left behind

I’m not sure what the phenomena is, though I have an idea or two for writing on it, but I have always felt like sooner or later I am left behind. I don’t say that’s true across the board. But it seems like at a certain point one’s welcome is worn out. Or that I simply don’t measure up, or that I’m doing something wrong, or whatever. I think more than this being actually true, the perception of it has held me back over the years.

Paul certainly has few peers, and I’m most certainly not one of them, though I do aspire to follow his example as he followed Christ- from what we read in scripture. But I recall how he felt forsaken, but how the Lord stood with him. Paul also remarked that few, if indeed any were like his “son” Timothy, because most were attentive to their own interests, and not to the interests of Jesus. And I think of the body of Christ, how we’re there to support each other. We’re to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. We’re to exult when one of our own members is exalted for the sake of Christ.

While I’m a believer in solitude and silence, I’m not a fan of the spirituality which is not committed to each other, come what may. The spirituality of the New Testament is communal and messy. And above all, or perhaps I should say first of all, committed to the Lord and to each other in accordance with the will of God.

Of course there are so many things we don’t get right. We’re working on it. We need to be thankful for what is good in God’s grace and work in our midst, instead of dwelling on what we think is lacking. But just the same, we need to be committed to everyone with the goal of seeing each person fit in well, and flourish according both to the general calling to all in Jesus, and the specific calling each and every individual will have.

I write from experience. I have to say that as I’m weakened, of course I become weak. And yet I find the Lord’s strength in my weakness. We in Jesus are in this call together. We are broken not only individually, but so often communally. It’s a treasure when some unity is held on to, by the Spirit. It may be for a season, or for a specific work. But it should be part and parcel of us in Jesus. And actually is present in any church, including the church Deb and I are part of. We do well to enter more deeply into that. Because this is a mainstay of our life in God through Jesus by the Spirit for the world.

needed: conversation partners

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.

The context in Malachi is God’s correction of his people. And we see their response and then God’s response.

I don’t know how good a conversationalist I am. A good conversation involves careful listening, and being willing to share one’s thoughts. It involves give and take. And it is done in the context of friendship and commitment to each other. And for God’s people in Jesus, commitment to a common cause.

In scripture while the individual is important, the context is a covenant with God in a community. Commitment is essential. And conversation as well. That is an important often undervalued and even less practiced ingredient in the mix.

I like it one on one preferably over coffee. Or in a small group. But for us in Jesus it is not conversation for conversation’s sake. Even if some of it is just to enjoy a good conversation with good friends, we in Jesus can do that along with all things to the glory and praise of our Father. But we also converse with the intent of encouraging, exhorting and building each other up in the faith. And not just for our own edification, but to help each other be the witness of Jesus we’re called to be in and for this world. As we look to God in Jesus by the Spirit to direct us in all of this.

commitment to community

I saw a special this week on the Amish (would like to watch it again, since I was asleep part of the time). And reading from Lois Tverberg’s new book on the practice of Judaism. What struck me again is the commitment to community by both the Amish and Jews.

In the case of the Amish their commitment to community surely has its complexities, one concern of their’s being not to be conformed to the world. They want relationships with the outside world, but remain cloistered. One could say extreme in their commitment to community, maybe in some ways that are not helpful or altogether healthy. And yet can we be overly committed to fulfilling the “one another’s” we see over and over again in the New Testament, as the one body of Christ?

The Amish commitment is rooted to scripture so that it is no surprise to note what has long been true, Judaism’s commitment to community. Indeed the New Testament is quite Jewish in its orientation, something which the church in significant measure lost and failed to see. Fortunately within the past fifty or so years that realization is being recovered, and helpful in our reading of the New Testament.

This commitment to community is strictly speaking not horizontal, but should be both horizontal and vertical. That is, we together are looking to God through Jesus by the Spirit. We enter together into the life of the Trinity, a life of communion and community.

Too often church has been about getting myself blessed through the sacrament and the word with little or no commitment to community. But the work of God through Jesus by the Spirit is different than that. If community is cut off, then the work of God through Jesus is significantly cut off as well. It is a work not meant just for the community in Jesus, but from that working in community out into the world. Yes, in that strength we let our lights shine in our individual lives through our good works. And also our light shines as we live out in community what we are in Jesus, one body in him.

