Camel’s Hair and Wild Honey

In chapters 1 and 2, Matthew has dealt with Jesus’ origins. As we skip forward from the time Jesus’ family moves to Nazareth and his childhood and early adulthood, Jesus is about to introduced as a man.

As Jesus’ earthly ministry is yet to be revealed, God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus.¹ John was a walking testimony. Here was a crazy, outlandish, prophet of a man. He clothes were of camel’s hair, he ate grasshoppers, and drank wild honey.² John was a peculiar person with a peculiar message. He was a sign and a wonder that pointed to a new king and a kingdom in Jesus Christ.

Preparing The Way

He began his ministry preaching in the Desert region of Judea saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” To Rome and Caesar, the kingdom of heaven is near; to Herod and the corrupt ruling officials, the kingdom of heaven is near; to Sadducees and Pharisees and corrupt Priestly order, the kingdom of heaven is near; to the poor and destitute struggling to make ends meet, the kingdom of heaven is near; to the faithful and devoted to Yahweh, the kingdom of heaven is near.

Inherent in John’s message is a criticism of the way things are, and a glorious unveiling of hope and salvation. The kingdom of heaven is near. It is not far and abstract and mere imagination, but rather it is about to be tangible and present and near. It will be felt and heard and touched and spoken of. John is the messenger of this new thing God is doing, and apparently this message did not go unheard. Many came and confessed their sins and were baptized. They were preparing their hearts for Jesus. John happened to be God’s instrument in tilling the ground of their hearts in preparation for Christ and his kingdom.

The Sadducees and Pharisees came to see John for other reasons. The kingdom they were a part of could not see this new kingdom. They were the bastions of the way things were. John is vehemently opposing the power brokers of the current religious regime because he knew they could not accept Christ and his kingdom. John’s words are a warning to their establishment and the religion they propagate.³

Christ Appears

As John preaches this message of the kingdom near, he speaks of the one who is to come after him, Jesus the Christ. John wants people to know Jesus is the real story, and that he is merely a side story. Jesus is come to reveal the kingdom of heaven. He is not come to be a part of things as usual. There is a critical point in his revealing to the people that will bring judgment to the way things are. Jesus is about to change everything.

Jesus makes his way onto the scene, but instead of a grand entrance he comes to be baptized by John. Jesus knows that if he is to incarnate God to this world, then all the necessary steps needed to be taken. He must accept John’s place as the one preparing the way for the Messiah. Jesus would follow through in being baptized by John. Jesus illustrates that he is not above his own rules. He animates the message of John and in doing so, fulfills all righteousness. John wrestles with Jesus’ act of baptism, thinking it improper to baptize him. Jesus however puts John’s fears to rest.

As soon as Jesus is baptized something beautiful happens. The Spirit of God descends upon Jesus as a dove, and the voice of God the Father proclaims from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”⁴

This is a beautiful scene because Jesus starts to walk out his earthly ministry. Jesus begins in a righteous submission to his very incarnation. His ministry would be all about the will of the One who sent him, and not about himself. Jesus’ baptism is the public announcement of Jesus as God’s Son.

Notes

• John the Baptist’s ministry was merely to introduce Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God. How many of us would be satisfied and fulfilled with whatever the Lord asks of us?
• The Pharisees and Sadducees are for us a constant reminder to make our actions speak louder than our words, and our hearts to not be deceived by anything of this world. We must remain those who would respond to God in authentic fashion.
• Jesus is introduced to people with an act of obedience and submission. He illustrates to us the joy and fulfillment in walking through whatever path our Father prepares for us, for He will be glorified by actions.

Stargazing Worshippers

If there is anything that shakes kings and empires, it is the thought of someone or something undermining and possibly even replacing it. In Matthew 2 we continue to see the amazing phenomenon that was Jesus’ birth, but we also see the first attempt by the establishment to snuff it out.

The story begins quite surprisingly. Wise men from the east have come to see Jesus. They know this because they saw his star in the east; they now have come to worship this king.¹ It took wise men from the east to come worship Jesus and offer him gifts.

Herod and Jesus

While some have come to worship this new king named Jesus, Herod the current ruling king is perplexed by this new development. This man many called Herod the Great has an interesting history. He was a ruthless leader willing even to kill his own family yet initiated the most ambitious building plans in Judea during the time of Roman rule. He was a puppet of the Roman Empire but also tried his best to remain popular amongst the Jewish constituency.² The best way to describe the man was that he had an enormous ego and was ready to do the unthinkable to maintain his reign.

Upon hearing of this new ‘king of the Jews’, who was of the line of Abraham and David, Herod determines he cannot allow him to live. The brutality of what Herod does to the city of Bethlehem³ is shocking and entirely deplorable; but it also reveals to us the pain and suffering of the common people under such a reign. Herod unleashes on an entire city a genocide of the young boys. It seems that making this king angry could unleash terror.⁴ While one king unleashed terror upon his citizens, another king was saved by a dream.

The Sojourning Son

Joseph, by divine insight, had taken his family to Egypt, where they remained until the death of Herod. Remember now that the Israelites were sojourners in Egypt for over 400 years, and that God sent Moses to bring them to the Promised Land.⁵ God is wanting his Son Jesus to walk a path of incarnation, and in so doing he takes on the sorrow and struggle of his people.⁶

In Christ’s experience we see the heart of God. In Jesus, God does not respond to evil and sin with retaliation or vengeance. Rather there is a submission and hiddenness in Christ that is entirely new and different. We see the workings of a new kingdom afoot. This refugee family did eventually make it back to Judea, and through another dream, Joseph was able to eventually settle in Nazareth.⁷ So here is Jesus not living in the centers of power or influence of his day, but fully incarnating himself into the Jewish reality.

He understands, even at a young age, the story of his people. His family left home because the king has a kill-order on him; he has been a refugee in Egypt; and finally he moves to the blue-collar northern city of Nazareth in Galilee. Jesus is probably taking all of this in as both God and now human. The King of kings is living like a servant, weaving himself into the fabric of the Jewish experience.

Patchwork History

We begin our look at Jesus in the book of Matthew with an extremely long list of names.¹ Matthew begins his account of Christ with a genealogy. In our modern day understanding we might not place much weight on somebody’s great great-grandfather; but in the Jewish understanding of kingship it is necessary to establish lineage and succession.² Who is Jesus? Where does he hail from? These and other questions are important for the Jewish audience that Matthew is writing to.

As I read through this portion I began to see the threads of redemption and restoration as part of the fabric of their history. Here was God in the flesh aligning himself to a certain group of people and a culture.

But the reality of Christ’s genealogy is that it is not filled with the super-spiritual, or the super-human. Rather Jesus’ genealogy is filled with normal people. When I say normal, I don’t mean just ‘good’ people; but rather the whole gamut of ‘normal’ as it pertains to humanity. You have murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, cheaters, sinful kings; but you also have great men and women of faith and obedience to God. Somehow all these people became a part of Christ’s genealogy.³

God was able to weave through the stories of sinners, normal people with normal issues, and by his grace and mercy use them for His glory. What set apart this group from others is that they became a part of God’s story. God chose to incarnate⁴ His Son Jesus in this family of people.

Precarious Incarnation

The manner in which Jesus was born is quite amazing. If you take an honest look at the circumstances in which Mary conceived and her betrothal to Joseph, you realize that it was not ideal or socially accepted. Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit…try explaining that to your family and friends.

Somehow God decided Christ was to be born into the most precarious of circumstances…a woman who was not married, a man who was still trying to figure it all out and a bit confused. Joseph, probably with others in society, did not believe that Mary could have been with child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, it took an Angel sent by God to communicate God’s divine intentions⁵ and Joseph relented to this mysterious plan of God.⁶

Here was a situation that in the moment seemed crazy and impossible, but somehow the thread of God’s divine plan was at work yet again. It was like God was saying, “Do I need a ‘perfect’ situation for my Son to be born? Can I not do it any which way I please?” God was in control and somehow had orchestrated these events in his divine understanding of things.

Hidden Less-Traveled Paths

A couple things stick out to me as I read Jesus’ earthly beginnings. Here was king that was arriving without pomp and circumstance. He was born into a tiny nation that was oppressed through their precarious history, into a family that were not well-off but rather struggling. Jesus chose not the palace to announce his earthly arrival, but a place of hiddenness and poverty. He left the glory of heaven and entered the poverty of humanity.⁷

The Jewish people during this time were pulled in many different directions. There was the Roman Empire to worry about, the puppet Judean kings set in place to keep the peace, the corrupt and self-seeking religious establishment, and wide array of different sects believing a host of different things. To top all of that, Joseph and Mary were living in a time when many were expecting a Jewish Messiah to show up.

God was essentially saying in the birth of Jesus that something else was afoot in the goings and comings of men and empires and religion. There was something stirring and most could not put a finger on it. It began deep in the womb of Mary and grew stronger in the obedience and faithfulness of Joseph. Another king was born, but not in the ways of the world, but rather in the humility and mystery of God’s divine plan.

God With Us

The title given to Christ, Immanuel, God with us, takes up special meaning in this context. Christ was hope and life and freedom to a people who had none. God with us. Jesus, the Christ, God in the flesh.

This is the Incarnation: God becoming one of us, the Creator becoming one of the Created. God chose to send Jesus to earth as a baby, born into the most uncertain of circumstances. He took up residence on earth. God was not far off, but now had incarnated into their reality. The King of Kings and the Creator God, was now born into a human family.

Getting To Know Him Again

I am a Christian. I was born into a Christian family, grew up in church, did the Christian thing. I even helped out at church, prayed every day, and read my Bible. I could say I was a pretty good Christian. I understood that Jesus came to pay the price for my sin. He died for me so I could live with him forever. I knew I had to live completely for him, but I really didn’t know what that meant.

One day I sat down and really read Jesus again in the Gospels. I removed the strongholds and filters I had constructed in my mind of who and what Jesus was about. I read about his raw passion and sacrifice. I was moved by his incessant love for humanity and the stories he spoke of another world that was possible. I was convicted by his teaching, was moved by his death and resurrection, and somehow wished I could have been there to experience this Jesus firsthand.

A Re-Introduction

Once I was re-introduced to Jesus, there was no turning back. Jesus was either too good to be true or somehow the greatest person to have ever walked the face of the earth. This spiritual, clinical, religious, and packaged Jesus that I was accustomed to was ravaged by the Jesus of the Gospels.

Here was a man who…spoke with authority, healed the sick, fed the hungry, stood up to the establishment, lived out another reality, didn’t tickle our ears, animated otherworldly compassion, suffered for the prize set before him, conquered death and Satan, came back to life…did all this and so much more.

I was surprised with how little I knew of Jesus. I was surprised by how directly he addressed the issues of life in the here and now. There was an honesty and transparency I received as I read through the Gospels and was re-introduced to Jesus. I remember poring over this new Jesus that I had somehow failed to meet for most of my life. It was a revolutionary experience for me.

Jesus was coming alive. The accounts and stories I had read in the Gospels were radically changing me. There was a purity and simplicity in Jesus that I so craved and longed for. Jesus wasn’t cold and calculating. He was alive and real and in the moment. He cared for others. He cried over people. He sorrowed. He joyed. He forgave and gave hope. He stopped people dead in their tracks and showed them a new way. There was something beautiful in the simple message of Jesus.

It is this Jesus that I want to re-introduce to you in my writing. This personal relationship I have with him, this Son of God, this God-Man, this Christ who loved all and gave his all, is what I intend to write about.

