Rabbi Reveals name of the Messiah

I ran into this article to day, thought some of you may enjoy reading it.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Rabbi Reveals Name of the Messiah Shortly before he died, one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was opened, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah.Here is the link from Israel Today

Habits of Mind

            Often we try to locate spirituality in some sort of other-worldly place where the physical is not present or relevant.  The disembodied ethereal notion may indeed be spiritual, but it is not the primary Biblical Spirituality in any sense.  Consider if you would Romans 12:1-2   ¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  This is not Paul saying seek martyrdom, but rather to live out our profession of faith bodily.  Unless our faith is embodied in what we do, we our only giving intellectual assent to an idea without doing what it calls for us to be about.

            Jesus did not just preach and teach, he also did what he called others to do.  If we say one thing and do another we are only presenting a falsehood, we are being hypocrites, and liars.  In order to do what we claim to value, we must also have the habits of mind to enforce them, to live out our convictions.  Habits of mind are important, Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  I will contend that this is a partnership between oneself and the Holy Spirit.  We cannot of our own volition decide to be faithful followers of Jesus, nor can we progress in spiritual development without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

            I would ask you to consider what it means to think, to have habits of the mind.  It is centered in the mental disciplines we develop, or fail to develop.  Here a deepening walk with Christ will mature or will falter, if not fail.  We often allow our minds to go to favorite places, to favorite thoughts, some are helpful and some are destructive.  Where do we go when we are alone with our thoughts?  What dominates our thinking?  What have we been filling our minds with as we move through the day?

            Begin to examine what fills your mind, what you read, watch, what you listen to and thus fill your mind.  Take stock of what goes in, of what then fills your thoughts.  If we fill our minds with things of low quality, poor in character, what will become of our thinking, our lives in thought.  It is here that we will either follow Christ or follow the culture in which we live.  Our bodies will only do what we have placed in our minds, if we decide to live sinfully, it will dominate us to the point that we forget how to do anything else.  And then, when we become serious about our faith and attempt to reform our behavior, our habits of mind and body are so entrenched in the old patterns we can only struggle against the rut in which we are stuck, it is at this point we can only rely on the Holy Spirit to free us from the habits of death that dominate our living.  Once free from the rut, we will want to, tend to, step back into the old ways.  It is here that our transformed minds will need the new habits of mind that lead to life. 

            If we are not trapped in the habits of death, but often flirt with them, it is time to take control of our thinking and work to develop those habits of mind that lead to life.

Baptism?

    Baptism plays a central role in the life of a committed follower of Jesus! I do not suggest that baptism needs to be viewed in a sacramental light. In fact, my tradition, training and experience tell me otherwise. I have seen people baptized at the appropriate age, and it seems to mean little in the terms of what comes next. Their faith does not play a central role in where they go to college or what they do for employment. It seems to be more of a rite of passage than a commitment to Christ. They technically become part of a church, a member of a particular congregation, but the more important question is have they become a follower of Jesus. As you may have surmised, I do not associate church membership with being a follower of Jesus.

Baptism, I am convinced does not necessarily mark a person as a believer. If it did in fact, I’d be ready to assault people on the street with water in the name of Jesus to baptize them and have them saved. But with a baptism there are word spoken, confessions of faith made and a desire to leave a lifestyle of sin and walk in newness of life. These questions change in their wording, but their meaning and their intent is plain. The one being baptized desires to live a new life. I will say that this is a work begun by the Holy Spirit, and continues now by the decision of the individual to enter into baptism and into a fuller relationship with Jesus. Does a believer need to be baptized, of this I am not convinced. Will a believer be blessed through baptism, without a doubt. I also an convinced that this is an issue of the individuals free choice. I am not s subscriber to the notion that that one cannot resist the grace of God. Yet, there is a point here where I must acknowledge the mystery of God’s choice before the foundations of the earth were laid. I do not reject the power and the right of God to do has he wishes, not do I believe that he created humanity to be bound to damnation or salvation. I still hold to a limited view of free will.

I must say I am convinced it is limited. We have few real choices in the grand scheme of things. We did not pick our families of origins or the times into which we would be born. We did not pick our socio-economic status. We did not pick our race. We had no choice in these matters. We are also conditioned by the values and norms of our culture, be that of our family, our community or our region in the world. Some of these we may reject or accept, but we have either way been shaped and formed by them.

