born sinful
            4. Cobweb analogy: theocentrism  anthropocentrism
              1. the shift between God being the center of the web and us being the center of the web.
              2. turning in on ourselves screws up the whole web
          4. Nature of Grace
            1. Resuscitory Grace
            2. the problem is that we are dead, not that we simply tripped
            3. we need to be brought back to life
              1. nothing you can do to cooperate.
    3. The City of God and the City of Mankind
      1. Christians become targets of criticism after Rome falls
        1. when pagans ruled and worshipped, Rome was strong
      2. Augustine’s response: city of God and city of man
        1. God’s realm cannot completely unite with any human kingdom
        2. One day, only God’s kingdom will exist.
  3. What You Said Isn’t Always What Others Say You Said
    1. Nestorius (428 AD)
      1. torched an Arian chapel trying to get rid of heresy
        1. the fire destroyed an entire city block
      2. tried to teach Jesus was not only God but also human
        1. often misunderstood for saying Jesus was two different persons
    2. One-Nature or Two?
      1. Monophysite (one nature)
        1. Cyril-overseer of Alexandria
        2. Teaches: Christ’s divine nature consumed his human nature
        3. Cyril accuses Nestorius of dividing Jesus into two separate persons
        4. Controversy ensues
          1. Nestorius loses the argument
    3. Agreement at Last
      1. People uncomfortable with “one-nature” thinking 
        1. seems to ignore his humanity
      2. Council of Calcedon (451 AD)
        1. 500 overseers
        2. combine Cyril, Leo (Roman overseer), and Nicene Creed
        3. “Two-Nature View”
        4. again we see dissenters refusing to come into agreement with the rest of the church: Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Churches
  4. Rome Falls Again… and Again
    1. (452 AD) Leo (roman overseer) convinces Attila the Hun to turn around.
    2. (455 AD) Leo convinces Vandals to just loot the city instead of kill and rape.
    3. (476 AD) Barbarians overthrows the Western Roman Empire. It ceases to exist
  5. The City of God Endures
    1. Amidst the political maneuvering of the Middle Ages between church and state for prestige and power God preserved a remnant for himself in small religious communities.
    2. Scholastica and Benedict
      1. brother and sister
      2. founded the Benedictine Order
      3. Rule: guide for religious communities
        1. nothing extreme
        2. balanced daily routine of Bible reading, prayer, and work
      4. Barbarians burned the Benedictine Monastary (589 AD)
        1. monks flee to Rome and meet Gregory the Overseer
    3. Gregory
      1. quit job as powerful politician to become a monk (573 AD)
      2. had a heart for the English
      3. Through caring for the sick and poor, he earned respect of the people
      4. becomes Roman Overseer
      5. sends 41 Benedictine monks to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons (599 AD)
        1. in one year 10,000 converts including a king
      6. Theology
        1. developed doctrine of ‘purgatory’ from Augustine’s writings
          1. between death and heaven where God removes sin
        2. developed idea of ‘penance’
          1. God’s forgiveness sometimes requires works on our part
        3. Gregorian chant named after him
    4. Hilda of Whitby
      1. Celtic-Irish Church cut off from the Roman church in England
        1. Anglo-Saxon invasions
      2. Developed differently than Roman churches
        1. led by monks and nuns
        2. different customs
      3. 664 Celtic-Irish and Roman Christians meet to resolve their differences
        1. in honor of Hilda, they met at Whitby
        2. Synod of Whitby
        3. Celtic churches come under authority of the Roman church
        4. Roman overseer now in charge of almost all Europe
      4. Hilda
        1. leadership position in charge of two religious communities
        2. founded another community in Whitby
        3. trained hundreds of monks 
  6. How’s Your Serve?
    1. Servant-leaders cannot stand above God’s people and proclaim God’s truth unless they also stand among God’s people and live God’s truth. 
    2. When ministers stand above God’s people, they become administrators and managers instead of shepherds and servants.
    3. Society falling apart, church leaders taking on more political roles and power.