MISSIONAL FOCI

I am on the home stretch of my annual conference circuit this summer.  Everywhere I’ve been I’ve shared my three-fold expression of mission.

  • To be and help others to be like Jesus Christ.  This is at the heart of God’s call to be holy and loving people!
  • To love the world the way God did and does—he gave his best, his one and only.
  • To follow Jesus to the people, especially the poor, weak and vulnerable who, given the world as it is, stand little chance of embracing and being embraced by the GOOD NEWS.

Everywhere I’m finding huge buy-in on these foci.  I think it’s a sign of growing alignment with kingdom currents moving around and among us!

MUSINGS ON THINGS APOSTOLIC

To speak of things-apostolic has almost become a fad among us, at least some of us.  We insist we once were part of an “apostolic movement,” and we insist that assuming miraculous intervention we shall be again.  I concur and, in fact, believe it our only hope, and our world’s hope, insofar as God has mysteriously and awesomely placed a portion of our world’s well-being in some kind of relation to our obedience!

What in the world—or out of the world—do we mean in our use of “apostolic?”  What a great question, answerable in so many different ways.  And, answerable not only by our FM comrades but also by many others.  Let me offer a partial answer.

“Apostolic,” of course, suggests the term “Apostle,” of which we find a few in the NT, a key document for exegeting “apostolic” in our day.  To aspire toward the apostolic is to lift up “the apostles” of our NT as models.  To do so is to follow a worthy and long history among faithful Christ-followers.  More specifically, we identify the twelve (or the twelve minus the one, plus the one—let the reader understand).  These were the ones who were graced to be in on the STORY first hand—from the preaching of John to the resurrection, ascension, and beyond; the ones who first obeyed the Lord not to depart the city but stay until something happens, or Someone.  These are the ones with whom and for whom, upon whom and through whom it did, in fact, happen, the ones who continued the STORY. 

They understood themselves now to be part of the STORY, indeed key players to their amazement, and many others as well.  At times, it seemed they were actually propelled, borne along by the STORY.  There were not the story-tellers, they were in the flow, carried along by the momentum that had built up and intensified (with little sign of letting up, by the way), so that they were literally not their own, not going where they wished, not living as they preferred, not associating with whomever they chose, but in the company of one another and the OTHER, here and there and wherever the OTHER led. 

They were not the story-tellers, but they did tell the story.  Or, better, they became the story over and over again, so that to be with them and to observe them was to see what this story was all about, to be drawn into it, and to test it out and verify that it was something very good indeed, something primal, tapping deep down to and into bedrock, into what seemed authentic, beautiful, and possible for whosoever will.

Regularly, then, the first to bear the term “apostolic” found their lives revolving around their memory and fresh re-enactment of the Jesus story, and the Spirit of Jesus who continued that story among and through them.  Regularly, then, they learned how their subplot was meant to flow and gave themselves to the flow.  Regularly, they heard from the One whose story they were living about the Story’s ongoing flow and how they could best go with it.  Regularly, they tarried, waited, listened, and heard, and then obeyed.  Regularly, they did such things.  From an outside perspective or vantage point, it must have seemed at least curious and compellingly provocative. Regularly!

Critical Questions for “Born-Again Churches”

I am thinking about how our church might be “born-again.”  As strange as it sounds, we surely believe in such a possibility.  We believe the message of John 3 that we all have the privilege of receiving life from above, which Jesus describes as rebirth.  And, we share a key conviction of the Reformed branch of the family—that the church must be ever reforming.  And, we also belong to a tradition that cherishes the great revivals that have blessed our forebears.  And, most of us have longed and prayed for a fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit in our church.  And, and … and … We do believe in rebirth.  So, why not a church “born-again”?

As members of the larger Methodist family, could we commit to a disciplined process that helps willing people actually become like Jesus and participate in the ongoing mission of Jesus?  Indeed, could we learn to be together as church in a way that carries us toward Jesus-like character and mission?

 

One of the greatest challenges, I think, is to bridge the gap from where we are (which depends on “where we are!” J) to where we need to go (see above paragraph).  We must demonstrate that what we want to do is not new but a rediscovery of historic, biblical, Wesleyan dynamic; that we wish to encourage a restoration movement among us, rebirthing the Church.  Yes, I’ll say it again: the FMC needs to be “born-again, filled with the Spirit, perfected in love, and launched in mission!”  Here are some questions to ponder in the pursuit.

QUESTION: if in some sense we have become “the Church of England” what would John Wesley do?  Or, if we have become "the Methodist Episcopal Church" of our day, what would B.T. Roberts do?  We want to become Wesleyan again, not just in theology but practice!

QUESTION: Could we start a Methodist Movement within the FMC?  What about organizing a “Holy Club”?  We are not lacking in resources or materials to help us.  Who are the seekers, new believers, the desperate, and hungry among us?  They are likely the prime responders to such an invitation.