I don’t intend to write exhaustively on Jesus through the Gospels, nor do I claim to have a complete understanding on Jesus either. Rather I would ask that you with open heart and mind engage your soul to Jesus anew as we encounter him again in the Gospels.

Jesus In Matthew

I’d like to begin in Matthew specifically because Jesus is introduced as King of a Kingdom. I think knowing Jesus as King in our day is necessary and fundamental.

We have made Jesus a spiritual phenomenon. We understand him as Friend, as Savior, and even Lover, but we ignore him as King and Lord. Jesus somehow is simplified into a philosophy or a creed or a set of principles. His message and life are idealized and honored but not applied or animated.

We are thankful for his sacrifice and overwhelmed by his love. We are moved to supplication and spiritual growth. We sing songs about the attributes of Jesus. We write books and give speeches about how much he cares and loves and comforts and… yet we may be missing the point entirely. Maybe we have failed to let him inform us on the issues that relate to the rest of life.

The writer of Matthew takes the life of Jesus – teachings, miracles, encounters, healings, death, and resurrection – and sifts them through a grid of Jesus as King.

In Matthew, Jesus has something to say about our holistic life expression. He has much to say about our way of life. His message touches our politics, economics, ethics, philosophy, and much more. The Jesus that Matthew presents is the Lord of all things.

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content. Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

There is a quiet discomfort in not knowing the future. There is an uncertain agitation to trusting in Christ amidst the turmoil of immediate circumstance. Yet it is in such misunderstanding or questioning we find a peace beyond all peace and a joy beyond all joy.

For we find our machinations and our scheming, or as some would call it dreaming and planning, do little to impress our God. He desires of us to be dependent creatures, always returning to Him for all things. He ignores all our doing and relating and unveils the deep truths of being His child.

For beyond all dreams, hopes, and aspirations, we must come to a place of resting in the wonder and love of our Heavenly Father. We must find our serenity in the peace and wonder of God.

Abba, Abba, Abba… I belong to You
Abba, Abba, Abba… I belong to You
Abba, Abba, Abba… I belong to You

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

I wonder how much we hate sin. I wonder how much we know it hurts the heart of Jesus. God who had to send Jesus to redeem creation, to bring us back to him, must hurt every time we give in to sinful desires. The heart of John the apostle comes screaming through his words. He loves and believes in them; he wants to see them in perfect relationship with God. He writes because he does not want them to sin.

This us brings back to a bigger question: What is sin? Why does it keep us apart from God?¹ Sin is a funny thing. Some feel like they know exactly what it is. They have their formulas, rules, and philosophical grid.² While others live in the gray, neither black nor white; a compromising dialetic of ethics and conscience ‘on-the-go’.³ There are still others who have no reference point for what is sin; they simply live as they please.⁴

Sin, Jesus & the World

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

If I were to take a stab at sin and define it, I would say: It is us living in whatever way we please with little or no regard for who God is in our lives. The thing that gets me as I read this passage is that it only works for those who realize that in their sin, they are powerless save but for the redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross. But we have to first not want sin.⁵ Once we have this realization, we can then approach Jesus as our Advocate.

There is something beautiful to be noted here as well. Jesus is our Advocate before the Father. Jesus stands on our behalf before the Father. It is in Jesus that we have the ability to come before God, because it is Christ’s righteousness we come under. The reality of John’s words to the Early Church must ring true in our lives.⁶ What follows then is that if we are to live in the goodness and righteousness of God, we must submit our lives directly to Christ.

I wonder how closely we guard our relationship with Jesus. I wonder how pure we remain in Jesus as we be, do, and relate. It’s such a delicate and fragile thing in that we were meant to be in beautiful relationship with Jesus. To know Christ and to be known by Him; this must be what drives us as we live our Christian lives. We need to move from just knowing Jesus as the person who forgives us and cleanses us, to knowing Him as Lord and Shepherd over our lives.⁷ We need to know Him deeply.

As we begin to know Christ deeply, we then begin to know His redemptive love for the whole world. As Christ-followers we look not just for Jesus to work in our own lives, but also in the lives of those around us. As we mature as Christians we receive a greater revelation of Jesus redemptive work in our environments, and we learn how to become a part of that redemptive work.

A Genuine Faith

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…

As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, there is a foundational shift in our spiritual psyche that illustrates itself in our being, doing, and relating. As we follow Jesus more and more every day our desires change, our attitudes adjust, our thinking is transformed, our words encourage and uplift, and our actions shout loud Christ. This happens as we grow in Jesus.

Though this idealistic picture is one that we would love to claim as our lives, the reality of our Christian walk might be something else entirely. There are moments when our inner belief and outer practice are not in alignment. There are times when we live in a way that is different from the Jesus way. It is in those moments that we must be reminded of the words of John in this passage: “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.”⁸

Inherent in John’s statement are the implications of relationship. Our living out this Faith has more to do with being connected with Jesus than anything else. If we say we are in Christ and live in a way that says we are not, then we are lying. More specifically we are deceiving ourselves into believing ourselves to be one thing, while we live out another.

When we mentally believe something, possibly even tell ourselves we know it in our hearts, but fail to live it out, it is not belief at all. The illustration of faith must match our proclamation of faith. If they do not match we do not live in faith at all. Truth and belief are not truth and belief in those situations.

…but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

I do not believe that John is saying that our works determine our faith. Rather, I think John is arguing that our lives follow the implications of the transformative work of Jesus. If there is no illustration of faith, then it is not faith at all.

The beautiful thing we notice is that John writes: “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” As we submit our lives to the process of living out this faith, as we practice and not just proclaim God’s goodness and righteousness, the love of God continues to be made complete in us.

Questions To Be Answered

• How much do we hate sin our lives? How do we compromise and let it into our lives?
• What does the redemptive work of Christ look like in our lives? How do we appropriate it into our lives?
• How does the redemptive work of Christ affect the way we look at the world? What are some practical ways we can incarnate Christ’s redemption in our environment?
• How do we guard our relationship with Jesus? Why is it important to maintain that vibrant relationship?

Knowing something in your heart and moving towards that inner feeling are two completely different things. You can have all sorts of inclinations and dreams, but to adjust your life accordingly; that can be scary, crazy, and sometimes look very stupid. A lot of people wondered why I would go to a place where I really had no friends, no church family, and no job. To be honest I didn’t even know what I was doing.

It’s been ten months now. I found a job, I found a great church, and God has brought a lot of new people into my life. The craziest thing of it all is that in the newness I find myself directly in the will of God. I am more alive and focused and ready for what God has in store than ever before. There has been a sobering in my life that brings me directly back to God.

It’s in the newness that there is life. It’s in simple obedience to the leading of the Spirit that we find fulfillment. It’s when you come to place of newness that you can see God’s future.

I’m on a journey. I surely have not come to where I know God will eventually lead me; but I’m a few steps in the right direction. I am growing in my ability to simply live before God, to love Him more and more, and to be surrendered to Him. I am also growing in my ability to live in community with other Christian brothers and sisters, to love them and to live in fellowship with them.

I believe that we find strength from:

1. Becoming a part of God’s story,
2. Finding our place in biblical community, and
3. Sharing our stories with those around us.

My campus pastor at Portland Bible College would always say, “It’s all about Him and His.”

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
I John 3:1-3 NIV

It truly is…

His life and purpose was to save us. He died willingly knowing the prize that laid ahead…his bride, the body of Christ…us. We are his portion, and he is ours. Our lives were bought by the willing death of God of upon a brutal Roman cross. It was not a death of glory but a death of despicable horror and suffering. The journey we find ourselves in, must constantly remind us of this gift we have in the death of Christ.

In Christ’s death we find our sins and sorrows, our pain and suffering, our broken lives, the struggles that plague us all. All these and more have been taken up by Christ upon that Cross. In Christ’s Cross we directly find ourselves aware of what put him there. We see the juxtaposition of God’s wrath for sin and how far God would go in bringing His creation back to Him.

In the Cross, we find ourselves aware of life. We find the full illustration of Jesus’ thought, his teachings, his actions, and his life. We see the depths and heights of divine love and human depravity. There is no more a contradiction as the Son of God dying upon a Cross, killed by what he himself created. We learn that our life in it’s entirety finds itself somewhere in that contradiction. The Passion enables us to walk through whatever path our Lord has for us on this earth.

So in these next few days, let us remember our Jesus, his work, and death upon the Cross for us…

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

John had the privilege of experiencing Christ in his physical form. He had sat with, touched, ate with, lived with Jesus. His understanding of Christ was very experiential. But John also had another experience. He was the only disciple of Jesus who died naturally, and that meant he had the longest time of all the disciples to know Jesus in daily spiritual relationship. He did not see Jesus, but his relationship with him was as alive as it ever was. Jesus was not only a memory, but still the vibrant Christ that ruled his heart.

The same Jesus that lived in Judea and had that immediate, experiential, physical impact on the lives of many, still has the same relational, experiential hold on John. Jesus the Christ, his message, his Cross, his life… when our lives are found directly in his, then we truly have found life. Eternity begins not when we die, but eternal life in Christ begins when our lives are found in Christ’s.

God and his Son Jesus Christ, directly qualify and justify our fellowship. We gather together, live life together, come together…under the name of Christ. Under the name of Jesus we find true life. Everything comes under him. John is setting the record straight for the Christians he is speaking to. God is the only reason and purpose for which we gather. Our lives, our being and doing, our relationships, our interactions with the world, all come out of a life in God.

There is an invitation of true fellowship to all in John’s writing. Come and experience a life worth living. Life in Jesus fulfills beyond all things. You can search out the depths of Christ, and come up still gasping for more. You can go big and you can go small… God goes beyond anything and everything. So John invites the church of Jesus to true fellowship.

There is joy in bearing Christ’s message to his body. John experienced the joy of bearing the message of God to the Church.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

The message overflows and overwhelms John. He speaks a message that comes from the core of his being. It comes from his identity in God. The Jesus that he calls Lord, is the same Jesus he walked with, and now rules and reigns in his being. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of John, brings him to a place of bringing God’s good news to people. He does not just bring a message; rather for John, his life in its entirety is the message. He does not merely bear the Good News; rather John has lived in such a way that incarnates the Good News.

The difference between Christianity as we think of it and following Christ as John sees it: fellowship with God, in the most fundamental sense. A life truly and utterly devoted to God, from the biggest thing to the smallest thing. Where love rules, justice prevails, where we forgive and love instead of judge and hate, where our inner lives practice what our outer lives proclaim, when the kingdom of God is made manifest.

A life in true fellowship with God is growing in how we relate to God, how we relate to ourselves, how we relate to each other in Christ’s body, and how we relate to the world. It also helps us see how we relate to our past, our present, and our future in God. A life in fellowship with God moves beyond a selfish motivation, and takes on a God-rooted motivation. It finds itself seeking to think the way God thinks, to love the way God loves, to forgive the way God forgives, to be the figurative and literal hands and feet of God in our world.

A life in fellowship with God requires our utmost honesty. It requires of us a submission to God that brings us to a place of honest assessment and acceptance that we are truly debtors to the infinite grace of God, that is available to us. When we hide ourselves from God’s light and choose, in our pride, to belittle the bounty of God’s goodness, we are really saying God is not faithful, and if He is not faithful He is a liar. True and honest submission to God requires of us a divine humility; for we are incapable of humanly being so honest and submissive. To receive God’s forgiveness and walk in intimacy with Him, requires of us true and honest submission. This requires the power of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.

