How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news,
who announces salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." (Isaiah 52:7)
We serve Christ by serving those in need. I encourage anyone looking to make a financial donation to support relief efforts in Haiti to consider the ELCA’s International Disaster Response - Haiti Earthquake Relief. One hundred percent of your donation will be used for the relief efforts in Haiti.ELCA Disaster Response ministries have a long history of faithful and responsible service to people in desperate need.
Presiding Bishop Hanson of the ELCA has written an open letter to the members of this church summarizing this church’s response to the disaster, and encouraging all of us to give generously to those in need and to encourage others to do so as well.
To make a donation online, visit http://www.elca.org/haitiearthquake. This site also provides information for mailing checks and money orders.
“Good ideas have legs” says JIM DWYER of the NY Times in his article Where Unsold Clothes Meet People in Need. The article provides an example of how a single person can make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of needy people. He briefly describes how in 1985, Suzanne Davis asked the president of Phillips-Van Heusen if his company had any excess (unsold) inventory that could be used by homeless men. That got the ball rolling, and the following year, she organized the New York Clothing Bank, where unworn garments, which might otherwise have been destroyed, are recovered and given to the needy.
While many clothing manufacturers or retailers have gotten on board with this, or similar, efforts, many still destroy unsold inventory. As Dwyer says, “the reasons are complex.” There’s a fear of competing with one’s own garbage. There’s concern that the millions of marketing dollars spent on creating brand images may be wasted if the “wrong” kinds of people are seen wearing brand-name garments. No doubt there’s also a good measure of indifference and ignorance as well. When Dwyer reported that a graduate student at CityUniversity recently discovered that a branch of clothing retailer H&M was slashing and trashing unsold garments, it triggered an avalanche of responses, including emails from people who knew of retailers all across the U.S. who routinely destroy unworn clothing.
Stories like this illustrate for me the tension between Christian discipleship and the way of the world. On the one hand, I understand perfectly well how a healthy economy works, how the expectation of reward or profit encourages creativity and risk, and how creativity and risk can lead to advances in knowledge and quality of life. I understand why people want to minimize risks – risks like competing with one’s own garbage or undermining brand image. And I understand that some people just can’t be bothered to think too hard about it.
On the other hand, I understand that Jesus of Nazareth expects self-sacrificing love from his disciples. Our neighbors in need – the least among us – are to be of paramount ethical concern for us. Our neighbors in need are Jesus in need. (Matthew 25:31-46) Professing “Jesus is Lord” is completely disingenuous if we treat our Lord with contempt or indifference. Christian disciples must live in and navigate through this world, never forgetting to whom we owe our lives and everything else we possess. Our neighbors in need are to be the beneficiaries of our debt.
Christian disciples typically want to be both faithful and pragmatic, which can lead to tension. We are to be wise and clever in the ways of this world, but we must not be disciples of the ways of the world. We must render to Caesar what properly belongs to Caesar, but never forget that all things, including Caesar, belong to God. We are to be mindful of the “powers and principalities” that appear to govern the world – economics, physical sciences, human nature – but we must never permit them to become our lords. Whatever authority God has given to individuals or to the natural mechanisms of creation, God has not relinquished God’s own authority. Our Lord stands over and against all other pretenders.
Good ideas are not always pragmatic, but Christian discipleship requires that we sometimes act more faithfully than pragmatically; that we sometimes give up some benefit or advantage for the sake of others, especially for those in need. This is not so much the way of the world, but the Way of Jesus.
In a recent blog post, Nadia Bolz-Weber reflects on the demise of congregational singing in many churches. LutheranChik also observes how anemic congregational singing can be in churches these days. Both consider the reasons for this development, especially in churches which historically encouraged enthusiastic singing from the pews.
Both critique the trend to professionalize music in our culture. Singing seems to have become an exclusive art in peoples’ minds, for which some have the appropriate talent and some do not. Those who suppose they “do not” mute their voices or don’t bother to move their lips at all. So many people seem reluctant to sing out with joy and vigor, even when familiar hymns are sung.
But, singing is NOT an exclusive art. Singing is a normal way for all people to express themselves; it is built into our human nature. And communal singing has long been a way for whole communities to remember, tell, and celebrate their common experiences. When Martin Luther wrote hymns set to the music of well-known tavern songs, he did so specifically to encourage EVERYONE to sing in worship of God. One did not have to be a professional or trained musician to make the music of worship; the music of worship is meant to come from us all.
