Those Who Mourn

Most of the time, we don’t associate blessing with mourning; maybe we should rethink this… Matthew didn’t actually say what those blessed ones are mourning; it could be the loss of a loved one, it could be the loss of their home or possessions, or it could be the sinful and rebellious state of this world. Maybe it doesn’t matter…

I think it is safe to say that for a person to truly mourn they first had to love; certainly this would be true in the loss of a loved one. It would also be true if a person is mourning the loss of possessions, for if they didn’t love the possession(s) lost, would they actually mourn?

It wouldn’t seem so.

If the person was mourning for the wickedness of this world, wouldn’t that show they loved God a whole lot?

Consider for a moment those who do not mourn; what a terrible and sad life they must lead! Never having enough of a relationship with anyone for love to develop; never being able to mourn? Never having a loving relationship with God so as to mourn for those who rebel against Him?

Never loving never mourning?

Those who mourn will receive comfort from God, both in the here and now and in the ultimate future when all pain and sorrow will cease. I don’t know about you, but for me, just knowing this is a comfort that brings joy into my life.

Poor in Spirit

The first Beatitude speaks of those who are “poor in spirit”. Much has been made about the difference between Matthew’s language and that of Luke in Luke 6:20, for Luke merely says “the poor”. Does Matthew have more in mind than mere economic circumstances?

I’m happy to let others argue, but it seems to me that Matthew, a Jew, might be aware of the Old Testament idea of poverty not only in literal terms, but as a state of mind,  for the Hebrew word for “poor” has this additional connotation to it. In those days, a poor person not only had to deal with bad economic circumstances, they also had to contend with the fact that they had fewer rights in society, for then as now, they lacked the resources to enforce their rights; consequently they were at the mercy of others.

Living in such a state made it clear to anyone who could fathom the notion, that the poor must depend entirely upon God. Most of us today, even those of us who don’t enjoy material abundance, live in circumstances far better than those of a poor person in ancient times, and maybe we too have a hard time seeing what Matthew means; let’s look at it this way: In our world, a person of very limited means is never far from being destitute, while a rich person has a much larger buffer to get through tough times. The poor person knows they live close to the edge; the rich person can convince himself that everything is wonderful, that he is the master of his own life, and in doing so, he only deceives himself, for God is the master of everything. We see time and again in Scripture that a rich person has a great obstacle to overcome in following God, for he thinks he is the one in control, while a poor man has no such delusion to overcome, and no great wealth to hold him back. The poor person is free to follow the Lord, while the rich person carries his wealth as a millstone around his neck; woe is he.

The kingdom of heaven is both a present reality and a future hope, for it is with us today in Christ, and will be fully realized in its ultimate fulfillment when He returns. For the person who recognizes his or her current dependence upon God for everything in life, it is a present reality indeed, and a source of great joy, “for theirs truly is the kingdom of heaven.”

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The Good Shepherd

“My” Relationship… “Our” Relationship Redux

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Romans 12:4-5

Each of us as a Christian has a relationship with Jesus Christ, a personal intimate relationship at least we can have such a relationship if we are willing to take care of it. That relationship however, is not just for our personal benefit; it is also for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church. According to Paul, we actually belong to each other. Each one of us has a role to play in the Body of Christ, a role developed and assigned by Christ Himself, or as we often say, “He has a plan for each of us.”

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1Corinthians 12:12-14

In these verses we gain a bit more insight into this process; we have all been given one Spirit “to drink”, the Holy Spirit who indwells us. The Holy Spirit will manifest Himself in each of us in different ways to build up the Body of Christ, the church, and none of us are a whole body in ourselves. We are “complete” in the Body of Christ as each of us does our part. Therefore, we must not only have relationship with Jesus on our own, but also in community with other believers, and obviously we call this community the church.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

Paul takes us another step forward in these verses. Note that it begins with the mention of 5 manifestations of the Holy Spirit; we call these manifestations “spiritual gifts”. Notice also that they (and all of the other spiritual gifts) have a purpose greater than any one of us: The building up of the Body of Christ, the church. Through the building up of each of us into the Body of Christ “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. We do not attain these things as “loners” and we really mustn’t let ourselves be fooled into thinking otherwise; it’s the Devil’s lie!

Here’s the really awesome part: When that happens, and only then, will we attain “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”.

Do you see how this works? No… do you really see it?

It begins with salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It continues with our relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit, and as we grow in relationship, we begin to see the Spirit made manifest in and through us in some way as we begin to be built up in the Body. We continue to serve in the Body as we continue to grow in maturity. We attain unity, understanding, healing, sight, wholeness, cleansing, love and justice; our lives are transformed. This is the “movement” that is the church, or at least what the church is supposed to be.

Are our local church bodies like this? To be honest and fair, I must say that some are and some are not; actually, since I said I’d be honest, most are not. Having made a study on the subject, I can report to you that there are three main reasons that a local congregation finds itself in the “not” column. The first reason is that it has become too rigidly institutionalized, yet even within an institutional structure; a local congregation can be transformed if its members will learn to think of church differently. The second reason is that a local congregation will be stuck in the way they’ve always done things with the result that form triumphs over substance. The form is “doing church”. The substance is relationship and community. Can this be corrected? Yes, when the members learn to think differently about church and relationship. The third reason is that the members of the local congregation think of relationship with the Lord as being just for them, and not in the framework of sharing and serving in the Body of Christ. This can be overcome by a leader in that congregation who will allow the Spirit to work through him (or her) to show the congregation they must cast their view outwardly instead of inwardly.