But what about salvation, do we have any choice in this matter? As I state previously, I am convinced that this is our choice. I am also convinced that the Holy Spirit brings us to a point of decision, over this we have no choice. But at the point of decision, I am convinced it must be ours. Do not think I am saying that we have earned, worked for or done anything to deserve this chance, it is entirely of God’s grace and mercy. Yet, I am convinced it leaves us at a cross roads, and we must pick which path we will walk. We may stand there for years, but not picking a path is also not making a decision for Jesus. Now here is the part where I begin to ask other questions, can we come back to this point of decision after we say, “no”? Can we once we say yes, and depart the path of Christ return? I have not come to a conclusion on these possibilities, though I am inclined to think that we may well have more than one moment when we can choose to follow Christ. I am less and less convinced that we can return to the way of Christ once we disown Jesus. Here still is another question I continue to wrestle with, can we disown Jesus?

 

Peace,

Kevin

Sunday’s Sermon

October 21, 2007

Revelation 21;1-27

H. Kevin Derr

First Church of the Brethren

“A New Heaven and a New Earth”

 

A New Heaven and a New Earth

    ¹Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

    ⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

    ⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb

    ⁹ One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

    ¹⁵ The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶ The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷ He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by human measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸ The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.  ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

    ²² I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵ On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶ The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

A new earth and a new heaven, a completely new beginning for humanity with God, and in a real way this is the idea of the church write large, the idea of the kingdom in totality, what we have seen in small glimpses here and there, we now see in its totality.  And it is an astounding vision.

 

Prayer

I.                   Here we find the introduction of what is to come, of what we are waiting for.  John writes, ¹Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

a.       If you recall from last week we saw the earth and the heavens flee from the presence of the Lamb on the great white throne.  What happens to them, what takes place is left unsaid.  Is it the destruction of the cosmos or is it a renewal of the cosmos that takes place.

                                                              i.      What we can say is that the sea is gone, this may be a reference to the Abyss and the primordial chaos of the deep, or it could be that there is no see on the new earth. 

1.      I tend to lean toward the destruction of the primordial chaos.

2.      The whole point is not to debate if this is a completely new earth or a renewed earth, that’s not the point

                                                            ii.      The point is the Holy City, the new Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven, from God.

1.      The city is said to be prepared as a bride, this should not be confused with the church who is the bride of the Lamb, but it is the place where God while dwell with humanity.

2.      It is a beautiful thing, splendid like a bride dressed for her husband.  It is a simile if you will.

b.      Then we are given the eschatological promise, what will be. . ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  

                                                              i.      God’s dwelling place is now to be with and among his people.

                                                            ii.      We will be his people and he will be our God.

1.      God will wipe away every tear

2.      There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain

3.      Here is the reason, because death, illness, corruption, and decay are done away with, they have been thrown into the lake of fire, the old order of things is done and gone.

c.       To prevent us from missing the importance of this announcement we find these words, ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                              i.      Write this down says the Lamb, “I am making everything new!” 

                                                            ii.      We find the promise of a new creation for the new creatures we become in Christ Jesus.  It is as if the little glimpses of the kingdom are now all coming into focus.  This is where we are going.

d.      To emphesis this just a little more, we find these words, ⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

                                                              i.      Jesus says, “It is done,”  the same words he spoke on the cross.  The old order of things is finished, completed.

1.      Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. . .”

a.       In John 1 we are introduced to Jesus, the logos, the creator and here we are introduced to Jesus the one who completes creation.

b.      And then he begins to speak of  what he will do in this new creation: “I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

c.       Those who are victorious will enter this life, and to be victorious this is what it requires:

2.      They are not to be cowardly, unbeliever, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, practitioners of magic, idolaters, and liars, for such as these will find themselves in the lake of fire, the second death

3.      for those who are victorious, they will dwell in the presence of God

                                                            ii.      Now we are given a bit of a tour of the city, the new Jerusalem.  John recounts his travels:  ⁹One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

