Early in my married life I was under the mistaken impression that God had it in for me to be a pastor. I love church (little c) and all that comes with it - the people, the ideas, and oh yeah - God. I go to church to meet God - not to say that I can't meet Him elsewhere; He is everywhere after all. At church, He comes to us in a special way. The scriptures say that 'where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.' (Matt. 18:20, NKJV) He promises, without question, His literal presence whenever we gather together as believers in His name. That is what makes church special - and makes Church (big C) decidedly un-special; but that's another topic for another time.
Considering the fact of God's literal presence in our midst, one would think we would experience church differently. After all, the very creator of all things is there with us - shouldn't we sing louder, or dance better, or experience more miracles or something? It could be argued that a worship experience that lacks vitality is evidence for the fact that a church is not actually meeting in Jesus' name. After all, His presence in our lives is transforming - isn't it? Churches (little c) I have attended sometimes begin to work to leverage that idea when they find their Sunday mornings coming into a slump - their people seem bored. They begin to expend much effort making the 'big show' on Sunday something to remember and to insure a positive experience for their congregants. They justify this by saying 'this is the way the big boys do it down the block; the churches out there with 10,000 - 15,000 members - in those churches its all about lights and music and video and drama and, and, and,'...Jesus? Not so much.
My point is really very simple, but is hard to accept for those of us whose lives have gone through a transformation because we know where we have been - and it didn't look pretty. We know that what Jesus' offers is better than anything we ever had and we expect our lives to feel different - its difficult because when we start living our lives after we know Jesus, all of those 'nice' feelings go away and reality sets in. Life is, after all, life. Our mistake is in refusing to accept that reality; we sometimes start faking it to try to get those 'nice' feelings back. The staggering thing about this is that the reality I am asserting we refuse to accept is truly a completely new reality - we are new beings; reborn as children of God. Nothing in our past lives compares to what Jesus has opened up for us. Its just that it doesn't feel that way - and that feeling (or lack thereof) creates all kinds of goofiness in the name of Jesus.
I can already hear the nay-sayers response, and several of them are from the Word of Faith movement. 'If you speak it, the tongue has the power of life and death and you are speaking death to yourself - Mr. Yonko. Your life SHOULD feel different - you are a Kingdom Kid now - put on your crown and start behaving like you are saved!' Nonsense. Speaking the truth of the reality you see is the first step to understanding the True Reality - and the True Reality I love in today hasn't put any crown on my head. The biggest downfall of folks that hold on to that verse from Proverbs (18:21) is their eminent inability to see the forest for the trees. The forest is beautiful, but it is full of trees that have nasty pokey needles on them. The 'good' of that forest is that we are strangers here. The world, created by God, was originally beautiful and still has glimpses in it of God's beauty - but it has been and continues to be corrupted in equal parts by both man and Satan and his minions. Our home is in a different land, and trying to assert that the life we have today is anything similar to what our life will be when He returns cheapens that new life that is coming.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on those that hold to the truth of Proverbs 18:21 - we can, after all, build people up and tear them down with the words we speak. The problem is, if you gnash your teeth and tell lies to someone whose ears are only attuned to the truth of God's word, all of the 'death' in your tongue will come to naught. Case in point is Stephen - first martyr after Jesus death; he never believed the lies the Jewish council he was brought in front of told about him - he held on to the True Reality to his death (Acts 7:54). That was good - it most decidedly was not 'nice', and it certainly didn't feel good. In the end, the words of his tongue brought him death, even though they were truth. No - in the True Reality, Stephen was brought to the real life - and Jesus was there waiting for him.
You see, we put way too much focus on today - we try to make ourselves have all those 'nice' feelings we seemingly lost, and not step on each other's toes and we make our churches feel good so that tons of people come to them...and in the end, we lose all that is truly 'good'. Jesus is most certainly there in the midst of us, and His presence is truly transforming - but when we speak those words do they fit into our definition of 'nice' and what 'reality' is? Or do we hear Jesus and allow the transformation to complete its work, even in our perceptions, and speak those words knowing the true definitions that come from the True Reality? This life is a glimpse, a wisp, a puff of smoke - we have only so much time to do what Jesus has called us to do on this earth and all the effort we put into being 'nice' keeps us from being 'good'.
