I was too tired last night to stay up and watch either of the game. I was sure the Astros had the game under control. Ninth inning, two outs, two runners on with Pujols at bat. Are you kidding me? Do the words “intentional walk” mean anything to anyone?
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Now, more thoughts regarding yesterday‚Äôs post and comments. Here’s the thing. We don’t all have to be, as meowmix put it, “where you guys are at yet.” That’s the genius of relationships bound together by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Relationships bound together by the demands of church practice are doomed to failure. I say this for even in the movement which claims to be “of Christ” there is, and has been throughout the ages, great discord. Someone does not like the idea or opinion of another so another church is formed across town.
On the one hand, I’m glad people can “go somewhere else” to be in a group whose worship practices make them comfortable. On the other hand, imagine what it would be like if we just had to get along with each other and live with each other and worship with each other in love.
I don’t want to make light of a intensely sensitive issue but our movement is a movement which tolerates corporate divorce. God hates divorce (not the divorced person) because divorce is the result of discord and broken relationships. Two parties can no longer live together so they separate. Believers (members of the body of Christ) insist they can no longer worship (live) together so they separate.
Any church that continually seeks to advance the cause of “the movement” in the world is in serious trouble. Any church that continually seeks to advance the cause of Christ in the world is about kingdom business and will flourish. It is a mistake to equate our particular church practices and habits with the cause of Christ in this world. Certainly our doctrines have become dogmas.
We keep reading the instructions given to the 1st century church as the instructions given to the 21st century church. This, in my opinion, is not a faithful reading of the text. It is stretching the epistles and letters to the 1st century Christians in a manner in which the text never intended to stretch. Hold on a second. I’m not talking about moral issues. I’m not talking about tolerance for sinful behavior. Morality, ethics and the pursuit of godliness looks the same regardless of the century. Church practice will be different as has been true of language, vocabulary, style of singing, canon of songs, etc.
The core teaching for living for Christ is found in the teaching and example of Christ. Take a look at John 12:44-48 and determine the standard of judgment. Can you be the Christian or the church you need to be if you only had the words, teaching and example of Christ? Don’t dismiss this question. If we can’t be the person we need to be with only the words, teaching and example of Christ do we really have the courage to say we belong to Christ? If we can’t be the church we need to be if we only had the words, teaching and example of Christ do we really have the gall to say we are the church OF Christ?
One of the peculiar aspects of the living and active Word of God must be it’s ability to speak to the peculiarities of living in this century. Something that is living and active does not remain the same - it cannot remain the same. Living and active always means forward action. Dying and inactive always means backward action.
Equipped with the teaching and example of Jesus, the early believers were guided to be Jesus in their culture in their current age. This should never have changed. Each generation of believers needs to be asking “How can we live and practice our faith (personal and corporate) based on the example and teachings of Jesus for our current age and culture? To restore New Testament Christianity we would have to first restore the 1st century culture.
Each of us needs to be about presenting the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ that we may serve the purpose of God in our own generation.
8 Responses to “112964273388006081”
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October 18th, 2005 at 10:58 am
I’ve read your comments 3 times. I even printed it off to read and have gone to John 12. I really appreciate your addressing this again. I truly AM searching and studying and thinking. It would be so simple if it really were as you have expressed. Maybe it is. It’s just hard to let go of a lifetime of one mindset. But the longer I live and the more I see and hear, I’m slowly edging away from some of the teachings I grew up with. Not all…but some. I recognize some of these as mere opinion and tradition, the very thing we try to tell others they shouldn’t do.
In a class some years ago, we had a teacher who was a “straight arrow,” and in the same class was a guy who liked to muddy the water. I remember him saying, “I just don’t know how we’ve come up with what we’come come up with.” Don’t remember the answer, but these two in the same class were like trying to mix oil and water. I’ve thought about that guy’s statement a lot. Sometimes, I wonder the same thing……….you know, how we (as a group, through the years) have tried to impress on all denominations that they must think, feel, and worship the same way we do. Sometimes, I will be in traffic and look at all the other cars flowing along with me and wonder how many others are members of the CofC and ask myself if I really believed they are lost, why am I not jumping up and down in the middle of the lanes to get their attention and impress upon them what I know(?) to be true? And lately I’ve thought of other things, too, like if some of the doctrinal issues we have held so dear through the years were so important as to determine our eternal destiny, why would our Lord not have made these perfectly clear, so that there would be no room for opinion or interpretation. And I am now praying that He will guide me in understanding just a little more about grace. You know, we haven’t heard a lot of teaching on that, typically.
