What about all those strangers you saw yesterday?

Continued from last week's "Dead for a year and No One Noticed."

Yesterday I bet you saw a lot of people you will not see again till Christmas, unless you are called to do their funeral between now and then.  They are disconnected from the community of faith.  They have not part of the fellowship, the community of the faith.  As far as their spiritual walk is concerned they are like Yvette Vickers, dead and no one noticed.

The most important number from yesterday is not how many people attended Easter service.  The most important number from yesterday maybe how many people have a vague connection to faith but are not a part of the community.  These twice a year attendees have a tenuous connection to the faith but have no community, no belonging, no way to say "us' or "we" about faith.  It is all but impossible to over state the importance of community for the Christian faith.   For example... 

Jesus

The incarnation is about belonging to the community.  The Hero of the story enters history into a community of Mary, Joseph, and an oppressed people.  He lived in a community, made a habit of going to synagogue service, and was part of the construction industry.  Why not have God in flesh descend from the heavens on a cloud with glory?  Because we could never accept such a one into our community to be one of us.  For the Savior to save us, He had to be one of us and He could only do that by experiencing our reality of community.   Jesus was never alone.  Even when He was “alone” He was in the community of the Father.  He died in the community of the guilty, the hurting, the helpless, the humanity He came to save. 

The Church

Before His death He planned for the Church and on the day of Pentecost He established His church.  The very meaning of the word church implies the plurality of people in the solidarity of the community.  Church is never a place; it is always a people.  It is sometimes a local community, speaking a common language, with a common culture and heritage.  Sometimes it is a global army of love that stuns the world by the way they love one another.   But biblically it is never a single individual, it is never a building, it is never a person in isolation. 

Titus 2:11-14 

For the saving grace of God was revealed to all people, teaching us that having denied impiety and worldly desires, we shall live sensibly and righteously and in a godly manner in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself on our behalf, so that He should redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a people as His own special possession, zealous of good works.

The Saving Grace of God and the self-giving of Christ was so that a people, plurality, the group, the crowd, could be His own, pure and eager to do good works.  Jesus saves us individually, but he also saves us in a collective.  In saving the individual, He makes that individual a part of the community.  That community of faith is so much more powerful in doing good deeds than any individual.  By our very nature we are part of each other-belong to each other.  A Christian alone is like a finger severed from a hand, the finger is lost, but the whole person suffers.   (Believe me I know from personal experience)

The Future

At the end of the first century, a person identified with their city of origin, Saul of Tarsus was not the same man as Saul of Corinth.  The city was a place or corporate belonging, the community of people living together and sharing life.  It was a place where the citizens have their home, their belonging, and their identity.  In the book of Revelation, the home of the saved is described as a city.  Heaven is the eternal city of the saved; it is our common unity of belonging which we fore taste in the church. 

What?

What does all of this have to do with church calling programs we started talking about three weeks ago?  As the church we MUST have community.  At their best, church calling programs helped foster community in their day.  Perhaps you use Small Groups, The Shepherding System, Sunday School, or fellowship groups.  My great concern is that we have rejected old forms, in this case a calling program, without understanding what those forms were there to accomplish.  Your church needs to have an intentional approach to make sure everyone can be connected in community. The goal is not to pop in on people and hit them up for a commitment or rebuke them for an absence.  But it is to enable people to return or be a part of the community that is needed for their faith to flourish and the church to thrive.  It is about returning to our connections that will help us live out our lives as friends, followers, students of Jesus, aka Disciples of Christ. Because it is community that is the anvil of life upon which we shape a life of faith.   

Dead for a Year and no one noticed.

Dead for a year and no one noticed and I am not talking about a church.

Continued from last week's "The Epidemic of Loneliness"

Alone in life with only the most vague and general connections to others we become like Yvette Vickers. Yvette was an actress with such great films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches” to her credit.  She was well known in the narrow genre of 50’s sci-fi, space monster films, and had many fans.  But she was utterly disconnected in any personal way.  When she died her body lay in her home for almost a full year before a neighbor noticed there was mail piling up and decided to check in on her.  To live in such a way that one can die alone is a tragedy that can never happen to a person in an authentic community of faith.   A community of faith coming to her home, loving her, talking to her, and offering to serve her could have blessed Yvette’s life!

