The Ancient Future Church

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

— Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk

Mark 6:13-29

And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.”

Saving face is a powerful force in our lives. To deny it leaves us subject to whims and peer pressure and leaves others in very real peril.

In our story John the Baptist was known to Herod as a righteous and holy man. And yet an off the cuff promise to someone who pleased him caused Herod to create or advance his own infamy. He beheaded this man whom he rightfully feared. Because this heinous act is recorded in Christian writ, it will never be forgotten.

Embarrassment generally is tough on the average bear. I remember returning from a trip and making my way to my car at Midway in Chicago. I was cruising along when I hit some black ice. It sent me and my bag and my briefcase flying. What was my first instinct even while I was still lying upon the asphalt? To look around and see if anyone saw me suffer this debacle. When I got to the car I realized I was bleeding and bruised. The injuries were on the edge of warranting an emergency room visit. But it was my pride and ego that suffered the most.

Sadly I have seen the dynamic play out in families. A teenager was crying out for help by cutting himself and mentioning suicide. The parents of this socially prominent family resisted help. It was clear they did not want the world to know all was not well just beneath the veneer. I found myself with others trumping the family and getting the boy help his parents did not want.

Saving face often plays itself out in our inability to reconcile.  It is difficult for most if not all to admit we have sinned. Heck, forget intent. It is difficult for many to admit a simple mistake. So we avoid the “I am sorry. Please forgive me.” Instead we tend to double down and rationalize our poor judgment often exalting our faulty logic in the process.

Imperfection is inextricably intertwined with what it means to be human. Why we do not navigate it better I do not know. Oh yeah. Pride goes just before the fall. Inextricably intertwined!

Where We Rwandans Are Headed

Recently, eight bishops charged with overseeing me and many others in church planting endeavors, broke fellowship with their overseers in Rwanda. This did not change the canonical home of any involved.  I remain, happily I might add, a priest and missionary pastor in/from Rwanda. Where are our leaders in Rwanda taking us? To be what we always thought we were – a mission, nothing more and nothing less.

Read Steve Breedlove’s irenic reflection here:

http://www.pearusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/A-Report-from-Plano-March-8-Draft-3.pdf

Read some additional commentary here:

http://livingtext.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/rev-steve-breedlove-on-anglican-1000/

Mark 6:1-13

‘So they went out and preached that men should repent.”

This is no big deal in and of itself. They went and preached. They preached what John had before Jesus and Jesus himself preached. Men should repent.

What is remarkable is that they went out two by two with “no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;” not even an extra tunic. They went out with nothing in hand and were expected to live off the good graces of those in their audience.

Now in a mass of passages highlighting faith, this one is extraordinary. When was the last time you stepped out with no provision and only the hope that those you called to repent would provide you shelter and food?

Most of the folks in my immediate circle live fairly ordered lives. We plan and have a reasonable assurance of the outcome. We have calculated the ROI. Nothing wrong with that! So how should such a passage inform our lives?

A group of dear brothers contemplated this recently. Their conclusion was that the same faith was required of them not in trusting for provision but in actually sharing their faith as was required of the disciples. We live in a world increasingly hostile to faith and people of it. And yet we are charged with going and telling that others might follow. We must run the risk of rejection!

I met a man recently who had done sales early in life and was told to expect to hear seven no’s before a single yes and that from just one person. So if we witness to our faith to five people a week we potentially will hear 35 no’s with the hope of hearing yes just 5 times.

We have our work cut out for us. It requires faith. And it is a good thing God goes before us preparing the soil, preparing the heart.

Note: Last week was a travel week. I attended the Anglican 1000 Summit, a church planting conference.  There were a couple of takeaways.

One was this quote from Phil Ashey. “Leadership is disappointing people at a pace they can handle.” In a culture where we have embraced a mild form of Christianity this is especially true. Christian leaders are, if they are doing their job, always bursting bubbles of shallow expectations.