This I do know………we are saved by the blood of Christ, and without Him, we are “of all men, most miserable.”
Again, thanks for your thoughts and guidance, and thanks for letting me ramble on in your blog.
October 18th, 2005 at 11:10 am
meowmix, thanks for your genuine spirit. You are right. Years of teaching are hard to dismiss. I don’t judge the years of teaching or the teacher. That’s just what was being taught and expected from our pulpits and schools. The focus was on replicating “the pattern” of the church when it should have been on replicating “the person” of the Christ. We all have a certain doctrinal imprinting we have to lay aside in order to be the people God needs us to be today.
Believe me, it’s okay to wrestle with things. It’s also okay and expected (though often ignored) to use common sense in thinking about the things of God. Only a sadistic god (notice I used a small g) would base eternity upon gray areas and items of interpretation. Eternity is not based on perfect doctrine it is based on a perfect lamb, offered without spot for the sins of humanity.
And don’t go leaping into traffic you might get hurt. At least wait until you are safely stopped at the intersection.
October 18th, 2005 at 11:14 am
I have so much respect for people, especially those who have been life time followers, who continue to question and search.
None of us can ever say, “o.k., that’s it. I’ve learned everything I need to know and I’m sure I have the correct opinion on every issue.”
The more I study, the more I realize I don’t know anything at all.
October 18th, 2005 at 11:51 am
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October 18th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
I’ll be careful about jumping into traffic!! Besides, I wouldn’t want to miss the next blog!
Sandra, thanks for your comments. You echoed my thoughts exactly. I know nothing….
October 18th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
Amen Randy. In the previous church I worshipped at, I heard it said several times that the Gospels were a collection of stories so that we might believe Christ existed. This was followed up with an admonition to saturate our minds with the writings of Paul. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Acts and the writings of Paul. But I’m in firm agreement with you on this issue. If our fellowship (and any other for that matter for they are not immune to the “friendly fire we sometimes inflict on each other) had concentrated it’s energies on the Gospels and the examples of Jesus, perhaps we would have had far less church splits and just down-right rude behavior expressed by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to each other. And as an elder I’m firmly convinced that one of my primary roles is for me, and then those that I shepherd, to become more Christ-like in word and deed.
October 18th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
If I may throw in a little different angle to Randy’s excellent thoughts this morning…. One of the struggles I had for years when I was not only in the “mainstream” thought but repeating it as a teacher / preacher was how we could be so sure of our doctrine knowing all the time we were WRONG if for no other reason than our corporate divorce practice?? How could it be okay with Jesus for us to be so divided over so many minute issues while saying we were the ONLY ones saved? Just didn’t make sense that God would turn his head to our inconsistencies and outright false doctrines (Holy Spirit for example) while he would demand eternal judgment of all other church fellowships for their inconsistencies and false doctrine.
No one ever gave me a satisfactory answer, so I finally decided being saved by God’s grace included a much larger circle of the saved than I’d ever allowed. Even though the kingdom of God that I recognize is smaller than God’s perspective, it has sure grown much larger than just one little conservative group of people who proclaim restoration while living out religious segregation.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
October 18th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
I wrote a deep and insightful reply here that I just noticed didn’t actually post. It is lost somewhere in the ether now.
It had to do with Jesus leaving us the Spirit and how He guides us into all truth. Many things have changed in the last 2000 years but the Spirit remains the same. I think the reason the CofC has gone so long without acknowledging the Holy Spirit is that most people realize if we do, then there’s no way we’ll be able to hang on to baseless traditions and “that’s what I’ve always been taught” theology.
I think I wrote something also about how both Sandra AND Meowmix DO, in fact, know some things, not the least of which is that Jesus is Lord. Which I believe is worth more than a library of religious works. We ALL have a lot to learn and nobody has it all figured out. But the fact that we are trying and, more importantly, willing to be open-minded is what God truly desires.
Or something like that. I don’t know. I wrote it this morning. The whole day has happened since then.