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

Once you weren't, now you are

God brings us into this world through a family, a community. Sometimes that community knows how to be a community. Unfortunately, as we are well aware, sometimes the family does not know how to be a healthy family. Our place in this world (as the church, and as Westview) is to be a community of love, faith, and acceptance for young men who either don’t have such a community, or who need to learn how to live within community. This means that we need to be a healthy community for several reasons: to model community for our boys and our children, to be the people of God so as to receive his blessings, and to care for each other as individuals and families.

The book of Hosea describes one of the saddest moments in Israel’s history. Israel is at a low point, and Hosea’s wife Gomer bears two children to whom God gives symbolic names (Hosea 1). God calls the daughter “No Mercy” and the son “Not My People”. When Israel ceased to function as a godly community, God removed the blessing of his mercy. No community, no mercy. Mercy was not intended to be parceled out individually to persons but communally to a people.

Individualism has run rampant in much of this world over the last two centuries. Americans see themselves as the rugged individualists that have reshaped this planet. But the very condition of our planet gives us some indications that perhaps this is not working so well. Are we the paternalistic protector or the power-wielding commodities broker? Perhaps we ought to consider our place in a global community. Concerning ourselves with the needs of others, showing restraint in the use of resources and power, giving thought to our future. True peace and blessing come within community.

Referring back to Hosea, Peter describes clearly our own calling to be a people, a holy nation, a community:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
- 1 Peter 2:9-10 NRSV

When we restore true community, godly community, God restores his mercy. How does Peter call us to live within such a community? Consider the verses that follow:

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

For the Lord's sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
- 1 Peter 2: 11-17 NRSV

Let us choose to love everyone (whether in our community or not) and to honor the family of believers. When we do this, we will properly fear God.

Grace and peace,

Ron

The unusual case of the croaking septuagenarian

The song service at worship this Sunday in Searcy was enjoyable. During one of the songs, the worship leader asked the congregation to join in the song one group at at a time. The sopranos would begin, then the altos would join on the next verse, then the tenor, and then the bass. It seemed to be a reasonable request, and idea works well with this hymn. The sopranos were singing the first verse, and it was lovely – nearly. Two hundred female voices in beautiful unison, and one old man across the aisle who decided that they couldn’t sing the song without him. Why did he not honor the instructions of the worship leader? This may not seem like a big deal, but I think that it is a symptom of a larger problem. Why did he not go along with the congregation?

Was he hard of hearing? This was proved to be untrue a few minutes later.

Did he think that it was inappropriate for women to sing without a male voice leading? If this was so, he was usurping the authority of the elders, because the elders had approved the worship leader and the order of worship.

Did he believe that it was wrong for anything less than the entire congregation to sing? Again, he not only single-handedly overruled the elders, but abused the intelligence and authority of the worship leader as well.

Did he think that he had the right to sing for the sake of his own joy regardless of the group’s enjoyment of worship? This question finally gets us closer to the core issue: the asserted rights of the individual versus the desired unity of the community. Much of modern philosophy and American thought has emphasized the existential, the importance of the individual over the community. But such an emphasis is not consistent with biblical thought. Remember the word of Paul that we looked at on Saturday?

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3-8 – NRSV)

Somehow being a part of a community carries certain obligations - what are those obligations? What do we do when the desires of the individual conflict with the norms of the community? How do we decide which commitments are more important? What does it mean to be a part of a community? We will be talking about this more through the week, but let me give you a beginning question to think about.

Can you disobey the social norms (or rules) of the community and still be a member?

Think about it.

Blessings,

Ron