A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 12: Church as missionary

As we wrap up our A Third Way to Follow Jesus series today, we are looking at one of my favorite themes of the last 12 weeks and using one of my favorite passages to do so.  

Over the last 12 weeks we have covered substantial ground and some very important topics.  Foundational themes and beliefs on what it truly means to follow after Jesus both as an individual but probably even more so communally.  

Just a quick recap on what it means to be a Third Way Follower of Jesus (and a Third Way Faith Community).  Being a Third way follower of Jesus and being a part of a third way faith community means having a high view of the Bible, emphasizing the New Testament, seeing Jesus as central to all else, the necessity of a believer’s church, the all out importance of discipleship, an insistence that this is no place in church for division based on class, race, socioeconomic status, etc…, that church is a covenant community, that we are to be separate from the “world”, visibly counter cultural, living out Shalom in the world, and the need for faith communities and followers of Jesus to be servants.  

Today, we cover our last theme, that of church as missionary church.  To be a SENT church.  So let me ask you to share an image, a word, a simple brief thought when you hear the word missionary.  

All of us have some kind of base reaction to the word Missionary.  It might be a good reaction or a bad reaction.  But we all have them. And as a church we need to recover what it truly means to be a missionary church.  To begin to see not only ourselves as individuals but even more importantly to see this community, the Veritas community as a SENT community, sent into our world as missionaries who are about living out, and pointing others to the rule and reign of Jesus.  As the British Missionary, Missiologist and Theologian Lesslie Newbigin said, “The church lives in the midst of history as a sign, instrument and foretaste of the reign of God.”  We need to begin to think of the church as a Movie Trailer for the Kingdom.  

To look at this idea of the church as a missionary, let’s turn to John 20:19-23 and see what it can say to us gathered together here as the Veritas community about being missional in our context  

John 20:19-23 says, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”   After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me,I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The first thing we notice in this, the third resurrection appearance of Jesus to various disciples is the simple phrase “on the evening of the first day of the week.”  John is making a connoting point with his hearers.  The connection between creation and new creation. The connection between Genesis 1 and 2 and John 20.  The first day of creation and the first day of new creation (resurrection).  The story of Adam and Eve and the story of the New Adam, Jesus.  John also point back to Genesis in this story when we read these words, “And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  In Genesis 1 we see God breathing his Spirit into Adam and bringing him to life.  In John 20 we see Jesus breathing new life and new creation into those gathered fearful disciples.  The church is called to the work of new creation.  To be sent into the world as missionaries to be about the work that Jesus started in his life, death, and most importantly, his resurrection.  The work of new creation.  Jesus rose again to set the world right and he allows us to partner with him in seeing that this world is set right again.  Or as the Church of the Brethren tag line goes, “Continuing the work of Jesus: Peacefully, Simply, Together.”  

So the disciples are gathered together on the first day of the week with the doors locked, because they feared that they were next.  That the Jewish religious leaders were now coming for them, and they would end up experiencing the same thing that Jesus experienced- dying on a cross.  To say that mission wasn’t possible is an understatement.   The doors weren’t even open to Jesus.  Jesus had to burst in on them through closed doors, not open ones.  You see before a community of disciples will ever break out of their closed rooms, closed sanctuaries, and closed church buildings, or at least open doors to others to come in- the church must have open doors to Jesus.  Too often we live fearfully behind locked doors just like the disciples.  What are the locked doors that are keeping you from engaging in the mission of Jesus and His Kingdom?  What fears do you have that hold you back from stepping out into the world to be a missionary for Jesus and the moving forward of his Kingdom?    

Whatever lock doors that you hide behind.  Whatever fears keep you from being engaged in the mission of Jesus, His Kingdom, and His rule and reign, Jesus has a word for you.  The same words that he spoke to the disciples in that room on that first night of the week.  He says “Peace be with you.”

Jesus comes and stands in their midst, through locked doors and all.  He comes into their midst not with words of condemnation about how they failed him in his hour of need.  No he meets them with outstretched arms and words of Shalom on his lips.  It is in this place of abject failure that Shalom comes to the disciples.  And so maybe you feel like you have hidden behind locked doors.  Maybe you have failed to partner with the resurrected Jesus in the work of new creation. Maybe you have lived a life of fear and being afraid of what God may be calling you to do, as you begin to engage in his mission in this world.  Know that he has words of Shalom on his lips for you.  But he calls us out of our fear, out from our locked doors, and into his mission where, according to 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear.”  

Jesus speaks words of shalom to his disciples, and then to prove to them that he is indeed Jesus, he shows them his hands and sides and then reiterates his words of shalom to them.  They are blown away by the fact that Jesus, the one that they had seen crucified only 3 days before was standing in their midst.  He had defeated death, evil, and hell by his death and resurrection.  And he stands in their midst and calls them into his mission of new creation.  

His words resound from that closed room, down through the centuries, and into our space this morning.  His words, his challenge, his calling for those of us who would call ourselves followers of Jesus.  He commissions and sends the disciples (and us) with these words, “As the Father has sent me,I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Third way followers of Jesus believe that this call in John 20:21 from Jesus means that the church is commissioned to go into the world and all society, and to make disciples of all people, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe the commandments.  The evangelistic imperative that Jesus sends us out into the world is given to all who believe.  

In this commissioning we see the Trinitarian call to mission.  All 3 persons of the Trinity are present in that locked room.  We see God the Father sending Jesus the Son.  We see God the Father and God the Son sending the Holy Spirit.  And we see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit sending the church (those early disciples).  This is another example of God the missionary God sending the missionary church into the world.  To live out the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) in the world.  God’s church doesn’t have a mission in the world.  God’s Mission in the world has a church, and the early disciples were part of the Missio Dei, and we gathered in this room today are also part of the Missio Dei. The church of Jesus Christ is called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission. To adopt a missionary stance to the communities in which we live.  

One of the problems that we have in the United States is the wrongly held belief that we send missionaries elsewhere, and to other countries.  That we don’t need missionaries here in the US.  The church has lost the idea and concept that we are a missionary church.  We have lost the idea that when we walk out those doors we are entering into the mission field.  That when you enter your neighborhood, that is a mission field.  That when you get up and go to work in the morning, that you are a missionary in your workplace.  That when you go home to your family, that also is a mission field.  Everywhere we go, we are in the midst of a mission field.  And God has commissioned us to go into the world, to be a blessing, to share the good news ofJesus, His Kingdom and His rule and reign and to share Shalom and the work of new creation with the world.  

But we aren’t living out the Missio Dei, the mission of God alone.  Look at what happens after he verbally sends his disciples.  The text says, “And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  When we go out into the world to live out the Missio Dei, the Holy Spirit is with us.  He is already working where we are going.  He is working within us.  And he is going with us.  The disciples were gathered together in a locked room, fearful of the Jewish religious leaders.   Mission wasn’t even a thought or a possibility.  In a real way the church was still 50 days away.  But when Jesus showed up in their midst, in the middle of the locked room, everything changed.  When he breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit” fear gave way to faith.  The locked doors flung open.  Mission was now not just a thought or a dream, but a commissioned and equipped reality.  They had the power to live out the Kingdom of God in the world.  They had the Holy Spirit to help them live out the Missio Dei.  You see the point and purpose of receiving the Holy Spirit is not 1.  a spiritual experience. or 2.  Some type of set apart, better than others, more spiritual then others.  No, the point of receiving the Holy Spirit is so that disciples of Jesus can do in and for the world what Jesus had been doing in Israel.  To speak and live Shalom in the world instead of condemnation.  To continue the work of New Creation that Jesus started through his resurrection.  To live out the Missio Dei in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our places of work, in our homes, in our community, and in the wider world.  To be sent into the world, as ambassadors of reconciliation, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5.  Partnering with Jesus in the work of Shalom.  Working for Shalom between God and people.  Working for Shalom between each other (as followers of Jesus).  Working for Shalom between people.  Working for Shalom between humanity and the creation itself.  Working for Shalom in the wider world, between people groups, nations, etc..  Being sent as Shalom-makers in our world.  That is what we are sent for.  That is what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit commissioned us for.  You and I are sent.  This church is sent.  The church of Jesus Christ is sent.  

So let’s talk about what it looks like to live out a sent reality.  Let’s took at the Scripture and see what stands out to us and what questions it raises in our minds.  Let’s talk about the locked doors and fears that we have regarding the missio dei and being sent into the world.  Let’s talk about who God may be sending you and our community to.  And let’s talk about what God is saying to you and us and what we should do about it. 

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 11: Servanthood

If you were to come up with a list of attributes that make someone great in the eyes of the world, what would be on that list?  Let’s name a few things.  (ask for input)  No doubt that list would include a repeatable vocation, maybe power or position, money, status, well known, intellectual, savvy, and a take charge leader.  Now let’s come up with a list of attributes that make someone great in the Kingdom of God.  (ask for input).  Probably at the top of this list of what makes someone great in the Kingdom of God is the attribute of servanthood.  Being a person who serves others selflessly.  

As we have seen so much of the time, not only in our series A Third Way to Follow Jesus, but especially all throughout the gospels, that the values of the Kingdom of God are radically upside-down, countercultural, and fundamentally different than the values of the Kingdom of God.  And our text for this morning shows the radical difference between what is viewed as great in the Kingdom of this world versus what is real greatness as defined by the Kingdom of God and our King, King Jesus.  

Our text this morning is found in Mark 10:35-45 and is the story of how James and John were arguing again over who was the greatest.  Apparently this is something that not only they, but the entire group of disciples regularly argued about.  And I would have to say that if you spend your time arguing over who is greater, than suffice it to say you are definitely not great, especially in the Kingdom of God.  

So turning to Mark 10:35-45 let’s see what this story from the gospel of Mark has to say to us today 2,000 years ago about this third way of following Jesus.  

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So to truly understand how much the disciples are missing the point, we need to understand the context and the verses that happen before this one.  Jesus continually shares with his disciples about his coming suffering.  In fact, 3 times in this section of Mark Jesus had shared about his suffering, and his upcoming death at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders as well as the Roman empire.  But each time the disciples just never got it.  They got his mission all wrong.  You see, they believed that they were part of a movement, by following the Messiah, that would overthrow Rome and set up an earthly Kingdom ruling from Jerusalem.  James and John wanted to make this march to Jerusalem to Jesus crucifixion into a march of glory, and it was in an upside down way, so they could rule on either side of him as King.  

And so in the midst of their arguing over who was the greatest, James and John come to Jesus and ask him a question, or actually have a demand of Jesus.  Here is the dialogue between James and John and Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” . “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”   Now talk about boldness.  In fact, later on we see the other disciples getting indignant with James and John.  Not because they were the ones who demanded it, but because the other disciples wanted those positions for themselves.  James and John believed that Jesus was going, as I said, to deliver the people from the hands of the Roman Empire and that he would establish his Kingdom/Government in Jerusalem and they wanted the most prestigious seats in his Kingdom.  The place of honor was the seat on the right and the place of second honor was the seat on the left.  There was no place in their theology for a suffering, servant Messiah.  They thought in terms of self-glorification and not self-sacrificial service.  

Jesus responds to their demands by saying,  “You don’t know what you are asking,  Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”  When Jesus refers to the cup and baptism he is referring to his upcoming suffering, violence done to him, and his death.  But I wonder what James and John thought that the cup and baptism referred to, if not suffering and death.  Perhaps they thought that he cup was the cup of rulership.  Perhaps they thought that baptism was a physical baptism, a cleansing ritual in preparation for kingship and rule.  But we know that whatever they thought it meant, that they got it wrong, again.  

And so whatever they believed that Jesus meant by cup and baptism, they affirm the fact that they could drink the cup that Jesus drank and be baptized with the same baptism that Jesus was baptized with.  I am not sure they would have so quickly answered Jesus with the affirmative if they actually truly understood that cup and baptism meant suffering, pain, and possibly even death for them.  In fact, Jesus does say that they will, in fact, drink the cup and be baptized into suffering.  Tradition has it that James was the first apostle to be martyred and while John never died, he was punished and tradition even says that he escaped an attempted murder by immersion in a vat of boiling oil.  

Jesus then responds to them this way, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”  Now so often we think this means that in his glory, and when his Kingdom comes, these seats will be filled.  And I believe there is truth to that.  But I wonder if Jesus was again referring to his coming crucifixion and that in some upside down Kingdom way this was the coming of His Kingdom and His glory. And that when Jesus “sits” in his glory with one on his right, and one on his left, he is referring to being crucified with a thief on his right and a thief on his left.  

So the disciples go back to arguing about who is greatest and who should sit on his right and left and Jesus basically says, “Look guys you are so worried about sitting in places of honor, position, power and authority.  You are oppressed under the thumb of the empire, that you are dreaming about being on top and oppressing others.  You think my Kingdom is all about glory, strength, power and position. And you are partly right n that to be great in the Kingdom you need to have a position.  The position of a servant.”  You want to be great in my Kingdom, that means you are a servant.  You want to be be first, then be a slave.  

Jesus, the only one who had the right to be served, worshipped, given the place of power, prestige, and position, was the one who, according to Philippians 2, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross!”  

Just as Jesus came to be a servant to all, third way followers of Jesus should also serve one another and others in the name of Jesus.  In a Kingdom community status, money, power, and position are not prerequisites for leadership, humble service is the greatest and only prerequisite.  You want to be a leader and great in the Kingdom of God, pick up a towel and wash someone’s feet (both literally and figuratively).  Humble yourself and put others before you.  Serve, not for the good feelings you get from it.  Serve, not because it looks good on a resume or college application.  Serve, not because it looks good on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  Serve, for the benefit of others.  Serve, because you want to model your life on the greatest person who ever lived.  Serve, because Jesus was a servant.  Serve, because you want to be like him.  Serve, because that is what it looks like to be truly great in this upside down, radical, countercultural Kingdom that we call the Kingdom of God.  

Now this attitude of being a servant, putting others before yourself, of humbling yourself and stooping to wash the feet of another, takes a deep commitment to Jesus, His Kingdom, and being filled and led by the Holy Spirit.  It won’t come naturally.  The flesh will fight it.  The flesh will scream, “Me first.”  But the more we submit to our King.  The more we engage in the spiritual discipline of service and servanthood, the more it will become part of who we are.  One of the things that we need to know and understand regarding service is that it is a spiritual discipline, just like prayer, Scripture Reading and meditation, worship, and fasting.  And just like we need a steady diet of prayer, Scripture, meditation, fasting, and worship to become more Christ-like, we need a steady diet of serving the lost, the least, the needy to become more Christ-like.  The flesh will never truly go away.  But the more we yield to King Jesus in the area of servanthood, the more we will begin looking like our King who wore a towel instead of a crown.  Our King who bowed his knees while washing the feet of His disciples.  Our King who took on the form and role of the lowest servant.  The King who truly defines greatness in the Kingdom.  

