The unity of the Spirit

Today, a reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it is said,

"When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people."

(When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:1-16 – NRSV

Grace and peace to you as one people,

Ron

Going or staying ...

Did you ever wonder where the sword came from? Preaching has been heard, but without hearing so much as the rattle of a scabbard. Healings have been seen, but without seeing the slightest gleam of metal. Bread has been broken and shared without using something even as sharp as a butter knife. Even on the last night, Jesus doesn’t ask his disciples to be holy warriors, but prayer warriors.

Then, swoop! Out of apparently nowhere, here comes the sword of Peter, and there goes the ear of Malchus. That’s an odd break in the story, isn’t it?

Here’s something else that’s odd. Instead of this sword blow precipitating an immediate “knock down - drag out,” there is this moment where everyone but Peter stops in disbelief. The moment lasts long enough for Jesus to say, “No more of this.” And there isn’t any more of that. Jesus doesn’t lose one of his people, yet neither does the other side. Jesus doesn’t save the life of Peter with a “powerful” sword, but with a “gentle” restoration of a severed ear. Is it chasing the rabbit to ask which one reveals greater power, and which one might lead to stronger community?

The act of Peter is totally out of character with the nature of his community (even though he doesn’t get that yet). Yet isn’t the idea of the fierce Israelite warrior a part of the Hebrew culture? Doesn’t it exist even today? Peter has heard of many swords in his study of scripture; his mistake was in thinking that God’s story involved swords in the hands of God’s people at this stage of the narrative. Peter was wrong, and more than that, he was out of step with the community of Jesus.

Yet, if we step back, we’ll remember that there were at least two rebels in the Garden that night. Two souls who did not understand the community of Jesus. Two men who misunderstood which way the story of the people of God was supposed to go. Peter and Judas.

Yesterday we discussed rebellion against the people of God, and the question, “What do we do when someone in the community makes up their own rules?” In the story of the Garden, we have two different examples of rebellion against the community: Peter and Judas. Yet the outcome of their making up their own rules, their anti-social behavior, is so different. Why?

Judas not only rebelled against the community, he withdrew from it. He pulled away from the guidance of the head of that community, and from the wisdom of the community itself. What if Judas had not removed himself? Could the story have been different? After all, Paul killed more people in the Jesus community than Judas did. We’ll never know because he never came back, did he?

But what about Peter? Peter keeps messing up, but he keeps coming back to the community. He is knocked silly more times than Rocky Balboa, but he keeps coming back. He submits to the counsel of Jesus as the head of the body. He submits, even as an apostle, to the community (Acts 15). And he even submits to the wisdom of a fellow member of the community, Paul (Gal 2).

We are all going to make mistakes. We are all going to do things that weaken, instead of strengthen, the community. But as long as we doggedly remain within the community, there is hope. We must repent when we find wrong in our lives. We must yield to the leadership of Jesus, and allow his Word to convict us when we are wrong and to affirm us when we are right. We must submit ourselves in accountability to our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they can help us remain among them.

If we don’t do these things, then we are like the sinful man that Paul mentions in Corinthians. He would not be self guided, he would not listen to the voice of Jesus, and he would not listen to his community. So what was the worst possible consequence that Paul could imagine to shake this man into self-awareness? Not swords. Not fines. Not writing him up in a brotherhood journal. The most startling possible wake-up call was the withdrawal of the community from him. Not forever. Not as if the community could decide who was in and out. The purpose was to make the physical world line up with the spiritual realities. The purpose was to help the man remember that he was a part of a community that shared blessings and expectations. The purpose was to call him back into community lest he become another Judas.

Truth is, there will always be people like Peter, and there will always be people like Judas.

Who are we going to be? Who are we going to help our children to be? Will we allow ourselves to admit that we might be wrong, that we could be out of step with our community, that we might need to change? Or will we march to the beat of a different drummer until we are no longer a part of the band at all? Will we call people back, or will we shrug our shoulders and say, “Not my problem. Not my child”? Will we be a community that heals or severs? We know which one Jesus calls us to be.

