BLOG 5/2/17. BEYOND THE HAZE AND DISTORTIONS SURROUNDING THE CHURCH, WHICH OBSCURE ITS PURPOSE AS INTIMATE COMMUNITY
OK, I know that the traditional church institutions that have dominated the scene for so long, and still are present, have been a huge blessing in many lives, … still I want you to allow me to pursue my role as an ecclesiastical gadfly and seek to reconceive the church for tomorrow’s children, many for whom authentic relationships are a continual quest and who find much of institutional Christianity falls short. There have always been, and always will be a place for teaching forums, i.e., those gatherings of Christ’s followers to be formed by the Word of Christ, and equipped with the knowledge of God’s mission in Christ. Praise God for such.
Still, we live in a nomadic culture, where people are on the move, and where notwithstanding the availability of information on iPhones, it is easy to be lonely, … and God’s sensitivity that: “It is not good for man that he should be alone,” is rooted deeply in our human need for true, mutual, caring, and realistic relationships. The recreation of a true humanity, and of the human community, is at the heart of the mission of Jesus, … which lies behind his “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” statement at Caesarea Philippi. To grasp the awesome implications of this has exciting potential for us.
At the heart of recreating the human community is the necessity of those persons, who somehow are informed and energized and recreated into the capacity to relate to one another out of the life of Christ which mutually inhabits them. Somehow, when men and women encounter Jesus in his life and teachings, and when they respond to his invitation to give them a new life by the Spirit, … this has the very practical result of the Spirit of Christ implanting his (how to say it?) divine genome in their lives so that his life becomes their life, and his knowledge of God’s design to make all things new by and through Jesus, … to inaugurate God’s kingdom, or his new creation, becomes dynamic in and through each one of them. Not only are those respondents renewed in knowledge, but are also renewed in their true vocation to live out the life of Christ in their behavior and relationships in the midst of a broken world.
This is not a merely human religious possibility. It requires the supernatural presence and energizing of the Spirit of the Father and the Son in their lives. Jesus knew this. His bewildered disciples were not comprehending what he was saying. But he told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them.True human community, the community of God’s new humanity, is consequently called: “the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit.” It comes about when the genome of Christ in me, encounters the genome of Christ in you, and we are bonded together in the life of Christ, and become thereby accountable to one another, and responsible for one another in a deep bond of self-giving love So, also we demonstrate God’s intended relationships for his people before the watching world: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, and so you are to love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.”
This is not a merely human possibility. Our individual encounter with Christ in this way may be dramatic, or convulsive, of very quiet—but it is the threshold of true community, when we forsake our autonomy and embrace Jesus as he invites us to become one with him and to share his life. Maybe an example will help. When I was about to receive a very delicate heart procedure in the hospital and shortly before they wheeled me into the operating room, I was asked by staff to sign a statement of consent, giving to their medical staff the right to proceed. When we come to Christ by faith, we are making our statement of consent for him to live out his life in and through us in the midst of the realities this sojourn, and a huge dimension of this is the creation of his new humanity in relationships. Christ in you and Christ in me, relating as Christ to one another, … and so we to our present social and cultural context. … stay tuned.