Let me share with you in closing before our conversation and discussion time a brief story about someone who was great in the Kingdom of God and truly understood what it meant to be a servant and a slave to the least, the lost, the dying and broken.  I am of course talking about Mother Teresa.  There are many many stories one could tell when it comes to her life of service to not only the needy in India, but more specially to her service in the ways of Jesus.Shane Claiborne, who spent a summer in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, wrote the following about one of his experiences there: ”People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it's like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery—like a beautiful, wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget—her feet. Her feet were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn't going to ask, of course. "Hey Mother, what's wrong with your feet?”  One day a sister said to us, "Have you noticed her feet?" We nodded, curious. She said: "Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet." Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet.

So let’s take a deeper look into the Scripture together and see what stands out to you.  Let’s talk about questions, comments, and insights that you draw from the text.  Let’s talk concretely about ways that you can serve this week.  And let’s end our time together praying for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus by serving someone this week. 

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 10: Peace is at the heart of the gospel

Dirk Willems ran for his life! The year was 1569. The place was Asperen, Holland. Dirk had been accosted by a guard who meant to arrest him. As Dirk sped across the frosty ground trying to make his escape, he came to a body of water covered by thin ice. He darted onto the dangerous ice, endeavoring to evade capture. But suddenly he became aware that the guard, too, had followed him onto the ice but with terrible consequence; the thin ice had broken leaving the guard flailing futilely in the icy water!

Dirk quickly turned around and aided the drowning man, dragging him safely to the shore. The grateful guard intended to allow Dirk to go free, but a stern magistrate would hear nothing of it. He reminded the drenched man he was under oath to deliver criminals to justice. Dirk was bound and sent off to prison, interrogated, and tortured in an unsuccessful effort to make him renounce his faith. He was tried and found guilty of having been rebaptized, of holding secret meetings in his home, and of allowing baptism there—all of which he freely confessed. He was sentenced to execution by fire and died a cruel martyr’s death.

Why did Dirk not just continue on towards freedom?  Why did he turn around and actually help out the person who was coming to arrest him?  Why did he save the man from drowning, because we all know that if the tables were turned the man would have probably let Dirk drown?  

Dirk was seeking to live out this third way faith that we have been talking about in our A Third Way to Follow Jesus series.  Dirk was seeking to live out the reality that we will be talking about today, the fact that peace is at the heart of the gospel.  And that living out the gospel in the world includes a commitment to peace.  And as part of that idea, means that we are called to love our enemies.  Dirk exemplified that belief, a belief that led him to save his captor, even though he knew it would mean his death.  He truly lived out the words of the Scripture that we are going to look at today.

Today, we are looking at the gospel of Jesus which includes a commitment to the way of peace.  We’ll explore what it means to be committed to the way of peace, defining the word peace, seeing how this commitment is definitely a third way of following Jesus, and explore our Scripture together.  

Before we get to the Scripture we need to define a few things first, including what peace is, the two other ways regarding peace and what a third way would look like.  

Now many of you already know where this is heading.  The word that we translate peace is actually the word Shalom which is a Hebrew word that is more holistic than just peace.  In fact the definition for Shalom means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom comes from the root verb shalom meaning to be complete, perfect and full.   Another definition that I found that I like is Shalom is the way that things should be.  So Shalom is so much fuller than our english word peace.  

Now so often when we talk about peace we limit it and we limit the scope of it.  Often when some evangelical Christians talk about peace it is just related to peace between God and myself and maybe peace between myself and others.  Other times other Christians, more what we would call progressive Christians, when they talk about peace they might include peace between nations, peace between humanity and creation, and maybe between God and ourselves.  But in this case it isn’t either/or ion regards to peace but a both/and.  Shalom really affects everything regarding our faith.  It includes but is not limited to peace between God and myself.  It includes but is not limited to peace within myself.  It includes but is not limited to peace between myself and other people.  It includes but is not limited to peace between humanity and the creation itself. It includes but is not limited to peace between nations.  It includes but is not limited to peace between all of humanity.  

Third way followers of Jesus, unlike other Christians, would believe that this peace position is not optional, not marginal, and not mainly related to the military.  On the basis of Scripture third way followers of Jesus renounce violence in all human relationships. We see peace and reconciliation- the way of love- as being at the heart of the gospel.  God has given his followers this ethic , not just as a point to ponder, but as a commandment to obey.  It was costly to Jesus, it may be costly to us, and it was definitely costly to Dirk Willems. This way of peace is a way of life.  Peace is truly at the heart of the gospel and as followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we need to be committed to finding non-violent alternatives and learn how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society, and between nations.  Part of living out this upside down, radical, call of Jesus- the true Prince of Peace means doing the hard work, and the difficult call to love your enemies, a call that Dirk Willems lived and died for.  

So let’s now jump into exploring the Scripture that Dirk Willems lived out in his life and even more so in his death, that of Luke 7:27-36 which says, ““But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.   But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

The first thing we need to notice is the context of Luke 6.  Now right before this teaching on loving your enemies, Jesus is sharing some Beatitudes, in what is called the Sermon on the Plain.  This teaching is very similar to the teaching of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5 that we looked at last week.  To get to the place where you can live out this teachingwe have to live our lives following Jesus and his upside down, countercultural Kingdom.  We need the Spirit residing in us to give us the strength to walk this teaching on loving your enemies out, because we won’t have it on our own.  Even to us who seek to follow Him, we can struggle with these teachings, because they don’t seem to make any sense to us.  To live out peace in the midst of violence, hatred, war, strife, and conflict, takes someone who is committed to Jesus, His Kingdom, His gospel, being filled with the Holy Spirit and the fact that this King, His Kingdom and his gospel includes a commitment to the way of peace.  

Now when Jesus was calling his hearers to love their enemies, everyone knew who he meant.  He meant the Roman Empire.  The empire that invaded their land.  Ruled over their land and people.  And ruled by the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, which even though peace is in the name, wasn’t a peace that was brought on by non-violence.  Oh no, the Pax Romana was brought on by the threat of violence, death and execution if you got out of line.  So Jesus wasn’t just calling his disciples to love those who they had a minor disagreement with (though that is included in his call). No, he was calling his disciples to actively resist the call to hate those who hated them, to actively resist the violence that was being done to them by not being violent back, to actively resist the call for revenge, and justice by the sword.  And how were they to actively resist without giving into the call to fight fight with fight, violence with more violence?  Let’s look at the second half of verse 27 and also verse 28, “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”  Talk about upside down.  A call to live out the gospel of peace, means doing good, blessing, and praying, all for your enemies.  I would have to say that this is probably one of the most, if not the most, easiest and shockingly simple Scripture to understand.  There is really no wiggle room at all.  But just as shockingly easy to understand, it is shockingly hard to put into practice and to live it out.  

We follow a God, a King, who instead of killing his enemies in order to build his empire or his Kingdom, chose to let his enemies shed his blood in order to build his Kingdom.  We are called to respond to enemies in the same way.  To not respond to enemies in the way that they respond to us, but we respond to them in love.  The love that God has for them, living and breathing through us.  Because think about it.  If Jesus treated his enemies with hate, and violence, we would be the ones that would be on that end of things…because Scripture says that while we were enemies with Him, he died for us.  We are the ones that he bled and died for, even when we were the enemy.  

We follow a God, a King who could have called down legions of angels to defend him from dying on the cross.  We follow a God who could have used violence to “defeat” his enemies.  We follow a God who did defeat his enemies not with violence but with self-sacrificing love.  Jesus knew and modeled the fact that use of violence is incompatible, especially lethal violence, with Christian discipleship.  And if we follow Jesus- one who embodied the call of Shalom in all relationships, then we are to also be on the forefront of the movement of Shalom in this world.  

The call to Shalom- to peace and to reconciliation- then effects every area of our lives and how we live.  Because of Jesus love for us, we can actually have Shalom deep within our spirit.  Because of Jesus love for us and for others, we can actually have Shalom with others- even those who are our enemies.  Notice I said Shalom but maybe not reconciliation…after all the Bible does say in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  So true reconciliation may not be possible or even something that we should want.  

Because of Jesus love for us and for his world, we can actually have Shalom with the creation itself.  We can work towards the renewal of all things…which includes the very creation itself.  Christians, because of God’s call of Shalom, should be on the forefront of taking care of God’s creation- of his call in being stewards of his creation.  

Because Jesus love for us and for the world, and all humanity, he calls us to live Shalom, and work for it on a national and world level.  We should be on the forefront of the movement to find nonviolent and creative solutions to conflict.  However, all too often, Christians are sometimes the first people to run to war.  In a Gallup Poll in 2008 it showed that the least supportive groups of people toward the Iraq war were non-Christians and people with no religion, and the most supportive for the Iraq War were Protestants and frequent churchgoers.  How in the world did we get here…with the call of Jesus to loving your enemy, praying for those who persecute you, and a call to non-violence- to a place where Christians favor a war?  Favor killing people that our country calls our enemies?  Too me, it looks like we have lost the true narrative of Shalom that runs through the entirety of Scripture and we have lost the calling of Jesus to love our enemies, to respond with non-violence, turning the other cheek and love.  And no I am not expecting our country to be non-violent, turn the other cheek, lover of enemy- because we don’t live in a Christian country and they don’t follow the Kingdom of God, they live in the Kingdom of this world.  

We need more Christians who will work for Shalom through organizations like Christian Peacemaker Teams.  More Christians who will work for Shalom through organizations like the Evangelical Environmental Network or Green Faith.  We need more Christians who will work for Shalom in victim-offended reconciliation programs.  We need more Christians who will work for Shalom in conflict meditation services like On Earth Peace (within the Church of the Brethren).  We need more Christians who truly believe that peace/Shalom is truly at the heart of the gospel of Jesus and in His Kingdom.  

But what does this look like on the ground?  Let’s spend some more time in the Scriptures and see what stands out to us.  Let’s dialogue around what ways God may be calling each of us into his work of Shalom in our lives in and in the world.  And let’s talk about what God might be saying to our community about being more intentional about working for Shalom in Lancaster and in the wider world. 

1.  Take a few moments and read Luke 6:27-36.  What stands out to you as you read the text?  What questions, comments, insights, etc..does it bring to mind?  What questions do you have about the message?

2.  In what ways do you feel God calling you into the work of Shalom in the world?  In what areas of Shalom (self, God, others, creation, world, etc..) do you feel called to engage in?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it?  How can Veritas be more involved in Shalom-making in Lancaster and in the world-at-large?  

A Third Wy to Follow Jesus Week 9: Visibly Counter Cultural

So today we continue our series A Third Way to Follow Jesus.  We have been exploring some foundational ways, beliefs, values, and ideas about what it means to follow Jesus.  We’ve explored together concepts such as a high view of Scripture, emphasis on the New Testament, Jesus as central to all else, the necessity of believers church, importance of discipleship, church without class or division, church as covenant community, and being separate from the world.  

Today our exploration is, I believe, closely aligned with our last topic, of being separate from the world, or put in other terms, in the world but not of the world.  Today we are gong to explore together what it means that following Jesus as individuals but even more so as a community, means that we are to visibly be counter-cultural.  We’ll jump into Scripture together, we’ll also talk about the ideas of being a subculture vs. being countercultural, and spend time talking about how to live countercultural as a community of followers of Jesus together.

So before we jump into the deep end, so to speak, let me ask you a question.  What words, images, thoughts, feelings, etc.. do you get, have, etc.. when I say the word countercultural?  

So often when most of us hear the word countercultural, images of the 60’s come popping into our heads.  Images of hippies, the drug culture, the Vietnam war and protesting it, and the free love culture.  But honestly, the countercultural movement, in my opinion started way before the 1960’s and I believe it was Jesus who truly started the countercultural movement, but we Christians haven’t done a great job of being countercultural and living out the upside down kingdom.  Instead all too often we are not countercultural but a subculture.  

So let’s take another moment before we jump into today’s Scripture to talk about and define what I mean by subculture and counterculture.  I found these definitions somewhere on the internet and I believe they are helpful.  A Subculture is a cultural group within a larger or predominate culture but distinguished from it by factors such as class, ethnic background, religion or residence, unified in shared beliefs or interests which may be of variance with that of the larger culture.  A group within culture distinguished from it by factors of custom, conduct, etc..  Think about the idea of marching in the same direction but wearing a different uniform and to a different drummer.  Counterculture is a culture having values, lifestyles that are in opposition to those of the current accepted culture.  A movement that actively rejects the values of the prevailing culture in favor of other ones.  Think about the idea of marching in a different direction, in a different uniform and to a different drummer…and that would be counterculture.  I believe all too often our modern American evangelical expression of church wants to be seen as countercultural, when in reality most of the evangelical world is actually a subculture. For instance, the evangelical church fights to be countercultural when it comes to issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and homosexuality.  But issues like consumerism, militarism, and nationalism get a pass, even though these are definitely not Kingdom values and actually run counter to the Kingdom and following Jesus.   

By and large the conservative evangelical church is not seen as countercultural but a subculture and even more so a voting block.  A voting block courted usually by the Republicans, and whose values don’t line up perfectly with the Kingdom (but neither does the Democratic party).  

And just to be an equal opportunity offender, the mainline/progressive church desires to be countercultural and so they oppose things that the evangelical church misses like consumerism, nationalism, and militarism, but at the same time they desire to be part of the culture.  

So the extremes would be to be a subculture (maybe like the evangelical church) or to be just part of the culture and not stand out at all (some of the mainline/progressive church).  The third way then to follow Jesus would be to be countercultural.  As a united community of followers of Jesus, every third way community of faith should model an alternative community.  Such a covenant community should function as an authentic counterculture.  Following Jesus is countercultural, radical and disrupts the status quo- or it should, and if it doesn’t it might mean that maybe we aren’t following the real Jesus.  

And to look at what it would look like to follow Jesus into being countercultural let’s look at one of the sections of the most countercultural, upside down teachings of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount.  We’ll look together at Matthew 5:1-12, which is known as the Beatitudes.  

Matthew 5:1-12 says,  “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Talk about an upside down, countercultural teaching.  Everything that Jesus talks about in this passage is co counter to the world in which he lived in, but also runs counter to the world system that we find ourselves in.  These 12 verses are an announcement of a new kingdom and the values that this kingdom is living out and bringing to reality.  If Jesus ran for president this would be his platform, along with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.  The Beatitudes are the summons for followers of Jesus to live in the present in the way that will make sense in God’s promised future.  To live the way heaven is in the here and now, and not just wait for it in some future time.  We are to pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven- the life of the realm where God is already ruling and reigning.  Where Jesus is King.  Followers of Jesus are to begin living by this rule and reign now.