Here is a trustworthy saying of my own invention: Whatever the challenge may be, nothing is ever changed by the same old lazy thinking.

Here endeth the discussion I wanted to have with you; I hope you’ve found it interesting  even if you don’t agree; maybe it has challenged someone to think a little differently, and God willing, maybe someone might find it to be a catalyst for transformative action. In any case, I’d love your thoughts; please share them with the “Body” here on Word Press…

Next time, I’ll post a little epilogue just for the blogging community.

Church as Relationship Redux

Church began with relationship, the relationship between Jesus and His disciples. Each of the disciples knew Jesus in fact they knew Him pretty well, at least in human terms. They spent three years together travelling, eating, talking, laughing, crying and learning; they were close friends. Over time, the disciples came to love and trust Jesus.

We also have relationships with Jesus, although that relationship is somewhat different than the disciples had with Him when He walked the earth. The relationship that we have with Him is of the type the disciples had with Him after Pentecost; it is a spiritual relationship. Yet, we mustn’t allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that a spiritual relationship is any less personal or intimate than being close friends in the physical realm would be, for the opposite is actually the case.

Most of the posts on this blog deal with our personal relationships with Christ. Some of them are written to encourage you to delve deeper into that relationship, others are written to remind you to spend time with Him, and still others are there as an exhortation not to neglect your relationship… for this is the key relationship in our lives, or at least it should be. Many other blogs I enjoy reading tell the story of their author’s journey in relationship with Jesus… you see, it isn’t just me!

As wonderful as this relationship can be, it brings with it a danger. The danger is that we might forget that Jesus died for all, and not just for me. In those cases, it might seem like John said:

For God so loved me that He gave His one and only Son, that if I believe in Him I will not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (?)

Isn’t that a nice thought? The only problem is that I have misquoted John.

Our personal relationships with Jesus are wonderful, and yes, it is for you and me to enjoy with Him, but this personal relationship is only a beginning step from which greater and more wonderful things emerge for the benefit of others. Here, I’ll put this another way: I get all I need from my relationship with Jesus, but to be completely honest with you, I get more than I need from my relationship with Jesus, and He gives me the extra to share with others. If I decide to horde that extra for myself, I am just like the servant who buried the talent the Master gave him, and like that servant, I will have much to answer for.

I mentioned in the first of these posts that the Kingdom Jesus preached was a movement. Wherever Jesus went, things happened when He preached the Kingdom. People were healed, they regained their sight, they were made whole again, they were made clean again, and more were drawn to Jesus as a result. In the early church, many of the Apostles experienced the same thing as they preached Jesus to ever larger crowds; the church became a place of salvation, healing, sight, wholeness, cleansing, love, justice and unity as they shared of the excess Jesus had given them in their relationships with Him, and that is what church should be today: A movement that brings with it salvation, healing, wholeness, sight, cleansing, love, justice and unity.

In the past, I have had occasion to study political movements throughout history and in doing so, I noticed a trend; every movement has a catalyst. In a political movement, the catalyst is either an ideal of some sort or a major event, usually a bad one. Every movement also has a method of communicating that catalyst to others. The church has a catalyst, a method, and something extra, for it is powered not by force of arms or human determination, but by an indestructible life; the Holy Spirit. Our catalyst is fairly obvious; it is the Gospel. Our method should also be obvious; we make disciples by sharing what we have received from our Lord in our relationships with Him with others in our relationships with them. All of this is done by the Holy Spirit in and through us. Thus, we can say that the movement that is the Body of Christ is the movement of the Holy Spirit as He works in and through each of us.

You need not be a rocket scientist to see that an institutionalized church can make this difficult to accomplish, particularly in an institutional environment that only wants the “professionals” to share. Likewise, if we have been influenced with a high priority on how we “do church” once we reach the point, as we inevitably will, where “doing church” gets off track or obsolete, we can never recover, for recovery isn’t how we have always done things.

Dear reader, I want to be respectful of your time, and having just checked my word count, I think I’ll beg your indulgence for one more post to wrap up this thought. In the meantime, I hope we can all consider these things… and I’ll see you next time.

The Body of Christ and How we “Do Church”- Redux

Is church a list of programs, or a set of traditions, ceremonies and pageantry? Does it really matter what style of music you have, or whether or not the preacher (by whatever name) wears robes, a suit or jeans? Is it possible to worship without candles or a certain type of décor? Do we choose a church because of its youth group, its seniors’ ministry or its bowling league?

That is what I mean by how we “do church”.

Ah yes, the most powerful force in the modern church: The way we’ve always done it.

As I pointed out in the last post, church as a movement changes lives for Christ while the church as an institution maintains the status quo.

Many of the things in this category are matters of personal preference. When I am at home, what I may prefer gets some attention, but in the Body of Christ, we have a much higher calling than “self”. Our traditions are usually good; they are often the great ideas of an earlier time, but the real question we should ask is whether or not they still contribute to the building of God’s Kingdom. If they do, that’s great. If they don’t they are obsolete and out they go.

Programs are all well and good if they help build the Kingdom, but if they don’t, we need to try something else. To put it another way, we may have many excellent ministries that meet the needs of our community and bring healing and hope for many, and this is a very good thing. We also might have ministries that either never connected with the needs of the community, or that no longer reach the needs of the community, and we mustn’t keep them around for old time’s sake, for that is how a movement begins to stagnate and turn into an institution.

No doubt you can think of many other examples of how “the way we’ve always done things” has held our great movement back. I’m reminded of what John wrote:

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.  Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Revelation 2:4-5

That should be enough to think about for now, next time let’s take a look at relationships.