During the first of our two Christmas Eve services this year, the choir began singing a descant over the third verse of Silent Night, expecting the assembly to continue with the verse; instead the people in the pews fell silent and all that could be heard was the descant. Ooops! During the second service, the organist increased the volume for the third verse, in hopes that the people in the pews would be encouraged to continue singing.
So, how might we encourage confident and enthusiastic singing from the pews? That’s a question well known to worship and music leaders. Some churches ban instrumental accompaniment, and insist on a cappella music only. Some church musicians have been known to stop playing instruments during some verses of hymns to emphasize the singing. Personally, I’d like to get away from choir anthems during worship, precisely because “performance pieces” during worship seem to feed the idea that the music is for passive consumption – entertainment – and best left to the “professionals”. Instead I’d like to see choir and instrumentalists intentionally find ways to encourage, enable, and facilitate singing by everyone in the worshiping assembly.
As Luther might have said: Sing boldly, that grace may abound!
The Holy Spirit has a way of shaking things up: the church is born; people are inspired to proclaim good news from God – starting in Jerusalem and then to the whole world; old ways and understandings give way to the new; and those once alienated are reconciled and welcomed. That’s just a quick and dirty summary of what’s described in the Acts of the Apostles.
Of course, not everyone reacts favorably to the Holy Spirit’s new ways. As expected, those opposed to Christianity certainly didn’t like what the Spirit was doing in the first century, but surprisingly, sometimes Christians themselves didn’t like what the Spirit was up to. In Acts, the Spirit’s welcome of unclean Gentiles was a particularly hard thing to accept (Acts 15), and in his epistles, a very frustrated St. Paul speaks to the persistence of those Christians determined to thwart the Spirit.
Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit always prevails and the church reforms as the Spirit requires. That’s true in every century, notwithstanding the varied reactions people may have. And it is equally true in our own time.
In August 2009, the Holy Spirit shook up the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): the ELCA Assembly adopted Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust and approved changes to the ELCA’s policies, effectively welcoming Christians in same-gender marriages, or in otherwise committed and publicly accountable relationships (recognizing that marriage equality is not universal under civil laws), to openly serve Christ’s church in public ministry, as the Holy Spirit calls them. Predictably, the reactions varied from joy, to indifference, to indignation.
The Rev. Eric Lemonholm recently posted an open letter to the members of his congregation, some of whom have called for a special congregation meeting to decide whether to remain a member congregation of the ELCA. He speaks against breaking with the ELCA, offering historical, theological, biblical, and common-sense arguments for not only remaining in the ELCA, but for recognizing in the Assembly’s actions how the Holy Spirit has created opportunities for mission and evangelism. His letter is eloquent, respectful of those who disagree, and compelling. Though it is lengthy, I commend it to anyone interested not only in the specific issues decided by the Assembly, but also in an example of the way Christians can live, love, and serve Christ together in the midst of our diversity and disagreements.
On Saturday morning (November 14, 2009), I and about 300 other people gathered for a special assembly[1] of the New Jersey Synod. [2] According to the “rules”, the sole item on our agenda was the Synod’s 2010 spending plan – what most people know as a budget. But, whatever the “rules” stated, the real item on the agenda was “discipleship”.
Jim Wallis and the good people at Sojourners stress that budgets are moral documents. In effect, our budgets are statements of our moral convictions – of our moral choices and values. What we do with our resources speaks to our concerns, including our ultimate concern. Our budgets reveal something of ourselves – our fears, our desires, and our priorities. Our budgets also reveal something of our perceptions of others – what they will think of us and how they will react. And our budgets reveal which “others” are most important to us – those whom we desire to please and serve.
In my experience, budget discussions – or perhaps “debates” is more descriptive – tend to focus on the allocation of limited resources. A shadow of scarcity typically lurks nearby, and occasionally darkens the room entirely. Most people dread the annual “stewardship campaign” – or whatever it may be called – because it stirs up underlying fears of scarcity and of having to commit to sharing limited resources. People “don’t like to talk about money”, not because there is anything inherently distasteful about discussing our commitments to share our resources with others, but because we have to deal with fear-in-your-face.
Of course, fear can be useful to some people – it can serve their interests and their agenda. It’s standard fare in secular politics – and in ecclesiastical politics as well. Some will exploit the fear of limited resources to advance a particular interest, in effect trying to hold the needs of others hostage to their agenda. Fear suits some people.
