BLOG 12/1/17. WHERE YOU GO, … CHRIST GOES

BLOG 12/1/17. WHERE YOU GO, … WHAT YOU DO, … WHAT YOU SAY …

A generation ago Richard Halverson was the pastor of a large congregation in suburban Washington, D.C. I was always taken with his ‘spin’ on the final benediction at the end of Sunday morning worship services: “As you go out into this week, know that where you go, Christ goes, what you say, Christ says, and what you do, Christ does. And, now may the grace of God go with you.” Yes! Such a prayer commissions God’s people to engage in their incarnation as his New Creation people in the midst of the complex and dismaying context that so often surrounds us in this present scene.

Jesus told his followers that it was by their works that people would know that they were his disciples. Thoughtful observers and scholars viewing the present scene are quick to note that people are not impressed with our faith affirmations by some theological system, but more by our practice and behavior. Jesus was the epitome of what he called his followers to be and to do. “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, in that you love one another.”

Those who profess to be Christian, and yet engage in racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, vitriol against other religions, or any of the others who are different, . . . actually deny their ostensible Christian identity. Jesus taught us the we should love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us. Jesus modelled this, and he prayed for the soldiers who were following out orders to crucify him. Paul would give us the beautiful picture that those who follow Christ are to be the sweet aroma of Christ unto God, and that we are to spread the fragrance of him everywhere.

It is so dismaying that so many of those who sing songs about the return of Christ, or about going to heaven when they die, … seem to miss the point that Jesus has already come and has left us with an unmistakable mandate that we are to be obediently and lovingly carrying out in this present age: to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to welcome strangers, to visit those imprisoned, to heal the sick, to be peacemakers, to be agents of mercy … and to take the consequences. All this praxis in addition to being the heralds of the gospel of grace and forgiveness.

And he makes all of this with the sobering reminder that when he does return that it will be this evidence of our true faith that is the criteria of our welcome by him. Wow! We are to be intentionally counter-cultural, and to be the sweet aroma of Christ in this present confusing and often sordid cultural scene. We cannot ignore the huge humanitarian crises that exist with the sixty-four million refugees, or the attempts at ethnic cleansing abroad, … or the violations of the commands of Christ that are before us in the daily newspapers and in the realities of social and political darkness.

As Dick Halverson knew and practiced, when the people of God gather for worship, authentic church leaders and teachers will know that the purpose of such is to encourage, re-evangelize, equip, and refresh those people to be the presence of Christ in their work-a-day world, i.e., to be very intentional in our awareness that where we go, Christ goes. What we say, Christ says. What we do, Christ does. Jesus would say: “As the Father has sent me, even so do I send you.”

Such a high and holy calling is ours by virtue of our baptismal vows to be the whole-hearted and obedient followers of Jesus Christ.

Got it! Then, go for it.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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