Category: Christ

Posted on

Community

Community is one of the favorite buzz words being used in churches today. Churches talk about being a community of faith, some call themselves _______________ Community Church. Now, I have nothing against community churches, the local body I gather with is St. Thomas Community Church. I also believe community is a vital thing for the church.

I wonder though, if we understand what community is. I’m not sure that most church goers know how to have community, or what it would look like. I also don’t think most church leaders understand it. Sometimes churches try to “build community” by having more Sunday school classes, or by having an extended meet and greet time during the Sunday morning service. Other churches have small groups throughout the week. Many times these efforts only serve as another program that gives the appearance of community, but does nothing to build up the people involved. Some smaller churches attempt to have community by seeking to control every area of their members’ lives.

One definition of community is: “a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.” There are many other definitions, but it seems to me that this one fits what the church is meant to be. A local body of followers of Jesus is a group of people (that was a profound statement, wasn’t it). A local body is also within a larger society. So far, so good. I believe the key for the church is found in the found in the middle of the definition.

A community is a group living together. That may mean living in the same neighborhood, or even in the same house, and there are faith communities who do that. For most of us though, the idea of living together means doing life together. Doing life together is not easy in today’s society, but it is essential for community. It takes different forms, from a couple of people getting together for coffee one day a week to families meeting for dinner and spending time together. It can be “theology night” at a local pub, or folks in the church camping together. Doing life together can take many forms, but the important thing is that it happens more than just a couple of hours on Sunday.

A community is also a group with a common characteristic or interest. I believe that the only common interest that can bring about true community is Jesus. Church groups can form around many interests, from sports to cooking. “Accountability groups” are popular. While these groups can be good things, they can quickly become either social groups or exercises in navel gazing. The church has a built-in common characteristic. We are all members of the Body of Christ. We are all family. If a local body is focused on Jesus Christ, and is wrapped up in learning him, and being formed together into his image, we will grow closer together. We will invest ourselves and our resources in each others’ lives. We will grow to be open and vulnerable with one another. We will minister to each other. It’s not something that will happen overnight, in fact it make take years.

Being a community is like planting a garden. The plants don’t bear fruit right away. It takes constant, gentle care to keep the plants going. Sometimes weeds need to be pulled up. It can be messy. It may require effort when we don’t feel like it. But, the harvest is a beautiful thing.

Posted on

Encouragement

While reading Jesus Manifesto yesterday morning, I came across this quote from Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022):

We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies…
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in him transformed,
recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in his light.



Posted on

Just a Sinner…

…saved by grace. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that description of a Christian. In the fundamentalist circles in which I grew up, that idea was drummed into our heads from the time we confessed faith in Christ. Along with that we heard Paul’s admonition to not think of ourselves more highly than we should, and Isaiah’s statement about our righteousness being filthy rags. We were taught that we really are nothing more than unprofitable servants, who serve God and others because that’s what we are servants.

There seems to be a bit of tension in the New Testament between the passages that speak of us as servants and the ones that speak of us as children and heirs of God. In our gathering last Sunday, we were talking about how we often see ourselves more lowly than we should, rather than more highly. If we see ourselves as merely sinners saved by grace and unprofitable servants, then our service becomes something less than following the example of our Master. It becomes something that we do because our lowly status compels us rather than the love of Christ.

It is true that we can do nothing to save ourselves, that we need the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to go through our day-to-day. It is also true that if we are in Christ, we are his friends. We are sons and daughters of the Creator. Hebrews 2:11 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. As we go through our lives we are being shaped into the likeness of Christ. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, individually and collectively. That doesn’t sound like people who are just unprofitable servants.

Jesus served. He is the ultimate example of what it means to serve others. How did he serve? Did he serve because he had to, because he was just a servant? No. Jesus served as one who was the Lord of all. He served completely voluntarily, giving us the supreme fulfillment of the two greatest commandments; love God, and love others as ourselves. That is how we are to serve, voluntarily in love because of who we are. Who we are is the image of Christ in this world. We are children of the living God, and we have the calling and privilege to join in God’s mission to restore all things. We don’t have to love and serve in a sniveling manner. A Christian who thinks of themselves too lowly does not serve sacrificially or lovingly.

If we see ourselves as God sees us, as beloved children who bear the image of Christ, we can then begin to serve as Jesus did. We can truly begin to love God and love others as ourselves.

Posted on

Seven Steps to Happiness

Just kidding. Did I get your attention? Actually, this post has nothing to do with any number of steps to anything. It’s about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and what that means in our day-to-day.