1.      One of the angles who delivered the last of the plagues to the old earth comes to serve as a tour guide.

a.       The angle now takes John in the spirit to see the city, they go into a high mountain and see the city coming down.

b.      It is large, it shines the glory of God

                                                                                                                                      i.      It has high walls, with twelve gates, one named after each of the tribes of Israel

                                                                                                                                    ii.      There are three gates to a side of this city that is a large square

c.       The City also has twelve key foundation stones, each named for one of the apostles

II.                Now the angle begins to detail the importance of the elements we have mentioned.  John writes, ¹⁵ The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶ The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷ He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by human measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸ The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.  ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

a.       The city is laid out in a large square, 12,000 stadia long.  This is likely some where between 1400 and 1500 miles, to each of the four sides.  Not only was the city 12000 stadia per side it was also the in it’s total high.

b.      It is essentially a cube.  The only other cube in biblical history?  The holy of Holy in the Temple and Tabernacle.  This I am convinced is not a chance happening. 

                                                              i.      Now if you remember from your reading of the descriptions of the temple, it was lined with golden walls, and on those walls in the Holy of Holies was base relief carvings of a garden.

                                                            ii.      The very first place where God dwelt with humanity, the garden of Eden.

                                                          iii.      We have come full circle.

c.       In addition to this you find the walls made of various precious and semi-precious stones.  A reflection of the breast plate worn by the High Priest.  Again, these are not chance happenings.

III.             Now we come to another bit of a description of the new Jerusalem.  John writes, ²² I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵ On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶ The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

a.       There is no temple in the city, because there is no need the inhabitants are holy.  God dwells with humanity, not separate from humanity.

                                                              i.      The Father and the Son are there in person, they are the temple there is no need for a specific structure.

                                                            ii.      There is no need of the sun or moon for light

1.      God’s glory gives it light, and the Lamb is the lamp

2.      The nations will walk by the light of God and the Lamb

a.       The peoples of the new earth will be righteous

b.      The Kings of the earth will bring their splendor into the city

                                                                                                                                      i.      It sounds as if people will live beyond the city of Jerusalem

                                                                                                                                    ii.      But they will be connected in some very significant and important ways.

                                                                                                                                  iii.      They will come to bring honor and glory to God

b.      Only the pure, righteous and holy will enter the city. It will be a place of peace and light and joy.  Death is done away with, and God the Father and the Son reign.

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

It is a beautiful fall morning.   The air this morning was crisp without being cold.  The leaves are beginning to change and display their color.  It should be a morning of joy and delight, of adventure and encounters with God.  It is also a Monday morning.  In our culture those two points seem to be at odds with each other.  Monday is back to work, back to the routine of work week.  Yet, it seems to me that God is in the midst of the work week, the routine, the ordinary.

            After all isn’t that that point of the incarnation?  Very soon we will be in the rush of the Christmas season, in truth the stores are already putting Christmas items on the shelves.  However, let’s be intentional about this season, let’s experience God in the changing of the leaves, in the beauty of his creation, in the wonder of brilliant colors and cool crisp mornings.  We often forget how much the creation reflects God to us.  It is as if each fall flower, each red or yellow or golden or brown leaf is saying to us, “God is waiting for you,” or “God is calling out to you.”  Paul writes in Romans 8:22-25 these words, ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

            Creation speaks to us, to God.  It is an interesting idea and Paul does not detail the concept, but what he does tell us is that at present, “the whole creation has been groaning.”  Creation just like us, like we who follow Jesus, is waiting is expecting, is anticipating, the end of decay and destruction, the end of death.  We fear death, as a culture.  Consider how may people are afraid to walk into a graveyard.  Consider our fears about being in places where people have died, our preoccupation with ghosts and death.  Think of Halloween, a time to remind us that death is at hand, that winter is coming.  We take time to celebrate Thanksgiving, to give thanks to God for the harvest that will see us through the dark and cold days that will come, when we cannot grow food, when the earth does not provide it’s bounty.  It is in the midst of this darkness that the Savior is born, that the Messiah comes. 

            Enjoy the fall, the fest of colors and harvest, know that in it we find God speaking to us through his creation.  The harvest tells us of his care and concern for us, his provision of food for the cold and dark day.  And in that gift is the promise of a still to come and more wonderful blessing, the fullness of God’s Kingdom.

