Enchanted Community

BLOG 6/17/17. THE OXYMORON OF PASSIVE DISCIPLESHIP

Even a cursory glance at Jesus’ teachings leave no doubt that obedience to his teachings and commands were at the threshold of true discipleship. As a matter of fact, he likened those who heard his commands, and then didn’t do them to a foolish person who tried to build his house without any solid foundation. Seeking to identify oneself with the community of Christ’s followers, and as his disciple, for whatever reason, i.e. personal advantage, need for some kind of personal fulfillment, or because: “I want to go to heaven when I die …” misses the whole point.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, the anonymous author rebukes those who fall into this category: “About this (i.e., the interpretation of the strange account of the Old Testament figure Melchizadek) we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become hard of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. …” (Hebrews 5:11ff.). Or something similar from Paul to Timothy: “… always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. (II Timothy 3:7).

The New Testament scriptures, as a matter of fact, never even propose that one should “join the church.” Jesus’ invitation was much more demanding. Yes, he invited all who were “weary and heavy laden” to come to him, in order to find rest. He did promise freedom and abundant life as one embraced him, … But he also required that he, and obedience to his teachings, become the criteria of true discipleship. He would tell those who were proposing to become his followers, that unless a person is willing to forsake all that he has he could not be a true disciple – forsake all all other lords and loyalties.

And yet ever so many ostensible church communities advertise to those who are uncommitted all the wonderful activities and personal benefits would be theirs by identifying with such an institution as theirs. How different is such an invitation to self-fulfillment and personal benefit to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s stark comment that: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die!” Still there all those who evaluate their ‘discipleship’ by how many church meetings they attend, or Bible studies they participate in, or their tenure in such church communities … somehow never getting the message, somehow never grasping that to invite Jesus into one’s life is to give consent to have his very life and mission, the the genome of his incarnation, to become the determining factor in their lives. They seem always to be avoiding those others still walking in darkness, even though Jesus was always seeking, not the religious/righteous, … but real sinners: the profane, the promiscuous, the shady business men, the ethnics who were despised, and those occupying military forces, along with ordinary folk.

That very large company who seek to hang-out in church meetings for the spiritual comfort and to leave the costly obedience to others, to church professionals, priests, etc. … are a huge contradiction. The Christian church often takes quantum leaps when some traveling messenger of the gospel communicates it to another and introduces that person into Christ’s new life, and then that new believer takes the message and “runs with it” in obedience, and learns discipleship in the process. Christ’s true followers are always contagious, and find ways to express that fervor and contagiousness in creative ways (in love and good works). But true disciples are never passive. To be continued …

[ http://wipfandstock.com/subversive-jesus-radical-grace.html ]

BLOG 6/13/17. WHO ARE YOU GONNA BELIEVE?

There is no problem getting confused when trying to make sense of all the news coming across the media these days, … claims and counter-claims, significant national figures accusing each other of lying, persons calling themselves ‘evangelicals’ espousing hateful and prejudicial behavior, …  it certainly can become bewildering and discouraging. Who are you going to believe?

That is why I love the scriptures, those Biblical documents, which are the Christian’s final authority, and in which the ultimate purpose is to make plain the word of Christ in our human lives. You know that nothing is in there just to be ‘filler’ because all those documents were painfully recorded by inspired authors, by hand and by primitive writing instruments, and on expensive paper or parchments. And, hey! It’s also easy to trivialize its teachings by overfamiliarity, or to render them unimportant by reading them mindlessly.

