Jesus is odd! He discerns people’s thoughts somehow. He asks a tax collector (a hated sell out) to follow him. He doesn’t follow the passed down guidelines for fasting and Sabbath when questioned about this he quotes scripture and reminds them of the heart behind these practices.
After Jesus heals the paralytic man the crowd says “we have never seen anything like this.” They too found Jesus odd but excitingly odd. The Pharisees found him frighteningly odd.
Chapter two made me think about how against the grain Jesus was. Although I’m sure there were many things that the Pharisees and Jewish tradition at the time were doing that he supported it’s apparent to me that anyone living then would have seen him as something different. Jesus holds amazingly to the heart of what it has always meant to be the people of God in the world but at the same time he operates in a very different flow then the man-made systems and styles that have emerged. These days we are talking about very similar dreams and beginning to see some of them lived out. We are beginning to see political and theological lines crossed to hold onto fresh expressions of faith deeply rooted in the gospel.
I long to be different like Jesus. I hate telling people I work at a church (Christian or Not) because of the instant change in the conversation. I long to be deeply rooted in God but so desperately want to be viewed differently then all the unhelpful baggage that surrounds us.
What practices embedded in the culture and empowered by the spirit will set us apart but keep us rooted?
Like my last entry what words, stories and artistic expressions will paint a picture of the kingdom of God that will be obviously different?
I must rethink and then re-craft my speech, stories, expression and practices. I hope to belong to communities that join with what God is doing in the world so passionately that people say "we have never seen anything like this."
Lord, may our way of life root us in you but break from the pharisaical ties of today. May we appear frighteningly odd to the legalistic religious and excitingly odd to those hungry for good news. Free us from our own misconceptions and lead us into new streams. Prepare our hearts for others (authors, directors, singers, artists, friends and apparent enemies) that you have sent to help shape us in the endeavor. May we be faithful to the gospel right here right now. Guide us to the roofs we need to rip off so we can join your activity. Send your healing thunder surging through our minds and hearts. Raise us from our paralyzed way of being "Christian" and we stand to our feet and carry our mats home.
8 comments:
Very often I wonder if working "at" a church makes our speech, actions, etc almost irrelevant. Like first impressions and all of that. Life, and especially the gospel life, is always about making your way through different tensions. On the one hand, you can bust perceptions by not being the person people expect a "pastor" to be. On the other hand, their view of you will always be skewed because of your career. If you're passionate about your faith, will anybody really be surprised, considering that's what you're paid to be/do?
One of the things that's been on my mind lately is religious-talk. You mention "speech, stories, expressions and practices" in your blog... To be really honest, I've always been annoyed with people who are very evangelical in the way they talk. You know, like they find a good parking spot and they're praising Jesus. But now I wonder if what I'm offended at is the gospel (or part of it at least)! It's similar to the Celtic faith, which had prayers for everything. Although often it's theologically shallow, faith like this is willing to be odd as it shouts out in a form of daily doxology. It's different, but rooted, and hard to get around.
I don't know what to do with some of this. It definitely causes a war between my mega-church self, fundamentalist memories, and Biblical desires. Too many personalities wanting to worship at once!
It seems like the tensions and complexities of being a disciple of Jesus is what faith is all about. To be right-wing or left-left wing, conservative or liberal, High-church or Mega-church, is in some ways to avoid the tension by choosing a side and placing faith in that side instead of a gospel that is as confusing as it is compelling most the time.
I think religous talk can be beautiful and help us understand things that have no other appropriate words, just like reciting a prayer allows us an intimate conection with our Father when we can't find our own words. It's just not as simple as avoiding or using religious words, because Jesus did both.
The reason so many people thoughout history have said hail mary's and recited prayers is that there has always been a sense that we are weak and have to humbly submit ourselves to others spiritual authority that releases the grace of God in us. But in the modern world that is weakness, that is conformity, that is the antithesis of the north american capitalistic gospel.
The hardest tension of all is to hate and love something at the same time, like the church and its members.
Is there such a thing as "something in our embedded in our culture that is rooted in the Spirit"?
I've been thinking about this since you posted, and I haven't thought of anything yet.
But, I'm not that smart.
Let me know what you had in mind when you wrote that.
Sorry for the poor grammar... I'm hoping blogger will one day embed spell check into comments.
For that matter, I'm hoping that I can spell check embedded into my head.
Yeah, I think the way I wrote it is misleading and looking at it again I think it's leaving out what I meant. I think I meant more in the way of practices that the people of God discover through searching the scriptures together that emerge in an indigeneous way within the culture "hence embedded in the culture." This would be apposed to a transplanted practice from the past or from another region that end up just being copied. Where the spirit behind the practice may be the same but I think that it's alwasy most healthy when it's fused with the soil of where we are actually living and doing mission. Example would be how on Sunday nights we connect all the tables as we share a meal together to say in the king dom of God there is no seperate tables (like at school lunch). Not that we have attained the unity yet but it's a practice that celebrates the equality we have in Christ and begs God to change our hearts into people who will live it out. My hope would be eventually kids would then take this practice and morph it for school. This is a very simple example. A longer and more involved example would be in the book "Christianity Rediscovered" where Vincent Donavon pretty much took years to discover the gospel alongside indigeneous Masia tribes. At the end of the book he tells of how one community had developed their communion/eucharist practice. It was like an all day thing with dancing, prayer, pipe smoking, music, a huge potluck, tribe elder gathering and all throughout it had everyday items interwoven into it (milk from Goats, hikes to a nearby mountain and etc..). I think seeing this thing many of us would think it was like a satanic cult thing or something. My point being if we listen long enough together I think God will emerge fresh expressions today that form us, speak of who God is to the world and tie us to our rich history.
I think that was the longest comment I've ever made.
What worship practice could we do weekly/monthly or whatever that would form us as a faith community at CTK?
If I was given this assignment as a leader I would ask my teams what things they've seen God do over the years that are the most powerful? Are there stories in scripture that somehow they see happening or echoed here at CTK? I might then take time to read those scriptures together and see if a practice emerges?
Another idea would be if this year is about humility or forgiveness.
I bet through listening together we could discover a practice that we could do regularly that would form us and give glory to God. Something that would take the everyday and make it sacred though.
There is a danger in the missional aproach, Christianity cannot be isolated either. We are part of a moving story, and while we are called to live and contextualize that story we are called to do it as a part (and connected to)of the whole Christian tradition
Yes. I think would contend that contextualizing the gospel is tradition. A popular comment on this subject is that we need to be inspired by bold innovation of someone like Luther or Calvin as they contextualized the gospel for their time not just copy what they said. That doesn't mean that we leave what they said out and just listen to the gospels. Church history has much to teach us and I think that's what you are getting at with the idea of a "moving story." So I would say that we can't ignore the past and we must realize we are part of a larger narrative but I think the God has set things up in a way where the only way to be faithful is to contextualize. This invites us into the process at a level that I have found to be natural to the way God does things. I think also contextualizing many times isn't us deciding what would be best but prayerfully looking around to realize how God is already contextualizing the gospel in a given place and inviting us into that process.
It's God's story not ours but he has invited us in.
10 commandments Anyone heard of this nee 10 commandments animated file with Christian Slater as the voice of Moses?
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