New Family of God

I have been reading a book called, “Jesus and Community,” by a guy Gerhard Lohfink; it is really good. The following is the recaps of a few of the chapters, that are under his part of the book about new testament communities. The recaps are brief but I wanted to just throw them just to get some activity going on the blog. Also, I was wondering just how we should react when we study theology and see concepts and things that are so significant for the new testament church, and are not even thought or known about for the church today? The most striking example for me was the apparently inherently accepted idea that upon receiving the holy spirit one was more a part of the family of God than even their own family. This notion apparently shaped a lot of the way that the church’s social order  and behavior toward one another was formed.

III. The Elimination of Social Barriers

 

This elimination of social barriers in the new people of God, formed post-easter, is possible only in light of the fulfillment of prophecies such as Joel 3.1-5 and Ezekial 36.26,27 (among others). Lohfink emphasizes that all of the passages which mention that there is neither Jew nor Greek, rich nor poor, male nor female, slave nor free etc. these are always accompanied by the idea that we are one in Christ (Gal 3.25-27), or by  One spirit we are one body (1 Cor. 12.12,13) also, in the new nature there Christ is all in all (Col 3.10,11). In regards to slave and free and the charge that some have made against Paul’s apparent lack of opposition to the culture slave system, Lohflink emphasized that though the whole world will eventually be transformed, there first must be a people of God whom have in action the eschatological reign of God. I thought the most notable point is the idea that it is the presence of the spirit which enabled the elimination of social barriers. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and they shall all prophecy.

 

IV. The Praxis of “Togetherness”

 

The chapters purpose was to examine how Jesus’ response to the reign of God was continued by the early church. Right in line with the idea of a community that has no social barriers, and has been reconciled in the spirit, is the idea of being “built up.” The word allelon is the word that is translated “one another,” this is obviously a very prominent phrase in the exhortations laid out in the new testament. Lohfink focuses on the idea of “building up” one another, saying that the concept of edification is particularly relevant to these ends. Jeremiah was called by God to build up, Paul evidently carried this same call (2 Cor. 10.7-9, 13.10). While edification is mostly taken to mean the building up of individuals in the body, Lohfink emphasizes that it is most likely more along the lines of the way that Jesus gathered together the people of God. Edification is the building up of God’s people, and participating in Jesus work of gathering Israel together is the purpose of edification. This is a responsibility that all members share, not only chosen individuals.

Lohfink also expressed that in many liturgies now produce “being next to one another” and not “togetherness.” He references 1 Cor. 14.26.  We have forgotten that God’s focus was never on creating a collection of pious individuals but a people in fellowship with Him and one another. The emphasis in the New Testament on “one another” is for this sake, all of the exhortations regarding one another are for the building up (or, gathering) of God’s people, edification was a foundational method which Paul employed to these ends.

 

V. Brotherly Love

 

This chapter has to do with the concept that with the pouring out of the spirit and the realization that with the “experience of the spirit comes the experience of being a child of God,” all adds up to the creation of the new family. Mark 3.35 and 10.29,30. In the New Testament Church this establishment of the new family was expressed most prominently in the early house churches which operated as the hub of the open family. In every city there were one or more houses which were offered up for the community and visitors. It was in this setting the brotherly love was practiced. Lohfink goes on to explain that there is a distinct difference between brotherly love (or, agape), or love for one another and universal love. He emphasizes that when love of neighbor is mentioned it is an exhortation to practice brotherly love for the members of the new family more so that it is a charge to practice good deeds upon all people. “When the New Testament speaks of interpersonal love it means almost exclusively fraternal love within the communities.”

In regards to enemy love, the New Testament Church was not cheapening or ignoring this concept, but this love is surely not the same “mutual love” spoken of elsewhere; enemy love includes giving food to the hungary, blessing those who persecute, giving to anyone who begs. The significant point here is not that “love your neighbor” refers only to love of brethren, but rather, because neighbor is most likely referring to the members of the new family we ought to see neighborly love properly exemplified in the body. Those outside of the brethren are not to be ignored, after all the Family of God is ever inclusive and open.

 

Should Christians Shop at Wal-Mart?: A Roundabout Answer

This is an essay I wrote about Wal-Mart and Christianity. My basic thesis was; Wal-Mart is an ethical and prosperous business, but still antithetical to an ethic based in the Christian narrative.

Catholic market or catholic church?

I just read a great article by D.Stephen Long. He seriously challenges the naivety of the church in terms of the neutrality of the market. He draws out the argument that the market has come to replace the medieval church as the hope of salvation for humanity world-wide.

He makes a great point about the correlation between the market and the state, drawing out the connections between the use of ‘low-intensity’ violence and the benefits this offers to the global market.

There is also a great piece about the way that the church has accommodated the advancement of the market.

Give it a read and give us some comments on it.

Missional Church in 2 minutes

The new Bishop of The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, Bishop Brian Prior, put this up on his blog. Thanks Bishop. I thought I’d pass it along.

Just a bit of dreaming…

What will life in the church look like for us?

In light of much of our discussions of late, I feel as if we have all come to a point where we simply want to begin to do those things which God has laid on our hearts, namely to live and learn how to be the church, to be disciples of Jesus, to follow him whole-heartedly, to live in the kingdom and to hope always for its coming. But how best can we foster such a desire? What sort of steps can we take to begin to take part in such a life?

I know that Ike, Joe and myself are preparing for what this might look like, and so I thought it would be useful for us to all begin to share these ideas together to begin to have some form laid out which we can work with and adapt as and when situations change. These are just some rambled thoughts of mine, but I would rather dream together than just share mine.

What we have been envisioning is life together. I hope that sometime next by next summer/fall (2011) we can have a house into which we can move for this to start in a concrete way. Hopefully, by God’s provision and hard work we can pay for a house in full.