Let me, then, call up Hebrews 10:24 as a rich and provocative word: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, …” That could sound ‘platitudinous’ (is that a word?) enough, until you unpack it. For starts, it is not platitudinous at all. There are two things that Jesus taught his follows that would give them ‘street cred’ and those were:

• “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
• “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) And: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles (the non-believers) honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (I Peter 2:12)

Visible New Creation behavior and lifestyle: ‘Street cred,’ the unimpeachable evidence of the new life of Christ inhabiting God’s sons and daughters. That’s not ditty-bop do-goodism. That’s costly. Loving others as Christ loved us requires that we love our enemies, because when we were still enemies, Christ died for us. Feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers and offering hospitality, healing the sick, clothing the naked, … has a price-tag attached to it. But it’s visible to those watching, and is precisely what makes Christ’s followers to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

When persons profess to be followers of Christ and reject human need, and espouse racism, and prejudice against other religions, or reject those not of their social class, … then they are walking contradictions. And such contradictions are not countered by argument, but by the street cred of love and good works. So be stirring one another up to love and good works. Such love and good works are also what constitute “the breastplate of righteousness” which is an essential part of the Christian’s whole armor.

“Walk as children of the light” … and we will become believable. Peace!

BLOG 6/10/17. WHAT TO MAKE OF A TROUBLED GOVERNMENT?

This past week has been troubling beyond belief, and shattered our naïveté about human leadership. To watch a former FBI leader designate the president of the United States as a ‘liar’ before a senate committee would be unthinkable … until now. History records other periods when one’s trust in government undergoes cataclysmic disillusionment. One of my own denomination’s confessional documents is the Westminster Confession of Faith, which contains a chapter on: Of Civil Magistrate, in which it lays out for the church’s faithful an understanding of where civil governments fit into God’s design, and what our responsibility to such authorities would be. It concludes with the exhortation: “It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience. …”

The irony here is that this confession was written after the British revolution during which the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell captured and beheaded the king of England. But the confession was the attempt by the revolutionary government to provide a guide for all the populace (1649).

But just here, I find a more contemporary guide for faith and worship produced by the Christian Reformed Church to be much more helpful, and at the end of this troubling week I share it with you, since we do need to give serious thought to how we respond to so much that is distressing in those in whose hand is our common welfare (from stanzas 52 and 53):

We obey God first;

we respect the authorities that rule,

for they are established by God:

we pray for our rulers,

and we work to influence governments—

resisting them only when Christ and conscience demand.

We are thankful for the freedoms

Enjoyed by citizens of many lands;

We grieve with those who live under oppression,

And we seek for them the liberty to live without fear.

We call on governments to do public justice

and to protect the rights and freedoms

of individuals, groups, and institutions

so that each may do their tasks.

We urge governments and pledge ourselves

to safeguard children and the elderly

from abuse and exploitation,

to bring justice to the poor and oppressed,

and to promote the freedom

to speak, work, worship, and associate.

Followers of the Prince of Peace

are called to be peacemakers … (and much more that is helpful to us.)

[From: Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony. 2008.]

BLOG 6/6/17. STATIC CHURCHES IN A NOMADIC CULTURE?

The ‘village church’ sounds so quaint. It harks back to the time when the church house was a community gathering place, and buzzed with activity on Sundays, and was considered by many to be the house of God. That all began to change a long time ago. Think, for-instance, of poet Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village lament over that period in British history when the industrial revolution moved the textile industry from cottage industries in small villages to the large impersonal industries in large cities. He grieved over that past when the pastor was a gentle figure giving some caring presence to the villagers, and the quaint church-house was the center of the village—now standing empty, as does most of the village.

It has been difficult for our present remaining devotees of neighborhood church institutions to accept that the cultural shift of our present is as dramatic with us. That first generation after World War II had a field-day planting their denominational church franchises in the new neighborhoods and on the growing edge of cities. Architects had a field day. Handsome church sanctuaries rose everywhere, and church institutions flourished for a period.

Ah! but hardly a week goes by now without the report in the local newspaper of another old cherished church house being closed and sold because the congregation has aged, or moved away. It has been difficult for many to accept the fact that we live in a nomad culture in which the populace is constantly on the move. People move frequently, and even in pleasant subdivisions one hardly knows one’s neighbors, nor often do not even want to know them. They are ‘cocooners’ who go to work, come home, pull down the garage door and hide.

