lost books of the Bible

There's lots of interest these days in books from the early Christian era that did not make it into the Bible. Particularly around the Gnostic gospels. We have begun at Fairlawn-West to do a lot of "remedial" or even intro groups around scripture, canonization (the process of how books became part of the Bible), and the history, geography and literature styles of the time.

What I am finding is that we are starting to find the "lost book"...the Bible itself. I find that a lot of folks who are boomers and older have a deep suspicion of scripture and discount it by saying "well, everybody interprets it their own way so how can you really know what is says?" Then, we lose the unfolding story of scripture and reduce it down to individual passages that convey moralisms for the "good of society." This is a sad irony in Protestantism where the authority of scripture has been foundational. Not scripture to be used in controlling, oppresive, domineering ways, but scripture as the gift of God's life in our life.

I find, generally, younger generations more intrigued with "story" than we older folks. We older ones were raised n the modern era where science and history imbeded in us that "fact" is the highest benchmark for determining what is true. That set up then our search to keep the church going but to discount scripture as the profound means of God's communication with us. "it makes no sense" so we avoid it. We don't talk about it because we are afraid to show our "ignorance" of it.

What is happening around Fairlawn-West is that people are gaining confidence in scripture even before they are learning about it. I believe we "know" faith more firmly in our hearts more than in our minds. Folks are realizing that they "know" scripture even if they have avoided it for years. Now through a host of different small group venues they are capturing the overall understanding of the Bible as well as studying the individual books. We are seeing that what at first glance seems old/ancient, is really a world that faces many of the same dilemmas we do. AND that God never abandoned those folks, even in the worst case scenarios. We are learning that our lives are "biblical." AND that is calling us out more into the world around us in more courageous ways to serve those who are low and weak, it is calling us to connect with people who are searching to know God, it is calling us out to stand for justice.

God never stopped speaking

One of the portions of the church that I am part of are projecting the answer to a question with "God is still speaking." I haven't heard anyone ask if God stopped speaking. I think the question is "Where is God speaking?"

Like the announcement at an Elvis concert "Elvis has left the building." I think the answer is in our world "God has left the building." God is always moving to those places who seek to grow and serve and then reach out. The church has become trapped in a dualism of trying to save itself and be on a mission to the wider world. The church has to be willing to lose its life, as Jesus calls to each disciple, so that it will gain it.

It is no longer about "membership" which is an institutional concern, but about discipleship. Its not about "butts in the pews", but acknowledging as baptised children of God we are already dead and buried. Nothing can kill us. We will not die. We can take up our crosses (the means of the death that society will try to intimidate us with) and go out into the world to now invite others into the journey of discipleship and to baptize them too.

To see some places where God is speaking outside of the "church" go to launchcast.com and search for the videos for Kid Rock of "Lonely Road of Faith" and "Only God Knows Why" and the Black Eyed Peas "Where Is the Love' and Johnny Cash "Hurt" which is a song by the Nine Inch Nails. Kid Rock was banned in my household due to his obscene lyrics, but in these two videos that I just happened to find online, he is a missionary to parts of the world the "church" rarely will go to, using scripture in inobvious ways, on behalf of God. What a paradox! We in the church cannot sit inside and condemn what we don't understand. That's what the pharisees and relgious leaders did with Jesus. (Our mall food court study group is going through the prophet Jeremiah right now. I get the impression that the way Jeremiah was received and heard by the powers that be of Judah is the way we in the church "hear" folks like Kid Rock.)

Jesus didn't stand in the temple and tell people to come to him. He went out to places where rabbis were unheard of to be, down by the lake, in the homes of sinners, and he preached and related in ways and language that people could connect with, not in strange words and images that came from a different era or different experience. Since we are in Christ, we have all the strength. We can give up our prerogatives of turf and culture and go to all those others as servants. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 5.

replaced Jesus with the "church"

The church today has taken on a life as an institution separate from the body of Christ. We function much more as "churchianity" than as Christianity or as follower/learners/disciples of Jesus Christ. Leaders of the church today need to be studying the Book of Acts over and over again and all those who are in the body need to study repeatedly 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4:1-16.

The church functions today obsessed with its tasks and its survival like Martha in Jesus' visit to the home of Martha and Mary.