The next takeaway was from Mike Breen. “We have it backwards. We don’t start a church and then make disciples. We make disciples and then start a church.” He is right! The church consists of disciples, called out people. Gathering people before they are called out or knowing if they have been called out is fraught with danger, not to mention at odds with the work of Jesus.

It is good to be back in the saddle. Sorry. The conference was in Texas.

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

“For the form of this world is passing away.”

As I have said before, elections make me a bit anxious. Perhaps I allow some to transfer their anxiety on to me. Many believe the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. This next election, they say, will determine if we continue the slide toward oblivion or reverse course and regain the favor of God. Perhaps I should own the anxiety for myself. I believe these things to a great degree. Indeed the cynic in me says the slide will continue unabated regardless of who is elected. Set aside the talking points. Is there really any difference in the two parties in practice, where the rubber meets the road?

Paul seems to suggest I should not care. Whatever state I am in at the moment is transitory. Marriage, singleness, mourning, rejoicing – all these things are passing away. “The appointed time has grown very short.” The end game is on the horizon so what does it matter anyway! Don’t complicate life with matters fleeting as you will be investing your time and energy in the wrong things.

But, the time was not nearly as short as Paul imagined. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, months into years, then decades, centuries and millennia. But does it matter?

What we can glean from Paul here in his epistle to the Corinthians is to keep the main thing the main thing and that in every age. Why be anxious about who will govern me for the next four years before I am anxious about who will govern me for the next 400 million? This is wisdom from above and is true in every season and in every age. Keep watch. Be prepared. Be at one with our Maker.

Mark 3:7-19a

“You are the Son of God.”

Whenever Jesus crossed the path of unclean spirits, he was recognized by them. They “beheld him, they fell down before him and cried out” we are told. Why is it that the unclean spirits readily see what we do not?

Could it be that they, the unclean spirits, are spiritual and we are not?

Have we reasoned our way out of this dimension? In the span of a century we moved from astrology to astronomy, from bloodletting to noninvasive surgery, from candle light to light in a pen powerful enough to blind a hockey player. In our intelligence, in an age of hyper-rationalism, have we talked ourselves out of the spiritual realm and embraced what you see is what you get, that is that life consists of what we can hold, study and verify? We cannot hold Jesus so we embrace the historical Gandhi-like Jesus but we don’t see the one who sits at the right hand of the Father? We would miss him if he walked right by us because we have eliminated the dimension in which he lives.

Or is the issue one of distraction, we believe in the dimension but we run the rat race set before us and are consumed by things material? Not long ago I wrote about the time and energy necessary to sustain the things I own. These are things with no eternal value are things which moths will eat and rust will consume. When you add to that task the job necessary to acquire the things and the time spent taking them to the trash when their day is done, could there be time for Jesus or another dimension?

These are not inconsequential questions. For as much as Jesus is the nemesis of the unclean spirits, he is our savior and transformer. He is key to their demise. He is key to our life. When was the last time you beheld him, fell at his feet and cried out?

Genesis 40:1-23

“Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.”

Ouch. Forgotten by the butler?  What does that say about Joseph?

You will recall the Pharaoh’s butler was in jail. He had a dream that Joseph was glad to interpret. And the dream revealed good news. The butler would be restored to his position in Pharaoh’s palace. For his kindness Joseph asked only that he be remembered before Pharaoh. But the butler did not remember. He forgot Joseph.

Being forgotten, it is the risk we followers of Jesus run. We are meant to love well and move on. We do not love with strings attached. We do not love for a quid pro quo, the expectation of something of equal value in return. There is no harm in hoping to be remembered but in the end we, like God and by His grace, love unconditionally. We just love.

The more we become like Jesus the more we can say to someone, “You can’t do anything to make me love you more and you can’t do anything to make me love you less. I just love you.”