Where is one’s neighborhood? Where does one have any kind of significant contact with others? The popular TV comedy Cheers of yesterday located the neighborhood in the local pub where the viewers began to know the foibles and idiosyncrasies of all of the actors, and yet the same viewers are often at a loss to have significant contact with others, except perhaps at work, or in a running or biking club. It’s a different world. People change jobs frequently, and accept employment half-way across the country. And, … the church is less and less a factor.

So, neighborhood church houses become something of an expensive anachronism. Those who are followers of Christ often meet over coffee, BEER, or over meals, and there share their pilgrim journies, but not in church institutions or church houses. They realize that a church building is one thing, … but that the church is a community of mutual discipleship, love, encouragement, out-of-hiding honesty with each other, and that requires significant time spent together wherever.

That also means that the church is compelled to accept its Biblical definition as a community of pilgrims and strangers. It must ever be versatile, flexible, mobile, and vulnerable. The building must never define the church. Think of those tragic scenes in the middle east where historic old church buildings are destroyed by ISIS. Does that mean that the church there no longer exists? Not at all. Or the church in China during the ‘cultural revolution’ where the Communist government expropriated all church property. Did the church cease to exist? No, it went ‘underground’ and grew exponentially, even when being discovered to be a Christian was a crime, and communities of faith grew up in concentration camps.

What to do with empty church buildings in this present post-Christian culture is a real ‘head-scratcher’. Pews, pipe organs, stained glass windows, and classic church architecture are not in high demand on the market. But the spiritual hunger of a culture that is the product of a sort of self-satisfied humanism lurks out there. And the followers of Christ are called to be children of light in that darkness, and they need each other in their incarnation as God’s people. What is remarkable are all the creative ways and places they have found to find each other. Stay tuned.

BLOG 6/3/17. THE ENVIRONMENT IS A MATTER OF CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP

I am really not able to remain silent of the environment, what with all of the political controversy over global warming and climate change, or this administrations choice to abandon international accords to seek to deal with such issues. Maybe it’s because I grew up singing St. Francis’ lovely hymn: All Creatures of our God and King, and was early enamored with his “Brother sun, sister moon” sense that all of God’s creation lived in a mystical relationship.

Dear mother earth,

who day by day unfolded blessings on our way,

 Oh, praise Him! Alelluia!

The flowers and fruits that in thee grow,

Let them His glory also show!

Oh, praise him!

Maybe it’s because I grew up on the edge of the Everglades, did my Boy Scout nature study in its marshes, and how those giant corporations saw its huge economic potential in agriculture and so raped that delicate natural infrastructure ,and nearly destroyed that remarkable treasure. And I watched the huge and expensive political battle to restore the ‘glades to their original nature and save such unique beauty – opposed by those who accused its defenders as ‘tree-huggers’.

Or maybe it’s because I took so many soul-restoring prayer walks in the Pisgah National Forest, observing the beauty of those mountain forests, … and recalling in the early 20^th century that so much of the western North Carolina mountains were ‘clear-cut’ by the logging industry because it is one of the largest hardwood preserves in the world, … and what a political battle it took to make much of it into a national forest so that we have it today with its luxuriant second-growth forests as such a place of beauty.

Not to mention the founding of most of our national parks, the cost of which also became a huge political battle in the days of President Teddy Roosevelt, and others who followed in his footsteps.

And I come back to Francis of Assisi, as the political debate raging over industrial pollution seems to be protected by the financial interest of the polluters, or our desire for comfort no matter the environmental damage. Then I see wonderfully futuristic efforts at urban farming that speak to providing food in environmentally friendly ways. I read of huge break-throughs in providing clean water to the world, and I take hope. (I commend a book: Abundance, by Peter Diamatis and others.)

