Tag Archives: Community

Galatians 2: Legal Loopholes: 72/365

Posted on by
Reply

Paul has some pretty clear words to those who think our actions can save our souls:

We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners” know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

It is pretty black and white there. Further it clearly articulates the central tenant of the Christian faith: It is all about our relationship to Christ.

On paper, this looks like such a simple thing to believe. Yet, in practice, I think this is one of the thorniest struggles that we grapple with. After all, we live in a highly individualistic, competitive, performance based society that screams the exact opposite. Indeed, we have become so cautious of any type of discrimination that we overtly attempt to base our decisions exclusively on personal merit. Now I’m not trying to undermine the last of these societal vectors, however, it is important to remember that this will make God’s ‘criterion’ all the more culturally alienating: He takes you because you are family. Nepotism to the max.

Importantly, his family is open to all. So we can choose to benefit from his open employment policy!

Yet I don’t think we feel the giddy freedom that this simple equation affords. It is almost like it seems too easy. “What? I don’t have to jump through appraisal hoops to show you how awesome I am” we may well think to ourselves. After all, traditionally to get into nice places you need to be ‘worth’ something. To get into the nice parts of parliament house you need a security pass, or even to get in the door of some exclusive clubs. Yet for God’s house (the nicest of them all) it is free range. That is almost too sweet a pill to swallow.

“Yup”, Paul nonchalantly replies to my slightly hyperbolic questioning. Further:

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

The logic makes sense. It seems like this is a good offer. Further, it is imperative that we take it on its merit for if we attempt to alloy grace with works then we get into strife. We need look no further than Paul’s direct rebuke of Cephas.

I think this rebuke still holds power today. I wonder if the veneers we put on in church are a reflection of the grace/works alloy that Paul warns of. Are we trying to prove our ‘goodness’ that we put on different performances of ourselves whilst meeting with… well, family?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of community in the church and the family language that God has provided us with. In talking this over with my wife she shared a story of a single-friend who had been continually invited to dinner by couples in her church. Sounds nice and giving, yeah? Well her problem was that these dinners weren’t the usual dinner you have with your immediate family, they were dinner parties. They were the ‘good china’ events that felt like, to this woman, the family were being put on a pedestal of formal behaviour and polite “pass the peas please?”.

Through the course of this discussion, another single-friend recounted similar experiences whilst living with a pastor’s family, until – one night – the mother came home declaring, “I’m too tired, get your own food”. It was at this moment that she felt truly accepted.

I find this really interesting because it seems to suggest that our attempts at being ‘culturally welcoming’ i.e. put on the veneer of your family at its best, actually has the potential to hinder vibrant community life. How much more then might the masks we wear in church hinder our spiritual community?

The costs of supporting a grace/works alloy continue to mount. Indeed Paul highlighted how it can prove burdensome to our ministry. It wasn’t so long ago that I was reflecting on the Christian response to the gay and lesbian community and, reading this passage, I think it is clear to see where the God Hates Fags church falls so violently wrong. By isolating one sin so prominently, this church is conveniently forgetting the comprehensively invasive nature of sin. Namely that it infects and corrupts us all. Or, contrary to what their vitriol would suggest, the gay community does not have a monopoly on sin.

Indeed, like Paul reprimanded Cephas it would be entirely appropriate to call these actions hypocritical. Further, it is justification “by faith in Christ and not by works of the law” that saves so the focus should be on fostering a right relationship with Christ and not demonising one sin over another.

In other words, yes: God is against homosexuality. Just like he is against avarice, and selfishness, and divorce, and no-holds-barred career progression, and exploitation, and dishonest gain, and a whole number of things. I struggled with stuff on God’s ‘not cool’ list too! This is why we are all stuffed under God’s law. This is precisely why God’s grace is so valuable. This is why, if we’re to isolate something unique to focus on as a church, it should be God’s comprehensively unique grace and not our garden variety sins that everyone has shared in.

Now these guys are the easy targets. They are overt and noisy in their critique of others. However, I am sure there are regions where this hypocrisy abounds within our own congregations. I know for me, struggling with illness, I have moments where I feel less of a Christian due to my inability to attend church events like evening service and Bible Study. If I am honest I know I’ve laid the same critique on others when I’ve noticed their struggle too. Yet the underlying logic here is to say my salvation is determined by the number of times I drag my bones through the front doors of a church, as opposed to my relationship with God.

Now I know that that last sentence, if taken to extremes can prove a fertile breeding ground for complacency or Rasputin-esque testing of faith. I’m not suggesting such a though gets taken so far along this vector. However, I do wonder if we have gone to far in the direction of the opposite horizon on this particular issue.

Grace alone. It is a simple concept that has the potential to liberate and rejuvenate us. It is like jumping off the cliff-edge headlong into a sparkling azure pond. The catch is that we need to trust in its self-sufficiency and strength. To lie down, crawl over the ledge and try to dangle our fingers in the water whilst keeping our feet firmly grasped in the mud is to lose the piquancy of an amazing offer.

Hosea 8: Pottery Smash ’12: 70/365

Posted on by
Reply

A quirk of my wife’s is her love of smashing things.

You wouldn’t pick it. She is normally relatively quiet and reserved. However, beneath that meek exterior revs a fully-fueled and impatient demolition derby. Give her anything destructible, either via smashing or burning and she’ll be as happy as a pig in much.