In Conclusion

May we experience God in our lives. In our going and coming, in all that we do and say, in all that we believe and hope for, may our revelation of Jesus transform us. May we experience life together with Christ’s body, his Church, in greater fellowship. May we center our lives around Jesus. May our lives incarnate the message of Jesus to the world around us. May we live out as citizens of God’s kingdom, we live what we proclaim. May our message always point to Jesus. May our dreams find it’s roots in God. May we love like Jesus loves, forgive like he forgives, serve selflessly as he served selflessly, and may our lives continue to tell God’s story.

Everything and yet nothing, something caught in the wrinkle of perspectives on either side of promises and hopes, a doctrinal corollary of holding to a status quo definition of morality. Contradictions face the human soul from all directions. There are too many questions that require too many answers, and to begin to account for the motivations of those asking or answering is completely beyond us.

Life is the unseen force that moves us in time, carries us with emotion, pushes us towards a certain awareness, and yet somehow is beyond us. We begin wide-eyed with wonder hoping to be and do something with our lives. We find ourselves in the latter part of our journeys, with a deeper awareness, being someone and doing something, and we are confounded by the journey. Somewhere in the middle of our journey we hope to find something of value to latch our hopes and dreams and our beliefs and aspirations towards.

We are grains of sand in the hour-glass of life. We find ourselves awaiting that exciting plunge or remembering it. Yet we are mere actors in the story that unfolds before us. We have our beliefs and convictions, those things we would give our lives for, but forget that maybe not everything we believe in is true and right. We become arrogant fools, so sure of perspectives on life that we wage meaningless battles with others around us. Sometimes though our beliefs and convictions are right and true and necessary. We become wizened sages in bringing a new perspective to something or someone that desperately needed a re-imagination. So we may be yet fools and sages. We are however most pretentious when we think we have understood the world completely. In so doing, we reveal ourselves to be prideful, unapproachable, and close-minded.

So what to do when hopes and dreams are a faint whisper silenced by the chorus of the way things are? I haven’t found an answer to that question yet, but I have a suspicion that it has more to do with how I affect change in my little corner of the world.

Sometimes we get to certain points in our lives when we have all the information, all the ideas, all the dreams, all the hopes…that we could possibly have. I for one process and think and ponder and philosophize with the best of them. The reality of thoughts and ideas however, is that they have no bearing or significance unless and until they are lived out in one’s life.

Truth is meaningless until the implications of that truth is evident in that truth-bearer’s life. Doctrine and Theology is meaningless until it becomes alive, as the hearer becomes the doer. In the same way, I am a bearer of ideas, hopes, dreams, passions, beliefs…etc. There have been times where I’ve talked to friends and they’ve told me, “Ashish, you need to step out and do what you’re talking about; stop talking about it and just do it.” This is the place of tension I find myself.

The content and passion of writing has brought me to this point, where my truth and belief with sorrow and imagination, must translate into my lifestyle in action and suffering. There is no point for me to write about Incarnational Christianity if I am not able to practice what I preach.

As Peter Rollins argues it, “I aspire to believing in God,” where the answer to the inherent question of one’s belief is presented not only in word but in deed, not only vague ideas and concepts, but in transformative action and suffering.

We must be the living epistles. There is an internalization of faith that affects us from the inside out.

I think this is why Paul routinely writes about Christ living in you…

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And John’s epistles also speak of this…

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us…I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

And this is where I am at in my faith. I want to walk out and live out and illustrate the implications of life lived wholly for Christ. I don’t feel I have the right to keep writing about the transformative power of such a thing if I am not in some way aspiring to live this way.

So what I’m trying to say, in long-winded fashion, is that I want to live to make a difference. I don’t have to shout it from the rooftops; I just have to get out and live it.

As we embrace the stories we find ourselves in with sorrow and imagination, we are consumed with raw passion and energy. It is a change in our motivation and understanding. It leads us towards a response and protest that find identity in something well thought out and heartfelt. Response and protest are a fundamental part of both, embracing the story, as well as becoming a part of the story. Embracing the stories we find ourselves in has everything to do with us adapting. Becoming a part of the story however, has everything to do with how we create within our environments.

It is one thing to embrace the story we find ourselves in and understand the how, why, what, and even the when. It is quite another thing to speak out, create something, and provide something that is not already there. As we are affected the world we find ourselves in, we must also become a part of the story in our response and protest.

We must begin with sorrow and imagination, and from there we must move to action and suffering. Sorrow helps us understand the chaos and misunderstanding of the world; imagination gives us a hope in a future that is not present. Action is the fulfillment of understanding and motivation in response and protest. It is where we know who we are, why we are, and what we are supposed to do.

Action is when we move forward into the reality we find ourselves in. It is where we sorrow over a broken reality and imagine a new reality of something better and greater. Suffering is where action has taken you to the point of no return. Suffering is where you incarnate the outworking of sorrow and imagination in your given reality. Suffering bridges the world that was, the world that is, and the world that could be. Suffering is sacrifice for those who are vested in their current reality, but for those who respond to the current reality and protest towards an imagined reality, it is a joy and privilege.

The person who acts and is willing and ready to suffer, might become a catalyst for transformation. In many instances, transformation never happens because the environment it originates from reabsorbs it’s focus, it loses collective relevance and is wholly forgotten, or it becomes the seedbed for future transformation. However, if it is valid and it captures the sorrow and imagination of that environment, transformation is entirely possible. At that point however, there must be a guiding voice for it’s follow-through.

Transformation happens when the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of a collective environment find meaning and purpose. It is organic and miraculous, not constructed or distributed. It is caught and imparted, not learned or understood. Transformation drives at the underlying passions and dreams of the constituents of a given environment. Transformation is never easily understood, but it is easily observed. You realize when it comes and goes, and know when it is short-lived or long-lasting; but you cannot reproduce it’s process from one environment to the next. You can only observe and interpret the transformation in context.

We all see the world in a unique light. Our collective voices add depth, clarity, and beauty to our humanity. If we are ready to embrace the story we find ourselves in with sorrow and imagination, if we are ready to become a part of the story and create through action and suffering, we will transform our world and change it.

As we find ourselves embracing the story, we must find ourselves securely lodged in the moment. Instead of the transcendence of the grand narrative, we need to look closely at the numerous stories we find ourselves in. If we are caught up in the grand narrative of existence, we may become aloof and indifferent to the rise and fall of the immediate stories we find ourselves in. We become distant observers in a world that demands our being, doing, and relating. We become good at analyzing what was right and wrong; we work all the angles; yet something is missing in all of this. We slowly unlearn how to be, do, and relate in the here and now; there is no one, no thing, no cause, no passion that we put ourselves toward. We lose our ability to respond and protest because we do not wish to act. In all of this, we manage the stories we find ourselves in and fit them into our ‘greater-story’ paradigm. We lose touch with reality.

To fully engage the world around us, I would argue that we need to have sorrow and imagination. These should be our fundamental motivations in our response and protest.

Sorrow has a reactive power in that it empowers people to feel again. In some of the stories we find ourselves in, people have lost the ability to feel and criticize their present reality. Sorrow has a way of bringing to the surface the inherent emotion associated with pain and loss. Imagination is a proactive power in that it allows people to dream again. Sometimes we are too caught up in the realities we find ourselves in and cannot believe in an alternative reality, let alone believe it to be possible. Imagination has a way of building hope of a better tomorrow regardless of the present situation we find ourselves in. Sorrow and imagination require honesty.

There are too many who do not sorrow; they live in their world of indifference and positivity; they ignore pain and suffering whether it be their own, or it be someone else. When we do not sorrow, we are not honest, and when we are not honest we too easily deceive ourselves. There must be room for sorrow in our stories. It makes us human and allows us to align ourselves to a world in need of comfort and care. We are approachable when we are able to sorrow with another person.

There are many who do not imagine; they are stuck in their present reality; either they are satiated by their reality or they have become numb to the struggles and chaos they face daily. Imagination is only possible when one understands their present reality is not their home, but that they are constantly moving forward in time and space. Imagination allows you to adapt to a changing world. We must always have room for imagination in our stories; if not we get too easily caught up in the pain and suffering we encounter in our stories. Imagination allows you to see the impossible and move towards that reality.

A life without sorrow, is a life without honest emotion. A life without imagination, is a life without a futuring hope. Sorrow keeps us grounded while imagination keeps us on our toes. When sorrow and imagination work together, we find ourselves fully embracing the stories we find ourselves in.

There is a world in need of people who would bear Christ and his kingdom to the ends of the earth. To furthest corner of the nations of our world, to the forgotten corners of our cities and towns, Jesus is looking for a disciple willing to believe the unbelievable, attempt the unattainable, and achieve the unachievable. The Christ we follow is one of infinite, imaginative potential. His work, his Cross bears us up to go further than we’ve ever gone before. We can believe beyond a shadow of a doubt because it is the Maker of all Creation we’re talking about. Christ lives in us and moves in and through us; our lives must move with him. His heart beats for lost, the dying, the broken, the weary; our hearts must follow in tune. We must bear up this Christ to a world in desperate need.

To move beyond a shadow or a doubt, to believe in the God of all possibility, to take this hope we have in Christ to all… This is what we must seek to do with our lives. To be instruments in his kingdom, to be used as he so desires, to surrender our will to his will, to be consumed by this Jesus we profess. Where he is not just a thought or emotion, but is part of our very being, doing, and relating.

To be Christ’s hands and feet, to be Christ’s tears and comfort, to be willing vessels used for his honor and glory. There is a dying world pleading for Christ to be revealed, not just in thought, understanding, or kind words. No. This kingdom must be revealed to a broken world in humble power, incarnational truth, and redeeming love.

The world waits for us to move beyond the good ideas or random acts of kindness… It waits for us to live this transforming message of Christ and his Kingdom. It waits for the Christ-follower with redemptive sorrow, imagination, and action. The world waits for those who have awareness and humility.

There are countless stories being written of pain, loss, suffering, brokenness, and the brunt of human depravity. As recipients of Christ’s redeeming story, we must embrace the stories we find ourselves in. We must shine our little lights on the story Christ has written on our hearts, and in doing so point their stories to Christ’s story.

My heart is burdened for the weary and the broken… They are numerous in my city, lurking behind every frown or smile, attempting to live a full life, while running on empty. They are crying, desperate for the message of Christ.

Will we bear up Christ to our world?
Will we move beyond our comfort zones?
Will our lives speak of Christ and not ourselves?
Will we give it all for the sake of Christ?

If there were no roadblocks, what would we believe for?
What we would we attempt for the sake of Christ, if nothing stood in our way?

May we continue to sorrow, imagine, and suffer, as we bear up Christ to our world…

In finding meaning and purpose, we continually grasp at a greater story. Though in such quest, we might willingly ignore the story we find ourselves in. For each story is a single stroke in the masterpiece of the greater story. One must come to his senses in who he is and why he is. And he must seek to understand ‘who’ and ‘why’ in the greater context of ‘we’ and ‘us’. It is in this interaction that we be, do and relate. We respond and protest as we embrace our stories and the stories of those around us.

We encounter ignorance and misunderstanding as we be, do and relate. We see a world in need. There are too many who are ignored and misunderstood in every society. The voices of the ignored and misunderstood are eerily silent. Their stories are unknown or unsaid. They tend to retreat to the margins, stuck in the shadows, beyond thought or emotion. They silently cry out to be heard and understood.