Yet, to me, this is all is a significant dimension of my Christian stewardship, not a matter of my political identification. I am heartened by the selfless efforts of organizations such as the Sierra Club, and neighborhood associations for organic gardening, and the creation of beauty. I am (I am certain) culpable in the violation of this stewardship in ways that I am not even aware of. But when my neighborhood association begins to consider our association’s guidelines on solar panels on our rooftops it gives me hope.

I needed to say this to my readers. I am, with St. Francis, a lover of God’s creation, and want to be a faithful agent of good stewardship of such and to encourage all whom I know, and those I don’t know, to join me in that quest, whether out of religious conviction, or out of sheer quest for a better tomorrow, what with the potential of artificial intelligence, and the incomparable capacities of the scientific community.

“This is my Father’s world …” and I cannot be indifferent to those who profane and pollute it!

BLOG 5/30/17. “I FORGOT THE MESSAGE!”

A New Yorker cartoon some years ago pictured the runner Phidippides standing before the elders in Athens with this humorously bewildered and befuddled look on his face, declaring: “I forgot the message!” He had just run 26 miles from Marathon, where the Greeks had won a significant victory over the Persians, with the sole purpose of bringing the message of their victory to the elders sitting before him. But he had inexplicably forgotten the message.

I kept that cartoon pinned on my bulletin board when I was the denominational staff person responsible for encouraging evangelism in our Presbyterian Church. I had found that in the scores of congregations and regional presbyteries (even theological seminaries) there was scant knowledge of what our message was, or there was some confusing caricature of it—certainly nothing like the assured knowledge of Jesus Christ, his life, work, and mission. The church and its constituents had created a whole church institution which bore his name but had forgotten the message and the mission.

The reality of the church’s proclivity to forget its message, certainly not to be thrilled and formed by it, has always been one of the wiles of the devil. Our old gospel song says it well: “Tell me the old, old story, … tell me the story often, for I forget so soon, the early dew of morning has passed away at noon.” Remembering is a never-ending discipline.

Another astounding episode in my career was when our denomination had gone through a major merger, which required that our regional presbyteries be reconfigured, and define themselves again for their mission in their particular regions. My readers need to know that the quarterly meetings of our presbyteries are composed of something like an equal number of lay and clergy presbyters/elders, who (note) have all taken an ordination vow to be guided by scriptures primarily, but also by the church’s official Book of Confessions, and Book of Church Order, which assumes that the individuals have some knowledge of those documents they are committing themselves to. … But forgetfulness is relentless.

I was made co-chair of the committee charged with providing our new presbytery with its mission design statement. It was a wonderful committee, made up of bright and eager folks with many skills: school teacher, social worker, accountant, textile executive, pastors … racially diverse, and who quickly bonded. After a couple of initial meetings to appraise ourselves of our task, we became aware that our Book of Church Order contained in its opening chapters, a chapter entitled: The Church and Its Mission, which was superbly and clearly stated, and made abundantly clear what our particular mission in our region was to accomplish. So, we reported to the presbytery and requested that we have an order of the day, and have break-out groups look at that chapter and discuss it. What we didn’t count on was forgetfulness.

When the break-out groups reported back, what was the common response was that almost none of the presbyters had ever read the constitutional document they had taken an ordination vow to be guided by, i.e., the Phidippides cartoon demonstrated  in spades in that  governing body of the church. No wonder that the traditional church institutions and denominations of  Christendom are  fading to the margins of influence in the culture.

We do so desperately need to return continually to the exhortation given to the Colossian Christians: “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, as you teach and admonish one another …” Every follower of Christ must be continually formed and reformed by the knowledge of Christ, and of the mission given to every believer by the Head of the Church. To the readers of this Blog, let this be my loving reminder: Don’t forget the message, but rather be formed by it, and be contagious with it. … And, I always appreciate your comments. Thanks.