Since the ELCA Assembly acted this summer to approve the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust and to change ministry policies to allow people in committed same-gender relationships to serve the church as the Holy Spirit calls them, some have sought to exploit the fear of scarce resources to either punish the church or to thwart the Assembly’s actions. Fear suits them – but it also consumes them. (In response to a question I asked, Bishop Riley informed the special assembly that based on his conversations with members and congregations of the New Jersey Synod, discontent with the ELCA Assembly’s actions had no significant impact on current or anticipated mission support here; declines in support are attributed to general economic conditions in this state and throughout the nation.)
Fear isn’t just a handy tool in the toolbox of our ambitions. Fear is a “power” with a life – or death – of its own. Whatever our own ambitions, Fear has an agenda of its own. Fear is no person’s slave; it disingenuously serves whom it desires to consume.
The antithesis of scarcity is abundance, and the antithesis of fear is faith and hope. To an objective observer, many of us fretting over the scarcity of our resources appear to be out of touch with reality; we have more than all our fretting implies. The shadow of scarcity conceals the abundance of what we have, and who isn’t afraid of dark places? And while fear discourages us from exploring dark places, faith and hope encourage us to light a lamp and push the shadows back. Jesus tells whoever would follow him, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”[3] Jesus’ own light illumines our dark places, and invites us to fearlessly and faithfully venture forward. Without diminishing the brightness of Jesus’ own light, he shares that light with us, so that others may see – and benefit from – the good works we do for one another and for our neighbors for the sake of glorifying our Father. Because we have faith in God’s promises of abundant blessings, and hope in the perfection of God’s reign, the interloper Fear has no proper place among Jesus’ disciples.
And so I was pleased to observe Jesus’ disciples in New Jersey act with faith and hope, trusting in God’s abundant blessings. Setting aside fears of economic uncertainties, the Synod Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a spending plan that affirms our continued mission and service to the people of New Jersey, to our nation, and to the whole world. The spending plan commits us to growing our financial support for the work of the church, reducing administrative costs, and increasing our efforts in outreach (specifically Latino outreach and urban mission development), in peace and justice advocacy, in ecumenical and interfaith cooperation, in public communication, in leadership support and development, and in mission support to the ELCA. While some line items saw reductions in financial support – or even elimination – presenters of the spending plan pointed to some innovative and promising ideas for still continuing the ministries and services funded by those lines.
Our 2010 Spending Plan aspires to be both a faithful moral document and a hope-filled mission statement for Jesus’ disciples in New Jersey. God grant us the Spirit to rise to the call of discipleship and to bear its costs faithfully.
[1] The special assembly fell short of a quorum by only 6 people. Consequently, the assembly acted as a “quasi-committee of the whole”, which gave non-binding advice to the Synod Council concerning the 2010 Spending Plan.
[2] For those not that familiar with the EvangelicalLutheranChurch in America (ELCA), “synods” are roughly analogous to dioceses. They are typically geographical groupings of congregations which support the mission of the church in their territories, including evangelism, advocacy, preparation and endorsement of candidates for public ministries of the church, mutual support of congregations, oversight and discipline, and coordination of resources.
A child is raped, and witnesses either ignore it or cheer.[1] People are beaten and murdered because of their race or perceived immigration status, and the victims are too afraid to seek help.[2] A disgruntled man opens fire on former colleagues at their workplace.[3] A mentally ill physician murders 13 people before he is stopped[4] and Muslims across the country are fearful of the consequences to innocent people.[5] Poor and dispossessed residents of Cleveland mourn the serial murders of their daughters and neighbors, and accuse the local authorities of indifference to their plight.[6] A broad measure of unemployment in the U.S. shows that 17.5% of the nation’s workers are either unemployed or underemployed.[7] Perceptions of injustice rooted in economic disparities plague efforts to address the availability of necessary healthcare[8], and even the distribution of H1N1 vaccine.[9]
This is just a sampling from news headlines during the past week or so. Of course, not all news is bad news, but a listing of all the happy stories I might find among the headlines can only briefly distract us from a realistic appreciation of the seriousness and persistence of what ails us. Don’t misunderstand; I’m no Gloomy Gus jaded by reality or resigned to a violent, unjust, and uncaring world. Neither am I prone to a “happy-clappy” optimism that simply ignores reality.
