Godgrown » Christian Unity http://godgrown.net/blog Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:18:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Where You Meet Matters http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/09/15/where-you-meet-matters/ http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/09/15/where-you-meet-matters/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:44:03 +0000 Mark http://godgrown.net/blog/?p=2006 Sometimes it is the obvious thing that remains so hard to see.

Lately I’ve been struck by the context in which the Christians in the First Century gathered to experience the Life and Community of Christ.  I’ve also been struck by the truth that the context of the New Testament is miles apart from the context we Twenty-First Century Westerners experience the Christian life.  

For example:

  • Early Christians were persecuted and killed by the government, we are privileged by government.
  • Early Christians met huddled in homes, around a table; we meet in buildings that rival huge coliseums and event centers.
  • Early Christians made the “one-anothers” a central element to their faith, their gatherings and their relationships; we struggle to adapt the 54 “one-anothers” into a typical Sunday worship gathering.
If we want the New Testament to be most applicable to our lives, we should assume the context of the New Testament!Over the past 6 years, as my wife and I have experienced the Christian life through the “house church” context – we’ve seen passages of scripture come to life that we never quite understood before.  Let me give you a quick example.  Read 1 Cor 11:7ff – Paul is talking about the Lord’s Supper, chastising the Corinthian Christians for causing division in the house church gatherings between the rich and poor members – the rich came early and brought all the nicest foods and wines – getting drunk, sick… while the poor showed up with nothing to eat, coming in after a long day’s work.  If this isn’t a problematic potluck, I don’t know what is!  

There is just so much more sense that is made in this passage when the church meets in the home.  In fact, most English translations get the last phrase wrong – and it has troubled many Christians’ interpretation of the Lord’s Supper for years.  Paul warns (in the English translations anyway) that some people who incorrectly take the Lord’s Supper will get drunk, sick…and some have even… “died”– that word died has caused the fear of many that if we don’t have the right mind when we take the wafer and grape juice shot glass, that we’ll be struck dead.   Looking at the Greek however, the word is “fall asleep” not “die” – and while that can be a euphemism, think about it logically – when you eat and drink too much, you get sick and you fall asleep.  It just makes sense.  And it makes the most sense in a household context.  

Think about the teachings of Jesus on reconciliation with a brother in Christ, Mt. 6 and Mt. 18.  Think about each time that Paul communicates to the elders and deacons in the Pastoral Epistles.  In every case they are meeting in a network of house churches!  

I’m no patternist, I don’t believe in legalistically recreating First Century culture.  But if we want to live out the kind of life that Jesus invites us to – we can’t just pick and choose what that life is!  It is a matter of becoming family, living like family, acting like family – God’s Family.  Jesus invited his disciples to a Table.  The early Christians invited their seeking friends to their Table.

In the End, we will all gather in the New Jerusalem around the banquet Table of God.

Table Fellowship is Christian Fellowship.

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]]> http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/09/15/where-you-meet-matters/feed/ 4 A Drummer and His Band http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/06/06/a-drummer-and-his-band/ http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/06/06/a-drummer-and-his-band/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:05:57 +0000 Mark http://godgrown.net/blog/?p=1974 Today’s picture of the “Church-on-mission” comes to you from Icelandic dream-pop band Sigur Rós.  Their music video for “Glósóli” is absolutely mesmerizing, and by the end of it you’re looking for a drum stick and a pair of hiking shoes.

Click on the image to watch the video:

Sigur Ros

What do you see when you watch this?  What emotions are stirred in you?  What does it say about the Church?  About God?  About how lives are transformed on-the-way?  Read the previous post on this blog: This is Us! How is that story and this video related?

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]]> http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/06/06/a-drummer-and-his-band/feed/ 0 Adventures in Missing the Point http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/04/18/adventures-in-missing-the-point/ http://godgrown.net/blog/2011/04/18/adventures-in-missing-the-point/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:16:35 +0000 Mark http://godgrown.net/blog/?p=1925 We humans are pretty funny creatures.

We hold in us the very essence of the Divine, the purpose of all creation.  We are the very focus of God’s love and his mission.  We were important enough to him to put everything else in the cosmos on hold so he could live and dwell among us as our friend.

He dined with us; he died for us.

And still – we have this funny habit of majoring in the minors.  What more does the Church bicker about than Communion / the Eucharist / the Lord’s Supper… see!  We can’t even agree on what to call it!  :)

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.  When something of that magnitude – dining with our Creator, is handed to us mortals, we have a tendency to shoot off in unimportant rabbit trails, just like the disciples did on that final evening with Jesus in the upper room.  As Jesus is sharing the elements of bread and wine, washing feet and calling them “friends,” they are busy bickering about who will desert Jesus – and we have been bickering ever since.  Right in the presence of Jesus, we have all these ‘adventures in missing the point.’

Its almost as if we have some mechanism in our minds that numbs us from approaching what is real – and we choose instead the tertiary, the tangential and the temporary.

It is like Mary hiding in the kitchen preparing the food to the neglect of her guest – Jesus, Immanuel…God with us.  God may be ‘with us’…but are we with him? Or are we just in the other room, finishing up the dessert?

When it comes to Communion/Lord’s Supper, whatever you want to call it – (don’t call it anything!), let that be the one time when formalities don’t have to matter.  Who cares whether there should be leavened or unleavened bread, one or two cups of wine (grape juice?)

Maybe its time to re-institute the holy sacrament of playfulness, of friendliness, of devotion to the one thing that matters.  Is it worth giving up your connection to Jesus to decide whether or not to pass a plate of bread around the room, or to come to the front to receive it?

I’m done majoring in the minors.  I’m done focusing on the steps of the dance, and instead simply enjoying my Dance-Partner.  I’m interested in looking squarely into Jesus’ eyes and letting him remain the center of my life – where he wants to be anyway.  I’m ready to have some fun in my friendship with him – to let his love be the driving force of my theology, my liturgy, my life.  Its so much more fun!

How about you?

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