Jesus uses the word blessed to describe these kingdom values and traits.  But when we look at them, they seem to be exactly opposite of how the world and the world systems would define blessed.  Just do a quick search on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using the hashtag #blessed and you’ll see all kinds of ways people believed they are blessed (and not all bad) but so often what you’ll find is pictures of status, money, jewelry, etc…  Hardly ever (if ever) would you find a hashtag #blessed and then a picture of being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, etc…  In fact, that might be an interesting assignment this week.  Post something with the hashtag #blessed with a picture or something that represents one of these beatitudes and see what the reaction is to your post.  

Jesus says that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit.  This doesn’t necessarily mean poor in money, but realizing our own shortcomings, weaknesses, and need for something or should I say someone beyond ourselves.  All too often our world calls those who are rich in spirit, those who think they have it all together, those who really don’t need anyone else, as blessed.  Eugene Peterson states this verse as “You’re blessed when you are at the end of your rope.  With less of you, there is more of God and his rule.”  It is actually a good thing, a countercultural thing, to realize that it is blessed when we realize that we can’t do it alone, and that the sooner we find that out, the better it is.  Whether this means not doing it without other people, but most importantly with God.  To remember that prayer is the first option and not last resort.  All too often I know that I try to do something with my own power, strength, wisdom, and ingenuity.  And then when I come up short, as I always seem to, that is when I finally come to the end of my rope, I pray for God to intervene.  Prayer, as Lisa Simpson, is sometimes the last refugee of a scoundrel.  

Jesus says you are blessed when you mourn, for you will be comforted.  This doesn’t seem to make sense to our world system.  And what are we actually mourning?  Peterson sheds some light in this translation when he says, “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.”  All too often, in the world system and even within the Christian subculture, people are very uncomfortable around pain, grief and suffering.  They want to be over it quickly, or they say things out of being uncomfortable.  In fact, all too often Christians are the ones who think you should always wear a smile on your face, and put on a “joyful” disposition.  In fact, I remember a Kid’s VBS CD that my kids used to listen to with these words, 

So, let the sun shine in, face it with a grin

Smilers never lose and frowners never win

So, let the sun shine in, face it with a grin

Open up your heart and let the sun shine in

When you are unhappy, the Devil wears a grin

But oh, he starts a-running when the light comes pouring in

I know he'll be unhappy 'cause I'll never wear a frown

Maybe if we keep on smiling he'll get tired of hangin' around

In the midst of the pain, struggling and mourning, I truly believe you are blessed because God is truly present in the suffering.  He comes alongside of you and weeps and mourns with you.  

Jesus calls us blessed when we are meek, because we will inherit the earth.  Now that just seems so counter to what we have always been taught, and always have seen.  It isn’t the meek who inherit and rule the earth, but the powerful, the privileged, the violent, the ones with the biggest army.  The world believes that meek equals week as shown by the definition that I found that says, “deficiency of spirit or courage.”  I would have to say that I totally disagree with that.  it takes courage not to fight fire with fire.  Not to respond to violence in a violent way.  Think about those who lead movements that changed the world.  People like Gandhi, MLK Jr. and Mother Teresa.  Yes they were meek, but they weren’t definitely not weak.  They were probably some of the strongest people our world has ever known.

Jesus calls us blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, for we will be filled.  I believe the word righteousness there can be really misleading.  The word probably should better be translated as justice.  Because too often we think righteousness as something that is personal- just being right with God.  But justice, is something that is both personal- between God and myself, but also expands beyond just my own relationship with God, into my relationship with all of humanity and creation itself, and setting the world right.  Following Jesus means that we should hunger and thirst, and dream and work for justice in the world, and to long to see the world the way God intended it to be.  

Jesus calls us blessed when we are merciful for then we will be shown mercy.  Now all too often, just like the other beatitude of meekness, mercy is actually, in our world and our world system, seen as a sign of weakness.  Until you are on the receiving end of it, and your beg for the other person to show you mercy.  It actually takes courage, strength and convict not to buy into the lie that all you need is revenge.  When we show mercy to those who “deserve” our judgement and revenge we are showing that we are countercultural followers of Jesus, who seek to live as he did, who showed mercy even to those who were nailing him to the cross, when he prayed, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”  

Jesus calls us blessed when we are pure in heart, for then we willsee God.  All too often in our world being pure is seen as old-fashioned, straight-laced, and uptight.  but here Jesus is calling us to single hearted devotion to Jesus and his Kingdom.  Or as Soren Kierkegaard said “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”  

Jesus calls us blessed when we are peacemakers, for then we will be called children of God.  So often, even in the church, this one is probably seen as the most countercultural and also the one that people struggle with the most.  I won’t spend a great deal of time on it, as it is really the focus of our discussion next week.  But suffice it to say in this world and the world system violence is seemingly the answer to every question, and even how we have and maintain peace, through the use of the sword.  But God calls us to work for Shalom in the world, to actively make peace,  and not breed the violence that is so prevalent in our world.  

Lastly, Jesus calls us blessed when we are persecuted because of righteousness.  All too often the church, and typically the evangelical church thinks it is really countercultural with this, because they believe that when they take a “stand” against immorality, etc.. and they get push back they believe then that they are blessed.  But sometimes the evangelical church is not persecuted because of righteousness, they are “persecuted” because they can be jerks, as all of us can be.  But the American church at times has a persecution complex.  We are not being persecuted here, yet.  But let’s take time to pray for those brothers and sisters in other countries who truly are persecuted and they, in some upside down countercultural way, are truly blessed.    

So let’s spend some time looking at the Scripture together, seeing what stands out to you, what it might look like to live these upside down countercultural values out together in the world, sharing which one(s) we struggle with the most, and what God might be saying to each of us and our community about being third way upside down countercultural followers of Jesus. 

3 Places of Mission: My Slides from my workshop from the COB Church Planting Conference.

Here are the slides from my workshop entitled 3 Places of Mission at the 2016 Church of the Brethren Church Planting Conference that took place last week at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, IN.  

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 8: Separation from the World

Picture with me, which shouldn’t be really that hard to do, a community of faith that has withdrawn from the world.  A community of faith where a certain culture and certain time-frame got freeze-dried.  And that faith community practices life like it is that culture and time-frame even when the culture and the time frame have rapidly changed. A faith community who are separate and distinct from the wider world around them.  

Obviously I am talking about the Amish, who many make their homes in Lancaster County.  A community that practices life much like it is 1850 Germany by speaking dutch or PA Dutch (for the most part) and by riding around in buggies.  Now I am not saying that the Amish aren’t great people, etc..  but I am wondering if their reading of the Scriptures led them to this idea of being separate from the world and removing themselves from the culture.  And I’m wondering if they were reading the text that we are going to read today and coming to their conclusions through it.  But are they the right conclusions or not?

Picture with me a group of people, a larger community of faith, if you will, who while they might not look any different from first appearances, still separate themselves from the world and from the culture.  This group of people might not necessarily speak Dutch and only drive buggies, but this group of people still separate themselves and create their own culture, their own education systems, etc… I am wondering if they have also read the text that we will look at this morning.  And I am wondering if they have the right conclusions or not.  

Today we are talking about third way followers of Jesus and third way faith communities and being separate from the world.  Even saying these words brings up a lot of thoughts, a lot of push back, and a lot of misunderstandings.  So let’s jump into the Scripture for this morning, see what it says, see how people have interpreted, and see what might be the way that we should truly seek to live out this principle of separation from the world.  

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? (Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

So often this is the text, especially verse 17 about being separately, which is interpreted to mean this idea of separation that we create our own culture, our own language (so to speak) and we remove ourselves from the world.  But is that what Paul is actually saying?  To create our own “world” so that we don’t have to engage with the “heathen” out there?  Or is there more to it?

Paul is calling the church, the community of the transformed, who belong to the Kingdom of God, to function in the world but being radically different than the world (or better put the world system or the way the world works or the Kingdom of this world) and radically separate from the world.  The faithful pilgrim church sees the sinful world system or kingdom of this world an an alien environment with radically different ethics, values, and goals than the Kingdom of GodThis principal then also includes the modern idea and concept of separation of church and state.  Therefore, third way followers of Jesus and third way faith communities reject all forms of civil religion, whether historical forms like the traditional corpus Christianum (a medieval concept of the unity between church and state) or the more recently developed form of Christian nationalism.  

Paul begins this section of chapter 6 by saying that Christians shouldn’t be yoked with unbelievers.”  The picture that he is bringing to mind is the picture of two oxen joined together by what is called a yoke.  When two oxen are yoked together you want them to be of equal strength, size and weight, over wise they would go in circles.  They couldn’t perform the task that they were yoked together to perform.  Obviously the main thrust of this metaphor is towards marriage and the call for those who are believers to be married to, or yoked together with other believers.  Marriage is really really difficult and even those of us who are married and seeking to follow Jesus have a hard time being yoked together.  But all the more reason to be yoked with other followers of Jesus.  

Much of the rest of the verses talk about the relationship, if you will between radically different things, like light and dark, righteous and wicked and Christ and Belial.  Paul is saying that these things are radically different and are worlds apart from each other.  In verse 15 he puts the radically different Kingdoms this way, “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?”  The word Belial used here is a Hebrew word meaning worthlessness.  If Christ is to be ascribed worth-ship (the old english word from the word that we use worship) than Paul here is saying Satan is worthlessness which is the exact opposite of worth-ship.  

Paul then goes on in verse 17 and puts together three different Old Testament scriptures to come up with a new verse.  The three passages are Isaiah 52:11 which says, Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.”, Ezekiel 20:34 which says, I will bring you from the nations  and gather( you from the countries where you have been scattered—with a mighty hand( and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.” and lastly Ezekiel 20:41 which says,  “ I will accept you as fragrant incense( when I bring you out from the nations and gather( you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be proved holy through you in the sight of the nations.”  Paul is using these three Old Testament passages to reiterate the fact that there are two kingdom at play and we are to come out of the kingdom of the world which we have been freed from by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and into the Kingdom of God where there is life, hope, and reconciliation.  

All too often however verse 17 is used to say that we are to come out and be separate.  So often then this idea of separation is not necessarily related to the Kingdoms at work and at play, but external things.  So the Amish are separate from the “world” through their own education system, the language that they use, the manner of dress, their modes of transportation, and their shunning of modern electricity.  Or probably closer to home (not geographically) is a movement within evangelical Christianity to be separate from the “evils” of the world and to create their own education system (lots of times homeschooling), own publishing systems, their own music, their own movies, etc… But this is not what Paul is trying to get across.  He doesn’t want us to leave the “world” and create our own “world” To create our own Christian sub-culture away from the rest of the world and the culture.  In fact in the first letter to the Corinthian church he says this in 5:9-10,  “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate(N) with sexually immoral people— 1not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.”  Instead what he wants for the Corinthian church (and also all followers of Jesus who would come after) to live out what he says in Romans 12:1 where he calls us not to conform to the patterns of this world.  The beliefs, values, morals, and the ways of this world system.  He is calling us much like the rest of the Scriptures to be IN the world (the world that we see and live in, etc..) but not be OF the world (the world system that is controlled and governed by the evil one).  It’s like the idea that ships should be on the water but the water shouldn’t be in the ship.  He is calling the church to live out the values of the Kingdom of God instead of the values of the Kingdom of the worldThe Kingdom of God values of love, sacrifice, peace, justice, compassion, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and selflessness.  Instead of the Kingdom of the world values of hate, selfishness, pride, arrogance, injustice, judgment, unforgiveness, bitterness, violence, and greed.  

There are two kingdoms at work in this world.  The Kingdom of the World and it’s ruler Satan and the Kingdom of God ruled by the Trinity- The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In fact we even see this idea of two Kingdoms being played out in Luke 4 in the midst of Jesus temptation in the wilderness.  In Luke 4 we read, “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.  If you worship me, it will all be yours.”  Nowhere do we then see Jesus denying that fact that the Kingdoms of this world have been given to Satan, and are under this authority and rule and reign.  Jesus never challenges Satan on that fact. So Satan is in fact the ruler of this “world” (or probably better stated the word system that is opposed to the Kingdom of God, God himself, Jesus and the ways of the Kingdom of God)

The Kingdom of God demands a new value system, a new ethic and a sharp separation from the Kingdom of this world.  The people of Christ, the church are people who are freed from the powers of this world.  As I said before, followers of Jesus are freed from the powers of this world because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And Paul is calling the Corinthian church to live free of those values and beliefs and the world’s system, instead of continuing to go back to the world system and even bringing the world system into the church as a whole.  

One area that I think we, as followers of Jesus, especially need to hear this call to be separate from the system and values of this world is in relations to politics and the church.  All too often Christians get dragged into political debates and the throw out the Kingdom of God values right our the window.  It’s like love, patience, seeing the image of God in another, grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, etc… that is all fine and good if this other person agrees with me, is of the same party as me, etc..  But if we disagree or you are of the other party, the gloves are off, and we take on the values of this world so quickly.  We need to follow Jesus way of engaging with binary and opposing “positions” and find a third way of engaging.  When he was presented with binary statements (whether they were political- many were, ethical, etc..) So for instance the story were the Jewish leaders come to him and ask if they should pay taxes to Caesar.  They thought that there were only 2 ways to answer it…yes pay taxes and get in trouble with the Israelites, or no, and bring the power of the Roman Empire down on Him.  Instead he separates from these two possibilities, and answers in a brilliant third way- Give to Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and give to God’s what is God’s.  

So third way followers of Jesus take the call of Paul to be separate from the world, not as a call to create our own culture, ie The Christian Subculture.  And not as a call to just mirror and live out the culture.  But to walk the straight and narrow line of being in the world, seeking to be salt and light, and making a difference in the world, but being separate from the system of this world.  It is not an easy line to walk but one that God calls us as individuals and as communities of faith to walk.  

So let’s move beyond the abstract and the principles of being separate from the world and the world system and into the concrete of what this actually looks like in practice.  So let’s talk about your first reaction to the saying “separation from the world.”  Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 and see what God might be saying to us about living a third way faith as individuals and as a community.  And let’s see what it might look to truly walk this line of being in but not of the world. 

1.  Read and Reflect on 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.  What stands out?  What questions does it raise in your mind?  What thoughts, insights, etc.. do you have about being "separated from the world"?

2.  What does or might it look like for you to be separate from the world?  To be in the world but not of the world?  What does or might it look like for us to be separate from the world?  To be in the world but not of the world?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?  