Something that will work as God intends only as we’re committed to it. Tough and often not pretty. And yet part and parcel of the Spirit’s work among us, in growing us up together into full maturity in Jesus in and for the world.

grace accepts

I have to say that there seems a strong propensity to judge others. I see it in some others, though not to say it is absent in me. What is strange about this is the reaction by us who are judged. We then in turn judge the ones who judge us. Again, not to say we being judged never judge others. It just seems some are quite judgmental, not unlike Pharisees during Jesus’ time.

Grace accepts people right where they’re at. Nor does it imagine that it has some sort of discernment that simply writes someone off. Discernment through grace accepts people to help them. Not condemn, or mark them as condemned.

What about those who have judged us? How do we respond? Do we by God’s grace in Jesus forgive them? And do we live out that forgiveness over time, even when they continue to judge us?

This is difficult. They need repentance in grace themselves, as well as we. But our place is to show them love. Maybe appropriately challenging them in love, especially in how we live. Trying to be sure there’s nothing offensive in us must be first priority. We can only begin to see the speck in our brother/sister’s eye, if the plank is removed from our own eye.

Only as we work through the difficulties can there be the kind of community in Jesus that makes a difference in this world. It is in and by community through God’s grace in Jesus, first and foremost, that the world will see the reality that God in love sent Jesus. They need to see the difference that this cross love makes. That they might see and believe, and enter into this grace which accepts, in and through Jesus.

 

grace brings a society

On Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog there is a series of posts going through the book of another blogging friend who like Scot is a professor and New Testament scholar, Daniel Kirk. This book looks like an excellent read.

Today there is a post on the gospel being inherently social. Yes, amen to that! We need to hear this message in the highly individualistic and privatistic culture in which we live.

There is no doubt that individuals have a relationship with God through Jesus which is personal. God loves each of his children in a special way. We all have a personal identity. This is important and we can’t lose sight of it.

And yet over and over again we find scripture concerned about one’s group identity, or community. The culture of scripture is closer to much more of the world today, than to the United States where I live. It was family oriented not only by design, but by necessity. And it wasn’t much about individual freedom or rights, but responsibility within the family, and from that, living well according to the norms of one’s people. Which in those days meant a union with others which if broken, was gravely serious.

Not so in our day. We break and divide over any number of things. We Protestants are known for our divisions. The political divide in the United States today seems as deep and wide as ever in U.S. history.

But the gospel brings with it a new society oriented in grace, which at its heart is inclusive of all. This becomes the priority, not only this gospel of Jesus, but also the results of it, a kingdom community consisting of all who would follow Jesus from across deep divides. Bringing together people who before were not only at odds, but out and out enemies. And introducing a new dynamic by the Spirit of a body which in love works together from its head, Christ, to care for each other, and be a witness of him to and for the world. Showing a new society in the way of Jesus, indeed a new humanity, bent in love on God and others. Being about “us” in God’s kingdom in Jesus, not about “me.” In the good will of God in Jesus.

fellowship

We’re in need of fellowship with each other as human beings. And this is no more so than in the body of Christ, the church. It can make all the difference in the world. Night and day.

It is a humble fellowship, a kind of in Christ as in immersed together in Jesus by the Spirit. It is meant to be a part of our church life. But it doesn’t automatically happen, though it’s as near us as the brother or sister is, in our gatherings. And yet we can be so far away. We can indeed withdraw and  then miss this life altogether.

But only in this life do we have light. If we insist in isolation, we obscure the light. If we hate our brother or sister, we live in darkness, as John tells us.

To be in Jesus means to be members together of him. When we are joined to him, we’re joined to all others who are in him. We don’t do well to be isolated from any one of them. Full reconciliation should be the goal. Even if it is incremental, involving a process and growth over time.

This is something to be treasured and guarded. When a church doesn’t practice this, it is not living up to its calling. Indeed it is not living out what it is as Christ’s body.

