Thoughts About The Church: Post 4

I am finding that the solution is to find Jesus in his many disguises as strangers, as the poor, the hungry, the prisoners, the sick, the enslaved and the marginalized of the world.

“I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.” (Matthew 25:45 The Message)

(Chapters 12 and 13 of Philip Yancey’s book, “The Jesus I Never Knew” inspired these last few posts. Most of these thoughts are echoes of what he wrote there.)

Thoughts About The Church: Post 3

In times of presidential campaigning, such as now, I often fall for a certain candidate. I find myself asking questions such as; “Which candidate is ‘God’s man’ for the White House?” Yancey replies; “I have difficulty imagining [God] pondering whether Tiberius, Octavious, or Julius Caesar was ‘God’s man’ for the empire. The politics of Rome were virtually irrelevant to the kingdom of God.”

Thoughts About The Church: Post 2

Why are the words “evangelical” and “religious right” interchangeable? Why is “evangelical” defined as “someone who supports family values and opposed homosexual rights and abortion”? These are questions that Yancey poses in a book he wrote over ten years ago called, “The Jesus I Never Knew”. It is disconcerting to me that one can ask these questions ten years ago and that they are still pertinent today. The gospel of Jesus did not look like this. I guess I just don't think that the church (myself included) should be known for simply passing laws to enforce morality. I acknowledge that passing laws is good and necessary and anarchy is bad and all - it’s just that there has to be a better way. I have to believe it is better that we the church devote ourselves to something that actually solves the problem of the human condition instead of simply making that condition illegal. “We must continually ask ourselves: Is our first aim to change our government or to see lives in and out of government changed for Christ?” (Yancey)

Thoughts About The Church: Post 1

Over the next few days I intend to post several short writing that were inspired by Derek Webb, the documentary Jesus Camp, and Philip Yancey. The following is the first of those posts.

So I purchased the newest Derek Webb album recently. Nothing stirs me up about the state of the Church in America like Derek Webb. Sometimes when I look around at the Church, Christ’s bride, I want to avert my eyes. I watched the documentary Jesus Camp recently and you know, the church featured in Lees Summit, MO (a suburb of Kansas City, where I live) wasn’t really so disturbing to me when compared to the clips of Ted Haggard. I don’t think it would have even mattered if the scandal involving Haggard had been uncovered or not, red flags went up for me when he spoke.

It was Jesus’ intent to depart, to ascend, from the beginning in order to carry on his work in the bodies of his disciples and the body of his church, which is the new body of Christ. As St. Augustine said, “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hears.” It is beautiful language that conveys the truth of the church being where Christ lives. It is God’s plan to extend the healing, grace, the message of God’s love, that Christ brought to a few, through the church. But Philip Yancey makes a profound observation, “Living two millennia after the disciples, I look back and marvel at how little difference the church has made in such a world.” Yancey also comments on how he finds it much easier to believe that Christ incarnated as God into Jesus of Nazareth than in the people who attend American churches.

I see such an emphasis on politics in the evangelical church. I hear voices like Ted Haggard who say, “If the Evangelicals vote, they determine the election” (from “Jesus Camp). Yancey says it better than I can; “Political movements risk pulling onto themselves the mantel of power that smothers love. From Jesus I learned that, whatever activism I get involved in, it must not drive out love and humility, not otherwise I betray the kingdom of heaven.” The truth of this statement resonates in my heart. As Right and Left struggle to gain power, love is lost. The power of God’s kingdom is much more like a force that goes unnoticed. It works from within.