A couple of days ago, I was reading a post by Keith Giles, titled “Risen?” I remember, while growing up in fundamental Baptist churches, hearing a lot about the death of Christ on the cross, but not a whole lot on the Resurrection. Resurrection was something reserved for the times the pastor preached on justification or why Christians worship on Sunday, or for Easter. The death of Christ is the loudest message that the church proclaims. Now, the death of Jesus on the Cross is essential. Because of the Cross, our sins are washed away and we are free. We must proclaim the Cross.

We forget however, that the death of Christ on the cross is only part of the Gospel. The rest of the story is that Jesus didn’t remain dead. He walked out of that tomb, proving that he was indeed the Messiah. He defeated death, and began the restoration of all creation. As the Apostle Paul said, if Christ is not raised then our faith is useless. The Resurrection changes everything!

I wonder if one reason the death of Christ is the church’s main message is the emphasis that is put on going to heaven, of life after death. In the circles I spent time in, everything was based on getting to go to heaven when you died. This life was seen as simply living according to the moral principles of whatever group you were a part of, keeping a “good testimony” so unbelievers would hear what we had to say, and staying “right with God.” We were never taught that the Resurrection had any implications for life in the here and now.

If we believe that Jesus is raised from the dead, there are certain things that are true of us. We are raised with Christ. Death has been defeated. As N.T. Wright puts it, there is “life after life after death.” We will live in a new creation, not just a disembodied state out there somewhere. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at work in us. Let that sink in.

These things are not only in the future. They have begun. The Resurrection gives us the power to live as new creation now, in this life. The Resurrection means that God is restoring all things now, and that we get to be part of that restoration. Resurrection also means that the Kingdom has come. Jesus is Lord. That means that we live as citizens of the Kingdom of God right now, not just sometime in the distant future. Our allegiance is first and foremost to the King of Kings.

I don’t know how all of this works out in the individual lives of followers of Jesus. There really are no steps to follow that will work for everyone. I’ve been thinking about what living in the Resurrection would look like in my life. I do know that I need to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading as I live in my day-to-day. I do know that I want to live as one who is risen with Christ, who is a subject of the King of Kings, who is part of the restoring of Creation.

Posted on

Good Friday

More from C.S. Lewis:

“Muzzle him!” said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about his face putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost two or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to come near him even after he was bound began to find their courage, and for a few minutes the two girls could not even see him–so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking him, hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him.
At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the bound and muzzled Lion to the Stone Table, some pulling and some pushing. He was so huge that even when they got him there it took all their efforts to hoist him onto the surface of it. Then there was more tying and tightening of cords.
“The cowards! The cowards!” sobbed Susan. “Are they still afraid of him, even now?”
When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a mass of cords) on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags, holding four torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her arms as she had bared them the previous night when it had been Edmund instead of Aslan. Then she began to whet her knife. It looked to the children, when the gleam of the torchlight fell on it, as if the knife were made of stone, not of steel, and it was of a strange and evil shape.
At last she drew near. She stood by Aslan’s head. Her face was working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before she gave the blow, she stooped down and said in a quivering voice,
“And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.”
The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They couldn’t bear to look and had covered their eyes.
While the two girls still crouched in the bushes with their hands over their faces, they heard the voice of the Witch calling out,
“Now! Follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! It will not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now that the great Fool, the great Cat, lies dead.”

Posted on

Thursday

From The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

A howl and gibber of dismay went up from the creatures when they first saw the great Lion pacing towards them, and for a moment the Witch herself seemed to be struck with fear. Then she recovered herself and gave a wild, fierce laugh.
“The fool!” she cried. “The fool has come. Bind him fast.”
Lucy and Susan held their breaths waiting for Aslan’s roar and his spring upon his enemies. But it never came. Four hags, grinning and leering, yet also (at first) hanging back and half afraid of what they had to do, had approached him. “Bind him, I say!” repeated the White Witch. The hags made a dart at him and shrieked with triumph when they found that he made no resistance at all. Then others–evil dwarfs and apes–rushed in to help them and between them they rolled the huge Lion round on his back and tied all his four paws together, shouting and cheering as if they had done something brave, though, had the Lion chose, one of those paws could have been the death of them all. But he made no noise, even when the enemies, straining and tugging, pulled the cords so tight that they cut into his flesh. Then they began to drag him towards the Stone Table.
“Stop!” said the Witch. “Let him first be shaved.”
Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan’s head. Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the children, watching from their hiding-place, could see the face of Aslan looking all small and different without its mane. The enemies also saw the difference.
“Why, he’s only a great cat after all!” cried one.
“Is that what we were afraid of?” said another.
And they surged round Aslan jeering him, saying things like “Puss, Puss! Poor Pussy.” and “How many mice have you caught to-day, Cat?” and “Would you like a saucer of mill, Pussums?”
“Oh how can they?” said Lucy, tears streaming down her cheeks. “The brutes, the brutes!” for now that the first shock was over the shorn face of Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful, and more patient than ever.

