Why I am a Missional Christian

I don’t believe that God wrapped himself in flesh, was born a scandalous birth to a poor working class family, rescued from attempts on his life as a small child, healed the sick, feed the hungry, encouraged, taught, was falsely accused, beaten, crucified, buried and raised again … so we could join together every Sabbath to talk about it, and leave as un changed as we came … week after week … month after month … year after year.

It is like a man with a festering boil on his behind. At first he thought it would just go away. But as time went on the boil got worse. Concerned, the man went the hospital. But because he was ashamed that he had such a malady and of its sensitive location, he left without seeking assistance. Since the boil was getting worse, he came back to the hospital over and over again, each week the boil got worse. Finally the man approached the hospital staff to discuss the problem, but the man would never let them examine the boil. This went on week after week. Eventually, the man dies from his malady. At his funeral the hospital staff spoke about how faithful he was to come every week. They had gotten to know him well and he had learned a lot about medicine while he was there. Over time he even had advised others that were there seeking medical assistance.

In this absurd story we get a glimpse of the modern church. Week after week, we come to hear. Week after week we come to praise and worship. Why? For what purpose? Isn’t there anything good on T.V. at 9:30 in the morning? Do we do it because our parents did it? Do we do it because our friends do it? Do we do it because we want our kids to be in church? Do we do it because we live like the devil Monday through Saturday and we need Sunday to “make things right”.

For me it is about doing what Jesus did. For me it is about following Jesus. Where did He go that I should follow Him? To the cross. Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God. He spoke and demonstrated another type of lifestyle. He showed us a way to live life where the needs of others took a higher priority than that of my own. He showed us a life where we don’t judge, but where we embrace. He showed us a life where we should be about the process of restoration, not separation. He showed us a life whereby we could participate in the healing of creation, not break it further. He showed us that God blesses those for the purpose of passing the blessing on to those who are in need. He showed us that we are an instrument of God’s grace and provision in this present world. He showed us how life is a grand symphony and that we all play a part. He showed us the tempo, pitch and key. He showed us how to focus on the conductor and play the great song in harmony with all creation. As his final act as God wrapped in flesh, he gave his life over to those who would brutally take it from Him. Just to show everyone that His life was His to give, He rose from the grave and lives with us today in the form of the Holy Spirit. He is alive and well and guides all people in truth.

Jesus’ life was one marked by doing. His life was one marked my mission. God so loved the world that he sent… The word mission means to send. God sent His son. Jesus spoke to His disciples and sent them. The Holy Spirit beckons everyone to come and follow. It beckons all to do what Jesus did. It calls for us to lay down our lives as Jesus did and do what He did. This is missional living and what I believe is true Christianity. That is why I am a Missional Christian.

Why I am a Jew

Romans 2:28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but
from God.

The gospel that Jesus brought was one in which He sought to describe the Kingdom of God/Heaven. John the Baptist proclaimed the Kingdom of God/Heaven is at hand. Jesus spoke numerous parables describing the Kingdom. The concept of the Kingdom was (and is) the cornerstone of His message. Jesus told us that we must be active in this cause of building the Kingdom. We have a role to play. He removed the barriers that have kept us at bay. He told us to mind the weightier elements of the law (justice, mercy and faithfulness). He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves and that to do so is the same as loving God. He told us to do this with all our hearts minds and souls.

Then, He took it a step further and laid His life down to become a sin offering on our behalf. He put actions with His words. He told us how to build a house using our lives as a building material and then, just to make sure we understood this was not merely an abstract teaching, he laid His life down as the foundation by which we should all build on.

What is it that makes a man a Jew … God’s chosen people? The Apostle Paul makes the case that a Jew is not a Jew because He knows the law or can trace His genealogy back to Abraham. A Jew is a Jew because He follows the law of God written on his heart. You see, ALL OF US have God’s law written on our hearts. A true Jew is one who lives by the law written on his own heart and not the ones recorded in books. God’s law is too extensive to be contained in a book. Therefore it lives within our hearts. The vast treasury of knowledge contained there is too much to parse with human understanding, so Jesus gave us His spirit to guide us in all truth.

