Saturday Night’s Alright For… Friends
Once again, we gathered together with brothers and sisters in Christ on Saturday night. This time, there was a smaller group: only my family and one other family. But, this was a special time for me, because my friend shared what God is doing in their lives and how God is leading them.
I have known this brother and his family for a few years, almost as long as I have lived in North Carolina. Since I have known him, he has believed that God is calling him and his family to move to a particular city in the United States. (By the way, I have no reason to doubt this call.) They do not know when God wants them to move, but they are ready to move whenever God says, “Go.”
This reminded me of a conversation that I had with another brother last week. We were discussing whether or not God calls people to specific locations. I have not studied this in detail, so I do not know if I can make a blanket statement. We know from Scripture that God has called people to specific locations before. For example, in Acts 16:7-10, Paul desires to go to Bithynia. However, the Spirit does not allow him to go. Instead, Paul has a vision that convinced him that God wanted him to go to Macedonia. In this instance, at least, God called Paul to a specific location. So, I ask you, does God call people to specific locations? And, does He always call people to specific locations?
So, what is my friend planning to do once he moves to this city? Does he plan to find a staff position in a local church? Does he plan to start a church? No. He believes that God wants him and his family to move into this city and to begin living as believers in an area where there are very few believers. He believes that God will bring other believers into his life, and together they will live as the church. In this area, the general population does not trust organizations and institutions that call themselves “church”. I think this could probably be said of other communities as well.
This conversation has provoked me to think about my own life and my interaction with other believers. Do those around me recognize my life as being different? Does my interaction with other believers cause unbelievers to desire the same type of community? Are all of my interactions with believers centered around organizations and institutions, or are they centered on mutual relationships with other believers as we are brought together by God? Can I recognize the difference?
This weekend has been (and continues to be) a special time of community for my family. As I mentioned in a previous post (“Reading John…“), we spent Friday evening with several brothers and sisters reading the Gospel of John. Saturday evening, we spent time with this family. And, Sunday, several friends are coming to our home for lunch after our formal meeting. We look forward to what God continues to do in our lives through the encouragement, teaching, and admonishment of these brothers and sisters that He has brought into our lives.
Reading John…
Last night, our family gathered with about 40 other brothers and sisters to read the Gospel of John. The family that hosted last night also hosted a reading of the Gospel of Luke in December. Our family was not able to attend the reading of Luke, so this was our first time to sit through a community reading of a gospel.
We started by breaking bread as part of the Lord’s Supper. Then, we all shared a meal. After the meal, we sang a song and began reading John. One person read each chapter (the chapters had been assigned as people arrived). After each group of seven chapters, we took a fifteen minute break. During the breaks, we would eat and sing songs again. After reading all twenty-one chapters, we shared the cup of the Lord’s Supper.
This was a very special time for us. It was amazing to hear the Gospel of John read in one sitting in a community of believers.
Christ the Lord is Risen Today…
I maintain a love-hate relationship with “Christian holidays”. I enjoy seeing family and giving gifts around Christmas. I enjoy the focus on the cross and resurrection around Easter. However, I do not enjoy the “holy day” aspect of Christmas and Easter. In fact, I think that focusing on the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection on two days of the year can distract believers into forgetting about the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection the remaining 363 days of the year.
Between the crucifixion and the resurrection, the first followers of Jesus huddled together in the upper room, focused on the uncertainty of their position. They were not yet living in the reality of the resurrection. Instead, they were still living in the shadow of the cross… waiting for the resurrection, though they did not know what they were waiting for.
After the resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit, the followers of Jesus no longer lived in the uncertain time between the cross and the resurrection. Things had changed! Jesus was not dead; he was risen! God no longer walked with them; He now indwelled them! Things had changed! Peter, who once cowered in fear and lied in response to the questions of a servant girl, now truthfully answered the Jewish council in boldness. Things had changed!
Today, things change as well. We put on our best suits and new ties, our new dresses and perhaps a bonnet. We decorate our buildings with banners and lilies. We sing different songs and host pageants. We hold more “services” and boast of our Easter numbers. On the outside, we scream to the world, “He is risen!”, but where is the response, “He is risen indeed”?