Posted on

Another Political Post (Sort Of)

There’s a lot of words flying around the airwaves, the internet, and in public. Some of them are good words, some of them are not good. Some of the good words are spoken by Christians and, unfortunately, some of the not good words are spoken by Christians. The cause of all these words is the debate over the health care bill recently passed by Congress. Everyone from Glen Beck to Jim Wallis has weighed in on the debate.

I’m not going to get into the debate over whether or not the bill that was passed is a good one. I do have my doubts and reservations about anything that is pushed so quickly, with so much arm twisting and back room dealing. And of course, there’s always the law of unintended consequences. I have friends and relatives on both sides of the debate, and my relationship with them is far more important than which side is right.

What I do feel strongly about is the way folks who claim to follow the King of Kings have forgotten that we are citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom that has an agenda that is far different than that of any kingdom of this world, including this one. Christians on the right and on the left have invested far too much emotion in ensuring that their side is in power and their agenda is pushed. There is nothing wrong with folks supporting and working for whatever party fits their political views, but when that causes them to call opponents names, to angrily shout down those on the other side, or to even bring into question their spiritual life, then there is something wrong.

We are Christians before we are Republicans or Democrats. We are God’s children before we are conservative or liberal. We are citizens of Christ’s kingdom before we are citizens of any country on this earth. We are part of the same Body. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, would the eye scream at the foot across a barricade? Would the ear call the elbow a racial slur? Would the nose tell the knee that it’s not part of the body? This little toe has a hard time hearing parts of the Body belittle and disparage other parts because of their view of what this part of the kingdoms of this world should look like. Didn’t Jesus say that the world would know that we are his because of our love for one another?

I believe that whatever happens in the coming years because of the health care bill should ultimately make little difference in how followers of Jesus conduct their lives as citizens of heaven. We are called to spread the Gospel and make disciples who will follow King Jesus and in turn make more disciples. Christians through the centuries have done that regardless of the government in power, whether the Roman Empire, the Soviet Union, China, or an Islamic dictatorship. If they can do that, surely we can do what we are called to do whether a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican is in charge.

Follow your political persuasions. Be passionate about your ideas. Just remember that your first allegiance is to the One who told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. The agenda of the kingdom of God is not the agenda of earthly governments.

Check out some of the writings by Stanley Hauerwaus and Greg Boyd. They put it far better than I can.

Posted on

El Nino

The other day, Jennie and I were chatting on-line, and the conversation wound its way to the weather. Here in the sunny South, we’ve had an unusually cold and wet winter, the coldest in about thirty years. Jennie said that there in Los Angeles, they had a greater than normal amount of rain the past few months. Every part of the country has been affected by weather patterns that come from a strong El Nino. I remarked to Jennie that El Nino had really disrupted things this winter.

The more I though about it, the more I realized the parallels between the weather pattern known as El Nino and its namesake. El Nino begins around Christmas and the term is Spanish for “the male child,” a reference to Jesus Christ. We often think of the Christ child as simply a meek and mild little baby who, according to one popular song, never cried. We love the picture of a baby surrounded by furry farm animals and shepherds, and of course, we miss the point. I think the fact that the name “The (Christ) Child” was given to a weather system that is disruptive is significant.

Jesus Christ did not serenely stride through first century Palestine like some ethereal figure untouched by the world around him. He did not come proclaiming a gospel of escape into another world after death. From his birth, he threw a money wrench into the machinery of the kingdoms of this world. When Herod learned of the birth of this new “king of the Jews” he became so afraid for his own throne that he ordered all of Bethlehem’s male children under two years old to be killed. Herod was not just a child abuser. He was a king who was trying to eliminate a rival.

After this, we don’t read a lot of Jesus’ life growing up, although there was that incident where his parents had to hunt for him in Jerusalem. That caused just a bit of a stir in their lives. Jesus began his ministry by calling people to drop what they were doing and follow him .He then traveled around the country challenging the traditions of the religious leaders. Not only did he challenge tradition, he also took the whole system and interpreted it as pointing to him. That ruffled more than a few feathers.

Jesus didn’t exactly make Pilate’s life easier when he told Pilate that he was indeed a king, but that his kingdom was not of this world. Even Pilate’s wife had a nightmare because of Jesus.
After Jesus left, his followers spread throughout the Roman Empire with the message that the Kingdom of God had come, that Jesus Christ was Lord, not Caesar. They refused to sacrifice to the Emperor, and were persecuted and killed because they were considered treasonous. It was said of the early Christians that they “turned the world upside down.”

