Godgrown

Updates from October, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 8:20 am on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  “Slow Cuts” Over Short Cuts 

  

  This is a great time of year to take the “slow-cuts” over the “short-cuts” on our ways to work, errands, etc — the leaves are changing, the final climax of 2011′s symphony is upon us!

  In our day, there’s little respect given to the longer, sometimes meandering, but always intentional paths that lead us to our destination.  We’ve devised GPS systems and shot things into space in hopes of finding the quickest, most fuel-efficient way from A to B.  The least amount of time and energy from where I am to where I want to be.  That’s the generally accepted path.  But Jesus had another route he took…

  Matthew 12:1-21 is an amazing fulfillment of the entire Old Testament – it reminds me of a mountain climber after several days of hard work, finally reaching the summit.  Or an engaged couple after months of waiting, finally hearing wedding bells.  In Jesus’ day, Jews and Gentiles alike were awaiting a traditional form of kingship – uprising, rebellion, and more – but Jesus instead quotes Isaiah 42; and remind us that the King Isaiah anticipated was different – “he will not fight or shout” –

  The route to power through force and might has been tried, time and time again.  Its the quickest and easiest route to power in our world.  It works too!  Revenge, abuse, murder, cheating… they are all names for the same boulivard in the human heart – the highway that leads to “what I want.”  Trouble is, we end up in the ditch.

  The way Jesus points to through his life (and specifically in Matthew 12) describes a new way.  Not another short-cut or get rich-quick-scheme; his is the only way not to trample over the weak and the outcast in your establishment of power.  Some people think that power is inherently bad - I disagree.  Power is like currency – it is amoral, it is the wielder of that power that invests himself into that power and through that power he becomes more of who he already is.  If you are a jerk, then with power, you will be an even BIGGER JERK!

  But Jesus saw that his power was displayed through weakness, through healing the poor on the Sabbath, through dying on the Cross, and being raised by the Power of God.

  — Jesus, I believe that you will eventually see the final victory – “Finally his cause for justice will be victorious.” I wait for that day – when we don’t have to take the compromised shortcuts in life, but all of us will be on the pathway you showed us – to the relational Kingdom of God.

  I choose today to participate in that “slow-cut” toward freedom.

  I want to find a way to cut out all my power grabs, personally, and in society. Help me Father to learn what areas of my life need a “lower-archy” introduced, so that I do not “crush the weakest reed, or put out a flickering candle…” You spoke out of a confidence of who you are as a Messiah. Let me be just as confident in my practices.

  
   

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  Mark 8:44 am on September 15, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Where You Meet Matters 

  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.

  

  Website Hosting, Mark W, and Rusty Wimberly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Rusty Wimberly 2:43 pm on September 15, 2011 Permalink

    I’ve wrestled with this subject over the past 3 years now and most people still don’t get it. I fully agree, the form follows function. The place we gather will most often determine what happens when we gather. With house church being a great forum for “one anothers” it seems to be challenging for other things such as preaching, teaching, outreach and extended times of gifted ministry. The building setting could be more conducive for teaching, evangelism and community outreach…maybe? The bottom line in our culture is some people are not going to feel comfortable coming to a strangers house. All in all, we all need to be reminded that church is not defined by the building but in order to actually follow the Lord in discipleship we need to do it in community. 

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    Mark W 11:57 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink

    Rusty — good thoughts! We are finding that having a mix of “regularly scheduled events” both in and out of homes helps new guests feel welcome, AND it keeps the focus off “event” but places faith back into “all of life” where it should be. The book AND by Halter/Smay has been very helpful. Have you read it?

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    Mark W 11:57 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink

    Rusty — good thoughts! We are finding that having a mix of “regularly scheduled events” both in and out of homes helps new guests feel welcome, AND it keeps the focus off “event” but places faith back into “all of life” where it should be. The book AND by Halter/Smay has been very helpful. Have you read it?

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    Website Hosting 6:57 am on January 19, 2012 Permalink

    Really interesting thought and interesting post..

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  Mark 9:52 am on April 24, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Easter ( 2 )   

  The Wrong Newscasters 

  Today:  a strange story about a few hysterical women who come running in from the edges of town with an unbelievable story.

  Something about their Rabbi’s corpse is missing?  In their day, their words wouldn’t even hold up as reliable in a court of law.  Why would a story so central to an emerging faith community under Imperial rule allow the first witnesses to be women?  Why?  Because that’s how God loves to poke fun at us.

  Yes, women in the First Century had no more reliability than children when it came to reporting an incident, and yet they were the first witnesses to the Resurrection.  They were the first evangelists – the first missionaries.  In a way, Matthew, John and the other Gospel writers made a choice to include the women as part of their re-telling of this crucial story.  As Christianity spread around the Roman Empire in their day, would anyone in their culture believe this rag-tag group of wild-eyed believers when they heard that it all rested on the testimony of some lower-class women?

  In fact, this “fragile” part of the story is exactly the kind of way God wants to bring his news to folks.  Later apologists would reflect on God’s means to win back his creation:

  1 Cor 1:27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

  “Jesus is risen!” Scream the winded women as they catch their breath at the door of the disciples rented home.  And the men  have a choice.  Do they go along with the social norms of this world, and pass up what these ladies are saying for favor of living with the way they currently understand the world to work:

  that women can’t reliably tell us the truth…

  that our dreams and hopes are crushed by those in power…

  …that people who are dead stay dead…

  Or will the disciples choose to live in a new kind of world – one where hope overcomes fear, where men and women learn to watch for God together, and…where He is Risen…Indeed!

  The choice is still being made today… in you, and in me.