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 7: Belief in Church as Covenant Community

This past Tuesday Garret, Jeff and Myself traveled to Plymouth Meeting Mall to gather with some of our Ecclesia Network family.  At least 2 times per year we have a regional get together for the morning, and then we eat lunch together following the conversation and theme of the morning.  The theme for the morning fit perfectly in between our conversation from last week and our conversation for this week.  It was on diversity within the church.  

So last week we talked about insisting on church without class or division and this week we are talking about belief in church as a covenant community.  Let me explain what happened on Tuesday and why it was the perfect fit between last week and this week.  The leaders of our discussion on Tuesday were two Pastors of a church in Bethlehem.  The Senior Pastor was caucasian while his associate Pastor was African American.  They shared what it was like to be a church that is multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, seeking to be a church without class or division.  And how them being in relationship was transforming them both, as well as their church.  But what really struck me was the times that they had very hard conversations, yet stayed in relationship.  Many times the associate had to challenge the Sr. Pastor in his view of things and sometimes his assumptions that he brought to the table.  But each time they worked through the issue and refused to run the other way, ignore the problem, or dive into anger, hate, and frustration.  They were committed to their relationship, their leadership within the church, and the church as well.  They covenantedtogether to be in relationship with each other and the church.  Sure it probably would be a lot easier to go their separate ways, develop mono-cultural and mono-ethnic churches, or let the tone of the conversation in the world to creep into the church and into their conversations.  But they didn’t.  They are a beautiful picture of our conversation from last week and our conversation from this week.  

So let’s explore together what it means and what it looks like to believe in church as a covenant community and what it has to say to us about a third way to follow Jesus.  

To look at church as covenant community we need to first look at Scripture to show us examples of covenant community as well as define what I mean by covenant community.  

There are many places within the pages of Scripture that we could look at when we are talking about covenant community, but for me the most obvious and most beautiful people of the people of God living into covenant community is found in Acts 2:42-47.

Acts 2:42-47 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

To put it succinctly, covenant community, in this Scripture and I believe flowing out of this text into the early church, and throughout the 2,000 years of church history (as we celebrate Pentecost- the birthday of the church today), is about corporate worship (apostles teaching, prayer, breaking of bread), mutual care (had everything in common and shared to anyone who had need), fellowship, and mutual accountability.  An individualistic or self-centered (self-driven) third way follower of Jesus is a contradiction in terms.  Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship, and mission.  Places of friendship, mutual accountability and multi-voiced worship.  

Let’s unpack a little bit from Acts 2:42-47 and then let’s look at our own time in regards to the church.  

The first thing that struck me when reading Acts 2 this time around was the second word in the entire passage, the word devoted.  The word devoted, as many of us know, means to be constant, steadfast, loyal, committed and dedicated.  These early followers of Jesus were devoted not only to the 4 marks of the church (apostles teaching, common life, breaking of bread, prayer) but they were by definition devoted to one another.  They were committed to one another- they were family. The good, the bad, and the ugly- come what may, they were together.  I am not one who doesn’t believe that the early church didn't have any problems, as I mentioned last week much of the New Testament letters were written because there were problems.  But one thing that I really appreciate about the early church was this fact- that they were devoted to one another and that they saw each other as family.  And you can’t leave family- you are “stuck” with them though the good times, the bad times, and the times where you would rather not be in the family.  

The early church was a family who not only were committed to Christ (which is I believe the source of the covenant in a covenant community), but also individually and voluntarily to each other.  They lived out being in covenant community in three different ways.  First, forgiveness is essential.  The early believers no doubt struggled with each other.  I mean in the 12 disciples (which was probably one of the first Christian covenant communities) you had a tax collector (Matthew), viewed by many as a traitor to his own people, who probably ripped off his own people and Simon, who was a zealot, who had probably killed a tax collector or two.  A zealot was a band of Jewish people who called their own people to stand up, rebel and fight against the Roman Empire and expel it from their land, and they used violence and force to fight against Rome.  But they were both in the 12 disciples who followed Jesus.  No doubt there were heated exchanges between the two.  No doubt that there were probably arguments.  But they both stayed in relationship with each other, begin committed first to Jesus, second to his mission and his rule and reign in the world, and thirdly to each other.  If you want to live out a life and faith in a covenant community, then forgiveness is absolutely crucial and essential.  Because when you live face-to-face with people, you will disagree, you will struggle, you will rub against each other, you’ll sin against each other…and that is why forgiveness is so crucial, valuable and important in a covenant community.  

Secondly, a covenant community interprets Scripture together.  The Bible is a book written to a community, in a community, and through a community and best understood in a community.  Just a for example regarding the Bible as a community book, is something that I have mentioned plenty of times before, and many of us know it.  But when the Bible writers mention the word You, they most of the time don’t mean the individual you, but the plural you.  You as a community.  The early followers of Jesus understood that and lived that out.  We see it in that they were devoted to the Apostles Teaching.  They read it, taught it, lived it, and spread it all in community.  This value, of interpreting Scripture together, along with forgiveness and the next one, and the call to live in covenant community with each flies so much in the face of what our, especially western world tells us.  We are enamored with individualism, the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, the I am not dependent upon anyone, and the fear of commitment that we see that is rampant in our culture.  Being a follower of Jesus confronts that tendency within us all, and calls us into covenant community with each other, based on our relationship with Christ.  

Lastly a covenant community is a community that is experienced in face-to-face groups.  Healthy communities of faith are structured for community.  They are structured to build relationships and belonging in ever space of belonging, from Public to Social to Personal to Intimate and even to Divine.  (If you want to know more about the 5 contexts for belonging and discipleship, talk with me as this is the basis for our missional discipleship plan that is being worked on and looks to launch hopefully by theFall)

All three of these values (face to face groups, interpreting Scripture in community, and forgiveness is crucial) challenges our own individualism and our desire to be self-centered and self-driven.  Being in a covenant community means committing to a people.  Covenant community challenges the way we so often practice our faith and the concept of church.  You see all too often we see the church, especially today in the consumer culture in which we swim and breathe, as a purveyor of religious goods and services designed to make us happy, and keep us from church shopping elsewhere for better good, services and programs.  All too often however that is what we believe and practice, even if we don’t say it in those crass terms.  But so often we move around to satisfy our own supposed needs. But when we do that we sacrifice so muchWe sacrifice the opportunity to be in relationship with each other, especially those who we might struggle to love, agree with, or who are different from us.  If church is about meeting our needs, we will never truly commit to being a part of a covenant community, because we will always wonder if there is a better “church” or program out there.  A person who sees church as a place of goods and services ask the question, “What is in it for me?”  A person who sees church as a covenant community says, “Where might I use my gifts, passions, and talents in this community and how can I be a part of what God is doing in and wants to do here?”  

Part of the amazing growth of the early church is because they saw church that way, and they saw church as family.  And when your family is in need, you act.  It reminds me of a story told in the book Saturate by Jeff Vanderstelt tells of his next door neighbor, a recluse named Nicki, whose house was falling down around her, and was difficult to love.  But Jeff felt God calling him to love on her.  He felt God asking him, “If Nicki were our mother, sister or daughter, how would we love her?  If we were to see Nicki as our mother, sister, or daughter, how patient would we be with her?  Would we give up on her?  What kinds of things might we do for her?  How would we express love for her?”  We are family, under God as Father, as Jesus as Brother.  We are sisters and brothers and we are family.  And when family is in need, we act.  It is called mutual aid.  Acts 2 puts it this way,  “All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”  A covenant community sees each other as family, and then helps each other out as family.  

As a covenant community, as a family, as we eat together, sharing bread and wine (or grape juice) we sustain hope together as we seek the Kingdom of God together.  As a covenant community we are committed to nurturing and developing such a church, in which young and old are valued, leadership is communal, roles are related to gifts and not the gender, and baptism is for believers.  For us being a part of a covenant community means living our our vision and rule of life together.  It means seeking to bless the world individually and corporately.  It means growing deeper in our journey with Jesus through personal and corporate spiritual disciplines such as prayer, worship, fasting.  And it means sharing life together not as friends (though we are that) but more importantly as family, as brothers and sisters.  Part of being a covenant community together means fighting against the individualism that keeps us apart, and fighting against the habit to not commit to anything.  One thing that we can do together it to commit to each other as a community, as a family.  If you are interested in learning more what that looks like for Veritas, there are, what we call Community Commitment sheets on the back table, that explores living as a covenant community together.  

So let’s do some communal unpacking of the Scripture together.  Let’s talk about what pushes us away from covenant community and what draws us towards it.  Let’s talk about how we can better live as family, as brothers and sisters together as Veritas.  And let’s see what God might be saying to us together about being in covenant community together. 

1.  Take time to read Acts 2:42-47.  What stands out to you in this passage?  What questions, insights, comments, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture, the idea of church as covenant community and/or the message?

2.  What draws you away from covenant community?  What draws you towards covenant community?

3.  What might we do as Veritas to live more like family?  How can we better live out covenant community together and how can we better live out forgiveness as essential, interpreting Scripture in Community, and being a face-to-face community?

4.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

My Review of the Saturate Field Guide by Ben Connelly and Jeff Vanderstelt

Two caveats before I begin my review of the Saturate Filed Guide by Ben Connelly and Jeff Vanderstelt.  

1.  My review is my thoughts, words, ideas, etc... and not those of the Veritas community.  They do not necessarily reflect the Veritas community, even though the blog is hosted on the Veritas Community website.  

2.  I received this book free of charge from the Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for a review of on the Field Guide, as well as posting my review on various sites including Amazon, etc..

Now on to the review.  

The Saturate Filed Guide is about helping everyday Christians with principles and practices for being disciples of Jesus in the everyday stuff of life.  The goal for this Field Guide would best be summed up by the words in Habakkuk 2:14 which says, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

What if we could translate our belief from just a head reality to a lived out reality.  From the head to the heart and out to the hands so to speak.  To actually live out the faith that we say we believe. The authors hope that their Field Guide would help followers of Jesus embody the faith in their everyday lives, so that the entire world would be saturated with the Kingdom of God  

The Field Guide is an 8 week guide that you do as a community.  The 8 weeks cover the themes of Jesus, Discipleship, then transition into the overall theme of Identity (which includes Family, Servant, Missionary), then the last 3 fall under Everyday stuff (Rhythms week 1 and 2 and Commission)

Each week of the 8 has the same flow.  Day 1 is called Start where you get a brief overview of the week's theme and some questions.  Day 2 is called Read where you read Scripture and answer some questions.  Day 3 is Think where you focus on your self and thoughts, and do some reflective thinking and writing.  Day 4 is Pray where you pray for the Spirit's leading and guiding in relation to the week's theme.  Day 5 is Do where there are action steps to take in order to cement the learning in your life.  Day 6 is when you Meet with the community that you are working on this material with.  You meet to eat, pray, and share together about what you are learning, experiencing and how you are growing.  Day 7 is a day of rest or sabbath to celebrate God's goodness.  

This rhythm to me is very familiar because it reminds me of the Tangible Kingdom Primer, the Barefoot Primer, and the Gospel Primer.  And I truly believe these rhythms of scripture, prayer, reflection, action and community help to truly develop disciples (in this case) who will saturate their world with the Kingdom of God.  

I could see using this Field Guide in a traditional church setting, a new church plant, a missional community, or a small group.  I appreciate the flow of the material, the focus firstly on Jesus and Discipleship, the identity of followers of Jesus as a family of missionary servants, and the desire for everyday Christians to grab ahold of the Kingdom of God and live it out in the world.  

If you are looking for something to use to help give people (and yourself) practices and principles that will make the Kingdom more tangible and for the Kingdom to saturate the world around us, then the Saturate Field Guide might be exactly what you are looking for  

If you'd like to grab some copies visit the website and grab a few to take your people through Saturate Field Guide.  

http://bit.ly/1OcMYGg

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 6: Insistence on Church without class or division

The story is told about a church who had just hired a new Sr. Pastor to lead them into the future.  The morning of his installation and his first sermon came and the congregation was excited to meet him and hear his first sermon, and his vision for the congregation.  As they gathered together that morning a visitor was among them.  This visitor was unlike any other.  He sat on the steps of the church building, smelling, wearing old ratty clothes, and carrying his few meager possessions.  While the congregation flooded into the church building, they were stopped by this homeless man asking for some spare change, to buy some food, but no one gave him any.  He then went into the sanctuary, but hardly anyone even acknowledged his presence.  He headed towards the front of the sanctuary and began to take a seat, but the ushers asked if he would please sit in the back.  

As he sat there, he listened to the music and to the announcements.  Following the announcements the elders of the church got up and began to share their excitement about the call that they had extended to the new Sr. Pastor.   They said to the congregation, “We would like to introduce you to our new Sr. Pastor.”  The Congregation began to clap with joy and anticipation.  They began to look around trying to find the new Sr. Pastor.  And that is when the homeless man got up and began to make his way to the front of the sanctuary.  The clapping stopped and all eyes were on him.  He approached the microphone and began to recite these words, Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ‘The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry, and many heads were bowed in shame. He then said, “Today I see a gathering of people, not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples. When will YOU decide to become disciples?” He then dismissed service until next week.

Now this story may be just that, a story that someone made up to make a point, but the point is very very clear.  This story leads right into our text for the morning and our theme in our A Third Way to Follow Jesus.  Today we are going to look at 2 Scriptures, James 2:1-9 and Galatians 3:28 as we explore the idea that a third way to follow Jesus involves the fact that there is an insistence on church without class or division.  

So let’s turn first to James 2 and see what it might have to say to us about this third way to follow Jesus.  

“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”  have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters:  Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.”

So as James transitions from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 (not that there was chapters when James wrote the book that is something that was put into the Scriptures later on), we read the last words of chapter 1 which says, “and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”  And then goes right into showing how Christians show the fact that they have been polluted by the world every time they show favoritism.  Which in this example is based around socio-economic status.  This is the way that the Kingdom of the world works.  It always establishes a pecking order and by showing favoritism to the rich and well off, instead of the poor, shows us who our God actually is.  It showed a deep carnality within the church.  

You see James wrote to a very partial age (really no different in some ways than our very own age that we are living through right now) filled with prejudice and hatred based on class, ethnicity, nationality, and religious background.  In the ancient world people were routinely and permanently categorized because they were Jew or Gentile, slave or free, rich or poor, Greek or Barbarian.  A huge part of the work that Jesus was sent to do was to break down the walls that divide humanity.  Ephesians 2:14 puts it this way in relation to Jews and Gentilesspecifically“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,.”  All the walls- socio-economic, race, class, gender, nationality, etc.. is broken down and torn asunder by Jesus.  