I recall once, Jo was so excited to smash something that she couldn’t wait for crockery or other easy to clear products. No, she grabbed a glass to break on our outside patio. Man, that took forever to clean up. For weeks we kept on finding fragments of glass. Tiny shards that must’ve come close to being suborbital appeared yards away from the initial point of impact!

Either way, I can understand what God is getting at when he says:

Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery.

It is an important reminded to stay faithful to God. Before this comment God has describe the vector of Israel:

They have installed Kings, but not through Me. They have appointed leaders, but without My approval. They make silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction… How long will they be incapable of innocence? For this thing is from Israel – a craftsman made it, and it is not God.

The refrain is clear, Israel is acting without God. God’s response is equally unambiguous, this is foolish and costly.

Consequently, as the jug of Israel is no longer holding God’s water but turning to other nations, it is discarded and smashed.

I think this metaphor operates as a powerful reminded, both for our purpose, but also for need of unity within the church. I have probably been taking my church community for granted of late, yet we are collected together into a church and should see ourselves as a collective.

Without each other, without the other parts of the clay bowl, we cannot operate effectively. All those shards that I collected post-Jo’s ‘relaxation therapy’ could no longer operate as a glass. They needed each other and relied on each. So to we in the church.

I think this chapter operates as a powerful reminded of the need to seek God’s council and to operate as a church unit. A series of individuals will end up as nothing more than flying shards.

James 3: The Qualities of Wisdom: 67/365

Posted on by
Reply

But wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favouritism and hypocrisy.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the nature of Christian community. Having dwelt on early church society in Acts, I have become increasingly aware of how different our contemporary church community is. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that have been getting frustrated a lot by the nature of Christian community.

Recently, Jo was reading Bonhoeffer’s Life Together and brought forth a reprimand where he argues that God reviles the dreamers as they are not valuing the community they have been blessed with, nor are being part of the community God has gifted them. Rather they are withdrawing to consider their own utopic vision with little consideration for God’s. I was half-challenged, hearing this, but held reservations on how his argument was structured and the method with which he drew his conclusions.

This verse from James, however, does seem to support Bonhoeffer. This support comes not in the form of a direct argument, but in another reprimand for my position.

I think for all my dreaming, and thinking, and planning for how I can help assist my church community my thoughts have become the definition of James’ earthly-inspired wisdom: “you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart”.

I have become embittered by my community’s perceived deficits. I have found myself yearning for the integrated lives shared by members of the early church. Further, I have become increasingly a fan of my own ideas to remedy the situation.

In contrast, if this wisdom were heavenly-inspired then, according to James, my ideas would be patient, and gentle, and peace-loving. They would be driven by a love for others, as opposed to a frustration for myself.

The challenge that I need to dwell on revolves around a central question: Does this mean my ideas have no merit?

Do I throw these ideas out and just be satisfied with my lot? I’m not certain that’s the answer. I don’t think there is a problem with trying to improve circumstances so long as you are motivated by love. I don’t think my ideas are askew, so much, more so my motivation.

Acts 2: Game Changer: 33/365

Posted on by
Reply

If you ever find yourself doubting how God could use you, or just how powerful he is, then Acts 2 may serve as a timely reminder.

At the end of Acts 1 we see a small band of men and women, including the disciples, sitting in a house awaiting further instruction. Their powerful and charismatic leader, Jesus Christ, had departed them and despite their elation at his past acts, they are relatively inactive. Fair enough, it was via Jesus’ authority that they were enabled to cure and to preach and to heal. No Jesus, no authority – presumably.

Wouldn’t it be terrible if this were so? Wouldn’t it be a shocker if Jesus came for 30-odd years, over two-millennia ago, and then left without anything else to hold on to. We’d be left sitting around telling glory stories of the old days in a manner not dissimilar to that episode of Firefly where the Mudders build a statue of Jayne. Fortunately, we are not left in this situation. Rather, Jesus ascended leaving behind the following promise back in Acts 1:

But you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

You can imagine that, amongst the discussions of Judas that I explored here, the disciples would also be excited/apprehensive about the role in the power of the Holy Spirit. After all, Judea isn’t a massive problem – they are Judeans and speak the language. Samaria is relatively close and relatively culturally similar (according to my relatively small knowledge base at least) but the ends of the worlds may well present a different beast entirely. There are cultural barriers, not to mention language barriers. “Perhaps he meant figuratively, like we’ll spread the word a really long way” one confused member of the congregation flagged in all likelihood.

Insert the game changer. Insert the afore promised Holy Spirit. God shall no longer be only with you, in the physical form of Jesus: he is now in you, via the spiritual form of the Holy Spirit. Pretty neat stuff.

Juxtapose the flurry of action that immediately follows the arrival of the flame-like spirit. The disciples, “filled with the Holy Spirit” begin to speak in different languages. Further, they stir a crowd into a hubbub as all hear the news of God in their own tongue. Perhaps the emotion and commotion of the event overtook them as some overlookers accused them of being drunk. Fair call, I can imagine being pretty giddy with glee should that happen to me.

What a difference the Spirit makes! This is the very same Spirit that is poured out “on all humanity” during which:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved

Compare the differences in the rhetorical flourishes of Peter both pre-Spirit (whilst he explains the inevitability of Judas) to his extensive arguments in front of the vast audience. I don’t know about you, but to me he sounds like two different speakers.

Finally we see the fruits of the Spirit. 3,000 people turn to Jesus that day and are converted. Magic stuff! Further, we see the most delightful image of the early church sharing almost every facet of their lives together. I wish I had more energy to write further on this, as it really convicted me. Perhaps at a later date.

Until then,