Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope | Brian McLaren

Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope | Brian McLaren | A New Kind of Revolution

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Everything Must Ch...

	Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope Brian McLaren Thomas Nelson, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Indeed, EVERYTHING must change.

In Everything Must Change, Brian McLaren lays out a critique of human civilization. Such a task would seem impossible for its scope, but through McLaren's macro-lens exploration, the reader walks away with a diagnosis that feels eerily accurate to our modern situation: that human civilization has become its own suicide machine. This metaphor of a system gone destructive against those it was intended to serve is the central image of McLaren's diagnosis. The machinery of our society falls into three main subsystems: the prosperity system, which provides us with the goods, opportunities, and experiences we feel we need to be happy; the security system, which seeks to protect the existence and the standard of living of those who prosper; and the equity system, which seeks to distribute the goods of the prosperity system and the costs of the security system in fair and equitable ways.

Each of these systems fulfills a useful and worthy goal. But each also faces a crisis. Our global prosperity system, McLaren asserts, has grown without regard for limits or sustainability, irresponsibly consuming resources and producing waste faster than the environment can compensate while producing a disproportionate amount of wealth for one third of the world's citizens. This great disparity between the haves and the have-nots strains the equity system to the breaking point, and breeds tension, fear, resentment, and distrust between the two groups. These feelings of antagonism make the wealthy nervous about the security of their goods and lifestyles, prompting them to further secure their assets and resources from the disgruntled majority. As a result, the have-nots become even more antagonistic toward the wealthy, leading to another increase in security. Eventually both sides become so antagonistic toward one another that the resulting militarization and pre-emptive strike power is enough to ensure the mutual destruction of both sides. Our systems are locked in a downward spiral, driven by and fueled by the fourth and greatest crisis, the spiritual crisis, "the failure of the world's religions, especially its two largest religions, to provide a framing story capable of healing or reducing the three previous crises."

Our framing story, the story that tells people "who they are, where they come from, where they are, what's going on, where things are going, and what they should do," is the linchpin in our whole mess. Our societal systems - prosperity, security, and equity - serve the ends that our framing story dictates.

"If our framing story tells us that we humans are godlike beings with godlike privileges...we will have no reason to acknowledge or live within limits, whether moral or ecological. Similarly, if it tells us that the purpose of life is for individuals or nations to accumulate an abundance of possessions and to experience the maximum amount of pleasure during...our short lives, then we will have little reason to manage our consumption. If [it] tells us that we are in life-and-death competition with each other, that only the fittest will survive, that each species and group is in a violent struggle to outcompete and gain independence and safety from or dominance over all others, then we will have little reason to seek reconciliation and collaboration and nonviolent resolutions to our conflicts."

We have, as a result, our current situation, where the prosperity system threatens to outproduce the planet and leave us in a pile of our own waste, where the equity system serves fewer and fewer people (the gap between rich and poor in America continues to grow, let alone between the global rich and poor), and the security system, rather than ensuring us of our own survival, now only ensures that if we go down, so does everyone else.

The result? Suicide, says McLaren with no lack of gravity. Indeed, there are chapters in Everything Must Change that will require some time to process if we seek to maintain hope for our future. We need more than tweaking the system here and there to fix a squeak or to grease a cog. We are in need of a radical new story that tells us something different about who we are and what we are here for.
Enter Jesus and his good news about the kingdom of God. The "good news" is a phrase we're all familiar with, whether from our days in Sunday school or from the man preaching on the street corner. There are multiple versions of the good news, but all share the same nuts and bolts: "You are a sinner and you are going to hell. You need to repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus might come back today, and if he does and you are not ready, you will burn forever in hell." It is safe to say that a significant number of people, both within and without the church, have found this "good news" to be rather uninspiring and unconvincing, and have chosen not to adopt it as their framing story. And so McLaren observes, "a message purporting to be the best news in the world should be doing better than this."

McLaren argues that we in the 21st century have nearly entirely lost any idea as to how radical Jesus was in his own day, and how much we have co-opted a neutered version of Jesus' message in order to justify and round off the harsh edges of our current system. McLaren spends a significant portion of the book reframing and reintroducing Jesus, painting a picture of the world Jesus was born into and exploring just how different the kingdom of God is from the kingdom of this world. Jesus' radical message changed and challenged everything, including some things we were comfortable with. "The kingdom of God is not simply a new belief or doctrine that can be patched into an old way of life; it is, rather, a new way of life that changes everything."

McLaren spends the last portion of his book imagining what this radical Jesus would say to us were he to visit us today. What would Jesus have to say about the system that currently runs our world? Probably much the same thing he had to say about the system of his own day, since they are essentially the same machinery. His call to us is the same: "Repent! Rethink your whole way of life! The kingdom of God is here! I am the new Way! Believe in me and the good news I bring about a new, fuller, everlasting life."