The Early Church, in some parts, had a beautiful rule that they sought to live by, which confronts the favoritism that James mentions.  If a regular member of the congregation came into the building where the church was meeting, an user would look after them.  But if a stranger, especially a poor stranger, would show up, the Bishop would leave his chair and go to the door to welcome the stranger.  The Early Church, though definitely not perfect, determined to live under the rule and reign of King Jesus- even if it was seen by the world as upside down.  And one huge way for the church to live under the rule and reign of King Jesus was to live out the royal law- to love your neighbor as yourself, and not just the rich neighbors, or the ones that thought or acted or believed the same things as you.  To love your neighbor as yourself meant that you didn’t show favoritism to the rich, the powerful, the elite.  No, you treated everyone as equal.  And the walls that the system of the world put up that divided humanity, gets pulled down by the followers of Jesus- or at least that is what we are supposed to do.  

You see, the church, the body of Christ, has only one head.  Third way faith communities and individuals who seek to follow Jesus in a third way, while acknowledging functional diversity, seek to set aside all racial, ethnic, class and sex distinctions because these are subsumed in the unity and equality of the body.  Which plays itself out in so many ways, including destroying the clergy/laity divide, which means that all followers of Jesus are missionaries and priests.  When you become a member of the family, old distinctions cease to be relevant, in terms of their status within the family.  We are all brothers and sisters.  All previous statuses are irrelevant in terms of your status to Christ and in the church.  

That is the way that it is supposed to be.  Paul unpacks this a little more in Galatians 3:28 when he says,  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”  You see Paul is attacking a primary system that was in play at the time.  According to the way things were in the world, there were 3 primary divisions in Greco-Roman society.  Ethnicity (Jews/Gentiles).  Class (Slave/Free) and Gender (Male/Female).  Even Rabbis were known to pray and thank God that they were not born a gentile, a slave or a woman.  Another thing that we need to understand is the context of who the Apostle Paul is actuality writing his letter to.  The audience of his letter is Christians in Galatia.  Why is that important?  One of the biggest problems that the church in Galatia was facing was the belief by some of the Jewish Christians that to be a follower of Jesus you had to observe Jewish customs regarding circumcision and dietary laws.  Paul is saying that you didn’t need to be Jewish to be a Christian.  You didn’t have to be circumcised if you were a male (thank God for that).  You didn’t necessarily have to follow the dietary laws.  (Anyone who likes Bacon can say Amen.)

Paul is saying (along with James) that in our standing before God in Jesus, that every dividing wall/line is torn down and erased.  Now that Jesus is (and should be) our identity, every other identity prior to Jesus is (and should be) subsumed in Him.  We are all one in Jesus.  That is the ideal.  That is what King Jesus desires from us.  Jesus died to not only reconcile us to himself (he did that) but also reconcile us to each other.  Look further in Ephesians 2 which says, “His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace( to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.   For through him we both have access) to the Father by one Spirit.”  The King, through his death, creates a new humanity made up of Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free, Male and Female, Rich and Poor, Black and White, and whatever else which can divide us.  That is the what the Kingdom of God is all about.  But as we look around, we know that is not yet the case, in full.  Racism still abounds within the church.  Nationalism still abounds within the church.  Favoritism still exists in the church.  Our status within the world has crepted into the church and kept us divided and fractured.  

But this is not the way that it should be.  This is not the way those who live under the rule and reign of King Jesus and the Kingdom of God are supposed to live.  We are one in Christ, whether we are American or Syrian, Rich or Poor, Doctor or Homeless, Black or White, Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive etc..  Whatever identities that we have and continue to describe ourselves with are secondary to the identity as Beloved Sons and Daughters of the King.  These identities all too often divide the people of God.  Walls go up, borders are drawn, arrows and darts of hate are thrown and we lose site that, if we are in Christ, we are one.  Republicans and Democrat Christians are Christians first and party affiliations second.  Conservative Christians and Progressive Christians are followers of Jesus first and for most.  American Christians and Syrian Christians are brothers and sisters, not enemies based on our nationalities.  The Kingdom of God transcends all of these divisions.  The heart of God is grieved.  Jesus heart breaks when his body continues to divide over things like class and other divisions.  His death tore down the walls and we continue to build them back up again.  Each one of us have taken a brick and built up the dividing wall that has kept us separated.  We have allowed class, race, theological beliefs, politics, socio-economic status, life status, etc… to divide us and not lived out the reality that in Christ we are one.  We are one family.  We are one new humanity.  We are one because of Jesus and in Jesus alone are we one.  

But what does it look like to insist on a church without class or division?  How have you done your part in erecting the dividing wall that Jesus death sought to bring down?  How have you done your part of break down the wall that divides us as the body of Christ?  And what can we do together as Veritas to be a church without class or division and be the one body that Christ died to establish?  Let’s talk about that together.  

1.  What thoughts, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding a church without class or division, the Scriptures and/or the message?

2.  Where have you done your part to erect the dividing wall?  Where have you done your part to tear down the dividing wall that Jesus brought down by his death and resurrection?

3.  What can we do together to live into a reality of a church without class or division?  

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 5: Importance of Discipleship

Let me start off this message by making what may seem like a startling statement, but one that I truly and totally believe.  Jesus doesn’t want you to be a Christian.  Let me repeat that so there is no confusion of what I just said.  Jesus doesn’t want you to be a Christian.  

What in the world?  Did the Pastor just lose his mind?  He just told us that Jesus doesn’t want us to be Christians.  

Now that I got your attention, let me unpack that statement a little bit before your begin to hurl fruit, get up and walk out, or start arguing with me.  

All too often in our 21st century, as I have mentioned at other times, it seems quite possible to be a Christian and actually want nothing to do with Jesus.  I mentioned the other week about the fact that many Christians are actually Vampire Christians, who want Jesus for his blood and nothing else.  “Jesus just give me a little of your blood.  I don’t actually want to be your student or take on your character or be like you.  In fact, I really got to go but I’ll see you when I die.”  So it is possible (not from a Biblical standpoint) but from a culturally Christian standpoint that you can be a Christian without being a disciple.  In fact, it almost seems like being a disciple is an add on, for those who are really really serious about this whole Jesus thing.  We have created a salvation culture, and not a gospel-discipleship culture where we can call Jesus Savior, and not actually call him Lord.  But as I said before if he is not our Lord and I don’t believe he will be our Savior.  To me, they are a package deal.  

But how did we get here?  How did we get to the point where discipleship is seen as optional?  I think part of it is how we have actually defined the term gospel.  To many people, both in and outside the church, if you asked them to define gospel this is what they would say, “Jesus dies on the cross for my sins so that I could go to heaven when I die.”  And as I have said many times before, that yes, this is part of the gospel, but I don’t think it is the main part of the gospel.  

All too often this (mis)understanding of the gospel then short-circuits the need for discipleship and actually following Jesus.  Because this Jesus who died for my sins only, yes he can be worshipped but he can’t actually be followed.  I would, along with the writer Dallas Willard, define this definition of gospel, as the gospel of sin management.  On the right, you have the concept that Jesus died for my individual sins.  On the left, you have the concept that Jesus did for systematic sins like oppression, racism, sexism, etc.  Willard says this, “History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essentially concerned only how to deal with sin- with wrongdoing and wrong-being and it’s affects.  Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message or it is included only marginally.  Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message (if the gospel of sin management is the only definition of the gospel).  It’s like this, a gospel that doesn’t include discipleship and life here and now is like a cheeseburger without the cheese.  Just like a cheeseburger without the cheese is not a cheeseburger anymore, the gospel without discipleship in the here and now, is not the gospel.  

So if the gospel isn’t primarily about sin management, whether individual sin on the right or systematic sin on the left, then what is it?  And if Jesus doesn’t want you to be a Christian, what does he want from us?  Let’s turn to Matthew 16:24-27 and see what Jesus was calling his first followers to, and then by definition what he is calling each and every one of us to.

Matthew 16:24-27 says,  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life[ will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” 

To understand this a little bit, let’s look at the context of the surrounding passage.  Jesus had just asked his disciple the question, “Who do people say that I am?”  They had lots of different answers, but then Jesus put it to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter, ever the one to open his mouth first said “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  

Now Peter is absolutely correct in his assessment of Jesus, but then he shows that he doesn’t have a full grasp of what the mission of the Messiah actually is (to be fair to Peter, if we grew up with Peter we wouldn’t have any room in our theology or belief for a suffering Messiah.  The two terms didn’t go together.)  Jesus begins to talk about his crucifixion and resurrection and Peter doesn’t want to hear it.  And Jesus tells Peter “Get behind me Satan for you have the concerns of men and not God.”  

And then we come to the verses which we just read.  Jesus drops a bombshell when he says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  You see Peter and the other disciples thought that Jesus was the Messiah, and he was, but definitely not in the way that they had thought.  You see at the time the term Messiah had not concept of divinity attached to it.  It was very much a political term for one who was to come, kick Rome out of the land, set up an earthly Kingdom and rule from Jerusalem. And the disciples wanted to be a part of that ruling and reigning.  They wanted to be the great ones.  The ones who had helped Jesus kick out Rome and help set up a new rule and reign.  Jesus did come to establish a new Kingdom, a new rule and reign, but not one that was established on shedding the blood of his enemies, but allowing the “enemies” to shed his blood.  

Jesus is calling all who will follow after him to pick up and carry the instrument of their own death.  Following Him will cost everything and give everything.  There are no half measures on this journey.  If Jesus, Lord and Savior went literally and physically went to the cross, and if being a disciple mans coming after and imitating the teacher, then our lives as disciples of Jesus are forfeited the moment that we begin to follow Him. 

So to be a disciple of Jesus “simply” means that you are modeling your life- your thoughts, your words, your actions, your everything- on the example and teachings of Jesus. 
Which means picking up that cross, and dying to yourself, so that you can live a resurrectional life and existence, living under the rule and reign of Jesus.  And we love to talk about the beauty and freedom of the resurrectional life, but to get there we have to go through the pain of death.  And not literal, death, but a death to ourselves, our hopes, our dreams, our ways of living.  And I have to tell you death is not easy.  And many days I don’t want to do it.  I don’t want to wake up, strap the cross of Jesus on my back and follow Him.  I want to live the way that I want to live, think how I want to think, speak how I want to speak, and do what I want, as if I am the King of my own Kingdom.  But I am not and I do want to live under the rule and reign of King Jesus and that requires a daily death.  

To be honest, I kind of wish (I believe we all kind of wish) that the gospel of sin management was the entirety of the gospel, because it really only requires us to believe it, say a prayer of forgiveness, and have our sin wiped clean, and then we can go on living, having that sin problem taken care of.  And please don’t hear me as minimizing sin, because I am in no way doing that.  But believing in Jesus as Savior is fairly easy, believing and living under the rule and reign of King and Lord Jesus is another story.  Somehow we have come to believe that it is possible to “worship” Him and not follow Him.  But if we follow Him we are by definition worshipping Him.  When we live this discipleship life we are asking the questions, “What does it mean to follow Christ with our lives and not just our beliefs?” and “What does it mean to submit life in its totality to the claims of the Kingdom of God?”  

When we become a Christian it involves more than just a mental ascent or a belief in Christ but it also involves discipleship.  Faith is expressed in holy living.  In Christ, salvation and ethics come together.  Not only are we to be saved through Christ, but we are also to follow Him daily in obedient living.  He is to be Lord and Savior.  Third way faith and third way faith communities continue to teach that salvation makes us followers of Jesus and that he is the model for the way we are to live.  Discipleship means that the transformation of the individual believer’s entire way of life should be fashioned after the teachings and example of Christ.  

Churches are then to be committed communities of discipleship, because we can’t be disciples alone.  We need others to help us become more and more like Jesus which is the process that we call discipleship.  Which is the process through which Jesus turns us into people who trust and follow Him.  It is here then that Dallas Willard has something else to say to us, as a community regarding being disciples and the process of making disciples.  He asks this tough 2 questions, “Every church needs to be able to answer two questions. First, what’s our plan for making disciples? And second, does our plan work?”  If we are seeking to be a third way of following Jesus not only individually but corporately.  Being a third way faith community so to speak, we need to take the idea of being a community committed to being disciples and in the process of discipleship seriously.  That is why I have been working on, reading, writing, and discussing the implementation of a missional discipleship plan within Veritas.  To answer those two questions from Dallas Willard.  So that we wouldn’t just be creating a bunch of Vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and nothing else.  But begin a community that seeks to be disciples that makes disciples.  We are still in the process of refining the discipleship process (our next Servants Team meeting will be mostly about the process and ironing it out.  And then we’ll be talking about when we will be presenting it to the entire community.  Suffice it to say this is probably one of the most important if not the most important thing that we will have worked on, because discipleship is so crucial to everything that we do.  If you’d like to talk more about the discipleship process, why we are working on it and developing it, let me know.  I’d love to talk with you about it.)

As we turn the corner into our time of discussion, let me end with this, which will bring us full circle in how I started this discussion.  I said that Jesus doesn’t want you to be a Christian.  Hopefully we have seen that he does want us to be Christians- if it means begin a disciple who seeks to follow after Him.  Who will take up their cross and put out feet into his footsteps.  But he doesn’t want us to be Christians who only want him to be the Secretary of AfterLife Affairs (as Brian Zahnd says).  

So let’s talk together about the importance of discipleship, the call of Jesus for us to take up our cross and follow Him and how we can be a committed community of discipleship together. 

1.  What thoughts, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding discipleship, the Scripture and or/ the message?

2.  How can we as a community help you grow deeper in Jesus and in your discipleship?  How can the Pastor help?  How can the you help?  How can the leadership help?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?  

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 4: The Necessity of a Believer's Church

Over the course of the last few weeks, and moving forward towards the next several weeks, we have been and will be covering our theme A Third Way to Follow Jesus.  So much of the time in our world we are given either/or situations or dichotomies.  In the political world you are either Democrat or Republican.  In the financial world you are either getting richer or getting poorer.  And it is no different in the church world, you are either Conservative Evangelical or Progressive Mainliner.  With no room in between.  

But so often, as followers of Jesus, we need to take our cue from him.  When faced with binary questions, Jesus always took the conversation up a notch to a third place.  Like in the conversation about whether someone was to pay taxes to Caesar.  Instead of saying yes pay taxes to Caesar, and making the zealots and Jewish people angry, or saying no don’t pay taxes to Caesar and having the possibility of the Roman Empire come down on Him, Jesus shows a third way in answering this question by saying, Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.  