Yet we do not respond to or protest the inhumanity of a world drenched in pain and suffering. We remain indifferent and our indifference leads to ignorance and misunderstanding. In most instances, this is borne out of a desire to remain an observer in the story. There is a desire to remain a safe distance away; this is because giving your attention to something implies that you could be affected by it; it also implies that you would be drawn to action. In our indifference we stay ‘safe’ within our walls of comfort and selfishness; this gives way to ignorance and misunderstanding.

The opposite of ignorance and misunderstanding are listening and understanding. Listening is more than just hearing a story. Listening to a story requires you to be fully engaged in mind, will, and emotions. Listening also gives a story a voice, which in turn brings revelation. Most people want to tell a story; the fact that their story is heard, gives it a sense of dignity. Understanding moves you to a place where you have processed the story; you are not just listening, but processing through emotions and thoughts associated with the story. Understanding means that you are affected by the story in your being, doing, and relating. Understanding also implies that you have more reason to act in response and protest.

If we are to embrace the story we find ourselves in as well as push towards the greater story, then we must enter that story. We must listen and understand. It is only when we have truly listened and understood, that we are able to respond and protest in awareness and humility. This is when our being, doing, and relating, have found meaning and purpose.

We live in a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. There are countless stories ignored and misunderstood; which lead to indifference and inaction, and could lead to ill-will and malice toward a certain story. In living in a world that is consumed with ignorance and misunderstanding, we must seek out the unsaid stories and give them a voice.

Response and protest help us come alive. It is that constant imbalance we find ourselves in with our environment. I would argue that response and protest must be married to awareness and humility. In our being, doing, and relating, as we respond and protest, we must be fully aware and willingly humble. Without this, response and protest become a discourse in apathy and arrogance. There are too many people who respond and protest in a way that shows how apathetic they are, and how arrogant they are.

To be fully aware requires us to throw ourselves into life. It requires of us a focus on ourselves, those immediately around us, those we influence, and the world that we find ourselves in. It requires of us to process the meaning of the past and the purpose of the future. There is a demand upon us in awareness that takes us from our self-absorption to a holistic self. Awareness may mean we are caught off guard by the circumstances of life, but it also means that we never ignore what life what brings our way. Awareness causes us to watch our steps, to be on our toes if you will, and to always be in step with the fluctuations of the circumstances of life.

Humility requires us to understand who we truly are. We are called to move beyond the vain imaginations that tempt us to lie to ourselves. Humility moves us to a place of honesty. We look at ourselves not through our masks and false selves. Humility allows us to be approachable and teachable in all that we do. Humility says we have not arrived, and that we are yet mouldable. Humility allows us to never stop learning, and to always ignore the false sense of mastery of life.

As we exist, we continue to find or produce meaning and purpose in all that we be, do, and relate. By meaning I speak of the reasons by which we have found ourselves in this present moment as we look to the past; by purpose I speak of the overwhelming desires of the soul and where direction pulls us as we look to the future from our present moment. Meaning is a response to the paths we have walked on, while purpose is a protest to the present as we walk towards our tomorrow. Meaning looks backward, while purpose looks forward. Response and protest are the constant flux we find ourselves in as we seek to exist. Organisms are in a constant state of imbalance in a given environment (that is what makes something ‘alive’), and our response and protest are what gives us humans the power to exist in our given environments.

In our existence we construct these realities. The response we come to might be deserved, imagined, false, or quite necessary. The protest we claim might be high-minded, self-seeking, humble, and maybe sacrificial. We come to these realities of meaning and purpose, or response and protest, in our lives through our being, doing, and relating.

Meaning and purpose find their hermeneutic in the human psyche. We seek to explain our reality, whether it be in our response or in protest, in each present moment. In a given moment we find ourselves responders to the immediate and distant past, and protesters to the immediate and distant future. There is immeasurable potential in each given moment. It is in a simple moment that we can respond and protest our existence.

What seems to be the constant problem with us humans is that we fail in our responding and protesting. In our responding we might respond to a thing not needing a response, or respond erroneously to something that required a response. In our protesting we might protest a thing was quite necessary in our lives, or fail to protest something that was never meant to be a part of our lives.

In our failures to respond and protest correctly we bear our greatest challenges, struggles, and burdens. It is the power of response and protest in a moment, and the effect of our collective responses and protests in our lifetime that define us. Specifically they affect our being, doing, and relating.

In the thick of all of this, I want to speak of peace and chaos. Peace is the reality of one’s correct responses and protests. Peace is where meaning and purpose have found its place in one’s life. Stating it another way, one may find peace in responding correctly to the past, and rightfully protesting the future. Peace is not a change of affairs. Peace cannot change the past, nor can it always bring about a desired future. Peace rather is a state of being, doing, and relating. Peace flows from within, though it is affected by what is from without. Chaos, contrary to peace, is the reality of one’s incorrect response and protests. Chaos implies that meaning and purpose have been displaced in a person’s life. Chaos in one’s life does not imply natural chaos. It is rather a state of being, doing, and relating. One can be in the calmest environment and still be in complete chaos, because he/she has responded incorrectly to the past and continues to incorrectly protest their future.

Our lives move between responding and protesting correctly or incorrectly. Though we may desire constant peace in our lives, it is hard to grasp. This is because there is always something that displaces our correct responses and protests. We are not perfect in this endeavour, though we may try.

I’m sitting here trying to understand the meaning of life, failing in my numerous attempts at a contrived sanity. I forget that all too often I try to fight off who I am in the moment. I pretend I am someone I am not, thinking that it is possible to believe myself into another person. The reality of it all hits me square in the chest. I am who I am, and I can only change who I am. I can only change who I am once I realize who I am. It’s this universal understanding of who you are and why you are the way you are.

If my aim is to understand the human psyche, I might begin with a journey into the metaphysical and spiritual. But in my estimation, we must begin in human suffering and misunderstanding. We see a world lost in the chaos of hurt and pain, confused in relationships, and lost in finding meaning and purpose. We could begin in the cold depths of the depravity of the human soul and then finally analyze the collective soul of humanity through the ages.

The funny thing is that while such grandiose desires reside within my being, I cannot escape the machinations of life itself. If I am hungry I grab a bite to eat or cook a meal. If I am tired I take a nap or take the day off. I cannot shed this ‘mortal coil’; it was bestowed at birth and will remain till death finds me. Our understanding of the human psyche first begins with us taking a look at ourselves.

I never tire of observation. I can criticize and analyze and philosophize and postulate, but the mystical enigma of it all is that I struggle with application. Being and doing; though we may think we are who we think we are, we really are not if there is no illustration of who we think we are. Though some would emphasize being above doing, I would argue that both are products of the other. Being necessitates that you are doing something with your being; and doing requires a being if it is to be genuine. You define yourself through your being, while others may define you by your doing.

I would propose that we need more people who believe in and accept one’s being and not question or attack one’s doing; this would allow many to grow in doing and consequently grow in their being. If we are to adapt and evolve holistically, we must acclimate who we are and why we are, to what we do and how we do it. Integrity with ourselves; we are to be whole in being and in doing. This is an enigma that confuses us. We are in this constant tide of change; our being adapts and grows and thus our doing responds in kind; our doing expands and matures and thus our being responds in kind. We humans are in constant emotive, social, psychological, mental, and physical adaptation. Our doing and being find themselves in such adaptation as well.

The sad reality of life remains that our being and doing remain out of sync. Something is always amiss in the circle we call existence. Questions that have plagued us all like: Do we live to eat, or eat to live? Are we the product of our environment, or were we born this way? Are we the center of our universe, or do we remain just a speck in the vastness of the time-space continuum?

When I look at the world and the infinite possibilities of questions that attack our being and doing, I am convinced that our answers continually fall short. We find solace in shallows answers to our deep and layered questions. We live too easily on noble ideas or meaningful principles, without ever wondering the cosmic ‘why’. We think we have it all figured out with our pat answers. We fool ourselves too easily with something that works instead of waiting and living for something that really matters.

The more we experience life and relationships, joys and sorrows, pain and pleasure, victories and loss, the more we realize how complicated life really is. We have the answers that satisfy our curiosity but only to the level our curiosity has taken us. We are pleased with the questions we ask but fail to realize that we usually ask questions that steer clear of our insecurities. We humans, with our being and doing, are as frail as ever. Some of us are less frail than others and it is thought to be strength. Some of us are more frail than others and it is thought to be weakness.

Life comes and goes at its own pace. We may love in one moment and hate in the next. We may sacrifice in one situation and be entirely selfish in another. We may do good to our neighbour if we think she is nice and may harm our neighbour if we think he seeks to hurt us. The constant in humanity is how inconsistent we truly are. You see a world where some line up on the side of saving the life of baby and others line up on the side of saving an endangered species. You see a world where oppressors lose touch with the humanity of those they oppress. You witness the brutalities of power and corruption as governments and businesses run over the people that got in their way. Humanity is a gamut of chaos and misunderstanding.

On the flip side, I would argue that humanity illustrates beauty and wonder as well. You see it in the eyes of both a newlywed couple and the aged grandparents; there is a beautiful bond that holds their love together. You notice it in the goodwill of one person to another. There is beauty in the seemingly underwhelming, where joy is found in the most simplest of ways. Wonder is seen in the happiness of a child as they receive a gift. This beauty and wonder is like a glimpse of the sun’s rays in the chaos and misunderstanding of a harsh thunderstorm. Then there of course is long-used argument that we would never know beauty without chaos and that we would never experience wonder without a taste of misunderstanding.

There must be something more, something that beckons us to greater or better. There must be a reality that sets itself apart from this one. This brings us back to being and doing. The ties that bind being and doing have everything to do with how we relate to ourselves. The ties that bind our collective being and doing have everything to do with how we relate to each other. This is why we run after things that help us relate better to ourselves and to others. It is as if doing and being is wrapped up in me, you, and all of us. It’s not just me, or just you, or just all of us; it’s all that. As we be and do, we also relate. We are constantly being, constantly doing, and constantly relating.

More than ever I look at the brokenness of the world around me, the sensual and selfish desirings of the human heart, the cold ignorance of the rich and powerful who continue to gain from injustice, the weak will of the addicted soul craving their next fix too strung out to care anymore, those who have it relatively good in the world and care more about their retirement than a dying soul…and I have to ask, “Where is God and where are God’s people?” But the moment I ask the question, the irony of it all hits me. These frustrations have little to do with people, churches, religions, organizations, cities, governments, world powers, or anything of the sort. It has more to do with the direction I feel like I’m headed into. These thoughts and frustrations have more to do with how I will respond to them.

Do I believe my life will make a difference in the narrative of God’s kingdom? I don’t know and I propose that’d be the wrong question. But the bigger issue is that I want to find an overwhelming cause where work needs to be done in my world. I want to spend less time philosophizing and posturing and rather live and be Christ’s hands and feet.

I am tired of getting caught up in the medium and not the message. There is much to be done in the world, and God desires some obedient, willing soul who would look upon a mountain and foolishly say, “We can take it.” I think God can work with that sort of foolishness. God can work with anything or anyone, why do we complicate it so in our Christian understanding?

I am sick of Christ-followers who are so caught up with their plot of vineyard of God’s kingdom, that they belittle and disregard their fellow laborers in Christ. Who are we to say that a church, an organization, or a group of people are not in the will of God? How is it that we fight more readily with our brothers and sisters than we fight against the encroaching darkness of a world system? Why have we turned into self-righteous, Pharisaical, religion workers? Is this what the grace and compassion of Christ and his work have taught us?