Blessings,

Kevin

The Wars Chrsistians Fight

I’m not talking about the issue of war and peace. I’m speaking of the tendencies that Christians have to attack each other over some what is the grand scheme of things a minor issue.  I know they all seem to be of the utmost importance at the time, but if anyone has hung around the church long enough you know the story of the church that split over the color of the carpet in the sanctuary.  Each side had an impressive amount of theological language to support their choice, and in the end they fracture the church so that each group can be happy. 

            If memory serves there is somewhere in excess of 38,000 Christian denominations.  I don’t know if that causes concerns for you, but it does for me.  The gospel of John Jesus speaks of the unity of the church, and when I look at the fractured state of the church, it grieves me.  It has for the most part been the actions of protestants since the reformation, but at the same time there was a reason for the reformation.  The precedent was set long before with the first breaks within the church in the east then the split between the east and the west, and then the shattering of the church in the west.  As I look at the history I can not be pleased with the results.

            Don’t miss my intention here, yes a great number of things have happened, but I can’t help but imagine what the world would be like if the church stood as one body of believers around the whole of the earth, no factions, not splits, no broken relationships.  Our witness would be much different, much more potent, much more powerful.  There have been attempts to repair or reunite the church, and often then tend to go poorly. 

            Yet perhaps there is  hope in the future for a unified and monolithic presence of the church in the world.  While it is often read into the pages of history, where it did not in reality exist, I pray that as the culture of the world shifts again, that there will be a renewal of the church, a renewal of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, a renewal of a real sense of unity with the whole of the body of believers.

            I am continually horrified that we read in the history of the church, that Christians have killed Christians for the nations states we live in and in which we work.  I am not surprised that we are willing to sacrifice the body of Christ again and again for our agendas, rather than holding fast to the purity and wholeness of the body.  If we will choose the nation state over the body of Christ, we will also choose our personal agendas and demands over the body of Christ.  If only we could genuinely begin to value the Kingdom rather than our petty agendas the church and the world would be a different place.  It is sad, disheartening, demoralizing and depressing to consider what and who we have placed in superiority over the body of Christ.

Any difference?

Does it make any difference in the everyday lives of people to follow Jesus? Apparently if you look at the statistics on Christians and non-Christians divorce rates, you will see there is little difference. Is that alarming or shocking? Does the similarity end with divorce? The answer is no.

I suppose we could parse this out a bit and suggest that it is only those who claim to be Christians and not those who are truly followers of Jesus. What do we accomplish with such an exercise? We say that the vast majority of people who attend church, claim to be Christians are in reality pretenders? I’m not really comfortable with that, given the vast number of divisions within the body of Christ, I’m not so sure I want to force another one.

Perhaps it is an issue of church culture. In reality what does it take say that one is a Christian? Do you need identification papers? Do you need church membership? Do you need to own a bible? Do you need to have a fish badge applied to the back of your car? No you do not. You need to have made a profession of faith, and I personally will argue for a public profession. Baptism would be a good option as well. But are there people who have been baptized and made public professions of faith in Jesus who are not living a life that displays the traits of a Jesus follower? Of course there are. But are they saved?

Perhaps the problem is centered in another issue. How do we who are the Church, the Body of Christ, raise and establish new followers of Jesus. So often in Evangelical circles we do a very good job of brining them to a point of conversion, but what do we do after that? We hand them a bible and the hand shake of fellowship, but what happens in the way of discipleship, instruction and teaching. Often, it seems it is left up to the preacher, who is often preaching a message about salvation. You are beginning to see some of the problem.

But what about those church who see less in the way of conversions, are they living out the faith more completely? Apparently not, mainline churches in the United States are in rapid decline. Again we have a problem. How are these churches discipling new generations? Sometimes they are not because there are no new generations to disciple. At other points, they are consumed by the issues of the day. But then so are the Evangelical churches, just a different take on the agenda of the popular culture.

