Some might say community begins with opening up to other people. I believe it begins with transparency before God. Two people, each in a trusting relationship with God, when they come together, have the basis and possibility of real community. If I am open before God and fully trust him and you are too, we cannot help but find a way to trust each other.
The work in a relationship is not in hammering out agreements and contracts. The hard work is making room for Christ in the relationship. And it is not really that hard. It actually takes less effort to include the Lord than to exclude him. On the other hand, a hardened attitude of self-sufficiency is a community killer.
There are steps that we can take to prepare ourselves for dynamic Christ-centered community.
1. Give God everything, the good and the bad. In 2 Samuel 22 David writes: "God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him."
God is ready to act. But he must have all the pieces. To hold back anything from God is self-sabotaging and relationship sabotaging.
2. Give God something new to work with. David said, "When I cleaned up my act, he gave me a fresh start."
New attitudes, new priorities and new values become the building blocks of a fresh start. This is the essence of repentance, which is the only way we have of showing our love for God. Jesus said, "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you" (John 14:15).
3. Examine God's ways and align with him. David goes on, "I've kept alert to God's ways; I haven't taken God for granted. Everyday I review the ways he works, I try not to miss a trick."
Strategic planning that takes no account of God's involvement is no better than aimless living. This principle is expressed beautifully in the following prayer, penned by Russian Orthodox bishop Philaret of Moscow: "Help me to rely upon your holy will at every moment.... Teach me to treat whatever may happen to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that your will governs all."
The story of Job teaches us that while God's ways cannot be second-guessed, they can be discerned with open eyes and ears. Job says, "I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all first hand--from my own eyes and ears" (Job 42:5).
St. Paul also helps us understandGod's generosity in revealing his plans to us who trust him. "God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface.... But you've seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open for you.... The Spirit brings out what God planned all along" (1 Cor. 2:7-10).
4. Cooperate with God's restorative work in you. David put it this way: "I feel put back together, and I'm watching my step."
After the total devastation of his life, and a stern, confrontational conversation with God, Job finally grasps the attitude he needs: "I'm convinced," he says to God, "You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans."
Now, God gives Job a ministry of intercession for the friends whose counsel had not been wise or helpful, and whose own relationships with God were in trouble. Job prays for his friends and God is pleased to answer his request. Why did God require Job to pray? By seeking the spiritual restoration of his friends, Job's active ministry of prayer reestablished him in healthy human community and prepared him to receive the restoration of his former wealth. But now it would be with a fresh appreciation with the proper attitude about the value of people and the value of money. "The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor, the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea (Proverbs 29:7).
5. Get ready for a new autobiography. David concludes his thought: "God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes."
David was an adulterer and murderer. Moses committed murder in the Egyptian slave camp. Rahab was a prostitute. Paul was a committed persecutor of Christians. Get the idea? Because they cooperated with God's restorative work, the story of their lives was rewritten with the God-glorifying alternate ending.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Correctly discerning the free gift of eternal life
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the last verse in St. Paul's discussion of grace. It is most often quoted to invite people to pray a sinner's prayer and be saved. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 6 defines grace as God's aggressive forgiveness of sin. The phrase aggressive forgiveness helps us understand God as the initiator. Forgiveness comes at a high price, namely the reconciling, atoning death of Jesus. I cannot initiate eternal life with any amount of money or effort. Any life worth living must be lived in God's household on God's terms and from resources that God provides.
Paul clearly believes that God's household has a front door, called baptism. Some people come alone, others with their whole family. To understand verse 23, you have to read it through the prism of the middle of the chapter, say verses 3-9. Here is some of it....
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.
With entry into the household come the lavish resources of God, including the free gift of eternal life.
The economy outside God's household resembles freedom. Each person has totally free will. So, if you spend your life distancing yourself from God, you will pay yourself what you request. We get to do whatever we please and earn the pension of death. On the other hand, as members of God's household we freely choose to consider ourselves dead to sin and thereby receive the pension of eternal life.
I don't believe in transactional baptism. Water is not a magic brew and "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is not a magic incantation. I believe rather, in covenantal baptism by which something very real takes place in the context of a faith community. Baptism makes present God's "aggressive forgiveness" for the baptized and for witnesses. The other active ingredient is personal desire. If I want God's forgiveness, he freely grants it. Cooperation in the baptismal event signals my desire to God and so he releases his grace in my life.
You can establish a pre-baptismal relationship with God that is based on the baptismal covenant and rooted in God's promise to answer all who call on him. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jeremiah 33:3, NRSV). Among those "hidden things" are recovery and healing and abundant life (33:6). The baptismal covenant is between God and the community of those who trust him. An unbaptized person can enjoy covenantal blessings simply by association and alignment with the community of those who trust God in Christ. God answers those who call him.
But there is danger to be avoided here: That of reducing water baptism to a mere representation of an inward reality, which logically, would make the whole issue of baptism moot, because it would become optional. It would be correct to regard water baptism as an outward manifestation of certain spiritual realities. First, emancipation from the wages of sin. And secondly, reception into the eternal, committed community of Christ, each one walking in newness of life. This is key: The spiritual reality of forgiveness, community and new life demands an initiation. That is why Jesus mandated it. Therefore, no unbaptized Christ-follower should intentionally delay reception of baptism or consider it to be optional.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the last verse in St. Paul's discussion of grace. It is most often quoted to invite people to pray a sinner's prayer and be saved. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 6 defines grace as God's aggressive forgiveness of sin. The phrase aggressive forgiveness helps us understand God as the initiator. Forgiveness comes at a high price, namely the reconciling, atoning death of Jesus. I cannot initiate eternal life with any amount of money or effort. Any life worth living must be lived in God's household on God's terms and from resources that God provides.
Paul clearly believes that God's household has a front door, called baptism. Some people come alone, others with their whole family. To understand verse 23, you have to read it through the prism of the middle of the chapter, say verses 3-9. Here is some of it....
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.
With entry into the household come the lavish resources of God, including the free gift of eternal life.
The economy outside God's household resembles freedom. Each person has totally free will. So, if you spend your life distancing yourself from God, you will pay yourself what you request. We get to do whatever we please and earn the pension of death. On the other hand, as members of God's household we freely choose to consider ourselves dead to sin and thereby receive the pension of eternal life.
I don't believe in transactional baptism. Water is not a magic brew and "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is not a magic incantation. I believe rather, in covenantal baptism by which something very real takes place in the context of a faith community. Baptism makes present God's "aggressive forgiveness" for the baptized and for witnesses. The other active ingredient is personal desire. If I want God's forgiveness, he freely grants it. Cooperation in the baptismal event signals my desire to God and so he releases his grace in my life.
You can establish a pre-baptismal relationship with God that is based on the baptismal covenant and rooted in God's promise to answer all who call on him. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jeremiah 33:3, NRSV). Among those "hidden things" are recovery and healing and abundant life (33:6). The baptismal covenant is between God and the community of those who trust him. An unbaptized person can enjoy covenantal blessings simply by association and alignment with the community of those who trust God in Christ. God answers those who call him.
But there is danger to be avoided here: That of reducing water baptism to a mere representation of an inward reality, which logically, would make the whole issue of baptism moot, because it would become optional. It would be correct to regard water baptism as an outward manifestation of certain spiritual realities. First, emancipation from the wages of sin. And secondly, reception into the eternal, committed community of Christ, each one walking in newness of life. This is key: The spiritual reality of forgiveness, community and new life demands an initiation. That is why Jesus mandated it. Therefore, no unbaptized Christ-follower should intentionally delay reception of baptism or consider it to be optional.
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