Christianity today presents us with the same challenges. Maybe it is human nature to reduce all of life’s issues to a set of rules and regulations. To reconstruct God in a systematic theology, doctrine or dogma. Maybe by doing so we feel like we are in control. We take a God whose depth is unfathomable and whose grace is unimaginable and we recreate Him such that we can grasp and imagine who He is. This is idolatry. Once we start worshiping our new God, the life that the spirit brings is silenced and grieved. Paul talked to Jews about redefining what they understood a Jew to be. I think we as Christians should do the same. A REAL Christian is one who walks by faith, pays close attention to the spirit of God that dwells within them and lives a life marked by such devotion. One who walks in this path, as Paul says, is the true Jew. That is why I am a Jew.

Loving and Losing

Baron Alfred Tennyson said 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ (In Memoriam. xxvii. Stanza 4.) I guess my entire life I have thought of this verse when I consider the loss of someone I love. The disconnect that comes when someone dies or just breaks fellowship or the future dreams of romance or sharing our lives together as one are shattered (which is in itself another form of death – but a discussion for another time and place). I have always thought of the hurt and pain that accompanies such a turn of events. I have pondered the heart ache. This never seemed, to me, to be of much comfort. The thought that my life has somehow been enriched by the experience, and then having the rug jerked out from under me, that somehow this is better than not having the experience at all has always seemed a bit of a stretch for me.

My experience has been that having loved and lost has left me with a profound sense of aloneness. Begin alone has never felt so painful as it does after losing someone that you have loved. It is a pain that never goes away. Over time it dulls, but is always there. Sometimes a smell, a familiar noise or sight brings it all back … just like it was on the day it all took place. And life does not just deliver one such of these experiences in a lifetime, no way. Our lives are filled with such experiences of various intensities and circumstances. Some we played a role in, some just happened to us. But one thing is for sure, these experiences are cumulative. The older we get, the more we love, the more we lose … it is a vicious and painful cycle.

So, why did Lord Byron say what he did? Was he crazy? Maybe. Or maybe we could look at loving and losing and loneliness from another perspective. God created us to live in community. He created us for connections, love if you will. He created us with a need for connection like a newborn (or any of us really) has a need for nourishment. We need, or crave, a connection to the one who made us. He made us with a need for others. We come with two plug ins, one for God and another one for others, people and creation as a whole. This need for love also comes with a deep seated need to love others. True love does not seek its own fulfillment but also seeks to reciprocate and give back. It seeks to cling to and be clung unto. True love thinks more about what can be done for others than what they can receive. Love is happily a two way street.

When we lose someone we love, we feel pain. The pain comes from a need to be connected and that need for whatever reason is no longer being met. The result is loneliness. We become profoundly aware that when we loved we felt complete, whole and unified. And, when that love is gone, we feel alone, incomplete and disconnected. We feel pain. The pain would not have been there unless we had loved. We would not have loved if we did not feel a deep need to love. Our deep need to love is rooted in our creators design.

Some choose to respond to the pain by staying disconnected, by trying to fill the void with anything that promises to “stay put”. But such things don’t love back and are therefore unfulfilling. If left in this disconnected state, one will grow increasingly selfish in a futile attempt to “plug into” the socket that can only be truly satisfied by others. We seek self to the exclusion of others so as to avoid the pain of losing them. This in contrast is a more profound pain than that of losing someone you love. Left to continue a person descends into insanity.

Some choose to re-connect to feed that within them that desires to be loved and desires to love back. This was the central message of Jesus. We are to love God and love others. He encouraged us and even challenged us that loving others in the face of the pain associated with it is a necessary component of loving others. He demonstrated this on the cross when He laid His life down for you and me to show us that true life comes when we take the risk and love even if to love means we hurt or die in the process.

Jesus came to save the world and heal creation. His primary message was to love God and love others. There will be pain … it’s OK … it’s part of the design. The alternatives are more painful yet. It truly is better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all. To never have loved at all is to deny your purpose for living and to deny your soul the nourishment it needs to truly live.