Perhaps the world does not respond, because they recognize that – unlike the change of those first followers of Jesus – our change is simply an external change, and simply a temporary external change. We are not living in the reality of the resurrection. Instead, for some of us, we have huddled back together living in the shadow of this age… waiting for Jesus’ return, though we do not know exactly what we are waiting for.
What happened? Why do we no longer live in the reality of the resurrection 365 days of the year? Why have we reduced the resurrection to the status of a special birthday party?
What would happen if each believer lived in the reality of the resurrection everyday? What would happen if we lived as if Jesus was serious when He said it would be better for him to go and send the Holy Spirit, who now indwells us? What would change if we truly believed that Jesus was with us always? How would our lives be different if we crucified ourselves daily in order to live in the power and presence of the risen Lord? What would happen if we recognized the spiritual presence of Jesus with us today as being more real than his physical presence with those early disciples?
I am asking these questions to myself, after meditating on the resurrection and the response of the church to the resurrection. Perhaps these thoughts resonate with you as well. If so, please share how you live in the reality of the resurrection daily.
Making friends with critics…
Scot McKnight at “Jesus Creed” offers some wise advice in his post “Letters to Emerging Christians“. This post is actually his response to a letter he received and posted here.
As many of you know, I do not consider myself to be “emerging” or “missional”. I do agree with many of the things that I have read from those who consider themselves emerging/missional. However, McKnight’s post was less about emerging than it was about dealing with people who disagree and critique your views. His advice was very good.
Consider this suggestion:
Fourth, find a critic and make him or her your friend – have coffee, go out for lunch, go to dinner. Learn to converse with that person as a friend about what interests her or him and what interests you. You may grow in your appreciation for that person and she or he may grow in their appreciation for you. (Wouldn’t that be a good thing?) Gosh, maybe you will even become friends. I’ve sat over coffee with many a critic of emerging.
In another suggestion, he asks us to consider that none of us are “right” about everything. We all must be willing to listen to others, recognizing that the other person may be right.
All of his suggestions are very good. The post caused me to look at how I think about and deal with people who disagree with me. What about you?
Are you willing to sit down over coffee with someone who disagrees with you? Are you willing to talk about areas in which you agree instead of only focussing on the disagreement? Are you willing to possibly even become friends with this person? Are you willing to admit that you may be wrong and the other person may be right?
Could it be that walking in unity with someone begins with walking with someone, instead of simply critiquing their views?
Adolf Schlatter on the church…
Adolf Schlatter was an anomaly in late nineteenth and early twentieth century German theological scholarship. Though holding a teaching position at Tübingen, a university well-known for approaching the Bible through higher criticism, Schlatter maintained conservative (evangelical?) beliefs. I have wanted to buy his two volume set The History of the Christ and The Theology of the Apostles for some time. I was finally able to buy them, and I flipped through The Theology of the Apostles looking for Schlatter’s view of the church. There is certainly much more to read, but I found this paragraph very interesting:
Moreover, the public confession of Jesus’ lordship produced in them a union that oriented everyone’s conduct toward the same goal, and the Spirit’s presence invested the community with a thoroughly spiritual dimension. Baptism did not result in a multitude of autonomous congregations but the one church, because baptism called its recipients to the Christ. Likewise, the table around which the community gathered was not the table of a teacher or baptizer or bishop but Christ’s table. By receiving their share in Christ, they simultaneously entered into communion with all other believers. The concept of the church thus took on a universal dimension from the start that remained undiminished, just as the individual local Jewish congregation had always been considered to be part of the one Israel.
According to Schlatter, the universality and the unity of the church was more than an ideal. The church was universal and united because of its shared confession, conduct, goal, baptism, table, and portion in Christ, not to mention the common presence of the Spirit of God.