I look for a fuller understanding of reality – reality that encompasses what is, what was, and what will be. Reality includes our understanding of what ought to be, our vision of what is possible, our confidence that working toward our vision is not in vain, and our anticipation of that vision’s perfection. “Change” is very much a part of reality, and all change is guided either by purposeful effort or effortless entropy.
To what purpose, then, should we live in this world and direct our efforts?
Very soon, the church will celebrate Christ the King. With this festival, we conclude a full year of remembering and retelling the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through Sunday readings and seasonal commemorations. For an entire year we have traced the story of Jesus of Nazareth and the Way of Jesus:
-the prophetic promises of Advent;
-the joyful celebration of Jesus’ nativity;
-Jesus’ public ministry of bringing God’s kingdom near to the sick, poor, and oppressed;
-Jesus’ calling of disciples to learn, walk in, and spread the Way of Jesus;
-Jesus’ contention with those opposed to his Way;
-Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, torture, and murder;
-Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that both vanquished the power that death can have over us, and encourages us to have hope and faith in Jesus and his Way;
-Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit to the church – the Spirit of Christ that dwells with us;
-and the disciples’ continued mission of love and service in the Way of Jesus, who despite their own frailties – and the sometimes deadly opposition of others – stayed the Way, and invited others to go with them and with Jesus.
The story of Jesus of Nazareth and of Jesus’ disciples offers us a vision of humankind and all of creation that issues directly from the Creator. The story tells of the creation as God intended from the beginning – all things created good, and humankind created in God’s image to care for one another and for all of creation. The story repudiates what has gone awry from God’s intentions – injustice, violence, poverty, famine – and invites humankind to turn back to God and God’s original vision. The story tells of a re-creation inaugurated by God – a re-creation of humankind in the image of God-with-us, Jesus of Nazareth. And at the story’s conclusion, what God has inaugurated comes to its perfection with the full restoration of humankind and all of creation to its original purpose and goodness. To this purpose, God calls us to live and direct our efforts.
On the day we commemorate Christ the King, we hold up and celebrate the end of the story – the perfection of what God inaugurated at the birth of Jesus. The end is what we look forward to, the vision we pursue by means that anticipate and embody the end of our pursuit. The end gives hope and inspiration to continue when events and circumstances conspire to threaten and overwhelm us, because we already know how the story will end.
On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the prophet Daniel[10] will remind us that God has not abandoned us to the way things were or the way things are. Whatever threatens us, all of creation belongs to God and to God’s chosen one, and the end of the story is certain. Despite all evidence to the contrary, for people of faith, “the belief and hope in a Savior that enters exactly where the forces of chaos seem to be most rampant is what allows one to get up and face the day.”[11] Our labor in Christ is not in vain.[12]
On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the prophet John of Patmos[13] will remind us to whom all creation and all time belongs: “’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” John addressed his prophecy to churches struggling with complacency, assimilation, temptation, and even violent persecution – which is to say, John addressed all churches in every place and time. And in the fullness of his prophecy, John encourages and admonishes the faithful to never forget the end of the story, and to live in the Spirit of Christ with the certainty of our hope and faith that God’s intentions for creation will come to perfection. Our labor in Christ is not in vain.
On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the evangelist John[14] will remind us that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s chosen Savior of creation, and that God’s purposes will not go unopposed. Those who profit or benefit from injustice, violence, poverty, and famine will conspire against God; murder and subterfuge are not beneath their scruples. Nevertheless, the end of the story is certain. Death will not be the final verdict on God’s purposes. Our labor in Christ is not in vain.
We have a fuller understanding of reality precisely because we know the end of the story and anticipate Christ the King.
In 2007, the Barna Group published a study of perceptions of Christianity among 16- to 29-year-old Americans.[1] They found that among young non-Christians, 87% perceive Christianity as judgmental, and 85% as hypocritical. Even among young Christians, about half agreed that Christianity is judgmental and hypocritical.[2] The researchers found that one of the most frequent unprompted observations by both Christians and non-Christians was that "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus."[3] Little wonder, if nearly 9 out of 10 non-Christians describe Christianity with the same terms Jesus himself used to characterize his antagonists.
Do these perceptions matter to us? They ought to, precisely because the church’s commission[4] is to make disciples of all peoples by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. If proclamation is our task, clarity of proclamation is no trivial consideration. And what we “do” is every bit as important as what we “say”, because our conduct will proclaim as loudly as – if not louder than – our words.
