'When the New Testament church described in the book of Acts met together in homes with meals and prayer it was not an elective exercise — it was pure survival.
They had no idea if they were going to be run out of town, crucified upside down, fed to lions, torched or starved. They desperately needed each other to survive and live out this gospel that Jesus had begun'.Lately the Holy Spirit has been convicting me in various areas, the most prevalent one being 'realness'. I'm not exactly sure how to explain what I mean in using that term, but in the following paragraphs I will give it my best attempt.
The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer held to one key philosophy: community is by, for, and through the person of Jesus Christ. True community cannot happen without the example of Jesus Christ, for He is God and shows humanity how to love divinely, and it cannot happen without being from the motivation to be done for Jesus Christ, for He has loved, and any person now loving another should be loving out of a love for God.
In other words, all actions of love should spur out of the love one has for Jesus Christ. The faith a Christian has should manifest itself through a life of love.
Assuming this view of community to be correct, we must look to the person of Jesus Christ to discover the purpose of community: why commune at all?
Bonhoeffer answers to this as well by arguing that community is a gift. Each person is to be cherished and seen as a blessing, so to be a proper steward of another person one must love that person, for that is the calling of each man (woman).
When I look at the person of Jesus Christ in the scriptural texts, I see a man who loved like no one ever has. I see a man who taught to love the unlovable, to reach out to the unclean, to carry the burdens of the broken, and to bring light to every dark place.
All of these acts and more He did and does for me, for I am the broken. I am the unclean. Yet He loves.
He taught that community was not to take place for the gain of one's own self but rather to serve the body as a whole so that together each person may learn what it is to be a child of light. He showed us with His life that real love is to set aside authority and divinity to kneel and wash the feet of those who have neither.
His ultimate act of service was to take up His cross.
In doing so, He shows how to love and convicts and calls me to take up my cross.
He served so that others may live.
My heart has been broken for the concept of community, because most of us aren't doing it right. I don't do it right on a daily basis, and I so desperately want to.
It breaks my heart that we build pristine walls surrounding cold chairs to hold the bodies of shiny people with perfect hair and flawless nails, and as we sit in our seats and sing to God I can't help but wonder if we truly believe He's present.
I at least wonder if we believe that we have been forgiven and loved.
Service ends or chapel is finished and we stand up and somewhat interact with those around us, murmuring 'fine' in response to all of the 'how are you's?', and not because we don't want to answer honestly but because we don't feel like we can answer honestly.
When I ask someone how they are doing, do I truly want to know?
Then we mosey down the steps and out the doors and drive all the way home where we pull into our man-made garages that lead directly into our massive houses, and this is where community is choked out of existence.
We have literally built our neighbors out of our lives.
We live our days without engaging with our actual neighbors, much less the ones that God puts in our path at the grocery store or at the park or anywhere else that we interact with any other human being.
I'm memorizing the Sermon on the Mount for a class right now, and I've been incredibly convicted about my realness. Do I take it seriously? Do I actually live out the words of the man I claim to believe as the Savior of the world?
Do I actually strive to be more and more like Jesus every day? Gentle-hearted, edifying with my words, loving with my actions, and truthful with my life?
When I dwell on what community is supposed to look like according to the Bible, my focus always returns to the Church, meaning the body of believers. As Christ followers, the early Christians were thriving on the love of the Lord. As they met in their houses secretly or proclaimed the Gospel while dodging verbal insults, they gave all they had to share the love of Christ. Most of the first disciples died for their faith. Their sense of community and the reason behind it literally affected whether they would live or die. They gave it all up for love.
It's both a blessing and a curse to not be oppressed for our faith as Christians living in America.
I'm thankful for the freedom to worship and pray and proclaim truth over another person without glancing over my shoulder ever five seconds, but because I am not oppressed for my faith I lose the desperation of it all. I forget how valuable the love of God is.
I seclude to isolation. I withdraw to comfortableness. I refrain from community.
I lose realness.
Over the years there have been movements centered around reforming the Church back to its raw, simple, biblical state, and though I am not against buildings and decorations or big bands and fancy stages, I sometimes wonder if we surround ourselves with so much crap that we forget who and why we are worshipping in the first place.