We need each other more than we can know or imagine.  Many people are too proud, or too cautious, or too timid to ask for a visit from a friend. 

Human Community is a non-negotiable for human growth.  Adam was surrounded by paradise and still God said it was not good for man to be alone.  There was no material lack in Adam’s life and world.  He enjoyed perfect health, perfect fellowship with God, perfect diet, perfect calling and work.  So what was it about paradise that was a problem? He was not in human community.

Belong to Posterity

Especially after the fall God calls us to community, to belonging to each other, because godliness is formed in community.  If you trace the history of God’s dealing with people He is always working toward or in the context of community.  Abram was to become Abraham, the father of many.

The Covenant of the Law

When God called a nation to be His people they are not a group of individuals, but a community.  Understanding our identity is not possible in individuality.  Even before the giving of the law the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were to be a people.  Ex 19:5-6a,  “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The Exile

Throughout the books from Genesis to Malachi we see that God dealt with a community called Israel.  They were in it together in thick and thin, good and bad.  When the majority of the chosen people pursued idols and God sentenced them to captivity, Daniel, though innocent, was not exempt.  Righteous as he was, he suffered perhaps more than most in the community of Israel.  The sorrow and brokenness of Jeremiah didn’t grant him exemption from the devastation of the siege of Jerusalem.  We never get the idea that any of the prophets of old said, “You people are awful! I am quitting my Jewishness.”  They were a community. 

Jesus

The incarnation is about belonging to the community.  The Hero of the story enters history into a community of Mary, Joseph, and an oppressed people.  He lived in a community, made a habit of going to synagogue service, and was part of the construction industry.  Why not have God in flesh descend from the heavens on a cloud with glory?  Because we could never accept such a one into our community to be one of us.  For the Savior to save us, He had to be one of us and He could only do that by experiencing our reality of community.   Jesus was never alone.  Even when He was “alone” He was in the community of the Father.  He died in the community of the guilty, the hurting, the helpless, the humanity He came to save. 

To be continued...

Peter, Judas, and Me

Peter, Judas, and Me

Perhaps it reflects my own brokenness but two of the characters in the Easter story that I find most interesting are Judas and Pilate.  They both serve as warnings of what I might become. 

In Matthew’s telling of the Gospel, Peter and Judas are set in juxtaposition to each other.  After Peter’s denial and subsequent bitter crying, he is not seen again in the Matthew account.  We can presume that Matthew’s readers were well aware of Peter’s restoration, especially in view of his sermon at the beginning of the church in Acts 2.

Judas also vanishes from the Matthew account after his regrets over his betrayal.  Judas is the picture of willfully turning from Christ which leads to turning on Christ and moving so deep into sin that restoration becomes impossible. We are never told the specifics of Judas’ motivation for his betrayal.  I believe that is to keep us from falling into the misunderstanding that if I don’t do what Judas did I am okay.  There are many paths to apostasy.  We are told about Judas to demonstrate the possibility not to identify the path.  In Mt 27.3 we learned that Judas “felt remorse”.  This has on occasions, sadly, been translated in such a way as to imply that Judas had a heart change over what he did.

μεταμέλλομαι is used five times in the N.T.  Twice by Jesus In Mt 21.  Once He used it to describe the son who regretted not going to work in the vineyard (v. 29).  And once over the lack of even a trace of regret by the religious leaders over ‘sinners’ going into the kingdom ahead of them (v. 31).  It was used in 2 Cor. 7:8 in which Paul had only short term regrets over causing distress by his prior letter.  Its final use was Hebrews 7:21 in which the Father has no regrets over the ordination of the Son in the order of Melchizedek.  This word, which is more often used with a negative, is a far cry from repentance, as far as Peter is from Judas. 