Read the scripture. There aren't very many 'nice' people immortalized in that text. They weren't all 'good' either, according to our definition of the word, but I believe that if we listen to Jesus and accept the True Reality our worship will be vital, and it won't change one bit. Our lives will be made holy - and we will simply be doing what seems natural. Our compassion will deepen because our focus is on Him, and not on us. We must begin to accept that Jesus is truly sovereign and that following Him sometimes just feels normal - and that is good.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Cost of Spirituality
It's time to get real. The core of life is in our relationship with God. Having a relationship with God requires knowledge of who He is. Knowing who He is requires a little work, and the work is never something you think up to do, but it is something He guides you through to bring you into an understanding of who He is.
Isn't that the way it is with your friends? You don't get to know them by telling them how to behave and then fabricating interactions with them that substantiate a preconceived notion you have of who they are. You invite them to dinner; you call them on the phone; you play baseball with them; you give them gifts. You get mad at each other and you laugh with each other. As time progresses, you begin to know them more and your interactions move from superficially polite nothings to long walks through the valley of the shadow of death and inspiring flights through the ethereal worlds of the spirit that lift your soul and give you purpose. Your life becomes defined by the moments you have with those people you know and love.
God wants to be your friend. Understand me now, He is God and doesn't have anything in mind for your friendship but what is best for you - so in that sense He isn't anything like your next door neighbor or your mom or your best friend. He can't do anything for you but love you completely and He can't be anything to you other than God and all that that implies. He is perfect - which is a concept we will literally never understand. In His perfection He is just - the absolute definition of perfect justice; thus he must punish crimes against His order or He is no longer perfect. He is also love - the absolute definition of perfect love. In that He hates that He must punish us with death for the crimes we commit and so He sent His son Jesus. That is the simple gospel for those who don't know it - the gospel of the Christian religion, but also the pure truth of life.
I should probably stop right there - I am sure it galls some who may read this to hear me saying that the Christianity is the 'pure truth of life'. But hang in there - it gets better. Its not about Christianity at all - Christianity has, in fact, probably done more in the last century to dilute the pure truth of life than they have to advance it. There, now I have offended both sides of the fence and should probably stop ... but I can't. I am a glutton for punishment.
In our lives, we walk in a world created by the very God I described above. Jesus conveyed to us in the flesh a clear idea of who God is - perfect, just, loving - and He died (taking on God's punishment that needed to be meted out, like I mentioned above) so that we could crawl out of the hell hole we have created for ourselves in all of the mistakes we have made in our lives and have joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control...a real life.
This all has nothing to do with Christianity (big C) and everything to do with christianity (little c). The thing that makes the difference is the case of the letter c - the word christianity has at its root the word 'christ' which is a greek word meaning 'anointed one'. In Judaism, the anointing they talked of was the anointing of leadership and they looked to the christ to lead them out of their subjugation to the Romans at the time Jesus walked the earth. The term 'christianity' simply means 'followers of the anointed one'. Our culture and our world has made 'christ' and Jesus synonymous, when they most certainly were not - Jesus was much more than just the anointed one. We took one aspect of His identity and made it our religion's defining term - of course we could have chosen worse aspects of Jesus' identity such as suffering one, lamb of God, or man of sorrows to identify with; my point is that Jesus was more. I think we are more apt in calling ourselves followers of the Way. This is the core of what Jesus was saying - its not religion; its the Way.
He was life - and the words He spoke were the way to life, which was the way to Him. Kind of circular reasoning; but bear with me. In truth, it isn't about the word 'Jesus' per se either - if He would have been a normal man and spoke the words He spoke, what He spoke would have given us the manual for an incredible life. What is the key to this is that its not about the word 'Jesus' but it is entirely about Jesus. The manual to life that he gave us is useless without the fuel of life to keep the engine running - and that fuel is Jesus.
You see, we are all really very much the same in the core of our being. We want life, and that more abundantly. Being molded from the same clay, we all have similar needs. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising considering our similarities, we all really want the same things - joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control. These are the things that have lead scholars to develop the theory that all religions in the world came from a single source, far back into the beginning of our pre-recorded history. I would contend that they are partially correct - our desire for joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self control does have a root cause; because we are all molded from the same clay by the same God that died for us.
The gospel - the pure truth of life - is the most accurate description of the essence of who we are. Notice that that description does not include Christianity (big C). We use Christianity to help us get closer to that identity we have in the gospel under Jesus - its not about the church, the church is about IT. It is not about how much you give, but it is entirely about how much you give - without knowing or caring if anyone is looking.
