9/7/14: COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY ALWAYS IN PROCESS–NEVER PERFECT.

BLOG 9/7/14. A REMINDER: COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY ALWAYS IN PROCESS—NEVER PERFECT.

On this Sunday afternoon, I think I need to engage in my usual redundancy and remind myself, and the readers of these Blogs, that the colonies of God’s New Humanity are never perfect. How could they be? They are made up of those whom Jesus came “to seek and save,” i.e., not the religious (or righteous), but very real broken, confused, mistaken, ‘lost’ folk. These colonies are really a weird bunch. That’s because Jesus meets us where we are. He doesn’t ever intend to leave us there, but he meets us in the realities of: who we are and where we are. Folk in his colonies come with their idols, their lurking agnosticism, their screw-ups, their arrogance and pride, their tribal or family traditions, the habits we acquire that reflect the darkness, our hormones, our broken relationships—yes, and our commendable accomplishments, and ethical sensibilities, and awareness of our communal responsibilities. God’s colonies of his New Humanity are those  who come not making excuses, but as self-confessed very real sinners. Got it?

But there will always be those, also, who are troubled personalities, those who are blind and deaf to so much that Jesus has come to do in the creation of this New Humanity (i.e., his mission to make us truly human). You will always find those in the colonies who are perfectly content to be ‘religious’, to attend worship services, to go through the motions of ‘churchy’ stuff because these seem to meet some need for ‘spirituality’—and yet who have no passion for Jesus or his mission, and who feel no particular responsibility for those still walking in darkness. There are those who have no interest in the true freedom for which Christ sets us free–to be his new humanity.

Some who inhabit church institutions seem to understand this least of all. Some who pertain to be “church professionals” likewise miss the point (an academic Master of Divinity degree does not guarantee that one even understands the gospel!). So many churches have drifted away, and in a very real sense have become something far less than those passionate communities of discipleship. Some churches have, in reality, ceased to be churches at all. They may inhabit handsome sanctuaries and be engaged in some commendable practices, but they miss the point of creating dynamic and contagious colonies of those who herald Jesus as the Word of the Father to his rebellious creation, heralding God’s grace and truth in his Son.

Colonies of God’s New Humanity in Christ are very intentional in faithfully incarnating, or demonstrating God’s New Creation/Kingdom … and these colonies are deliberate in seeking to equip every participant to be an active agent in the mission of God to the world, his “plan for the fullness of time to unite again all things in him, in heaven and on earth.”

Just a reminder. We are called with a purpose. It is not a humanly achievable goal, but absolutely irresistible as the Holy Spirit inhabits the colonies.

 

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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