Just like El Nino, Jesus Christ was a disruptive figure during his time on earth. His followers, if they take seriously the words of their Master, continue to be disruptive. It’s hard for us in America to understand living in a hostile environment. America has been a part of Christendom for years, and we have had it easy in a culture that gave lip service to our faith. That is no longer the case. Followers of Jesus are being pushed to the margins, and it may be only a matter of time until we are seen as dangerous because of our allegiance to another King.

Time will tell if the church will strive to keep Christendom together, or will once again be subversive and disruptive, and turn our world upside down.

Posted on

Too Comfortable With Jesus?

In Mark 6, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in his hometown. The people are amazed at his teaching and wisdom. Matthew 13 tells us that his neighbors also were amazed at his miracles. They asked how Jesus got all this wisdom and power. After all, this was the same man who had grown up in their town. They knew his family. He had played with their children. Jesus had probably done work for them. They knew Jesus, or at least they thought they did. He was one of them. They were comfortable with this neighbor.

According to the text, thinking that they had Jesus all figured out caused a lack of faith in them. They couldn’t believe that this small town boy could do the miracles he was doing or teach with the wisdom he was showing. Even with the evidence staring them in the face, their familiarity with Jesus blinded them to what God was doing. Consequently, Jesus did not do many miracles in his hometown.

How easy is it for us to become comfortable with Jesus? Growing up, I heard the stories. I saw the flannel graph pictures. I became familiar with this soft spoken. gentle, fair-haired Savior who seemed to float serenely through first century Palestine ( except for the time that he really got ticked off at the money changers in the Temple). I was a Christian. I had asked Jesus to come into my heart, and since I had my “get out of hell free” card, I grew complacent in the relationship. I prayed, and asked forgiveness when I sinned, but the relationship was not really a close one. I had my image of Christ, and didn’t really expect him to ask much more of me than being a good boy and “worshipping” him when the church doors were open. I’m afraid that the image many churchgoers have of Jesus is not very different from that.

In the past couple of years, I’ve begun to learn to see Jesus more as he is. Through a few authors, particularly N. T. Wright and Dallas Willard, I have seen a different side of the Savior. Jesus the King has stepped into my path and shown himself to be exactly who the Gospels say he is. He is the Christ, the Anointed One of God. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is God incarnate. His Kingdom is now, not just in the future. Along with that, he is my brother and friend, and he calls me to follow and obey him out of love and gratitude for what he has done for me on the cross.

Jesus also calls me into a relationship with him, a relationship that is in many ways like those with other humans, but is so much better. That relationship is one where I am learning to not think that I have him all figured out, but rather to be open to anything he might do. In the Gospels, Jesus didn’t fit into any one’s preconceived notions, and he dealt with different people in different ways. So it is in my life. I am learning to expect the unexpected.

May we never say, “We have Jesus figured out. We know how he does things, and we know how he doesn’t work.”

Posted on

Which Comes First?

No, this isn’t about chickens and eggs. Something I heard the other day made me think. I know that can be a dangerous thing, but here goes.

“Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” I heard this line from Thomas Watson quoted in a sermon I heard on television. I understand the thinking behind this statement. We must realize our need of Jesus before we turn to him. The more we realize just what Christ has done for us, the more wonderful God’s grace will become to us. I believe that there is the danger of this teching being abused. I have been in churches, and heard stories of those in churches where the bitterness of sin was preached and hammered into the people to the point where they were beaten down and left with the idea that they were totally worthless pieces of trash.

I wonder though, if there isn’t another way of looking at the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of Christ. When I look at Jesus’ time here on earth, I see one who interacted with people where they were, and did not throw their sin in their faces (except for the religious ones who thought they had it all together). When “sinners” saw Jesus, they saw someone who loved them and cared about their day-to-day, not a stern judge who condemned them. Seeing the love and grace of this beautiful one led them to the point where they turned from their sin and followed him. Zacchaeus and the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet are just two examples. Romans 2:4 states that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.

If we hammer at people’s sin without showing them the beauty of Christ, we produce folks who know they are sinful and get depressed about it, folks who try their hardest to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps,” or folks who turn away from God altogether. If we can get across to others that Jesus is the most wonderful, beautiful Savior, who has done for us what we can’t do for ourselves. Yes we are great sinners. But, there is a great Savior. Instead of trying to make sin more ugly, how about if we made Christ more beautiful, by our words and actions.

How about if we said, “As Christ becomes sweeter, sin becomes more bitter.” Or as the hymn writer put it, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”