Rocking the Boat

“As I look back upon my course, I seem to myself as one who, ascending the dark staircase of a church tower and trying to steady himself, reached for the banister, but got hold of the bell rope instead. To his horror he had then to listen to what the great bell had sounded over him and not over him alone.” (Christian History, 19.1: 23)

It's fascinating reading Barth. I read just a taste of his Epistle to the Romans, and to see him so passionately rejecting the liberal encroachment on the church in the context of the above quote is fascinating. Barth wasn't out to utterly change the course of theology, he was trying to come to terms with a church that had become too materialistic to accomplish anything.

Barth's zeal and focus on Christ is refreshing. He was a latter-day John Calvin or Jonathan Edwards, and like those great men before him, he declared a difficult message to a world that didn't want to hear it. Unfortunately, in the course of things, every so often the church needs someone like these ones to come along and shake things up: to get people back to the central message of the New Covenant.

Today, I think we could use another person who accidentally rings the bell. We have plenty of people who enjoy ringing the bell for no good reason. We have plenty of people who would rather form committees for the study of bell ringing and its impact on social change. Plato's ideal leaders are the ones that do not seek power, and that's what we need here; the original Twelve Apostles didn't want to ring the bell, but they did. The Apostle Paul didn't want to ring the bell but he did. Anselm didn't want to ring the bell. Luther didn't want to ring the bell. The big thing is they all took the challenge laid before them, and the Church is stronger for it.

The question for this century is: by whom will the bell toll?