When we kicked off this sermon series we talked about whata third way to read the entirety of Scripture would be, where it isn’t all literal or all just myth but a reasonable Third way which sees the Bible as the signpost pointing to Jesus.  We also talked about the emphasis in third way faith on the New Testament, and especially the gospel, as they are a record of the high point of Scripture and the entirety of the world itself, Jesus Christ.  And last week we talked about the centrality of Jesus above all else.  

This week as we explore what third way faith looks like, we approach something that to us might seem like a no-brainer, a well-duh, of course.  But in history it wan’t a no brainer.  That being the necessity of believer’s church.  

Before we turn to Scripture let’s take some time to define what I mean by believer’s church and some history behind what I mean when I say believer’s church.  The term believer’s church is used in free church traditions to describe the church as the gathering of those who are genuinely converted to Christ and fully committed to living the Christian life.  If you talk about the believer’s church tradition you are talking about the historical free churches, in which churches are not under state-control, that there is voluntary membership, and believer’s baptism is practiced.  Third way faith in regards to believer’s church, is about the belief that Christian conversion, while not necessarily sudden or dramatic always involvers a conscious decision.  “Unless a person be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  Believing that an infant can have no conscious intelligent faith in Christ, third way faith communities baptize only those who have come to a personal, living faith.  Voluntary baptism, together with a commitment to walk in the full newness of life and to strive for purity in the church constitutes what it means to be a member of Christ’s body, the believer’s church.  Historically speaking, western culture is slowly emerging from the Christendom era when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost all were assumed were to be Christians.  Whatever it’s positive contributions on vales and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted and distorts the gospel, marginalized and marginalizes Jesus, and has left the church ill equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture.  We need to learn from the experiences and perspectives of third way faith communities and individuals that reject Christendom assumptions and pursued alternative ways of thinking and believing.  And out of that alternative to Christendom, where almost all were assumed to be Christian (by the nature of where they grew up, what family they were born into, that they were baptized as infants, etc..) we get the believer’s church tradition.   A tradition that said that the church only consisted of believer’s who accepted Jesus and did so by demonstrated their faith in believer’s baptism.

But where did these ideas come from regarding believer’s church?  I’m sure we could go many places but let’s turn to John 3 and the encounter that Jesus had one night with a religious leader by the name of Nicodemus.  John 3:1-8 says, “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.  He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, most likely because of the power and sway that the religious leaders had, and that he didn’t want to face the vitriol that no doubt would come his way if he came to Jesus during the day.  And when he comes to Jesus, he, a religious leader who had been following the Torah all his life, and begins a conversation with Jesus about the nature of his work and the nature of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus response to Nicodemus gets at the heart of the gospel, the heart of the Kingdom, and the heart of the theology that Nicodemus grew up with.  Jesus responds in verse 3, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”   You see this strikes at the heart of everything that Nicodemus was ever taught.  You see it wasn’t about being born into the right family or the right ethnic makeup.  Jewish theology at the time was all about that..being born Jewish or a child of Abraham.  And here God in the flesh, Jesus was saying it wasn’t about being born physically into the Jewish lineage, that allowed you to see the Kingdom of God.  No, God was starting a new family, made up of people from every tribe, tongue and nation.  A family that superseded ethnicity, socioeconomic status,  and nationality.  A family born of water and the Spirit, and not of flesh.  God Kingdom is thrown open to anyone and everyone.  

You aren’t a follower of Jesus because you grew up in a Christian home, being American, going to church, etc..  It is about living under the rule and reign of Jesus and making a conscious effort everyday to walk in his footsteps.  Ask someone today if they are a Christian, and obviously you’ll get a ton of different answers and responses.  But one that we as the church will need to own is that many people will say yes.  In fact according to the latest polls 83 percent of the people within the US identify themselves as Christians.  The question though is then what is a Christian.  If you ask many, they will say they are a Christian because they are American, because they are not (fill in the blank with another religion), because they grew up in the church, or because they said a prayer when they were a children so that they could go to heaven when they die someday.  Sadly, many in and outside the church whose present state suggest that one ought to go back and examine whether in fact a real spiritual birth took place at all.  I believe, and please know that I am not judging, that many of the 83 percent of Americans who claim that they are Christians are nominal (in name only) and notional (in opinion only)

One becomes a Christian through an event, a process or both in which you identify yourself with the crucified and Risen Christ.  You see the decision to become a Christian involves a choice, a personal decision to follow after Jesus as Lord (what we talked about last week that he if he isn’t your Lord, he isn’t going to be your Savior).  It’s a decision that you need to make on your own, but not alone.  Your parents can’t make it for you.  Your friends can’t make it for you.  Your spouse can’t make it for you.  We can’t make it for you.  

Just as you need to make the faith your own, it can’t be forced upon you by anyone.  I truly believe in the concept of No Force in Religion.  The state can’t force you.  The church can’t force you.  Your friends and family can’t force you.  Christianity is a matter of individual conviction and should not be forced upon anyone but rather requires a personal decisionAll one has to do is to look back at history to see how force when combined with Christianity becomes a bad and evil thing, and distorts the gospel and distorts Jesus.  Just look at the Crusades when people said “Come to know Jesus or I’ll slit your throat.”  Or the city that used to fine you if you missed church.  That is what happens when church and state get in to bed together.  Or as Tony Campolo often said, “Mixing Government with the church is like mixing horse manure with ice cream.  It doesn’t affect the manure much but it really ruins the Ice Cream.” In history, especially during the reformation, voluntary faith communities, free from coercion were seen as seditious.  Reformers couldn’t conceive that the basic fabric of society would survive if one opened the door to freedom of religion and the resulting pluralism of religious perspectives.  Then closely connected with freedom of religion and free from coercion was the belief by third way communities in history that baptism was for believer’s only.  During the reformation Infant Baptism was closely aligned with the state, and honestly mostly for tax purposes.  Believer’s baptism was seen as an act of civil disobedience.  Civil disobedience that “embodied their doctrine of the church, their stance toward society, their advocacy of religious freedom and their doctrine of separation of church and state.  The baptismal rite was a powerful political act as well as a powerful spiritual declaring that Jesus is Lord and Caesar (in whatever form) is not.  

Nicodemus, a man who had grew up in the religious system, who knew the Torah inside and out, who had spent his life on behalf of God, didn’t understand what Jesus was getting at in regards to being born again, and being born into a new family. Jesus responds to that fact by saying, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”  Here Jesus is saying their is a double-sided new birth which brings you into the visible community of Jesus Followers (Water baptism) and gives you new life as the Spirit wells up like a spring of water.  

So wrapping this up regarding the necessity of believer’s church, what can we draw out from it and apply to our lives?  Here are 4 things that I think we can draw out of it. 

1.  The necessity for each person to decide for themselves where they stand with Jesus.  Have you, as the old hymn says, “decided to follow Jesus?”  Do you call him Lord and not just Savior?

2.    One of the ways of showing your commitment to following Jesus is in the act of believer’s baptism.  To go under the  water, and die to your old self, and raise to new life.  IF you have questions, or you want to know more, or you are very  interested in being baptized, let’s talk. 

3.    Have you also made a decision to join a community and be  a part of it’s life?  Not just coming but being a crucial part of it’s life.  Jumping in, grabbing an oar, and roaring this         boat towards the Kingdom.  And if you are committing here     at Veritas that means grabbing an oar and rowing towards  being a blessing, growing deeper in Jesus, and sharing life         together.  

4.      And lastly, we need to make sure that there is no force in  religion.  We can’t force or twist people’s arms to come to  know Jesus.  If we do, we distort Jesus, we distort the  gospel, and we distort what it means to actually follow Jesus.  So maybe we don’t grab a sword or fine people, but there are ways out there that promote force of religion.  And I believe as followers of Jesus we can’t and we  shouldn’t seek to use

So let’s talk together about the idea and necessity of believer’s church. Let’s talk about your thoughts, ideas, questions, etc..  Let’s talk about ways that the church, even today, as used force and the power of the state.  And Let’s talk about what this all means for our lives today in 2016. 

1.  What thoughts, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you have about the concept of Believer's Church,, the message, and or the Scripture?

2.  Where have you seen force in religion in the history of the church, and in your own life?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we, as a community, do about it?

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 3: Jesus is central to all else

People used to believe that the sun and all the planets revolved around the earth. From where the naked eye could view the universe, standing on this fragile planet, it seemed that Earth was huge and that all the stars, tiny points of light in the distance, were very small, inferior in fact to planet earth.

The sun was thought to be the largest star. It was thought to exist solely to give us heat and energy. It was understood that the sun must be very large, larger perhaps than Earth itself, but nevertheless, no matter how big the sun was, it revolved around us.

We have learned a lot through science. Galileo, a devout Christian, helped to bring us to a clearer understanding of things. All the planets revolve around the sun, in fact. The planet we call home is but one of a family of planets.

It was terribly humbling for people back in Galileo’s time to realize that their planet was not the center of the universe. People reacted violently. Galileo was thrown in jail. How dare he suggest that God had not made our home planet the exact center of everything created?

Webster Dictionary defines the word “Center as a place or point at which activity is concentrated or toward”. Well, it’s painful to realize that we are not the center of the universe, but it has to happen in order for us to mature. Although we would like to be the center of the universe, we are not. That’s terribly humbling. That something else - not us - might be the center of things, can be hard to swallow.

So, you see, the earth is not the center of the universe. Science has proven it. And we ourselves are not the center of existence. God’s Word let’s us in on that one.

So we have been looking at the idea of a third way of following Jesus the last 2 weeks or so.  Two weeks ago we looked at what a third way of faith might look like in regards to the Bible and interpreting it.  Last week we looked what a third way faith might look like in regards to emphasizing the New Testament.  And today we are talking about the concept and idea that a third way faith puts Jesus at the center.  That he is central to all else.  That all the prophets, law, narratives, words, and everything in the story of God points to Jesus.  Both the Old and New Testament are signposts that point to Jesus.  

So often however we lose this fact that Jesus is central to all else, not just in the Bible itself, but also in all of creation, which includes us.  We are not central to all else.  We are not the center of the universe, Jesus is.  So often in our faith we can even make other things central, instead of Jesus.  Sometimes we even make ourselves the center of the gospel.  We have all heard this statement, “Jesus died so that I could go to heaven when I die.”  Is that technically correct?  Yes.  But is it enough or is it all that there is to the gospel?  No.  In that statement it almost seems that we are the center of the gospel.  We are not the center of the gospel, Jesus is the center of the gospel.  

Sometime instead of ourselves being the center of the gospel, we want to make it about what Paul says about the gospel.  Let me put it this way, Paul and Jesus can sometimes be put on opposite sides, but they aren’t.  But do we read Jesus through Paul or do we read Paul through Jesus?  It reminds me of a story told by Scot McKnight while writing his book The King Jesus Gospel. Scot says, “At an airport, I bumped into a pastor I recognized… He asked me what I was writing, and I replied, “A book about the meaning of gospel.” “That’s easy,” he said, “justification by faith.” After hearing that quick-and-easy answer, I decided to push further, so I asked him Piper’s question: “Did Jesus preach the gospel?” His answer made me gulp. “Nope,” he said, “Jesus couldn’t have. No one understood the gospel until Paul. No one could understand the gospel until after the cross and resurrection and Pentecost.” “Not even Jesus?” I asked. “Nope. Not possible,” he affirmed. I wanted to add an old cheeky line I’ve often used: “Poor Jesus, born on the wrong side of the cross, didn’t get to preach the gospel.” My satire, if not sarcasm, would not have helped, so I held back. But I’ve heard others make similar claims about Jesus, Paul, and the gospel…”

Even our theological systems, theological heroes from the past or the present, while they can help us understand the gospel and the story of God, they are not the center of it all.  So go ahead and like Menno Simmons, Calvin, Wesley, NT Wright, Greg Boyd, Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, Zwingli, Scot McKnight, etc… But realize it is not about them, or about a system of belief, it is about Jesus.  If you say I am a Calvinist, Arminian, Anabaptist, Methodist, etc… first instead of saying I am a follower of Jesus who happens to be an Anabaptist, Wesleyan, Calvinist, etc…then we have put something (or even someone) in the center instead of Jesus and the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  

So let’s turn to Scripture and see what it says about Jesus being central to all else.  

Let’s go to the beginning of John, John 1 and see how this text seeks to put the emphasis and turn our eyes to the author, perfecter, finisher and center of our faith, Jesus.  John 1:1-5 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[ it,”  This is the climax of the story.  The arrival of a human being, the Word made Flesh.  Jesus- the ultimate Word of God.  The Word was from the start.   The Word was at the beginning.  The Word is at the end.  It was through the Word that all things were made.  The one who conns all light and life.  The Word challenged and challenges the darkness.  The Word establishes the new creation- in us and in all the world around us.  The Word is Jesus himself.  This text says that Jesus was from the beginning.  That he existed before time and space.  That Jesus was.  That Jesus was with God at the beginning of all things.  That Jesus was with God when God the Father spoke all things into being.  And that Jesus- the Word was and is God.  That he is separate from God the Father but while separate from God the Father doesn’t mean that he isn’t God himself.  Everything that can be said about God the Father can be said about God the Son.  

Now the real interesting part about this text is the word that is used for Word.  The greek word is Logos.  Logos is a word that was in use at the time.  Greek philosophy saw the logos as the power that puts sense into the world, making the world orderly instead of chaotic.  The logos was the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it going in perfect order.  They saw the logos as the Ultimate Reason that controlled all things.  

Jewish rabbis often referred to God in terms of His word.  They spoke of God himself as the word of God.  In the mind of the ancient Jews, the phrase the word of God could be used to refer to God himself.  

And so whether you were Greek or Jewish, John was saying, “For centuries you’ve been talking, thinking, and writing about the Word (the logos). Now I will tell you who He is.”  John met both Jews and Greeks where they were at, and explained Jesus in terms they already understood.  As an aside, this is a brilliant missiological move on Johns part, understanding the context in which we find ourselves, and using language and culture that people already use and understand to explain the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom.  

Jesus, the Logos, put sense into the world, made the world orderly from chaos, and keeps it and sustains it.  Jesus, the Logo, is truly the center of all things, and needs to be central in our life, our faith, our theology and the way we practice it.  

This week as I have been reading, studying, praying, and while writing the message one single song kept playing on repeat in my head.  The song is called Center by Charlie Hall.  So as different as it might be, and as something that I have never done, I feel lead to lead this worship song as part of the message, because it is part of the message, that we need to have Christ as the center of our lives (and so much more than just our lives, but our lives as a crucial starting point).  So let’s worship together in singing this song acapella.  