To believe, McLaren says, is the most radical thing we can do. When we realize what true belief in Jesus' way requires of us (complete defection from the dominant framing story of our current existence), belief in its reality and possibility is no mere intellectual exercise. Instead, it is a work of faith on the part of our whole being, as we learn what it means to live in the kingdom of God and follow Jesus into everlasting life.

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A New Kind of Revolution

Passion and compassion. These are the two words that I would use to describe this book and its author. The passion is communicated in the main title-- everything must change. The compassion is communicated in the subtitle-- global crises, hope. McLaren continues building on his previous works, especially Secret Message of Jesus. Those looking for McLaren's theological underpinnings will find it there. This book is about exploring what such a theology will look like on the ground, in real life. With grace in his words, McLaren lets us in on his own journey of discovering that Christianity often does not do much, and the things it has done have often been very negative. Then exploring the theology discussed in Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren talks at length about his experiences with people and communities from around the globe-- his experiences of finding much pain, hurt, and suffering-- and the systems that exist in that world. In the spirit of Jesus himself, McLaren paints a way forward for the church (especially those of us who find ourselves in its northern and western expressions) to truly bring Jesus into the global crisis and challenge these global systems and their central narratives. McLaren challenges the church to have "glad tidings" gospel that rivals the "gospels" of our systems/empires. He implores Christians to address the problems in our day just as Jesus did in his. Christians today are often serving idols and emperors rather than Jesus Christ. Jesus inaugarated the kingdom of God on Earth, the will of God being done on Earth as it is in heaven. Truly McLaren is right-- everything must change. It is time for us to acknowledge Jesus as Lord rather than Caesar as Lord.

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Another Voice

It would be helpful in addition to books from this genre to have someone write a book about what the church is doing RIGHT. Granted, we all need to continue to learn, grow and be called up short when we forget our purpose- and be reminded of what was close to Christ's heart. However, there are places where the gospel is bringing about transformation to individuals and communities in a way that I think would make Jesus smile. Having returned from a recent trip to India I served with a local ministry that was caring for the poor, the orphans, providing education, bringing about social change, transforming lives and leading people into the kingdom. How about some celebrations along the way?

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Changing Framing Stories: The Relevance of Jesus For Today

In Brian McLaren's new book, Everything Must Change, he brings many different resources together, both religious and secular, to offer a theo-political critique of our current society and its global crises. He then offers an alternative vision in the form of a new 'framing story' that he argues can transform the way we life. McLaren argues that 'our societies are unified, integrated, motivated, and driven by the framing stories we tell ourselves are groups' (66). He then contrasts the Christian 'framing story' (i.e. Kingdom of God) with the theocapitalist 'framing story' (i.e. suicidal machine). 'Suicide machine' is the metaphor McLaren says 'captures the way the world's most serious problems are linked in a vicious, self-reinforcing circle' (52). These suicidal systems are the following: dysfunctional prosperity system (culture of affluenza), dysfunctional security system (invisible hand of the market requires the visible fist of the military), and the dysfunctional equity system (sharing the cost and story of prosperity and equity) (55-56). 'Kingdom of God' is the metaphor McLaren uses to describe the alternative, transforming framing story that has the potential to bring life instead of death. The Kingdom of God is the divine vision of justice and peace communicated in Hebrew and Christian scripture. For McLaren, the Kingdom of God offers the best framing story: 'a story in which God provides through creation's natural systems, a story in which we acknowledge our creaturely dignity and limits within those systems, a story in which we celebrate our kinship with birds and flowers, with season and toil' (139). This story is a story where peace is achieved through collaborative efforts at 'justice, generosity, and mutual concern' (159). McLaren believes that Jesus' message and ministry challenged the dysfunctional, destructive status quo of the Roman Empire in his life. McLaren writes: 'Jesus' creative and transforming framing story invited people to change the world by disobeying old framing stories and believing a new one: a story about a loving God who, like a benevolent [leader], calls all people to live in a new way, the way of love' (274). McLaren also believes Jesus' challenge to the old story and offering of a new story is just as relevant for our lives today. For McLaren, Jesus message is so relevant because it invites us to live a new and better life right now. Not something we must wait for, but something God invites us into in our daily lives. And this better life we can live now is 'live a life dedicated to replacing the suicide machine with a sacred ecosystem, a beautiful community, an insurgency of healing and peace, a creative global family, an unterror movement of faith, hope, and love' (227). Ultimately, McLaren's book is about how Jesus' message of the Kingdom of God can offer us a way to discover hope and 'abundant life' in the midst of a world in crises.

Also recommended: For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (John Cobb and Herman Daly).

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8

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