December 29, 2011
10:36
Intermission
[Below this paragraph is a link to a YouTube video of a medley of two songs which correspond with the message of this post. I encourage you to listen to it during or separate from reading this post. I don't care how you do it, but please listen to these two songs! Make sure to right-click and open it in a new tab or page so you can keep this one open. That is all.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnJXChmcT8
As my regular readers are surely aware, I have lately been working on a series of writings in which I have analyzed and discussed each individual fruit of the spirit as is mentioned in Galatians 5. The next one in the list is patience. My apologies, O expectant reader, but I must keep you waiting longer to read about that one. In this post, I will instead discuss something else that has been on my mind lately—a revelation about the gospel, I daresay.
It has occurred to me lately just how inclusive the gospel is. Of course, the content of the gospel is directed toward the whole community of believers. But I am referring to the gospel in relation to itself. Perhaps layman’s terms are more comprehensible.
As I have studied more on the topic, I have come to realize that the message of the gospel puts a strong emphasis on the word “and”. Were we to summarize the greatest command in a few simple words, we would typically say “Love God and love your neighbor.” God is described by Himself as a God “merciful and gracious and slow to anger and loving and just”.
But beyond that, when individuals establish their theology, I’ve noticed that most tend to swing a pendulum: either Calvinist or Armenian, either mercy-focused or justice-focused, etcetera. I pose the question, “Why?” Why should we go so far as to say that only one way—our way—is correct? Did Jesus die only for those with certain theological beliefs?
I know, I know. I’m over-exaggerating my point. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend; I don’t think that will do much. Instead, I wish simply to enlighten.
But, when I hear questions such as “Why did God punish people so visibly in the Old Testament if He is the supposed ‘God of love’?” I wonder what we think love is. Perhaps love isn’t happy feelings all the time, but rather the perpetual outpouring of unending, inexplicable emotions expressed toward an individual for the purpose of their welfare. Love itself is not one emotion; it is composed of likely the entirety of every strong emotion humans face. Love, in part, is made up of discipline, sacrifice, joy, happiness, good times, bad times, red fish, blue fish, and the like. For whatever reason, we like to think a love connection is little more than a “happiness connection” and then drop out of our relationships the instant a moment turns sour. That isn’t love. Love is too great to be limited to one emotion. Perhaps this is why “God so loved the world”, yet “in this world, [we] will have troubles.” Love is more than happiness. Love is the perpetual outpouring of the strongest of emotions. So then, “is God a god of love or a god of justice?” Both! God is a god of love and of justice. You can’t have one without the other. Love is too great to be limited to one emotion or characteristic. Sometimes God loves by being just and disciplining.
Lately I have been greatly exposed to a particular argument: “Do we live out the calling of God when we ‘go into our room, close the door, and pray to our Father who is in secret?’ or do we live it out when we ‘go out and make disciples of all nations as salt and light to the world?’” And I wonder why this argument exists. When we consider that Jesus called us to both “pray to our Father in secret” and “go and make disciples of all nations,” I think it goes without saying we are to do both. We are called to imitate Jesus, so let’s look at what he did. Throughout the gospels we see him daily praying to his Father alone. And then he went out into the world and shared the love of his Father. And we should do the same thing. And we must not think we should choose one or the other. If we truly have “quiet time” or “alone time” with Jesus to receive his love and blessings, we will soon discover that he is calling us to go out into the world. Yet, how can we go out into the world without first receiving the perpetual love of God? We cannot daily go out into the world and share God’s love if we do not daily receive it. To do so would be to lean on our own understanding, not on God’s love. We have nothing to offer but what we receive from God. So, “Is God a personal God found in the secret place, or is He a communal God found in the world?” Both! God is too great to be contained to a closet, and He is too powerful to only be held by the world. If we want to look for Jesus today, we must consider where He was as He walked around earth in the flesh. He was daily found in the secret place, and He was daily found with the poor.
I guess my point in saying these things is that we try to limit not just the power of God, but the message itself. The word of God has become flesh, and now we speak the word of God. Clearly any word that can become incarnate into one man and now dwells within every man cannot be contained. Thus, we should stop trying to contain it! We cannot choose who to spread the gospel to, and we cannot choose in which ways God can be found. To do either not only puts a limitation on God but divides the church, and that is counterproductive to our calling as the body of Christ. We are, indeed, the body of Christ. We are not the “bodies of Christ”. We must be unified in our calling. We, the church, are a collection of individuals. Therefore, in order to come together, we must each, individually, choose to come together. “Is God a communal God or a personal God?” Both! We must individually choose to unite in our calling. Jesus is more than our “personal Lord and Savior;” he is the Lord and Savior of us all. Yet, we still must each accept Him as such.
I suppose I’m just rambling at this point. All I mean to say is that to swing the proverbial pendulum either way is to limit God and divide the church. Therefore, we should not quarrel with ourselves and say to other parts of the body “your way is wrong” because, frankly, as long as it points to the Way, it can’t be wrong. God cannot be confined to a strict religious set of rights and wrongs. Mind you, if part of the body begins to stray from the Way and his calling for us, this part of the body should be corrected lovingly. Nevertheless, if our means point to Jesus, they cannot be incorrect.
As I said at the beginning of this post, the gospel is full of “ands.” God is Love and Just. God is found in the secret place and in the world. The gospel is for rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. Before any of us were around, the message was for us all, regardless of our theology. Friends, please stop creating divisions within the church by saying “you’re wrong and I’m right.” Doing so interferes with our call to “go and make disciples.”
Christmas day came recently. During the Christmas season we like to proclaim that we now have peace on Earth. Am I the only one who hasn’t seen it yet? Why don’t we have peace on earth if we have been preaching it for two thousand years now? As I mentioned in my post about peace, I believe peace isn’t the absence of conflict; it is the unity of spirit. (Part of love is conflict, right?) I believe in order to obtain perfect peace, we must all be unified in spirit. Let us be unified in the Holy Spirit of the Prince of Peace. Perhaps Psalm 85:10 is prophetic to our interaction with Jesus upon his second coming. This verse boldly states that “righteousness and peace kiss each other.” Well, we already know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and II Corinthians 5:21 says that we (the church) are the Righteousness of God… See where I’m going here? Ok. That’s a little weird. Still, we are, indeed, the body of Christ. We, the church, must live out our calling as the unified body if we want to truly be in love with Peace. We are the body, (thankfully, I am not the lips!) and as the body—as a collection of individual members—let us be united in our calling, because only one truly united bride of Christ can pursue peace, which is Christ.
I’ll say it again: the body of Christ must not quarrel amongst itself if we truly want peace on Earth. Therefore, stop! Let us come together and pursue peace together. The gospel is full of “ands” to signify that there is not one right way, except, of course, for the Way himself. If our methods lead to Jesus, they are right, and we should not argue with each other because the hands of the body of Christ connect with the Head (Christ) in a different manner from the feet.
Remember to check out that YouTube link from the beginning of the post!