John 1:14, one of my favorite passages within all of Scripture points us to the fact that, as unimaginable as it sounds, that God himself took up flesh and blood, and became human.  John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Jesus came to earth to show us in the flesh what God is like.  If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.  It’s like what John 14:9 says, “Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father.”  Jesus came teaching, showing and living the Kingdom of God.  And as such, when we want to know what it means to live, show and understand the Kingdom of God we need to look to Jesus.  And to look to Jesus means putting him at the center of life.  Third way faith derives Christology directly from the Word and emphasizes a deep commitment to take Jesus seriously in all of life.  Such view runs counter to notions that the commands of Jesus are too difficult for ordinary believers or that Jesus’ significance lies almost entirely in providing heavenly salvation.  Rather salvation of the soul is part of a larger transformation.  In third way faith Jesus stands as the lens by which we read the entire Bible (as we talked about last week) and the example by which we engage all theology.  Jesus takes all precedence in matters of faith and life for us.  He is the exact representation of God and King of the Kingdom.  His example, teaching, and identity matter more than anything.  His values, example, and commands often put us at odds with the laws, values, and expectations of Christendom and state.  Responding to the ways of this world in a Jesus-like manner, third way communities operate as alternatives to the systems around them.  It is in the centrality of Jesus above all things that define every other particularity within third way faith.  

Jesus, the Word of God, the logos, God in the flesh is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer, savior and Lord.  He is the source of our life, the central reference point for our faith and lifestyle, for our understanding of church and our engagement with society.  We are committed to following Jesus as well as worshipping Him.  Placing Jesus at the center is about living a life of discipleship and following him.  It means making him Lord, and not just Savior.  All too often, in the Church, and in how we understand the gospel we are just making Vampire Christians, who want Jesus for his blood but nothing else.  It’s like we say to Him, “I’d like a little of your blood please.  But I don’t care to be your student or have your character.  In fact, won’t you excuse me while I get on with my life, and I’ll see you in heaven.”  Do we speak about the centrality of Jesus for salvation only or do we speak about his centrality in all of life and mission which includes salvation?  I found these two quotes this week that pretty much sums up what I am getting at.  The first one spoken by Justin Martyr, an early church father and he put it this way, “Those who are found not living as Christ taught should know that they are not really Christians even if his teachings are on their lips”  Ouch but oh so true.  The second is from Hans Denck and says, “No one can know Christ unless he (or she) follows Him in life.”  

Jesus is to be more than just our Savior.  He is to be our Lord.  And our response then is to follow Him.  To live as he lived. To love as he loved.  To act as he acted.  To speak as he spoke.  To have our heart break with the things that broke his heart. It is a tall order but Jesus walks with us as we put him central in our lives (which includes our life, our faith, our theology, etc…)

So let’s talk in some more concrete details together about what it looks like to live this third way faith in regards to the idea that Jesus is central to all else.  Let’s talk about the Scriptures, and the message and what questions, insights, applications, etc.. come to mind.  Let’s talk about what other things have been put as central over the years in regards to faith, the bible, Christianity, etc..  And let’s talk about what it looks like for each of us as individuals and as a community to put Jesus at the center. 

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, application, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  What have you seen in the history of the Christian church that has taken centrality instead of Jesus?  

3.  What does it mean for you to make Jesus central to all else?  What does it mean for us as a community to make and keep Jesus central to all else?

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 2: Emphasis on the New Testament

Our culture, our political system, and even our western Christian/church system and culture is becoming more and more polarized.  Last week we began exploring what a third way to follow Jesus would look like, and if that is even possible.  We have been seeking to find a way that goes beyond conservative or progressive labels and means of following Jesus.   That cuts a third way, neither right or left, conservative or progressive.  

So last week we kicked off this series by looking at the Bible and how a third way of following Jesus would approach the Bible.  Having a high view of it, which means not just about knowledge but of actually applying it to our lives.  

So today we are going to talk a little bit more about the Bible, but specifically about the importance of the New Testament, and an emphasis on it, and why we should emphasize the New Testament.  

So let’s turn to two Scriptures and see what they might have to say to us toward about the importance of the New Testament and in following Jesus.  The first one that we’ll look at together is Matthew 5:17-20 and the second is John 5:39-40.  

Matthew 5:17-20 says this, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.   For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands( and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  

I want to focus on just the first verse that says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.  I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  Jesus was seeking and trying to show the Jews of his day that the movement that he was starting and living out was really the fulfillment of everything and all that Israel had believed and was longing for and working towards.  Jesus wasn’t interested in abandoning the law and the prophets.  Israel’s whole story, commands, promises and the book that we call the Old Testament were all pointing towards and were going to come true in Jesus.  A third way of following Jesus believes that since Christ is God’s supreme revelation, that we make a clear functional distinction between the equally inspired Old and New Testaments.  A Third way of following Jesus sees the old and new covenant.  We read the old from the perspective of the new and see the new as a fulfillment of the old.  Where the two differ, the new prevails and thus third way ethics are derived primarily from the New Testament, especially the gospels, which tell the story of the supreme revelation of God, Jesus.  The New Testament is the culmination of, fulfillment of and serves as the interpretative key to the Old Testament.  New Testament takes precedence over the Old.  The New Testament teaching trumps Old Testament teaching and the Old Testament points forward to Christ.  Jesus is the climax of God’s story which runs all the way from Genesis to Revelation.  

One of the interesting things about this text is the context in which Jesus is saying it.  He is saying that he came not to abolish the law but fulfill it in the middle of his most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount.  Basically what he is saying in the rest of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, is answering the what does it look like when the law and the prophets come to fulfillment question.  First, and obviously, it looks like Jesus.  But then this is what it looks like to fulfill the law and the prophets.  For Israel to be the Israel that God had been calling them to be since Abraham was told that his nation was to be blessed so that they could be a blessing.  For them to be Israel, to be a blessing, and live out the rule and reign of Jesus in this world, the thing that Jesus calls, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God.  

A theologian from the 1500’s put this third way focus on the New Testament and on Jesus fulfilling the law and prophets this way, “All the Scriptures point us to the spirit, gospel, example and ordinances of Christ.”  A third way faith means that we focus on the New Testament, and particularly the life and teachings of Jesus.  This is not to say that the OT isn’t important or needed.  The entirety of Scripture is inspired by God, but that everything in the Old Testament is a signpost to Jesus. We should read the book and approach it in a Christo-centric way…signposts pointing to Jesus, the crux of the matter.  The climax of the story.  The main point of all that is written.  What I mean by Christo-centric is this, Jesus is the lens through which all Scripture is read. 

Last week I mentioned that far too often Christians read the Bible as a flat book or a flat text.  What this means is that a flat reading of the text assumes that the words of God as understood by, say Moses, in the Old Testament, holds the same “weight” and “authority” as the words of Jesus in the New Testament.  When we read the Bible as a flat text we read the right book in the wrong way.  The Bible is not a flat book but is an unfolding of God’s purposes with the New Testament providing the normative guidelines for ethics and church life.  All too often when we use and interpret the Bible as a flat book, we can illegitimately use OT passages to set aside clear New Testament teaching.  All we have to do to see that happening is to look back into church history and see how the Old Testament was used to explain and defend actions that actually goes against clear New Testament ethics and especially the life, ministry, mission and teachings of Jesus.  I mentioned last week the white european settlers reading the Joshua conquest stories in the Old Testament as their story, and their “God given” call to cross the “Jordan River” (Atlantic Ocean) and to claim the promised land from those “heathen” tribes.  

But if the Bible isn’t a flat book, then what is it?  Let’s see what Jesus might say to us through John 5:39-40.  John 5:39-40 says, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”  Obviously when Jesus is referring to the Scriptures here, he is referring to the Old Testament, since the New Testament hadn’t been written or put together.  And so he is saying that the Old Testament itself points to Jesus.  And that the religious leaders, who had studied the text much of their life, totally missed the point.  He is saying that one can know everything about the “Jewish hope for the Messiah” and not to know the Messiah that the Old Testament is a signpost to.  The ones who knew the text the most, missed it the most.  The Old Testament is a preparatory document, preparing the way for the Christ.  Preparing the way so that people would be ready and be able to interpret the signposts that pointed to the Christ, the long awaited Messiah.  

Now what Jesus is also saying here in this text to the religious leaders of his day, is that they were coming to the Old Testament Scriptures in order to have eternal life but life, true life was found in him.  We can be in danger of the same exact thing, studying both the Old and New Testament and placing our hope in the Bible itself.  The Bible itself, whether the Old or New Testament is not the point, but it does point to the one who gives life, life to the fullest and life everlasting, Jesus the Christ.  We don’t worship the Bible, as I mentioned last week, that would be bibliolatry.  No, we worship Jesus, the one that both the Old and the New point to.  We don’t worship the New Testament, even though it is the record of God’s ultimate revelation in Jesus the Christ.  And because of that it has authority over what precedes it.  Christians are called to follow Jesus not the Bible.  We emphasize the New Testament because the New Testament scriptures are the trustworthy written witness and record of Jesus, and because of that they are of supreme importance.  But as we’ll talk about next week, Jesus rules over all of those things including the New Testament itself.  

So what exactly does it look like to have a third way of following Jesus, or a third way faith, if you will, in regards to emphasizing the New Testament?  What difference does it make in the right here and the right now?  

First of all, as I mentioned before, to emphasis the New Testament especially the gospels which are the record of the life, teaching, mission, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, gives us an interpretive framework under which we can seek to understand the entirety of Scripture.  An emphasis in the New Testament gives the church a rule of life to live by, and an ethic to live out in the world.  It will help us and allow us to interpret all Scripture from a ethical Christ-centered point of view.  When we read the Old Testament and come up with an application we can hold it up to the teachings of Jesus and see if they square.  If not, then we need to take another look at the interoperation.  Andwhen the interpretation or ethic that we derive from other parts of the Scriptures, do square with the teachings and life of Jesus, then we know that we are free to apply those things to our lives, our ethics, our beliefs, and our actions.  

Secondly, as mentioned last week in my message about the Bible, a third way faith regrading the emphasis on the New Testament means that we center our lives on discipleship and the following of Jesus.  That when we read the teachings of Jesus and his call for his followers to follow him, to live like him, to love like him, to be like him, we are to actually do them, with God’s enabling grace and the help of the Holy Spirit.  When we focus on either the Old Testament or even parts of the New, we can actually nullify the teachings of Jesus. In fact, some Christians believe that Christ’s teachings are unattainable in the present. In fact, some who interpret the Bible this way postpone the validity of Jesus' teachings to some future time. God's mercy and forgiveness is emphasized in this system rather than careful obedience.  One such place within the New Testament that some people actually interpret for another time is the Sermon on the Mount.  People believe that these teachings are beyond our ability so we have to come up with some way to explain it away.  The dispensationalist (Dispensationalism is a product of a Bible and prophetic conference movement in the nineteenth century which divided history into a number of time periods, or dispensations, in which God dealt with humanity on a different basis in each period.) are ones who would seek to explain away the clear teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and the call to actually live them out.  A quote from the Scofield Reference Bible, “The Sermon on the Mount has a twofold application: (1) Literally to the kingdom. In this sense it gives the divine constitution for the righteous government of the earth. Whenever the kingdom of heaven is established on earth it will be according to that constitution. . . . In this sense the Sermon on the Mount is pure law. . . . For these reasons the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found in the Epistles.”  So basically what that is saying is that the Kingdom is another time, and that in that other time the Sermon on the Mount will be the way it works, but for now the church isn’t held responsible for living according to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount.  I obviously would disagree with that understanding.  The third way of faith is about discipleship and obedience to the teachings of Jesus.  And not just “knowledge” about the Scriptures and the New Testament.  

So let’s get into smaller groups and dialogue around this third way emphasis on the New Testament.  What thoughts, questions, push back, insights, etc.. do you have?  Share stories where you have seen people apply the teachings of Scripture that actually run contrary to the teachings and life of Jesus.  And let’s talk about what God might be saying to us through the Scriptures and our discussion on emphasizing the New Testament in this third way of following Jesus. 

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you  have regarding the Scriptures and/or the message?

2.  Share a story or two where you have seen people apply something from  the Bible that actually ran counter to the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus.   

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What do you think God might be saying to us as a community and what should  we do about it? 

A Third Way to Follow Jesus Week 1: A High View of Scripture

Okay Veritas community let’s talk politics.  And everyone goes Yeah, let’s do that.  Okay, so I am not really going to talk politics other than just to say this.  It seems like our nation is becoming more polarized than ever before.  You have the “conservatives” and you have the “progressives” and the two never shall meet.  

But let’s turn our eyes to the church in America, where unfortunately it is in much the same state as the political world.  We are more polarized probably than ever before.  We have the “conservative” Christians on one “side” and we have the “progressive” Christians on the other “side”.  The left and the right if you will, taking our cue from the political realm.  But what happens if you don’t fit into either the “conservative camp” or the “progressive” camp?  What if, as Scot McKnight says on the back of the book Blue Parakeet, “What if I’m too Conservative to be Liberal, and Too Liberal to be Conservative?”  Is there a place for you within Christianity?  Is there a Third Way to Follow Jesus between the conservative wing and the progressive wing?  And if there is, what would that even look like? What beliefs, values, theological ideas, and actions would define a Third Way of following Jesus?  That is exactly what we will be spending our time dialoguing around for the next few weeks.  

This series was born from many conversations that I have had with people who have struggled finding their place in the church and in the Christian world.  Many grew up in the Conservative wing of the church, and they have scars to prove it.  They have shared with me the struggle of reconciling the faith that they grew up in and the beliefs and actions of Christians, with the Jesus of the New Testament.  One person said, “How can Christians overwhelming support war (for the most part) and yet claim to follow the Prince of Peace who said to love our enemies?”  But at the same time many people who i have talked with who left the conservative church, went all the way over to the progressive church.  And some didn’t find much help in following Jesus in those spaces.  And that has left many wondering are those the only two options that I have…and so that is why we are engaging in this conversation, and one I feel like this community is seeking to provide a third way of actually following Jesus and being a community that embodies, and fleshes out this third way of following Jesus in our beliefs, in our actions, in the way we gather, and in what we talk about and how we talk about it.  

Today, we are going to look at what a third way of following Jesus might have to say about the Bible itself.  In fact, a third way of following Jesus would have a high view of the Bible.  So we are going to talk about what a high view of the Bible even means, and how a third way would be to read and understand and apply the Bible to our lives as individuals and as a community.  

To do so let’s turn to the two Scriptures in which we will be basing our discussion and time around, 2 Timothy 3:16 and James 1:22-25 and see what these two Scriptures have to do with each other, and what they have to say to us about a third way of following Jesus.  