The problem is we can, if we are not careful, confuse the two.  Salve our conscience with a deep sense of regret and not genuinely repent.  Some have said that the difference is regret is sorrow over getting caught and repentance is sorrow even if we are never caught.  That is good as far as it goes.  But there is more to it.  Judas was never caught.  He remained in good standing with the Romans and the Jewish leadership.  The disciples and apparently Jesus were at this moment to do anything to him.  We can never be caught, have regrets and still not repent.  We can access porn, cheat on taxes, lie in our dealings, hate and kill in our hearts, never get caught, have a twinge of guilt, feel regret, and still not repent.

The difference is that regret is “me” centered, repentance is God centered.  Regret is about what I did and how its results will work out.  Repentance begins with accepting the Lord’s opinion on my action and what this will do to our relationship.   Regret starts in the mind but may never each the heart or soul.  Repentance embraces all of our being.  Regret begins on the outside and works its way to just under the surface.  Repentance begins at the core of our being and works its way to every part of who we are.  Regret attempts to manage the circumstances and behavior.  Repentance changes life.   Regret is entirely human.  Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. 

As I reflect on Peter and Judas as we approach Easter my concern is that I have confused in my life personal regret for genuine repentance.  I fear I rationalize and justify selfish behavior and when that is no long possible I regret but not repent.

“Holy Spirit bring on me your just, righteous, and holy judgment so that I may repent my sins and not just regret them for eternity.  In the name of Jesus I pray

Amen.”

A church opportunity called "The Epidemic of Loneliness"

Church visitation programs are about as cutting edge as fire.  While not a betting man I would be willing to wager a large sum of money, if I had one, that this year no major conference will be developed around a church wide visitation program.  Church visitation is not part of the church landscape anymore.  That may or may not be a good thing.  For most of its life, the church has been a community of shared faith, values and caring.  Church visitation programs were at their best a way of propagating and reinforcing those values.   Sadly there is little to replace calling programs.  In our increasingly individualistic society we have lost our connectedness and the idea of a caring community is something unheard of for many people.

American individualism has its strength, but it is bad for faith.  It can help develop a great work ethic and build wealth.  It can give courage in difficult times as when a person is out numbered or no one believes in his ideals.  But the self-sufficient individual will never mature in their faith. 

Emily White, a successful, attractive writer for the Daily Mail uses the term Loneliness Epidemic to describe what is happening as we become detached from each other.  In her own experience with loneliness, she tells of going shopping, not because of a need to make a purchase, but so that she could talk to the cashier.  Her loneliness was so intense and she became so angry at being so lonely she raged in her kitchen throwing the chairs against the wall.  Loneliness is not just the bane of young, attractive, gifted writers.  Everyone whose name appears on the rolls of your church has the potential to suffer from loneliness.

Many in our culture suffer from self-induced loneliness.  We have found that electronic companionship is much easier to deal with than human company.  Humans are troublesome, hurtful and exasperating.  Being in a relationship, even a good one, can tax us.  Electronic companionship is easy; we can turn it on and off at will.  It will not make demands of us that we can’t alter with a button on the remote.  We have control over content and mood-like a slave that does our every bidding- electronic companionship will not challenge us.  It is easy.  Because the human animal is lazy, it is more apt to watch reruns of Cheers, Andy Griffin, or Friends than to do the hard work of being in a relationship.    

With our autonomy we are losing community phrases and are replacing the community words with words of individualism.  The picture of the lonely individual huddled in a basement playing video games and having no one to relate to and lacking the ability to relate is no myth; it is a growing crisis.  We have protected our personal space to the point that many people are in a prison of their own space and are afraid to get out or to go into public. 

We, as a culture, have mistaken good, physical health with well being.  We are keenly aware that a person who is in a hospital bed with cancer is in need of emotional support.  We know that they will need companionship, touch, laughter and love.  We tend to think that if a person is physically healthy they are fine and can be left alone.  Interestingly, only 10% of suicides are related to chronic illness.  Just because a person is physically well doesn’t mean that they are not in desperate need of loving contact. 

Alone in life with only the most vague and general connections to others we become like Yvette Vickers. Yvette was an actress with such great films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches” to her credit.  She was well known in the narrow genre of 50’s sci-fi, space monster films, and had many fans.  But she was utterly disconnected in any personal way.

To be continued...