I have few convictions and many opinions. There is not much I am sure of anymore. There are always multiple accounts, different perspectives, and charged emotions that run through it all. What I am sure of, what I would stake my life on, is Jesus and his kingdom. The sheer reality of God in our lives, his ability to make us his own, how we are now a part of his body in the earth, and our ability to respond to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit…of these things I am sure of.

It’s not about having the right thing to say, or that I’m always right, or that my opinion even matters. The thing that keeps the world going round is that we care, that our hearts are overwhelmed with compassion, that we should prefer others above ourselves, that we find our identity and purpose in our Heavenly Father, and that at the end of our lives we would have done Christ’s will to the fullest.

Violence as seen in the Old Testament, was a part of God’s plan for the nation of Israel, but violence is abdicated through the person of Christ, his Cross, his message, and his body. Non-violence is the path of the Christian, and we must return good for evil and kindness for violence.¹

Death is but a byproduct of a sinful world. If then the Christ-follower is martyred, he rejoices for he is now with his Savior, and his life was given for the sake of him who sent him.

True humility, true obedience, true love, true selflessness…does not consider oneself, but the mission and the greater task; for we are citizens of Christ’s kingdom.

They killed Christ, and he loved unconditionally, represented all that is good, brought restoration to those he touched; yet they killed him.

How could we hope for anything other than that? Stand for Christ, and his message, and forget yourself along the way. That is simply following Jesus.²

Christianity is suffering and rejection for the sake of Christ. There is no earthly glory in the Christ-follower’s path, for we are asked to die to ourselves, that our left hand will not know what our right does, that we love our neighbors, show kindness to enemies, pray for those who persecute us, that our yes be yes and no be no, that we illustrate in action what we speak. There is nothing but the sheer reality of life devoted completely to the Lord.³

I am afraid that Christianity has become a philosophical treatise, touching human emotion, but not influencing and leading the human heart. We fail because we do not know what Christ has asked of us. It has become an empty ideal, a bless-me club for the calm and collected. No one who really struggles, or is under oppression, or those who are suffering, have a place in the Christianity we present.⁴

We have wallowed long in the misery of a depraved existence; languished willingly in a lifestyle of sin and suffering. We find ourselves now in the debt of divine providence; and Oh what a fortunate providence we have. We are chased so undeservedly by the intense, raving love of God.

This grace by which we are offered new life, was bought with the precious blood of Christ. There is a sacred surrender we must find in ourselves to this grace. For we as yet will never deserve it, but are undeservedly offered such eternal elixir. This grace was not earned; so we may never boast. Nor are we unworthy to receive it, because it is God’s gift to mankind; therefore both uplifting and arresting in its nature. We do not deserve it, but we may not ignore it. We must humbly accept it.

The acceptance of grace invokes in us a weight of the depravity of our souls; we may finally understand what we are saying in accepting so glorious a handout: we are sinners, in need of something outside of ourselves, to redeem us and transform us.

To truly accept grace, it must move from the realm of knowledge to the realm of experience. As we live and move in it, it must be incarnated in our lives. Grace must find its root in our souls and affect us from the inside out.

Grace does not look for the strong, the put-together, the fulfilled, or the rich. It seeks those who would accept its scandalous handout of favor and blessing. Grace fills and overwhelms our souls. Grace brings in us a response of wonder, and demands of us complete obedience. Grace redeems our desires and cravings. Grace becomes the fulfillment of our souls, the light that shines in the void, and the answers to our questions. Grace lives and breathes in us as we protect, nurture, and mature it in our lives.

Grace is both for the broken and the proud. One needs to grasp it’s all encompassing wonder, while the other needs to accept it’s all encompassing sovereignty. Grace must be assimliated holistically.

Grace finds us in our valleys, and yet reminds us still on our mountains. It becomes everything that we hold onto in life. Grace is personified in the selfless, sacrificial nature of Christ; the blessed, life-giving nature of the Father; the comforting and enabling anointing of the Holy Spirit. God is the source of grace in our ives; therefore we must remain connected and in tune with God.

Grace seeks to make fools of us all: It belittles our planning and scheming. It pokes fun at our manufactured fulfillment and happiness. It undermines our foolish belief that we can thrive apart from it. It flies in the face of logic or reason. It infects our emotions and desires. It displaces ourselves from the throne of our souls and ushers in the person of Christ and his Kingdom. It answers our questions of insecurity and disbelief in the sheer goodness of God. It takes us to God’s throne and teaches us to trust God.

Grace introduces humanity to God’s love, faithfulness, and lordship over our lives. In the grace of God we find ourselves pursued by a jealous lover, a faithful friend, and a selfless father. Grace introduces us to the God’s character. Grace grips us to this relationship we have with the Lord. It is both our gift and lasting inheritance, affecting our present and pushing us towards God’s best. It binds us to God. We are His workmanship, from Creation, to redemption, to eternal salvation. We are now because of grace, the recipients of a divine favor reserved for fallen humanity. Grace follows us from the moment we breath our first breath, to the wants and cravings of childhood, to the ups and downs of becoming an adult, to the joys and sorrows of life, to our very last breath we breathe on earth. Grace helps us respond to the gentle and faithful wooing of God toward us. Grace is the measuring rod of eternal life.

Grace daily shouts to us that it is not about what we did, are doing, or will do. It reminds us that we are loved first and foremost unconditionally by God. It reminds us that nothing can separate us from God’s love save our willful rejection of grace. Grace finds us daily to remind us that God is in control and that He leads us. Grace reveals to us the blazing being that God truly is. It reveals to us the promise of blessed relationship, and produces in us the desire to draw close to God. We find ourselves making God our daily focus when grace rules and reigns in our hearts.

To live out the call of Christ on the earth. To let nothing else matter, and allow no thing to come between that. To have Jesus be everything, my reality. To devote my life completely to his call and purpose for my life. To live out Jesus in relation to the world. To bear the redemptive, jubiliary perspective of Jesus. To live as a Christ-follower in the world and bear the image of Christ. To live out as a citizen of another kingdom…Christ’s kingdom. To animate Christ in life as I offer his love to the world. To be a part of community and live out Jesus within that context. To know I belong somewhere. To live for something greater than myself. To live with the heart of Jesus and be the hands and feet of Christ in all the earth.

To be a part of God’s prophetic imagination for a city, a nation, and the earth. To know Christ and to invite people to life with him. To look upon the world with the heart of Jesus. To be a martyr not a celebrity, gaining the attention of Christ not the world. To make a difference not attract followers; where one focuses on eternal consequence while the other seeks to legitimize itself in the eyes of people. To be able to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” To not let the things of the world constrict my passion and zeal for an alternative, kingdom consciousness. To make Christ known and be driven by the lostness and depravity of the world. To continue to hope and dream for the oppressed, broken, and weary. To believe that God is able to break through the hurt and curse of sin and offer something of significance. To bear up the cross of social non-conformity in a world system that is fallen, oppressive, and broken.

To sorrow, imagine, and suffer as Jesus lives and works in me…

Truth is hard to grasp. Is it an ideal? Is it a perspective? Is it a principle? Is a set of doctrinal beliefs? Is it a way of living? Truth as an entity is quite beguiling. Where and how do we begin to define truth? I want to explore truth not as one who has completely understood it, but rather as one on the journey of truth. Truth for me has been an overflow of the relationship I have with Jesus. It has been something I am discovering and embracing.

Truth cannot be limited to a set of beliefs or principles; if it were, anything that attacked my beliefs or principles would undermine it. Truth is not limited to a personal perspective; if it were, truth would be a highly contextualized, relativistic thing that is both selfish and narrow-minded. Truth cannot just be mere facts or observations; in the complex world of humanity’s psyche, sometimes cold, hard facts and observations are hard to come by; and there aren’t always scientific explanations for what we encounter in life. Truth also cannot be limited to a religious creed or text; if it were we would essentially be saying that the full revelation of all truth is found in a limited, finite thing. Truth requires something all-encompassing, something beyond belief and principles, beyond scientific observation or factual observations, beyond religious creed and text.

A New Testament Perspective

When we follow Christ, there is a New Testament understanding of truth we encounter in Jesus. Jesus Himself says, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” and finishes by saying no one can enter heaven but by Him. Truth is found in the person of Christ and in relationship with God. Jesus’ words about truth being found in His person remains at the core of Christian thought. Truth emanates from God, is encountered in Christ and appropriated through the subsequent work of the Holy Spirit in all of life.

Truth begins in the revelation of God to humanity. As the source of all things, God remains the core of truth. It follows then that humanity’s encounter with that truth is related to it’s encounter with God. If we encounter Christ, His message, His cross, His resurrection, and His subsequent work in the Church through the work of the Holy Spirit, we encounter truth. We receive this through the Bible, through the stories of God’s goodness and deliverance passed on through the ages, through our interactions within our relationships. This revelation also comes through somewhat subjective communication in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The revelation of God encounters us in our present reality. We encounter truth when encounter Christ.

A Personal Response

God who initiated the work in all of humanity has revealed Himself to us, but truth if it is to be appropriated into our lives, must be responded to. Truth remains powerless in our lives unless it becomes a part of the fabric of our thoughts, ideas, words, actions, and lifestyle. It must overtake and overwhelm us.

Truth therefore is divine revelation by God that is responded to and appropriated in our lives. Divine truth remains truth outside of ourselves, but God’s desire is that we would respond to that revelation of who He is and incarnate that truth. This is why Christ’s focus on earth was to raise up sons and daughters of His kingdom that put on His mind and lived out in His heart. He desired for His followers to bear himself in their lives as they encountered a world in need of Him.

As Yet To Be Revealed

One must also realize that the revelation we have received is not a full revelation. Though God has revealed Himself to us, we remain incapable of completely grasping who God is. In this our ability to know God exhibits a progressive revelation, moving toward the future of God at the apocalyptic end and recreation of all things. We have faith not merely in the revelation of God through history, but the progressive revelation of God pointing to a glorious future yet to be realized.

Faith is founded in the promise of God and our hope in that promise. We have received the first fruits of salvation in the Cross, resurrection life, and spirit-led living. Truth is then appropriated in our lives. However this truth we have received and are now living is but a downpayment of the complete inheritance we will one day receive. There is a day when we will not see dim reflection, but we will see Christ face to face. In that day we will know truth, because we will know Jesus. This calls then for us to live in our present reality with an understanding of truth as it has been revealed to us, but also an expectation in what God is yet to reveal to us.

Christ Must Remain Central

If the fullness of truth, not as it relates existentially, socially, scientifically, and even subjectively, but rather in its entirety, is found in the person of Christ; if our understanding of truth and how it relates to us where we are at today, comes from that growing, intimate relationship one has with Jesus Christ; it then follows Christ must remain the centerpiece of faith. If at any point we lose that focus of truth emanating from Christ, and we dare to displace Him as the fountainhead of truth, we will have lost our Christian way.

Our faith, if it is to remain vibrant and life-giving, requires a Christo-centricity that focuses on the person of Christ. We cannot merely focus on the cosmic nature of Christ with it’s deeply spiritual and philosophical systematization of faith, nor can we remain satisfied with a historical Jesus with its social action and Christly love, but devoid of the deeper truths of his life and message. A Christianity with Christ at its center will understand both the cosmic significance of Christ, as well as the historical, social non-conformity of the historical Jesus of the Gospels. This is what truth meant to the New Testament believers. They selflessly lived out the person of Christ as they encountered His revelation, responded to Him, and grew in relationship with Him. Truth to the New Testament believer was a person, and their lives were devoted to knowing Him and representing Him to all the world.