As I look at that list – a list of items that, according to Schlatter, once brought the church together – I recognize that many, perhaps all, are now used to divide the church instead of unite the church. While the confession (“Jesus is Lord”) was originally intended to separate believers from nonbelievers, we now use expanded confessional statements to separate one group of believers from another group of believers. While the one baptism originally represented death to self and new birth in Christ, baptism is now used to divide the body of Christ into different factions. Similarly, the Lord’s table and even conduct are often used to separate churches instead of uniting them.
Do we recognize that who we are as the church has little (if anything) to do with the things we say or even the things we do? I would suggest (along with Schlatter) that who we are as the church is instead associated with us having received a “share in Christ”. But, that also means that who other people are does not depend on the words they say or the things they do. Instead, those who have received Christ have “simultaneously entered into communion with all other believers” – not because of their actions or a prayer or a confession, but because they now belong to Christ and they now belong to the Father’s family. Certainly, there may be a need for discipleship and teaching people to live as a part of the Father’s family, but we do not have the right nor the authority to dismiss someone from the Father’s family nor to choose to disassociate with someone who Christ has claimed as His own.
Can we know with certainty that someone belongs to Christ? No. But, then again, no one can know with certainty about us either. With the “confession of Jesus’ lordship” (“Jesus is Lord”) someone claims acceptance into the family of God and the presence of the Spirit. As a family, we are then required (yes, I do mean required) to accept that person, to disciple that person, to bear with that person, to love that person, to serve that person, to teach that person, to forgive that person even if (especially if!) that person disagrees with us. We come together in community, but that community is not based on us and our beliefs and our confessions. That community is based solely on our individual and mutual relationships with God through Jesus Christ enabled by the Holy Spirit.
When we separate from someone that we consider a brother or sister in Christ, we are usurping the authority of God. And, when we refuse to hold brothers and sisters accountable to their confession “Jesus is Lord”, then we are ignoring our mutual responsibilities as part of God’s family.
Making known the manifold wisdom of God…
According to Paul, the way the Jews and Gentiles lived together as one new family with God as their father would demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). My good friend, Maël, from “The Adventures of Maël & Cindy“, asks some important questions concerning this is his post called “Does our philosophy on the church matter?” He says:
Here we see how the observance of a healthy meeting of believers can clearly convey the gospel message to unbelievers. But it should not stop with the gathering. Scripture states that we are the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). Doesn’t it make sense that we, the church, therefore represent Christ? Since that is the case, I would say that our philosophy on the church matters. It is not a matter of preference; even when Scripture is not prescriptive, it is a matter of representing the gospel to a dying world. I love reading the church fathers and have appreciated the wisdom that we find in tradition, but if tradition does not align itself with Scripture, we have the potential of presenting the wrong image of Christ to a lost world. We have to ask ourselves two questions: “what kind of picture are we painting?” and “what kind of picture is the church we meet with painting?”
I wrote about one person’s view of the church a couple of months ago in a post called “Is our understanding of ‘church’ important?” This person had a completely wrong view of the church, but it was the church that had been demonstrated to her. Did she misunderstand? Possibly. Is it possible that the church was not presenting itself as it should? I think so.
So, what kind of picture are you painting? Are you demonstrating the “manifold wisdom of God” in the way that you live with those who are part of the family of God? Or, does it matter?
A "Potluck" Community…
I am slowly reading Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church, edited by Robert Webber. I have previously mentioned a couple of passages from John Burke’s chapter (see “What needs to change?” and “Can we trust God for growth?“). I am now reading Karen Ward’s chapter, which is called “The Emerging Church and Communal Theology”.
As with all books that I read about the church, I am looking for those passages that best express the church as I see it in the New Testament. Ward compares the church to a “potluck dinner”:
The closest image or analogy I have for how we do everything (“preaching,” community, and theology-making) at Apostles is the “potluck,” as this is how we function at our Abbey community kitchen meals, at our theology pubs, and in our weekly eucharistic gathering and other forms of comunity life.
A potluck is a curious, fun, risky, and unpredictable way to eat. I remember growing up in my Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Ohio, where I first discovered, and then was horrified by, the whole concept of the church potluck.