And maybe there is some of the problem. The church in the United States is consumed with the agenda of the popular culture. Pick an issue and you will find churches split on how to address these issues, divorce, gay marriage, health care, immigration, and so on and on and on and on and on. I am not suggesting that the church ignore the things taking place in the world, but I am suggesting that we need not be so driven by them either. So often these issues overwhelm the meetings and assemblies of the saints so that nothing else is done or accomplished. And we forget to take time to see that those who belong to our fellowships are formed and guided by Christ Jesus. We neglect teaching them how to walk the paths that lead to righteousness and assume that they either already know, or that the will find it on their own. But these are not the ways of a good shepherd, nor are they the ways of the Shepherd.

Church of the Brethren, Postmodernism and the Missional Church

Anabaptist in a postmodern world, what do we do with this?.  In many ways it should be a rather natural fit.  We often have questions about authority, and a concern for community, authenticity and questioning the values of the prevailing culture.  Yet, for my tradition it seems we have been working hard to being like all the other churches and may have missed the point where our heritage could have interfaced well with the emerging culture in the western world.

            If my read of Church of the Brethren history is right, there was a decided effort to be like others in North America beginning in the post civil war ear.  In the late 1800’s we see the emergence of what become the Brethren colleges and a Seminary.  This is odd when you consider that many brethren questioned the validity of studies beyond what was needed to work on the farm, run a store or some other similar endeavor.  While it might well suggest that there was little intellectual life among the brethren, it is likely true.  The brethren were not highly educated in Europe, yes Alexander Mack did attend a university, but it was more the equivalent of a present Junior High School.

            Clearly it seems that people were expected to be able to read and write and functionally literate.  Yet, there seemed to be little interest in chasing after the prevailing cultural dreams.  But, sometime in the late 1800’s this changed, we began going to college, becoming educated in the ways of the world.  We were becoming like all the other churches, slowly, but with clear movement.  We dropped time honored ways of living and working together, we did away with Elders, and moved to a style of doing church borrowed from other churches and the corporate world.  In the 1990’s we began to ask who are we?  In our seminary sermons were rated on things like “Brethren Emphesis?”  Suddenly, after 100 years or so of progress we didn’t know who we were anymore.  Sadly this lack of self continues.

            We at one time valued mutuality.  We shared with each other, the Heifer Project was built out of this understanding, but now the last vestiges of it seem to be seen only in the Pastor’s Medical Insurance plan, which is no longer in existence.  We talk about valuing peace, but we have trouble in our national gatherings to behave as people who value peace and respect each other.  Something is amiss.

            Now we see in the emerging church movement, many of the old values and practices of the Brethren.  A congregation with many gathering places, we used to speak of them as a congregation with many preaching points.  There are other examples, for example, ministers we called by the body and trained in the body, a decentralized plan of government for the whole body.  I suppose there is a reason why the emerging or Missional church movement speaks so powerfully to me, because I recognize in it some of the very same values and priorities that I see in the history of the church that has nurtured and shaped my understanding of Christ Jesus and his kingdom.

 

 

Peace,

Kevin

Do you have a soul or are you a soul?

I am presently looking out of my office window: trees, Grace, the occasional wildlife, and cars.  All of it is God’s creation.  Creation, as defined by Genesis is good.  Fallen, but still good, and while that may sound like a strange idea, the truth is we live by such concepts.  For example, broken candy is still sweet.  Riding in a car with rust is still better than walking from Philadelphia to Orlando, unless you really like walking!  A good book with a few dog eared pages is still a good read.  You get the idea.

            I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people preach the world, meaning the creation is bad, because they say it is not spiritual.  It will be endlessly supported with such ideas as the “spirit is willing but the flesh is week.”  I’ve heard the theory this way, that man has a soul.  I’ve yet to see the soul, to be honest, no one can prove to me that there is an ethereal thing called a soul.  I’ve had the Genesis 2:7 (KJV) quoted as proof, “ ^7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” But if you are observant it states plainly that man is a living soul, not that man has a living soul.  There is a drastic different between these to places, I can say, “I am a living trout” or I can say, “I have a living trout.”    They are two different points.  So, does man have a soul or is man a soul.  The bible clearly states that man is a soul.