Some Closing Thoughts

Truth is the beautiful dance of divine revelation and human response. We are responders to the revelation of God in all our lives. Truth is something that affects us mind, will, and emotions. Truth is holistic and relational, as we live fully integrated lives in the goodness of God. Truth is Jesus, and we must accept, appropriate, and illustrate Him fully in our lives.

I want to delve into Christianity and its relation to the world. When we live in a world of lost people, dying in sin, struggling to make it through, what is our heart response? I believe that our motivations in bringing Christ to people need to be explored. There is I believe a genuine response that needs to come from our Christly perspective.¹

Redemptive Sorrow

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”² In doing so Jesus asks us to look at our heart motivations. He speaks of our Christian response to the way things are, to the ways of the world.

When we begin this journey of following Christ we do this: (1) Enjoy sin, but know it’s wrong, so we stay away from it (spiritual immaturity). (2) Stay away from and hate sin, and live with standards and convictions (isolated Christianity). (3) Hate sin but consumed with a godly sorrow towards the effects of sin on humanity (redemptive sorrow)

Redemptive sorrow is not possible if: (1) If we are numb to the effects of sin in humanity, and live with a focus on self. (2) If we gain from, enjoy, or are a part of the sinfulness of the world.

Redemptive sorrow is illustrated in the Christian life as:

1. A frustration with the way things currently are that leads to godly sorrow – does the sinfulness of the world, and the eternal destiny of those on their way to Hell, draw up some emotion within you?³
2. The redemptive perspective of Jesus – What was Jesus’ perspective as he lived looking toward the Cross? If we are to find the mind of Christ towards the world, what would it look like in our lives? Do we we really believe in a Hell? If so why are we not doing more to save people from such a place?⁴
3. A lifestyle of compassion, empathy, and honesty – when we see the pain and suffering of people, our hearts must be moved. Honesty finds people where they are at. Empathy feels the pain of others. Compassion is where you move out in action.

Redemptive sorrow looks at the past that brought the present into being, and responds to it. It is a focus backward to the past. But in and of itself, it is merely a reactionary agent in the journey of change. There is more that needs to be done.

Redemptive Imagination

An honest assessment of all of life must also lead to a promise and hope in the future of God for something. Abraham believed that God could raise his son from the dead even if obedience meant he had to kill his own son.⁵ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed that God could rescue them and trusted God regardless of what could possibly happen.⁶ Redemptive imagination is what gave Peter and John the faith to bring healing to the lame man on the way to the temple.⁷

We have a gift that is tangible in this relationship with Jesus. We have something of significance to offer a hurting world. When we see the plight of humanity and have a godly sorrow that produces compassion, we must also know that people need more than just compassion. They need a hope and promise in the God of creative and redemptive potential. They need to know that God can do something in their situation.

The growth of redemptive imagination in the life of the believer is as follows: (1) There is a focus on self - we start our journey of faith and everything is really about us and what we want. It’s a focus on self. (2) Believing in and submitting to God’s plan for yourself – this is where you accept God’s plan and purpose for your life and life takes on a whole new meaning. (3) Believing in and submitting to God’s plan for others – this is where you live out selflessly for the good of others.

Redemptive imagination has no power in our lives: (1) If we are fulfilled in our present reality and do not believe in the future of God for ourselves. We can only offer that which we already have. (2) If we reject hope and remain hopeless, and we wallow in the sorrow of our present state. If we cannot see the future of God ourselves, we become powerless.

Redemptive imagination is illustrated as:

1. A rejection of the present state of things & a trust that God is able to redeem – This has to do with a Spirit-led re-imagination of the present reality of something. It has to do with a deep sense of God at work in the situation.
2. A submitting to the future God has for something – we must find Christ’s mind for the given situation. We are meant to present a newness that invades the deadness. There is meant to be life in the place of decay and destruction.
3. Being a part of change and transformation – we must bring the hope and promise of God alive in any given situation. This comes through a redeeming of the language, emotion, and action of a situation.⁸

When we start believing God’s future for our sorrowful present reality; we then become agents of change in a world system that so desires it. The world is looking for hope and promise. Our message is Jesus and our imagination is firmly rooted in His future for something. Redemptive imagination is really a promise and hope in the future God has for something. It has a forward focus that pushes towards the future. We must live out in a way that communicates and embodies the futuring of Christ for a given situation.

Redemptive Action

We must present an alternative reality to any given situation. Though the kingdom of God has not yet been fully realized, as agents of that kingdom we are to live out with a kingdom conscience. The next step is to live out in redemptive action, being salt and light, living out in kingdom action, and where the fruit of the spirit is a part of who we are.

What makes us different is our illustration of Christ, the illustration of the goodness of God in all of our interactions. When the world looks at us, we must present an image of Christ to them that is altogether lovely and more beautiful than anything else they have encountered. This is the essence of Christianity.

Redemptive action is illustrated in our lives when:

1. We are a part of the sorrow of God – we must find God’s heart for the given situation, and actively take up that sorrow in our lives.
2. We are a part of the imagination of God – we must find God’s future for the given situation and do our part to push the present reality toward that future.
3. We embody transformation in our communities – when we live out the transformation in action. We don’t pray for revival or ask for change, we rather become revival and become change. We let our actions speak louder than our words in a given situation.

Redemptive action finds itself in the present reality; it pulls something out of the past and pushes it towards the future of God. If we are about the transforming kingdom of God, it will be evident in our lives. We are salt and light in a tasteless, darkened world. Redemptive action is living out as the sons and daughters of God upon the earth.

Jesus spoke these words:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

Paul wrote these words to the Church at Rome:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:18-21 ESV

In our Christianity, we must be grounded in redemptive sorrow and redemptive imagination, and live out in redemptive action. With an understanding of our past, and a hope and promise in the future of God, we must live out the image of Christ in our present reality.

Here is sermon recording in it’s entirety:

I’m learning to let Christ come under every thought, word, action, and decision. I’m learning to place my passions and dreams in his hand and just really trust him.

I have some big decisions to make in the next few months. I can see 5 steps into the future but it’s the next step that I’m still not exactly sure. I have to continue to do my part as God does His.

Faith is trusting and holding fast to the hope and promise of God yet to realized. That’s exactly where I’m at right now. I’m learning to trust my God.

I’ve been encouraged by the words of Christ:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? ¹

I’m in a journey, over these next few months, of learning the meaning of silence and quietness. I’m finally understanding that to do great things for God, you need to have this iron-will to go the distance, expect unwarranted criticism, live with God’s purpose in mind, and finally trust that the life God has for you is always better than the life others expect of you.

God’s path sometimes include hungry lions in dens, or a blazing fiery furnaces, or an angry mob carrying you through the streets, or even death on a cross because of the God you worship. Everybody’s cross is different, but essentially remains ‘their cross’. Sometimes God’s desire is for us to walk through pain and suffering, just so His glory would be revealed in us. We do not trust Him just so He can come through for us and make our lives a paradise on earth, but rather we take up our cross and willingly die to our desires and dreams, and in doing so proclaim that He is God and that we follow hard after Him. For we have found true meaning in life. Our purpose is found in the one who first loved us. We live now completely for Him and Him alone.

Let come what may, I choose to serve, and trust, and believe, and hope, and pray, and live, completely and passionately for this God who gave me life. There is nothing greater and life has nothing better to offer me. I hold onto the Cross where Christ shed His blood for me; I live in the reality of  Christ living in me and the presence of God working out in me; and I hold fast to the hope of Christ and a better day in glory.

We are all a part of a type of kingdom¹, whether we would like to believe it or not. Some of us live in a democracy, where our voices are apparently heard through our vote. Some are a part of a dictatorship, where the whims and fancies of a tyrant are set into motion.

Some kingdoms are a little more subtle. It could be the kingdom of comfort that we build around our lives; it gives a sense of control and peace. It could be a kingdom of consumption, where we desire, covet, and do what we must to have what we must have. Maybe it’s a kingdom of environmental ignorance, where we could care less about the planet that God created for our benefit but not for our abuse. Maybe it’s a kingdom of jihad, where we kill those who are against our religion and are rewarded with riches and pleasure in the afterlife.

The Kingdom Of God Is Not…

What does it mean to be a part of God’s Kingdom? As Christ-followers, we are now a part of that kingdom, and it would naturally follow that we learn what it means to be its citizen. Our greatest example then would be the life and message of Jesus. In His person we may find what we must adhere to, and what we must completely purge from our lives.

Right before Jesus begins His earthly ministry, we find that Jesus is fasting forty days and forty nights…

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Matthew 4:1,2 ESV

Three things are to be noticed:

1. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness – What this means is that somehow this fasting/temptation period was divinely ordained by His Father, to prepare Him for ministry. It is the final door that Jesus must pass through as He enters into the full revelation of His person to the world. The implications are that Jesus’ response to this time of trial and testing is crucial to the rest of His life.
2. He was tempted by the devil – This was no easy road to walk on; this temptation was real and not contrived. He was not battling Himself, nor some other individual, but was tempted by the devil himself. Jesus had to be tempted by the devil, and in His response to the devil, we find how we as Christ-followers must respond to the devil’s temptations.
3. He was hungry – Jesus here willfully is led by the Spirit to this point of deprivation, and He is hungry. His body is weak, and His humanity is now severely limiting Him. How he responds to His hunger will illustrate to us how we must respond to the deprivations that attack our own soul

The temptations of the devil towards Jesus, provide for us the basis of Kingdom-life. What would Jesus give into? What would He not give into? What is His Kingdom about? His responses teach us about true Kingdom-life.

The Lust Of The Flesh

As we read on Matthew 4, we find Jesus’ first temptation:

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:3,4 ESV

In this temptation, the devil bemoans Christ’s hunger pains from fasting, and asks Christ to illustrate his divinely creative power. If however Christ follows through with such abuse of His person, He naturally remains driven by passions and lust. He would be person driven by the lust of His own flesh. In this act He would follow through with the natural desires of the flesh.

In Christ’s response we find the basis for the Christian’s response in such situations. Christ’s submission to His Father’s will, exemplifies for us our submission to Christ’s will. God desires to break us down and prove to us that He is our sole provider. In this He desires to illustrate His Lordship over our lives.

We must crucify our flesh as we find ourselves members of Christ and His Body. This crucifixion of the flesh so creates in us a death to self; but it results in life in Christ anew. This death to flesh, daily teaches us that we must put God’s will and His purpose above our own. There can be no more, “my will be done”. Rather it must be, “May Your will be done O God.”

Now as Children of a New Birth, as Inheritors of a Heavenly Kingdom, we find ourselves joined to Christ’s Body. We are now His Bride and His Portion. Our lives are no longer our own, but have been bought and paid with the price of redemption. We are slaves to righteousness, indebted to Christ. Our flesh, though still sinful, is now to come under the rule of Christ.

The Pride Of Life

As we read on, we see Christ’s second temptation:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Matthew 4:5-7 ESV

The devil tempts Jesus at His self-preservation. Jesus here is tempted to save Himself. This temptation implies that His Heavenly Father is incapable of saving Him. What it really asks Jesus is, “Do you really trust Your Heavenly Father?” It is really a question of pride. The devil wants Jesus to do whatever without accountability or leading. The devil wants Jesus to take things into His own hands.