Lord Jesus Christ, help us to be your community.

Grace and peace,

Ron

Will the real rebel please stand up?

Yesterday, we made this observation: “In a real way, to decide for yourself that you can make your own rules when the community has already established certain specific rules is to violate community.”

What do we do when someone in the community makes up their own rules? How do we respond when someone among the people of God appears to ignore the will of the other people?

Let’s consider the possibilities. Let’s assume that this person does not act this way out of ignorance, because that difficulty would be easily repaired with proper education.

Perhaps this member of the community has stumbled across a new situation, a case that looks like the standard rule fits, but it really doesn’t at all. It happens every day – one principle that normally works just fine comes into conflict with another principle. How do you choose? Which principle trumps the other? If these principles are in conflict (and sometimes they are), how do we resolve the principles of correctness, inclusiveness, justice, love, mercy, righteousness, simplicity, truth, and unity? I’ve put them in alphabetical order, but how ought we to prioritize them? Should the individual attempt this on their own, or wouldn’t it be more prudent to work this out in a community of discernment (Acts 15)? These situations also reveal the real need for communication on both sides. Individuals should consider discussing the issue with their peers not just for the sake of gathering wisdom, but also that other people might understand that these individuals see themselves to be working with something that they perceive to not be the typical case. On the other hand, God requires his people to go to one who has violated the norms of the community and hold them accountable if they discover that such a person has really violated those norms (Matthew 5, 18).

Perhaps the person who breaks the norm is serving as a prophet within the community. They believe that they are speaking God’s truth to God’s people. It may be that the community has drifted away from the story of God, and as it has drifted, it has begun to do things which are not consistent with the workings of the heavenly kingdom. It is not living out the kingdom story. In this case, the change of behavior shouldn’t be a well-kept secret, but should be a statement clear in its reasoning and its call to return to scripture and to the tradition of God’s people. It should be honest in its attempts to rediscover the truthful behavior of the people of God. This is a place where Jesus lived much of his life – yet we need to remember that we’re not Jesus, are we? This is not first century Judea, is it? The issues of establishing a counterculture in the midst of an imperial culture aren’t the same, are they?

Or, it could be that the incautious soul forgets or becomes lax about the choices that have been made among the people of God. What this person needs is accountability from his or her people. The people of God, or someone within that community, needs to recall this person to community behavior with a kingdom spirit. And, unless one has a rebellious spirit, such a one will submit to their accountability to the people of God. On one hand, such a person does not seem to carry the guilt that the rebellious might, yet frequently such a callous disregard for communal thinking is just as destructive to the well-being, the peace, the shalom, of the community.

On the other hand, the rebel spirit resists the call to submission and to community altogether. This rascal resents accountability. Perhaps they care more about their own needs and desires than the purposes of the people who make up the body of Christ. Or, perhaps they care more about getting their way than others. More than a few control freaks have a spirit destructive to community (isn’t this how we perceive some of the Pharisees to have been?). They might deny it, but they frequently behave as if they, and not Jesus, functioned as the head of the body.

This fourth possibility, that of rebellion against the people of God, leads us back to the question, “What do we do when someone in the community makes up their own rules?” Think about this, and we will discuss this difficult possibility more tomorrow.

In the meantime, live among God’s people by showing grace and living in peace,

Ron

Still one body ...

We all have a unique place in our community, with unique gifts, experiences, education, passion, and skills.

We all have a unique function in our community, with relationships, responsibilities, resources, authority, and time.

Paul makes this clear to us:

You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts — limbs, organs, cells — but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain — his Spirit — where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves — labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free — are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way — the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26 - (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

The metaphor of the spiritual body implies some practical realities about our connection to spiritual community. The thumb can’t leave the hand without ceasing to be a part of the hand, and therefore, the body. It cannot survive, much less thrive and grow, without the support of the other parts. Do we treat our spiritual growth and health as a community issue, or merely an individual one?