            What is the difference between being a living soul and having a living soul?  And beyond that what difference does it make?  If a soul is defined as a spiritual portion or part of a human being, it is something that can be taken out and put in another.  There, we have just stumbled into reincarnation.  A soul can be moved from place to place, just like an organ.  In western culture this reading does not come from Christianity, it comes from Plato, and specifically from the branch of neo-Platonism known as Gnosticism.  There are many Christians who interpret scripture from a very Gnostic understanding.  Any radical split of the physical and the spiritual is clearly derived from a Gnostic tradition.

            You will not find this in Jesus, nor do you find it in the New Testament.  The Gospel of John, here were read in John 1:14 “¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Notice it does not say the Word was encapsulated in flesh, the words was contained in flesh, or even that the word had flesh, but that the word became flesh.  How could the spiritual become physical?  If spiritual is good and physical is bad, how could God become something that was bad?  In much the same way, how could a good God create a bad world?

            Our spirituality is not primarily another worldly expression, rather our spirituality is expressed in the present, in the physical, in the world.  Our spiritual lives are not about some unseen world, but about how we live here and now.  I do not deny the existence of purely spiritual beings, angels and demons and the like.  But, that is not our primary way of expressing our faith, our spiritual maturity, our spiritual lives, it is done in how we drive, how we treat our neighbors, our spouses and children, our parents and our friends.  If you want to argue with me about this, all I ask is that you first read the Sermon on the Mount and then tell me where Jesus instructs us to live primarily in another world.  Jesus teaching places our lives directly in the physical, in the present in the everyday of living on the third planet from the sun.

Who is Your Teacher?

Who is  your teacher?   Dallas Willard asks question in Chapter 3 of “The Great Omission,” and it is a really good question.  We live and breath with a great deal of information today, sometimes to much.  And often in the press of all that we have to do, all that we have to know, and learn, we forget to ask, who is our Master, to whom have we been apprenticed?

It is a good question for us to ask.  We often assume that Jesus has little to say to us outside of our religious boxes, the places we do faith, religion and spirituality.  Sadly the majority of us in the West tend to do this, to reserve the religious, the spiritual, the mystical, the Jesus stuff, to a small segment of our lives.  The assumption is a bad on, that Jesus, that faith, that our lives in Christ have little to do with the whole of our being.  We assume that faith has nothing to do with the way we work, the way we play, the way we rest or study.

It is as if we assume that Jesus has little to offer, that he is not intelligent or worthwhile consulting on the matters of our job, family or environment.  One clear example is found in our understanding of Creation.  If the Western world had embraces a stewardship model of the relationship between man and the world, we would not have poured toxic things into our streams.  In fact, if we a had even taken seriously loving our neighbor, there is no way we would have poured raw sewage into a stream, because our neighbor down stream would have to deal with our waste.

It’s not that we don’t know the words, it’s just that we don’t apply them in any meaningful way beyond the walls of our church.  Here is a very powerful example, if Christians would have taken serious the notion of the Body of Christ, that all followers of Jesus are therefore our sisters and our brothers.  We would have avoided a great number of wars.  If Christians would just refuse to kill other Christians, the world would be a much different place.  But you see what happens is that nationalism takes priority over the Kingdom of God.  We don’t make Christ first, we make the Nation, the king first the King of Kings second.

But, you see since we can so easily partition our lives into this is church and this is work or this is the real world, then we display that we really are not followers of Jesus, we have chosen another to be our Master, except for our brief moments of devotion, typically on Sunday morning.  So who is our teacher, who is our master, to whom have we apprenticed ourselves?

If Jesus is our teacher, then every facet of our lives really needs to be brought under the scope of his authority and teaching.  If Jesus has nothing to contribute to our work, whatever field, then he is not worth following.  Consider if you will, does Jesus have anything to say to those who work in the defense industry?  Did Jesus have any wisdom to offer the creators of the first or any nuclear bomb?  Should our best efforts be put into better ways to kill people as followers of Jesus?  Would Jesus be pleased with an even more efficient way to kill people?

What about something as simple as how to drive your car?  Does Jesus have anything to contribute to that activity?  If you say no, I will have to press you and ask, whom do you serve, who is your master, because if Jesus don’t have anything to contribute to how we drive, then he is not worthy of following.  I am convinced he has a great deal to say to us about this daily practice.  The question is are we willing to listen to the teacher, or will we pick another to listen to?