Advent - One Body (2)

 Advent - One Body? (2)

“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). 

“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15–16).

It is important to know the nature of a person or of an animal. Consider the difference in nature between a lion and that of a kitten. If you were a stranger to both, and were to meet both, not knowing the difference in their nature might be to your detriment.  

When we don’t understand the change in nature of a Christian, when we don’t understand that we are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:14 – 17), it leads to failing to affirm the glorious work of Jesus Christ, to a diminished understanding of the Gospel, and to faulty premises in our preaching, teaching, and self-understanding. 

Similarly, when we don’t recognize the Divine Nature of Christ which fills His Body, we fail to know the Body and live in the Body as functioning members of the Divine Body. 

Again, I’m pondering this because this is the season of Advent. I suppose I’m also pondering it because the professing church in the U.S.A. seems to have pretty much sold its birthright for a mess of pig’s food, we haven’t even obtained decent pottage in the transaction. Regarding the latter, we have abdicated (if we ever had it) our testimony as children of another world, as citizens of heaven. Regarding the former, because if we only knew the reality of the Incarnation, if we only knew that Christ has many members, then we would function as One People, as that City set on a hill, as the Light of the Word. 

We’ve sold ourselves in too many ways to count, and most of the things we’ve sold ourselves for look pretty good on the surface, and they usually look practical. However, it always comes down to Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. Are we loving Him? Are we devoted to Him? Is Jesus our testimony? Is Jesus the center of our lives? Are we offering ourselves to Him every day in every way? Are we in love with Jesus?

In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Paul writes of a falling away from the faith that precedes the unveiling of the man of lawlessness. Now I don’t know when the ultimate fulfillment of that will be, but I imagine it has had many degrees of fulfillment and expression – and I think we are living through a fulfillment of such apostasy right now, for I think the professing church in the United States has prostituted itself in myriad ways – many of which look quite respectable. 

From our epistemology (how do we “know” things, and how do we know that we know?) to hermeneutics (interpretation and communication of the Bible) to philosophy (the idea of a “Christian worldview” has displaced Jesus and the Gospel, a bronze serpent) to politics and nationalism to our emphasis on more and more money (personal and church). Then we have the dominance of the social and marketing “sciences” in the professing church, our repudiation of holiness as evidenced by our choices in entertainment and recreation (pretty much just like the world) and the giving of our children as offerings to the educational and economic systems of the world (we don’t care what our schools teach as long as the sports teams win and we are more interested in the money our adult children make than in their character and whether they know Jesus).

This is all about the Incarnation, all of it. Jesus came to be as we are so that we might be as He is – as individuals and as His People. If the Incarnation were real to us, if it were the dominant reality of our lives, that is, if Christ were the dominant reality of our lives – then we would be a distinctive People on this planet. We would be distinctive members of a distinctive Body – the Body of Christ. 

“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14) is not only about Jesus Christ and Bethlehem and thirty – three years, it is also about the Body of Jesus Christ, it is also pointing to the reality of the Bride, the Temple, the Church – the continuing reality of Jesus Christ being on the earth. 

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) ought to be our testimony as the Body of Christ just as it was Jesus’ testimony in the Upper Room. In fact, it truly continues to be the testimony of Jesus Christ in His People, in His Body – the question is whether it is true of us. Is it true of me, of you, of our congregations?

The answer to this question is the answer as to whether Advent and the Incarnation are living to us…or simply a piece of history wrapped in songs and music and dramas and candlelight services. 

Are we truly celebrating Advent? 

One Body? (1)

 

In John Chapter 17, Jesus prays, “That they may be one even as We are one…even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may be in Us…that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” 

Paul writes, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4–6).

If we understood, in some measure, the Incarnation, we would see the truth, the beauty, and the tragedy of these passages. We would see the truth because this is the Word of God made Flesh, we would see the beauty because we would see Jesus Christ in His Body, and we would see the tragedy because we would recognize that we practice self-mutilation.