Lutheran church potlucks are things to behold … six-foot tables covered with red plastic checkered tablecloths lined up in rows in the church parish hall. Each one filled with heaping bowls (“dishes to pass”) of often tasteless food covered with either shredded carrots, raisins, tiny marshmallows, dried fried onions, or two of the above. Much of which was served up at these suppers was not my idea of fine dining, but what I found to be tasteless, others found to be rich, what I considered too hot, others considered just right, what I considered smelly, others considered pungently gourmet. Yet despite my upturned teenage nose at these suppers, I always managed to find enough dishes to nourish my body and satisfy my hunger, somewhere between the lutefisk and lefse.
Since then, my appreciation for the potluck has only grown and deepened. Somehow, between the tiny wieners and cold sauerkraut, God always feeds us … likewise are we theologically “fed” at the Church of the Apostles’ potlucks.
Eating potluck is not quick or neat, and it also has little need for adding protein bars or other additive “high energy” packaged supplements. Potluck as a metaphor for church and for “renewed human life and community” is a rich one.
A potluck is a very interesting analogy for the church. But, it seems to fit. God has provided the church with everything that it needs – and He has provided it in the various people that are part of the church. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:16, the church grows when each part within the church does its share – each believer has something to bring to this “potluck”.
Similarly, those within the body that seemingly have little to add are in fact indispensible (1 Cor. 12:22), necessary for the proper functioning of the body – much like a “potluck” is not complete without each dish, including those side items that make everything just right.
What happens when every dish is placed on the table? What happens when every believer does his or her share – speaking as God directs and serving with the power of God? God is glorified! (1 Peter 4:10-11)
Will every dish on the table satisfy my needs? No. But, if I have a need, God has promised to meet it. Of course, that is assuming that everyone brings their dish, and everyone is allowed to place their dish on the table. We also learn to cook by sampling what other chefs have prepared, knowing that there is a master chef and a master recipe.
The church as a potluck… this truly is an interesting analogy. Imagine the sights, smells, sounds, tastes of a potluck… Imagine how these all join together to create a feast… Perhaps this is a good analogy of the kind of community that God is building.
There is something fundamental about fellowship…
Fellowship… There is something about fellowship that makes it fundamental to the church. When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, he answered:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
There are at least two amazing things about this passage. First, Jesus did not stop with the commandment to “Love the Lord your God”. It would seem that commandment would be enough. Instead, he said there is a second command that is like it. Similarly, Jesus said that the Law and the Prophets depend on both of these commandments. Again, the Law and Prophets do not just depend on “Love the Lord your God”. The Law and the Prophets also depend on the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
There seems to be a fundamental connection between our relationship with God and our relationship with other people. John said something similar in his first letter:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 ESV)
This seems very simple. If we love God, we will love others. If we do not love others, that demonstrates that we do not love God. The two are fundamentally connected.
In the prologue to his first letter, John also discussed our relationship with God in terms of our relationship with one another:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship (κοινωνία) with us; and indeed our fellowship (κοινωνία) is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3 ESV)
When we have fellowship (κοινωνία – koinonia) with one another, we are demonstrating our fellowship with God. Verse 3 could even be translated as follows: “… that you too may have fellowship with us, and that fellowship of ours is truly with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.”
We cannot separate our love for God from our love for other people. We cannot separate our fellowship with God from our fellowship with other believers. Fellowship is fundamental in the life of a believer and in the inter-connected lives of a group of believers.
But, just as we cannot create love for God and others, we cannot create fellowship either. Instead, the Spirit creates a bond between His adopted children that humans cannot create on their own. The fellowship (“sharing”) that we have in common is the presence of the Holy Spirit. And, this fellowship exists between all believers. Certainly relationships can be deep or shallow, intimate or surface-level, but fellowship between believers is created by the Spirit, not by our interaction with one another. Relationships that are based on this Spirit-created fellowship should be nurtured, strengthened, encouraged, and sought through continued interaction. But, those relationships must be built fundamentally on Spirit-created fellowship.
What does it mean for fellowship to be fundamental to believers and the church? Here are two examples:
Discipleship depends on fellowship…
When we recognize that discipleship is more than simply teaching facts to someone, then the fundamental role of fellowship becomes clear. Discipleship requires sharing life together. Without fellowship, discipleship is reduced to the transfer of information, which is not true discipleship at all.