As Christians, we can follow the devil’s temptation to take life into our own hands. We at times wish to walk our own paths, apart from the leading of the Lord, and yet still claim the protection of our Lord. We want to live in a lifestyle of pride, instead of humility and meekness. We run from submitting to our Heavenly Father’s will.

It is one thing to saw we follow God. It is quite another to live that out. To follow God means we trust and obey, and not take things into our hands. It means we submit willingly to God’s leading, just as Jesus followed His Father’s lead. Our lives are not our own any more.

The Lust Of The Eyes

As we continue on, we read of Jesus’ third and final temptation:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Matthew 4:8-10 ESV

The devil takes Jesus here and shows him all the kingdoms of the earth, and offers it to Him, but demands worship as payment. He attacks the authority of Christ. In this temptation Jesus is tempted to receive His inheritance through a means apart from His Heavenly Father. He is asked to turn His eyes away from His Father and worship the devil. He would essentially be turning His back on the blessed communion of Trinity He shared with His Father and the Holy Spirit.

The God we serve is a jealous God and He demands complete obedience. He demands our eyes to be for Him alone and no one else. To know what you are worshiping, find out what you are looking at the most; because what you dwell on, what you put your energy toward, that is what you worship.

When we lust with our eyes, we flirt with what we cannot have, and we also flirt with getting what we are supposed to have by the wrong means. We turn our eyes of worship from the LORD and submit them to a lesser thing. Essentially, we invite the wrath of God. When we lust with our eyes, we are driven by a selfish motivation; this motivation then turns on us and we despise what we have gained, because we gained it through improper means.

True inheritors are selfless, because they realize they are inheritors. They did not earn or through selfish means gain something. They rather responded in worship to the LORD and Provider of their souls, and inherited a reward much greater and more fulfilling than any other. Their response is true worship back to God.

The Way Of The Cross

When Jesus was interrogated by Pontius Pilate, right before His death, we read of Christ’s perspective on God’s Kingdom:

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.
John 18:36 ESV

Christ’s mission was to bring this new Kingdom on earth. This Kingdom was breaking forth, and His sacrificial death initiated this new Kingdom. His life was a life meant for others. He died so that others may have life.

That is what God’s Kingdom is all about. It is a kingdom of selflessness, where life is lived for the other. It is kingdom of worship to God, and a kingdom of service to others.

The apostles understood this, and willingly lived in such a way that many would be saved. Paul writes of the lifestyle he lives in his first letter to the Corinthians:

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
I Corinthians 4:9-13 ESV

They understood that if the kingdom of God were to continually break forth in all the earth, there would have to be those who sacrificially give up their rights, their comforts, their dreams, their visions, their earthly possessions. They would have to let their sacrifice, their cross, be the path to which they follow.

Here at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him. The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom, nor is it even the way to the kingdom; it is the kingdom come.
John Howard Yoder in his book, The Politics Of Jesus

Some would think that the Christian life is one of reward and promise, where you are blessed beyond all measure, and hardly work to do anything. It is a life of personal fulfillment and comfort. Faith for such as these become moralistic and eventually legalistic. There is not element of selflessness, and a Cross-mentality. There life is their own. Their spirituality is a means to grow in their own person, and become great in their eyes.

Jesus encountered such an individual in the rich young ruler that came to Him. In Mark’s gospel we read that this man could not give up his natural earthly possessions to the poor. His religion was merely a means to be blessed and grow fat and rich in that blessing.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Mark 10:21,22 ESV

This rich young ruler did not understand Jesus’ heart; that true religion is to provide for widows and orphans. He did not understand that Jesus’ way was really a way of death. It was a way of the Cross, where you die to all that you are, and live out in love and sacrifice.

The way of the Cross, the kingdom, is demanded of every Christ-follower. We are to follow Christ’s path in living for others and becoming servants of all. The greatest among us is the really the servant of all.

Come Out Of The World

An early Christian said this about Christians during the time of the Roman Empire:

They charge us on two points: that we do not sacrifice and that we do not believe in the same gods as the State.
Athenagoras

The god of the Roman state was apparent in the Caesars, and the lesser gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon were worshiped in society as well. The Christians did not sacrifice to these gods. They were different. They did not bow down to Caesar or any other thing for that matter. They worshiped God alone.

What are the gods we worship in our society today? Maybe it is the god of comfort, or pleasure, or security, or money, or sex, or fame, or glory…etc. The gods of societies, though they have taken on new forms and new names, are created by the sinfulness of the human heart, as man turns away from God Himself.

The apostle John writes of the Bablyon, the symbol of the greatness of earthly kingdoms, and warns the body of Christ to remain within the world, but not become like the world.

Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
Revelation 18:4,5 ESV

John writes to a the Churches of Asia, and tells them, that no matter how much of a sacrifice you have to make, no matter how peculiar you must be, come out of the world, and remain separate. There can be no syncretism between you and the world.

We are called to come out of the world and not be entangled by the world. It is become increasingly difficult to pure but maintain proximity to a dying and depraved world; yet this is our call.

Many of us are caught up living like the world. There is absolutely no difference between us and the world. Some of us live like pagans. Many Christians use the excuse that Christians are to understand the world and know the world, but their desires are selfish at best. Most Christians compromise for nothing more than their own laziness, selfishness, and pride. It is a self-seeking endeavor.

An Alternative Community

We must live in purity before the Lord, as we live in close proximity to the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world.

We must not strive to be like the world, so as to attract them to us. The logic there is flawed. Why would the world be attracted to something common and even normal to them? What would be the point of attracting someone who lives in sin, to something that looks like sin?

We must rather provide an alternative community, an alternative expression, where we something altogether more beautiful and better. We must seek to be original, not seek to be relevant. Relevance follows originality.

The Revelation Of The Sons Of God

The world is waiting for Christians to be something different. They are waiting for us to bring the goodness of God to them. They might not know it yet, but they crave our love and compassion. They crave our selflessness and our will to influence change.

What are we willing to lose, for the salvation of a soul? What are willing to sacrifice, so the world would be brought close to Jesus?

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:18-23 ESV

The world is waiting for us to manifest the goodness of God, to manifest the person of Christ. We must live out in righteousness, peace and joy. As we grow in relationship with God, as Jesus shines brighter in our lives, as the Holy Spirit empowers us to be Christ’s hands and feet, as we live in community with fellow members of Christ’s body, as we go into the world and bring Christ’s message of Good News, we advance God’s Kingdom on earth.

I wanted to turn your attention to the words of Jesus today. In an age when self-reliance and the common adage of ‘standing on your own two feet’ are preached and practiced, in an age when our religion and philosophy focus our attention to self-help and personal growth, in an era of individualism and the self-made man, the words of Jesus ring loud and true.

Blessed¹ are the poor² in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.³
Matthew 5:3

Our first thought in looking at this verse might be an incredulity to the implications Jesus makes. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit?’ Why the poor? Is Jesus against the rich? Is there a poverty-mentality in Christ’s message? Why does Jesus have to say this the way he says it?

We might think that Jesus should have said something else entirely. We might have expected Jesus to say something like:

Blessed are the self-confident, or Blessed are the competent, or Blessed are the self-reliant…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Some of us might even say that Jesus is only stating paradox, where the truth is merely a perspective shift in our reality, but not actual life change.

Some of us might think that Jesus wants us to actually be poor with regards to our finances, where our lives daily are a desperate plea to God for help and provision.

I believe this verse is poignant and relevant to our context. Let us now spend some time and try and understand this verse.

Cultural Context

See, at this point in Jewish history, at this point in their struggle, they find themselves under subservience and oppression. Long gone are the stories of a people delivered out of slavery to the Egyptians by a charismatic leader in Moses; long gone are the stories of a righteous nation under the leadership of a man after God’s own heart in David; long gone are the stories of the prophets of old like Elijah and Isaiah bringing the word of God to the people. This is a nation that has experienced economic, political, and social upheaval. From the time of the Assyrian exile to the Babylonian captivity, from the remnant returning under the Persian king Cyrus and the Hellenistic influence under the Greek Empire, from the faint hope that came under the Maccabbean rule to their current subservience to the Caesar of Rome, from the puppet kings put in place by the Romans in the Herods to the religious legalism of the Pharisees and Priests. This was a nation that was a far cry from its revolutionary and glorious past. There was a residual pain that remained in the hearts and minds of the Judean people. In their current state they were taxed by the government, oppressed under the religious system, and caught in the constant struggle between their Jewish identity and the pervading Greco-Roman influence. They were a people ignored and forgotten. Their hope remained in their religious tradition and messianic promise.

Jesus spoke to a people who lived in this constant upheaval. These were people who were hopeless and destitute. The religious leaders, the political rulers, and the rich…they wallowed in their fulfillment, and were satiated by power, money, pleasure, and influence. The majority of the people were weary of oppression, and we will call them ‘the poor’.

Supremely Favored, Immensely Blessed

The word that is used throughout the Beatitudes by Jesus, is the Greek word μακάριος (markarios), which has the implications of a favor or promised blessing. It speaks to a people who are experiencing difficult times and are powerless to change their condition. When Jesus says, ‘Blessed are,’ he speaks to the hopes and longings of a people who are hopeless and indifferent.

We know the heart of Jesus because in another passage he says:

And disembarking, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Mark 6:34

Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount has gathered his disciples unto himself and is now teaching them the Gospel of Kingdom. They have left their lives, their families, their jobs, and have responded to the call of Jesus. They have discarded everything they have because, now as disciples, they follow their rabbi Jesus.⁴ They have begun the journey of discipleship.

This blessing that Jesus speaks of, is both an understanding of the present human condition, and a futuring hope that is coming to pass. God is watching, and God is listening. In the face of trials of many kinds, the He is not silent, and He is not blind.

Poor In Spirit, Powerless & Oppressed

The focus of this verse is the phrase ‘poor in spirit’, which in the Greek is the word πτωχός (ptochos), which has a literal of meaning of those without financial or material means, and evokes a sense of powerlessness. It has the implications that this vulnerable state must lead to a total dependence upon God. In Luke’s account of the Beatitudes, he forgoes ‘poor in spirit’ and just states ‘the poor’.

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.
Luke 6:20,24

In an upside-down fashion, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It conveys a sense of divine irony. That the poor and downtrodden, that the oppressed of society, that those who are powerless to change their human condition, were blessed. While those who are rich and fat in their earthly blessing, have already received their comfort in full. Now that’s a revolutionary thought.

For Theirs Is The Kingdom

The last phrase Jesus uses here in this verse is ‘for theirs is the kingdom’, which in the Greek is αύτων έστιν ή βασιλεία (auton estin eh basileaia). It evokes a sense of belonging and covering. Jesus here speaks of his Father’s kingdom. Compared to the earthly kingdoms his disciples were a part of, with the undercurrent of mistrust and revolution, where oppression and subservience were the currency of authority, where the ones in authority sought to further their cause and ignore the cries of the hurting; Jesus’ kingdom stands at a juxtaposition.

It is not a kingdom of force or violence⁵:

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
John 18:36

It is not a kingdom of oppression or subservience⁶:

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

It is not a kingdom of fairness and retaliation⁷:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist him who his evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5:38-44

The kingdom of God is something else entirely.

Christ’s kingdom is breaking forth and will continue to break forth until the end of time and the fulfillment of all things. Jesus is calling forth his disciples into a kingdom that began in the mind of God, and now calls people into living according to that kingdom.