I have often told the story of two churches in my hometown of Rockville, Maryland who had revival services in the same week; one was Assembly of God, the other was Bible Baptist.  I had relationships with both pastors and churches, I had deep affection for both congregations. I was young, idealistic, believed the Bible, and naive. 

When I realized that they were having their special services in the same week, I went to both pastors and told them that the other church was also having revival services and suggested that it would be great if the churches would pray for each other. After all, wouldn't it be a wonderful testimony to the city, wouldn’t it be intercession, wouldn’t it be expanding our desire for revival from individual congregations to the greater Body of Christ? 

Of course it didn’t happen, and I’ve never forgotten that.

This is the way we practice church. Why does no one seem to care? Why do we put our ways ahead of the Way of Jesus Christ, as particularly expressed in John Chapter 17?

Lately I’ve pondered a fundamental contradiction that occurs when we primarily identify with a tradition, a movement, a denomination, or what we consider to be the true expression of the “Church.” (This includes so-called nondenominational groups and individual congregations).

The contradiction is that if we really think we have something that others don’t, something which is the true truth, or closer to the truth, or a better practice of the truth – then we ought to have a clearer vision of the Body Christ than others and we ought to serve our brethren. Rather than distinguish ourselves from others we ought to identify with others just as Jesus identifies with us. In other words, rather than build walls we ought to build bridges. 

Also, there is no better way to teach our congregations about the Body of Christ, as expressed in John 17 and Ephesians 4, than to model it - and that means having koinonia with pastors and congregations both within and without our traditions and movements and perspectives. Otherwise, aren’t we really hypocrites? 

Another way to put this, is that when Pentecostals stop thinking of themselves as Pentecostals, and the Reformed stop thinking of themselves as Reformed, and Wesleyans stop thinking of themselves as Wesleyan, and Baptists stop thinking of themselves as Baptists…and so forth…and start thinking of themselves as members of Christ’s Body (as opposed to their parochial groups), then perhaps we will be closer to growing up to “a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). 

It also seems to me that this is a measure of the validation of our particular perspectives of the Gospel – validation must rest on the prayer of Jesus that we all be one as the Trinity is one, and that we love one another as Jesus loves us; indeed, that we lay our lives down for one another. 

How can a movement, a denomination, a group, be Biblically validated if it is not laying itself down for the universal Body of Christ? 

Otherwise, we have a picture of Haggai Chapter One, in which our traditions and denominations and movements are self-centered groups building their own houses while the House of God lies desolate. What is the point of looking back to Luther or Calvin or Wesley or Azusa Street or Aquinas or Athanasius or Augustine if we have turned their contributions into a gated and walled community, while the House of God lies desolate? 

And here is another element of the tragedy, when we live in our walled-off houses, we fail to learn from the very people we venerate, such as Luther and Calvin and Augustine and Edwards. For these men (and women) were on pilgrimage, they were learning and growing in Christ until the day they left this earth, they never stopped learning and growing and exploring – and yet we insist on petrifying their teachings and freezing them, and thereby sucking the life of Christ from them.

I am thinking about this because I am thinking of Advent, of the Incarnation. The Bible teaches us that the Incarnation continues in the Body of Christ, the People of God. Yet, how can we possibly see this if we live insist on practicing fragmented Christianity? If our vision of the Body is not transcendent, how can we possibly live as Christ on this earth? How can we serve as Christ? How can we function as His Body?

I had a long and fruitful career in property management, which included the honor of serving as the president of the industry’s state trade association in Virginia. I experienced more unity in the property management industry, on a local, state, and national level, than I have within the professing church – it isn’t even close. 

My competitors and I joined together to establish industry standards and best practices, we worked together to establish educational offerings and certifications, we cooperated on providing better housing for folks of all economic, social, and ethnic backgrounds. If I needed advice on a problem, I could call on friends and colleagues in the industry for the benefit of their perspectives. One of my colleagues had a large property which suffered a fire one evening, before the night was over people who worked for competitors were showing up with supplies for the displaced residents and offers of temporary housing. 

