Church As A Sign
When Jesus told us, “You are the light of the world.” He was reminding us of the fact, that we are a sign to the world in which we live. The church is a sign. But how is it a sign? Well let’s think about it. What exactly is the purpose of a sign?
Let’s say that you are driving down Sunset Blvd and you are trying to find a restaurant that you have never been to, a restaurant that happens to be a short distance away from the main road. Most likely as you drive along, you will be looking for a sign with the name of the restaurant pointing in the direction to where the restaurant happens to be, right? And the purpose of a sign is that it points to something that is not yet visible.
If you owned a restaurant that was a block off of sunset blvd, you don’t just put the sign of the restaurant in front of the restaurant, but you would put the sign on Sunset Blvd, which points to where the restaurant happens to be. The reason for a sign is that it points to something which is real, but not yet visible – it points to something that exists, but exists over the horizon.
You see, God created the church to be a sign of His coming Kingdom, and in as much as the church is a faithful to her calling, to that degree she becomes a credible sign. Like Leslie Newbigin says, “The church is a sign of the kingdom, pointing people to the reality which is beyond what we can see.”
One of the reasons that God created the church on the day of Pentecost, was to erect in this world – credible signs – that point people toward His coming kingdom, credible signs that give people a taste of the future in the present. God desires to multiply these signs in every neighborhood in the world, so that people will be able to join together with the church on the journey to the future that God has prepared for us, so that others can join us at the great banquet that is to come.
The church is called to be a sign, pointing to the future God is preparing for us. That why Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” We are called to be lights that point others toward God, His Son, and His future.
WHAT KIND OF SIGN ARE WE?
So the question is, what kind of sign are we, and what kind of sign do we want to be? Leslie Newbigin writes, “The church is only true to its calling when it is a sign, and instrument, and a foretaste of the kingdom.” We have the incredible calling to be ambassadors of Jesus, how are we representing him?
Newbigin places a vital question before us all. He says, “The question which has to be put to every local congregation is the question whether it is a credible sign of God’s reign in justice and mercy over the whole of life, whether it is an open fellowship whose concerns are as wide as the concerns of humanity, whether it cares for its neighbors in a way which reflect and springs out of God’s care for them, whether its common life is recognizable as a foretaste of the blessing which God intends for the whole human family.”
This was part of a message that I delivered today at Kairos Los Angeles. If you want to hear the rest of the message, it should be available sometime this coming week. Shalom.
Hey J.R.,
When I crossed out sign and wrote symbol, I was mainly just thinking of N.T. Wright, particularly in The Challenge of Jesus, where he talks about Christ’s actions not as significant, but as symbolic. As far as I’ve read as of yet, he doesn’t get into the difference; but it sounds actually like the way you are thinking of sign is very similar to how I was thinking of symbol. As a pointer to something beyond, particularly something ACTUAL. The American flag as symbolic of our country and its values. Symbols carry weight. Don’t burn the flag, don’t use the name of the Lord in vain. Signs, however, are “merely symbols”
I suppose they can be actual (like, the actually spoken word “table” can be a sign of a not-necessarily-so-actual Table). So, I guess that’s the difference, in one way. Jesus is actual, and is the centrally acting character in our story, actually bringing the actual kingdom of God.
A symbol, as an actual thing, acts OUT of something or somewhere or some intention, and is thereby incomplete in it’s very existence from the get go. A sign, however, is a reference, a reference to some signified, where both sign and signified are (typically) assumed to be some whole, fully knownable, known or distinct entity. We hear the word table as a complete entity, although in reference to another separate but complete entity of the “real” table to which it refers. It’s a “closed signifier”. We see the symbol of the Star of David, however, and there is an opening in it’s very receiving of it into our beings that allows it both to point beyond and to as an actual thING carry the weight as a vessel of that to which it points.
I suppose at face value it doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but I think it gets at a lot of issues with being “literal” (such as interpreting the scripture with “wooden literalism”) and being actual (such as interpreting the scriptures as a story in which we are still acting characters). In reference to the idea of signs not really “carrying weight”, the “word table” is “just a reference to the REAL tabe” to which it is referring. I think such a structural framework for reality is more commonplace, and plays into our separation also between medium and message, but very subversive to McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”, as well as I think the truth of the Incarnation.
Regarding what I was saying about an opening, the Incarnation was a “breaking in” to our dimensions of space and time, into our hi-story. Jesus wasn’t the Father himself as a whole and complete entity “but only in reference to the real thing” of the Father up there in heaven. AT LEAST NOT in the sense of my example about a comparison between the word table as a sign and the Star of David as a symbol.
Also too, “signs” have a certain dumb silence to them. You “read” a sign; it doesn’t speak. But Jesus was the Word…”In the beginning God said…”. Jesus speaks into the heart of our being. We are restless until we hear his voice, and he longs to speak with us…so signs won’t do it. Also, too, symbols are in motion, whereas signs are still, like a corpse. The Star of David is moving to us. “Aslan in son the move”. The word “table” is “just a reference to the real thing”, “no big deal”. You sit still in your car, look up at the sign along the road by the church, and you read it, decoding it to find it’s referenced signifiedes using your cogito.
So there’s my explanation. Blessings. May The Lord speak in your heart and move your world today
Jason
Hey JR:
This is a cool post – especially in urban living. Signs are everywhere. And the community of believers must wear ours on our hearts.
Check out my blog for a cool video on U2 – I thought you might like it.
BP