If you are afraid to stand up in front of an audience and tell them the truth about who you are you are human - but if you don't come to grips with the truth of who you are in a way that is obvious for all to see you are a demon - and you will never have a part in the full life.
Jesus is about being real - not about Christianity (big C).
Isn't that the way it is with your friends? You don't get to know them by telling them how to behave and then fabricating interactions with them that substantiate a preconceived notion you have of who they are. You invite them to dinner; you call them on the phone; you play baseball with them; you give them gifts. You get mad at each other and you laugh with each other. As time progresses, you begin to know them more and your interactions move from superficially polite nothings to long walks through the valley of the shadow of death and inspiring flights through the ethereal worlds of the spirit that lift your soul and give you purpose. Your life becomes defined by the moments you have with those people you know and love.
God wants to be your friend. Understand me now, He is God and doesn't have anything in mind for your friendship but what is best for you - so in that sense He isn't anything like your next door neighbor or your mom or your best friend. He can't do anything for you but love you completely and He can't be anything to you other than God and all that that implies. He is perfect - which is a concept we will literally never understand. In His perfection He is just - the absolute definition of perfect justice; thus he must punish crimes against His order or He is no longer perfect. He is also love - the absolute definition of perfect love. In that He hates that He must punish us with death for the crimes we commit and so He sent His son Jesus. That is the simple gospel for those who don't know it - the gospel of the Christian religion, but also the pure truth of life.
I should probably stop right there - I am sure it galls some who may read this to hear me saying that the Christianity is the 'pure truth of life'. But hang in there - it gets better. Its not about Christianity at all - Christianity has, in fact, probably done more in the last century to dilute the pure truth of life than they have to advance it. There, now I have offended both sides of the fence and should probably stop ... but I can't. I am a glutton for punishment.
In our lives, we walk in a world created by the very God I described above. Jesus conveyed to us in the flesh a clear idea of who God is - perfect, just, loving - and He died (taking on God's punishment that needed to be meted out, like I mentioned above) so that we could crawl out of the hell hole we have created for ourselves in all of the mistakes we have made in our lives and have joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control...a real life.
This all has nothing to do with Christianity (big C) and everything to do with christianity (little c). The thing that makes the difference is the case of the letter c - the word christianity has at its root the word 'christ' which is a greek word meaning 'anointed one'. In Judaism, the anointing they talked of was the anointing of leadership and they looked to the christ to lead them out of their subjugation to the Romans at the time Jesus walked the earth. The term 'christianity' simply means 'followers of the anointed one'. Our culture and our world has made 'christ' and Jesus synonymous, when they most certainly were not - Jesus was much more than just the anointed one. We took one aspect of His identity and made it our religion's defining term - of course we could have chosen worse aspects of Jesus' identity such as suffering one, lamb of God, or man of sorrows to identify with; my point is that Jesus was more. I think we are more apt in calling ourselves followers of the Way. This is the core of what Jesus was saying - its not religion; its the Way.
He was life - and the words He spoke were the way to life, which was the way to Him. Kind of circular reasoning; but bear with me. In truth, it isn't about the word 'Jesus' per se either - if He would have been a normal man and spoke the words He spoke, what He spoke would have given us the manual for an incredible life. What is the key to this is that its not about the word 'Jesus' but it is entirely about Jesus. The manual to life that he gave us is useless without the fuel of life to keep the engine running - and that fuel is Jesus.
You see, we are all really very much the same in the core of our being. We want life, and that more abundantly. Being molded from the same clay, we all have similar needs. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising considering our similarities, we all really want the same things - joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control. These are the things that have lead scholars to develop the theory that all religions in the world came from a single source, far back into the beginning of our pre-recorded history. I would contend that they are partially correct - our desire for joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self control does have a root cause; because we are all molded from the same clay by the same God that died for us.
The gospel - the pure truth of life - is the most accurate description of the essence of who we are. Notice that that description does not include Christianity (big C). We use Christianity to help us get closer to that identity we have in the gospel under Jesus - its not about the church, the church is about IT. It is not about how much you give, but it is entirely about how much you give - without knowing or caring if anyone is looking.
If you are afraid to stand up in front of an audience and tell them the truth about who you are you are human - but if you don't come to grips with the truth of who you are in a way that is obvious for all to see you are a demon - and you will never have a part in the full life.
Jesus is about being real - not about Christianity (big C).
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