QUESTION: where are the E.P. Harts among us?  (B.T. Roberts appointed him to “Michigan.”)

What do you think?  How will you pray? 

FLESHING OUT RESURRECTION POWER

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). 

So Paul claimed in his letter to the Corinthian Church.  That is, the gospel, and all it purports to accomplish for us and the world, hinges on the bodily resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the grave.  Put another way, that Christ was raised signals the validity of all he said and did, and the victory both now and forever of his way over every other way.  His resurrection confirms his kingship over the Jews but also over the gentiles.  His resurrection sets the world on notice that at “the end of the day,” but also all throughout the day, it is Christ’s way that leads to victory and categorically not the way of Caesar.

But do these affirmations really flesh out in everyday life and, if so, how?  I ask does it flesh out because for many it seems not to flesh out in any meaningful way.  The death and resurrection of Jesus is about getting to heaven, about escaping this life safely to the next.  Resurrection power, therefore, assures us that death does not have final say for us or our believing friends. 

No follower of Christ could fail to say, “Hallelujah” to this!  Yet it is possible, and common, to posit such faith as if that is all there is, as if resurrection reality does not flesh-out at all, as if the gospel turns out to be basically an exit strategy.  To such a notion, Paul would say, “God forbid!” 

(Paul’s celebrated treatment of the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15 aimed precisely at debunking the Gnostic notion that salvation was all about escaping bodily life in a material—and therefore evil—world.  How ironic that often those most exercised about proving the bodily resurrection of Christ at the same time hold a view of salvation that has more in common with the Gnostic world-view against which Paul’s defense of the resurrection is aimed!)

For Paul the gospel is the announcement of God’s victory over the powers that have thwarted God’s creative and redemptive purposes, and an invitation to participate in that victory—not only at the end of the day, but all throughout the New Day that dawned with the life-death-resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

In Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome, chapter 8, the Apostle elaborates how God’s victory, demonstrated and confirmed in the resurrection of Jesus, fleshes out in the life of those whose mortal bodies are “made alive” through the indwelling Spirit, the very Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (8:11).

First, Paul tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (v.1).  Wonderfully, we believers experience no condemnation now, nor do we dread condemnation at the end of the day.  Why is that?  It is because Christ Jesus has liberated the believer (set me free, v. 2); because in Christ Jesus God has condemned sin in our weak human flesh (v. 3) so that the life envisioned by the law would come to fullness in us who live by the Spirit (v. 4).

(Of course, I am having some fun with this term “flesh.”  It has a variety of meanings—among them it denotes literally the flesh of our human bodies, or figuratively the flesh as our (un)natural (that is, not as God intended in creation) human condition when weakened, vulnerable, powerless under the sway of sin, or also figuratively the flesh as the primary instrument sin uses to highjack humanity for the evil-one’s purposes.  When asking how the resurrection “fleshes-out” I want to insist that resurrection power covers the full range of meanings—that resurrection power engages us in all the ways we experience life in the here and now.)

In other words, in the flesh God’s Spirit works by/with resurrection power to set us free from the tyranny of sin and for the fullness of a life that pleases the Life-Giver.   Paul goes on to “flesh-out” this life in greater detail: former sinful tendencies, dictated by a mind set on “the flesh” are replaced by Spirit-tendencies (a mind set on the Spirit) that lead to shalom—“life and peace.”   Since we are no longer enthralled by the flesh but indwelt by the Spirit, we are able to please God, and we do (vv. 5-9).  Wherever we are or have been weak, God’s Spirit strengthens us, makes us alive, with resurrection power.  Indeed, “if your body is dead because of sin, your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you” (vv. 10-11). 

Don’t miss what Paul implies here.  We anticipate our own future bodily resurrection—in chapter six Paul describes this as “walking in newness of life—with confidence because already the Spirit (who is our foretaste and down payment of final redemption, see 8:23) makes us alive so that we please God, here and now, by living a Spirit-filled and Spirit directed life.

This is, in fact, a Christ-like life.  We are filled with the same Spirit who raised him.  This is the Spirit of adoption, who now inspires/authorizes us to call God, “Abba.”  We are his children, as He was his Son.  We share his kind of life—participating in his sufferings and in his glory.  Resurrection power forms us to be like Christ, and to live like Christ in our still fallen, as yet unredeemed world.

Second, as we live the Christ-life in such a world we are a sign (that is, a reflection of what is to come and of God’s way for getting there) of the coming, full redemption of the world.  The world is a place of groaning, of painful brokenness, of submission to corrupting and disintegrating powers that, if unchecked, would undo creation.  The world groans and we groan with it and for it. 