Discipline depends on fellowship…
When a brother or sister is living in unrepentant sin, we are taught to disassociate with that brother or sister. In modern times this has been reduced to preventing attendance at certain activities. However, if there is true fellowship involved, then discipline requires the rupture of vibrant relationships: like divorce in a family, back when divorce was not an accepted option.
Fellowship… There is something about fellowship that makes it fundamental to the church. I want to learn more about fellowship. Perhaps others could share what they’ve learned about Spirit-enabled, Spirit-created, Spirit-driven fellowship…
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night…
(10 extra point to the first person to name the inspiration for the title of this post…)
Once again, our family met together last Saturday night with a few other brothers and sisters to share a meal and fellowship. We enjoyed getting to know them more, to hear about what was happening in their lives, and to simply spend time together as a family.
A few days ago in a post called “Imagine all the people…“, I mentioned that our family has been discussing what it means to live together as a family with people who are different from us. (As someone recently pointed out to me, it is sometimes more difficult to live with people who are very much like us!) We talked about this briefly, recognizing that we have been called to do something (live with and love people) which we cannot do on our own power. Thus, it is God “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us”. (Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV)
Another brother mentioned that his family was reading the Gospel of John. He mentioned John 17, which includes the following passages:
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (John 17:11 ESV)
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20-21 ESV)
Jesus prayed for his followers and the ones who come after them that they would be united. So, we talked about what kind of attitudes and motives we would need to be able to live in unity with those with whom we disagree.
We started talking about humility, then love, then patience. We soon realized that we were starting to list the fruit of the Spirit. Paul told the believers in Galatia that the Spirit would produce love, joy, peace, patience, kingdness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in their lives. All of these are necessary to live in unity with those who disagree with us.
We also talked about what attitudes and motives disrupt unity. We talked about pride, arrogance, hatred… These kinds of attitudes always cause problems.
I have to admit that I struggle with arrogance: that is, I usually come to a discussion thinking that I am right and the other person needs to change. However, this kind of attitude disrupts unity. Instead, I want to come to a discussion recognizing that the other person may be right. If I want someone to listen to me and to consider changing their views to match mine, then I must be willing to do the same thing.
Of course, this applies to blogs as well. I pray that I will be more willing to listen to others, and less anxious to jump in and prove my point.
Imagine all the people…
My family is studying Ephesians. Now, I know that some of you who know me well are laughing, because I LOVE to study Ephesians – it seems that I am ALWAYS studying Ephesians. Anyway, this is actually for a class assignment for which I have recruited my family to help.
We are supposed to read through Ephesians (and 1 Peter later) and answer the following question: “What do these texts say about faith as a way of life?”
As we were reading through chapter 2 of Ephesians, we noticed the emphasis on how God had created one new people from the Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:14-16). This new people was to live as a family (household) and citizens of a new kingdom (Eph 2:19). Again, in chapter 3, Paul says that when Jews and Gentiles lives as one people (the church) they demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10). Paul also reminds us again that we are one family named for God, such that God is the patriarch of the family (Eph 3:14-15). He then calls us to strength, knowledge, and love (Eph 3:16-19).
We discussed how difficult it is for us to live with and love people who are different from us. Certainly the Jews and Gentiles found this kind of life difficult. Yet, God expects us to live as a family and to love one another – and not just any family, but His family – and not just with people who are like us, but with all believers, even if they are very different from us. How do we do that?
So, we did a quick exercise that really helped me, and hopefully it helped them. Maybe it will help you as well. Here is the exercise: Think of someone who is completely different from you. Think about their race, ethnicity, education level, economic level, hygiene, clothing, housing, language, culture, etc. Picture that person in your mind, and ask yourself, “How can I possibly love that person and live together as family with that person.” Then, read the end of Ephesians 3 below:
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV)
Certainly this passages applies to more than our living together in love with those who are different from us. But, it does apply to this as well. Because of God’s power at work in us, He is able to love someone through us that we would never love on our own.