There is a problem when the Church morphs from being the most honest place to simply the happiest place. Who cares if our faces show smiles if our hearts are breaking inside?
Or worse-we forget we are broken at all and suddenly our pride becomes our best friend. We don't think we truly need each other, let alone our Father in Heaven. Why be vulnerable when it's far easier to be comfortably complacent?
There is nothing inherently wrong with polished nails, but there is a far greater beauty to those that have life's dirt underneath them.
The walls of a church building can indeed be a blessing, providing as shelter from the rain and cold outside, but when the ones inside the walls forget about those who are outside of them, then the kingdom of God has been ignored.
Of course there is nothing evil about dressing up or having picture-perfect hair, but oftentimes I wonder where my heart is at if my outer appearance takes priority over my inner transformation.
If I could write a letter to the First Century Church, I'd beg for wisdom. I wish Paul could write letters to our North American churches today-to our North American universities and organizations and ministries-and encourage all believers to hold tight to what is true. I wish I could open the mailbox tomorrow and find a letter from James the brother of Jesus telling me what true religion is: to love the widowed and the orphan.
Oh wait, those letters have already been written to us.
This brings me to yet another conviction: sometimes I need to bring it back to the Bible. Self-help books are wonderful and topical resources can be beyond beneficial, but when I begin to replace truth that reminds me to love other people with encouraging words that only help my own spiritual state, then I have lost the entire message of the Gospel.
Who cares if I am filling myself up but not pouring out onto other people?
A post soon to come.
Anyway, my soul has been yearning for realness in various forms. I've been slowly learning to let go of certain areas of my life in order to overwhelm my flesh with the Spirit. I've been praying to truly have the eyes of Jesus in order to further the kingdom. God has been teaching me what it means to pick up my cross daily and follow Him. To die to myself in the best way possible. It looks different for everyone. It may mean simplifying your wardrobe. Weaning yourself off of social media. Creating intentional time for your family or friends. Studying the attributes of God to know His heart more. Figure out what it means for you to live in the world but not of the world. Find out what brings your soul freedom so you can love other people. Find out what your idols are so you can let God ruin them and pinpoint the demons in your life so that you can choose to not indulge them. Let go of what your flesh is clinging to. I'm learning to carry my cross daily, and as a reminder my next tattoo will be a small, uniquely created cross on my left back shoulder blade.
'For to live is Christ, and to die is gain'.
Over the past few months, I've encountered (through various scenarios) some of the most real people I've ever met: ones addicted to drugs, ones arrested, ones who hurt, lie, cheat, steal, and the list goes on and on. As 'swear words' would come pouring out of their mouths during our coffee times or interactions, I would think about a blog post from Richard Beck and his issue with Christians who wring their hands at such happenings.
Why is such an occurrence so common? It's true and we all know it-multitudes of people are judged because of the words they say or how rough around the edges they appear at first glance. Why can't we simply overstep our uncomfortableness, our stereotypes, and our assumptions and love?
This past weekend I had a friend tell me that she had someone recently discriminate against her because of her physical appearance. This friend is far from perfect, as every human is, but she loves Jesus. A man assumed she didn't simply because of how she looked. He didn't even know her name-and I doubt he cared-as he began to interrogate her.
At least he talked to her, though, because often we become so afraid of other people that we simply do not utter a single word.
When it comes to community-the sole purpose of the Church-we must ask ourselves if anyone would feel comfortable walking through our doors. Would they feel loved? Would they truly think they could 'come as they are'? If the answer is no, then perhaps our communities should be rethought.
We may not necessarily need the exact form of the First Century Church, but we definitely need to remember that we need the realness.
This love of Christ-this call for the Christian-is not easy, simple, or clean. It is found at the heart of living real, loving well, and traveling through the messy. As we address our brokenness we are to pray for sanctification. As we live, we are meant to love. Wherever you find yourself in the midst of His love right at this moment, I encourage you to explore it with me. Delve deeper into the love of God.
See Jesus in a new light today. Ask yourself whether or not He truly meant the words He spoke-the words He lived. If your answer is yes, then what does mean for you?
