ReJesus Part Four

Lots of good stuff here, so I'll just put up some quotes without my editorializing.

Regarding the Shema ("Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One"):

"In radical contrast to the belief in many gods, Yahweh is the one and only God who redeems his people and subsequently requires that they love him as he had already loved them.  And the nature of this God and the form this love of God should take is made known to us in Scripture, nature, and history.  He is good, holy, just, and compassionate, and he requires us to be the same.  To be in relationship with him therefore brings meaning, focus, moral vision, and an ultimate reality to human life."

"There must be no limitation to the claim that Jesus makes over all of life.  When we get this right, Jesus' lordship takes on a missional edge.  "Jesus is Lord" is more like a rallying war cry than a mere theological statement."

Regarding worship, discipleship, and mission:

"Worship is nothing less than offering our whole lives back to God through Jesus.  It is taking all the elements that make up human life (family, friendships, money, work, nation, etc.) and presenting them back to the One who gives them their ultimate meaning in the first place.  But what is discipleship if it is not the same type of action?  Surely, discipleship is taking all that is me (body and soul) and over a lifetime, directing it to God through Jesus.  But the discerning reader would immediately notice that this sounds like a good definition of mission as well, because mission, insofar that it involves us, entails the redemption of a lost world and bringing it back to God."

Regarding how we understand God by understanding Christ:

"As startling as this sounds, we can say with confidence that the thinking about God in the early church did not begin with reflecting on God, it focused first on Jesus.  Jesus reveals himself not only as the door into salvation (John 10:7) but also the entry point into the knowledge of the one true God.  Kinlaw makes this clear: "Logically this means we should begin our theological studies with Jesus, who, as John said, "has made him [God] known" (John 1:18).""

From N.T. Wright:  "My proposal is not that we know what the word "god" means, and manage somehow to fit Jesus into that.  Instead, I suggest, that we think historically about a young Jew, possessed of a desperately risky, indeed apparently crazy, vocation, riding into Jerusalem in tears, denouncing the Temple, and dying on a Roman cross - and we somehow allow our meaning for the world "god" to be recentered around that point."

My reactions and takeaways:

1.  I like the idea how mission and worship and discipleship are all the same thing, really.  My tendency is to try to over-complicate things, to standardize whatever I touch.  This helps to keep it simple. 

2.  I like the idea of thinking about God by thinking about Jesus.  It puts a more tangible understanding that isn't so esoteric that you can't really "know".  

3.  I notice that I often say "Christ" rather than "Jesus" when referring to him.  I'm working on calling him by his name rather than his title.

ReJesus Part Three

I've had several posts and numerous conversations that expressed my disdain for "church" as we commonly know it.  I think that this might lead some to believe that I have little value for the church.  That is not the case at all.  In fact, I love the church!  But I'm not content to stick my head in the sand and pretend that nothing is wrong.  And while I think there is value in all church expressions, I think it is appropriate to evaluate our way of ordering our life and churches.

Hirsch and Frost echo this passion for reJesusing the church.  We must "[evaluate] the validity of our preferred expression of church by cues offered by Jesus the Messiah.  Unless we can validate who we are and what we do by lining ourselves up with the measure that Jesus laid down in his life and work, then what in God's name are we doing?"

My passion for church used to lie in raw pragmatism, the "whatever it takes" attitude to get people to show up.  While I'm still opinionated, my passion is no longer about WHAT we do but WHY we do it.  

Hirsch and Frost say that Christianity without Christ equal Religion.  Religion in the worst sense of the word:  rote, meaningless, and "outsourced" to the institution.  Hence, the need to continually reJesus.  In fact, if anything Christianity is anti-religion.  The authors examine the Pharisees and conclude "they are us, or at least what we can become if we are not attentive to the dynamics involved in the slow erosion of faithfulness into religion.  They are living mirrors of what can happen to all well-meaning and sincere people when they lose focus on the central issues of faith....The horror of this realization is complete when we remember that these fine, upright, devoted, religious people - people not unlike us - were hell-bent on murdering Jesus."

"The world of difference exists in how we inhabit the theology we adhere to - how we believe it.  Divorced from love, humility, and mercy, it readily becomes a dead and/or oppressive religion."

There's a way of life that Jesus brings that no longer needs religion.  Jesus upset the religious order of the day, and continues to do so.  Those who use religion for power and personal gain will oppose this radical call of Christ because he invalidates their system of control.

In Lost, the Islanders have found themselves skipping through time.  This nearly killed Desmond, until he discovered his "constant", the one person who could realign himself and the world around him.  For the church, Jesus is our constant.  And we must frequently remind ourselves of the mission of Christ and trust that his mission will bring about the impact that he promises.  

What I've taken away from this chapter: 

1.  My leadership at Resonate Community requires me to personally and corporately remind us of Jesus and his mission.  

2.  "What we do" must constantly be informed by Christ within our context.  Specifically, this means calling on others to take the mission of Christ for themselves and their families.

3.  The "scorecard" for us as a church must reflect our understanding of Christ's mission first and foremost.  This means that traditional means of measurement (attendance, finances, buildings) are no longer viable to determine the health of our church.  And the lack of these things doesn't necessarily mean we have it right.