Yes, there were companies that chose not to participate in working for the general welfare, they were happy to reap the benefits of our work, including the benefits of the annual dues we paid and they didn’t…that was their loss and a loss for their people who would have benefited from cross pollination. 

Our employees did not lose the identity they had in working for our respective companies, but they did grow in an appreciation for how our industry contributes to society and the importance of professionalism and constantly learning and improving. The synergy in such environments is encouraging and stimulating and challenging. 

Here is the thing dear friends, we can follow Jesus or we can follow the crowd. Do you not think it is better to follow Jesus, even if it is only you, or only your congregation, than to follow a religious way of life that glosses over the heart’s desire of our Lord Jesus Christ as expressed to His Father in John Chapter 17? Do we know better than Jesus?

Do we really understand the Incarnation? 

Are we living in the Incarnation and is the Incarnation living in us?

To be continued…

Finishing the Race – Strong! (20)

 

Conclusion:

Let’s remind ourselves about the Parable of the Two Sons which Jesus told in Matthew 21:28 – 32. Even though the immediate lesson in this parable has to do with self-righteous religious people and those whose lives on the surface look as if they have no hope, we can still draw from the underlying principle of the story, it is what we actually do that matters, not what we say we are going to do. 

We can also look to the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11 – 32. Though we may squander what our Father has given us, and though we may eat the food of swine, our Father is looking for us to come home, and when He sees us He does not wait for us to come to Him, He runs to us. We might say that Jesus Christ coming to us is, indeed, our Father running to us. The difference between the parable and our own story is, of course, that Jesus ran to the pig pen to redeem us, our Elder Brother offered Himself as a sacrifice for us!

My point is that if you have veered off course, it is never too late to run the race, it is never too late to fulfill your calling in Jesus Christ, it is never too late to join your brothers and sisters in the only race of life that matters. 

I have friends who I imagine have been on course ever since they first met Jesus. I’m not saying that they haven’t had missteps, I’m not saying they couldn’t have done things better, I assume we can all look back and learn. I am saying that they’ve stuck to the course, that they have not crashed through the guardrails. 

I am deeply thankful that these friends are in my life, they have been an example and inspiration for me, I have drawn strength from their lives in Christ, I have learned from them. If you have never crashed through the guardrails you have much to be thankful for, much indeed. 

On the other hand, if you have wrecked your life, I want you to know that your Father and Lord Jesus are waiting for you on the race course so that you can finish well and finish strong. Enough of eating pig’s food, your Father has a fattened calf and wonderful bread and wine at His Table with your name at a place setting. 

If not for yourself, then get back in the race for others, our obedience matters to others, no one else has been given your race instructions, no one else has quite the course laid out that you have – we matter to one another, we need each other, we are a Body, we are Christ’s Body and His Presence, and if one of us is diminished, then we are all diminished. 

Recall that Jesus is our Redeemer. He not only redeems us, but somehow, someway, He redeems the hell we’ve been through, the damage we’ve done, the wickedness we’ve propagated. He took all of this upon Himself on the Cross – who are we to deny the glorious and mysterious redemption of Jesus Christ on the Cross? 

I write as someone who has crashed through the guardrails after coming to know Jesus. The very fact that I am writing these words and you are reading them is a miracle, it is also a testimony to the redemption that we all have in Jesus Christ. 

Life is about Jesus Christ, it really isn’t about us. Life is about the story of Jesus, it isn’t first about our story. Yet, within the story of Jesus we can truly find our own stories. Within the life of Jesus we can find our own lives.

When I was 16 years old, my older friend George Will talked to me again and again about “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Now I’m approaching 75 years old, and those words are truer today to me than they have ever been. 

When I was a teenager George used to quote 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it is written, Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” When I was an older man George was still quoting it. Now that I am (so I’m told) an old man, with George gone to heaven, I still hear him quoting it.

My point is that it is all about Jesus Christ and His love for us. Jesus truly loves you so very very much and so deeply – nothing can separate you from the love of God! (Romans 8:31 – 39). Nothing!

Finish well my friend, finish well and finish strong! 

(And don’t hesitate to contact me).

robertlwithers@gmail.com