First let’s look at 2 Timothy 3:16,  “All Scripture is God-breathed( and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  

A third way to follow Jesus is about having a high view of Scripture.  But what does a high view of Scripture mean?  First of all, it means believing that this book called the Bible has been inspired by God, or as 2 Timothy says, it is God-breathed.  The word inspired or God-breathed is from a latin word that means “in-breathe”  But what does it mean that the Bible is inspired?  Here are 3 things it doesn’t mean.  1. Often used for artists and poets and musicians that have something out of the ordinary or give us a life.  They inspired us.  2.  Poets being inspired means poets own mind went into neutral and some other force or spiritual source penned the words in from somewhere else.  This would be known as the dictation theory and this is not how Scripture came to be.  God did not take over the hand of the writers of the Old and New Testament.  No, the writers personalities, writing styles, history, etc.. can be seen in their writings.  3.  Assume when it is inspired we know in advance what it would mean in terms of Bible’s own context, we read what we already believe.  We go to the Bible with our own ideas and interpretations and then read everything through that lens.  

A third way of reading the Bible is not about worshipping the Bible, that would be bibliolatry.  A third way accepts the Scriptures as the authoritative word of God, and through the Holy Spirit- the infallible guide to lead men and women to faith in Jesus and guide them in the life of Christiandiscipleship.  A third way insists that Christians must alway be guided by the Word, which is to be collectively discerned and led by the Spirit.  

A third way of reading the Bible cuts a path between the highly literalistic reading of the Bible, as well as the typical flat reading which places all the Bible on the same plane, and the other way of reading everything as myth, a good moral book, and coming at it with a hermeneutic of suspicion.  A third way takes seriously the historical setting, the literary style of the various writings, what the original intent of the author was, and how God wants to us the text to form and shape us into people that look like Jesus.  A third way must hold to a high view of Biblical authority and the inspiration of Scripture, while continuing to maintain a Christo-centric reading of the Bible.  

I believe a third way regarding the bible and having a high view of the Bible means a few things related to the purpose of the Scriptures and how we interpret them.  

A high view of the Bible means, at least, these 5 things related to interoperation.  1.  Everyone can and should interpret the Scriptures responsibly.  2.  Biblical interoperation is a communal practice.  Meaning that the Bible is a communal book, written by a community, to a community and for a community.  And to really understand it, it should be understood in community.  That doesn’t mean don’t do personal Bible Study at all.  It just means that we believe the Bible is best understood in the midst of community.  Why do you think we gather in small groups after the message?  To seek to interpret the text together.  3.  Interpretation is for practical application.  It isn’t just for more knowledge.  After all Paul says it himself in 2 Timothy when he says that the Scriptures are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”   The point of Scripture, as Scot McKnight says in his great book “The Blue Parakeet” is that, “the Bible leads the reader to be more loving.”  He continues, “the Bible’s main mission: so that we can become people who love God and love others.  If our reading of the Bible leads to this, the mission is accomplished.  It it isn’t….”  4.  Interpretation, in a third way, means that it must happen in light of the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus.  All too often, in some circles, the Bible has been read as a flat text to support practices that actually contradict the life and teachings of Jesus.  The other day I was having a conversation about how the Bible was used to explain manifest destiny, how the white man came to America believing that they were Israel, the ocean being the Jordan River, America as the promised land, and the Native Americans as all the heathen and pagan in the land.  The early settlers read themselves wrongly in the text and so much injustice and pain has been done in the name of Christianity to the Native Americans because people read the Bible wrongly and flatly.  5.  Transformation and discipleship is the ultimate goal of all Bible reading and interpretation.   

If transformation and discipleship lie at the heart of Bible reading and interpretation and this third way of reading the Bible, then James 1 comes perfectly into play here.  James 1:22-25 says this, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”  The point of reading and interpreting the bible is, in James words, to, “do what it says.”  To put it into practice.  After all the word was made flesh and blood not the word was made paper and ink.  To have a high view of the Bible means that the word must go to work. 

This third way of having a high view of the Bible means that the words need to come off of the page, and go down deep into your own life.  It seems like all too often, in the church, and in our lives, the words either stay on the page (meaning we don’t even take the time to read it.  Some people actually have this high view of the Bible which says don’t put anything on top of the Bible, don’tmess it up, don’t write in it, etc..  But they have never opened it and read it) or they come off of the page and go into our heads (which they do need to do that.   They just can’t stay there).  We gain more knowledge.  We teach memorization of Scripture to kids.  Some traditions, like the one that Kim grew up in, had Bible quiz teams, which really was all about Bible knowledge, but actually did little when it came to taking the knowledge and using it to talk about application and putting it into practice, or doing what it says.  It is easy to have Bible knowledge, but another thing all together to actually take that knowledge from your head, into your heart, and then out to your hands and feet and out into the world.  The other day I was talking with someone about the next chapter of James, James 2 and the fact that knowledge according to a Hebraic worldview is not an abstract idea or concept.  It isn’t something that actually resides in the brain.  That would be a Greek understanding of knowledge, which is how we in the western world understand knowledge.  No a hebraic understanding of knowledge is about practice.  They would say that it is impossible that you would actually know something without practice.  There is no such thing, to an eastern mind, as abstract knowledge.  Knowledge is only knowledge if it is actually practiced and lived out.  Or William Barrett puts it this way, “The distinction…arises from the difference between doing and knowing. The Hebrew is concerned with practice, the Greek with knowledge. Right conduct is the ultimate concern of the Hebrew, right thinking that of the Greek.”

So let’s do some communal interpretation together in small groups around these 2 Scriptures.  Read the 2 Scriptures together.  What questions, thoughts, ideas, doubts, and applications come to mind because of the texts.  And what do you think God is saying to each of us (individually and as a community) about this third way of engaging with the Bible?  Let’s actually do some of the hard work of interoperation and application together. 

1.  Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in your groups.  What questions, comments, insights, etc.. do you have about the passage?

2.  Read James 1:22-25 in your group.  What questions, comments, insights, application do you have about the passage?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

When heaven touched down on earth week 7: Resurrection

Over the course of the last several weeks we have been gathering each and every week to look at what it looked like when heaven touched down on earth.  

When we kicked off this series we saw heaven touching down on earth at the beginning of Jesus ministry when he turned water into wine.  Then we saw heaven landing with a thud when Jesus healed a paralyzed man when he was lowered through the roof by his four friends.  Heaven came down when we read the story of the woman who was subject to bleeding for 12 years, who was unclean but touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was immediately made clean.  Next we saw a Leper experiencing heaven when he was cleansed from his terrible disease.  And last we saw heaven restoring an enemies ear that had been cut off by one of his own followers.  

When we last gathered together on Friday Night,  however it seemed like heaven was a long way from touching down on earth.  It seemed like hell instead was touching down on earth.  It seemed like the power of sin, death, evil, the devil and hell had worked together to defeat heaven, and put Jesus on the cross and in the grave.  It seemed like that was the last word.  Jesus had died.  He had breathed his last, was taken down off the cross, and laid in a tomb.  And the tomb was sealed with a large rock.  

And the disciples went away seemingly believing that heaven had lost, the Messiah was dead, and the new life that was to come was in taters.  And they experienced the longest day when God incarnate laid in the tomb waiting and resting.  

And that is where we pick up the story of that first Easter over 2,000 years ago.  The story that would change the lives of the disciples, and the lives of so many thousands and millions of people since, the story of when heaven came down to earth, and defeated the powers of sin, death, evil and hell.  The story of the resurrection of Jesus.  

Let’s turn to John 20:1-23 and see what the resurrection means for each of us gathered here today, but also for the entire world and all of humanity.  

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,  as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.  Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.  (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)  Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic,“Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

So the first thing we notice about this narrative about the first Easter may seem like a throwaway comment, but I assure you it is not.  John says these words, “Early on the first day of the week.”  Now we just think Sunday, but to John’s hearers, as soon as they heard “on the first day of the week” their hearts and minds were transported back to Genesis 1 and the creation of the world.  The interesting thing about this is that the book of John can accurately be called Second Genesis.  Genesis is about creation and John is about re-creation and new creation.  

There are so many parallels between Genesis and John.  Think about it.  Genesis 1 “In the beginning”  John 1: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.”  Not only at the beginning of John, but especially in the last week of Jesus life, there are overlapping themes.  The 6th Day of Creation, Adam was formed.  Adam, as a masculine noun, means man or mankind.  Adam and Eve fell, and sin was born.  The 6th Day of Holy Week the second Adam, Jesus stood before Pilate and Pilate pronounced “Behold the Man.”  The 6th Day of Holy Week the Second Adam, Jesus was nailed to a cross.  The second Adam cried out “It is Finished” and died so that sin, death, evil and hell would be defeated.  Darkness before the first day of the week, death before creation.  The 7th Day God rested.  He Sabbathed.  The 7th Day of Holy Week God incarnate rested in the tomb.  Where was the creation started?  In a Garden.  Where did the resurrection and new creation start?  In a Garden.  

And we come to the first day of the week.  In the creation account it would be the 8th day of Creation.  The first day of the new world.  The first day of the new creation.  In John 20 the first day of the week is the first day of the new world, the first day of the new creation.  The first day of the week is the day of resurrection.  

So that first Easter morning, the first day of the new creation (though they did not yet know it), the women head to the tomb expecting to roll aside the stone, anoint the body of Jesus with spices, and then head home.  But when they came to the tomb, the rock was rolled aside and they took off running to tell John and Peter about what they saw.  The men then took off running with John getting there first because he was a lot younger than Peter.  But when they arrived John stopped and looked in, but Peter however, being Peter, went flying into the tomb and they saw the linens lying there.  John finally goes in, sees the strips of linen lying there and believes.  

My question right there is what did he believe?  We see that they didn’t understand from Scripture that Jesus was to rise again.  But I like what NT Wright says about John’s belief, “Believed that new creation had begun.  Believed that the world had turned the corner, out of its long winter and into spring at last.  Believed that God had said Yes to Jesus, to all that he had been and done, believed that Jesus was alive again.  Not believed that Jesus had gone to heaven.  People often still think that that’s what Christians mean she they say he was raised from the dead.”  No, jesus had gone through death and out into a new world, a new creation, a new life beyond, where death itself had been defeated, and life, sheer life, life in it’s fullness, the abundant life, could begin at last.  

So the disciples head back, but Mary decides to stay behind.  As she stays behind she decides to look in the tomb and sees 2 angels, one where the feet would be and one where the head of Jesus would be. They ask her why she is crying and she responds with a belief that someone had taken Jesus and put his body somewhere.  Just as she answers, Jesus appears and asks her the same question.  

The next comment is very interesting and is rooted again in Genesis.  It says, “Thinking he was the gardener.”  Think back with me.  Who else was also a gardener, given the responsibility to tend the Garden of Eden?  Adam.  So Adam was a gardener working the creation.  Jesus, the second Adam is mistaken for the gardener.  Do you see the irony behind this.  Jesus, the second Adam, mistaken by Mary as a gardener, beginning the work of recreation when he was resurrected.  Jesus, the new Adam, the gardener charged with bringing the chaos of God’s creation into new order.  Into the resurrection life.  Jesus was resurrected to put the world right again.  Resurrected to defeat the powers of sin, death, evil and hell.  To display the ultimate “when heaven touched down on earth”.  When heaven touched down on earth resurrection and new creation burst forth.  That is what we have been talking about all series long, about resurrection and new creation bursting forth through the miraculous works including healing and other miracles.  

Mary tries to ask Jesus where they had put the body, but Jesus calls her by name.  She instantly recognizes Jesus when he calls her by name.  Adam in the first creation was given the task to name the animals.  Jesus the second Adam speaks her name, calls her by name.  More shades of Genesis and the creation account.  

So after talking with Jesus, Mary runs back and tells the disciples that she has seen the Lord.  Mary is the first apostle, the apostle to the apostles, the first to bring the news that the tomb is Empty and that she has seen the Lord. Mary, a woman, the first person that Jesus in his resurrected state shows himself to.  Talk about upside down.  In a world where a women’s testimony wasn’t even valid in acourt of law, God’s Kingdom is about giving Mary the opportunity to share her testimony about the resurrected Jesus.  And honestly, for me, that is one of the main reasons that I believe in the resurrection, because who would tell a story in that day and age and use women as the first eyewitness accounts?  That would go against the norm for the day.  But the gospels flip it upside down and women become the first apostles.  The first ones sent to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus.  

So after Mary goes back and tells the disciples that she had seen Jesus, the disciples then gather that evening.  And as they gather, because of fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus comes and stands among them and says these words, ““Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  But what he does next is again shades of Genesis.  In verse 22 we read, “And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  When in Genesis do we see God breathing?  In Genesis 2:7 we read, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  God breathed into Adam and sent him into the garden to work creation.  God incarnate breathed on his disciples, and sent them out (and us) into the world to be about the work of re-creation and resurrectional life.  

But what does this all mean?  What does it mean that Jesus came back from the dead, was resurrected?  What does it mean to live resurrectional lives in the here and now while we wait for complete resurrection and for the world to be fully put to right?

For people who believe in the resurrection, in God making the whole new world in which everything will be set right at last, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present.  Yes, the full resurrection and new creation won’t come until Jesus comes in His fullness.  But at the same time, in the present, we get to partner with him in working for the world to move towards being put right again.    

The point of the resurrection of Jesus is that God’s new creation has already begun.  It began with Jesus. He went first.  And that if you are in Christ, he has begun that work of re-creating you, making you a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) And then he wants to use you and put you to work to make more bits of new creation happen within the world as it still is.  And that we shall live in the tension of a world that is being re-created but isn’t fully re-created.  The world (and ourselves as well) is not what it used to be or what it will be.  But we can know that because of the resurrection of Jesus, all will be made whole, made made right, made new.  And that because of Jesus resurrection, shalom has happening, is happening and will happen.  That that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we can not only be made whole, made right, made new but that we can be instruments of new creation (what Paul calls ambassadors).  We are empowered to partner with God to remind our world that it isn’t always going to be like this.  We the people of God are invited to live as through tomorrow’s new creation has already begun. And we know that, according our text this morning, it already has.  

So let’s dialogue a little bit about where we have seen the resurrection and re-creation happening in our own lives and in the lives around us.  And let’s talk about how we can live resurrectional lives when we leave this place today and this week, this month, this year. 

1.  Where have you seen resurrection and re-creation happening in the world around you and in the people around you?  How and where have you seen the resurrection and re-creation happening within your own life?  

2.  In what ways is God calling you (and our community) to live resurrectional lives in the world?  What does/might it look like for us tolive the resurrection in the world today?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?