Luke 10:38-42 from The Message
38As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home (hospitable and friendly). 39She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. 40But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. (details and tasks) Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell
her to lend me a hand."

41The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. 42One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it--it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

The question for all leaders of the church is "What is it about your experience of Jesus Christ that the world around you needs to know." I first encountered that reality when I lived for a week in 1987 with a Lay Delegate of the Word (basically the leader of that parish) in the rain forest of Nicaragua in the midst of a war. He was illiterate. Never having read the scriptures. Only having a priest visit his parish every six months because of a shortage of priests. Yet Christ was more present and real, more of a companion with him than anyone I had ever known. He didn't wear Jesus on his sleeve and use him to control or judge other people. He was alive with him in his daily walk of 5 miles each way to his corn field and his fear that he or his family might be killed in crossfire in the war as his neighbor had had happen three months before and the village school master, the only literate man in the village, had happen the night I arrived. I have concluded that he had less material possessions and less "important" tasks to obsess over so that he was more focused in being with and listening to Jesus. Just like Mary.

A place to visit to help in this journey of listening to Jesus is Tom Hohstadt, who is in his 70's, a professional musician and conductor with an impressive resume of orchestras he has conducted. His passion now is helping the church to transition and transform by the power of God to serve in the culture we now live in instead of the one from a decade or five decades ago.

is it worth it?

As I read about new church plants and about the burgeoning house churches, particularly in Europe, I wonder if trying to transform an established church is worth it? Its like trying to convince folks that everything they have come to believe and the way they behave as a church is not rooted, primarily in the tradition nor the scriptures of the church.

As I look out over the vista of this process, I realize it has casued me to study and to understand scripture to levels I have never perceived before. I am seeing more clearly the resistance and the evil that Jesus faced and that Paul and Peter faced.

I am tired. I can no longer abide the personal ways some folks have attacked me.

Yet, there are folks who have grown very deep spiritually. And I continue to hear from new folks who clearly are "getting it" because without even prompting them, they are feeding back to me the vision and mission that we are seeking to embody. And it is that mission that they feel called by!

It is time simply to move on. Not me necessarily, but the significant group of folks which includes a lot of long timers and a lot of new timers. We just need to ignore the folks who are stuck in trying to make the church be successful and friendly and happy so folks will come. The folks who have made malicious attacks, after attempts at reconciliation, we are no longer in fellowship in Christ's body. We may belong to the same organization, but we really have nothing in common. We do not share a call to fulfill Christ's mission to go forth into the world, sharing our way of life and making disciples. And if we don't share the same mission, there is no reason to continue, but to shake the dust off our feet and "move on", which means to do the things God calls us to do in life and ministry as a church.

I see more and more how the 12 Steps of Recovery and simply the model of AA and other recovery programs is vital for the church to understand and follow. This program and these groups really do reflect the values and life style of how the church is described in the book of Acts. And its how Jesus said it would happen...those who are considered the "least" will be the greatest. They will teach us the blessings of losing our life and following Christ with a passion we have never known before.

Both of my daughters, Kate and Molly, were part of Jane Hatch's piano
recital in the sanctuary. Music is a gift, a channel to a seat in the
presence of God. Last night especially as Kate played Claire de Lune, many
of us were "moved" to another realm. The music was the vessel or the avenue.
Seeing a Don Drumm metal art piece is another way some of us find a vessel
or an avenue. The sunset last night as the storm clouds moved east, the sun
set in the west, was another vessel or avenue. These are not ends in and of
themselves. But they point toward or guide to the presence of God in Jesus
Christ in our world. Then...how do each of us carry that to the world around
us? That is what Jesus was asking us. Maybe not that specific vessel or
avenue that we received it in, but the essence of what we received, because
the whole world around us will not hear or see or touch or smell it in the
way that we received it. Yet, we are so compelled by our experience of being
guided to that essence that we will go to great lengths to use whatever
resources (vessels and avenues) we have available to share it with the world
around us. That is what Jesus said in the Great Commission, "go into the
world and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
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Article by Mike Yaconelli entitled "The Tyranny of the Trivia"...scroll down on this sermon to find it.
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What is the ONE thing of your life that you will sell everything for and go and follow Jesus into the world?
Martha and Mary
The field and the treasure
The rich young ruler