I love/hate tension. there is soooooo much tension in the bible. It can be so freeing, and it can inflict mayhem on your faith also. In Luke 15:1 we have the Pharisees unrighteously accusing Jesus of not only "receiving" sinners, but also eating and drinking with such! WHAT IS JESUS THINKING? And yet Jesus also proclaims "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn 8:12). One writer suggests to a church that they "do not become partners with the children of disobedience.......take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them" (Ephesians 5:7,11). Another passage tells us that "do not be deceived, evil companions corrupt righteous morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning" (1 Corinthians 15:33-34) and yet we have Jesus drinking wine with sinners. How do we live out in this tension?
On one hand we are called to not find our companionship with those who live by a different reality. On the other hand we are called to live with/among these for their highest good and redemption. So, how do we know if we are hanging w/ "wicked" or "broken" (meaning not able to see the world as God created it by faith in Jesus) for their highest good or if we are fellowshipping with them simply b/c it brings us worldly joy? Does it matter?
We talk a lot about being hospitable to the "unchurched" in our lives- yet how do we maintain light, lest we be corrupted.
It seems that we can have a good dinner gathering with the worst of "sinners" (every time I hear or read that word I envision Dana Carvey as "the Church lady" ...could it be....mmmmmmmmm.. Satan?) and actually be living out as the "incarnated Spirit of Christ for the peace of those we eat with" or we can be gathered for dinner with people for our own selfish pleasure. How do we know?
However simple the answer maybe in words and writing, the answer is quite difficult in reality:
So, for those of us who belong to Christ and at that in/through THE RIVER- our vision has always been to live, not just "in community" but AS community. Everything we talk about is layered and saturated with the value of Community. It seems then, that we should protect ourselves, our "LIGHTNESS" if you will, by being in the incarnated Spirit of Christ to the world- TOGETHER. If we are being Hospitable together- then our fellowship together becomes Missional in our eating. Friendship then is genuine, authentic- intimate!
If we are gathered as a community-then there is a sense of Communal Living. (No doubt even this is full of incredible Tension, but there is still a vision of something bigger than ANY individual). Communal Living suggest that, while we accept, love, and forbear one another-we also have a "Royal Law" that guides our living. We accept those who are battling for the joy of their life (which is life itself)- While we join them in their battle and journey, we refuse do join in their "confusion" or "un-Reality" of living by the fallen world's rules. And by doing this together, we help to ensure that none of us falls prey to the continued fall. Perhaps this is what Hebrews 3:12-14 is warning the Kingdom Community.
So, we must be Hospitable and Generous to those on the outside of the Kingdom Community (not just because it's our calling, and not just b/c we used to be there, but rather b/c in some ways we are still there- and the journey is too hard to do alone!)- but we must do it together, lest we fall prey to the deceitfulness of sin.
this may open a door for some confession for all (many) of us: but as we continue the conversation- what things do we do well here? What things do we need to improve on? Is it Missional to have "believers over from another church"? or is that just more "christian" fellowship?
If we really want to get into some deep discussion: Is it wrong to have an agenda is building a relationship? It seems many popular writers over the past two years have pronounced having an agenda as bad! Is it really bad if our agenda is to see another person experience the same joy we have found in living in a community? (I know there is tons of tension here, but probably worth discussing).
Thoughts?
(Posted by sam)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think that having an agenda is often assumed to be bad, because of the way in which we have seen this play out. In other words, if some hyper-fundamentalist person or group comes to my door with gospel tracts and they are friendly to me under the guise that they want to be my friend, we know that this is not genuine, because they primarily want for me to say a prayer or commit my life to Jesus, and anything short of that will be considered off the topic.
For us at The River this looks a lot different (I hope) in that we do want to genuinely build relationships with people who do not confess Christ, and that through our lives and words Christ cannot but be seen. Our goal in this instance is to "win them", and certainly it involves winning them to ourselves, since Jesus spoke of those that receive us, will ultimately receive Him. Nevertheless, I think that winning them has to have the context of the gospel at its heart.
For example, Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul spoke of becoming Jewish in order to win the Jews, and becoming Greek in order to win the Greeks, and becoming all things to all men that by all means he might "save" some. This word is the word for rescue or deliver and indicates he is referencing saving them from something (we are assuming sin and hell)to something (we are assuming Christ or the good news of Christ). Furthermore, he says immediately following this, "I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."
I think this means we exhaust all resources and become as creative as possible to connect to those in our culture with whatever means we have with the agenda to bring them to Jesus Christ. We do this not for a notch in our belt, but because we really do love people and are concerned for their highest good, and it seems that cannot happen outside of having given one's life to Christ.
Having said that, I agree with Sam that we have to be really careful that we do not become like the world. When this is said in Scripture, it is anybody's guess what this means. Fundamentalists will tell you that it is not what we think it says, but rather what the bible actually and clearly says. But, even those people have lap tops, Facebook accounts, cell phones, and cars. Therefore, this is not a black and white issue in the sense that this is simplistic to determine. What we do need to be aware of in this is our own weaknesses and the world's values.
I can think of one glaring example of this with regards to our most recent conversation about food. When we are being friends with people who do not know Christ, do we just endlessly drink alcohol or endlessly indulge ourselves with food without any regards to limits? Or do we go eat out with friends when we do not have the money to do so, for the sake of peace? Again, I don't think there is a clear line in this, because I do think at times there may be good benefits to eating out with someone, but how much do we give in to the value of this culture in the arena of selfish frivolity and endless entertainment? This is really difficult for me to write, because I really struggle with these issues myself. I welcome your help, though, in this, and I am encouraged that we are in this together as a community.
Post a Comment