BLOG 5/27/17. THE FRIGHTENING METAPHOR OF DARKNESS

I have come to have a new appreciation for the frequent use of darkness in Scriptures as a metaphor for all kinds of frightening realities. It so happed that the other morning I had just settled in earlyfor my coffee and prayer time when the power went out, and so also the lights. It was a very cloudy morning so there was not even any residual star or moon light. It was dark. I had no flashlight so I wasn’t too eager to go stumbling around in the dark. It was disorienting to a fault. But, for me, I knew that the local power company would be on top of this fairly quickly, and so I had hope. And, sure enough, in a few minutes the lights went on, all the digital units beeped, and life returned to normal.

Somehow that caused me to think of Jesus on the cross, crying out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Our creeds say that “he descended into hell,” which in some other passages is described as outer darkness. My imagination went to work on that. What would it be like to be in total, stygian, darkness, totally disoriented, alone and without hope—no one, not even God responding? What a horrible description of what Christ suffered.

Also, Jesus and the apostolic writers speak of “being without God, or hope in the world” (Ephesians 2:12); of being “delivered out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9); or Jesus telling his listeners that those who follow him will not walk in darkness (John 8:12). Without our embrace of Christ (and his embrace of us) we are described as captive to the dominion of darkness.

Jesus came as the light of the world, which infers that so much that defines this world exists in a frightening existential darkness with no ultimate meaning, or orientation, or hope, … a populace in whom God is not even in their thoughts, though they all share the same human community. Even religion has been replaced by a self-sufficient humanism. The basic human needs of a center, an authority, a creative source, a guiding line, and a final goal are all kept out of sight. Even the church has succumbed to being religious entertainment too often.

It is commendable that such children of darkness can be engaged in many noble, creative, humanitarian, and neighborly causes. But beyond the immediate, what? Is life a boundless, bottomless sea of chance. Are we to be content with an existential agnosticism? Darkness.

It is into such an existential scene of political, religious, moral, cultural darkness that Christ’s message was that he was the Light of the World. He is the one who defines all true meaning and hope. And his calling to his children is to “walk as children of light,” to incarnate the joyous reality of one who bore the hellish darkness which we deserved so that we might partake of his life of light and hope and meaning and love. Yet, behind the smiling façade projected by many of our gifted and personable daily acquaintances there are those who dwell in darkness, “without God and without hope in the world.” Darkness: what an awesome metaphor of life without God.

But the converse message is that it is to just such that God exhibited his love so that these might be delivered out of their bondage to the darkness and so obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God, … to have light and hope in the midst of even the most humanly impossible scenarios. Jesus: he Light of the world. I do want here and now to herald that indescribably wonderful gift of God.

http://wipfandstock.com/the-church-and-the-relentless-darkness.html

BLOG 5/23/17. THE GIFT OF THE PASTOR-TEACHER

In the key passage on the essential components of disciple-making (Ephesians 4:10-14), or those gifts that bring all of God’s people into their maturity, and into the ministry to which they are called as God’s New Creation people, … I have spoken in the recent Blogs about the first three listed, those of apostle, prophet, and evangelist, and of my interpretation of those, but the fourth listed deserves a bit of special attention. It is the gift (a hyphenated designation) of pastor-teacher. It deserves special attention, since one of the subversions of ‘Christendom’ was to create a sacralized class of persons known as ‘clergy’ and set them apart as the pastors (shepherds) and teachers, and to call them ‘reverend’ (even i they had never been fruitful in disciple-making) … and in so doing to miss the whole point of this key passage, as one of the four gifts necessary if the church is to be faithful in its disciple-making ministry mandated to the church, … and which mission is the responsibility of all of those whom Jesus calls to himself.

The mention of this gift is also one of the few places in the apostolic writings where the word pastor is used, which word is actually defining of a shepherd, one who is responsible for the care and protection of the sheep. Here, interestingly enough, it is linked with that of the teacher, which inevitably points us to the necessity of an intelligent grasp of the life and teachings of Jesus. In the apostolic (New Testament) writings, knowledge is such a critical element. Romans 8 says that part of God’s irresistible purpose in calling people to himself is to renew them in knowledge so that they are conformed to the image of Christ.

