sustain:if:able kiwi

at one with water: a theology for church as fully human

Colin Gunton, On Being the Church: Essays on the Christian Community has a wonderful chapter on the church. It includes an exploration of church as fully human. His argument is that if Christ is fully human, fully divine, then to be the body of Christ includes the invitation to explore being fully human.

Walking through Perth streets earlier this week, I noticed a billboard, a sign on a car advertising a business.

And some things clicked for me. A danger of mission is the fear of syncretism, of becoming the same as the culture. The sign “At one with water” got me thinking about swimming – in water, yet still truely, uniquely, human.

At one with water.
Immersed yet distinct.
Playful yet expecting wisdom.
A way of being church. Not to gather but scatter to be playfully,
humanly,
earth on heaven

Earlier this year I wrote a number of posts about church as scattered (here and here). The goal was missional life. The “At one with water” slogan expands my thinking. The goal of church scattered is fully human life. If so, the church gathered needs to includes the resourcing of life as fully human.

Which becomes a challenging question. In what ways does our worship fully humanise, acknowledge all of being human, in order that church scattered might be fully human?

A post made all the more appropriate because the day I walked happened to be Ascension Day, in which the church celebrates the return of Jesus, human body and all, to the Triune God. (for more of an Ascension Day theology see here; while for some creative ascension day worship, see here).