This is the world Jesus entered, for which he suffered and died and overcame.  Now on the strength of His powerful presence within us, which gives us hope (v. 23), we find ourselves in the world in the flesh made strong by resurrection power. As Jesus overcame by deep trusting reliance on His Father, so do we.  The Spirit who raised Jesus indwells us, and helps us in our continuing weaknesses.   This same Spirit who makes our mortal bodies alive by resurrection power also makes our feeble prayers, our inarticulate groanings, alive with intercessory power as we pray for those circumstances and persons caught and all but swallowed by the forces resisting final redemption.

That Spirit assures us.  We know Paul says.  Loving God and embracing his plan lead us inevitably to good (consider what “loving God” implies as response to his self-sacrificing love in Jesus for us and as a gift that inundates us by the Spirit’s indwelling).   Just as surely as God answered the cross (the worst evil and defeat) with resurrection, so his plan now calls for nothing short of a humanity in full conformity to the image of his son, with all the glory and responsibility that this entails. 

How does resurrection power flesh out?  In bold and hopeful participation in a broken and groaning world for which there are no easy answers; in firm and confident reliance on the Spirit for weathering the weakness of our world and our lives; in intercessory prayer in situations of deep distress; in following the lead of the Spirit who shows us how to respond; and in faithfulness to his way—the life of love as the path to good and glory.

Third, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead demonstrates above all the triumph of God’s love.  Made alive by the indwelling Spirit that raised Christ, we dare to trust the love of God in giving ourselves in love for the sake of the world.  We may be confident that nothing can separate us from this love, nothing can overcome this love, and nothing needed to live by such love will be denied us.

The Risen Christ who gave it all for us intercedes for us and though we may be like sheep led to slaughter we have grace, hope and assurance even in the hour of sacrifice. 

No rival king—not even Caesar—and no rival power—not even the evil one himself—can stand before our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and reigning.  And no other way—self-sacrificing love energized by the Spirit with resurrection power—can lead to his victory.

K.I.S.S. FOR JESUS

When it comes to being church for the world, I’m off on a K.I.S.S. for Jesus campaign.  That is, “Keep It Simple Silly (or the harsher version, “Stupid”) for Jesus ….

In all of the gospels the gist of things is quite simple, though not necessarily easy and definitely challenging.  In each of the first three gospels we have an episode where Jesus asserts or affirms that LOVE is central to everything (check out Matt. 22:34-40; Mk. 12:28-34; Lk. 10:25-29).  More precisely a two directional or two dimension love stands at the center—love for God with our whole being and love for neighbor as for self.  All of the texts underscore the priority of such love—more important than all the sacrifices we might offer, that on which all the law and prophets hang, and essential for the life of the age-to-come.  Keep It Simple Silly—it’s about all-encompassing love for God and extravagant love for neighbor.

Jesus did not innovate by identifying this simple core theology and life style.  Even his opponents could make the connection between vertical and horizontal expressions of love and name its priority.  Yet, in Jesus the simple core undergoes a reconfiguration with seismic practical consequences.

  • In Jesus, neighbor-love becomes the measure of God-love.  John would later spell it out—how can you say you love God, whom you cannot see, when you do not love your neighbor right in front of you? (see 1 Jn. 4:20-21) Jesus’ kingdom reorders everything.  First becomes last and last becomes first.  What seems secondary suddenly turns primary.  Clearly God ranks above any and all mortals.  Undoubtedly God comes first.  Even so, there is no loving God apart from loving neighbor.  And the degree of our actual love for God registers most profoundly on the reach of our love toward the neighbor.
  • In Jesus, love for neighbor expands in radically inclusive ways.  Not just those who are near, whether by blood or geography, but also those who are far—crossing boundaries of family, clan, community, and nation.  Likewise, not just to the known and familiar, but to the unknown and strange.  And not just to the friend, but even to the enemy.  In fact, “neighbor” could be anyone.  In fact, Jesus revises the key question.  “Who is my neighbor?” becomes “Who acts neighborly?”  Here again the

    kingdom

    of

    Jesus

    reorders things—first becomes last.  Thus, the degree to which we love neighbor (thus reflecting love for God) in reflected most accurately in the reach of love toward those farthest away, toward the enemy.

  • In Jesus, we have a picture of what this looks like.  No one would question His love for God.  Yet, strangely (or not) the most powerful and vivid enactments of love are toward other people (rather than God).  He stoops at the feet of the 12, including the betrayer, and loves their feet clean.  He scans the crowd scorning him as he hangs on the cross and prays, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”
  • In Jesus, this love—simple, pure, and primary, can come to a fullness of expression that mirrors none other than God’s own love.  Jesus said, “They will know you’re mine by how you love one another.”  He called them to follow him on his love-journey.  “As I have loved you, you must love one another.”  It’s the love that moved Stephen to pray for his murderers in the very way Jesus did.  It’s the love that Paul celebrates—that more than conquers and that, in the end, will prevail.

So, K.I.S.S. for Jesus.  Keep it simply silly.  Let’s seek and show them!