Jesus taught that it was those who had his words, and did them, who were like those who built their houses on a rock. Knowledge and praxis. Equipping God’s people in this incarnational demonstration of Jesus’ New Creation is the role of the teaching-shepherd. But, somehow this also is a ministry of mutual accountability within the colonies of God’s New Humanity. Paul told he Colossian Christians that they were to have the Word of Christ dwelling among them richly as they taught and admonished one another (Colossians 3:16). There were no ‘clergy’ and yet as is always true in a healthy Christian community, there are those who are the more mature in knowledge and example and wisdom, who rise to the top in leadership. They became the elders, one qualification of which was that he/she was “able to teach.”

It also became obvious that some within in the community never got the message, and were “ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (like always going to Bible studies, but never making disciples of others!).  The writer to the Hebrew chides those, who when they ought to be teachers of others still need to be taught again and again, and seem to be dull of hearing and continually immature, and thus ineffective in the mission of God. They are those, who like the Dead Sea, are always receiving the living water, but it is dead-ended and becomes stagnant and non-life-giving. The teaching-shepherd is the one who informs, models, and prods when necessary, so that all become mature in knowledge, as well as in their evangelistic, prophetic, and apostolic roles.

The word of Christ is to be so formative in the disciple that he or she is contagious with it, and engaged joyously in the mission of God. II Peter 1:2-4 (a hidden jewel) says it all: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may [note] be partakers of the divine nature …”

So, therefore, these four gifts, all critical components of becoming mature in our calling to be the fruitful, contagious, faithful followers of Jesus—building our houses on the rock.

BLOG 5/20/17. EQUIPPING ALL GOD’S PEOPLE TO BE APOSTLES

I operate on the presupposition that the divine purpose in the church is in order to recreate the human community into what God intended the human community to be, so that it incarnates the shalom, the intended harmony/shalom that prevails when humankind dwell in wholesome relationships with each other, and within the fellowship of the Trinitarian Community. I also operate on the assumption that the unique passage in Ephesians 4 gives us a pragmatic handle on the components that constitute the dynamics of how all of God’s people are to be equipped to incarnate this divine purpose. This is another way of saying that this passage defines disciple-making. I don’t believe that such equipping is simply a passing along of information. I believe that it normally requires some kind of a model, some experiencing of the components—sort of a coach-model-teach engagement. Also, note, that the apostolic writings never speak of anything that resembles what we have fabricated along the way as ‘clergy.’ It does presume that there are those in the community who are mature in their understanding of Jesus and his teachings, and who are the respected practitioners of such.

That being said, I have communicated in my previous couple of Blogs my own understanding of the gifts of prophet, and of evangelist, but I come now to the first in the list in Ephesians 4: that of apostle. In short, I see this git as equipping all of God’s people to be engaged in the mission of God, of being reproductive in creating andre-producing colonies of God’s New Creation humanity, i.e., in the simplest terms: being church-planters. It is that capacity to engage in connecting with others who are God’s New Creation people and incarnating those communities of new life in Christ. It does not allow God’s people to be passive observers, or satisfied while God’s mission in the world is incomplete. It begins with one or two of the followers of Jesus tuning-in to one another, and assisting one another, and encouraging one another, and free to come of hiding with one another.

Such communities are also aware that they can never become larger than a size that allows for such intimacy and mutual inter-animation. When Paul says: “Let the word of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom …” that presupposes a beautiful mutuality in relationships, … and we know that the human desire and need for true relationships exists in even the most God-rejecting of humankind. The church is the model of true community, and it is always aware that its integrity is essential to the mission of God. That being so, whenever such intimate communities of God’s New Humanity get above ten or twelve, it is time to reproduce, to divide and multiply. That does not mean that they cannot ‘network’ with other such colonies (like larger assemblies), only that the dynamics of such interpersonal growth and intimacy are most effectively carried out with a limited number of participants. Note: Jesus selected twelve out of the larger number of followers, or the post-Pentecost account of the gospel being primarily incarnated in house churches.

