I stumbled across this video today and thought I would share it here. But I want to ask you, What is the church?
I mean biblically, what can we say about the church?
Or, when you hear the word “church” what images, words, and/or feelings pop into your mind?
In the New Testament, Jesus reiterates the need to “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Much of his earthly ministry was neighborhood-centered as he wandered from village to village and ministered in houses and streets. Many of his parables were drawn from aspects of neighborhood life, illustrating the presence and challenge of God “in our own back yard.”
Elsewhere in the New Testament the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is restated no less than nine times. Paul describes this injunction as a summary of “the entire law” (Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14), and James as the “royal law” (James 2:8).
These injunctions should color all proximate relationships, whether with those at some distance or those who are close by. Among theologians it is probably Karl Barth who has highlighted the importance of neighbor as a criterion for our behavior. He argues that our responsibility to our neighbor is the concrete form that the Word of God takes in our daily life. This concern and compassion for our neighbors takes us beyond our inherent capacity for self-interest, leads us to repentance since we so often fail those around us, challenges us to do what is lawful and right for us to do, and allows us to see our neighbor through the eyes of God.
Who are the people in your neighborhood?
Keep your head up.
Rather than something we choose or decide, our vocation—like our unique creation—is an incredible gift from God. In calling us, God has graced us “according to the measure of Christ’s gift,” (Ephesians 4:7) and not, as we would expect, by the measure of our gifts.
And Christ’s gift cannot be measured, Paul writes, for we are “blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing” and share in “the riches of [God’s] glorious inheritance among the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:3; 18-19).
To root our understanding of vocation in God’s own abundance, then we see what a mistake it is to think about vocation simply as finding our talents and figuring out what to do with them. Rather and more fully, it is discovering and living out of the infinite and gratuitous abundance of God. In this way, we will begin to discover, occasionally like a flash of lightning, but more often haltingly and by fits and starts, what we are called to do in our lives.
Furthermore, since the church is missional by its very nature, then the life and calling of every Christian person is fundamentally missional. This means that regardless of our “occupation” we all have the same “vocation.” Jesus said, “You will be my witness” (Acts 1:8).
Darrell Guder writes, “Witness is not merely one of the several things that Christians are called to do. Witness is the comprehensive definition of what a Christian is.”
In short, everything that the Christian community is and does relates, either obediently or disobediently, to our vocation – You will be my witness.
Can I get a witness?
Advance 2010 – What is the state of the church today? from Vintage21 Church on Vimeo.
Luke 10 might be read as suggesting that the authority given the disciples is the power to enter into a village and “tell them what is what.” I would suggest, however, that the story invites us to find an authority, an authenticity, whose source is Christ, in the midst of those to whom we are sent, be they far or near.
That invitation is found in the repetition of Jesus’ command to eat and drink what is provided for you (Luke 10:7-8).
It is curious that Jesus would repeat this admonition. The first time, one might say, “Yes, eat what they give you, don’t go around to the richest house with the best food.”
But when the charge is repeated almost immediately, one has to pause and ponder.
Here are the seventy are sent out to all the places that Jesus is to visit, filled with great power to heal and to exorcize, and Jesus is concerned that the missionaries not spend time over the wine-list or order à la carte!
What is so important about receiving table hospitality that the charge is made twice?
On a trip to Guatemala trip we encouraged our people, frightened that the food and water would make them sick, to eat what was set before them because by doing so we were acknowledging the gift that our hosts were giving us.
Indeed, every time we sat to eat rice and beans, we received not only the standard fare of most of Latin America but, more profoundly, also a steady diet of honor and humility.
To be served rice and beans prepared over a stone oven fueled by wood in dirt-floor houses on the only little table in the house was an honor.
To be told the stories of our host families’ lives over the meal was an honor.
To have the tiny house in which we were guests had been rearranged so that we might be comfortable was an honor.
The tendency, of course, was to raise one objection or another, that what was set before us was not to our taste or, more typically among our group, that it was too much for a poor family to spend on rich North Americans.
These objections were both true, perhaps, but for the sake of the gift and for the sake of learning to receive, it was important to eat what was set before us.
And when our host village offered up an entire pig to be roasted to feed our entire team, it was truly humbling.
Nobody else in the village was eating roasted pork tamales, so I had to wonder, Is this the “wage” that the laborer deserves (10:7)?
Not the food, but humility in the presence of gracious hospitality?
And is this not what we are in there to “do.”
We want so eagerly to do mission, to get on with it, to bring help to those in need, to preach good news to those who live without hope.
So: “What’s the matter? You so busy you can’t set down to eat something?”
Before we begin to proclaim or heal or build anything, we are told twice to be served by the folk we are intending to serve.
Where do we find strength and courage and grace infusing our life together?
Perhaps people in your neighborhood would rearranging their homes and their hearts to receive you?
You have noticed it. You have felt the calming peace of Christ when you have been invited into sacred moments in the life of someone who is near.
You have fallen to your knees at the quiet faithfulness of the people who are close to you.
It is an overwhelming honor to be invited into the hearts of people, to have them share their hopes and dreams, faith and doubts.
Where are our persons of peace?
Next door?
At work?
At the bar?
Our calling in the text is to proclaim the reign of God with as much power as possible, to heal the sick and cast out demons, and to announce boldly the nearness of God. But if we are to do so, it will be from the authority given to us as we encounter Jesus in the generosity of those to whom we proclaim.
Luke 10:2 – “He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
The assumption in praying for workers is that with conversion come disciples who are ready to share the good news.
When he made you a Christian – Just as the Father sent Jesus, Jesus has sent you.
And while you are going you are to earnestly pray, beg, beseech God to send more.
Simply stated: Mission occurs in the context of prayer and God’s sovereignty.
A ripe harvest is ready for the reaping, but few servants are ready to gather the grain. So to pray for more workers links mission and conversion with expansion of the pool of laborers.
In the video below hospitality is used as a wonderful metaphor for salvation. We are all strangers and have been invited in.
Through Lent and Passiontide there has been a long tradition in the churh of meditating on the events of the suffering and death of Jesus, called the Stations of the Cross. In the later part of the twentieth century a complementary devotion emerged, called the Stations of the Resurrection.
By using the resurrection appearances as a focus for reflection and meditation, we have the opportunity to appreciate and celebrate the mysteries of the resurrection of Jesus. These appearances are more than history, they are encounters with the risen Lord.
I. The Earthquake (Matthew 28:2-4)
II. Mary finds the empty tomb (John 20:1-2)
III. The disciples run to the empty tomb (John 30:3-8)
IV. The angel appears to the women (Luke 24:2-9)
V. Jesus meets the women (Matthew 28:9-10)
VI. The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:28-35)
VII. Jesus appears to the disciples (John 20:19-20)
VIII. Jesus promises the Spirit (Luke 24:44-49)
IX. Jesus commissions the disciples (John 20:21)
X. Jesus breathes the Spirit onto the disciples (John 20:22-23)
XI. Jesus confronts Peter (John 21:15-19)
XII. Jesus commissions the disciples on the mountain (Matthew 28:16-20)
XII. The Ascension
XIV. Pentecost
XV. Jesus appears to Saul (Acts 9:1-18)
I hope to encourage you to spend the next few weeks until Pentecost (June 12) meditating on the resurrection.
It seems that awarness about sex trafficking is growing. Java Joe’s regular, Rebekah Mason is hosting an event to raise awareness of sex trafficking and money for medical supplies that will go to clinics that treat victims of this horror. A documentary film that she made during a recent trip to India will be shown. If you live in the area, consider attending this important event, May 1 at Cumberland University’s Fine Art Center.