This also means that each part must remain subservient to the whole body. Unless the thumb works in cooperation with the palm and the opposing four fingers, it’s not good for much except hitting the space bar and one fifth of the notes on a piano. It can function, but it will never achieve the amazing complexity God intended for it unless it submits to work in precise teamwork with its peers. So, a part of the community that does its own thing separate from the community, with no importance for the community, risks its place and function within that community.

Let’s put this in more concrete terms. Now, if a people have not specified how to do a task, it is obvious that the community doesn’t care which way one might choose to do it. There is freedom. Yet, if a ministry or a church decides that a certain way is the way that they’re going to do something, then not to do the something in that particular way is to behave as if one were not a part of that community. Even if one accomplishes the same task, to ignore the authority of the community is to make oneself more important than, wiser than, and smarter than the entire community. It reeks of egotism. If one wishes to remain a part of the community and change its agreed method, then one is obligated to get the community to communally discern other possibilities and to negotiate which ones might be acceptable. Together. Not unilaterally.

So, in a real way, to decide for yourself that you can make your own rules when the community has already established certain specific rules is to violate community. What do we do then?

Think about it.

Grace and peace,

Ron

Heavenly wisdom for a heavenly people

How do we discern wisdom within the community? James tells us:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
James 3:13-18 – NRSV

There are two kinds of wisdom that are possible within a community: earthly and heavenly.

Earthly wisdom seeks to gain credit, and to warp the facts so as to present a story that heightens the wisdom and intelligence of the individual above that of his or her peers while glossing over personal mistakes and missteps. It seeks to establish both human glory and human guilt, slanted in the direction glory to me and guilt to others. This telling of the story disconnects both story and teller from the truth, and it also begins to disconnect the teller from the community. A false, slanted, or ambitious telling of the story of God’s people is destructive, and serves satanic purposes, not divine ones. If the community relies upon it, they will misperceive their real location and misdirect their course into the future.

Heavenly wisdom gives the credit and glory to God and to his people. This kind of wisdom speaks the truth, and the truth, though sometimes painful at first, is a salve to heal the wounds of the body of God’s people. This truthful version of the story seeks to tell the narrative from a heavenly perspective, valuing the actions of all and the words spoken by all in light of heavenly purposes. A narrative described by heavenly wisdom lifts up God and makes clearer his purposes. This telling of the story of God’s people allows his community to truly understand where it is, and to make its way forward with God’s work based on a true and reliable reckoning of the facts. The teller of this story seeks mercy for God’s people and peace among that community. Because such a narrative serves truth and justice among God’s people, it is righteous.

How would we evaluate our wisdom today? Is our telling of the stories of the day earthly or heavenly?

Every day brings the opportunity for heavenly wisdom, and the temptation to use the wisdom of the world that surrounds us. You hear worldly wisdom in the news every day; spending more time on blaming problems than solving them, using ten times more words to avoid responsibility than to accept it, slanting the narrative to strengthen the individual instead of the truth and the community. You hear people retell the facts so as to make it clear that they need more power, more resources, more money, or fewer restrictions and less accountability. Worldly wisdom infects our government, our towns, our schools, our churches, and our families. It altogether too easily can infect a ministry. Will we avoid imitating what we hear every day? May God strengthen us to allow it to be so. Every day God’s word offers a countertestimony to the world around us. Every day, there are those within God’s community who offer their countertestimony to the worldly telling of the facts.

May God help us all to seek and to speak his wisdom this very day.

Grace and peace through God’s divine wisdom,

Ron

The kingdom isn't food and drink ...

How do we live in the Jesus community? In the kingdom of God?

Hear the words of Paul:

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,

"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God."

So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Romans 14 - NRSV

How does this scripture shape our lives as a community today?

Blessings,

Ron