This house will be space in which we can learn small things such as patience, forgiveness, servanthood, and love for one another as we live day in and day out together. I do not want to make this sound more romantic than it is. We all know that living with people is a challenge in and of itself, however, we also know that simply acknowledging that we are brothers and sisters in Christ once or twice a week during church meetings falls short of the community which we are a part of.

In this house, I would suggest we follow a sort of ‘Bonhoeffer-ian’ style household liturgy. What I mean by that is that it would be important for us to have our desires transformed by things such as prayer, communion, singing, and scripture reading. This is of course very adaptable, but I think it would be significant in us being grounded in the reality of the kingdom rather than in the pseudoreality of the American dream.

I would hope that in this community we could also learn how to live in God’s economy. This will call for a abandoning of the corrosive effects of capitalism and it’s definitions of value. The money that we may earn from various jobs is not the end all be all of value. What is valuable to us are those things, actions, materials, which move us in a way which is directed to the kingdom. This will call for us to be aware of what money is and what it’s hold on our souls means for us who are God’s. Things like where we spend money and how we spend money, how we earn money and what value our work has beyond money will need to be worked through carefully and with a vision of the kingdom come. It will also call for us to be creative and inventive in how we go about day to day things such as eating, drinking, washing, etc.

On this topic, I also like the idea of establishing significant links between the urban (our house), suburban (Mom and Dad and others from Christ Church) and rural lifestyles (Andy and Israel?). Rather than isolating ourselves into any one of these realms we hope to foster a holistic community that is associated with the church in each of these contexts. I envision the passage of produce from rural churches to suburban churches to urban, and vice a versa. I think there could be significant lessons learned as we begin to take not of the faces and people that produce things for us to use towards the common good. Imagine a piece of furniture that our friends have made at there rural sawmill, would it not represent something about the abundance of God’s gift economy as it sits in the living room of an urban communities house? Or, imagine a group of young urban teenagers taking a weekend trip to a farm to work in the fields, to build things, make things, be productive, to have big bonfires, to breathe fresh air? Would this not be transformative for these young people who have grown up in harsh urban environments, where food is conceived of as always packaged, where things are only valuable because of a price tag? In the same way, would it not be beneficial for rural citizens to be connected to the cities, to the people they provide for? Would it not be good for young people who grow up on the farm to see what God is doing in the cities of this country? For those who live in the suburbs, perhaps this could be an avenue by which they can begin to re-imagine the space that they have been given. Perhaps they can begin to foster an ‘urban’ like sense of culture and community in the suburbs, while at the same time learning from the rural how to produce sustainably, how to conceive of nature? Think of this connection as an extended family who we visit with, welcome to our homes, pray for, stand with and commit to.

This house will be a place where God can demonstrate the presence of the kingdom and the love of God. We will always be intentional about our neighbours, about how we can give to them, about how we can serve them. This will be shaped in a large part on what community we end up moving into, but what is it that we imagine happening in the neighbourhoods we move to?

Another thing that I feel called to do is to help re-build bridges between local churches. We can never be separated from the church, but will we be a local church? Will our community be a local church? We won’t have a building, an office, a worship team, deacons, etc. But we will worship God together, we will meet together, we will build each other up. I suppose that this needs a definition of what a local church is, a discussion that does probably need some time to develop. But either way, we will be about the church through and through and will seek to connect those churches in our locality especially through parties, gathering, events and simply inviting people to live life together with us and each other. Maybe local church pastors will cross paths at a Saturday brunch with no agenda, no alternative purpose for gathering, other than being together and enjoying God’s gift of food and fellowship. Who knows, but if we are intentional about things like this, walls will be broken down and unity will begin to be forged again in the church.

Anyway, just keep these things in mind, lets add to and develop these things. Ike and John feel free to edit the post if you want, it might keep it more coherent rather than just a string of comments…. either way.

Jesus, Empire and the Church Youth Group

I am preaching this Sunday night at the youth service at the church here in Liverpool. I am going to attempt to do a sort of narrative style sermon based on Matthew 4:18-25. What I am going to try to do is look at the narrative from the perspective of a disciple. I have chosen Andrew, just because there isn’t a lot of information given about him.

What I was thinking I would do is basically build the character, Andrew, into someone who can represent the mindset of a Jewish fisherman in Galilee. So, in some sort of ‘dialogue’ I will have him express some of his hopes, some of his frustrations, what he would like to do with his life, etc. Then show him being called by Jesus, deciding to follow him, seeing him heal, cast out demons, and proclaim the Kingdom. Then, skip forward to him talking to someone post-resurrection about the day he was called to follow and what that meant in his life.

As I was researching this, to see what sort of things he might have been hoping for, thinking about, what types of things were going on in his day, I cam across a guy named Richard A. Horsley. He makes some pretty hefty claims about Jesus’ ministry, especially concerning the conception of the kingdom as polemical to Roman rule.

Check it out… Jesus and Empire RICHARD A. HORSLEY

I am wondering how much I can draw on this stuff about the Empire in this sermon I am doing with the young people in this church. Is it too controversial?

To me, what Horsley says in that essay echoes a lot of what NT Wright and others would support. I also feel like not making these foci of the gospel clear and applicable lessens the dynamic of the ministry of Jesus and the church.

Church leaders need business principles to lead churches effectively.

Here is an essay that I wrote recently. I tried to communicate some of the inherent difficulties with applying business principles to Church contexts, especially by looking at some of the anthropological claims about who people are and what they are to do. There is a stark contrast between the claims made by capitalism (practiced in business management) and Christianity (practiced in sacramental worship and Spirit filled communities). Have a look, I loaded it as a pdf. because I thought it would be too much to post the whole thing up here.

Church Leaders and Business management