When we live this out to each other, we’re then living out the gospel to the world. I just touch on the most basic level of this: heart to heart communication. It will work its way out into all kinds of practical ways in helping each other. The world needs to see this through us. And when they do, they’re seeing the work of God through Jesus by the Spirit. A part of our calling in Jesus together for the world.

the point of the Radical Reformation

What is known as the Radical Reformation, when certain groups, we narrow it down essentially to one group today, the Anabaptists, wanted not only to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but to start from scratch with the New Testament – what was at the heart of their move from what I have picked up, was the desire to be obedient to God, to live lives true to God’s will in scripture. Not simply to confess the truth.

Of course this played out in their stand on water baptism from their understanding, or interpretation of scripture. Which was not only contrary to church teaching, but also to the state, which registered people when they were baptized as infants. A consequence of the Constantinian shift.

Toward the end of his life Luther lamented over the ungodly lives of those who were part of his church, and even expressed a wish that they would be like Roman Catholics he had known. But Roman Catholicism has something of the same problem when so many of its constituents are much more dependent on sacraments, or the Blessed Sacrament, rather than on a living relationship with the Lord. This is not to miss the beauty of so many in that church who have loved and love Jesus and God’s people in him deeply. Nor is it to minimize the sin found in churches which are restorationist (in other words, wanting to restore New Testament order).

Later, the Pietistic movement among Lutherans essentially was about the same goal. The desire was for a living faith, a faith that worked. A true change of life and good works in line with God’s revealed will in Jesus was their emphasis.

This is not to minimize doctrine, which is essential to faith. But it is to point out that doctrine is of no value if it’s not lived out. Of course certain interpretations tended to nullify any commitment to practice the Sermon on the Mount.

I see this as a carryover today. We say we believe in Christ. We hold to the teachings of scripture, especially what Paul wrote it seems. Yet contrary to James and Paul we talk about how we fail, and how we simply can’t be obedient. That we’re forgiven. We likely are not that stark, but what we do ends up putting us all too close to the same place as those who confessed faith, but were not committed to living out that confession.

We need a fresh renewal of a faith that is intent on life change and good works. If we don’t have that, we don’t have much. After all, we’re called to follow Jesus, meaning following him no less than in his death, (burial) and resurrection.

I do think the radical reformation did make its impact on the church at large. So today there is an appreciation of the need for a changed life and good works. Other groups in Christianity have their contributions to make.

But we must also be aware of, and then beware of certain tendencies that have been strong in professing churches. Which all too easily crop up in any of our churches. As we together seek to let our light shine that others might see our good works and praise our Father in heaven.

not discerning the Lord’s body

When the Corinthian church ate together in what was perhaps called a love feast, a full meal, we read that the wealthier folk arrived first and instead of waiting for their brethren, ate and drank, even getting drunk. They were sinning at the Lord’s Table, failing to discern the Lord’s body.

Into the history of the church we see different interpretations as to what the Lord’s body in Holy Communion means. For the Catholics the bread and wine are transubstantiated, or changed into the actual body and blood of Christ. Those who do not accept that dogma by faith are not allowed to participate in the sacrament. The Lutherans barely departed from that with their doctrine of consubstantiation. Ditto with the Roman Catholics except that the Lord’s actual body and blood are with the bread and wine. Of course miracle and mystery accompanies both understandings.

John Calvin and others provide a better understanding, though I’m not sure it can be supported by scripture. By the Spirit we share in the heavenly partaking of the Lord’s body and blood in some mystical sense. So that in Holy Communion we do partake of Christ’s body and blood spiritually, though not materially. That interpretation would seem to reflect the Lord’s words in John 6 that when he was referring to the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, his words were spirit and life. This understanding is also sacramental.

The Anabaptists saw Holy Communion as strictly an ordinance, not a sacrament. It was a memorial, remembering what Christ had done for them, for the world in his death. 1 Corinthians 11 and the gospel accounts of the last supper indicate that this much is true. It is indeed a memorial.

I have in the past adopted John Calvin’s view. But I wonder if that position isn’t saying more than what scripture actually says. 1 Corinthians 10 does indeed seem to indicate that we do share in the body and blood of Christ in partaking Holy Communion. But I have to wonder if that can be pressed beyond the idea that by faith we share in the benefits of his broken body and blood in our participation at the Lord’s table. I am thinking now, no.