If the church is the body of Christ, shouldn’t Jesus be more visible among us? Shouldn’t Jesus’ antagonists be less visible among us? If so, we might start by examining what makes Jesus recognizable.
Jesus and the Kingdom of God
According to the Gospels, Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by proclaiming that the kingdom of God had come near – which we are told is good news – and inviting people to turn their lives around and believe the good news.[5] His proclamation included teachings about the nature of God’s kingdom, tangible signs of the kingdom’s presence, and its consequences for people’s lives. But why would the nearness of God’s kingdom be “good news”?
Actually, it wasn’t good news to everyone. But, for those living with hunger and abject poverty, for those tormented by chronic sicknesses or demons, for those grieving untimely deaths, for those treated as disposable human commodities, for those who longed for justice in a despotic society – for those people, the nearness of God’s kingdom was welcome good news. In Jesus’ teachings which we know as the Beatitudes, we are told:
-Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20; Matthew 5:3 reads “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”)
-Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. (Luke 6:21a; Matthew 5:6 reads “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”)
-Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:21b; Matthew 5:4 reads “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”)
-Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Luke 6:22; Matthew 5:11-12 reads “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”)
-Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
-Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)
-Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)
-Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
-Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)
According to Jesus, people should expect a radically different and abundant life in the kingdom of God. The differences will lie precisely in the reversal or abolition of abusive and unjust conditions, in relief from grief and suffering, and in a new understanding of what it means to be blessed. We sometimes refer to popular, powerful, wealthy, or otherwise fortunate people – as defined by the conventional standards of our world – as “blessed”, but according to Jesus, in the kingdom of God, blessedness and God’s favor belong to others: the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.
And the kingdom of God is near. Jesus did not proclaim some distant “new society” far off into the future or in another life. Jesus accompanied his proclamation with tangible signs of God’s reign breaking into the world here and now, including healings, casting out demons[6], feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. Jesus relieved people’s afflictions and restored them to community[7]. And Jesus sent his disciples to do the same thing:
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9:1-2)
After this, the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you.' (Luke 10:1-9)[8]
With words and tangible evidence, both Jesus and his disciples proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom here and now.
As noted before, not everyone greeted this proclamation as good news. For those who only see life in categories of “winners” and “losers”, where “blessings” are in short supply and have to be rationed and hoarded, the nearness of God’s kingdom poses a serious threat. The Beatitudes suggest a reversal of fortunes, and the wealthy fear for their wealth; the powerful for their power; the influential for their influence; and the privileged for their privilege. Fear of becoming one of the “losers” leads to desperate actions, and in the case of Jesus and many of his disciples, that fear could only be placated with the decisive end of the so-called “good news” and those who proclaimed it. Jesus was not the first Jewish “messiah” – nor the last – and experience taught the fearful that an appropriately gruesome and humiliating death[9] for messianic leaders effectively buried their messages with their corpses.
But Jesus’ resurrection frustrated the purposes of the fearful. By raising Jesus from the dead, God effectively vindicated Jesus’ mission, Jesus’ proclamation that God’s kingdom has come near, and Jesus’ teachings about the consequences of God’s kingdom for humankind and for all of creation.[10] The new community that Jesus created with his disciples was called to embody the risen Jesus and to continue his mission to all people.[11]
The Disciples
Before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples a “new commandment”:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
By mutual love, Jesus’ disciples make Jesus’ presence known. What’s more, the disciples are to love one another as Jesus loved them. Often misunderstood and much abused, “love” as Jesus loved is no sentimental indulgence. Jesus’ love was intentional under the most revolting – and risky – circumstances[12]. For Jesus and his disciples, it wasn’t just about feeling love; it was about doing love.
But Jesus’ love is not constrained exclusively within the community of believers; disciples are to love their neighbors – all neighbors – as well. Love manifest is the sine qua non of the kingdom of God and of the kingdom’s proclamation. Love lies at the heart of the Beatitudes, and it is the foundation upon which the entire law of God is established.
When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)
Jesus’ disciples are to love one another and all people as Jesus loves them. By this, the kingdom of God is proclaimed with words and actions. By this, everyone will know them to be Jesus’ disciples. By this, everyone will see Jesus among his disciples.