This is what I want my children to hear. My love for them is not dependent upon their good behavior or their bad. If they believe that it is dependent (upon anything), love becomes unreliable. “I am loved some days and not others,” they will think. “I am only truly loved when I perform well,” they will conclude.

By the way, that will lead to a world of performing people, posers attempting to be something they are not. Why? Because they are created for love and will work the system , however broken, to get it. And it will lead to a volatile home, children riding a roller coaster of the always changing environment around them.

Our children need a foundation upon which they can rely. “I am loved. Come hell or high water, I am loved.” It does not really matter if they remember where they learned this. On its own it will rock their world.

What does being forgotten by the butler say about Joseph? Nothing! Not one thing. An act of grace changes the world whether it is remembered or not.

1 Corinthians 2:14-3:15

“I planted, Apollos water, but God gave the growth.”

So easy it is for men to give credit to other men for what is wrought by God. So easy it is for a man to take credit himself for that which God has achieved. “Are you not merely men?” “God gave the growth.”

As a church planter, this passage is ever before me. How do I faithfully plant and/or water without with giving credit to others or taking credit for myself? I am planting and watering after all. And others are laboring with me. I applaud their labors. They applaud mine. God is using us. But in the end we are mere men and God causes the growth. All credit, glory and honor are due Him.

This truth is so important lest hubris win out in planting a church.  While planting a church, I along with another once laid hands upon a man in intense pain. He experienced some immediate relief. The other, even in my presence, reveled in how God had used him to heal this man. Wow. Not an ounce of humility exhibited. Might God have acted through us both? Or me alone?

To take or give credit is to divide the Body. Period. That is what Paul is addressing. It is to appeal to pride. It fosters arrogance. It misses the mark in that God and God alone causes the growth in the believer and in the church as to size and expansiveness of territory. Apart from credit where credit is due, the body will divide. Immaturity will win out. From an on high perspective, we might as well be nursing on a bottle. We are babes. To which God through Paul says, “Grow up!” To which I say, “Help me, please.”

Mark 1:29-45

“Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.”

Jesus is keeping the main thing the main thing. He is healing the sick and delivering the possessed. Consequently, crowds are pressing in upon Him. He takes a time out for prayer, communion with His father. When He reemerges from His solitude, He restates His purpose, preaching. “For that is why I came out.” Preaching is the main thing.

In life, many get sick. The diseases are varied and widespread. But the condition is not universal. In life, some are possessed, having yielded to temptation so often the Tempter is in charge. Possession is limited but real. Still, the condition is not universal.

Healing and deliverance do not address a universal condition. Preaching does. The call to repentance and belief addresses an affliction none of us can avoid. What is it? Sin and the ensuing alienation from God!

In this season of Lent, a time of self-examination and reflection, let us keep the main thing the main thing. If we have trouble seeing it, our sin that is, let us put two questions before us. Have we loved God with all of who we are and have we loved our neighbors as ourselves? I for one cannot say yes to both of those on any given day. Honestly, rarely can I with a pure conscience say yes to even one.

Thank you Jesus for keeping the main thing the main thing and addressing what ails us all.

Philippians 3:12-21

“Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you.”

Reveal to me where I am not thus minded, where I am not mature? Uh, no! Thank you but I’ll pass.

You seem undaunted in the effort. So in what areas are you going to reveal this? Where I live, by my close association with the ways of this world, as enemy of the cross? Gee. Could you choose something a bit lighter and perhaps a little less close to home?

I see the problem now. You are saying my commonwealth is heaven. And I thought I was a citizen of the United States and resident of Georgia. So basically I am an ambassador representing heaven on earth and not representing earth to heaven? You realize that this is probably going require some change in me. Oh you do realize that? The whole endeavor is about changing me, uh?

You know, don’t you, that change is really not an endearing value? I mean even babies with dirty diapers fuss about being changed. The analogy works for humans you say? We are dirty and don’t take kindly to being cleaned? Hmm.

Could we begin again?  Here? “Uh, no! Thank you but I’ll pass.”