There is one thing for certain. Not discerning the Lord’s body to the Corinthians meant that they failed to acknowledge all who belonged to Christ. After all, as the same letter says again and again, we are the body of Christ. It is God’s people through faith in Christ who are Christ’s body. The rich did not acknowledge their poor brethren. And therefore failed to discern Christ’s body. And as a result were judged by the Lord in their grievous sin.

What I take home from this is that Holy Communion is a participation together by faith in remembering our Lord’s broken body and poured out blood for us, so that by faith we are forgiven of our sins, and made one body, indeed Christ’s own body, by the Spirit. So that for me this practice becomes in a sense horizontal- with others in Jesus, as well as vertical- between ourselves and God. The Lord blesses this practice which actually he commanded, since his redemptive work is in large part about God making us one in him. So that in that sense it is indeed mystical, of the Spirit. A celebration and thanksgiving of this grace given to us, in and through Jesus. As we carry on as his body in and for the world.

a damaging dualism

I keep hearing from Christians no less that we’re not to be concerned with earthly, material matters, but only spiritual matters. This betrays an unbiblical, devastating dualism. Dualism carries with it the idea of two entities that in no way correspond.

When I open my Bible I read words like, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1).

Spirituality cannot be reduced to a relationship between a person and God. It must work out that relationship in love with other human beings and with good works. Otherwise scripture tells us such a profession of spirituality or faith is hollow and indeed dead (again, James, etc.).

The individualism which we have inherited from the Enlightenment brings with it another damaging dualism which blinds our reading of scripture. Of course God deals with us as individuals in and through Jesus. But fundamental to scripture is the centrality of community. We are in this in God through Jesus, together. And it’s not just to help a bunch of other individuals get on well with life. It is the making of a community no less, the people of God, in and through Jesus. And in the end we can’t simply think in terms of ourselves, but must include others. In fact we need to develop a mindset of us, instead of me. Or perhaps better said, ourselves yes, but always in terms of others. Which of course is the way of Jesus.

This does not deny the need for solitude, or to take personal responsibility. Nor is this to deny that we can be taken in by a world system that is at odds with the kingdom of God in Jesus. Not everything is okay.

But this is saying that the gospel is good news through Jesus’ coming as Messiah which brings us back to God’s intent and is for all creation. And in the end brings judgment and salvation with reference to everything. In and through King Jesus.

into a new year

Often I’ve heard our Pastor Sharon encourage us to pursue what brings us life in and through Jesus. This is in reference to the way that is in Jesus.

I’m not into New Year’s resolutions. I want to grow in grace and pursue what helps me along those lines. As a follower of Jesus.

Pastor Sharon is an advocate of God’s people benefiting from the practice of the classical Christian disciplines. She wonderfully helps us in her award winning novel to consider practicing some of those disciplines, and work out what God is doing in our heart with others who are doing the same.

That is what I want to be out and about this coming year, or whatever days I have in it. I want to be aflame with God’s love and with nothing else. I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope to get to a retreat center (there are at least two of them south of where we live) soon. And participate in something of the spiritual disciplines daily. To learn how to do that better. Silence, and voicing the Lord’s/Our Father prayer along with the Jesus Creed, are helpful to me. I continue to love to listen to the Bible Experience.

Going to the nursing home every Sunday has been a highlight of the past year. I am glad to now have a helper who takes one Sunday a month. It is a needy ministry. I’d like to get one more like helper on board who will do one other service a month. And perhaps get others involved in various ways.

And I continue to love to read and put down reflections in “writing” as on this blog. A few years back it seemed to come to me as from God, “Read.” And I want to recommit myself to that, because any good thing, reading being one of my very favorite things, can become lost in the shuffle of life. Tired and worn out and often down and out as I feel. Wondering if what I do matters at all. The voice of the enemy.

What brings you life in Jesus? And what is that life moving you to do? Take the small steps of faith. We’re to do according to the measure of faith God gives us. In love for him and our neighbor, in service to others, as we endeavor to sit at Jesus’ feet. And go on in him together for each other and for the world.