St. Paul referred to the community of believers – the church – as the body of Christ.[13] Paul’s frequent allusions to the body of Christ were addressed to churches struggling to embody the risen Jesus in their communities. The first century believers were known to divide into factions, to treat each other inhospitably and carelessly, to intellectualize the gospel, and to question each other’s relative righteousness before God.[14] Proclaiming the “words” of the “good news” is easy enough, but proclaiming the “good news” in both words and tangible signs of love in community proved to be a challenge to Jesus’ disciples. And without tangible signs, the words ring hollow or disingenuous, and the community breaks.
So Paul reminds believers that they are a body – the body of Christ. Each member of the body participates in the whole, and the whole serves the head – who is Christ. Diverse as the body may be, each member is essentially joined to the others in Jesus’ love – for the purpose of manifesting that love with words and actions – and thereby make Jesus known and visible for all to see.
Making Jesus Visible
Why do so many today say that Christianity no longer looks like Jesus? We know that Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom with words and tangible signs. We know that God’s kingdom is welcome good news to the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick and grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice. We know that God’s love pervades God’s kingdom, and that intentional self-sacrificing love is the clearest evidence that God’s kingdom is near. We know that Jesus’ disciples are called to manifest Jesus’ own love for one another and for all people – to embody the risen Christ, and thereby make Jesus known.
If Christianity no longer looks like Jesus, we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we fail to proclaim the nearness of God’s kingdom with both words and tangible actions that the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick, the grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice can recognize and welcome as good news. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we avoid intentional self-sacrificing love for one another and for our neighbors, and instead sacrifice one another and our neighbors on the altars of our own righteousness. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we hijack – or passively allow others to hijack – the name of Jesus to proclaim the bad news – the anti-gospel – that poverty, hunger, abuse, sickness, grief, violence, and injustice are perfectly acceptable if working toward their abolition isn’t profitable or doesn’t otherwise serve our own self-indulgent agenda. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when by words and actions we deservedly earn a reputation of arrogant pretentiousness that revels in the show of “righteousness” – as if we are somehow better than “those” people – while forgetting entirely that we are debtors ourselves whose gratitude to God can only be expressed by self-sacrificing acts of love toward our neighbors – including “those” people. And we obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we manipulate the instruments of secular power to serve the anti-gospel – in the name of God, of all things!
Healing... How do we make Jesus visible in the church in the midst of our current national debate about healthcare? Jesus made healing one of the most obvious signs of the nearness of God’s kingdom, revealing God’s compassion for the sick and afflicted who were otherwise without hope or recourse. Christians might reasonably and faithfully disagree about the “particulars” of what healthcare reform should look like, but can we plausibly dispute the claims that God desires the health and wellbeing of all people, and that profitability is an unconscionable excuse for allowing sickness and affliction to continue when remedies are available? When fear, greed, and secular partisan ambitions conspire against efforts to make healing and relief available to all people, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with a partisan commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality for everyone who suffers disease and affliction.[15]
Making peace… One of the longest running conflicts of sustained violence in this and the previous century has been the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. How do Christians make Jesus visible in the midst of pervasive distrust, anger, and violence? We might reasonably and faithfully disagree about the “particulars” of what a just and enduring peace agreement should look like, but can we plausibly dispute the claim that God desires that all people live in peace with one another and be treated justly? When hate, lust for power, and extremist religious convictions – even grotesque distortions of Christianity[16] – conspire to make violence and injustice acceptable, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with a Jesus-like commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom of peace a tangible reality.[17]
Thirsting for righteousness… Far too often throughout the centuries, Christians have abandoned mutual love for one another for the pretense of righteousness. We have a long history of supplanting the apostles’ teachings that the righteousness of God is disclosed through faith in Jesus Christ[18] with false teachings about the righteousness of being bound to the law. Loving one another as Christ loves us has been of secondary importance to being right about our righteousness. “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” – and God forbid that the Holy Spirit should act beyond the constraints of established law, dogma, tradition, and ministry policies! How do we make Jesus visible in the midst of our family squabbles? Surely, Jesus’ commandment “… love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” would go far in making Jesus visible for all to see, for “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.[19] When righteous indignation, hidden agendas, and pious contempt for others[20] conspire to rend us, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with Jesus’ own commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality in our communities of faith, as places where Christ-like love abounds.