In recent church history, one of the fascinating demonstrations of this has been in the Roman Catholic community in Latin America, when there was a severe shortage of professional clergy/priests. What happened? The campesinos / peasant folk formed what were called base churches (Base Eccesial Communities) in which they met together after work, and around scriptures and incarnated very effective colonies that were contagious. They were, in the truest sense: apostolic. Every modest participant was self-aware of their participation in the mission. To say then: to ‘join’ or identify with some Christian community with no intention of becoming a responsible part of the mission of God, and equipped for that apostolate, is to underscore that one does not at all understand what “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” is all about. With the next Blog, I will tackle the gift of pastor-teacher. Stand by.

BLOG 5/16/17. THE CHURCH: EQUIPPED TO COMMUNICATE

In my last Blog, I was trying to make somewhat intelligible how important it was for the Christian community to equip all of its members to understand their culture, i.e., to be equipped to be prophets. That Ephesians 4 passage looms very large in the apostolic teachings about the dynamics of the church’s mission. It mentions four specific gifts that are essential if God’s people are to be equipped for maturity in their New Creation / Kingdom lives: apostle, prophet, evangelist, teaching-shepherd. I lament that I find most expositors do a sort of ‘ double-two-foot shuffle’ … and pass over this. There are, of course, those individual persons who are especially gifted in each of these dimensions of the Christian life, … but the sense of the text is that all of God’s people are to be equipped to be engaged in the ministry of the New Creation community.

Indulge me that perspective, and let me tackle the gift of evangelist. I know, that just to use that word conjures up all kinds of images of colorful public speakers, or aggressive Christians, who assault others with the message, … but it simply has the meaning of being able to communicate one’s embrace of the thrilling message of Jesus Christ to another in the ordinary conversations of life. For one thing, the New Testament teachings indicate that our life-style as the followers of Jesus ought to elicit come curiosity in others. Beginning with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), there follows after the list of beatitudes the comment: “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works (i.e., your Kingdom behavior) and glorify God – know that somehow God is behind the way you are living.

Or, Jesus tells his disciples that they are live out their lives of love “that men may know that they are his disciples.” If, especially in the most difficult, or conflicted, or arid settings of our lives, we are living as the light of the world, the salt of the earth … then, folks should be curious. So, when Paul describes the seven pieces of the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6), the third piece we are to put on is (note): “… as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness of the gospel of peace.” We are to be gently always ready to be agents of communicating God unimaginable love for humankind—the gospel of peace.

But, perhaps the passage that most intrigues me is from Peter’s first letter, which was written in the context of the often-cultural hostility against Christ’s followers, in which they are described as aliens and exiles. He encourages them to keep their conduct among the non-believers so honorable, that when they speak evil against God’s people, … they may see the good deeds of God’s people and glorify God in the final analysis. Ah! But a bit later in the same letter, Peter makes this injunction—so apropos to our thesis here:

“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? … but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared (i.e., equipped) to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered (note: you may well be ‘bad-mouthed’) those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (I Peter 2-3, in loc).

The Christian faith is never passive in expressing God’s love in Christ, but being equipped to communicate that love in life-style and ordinary, or hostile, conversation needs some mentoring by good models. I’ve certainly learned from some incredible models, who with wit and knowledge and love communicated. When the genome of Christ lives in us, we will move toward, and not away from, those still walking in darkness to be messengers of God to them. There are few things that are more fulfilling than engaging in this role. And it puts us at ease in some of the most difficult interpersonal engagements. “On your feet, the readiness of the gospel of peace.”    http://wipfandstock.com/subversive-jesus-radical-grace.html