Following the Way of Jesus… The Way of Jesus stands in contrast to the way of the world, precisely because hope in God’s kingdom and the work of making the Beatitudes a tangible reality for people can often seem ludicrous to the faithless; self-sacrificing love for strangers is pointless; and a single-minded commitment to the kingdom of God, and making the nearness of God’s kingdom known by words and deeds, can pose a serious challenge to the demands and expectations of human kingdoms. The Way of Jesus is a challenging way to follow, and we Christians have often found ways to mitigate the challenges: we’ve found novel and convoluted ways to confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdom of human ambitions – to transform Christianity into Christendom; we’ve become so adept at “spiritualizing” the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God, that we are content to push out to some future undetermined date any tangible evidence of the nearness of God’s kingdom, making Christianity little more than a cognitive and largely self-centered exercise in self-justification and personal salvation – Caesar need not worry himself about the Jesus who’s just lord of my life, and who otherwise makes no inconvenient demands on the whole world, where greed, self-interest, and fear are beatified.
We make Jesus visible among us, for all the world to see, when we follow the Way of Jesus; when we embrace the kingdom of God for all that it stands for: relief and blessings for the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers; when we proclaim the good news that God’s kingdom is near, by words and tangible signs; when we love one another in the body with the intentional self-sacrificing love of Christ; and when we love all people in the same way that all people are loved by Jesus.[21]
[1] Kinnaman, David, and Lyons, Gabe. unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007
[3] “A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity”. Barna Group. September 24, 2007. http://barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/94-a-newgeneration-expresses-its-skepticism-and-frustration-with-christianity
[6] Whatever you may make of demon possession, the relevant point is that people suffered.
[7] Certain afflictions could make a person “unclean”, which could require that they restrict their contact with others or be removed from communities. Examples include leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16), menstrual bleeding (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-34; Luke 8:40-56), and demon possession (Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:22-39).
[9] According to Deuteronomy 21:22-23, a person executed by hanging on a “tree” was cursed by God, making crucifixion an especially effective way of ending messianic careers.
[10] Debates about the “historicity” of Jesus’ resurrection tend to miss the theological point that his resurrection validates his mission and proclamation. When Christians affirm the resurrection of Christ, we profess our conviction that Jesus faithfully and authoritatively represented God’s kingdom in his life and teachings. We further profess, that in baptism we are united to Christ in his continuing life and mission, with the hope of the resurrection assuring us that Christ’s mission is valid and our participation in his mission is not in vain.
[11] See Mark 16:14-20; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8
[12] Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for the sake of his mission and proclamation to the world is the most obvious and dramatic example and model of how Jesus loves. But Jesus’ ministry abounded with acts of risky and intentional love. Examples include healing people in defiance of the law (Luke 5:17-26; Luke 14:1-6; John 5:1-16) and risking ostracism and retribution by associating with the wrong – unclean – people (Matthew 9:9-13; Matthew 9:20-22; Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 5:25-34; Mark 7:24-30; Luke 5:27-32; Luke 7:1-10; Luke 8:43-48).
[14] Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians provides a substantial litany of some of the problems. See 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 1:17-31; 1 Corinthians 3:16-20; 1 Corinthians 8; 1 Corinthians 11:18-22.
[16] Christian Zionism of the 20th and early 21st centuries, coupled to “dispensationalist” theology, actually justifies and encourages ongoing violence and injustice toward Palestinian people – including Palestinian Christians – because Christian Zionists are convinced that it is God’s will that the Biblical land of Israel must be “cleansed” of what they consider interlopers, in anticipation of “end-time” events. For more information, see Toward a Lutheran Response to Christian Zionism by the Rev. Robert O. Smith of ELCA Global Mission.
[17] Ann Hafften provides frequent updates and information about peace and advocacy efforts toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at her blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Middle East Peace.
[21] The ELCA tagline “God’s work, our hands.” represents something of our Church’s understanding of our mission and purpose, and encourages all of the members of the Church, individually and together, to make Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom a present reality for all people, and to invite others to join that mission. Read the theological foundation for this tagline here.
This blog is the online journal of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rahway, NJ. Here, members and friends of this congregation post essays, reflections, devotions, and sermons about Christian faith and practice, service to our neighbors, discipleship, and the witness of Scripture.
Postings here are the personal expressions of the authors, and do not necessarily represent "official" positions of this congregation or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
We are a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, located at the corner of Elm & Esterbrook Aves. in Rahway, NJ 07065-3220Telephone: 732-388-1815
Weekly Worship Schedule Saturday 5:30 pm - Sung Eucharist Sunday 9:15 am - Interactive Family Liturgy & Sunday School Sunday 10:30 am - Sung Eucharist