When Jesus says, “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, he is saying that it is now possible to live in a completely different reality. There is something greater, better, more beautiful, and altogether lovely. He is inviting his disciples into an alternative existence, and he is saying that they can be a part of that kingdom.

So once again, let us read Jesus’ words:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

We must now seek to apply these words into our very lives. What is the Holy Spirit trying to say to us in our context?

Embrace Our Soul Poverty

In our humanity, we find a ‘false richness’ in the many things that surround us. We find our fulfillment in the words of encouragement from our friends; we lust for pleasure and comfort; we run after things that we think really matter; we find ourselves in the secular game of being fashionable and relevant and ‘well-put-together’.

In his words Jesus asks us to embrace our Poverty. We are the frail and worn, the weak and needy, the sick and wanting, the hidden and poor. Through our unique walks of life, we encounter our own poverty.

We are the poor, not the rich. When Jesus speaks of poverty, He does so to imply that on our own we are capable of little. We are vulnerable to weaknesses in our flesh, weakened by the gross sinfulness of the world, and powerless to fight the attacks of the enemy. On our own we do not amount to much. We are sheep without a shepherd; easily led astray. At the end of the day, we are possessors of nothing.

The other day i was thinking about how fragile life is. We come with nothing into this world, and we honestly leave with nothing. I was thinking about how the only things that keep us alive is an involuntary muscle that continually pumps blood into our bodies. There’s not much that separates us from eternity.

Live In The Riches Of God

Why does Jesus say that only the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom of heaven? Because it is a reality shift in the Christ-follower’s mind. Only those who accept their own poverty, can come to accept the riches of God.

People struggle with accepting God’s riches in their lives for two reasons.

1. They think they are capable of living life without Him, and they let their pride drive them away from an all-providing God. They fail to see the riches of God because they believe their riches to be adequate.
2. They fail to live in the riches of God because they are never able to fully accept it. They find themselves doubting the sheer goodness of God in their lives. They fail to live in the life God has for them because of their fear and doubt. They let their inability to trust in God drive them away from God’s riches.

To live in the riches of God, means we understand our spiritual poverty and allow and all-providing God to be the Lord of our lives.

The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. They are the “poor in spirit.” They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
A.W. Tozer⁸

Our Poverty Helps Us See Other’s Poverty

Jesus says something quite powerful later on in this chapter:

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20

In the time Jesus says this, it was believed that the Pharisees were the most righteous people. They were treated with the highest honor, and their ‘perceived righteousness’ was known in every part of society. They kept the Mosaic Law down to a ‘t’, they made up their own law, and expected all to follow in their footsteps of righteousness.⁹ They believed that their righteousness is what saves them; contrast that with what Jesus says in this verse. For it is not those who think they are rich in spirit, but those who realize that as people we are poor in spirit; only such as these can lay claim on the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisees looked upon the world through a lens of, “I am righteous, and honor me for my righteousness.” They dwelt on the praise and adulation of a people who idealized righteousness, piety, and obedience to a higher power.

The Pharisees had a peculiar perspective on the world. They judged the world through the lens of their own self-righteousness. When they saw a hurting and dying world, their first emotion was not compassion, but rather disdain.

Let’s look once more at the story of the Good Samaritan:

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
Luke 10:26-37

The Levite and Priest in the story were too caught up in their fulfilled, self-righteous lives. They were too caught up in the busy-ness of life to see the poverty of their fellow man.

The Samaritan on the other hand, realized the need and accordingly moved to help this man’s situation.

It takes a man with true riches, to see the poverty of the world around him. It takes a man with true compassion to overcome the disdain and loathe of the world that overlooks the hungry, oppressed and needy.

We Christians, sometimes act too much like the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day. We spend so much time trying to be set apart and ‘righteous’, and forget that sometimes we just need to have compassion and a heart that sees the need in our fellow man.

Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don’t do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer¹⁰

As Christ-followers we must be known for more than just our standards and convictions, what we do or don’t do, what we say or don’t say. We must be known for something higher and greater altogether.

The poor in spirit are blessed by God, and as possessors of the kingdom of heaven, offer to the world the riches of heaven.

We are the blessed poor, blessed by God to be a blessing to a dying world.

In Conclusion

1. If we are to embrace our soul poverty, we must wrestle off the stranglehold of our false richness; which is so easy to come by in a culture of fulfilled pleasure and comfort, where we run after so many things just because we want to. We must come to embrace the poverty that is inherent in our souls.
2. If we are to live in the riches of God, then we must seek out things of eternal significance. We must find ourselves on our knees in prayer, in worshipful study as we look to God’s Word. We must overcome the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and find ourselves so in tune and in love with God, that all we think, say, or do, pass through the filter of relationship we have with God. We must desire the riches of God, for in that do we find true blessing and true fulfillment.
3. If we are to recognize the poverty of humanity, the overwhelming need of those around us, then we must ask the Lord to give us eyes of compassion and hands and feet of action. We must look upon the suffering of the world and suffer with the world. We must be known for less about what we are for or against, and more for how we love the world to heaven.

As we meditate on the words of Christ, and take a careful look at our own soul, may we embrace our own poverty, may we live in the riches of God, and may we see the poverty of our fellow man.

May we be able to say, we are the poor in spirit, we are the blessed, and we are the possessors of the kingdom of heaven.

To know Christ, the reality of Him; to be overwhelmed by the sheer goodness of God; the glory of God manifest in all of life.¹ The wonder of a God who understands us in our frailty, and catches us in the rapture of His ferocity.² The beauty of God, as seen in the redemption of fallen humanity, in the life that is caught in the abandon of Abba’s love. ³

Let the love of Christ rule in us richly, and the peace of God rest in our going and coming. May the kingdom’s seed be planted in our hearts as we look to God’s grace upon the earth. Let the presence of Christ sanctify us into His image; and may His goodness speak to the world a message of the hope and promise of life in Him. May our hearts be so in tune with the presence of God, that our hands and feet follow through in response.

For our hearts and minds, lost in the reality of God, must follow through in holistic lifestyle, which flows out in action.⁴ If we truly believe in the goodness of God, then that goodness must be assimilated into our lives. If we actually believe in the love of God, that love must somehow be evident in our words and actions. If we truly believe that God is trustworthy, then somehow His residence in our hearts must draw out trustworthiness from an otherwise untrustworthy soul. If we believe in the holiness of God, then that reality would cause us to live in such a way that we are set apart.

If we are part of kingdom that is not of this world, how is it that we pledge our allegiance so easily to other kingdoms?⁵ If God’s kingdom is so much bigger than any tribe, or people, or culture, or race, or nation, then why do we associate His kingdom so readily with our way of doing things?⁶ If God’s kingdom goes against the kingdoms of men that have been set up, why do we so quickly follow because it requires minimal sacrifice?⁷ If God truly is the Lord of our lives, why do we live as if the economy or culture or sinfulness lord over us?⁸ If we are part of a kingdom greater than what is seen or felt or known in the natural, why do we let what is seen or felt or known dictate how we operate in God’s kingdom?⁹

Is our faith just a set of beliefs, philosophy, or ideals, which makes it a religion at best?¹⁰ Or is our faith a living, breathing, moving, active lifestyle, which makes it a relationship with an all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing God?¹¹ If we actually believe the things we claim to believe about God, would that not change the way we live?

The kingdom of God cannot be captured in a box, or analyzed in a test tube, so as to have a complete grip and understanding of it.¹² The kingdom of God is not impervious to true prophetic criticizing and re-energizing.¹³ The kingdom of God is something else entirely.

The effect of the kingdom can be seen, but its methods are actualized to context; thereby the cause remains in God and His Word, but the reality is in the difference it makes in the world it has affected.¹⁴ The kingdom of God is truly at work.

A manifesto of hope, freedom, salvation;¹ a place where the kingdom of God is made real and alive;² a deliverance from bondage and oppression;³ the invocation of a life better than the one that is lived;⁴ the glorious advent of missional Christ-followers making a difference.⁵

What would the world look like if we brought Christ, the pure and undefiled Savior and Lord, to infect and transform our realities;⁶ where our thoughts, words, actions, and lifestyle presented Christ?

I dream of a better day when God will deliver us from our consumerism, our love for self, and our drive to distance ourselves from the hurting and needy of society;⁷ where our ivory towers of religiosity and false piety are replaced by open doors of empathy, compassion, and incarnational truth.⁸

I dream of the day when the body of Christ would present themselves worthy to the name they follow; where an alternative community, hidden but transforming, would exist to bring freedom to humanity;⁹ where it is not known for standards and convictions but to be and make disciples of Christ;¹⁰ where our purity does not isolate, but draws us to the lost;¹¹ where our faith does not make us unbelievable, but approachable;¹² where our love is not a tool with an agenda, but rather a gift given freely and willingly to the world around us.¹³

For I believe that God is working and moving, even when I don’t understand or even process. For our God is the ONE who cannot be grasped completely, but willingly accepted and wholly submitted to. For God is the ONE who is for us, working on our behalf.

In our current hermeneutic we take part in a misplaced modesty (as G.K. Chesterton writes of it):

What we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt — the Divine Reason.²

In our postmodernity, propositional truth and convictional Christianity is currently out of vogue. In our faith circles, there is growing distrust in what is knowable; conversely there is a growing unity in what is doable. Rightfully so, unity develops quickly around a cause, project, or action, while indifference rises around philosophy, theology, or perspective.

Orthodoxy is our soundness of faith with regards to doctrines of Scripture.³ Orthopraxy is the the right practice of faith.⁴ In our Christianity we need a balance of orthodoxy and orthopraxy; they are not mutually exclusive.

A Growing Disconnect

Because of increasing superficiality amongst the faith community, and the growing tension between out-of-touch Church culture and a needy and wanting society at large, we find ourselves in a quandary.⁵

There are those who live and die by their orthodoxy, while never critically assessing their orthopraxy. Most evangelicals would be in this category because they assume their methods work. Because large institutionalized faith communities equate correctness with success, they insulate themselves from taking a critical approach to their orthopraxy.

There is also now a growing community of those who live and die by orthopraxy, while never fully formulating their orthodoxy. Most emergents would be in this category. They react to the rigidity of maligned orthodoxy and run from knowable, propositional truth. In this case, isolation comes in the form of conversation; they always engage in discussion, while never reaching a conclusion. Some assert that coming to a conclusion is not the point.

Both sides of Christianity look to the other as out of touch, and the situation illustrates the growing disconnect.

Practice demands Perspective

One day Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter was the only one who answered His question correctly, and this was Jesus’ response:

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 16:17 ESV

In this interchange between Jesus and Peter, we see that Peter has come to a propositional truth, one that has been revealed to him. Jesus correctly attributes Peter’s revelation to the Father. We see that Peter’s perspective now greatly influences his practice. We read in verses following v.17 that Peter’s perspective of who Christ is, will affect his practice of being a contributing member of Christ’s church. We see that his perspective preceded his practice, or we could say his practice demands perspective.

In our Christian understanding, if we are to practice, we must first understand our perspective. It is our WHY behind our WHAT. To do something without knowing why, would be empty action.

Questioning but not Neglecting

We now find ourselves at a critical juncture. If we are to embrace a healthy orthodoxy, we must warrant questioning. Questions pull to the surface what is right and true and useful. It is the dynamic tension between cynicism and blind belief in something. Questions lead to a healthy orthodoxy.⁶

What cannot be done however is willfull neglecting of orthodoxy. Because it is the WHY, it is the fuel for the fire of WHAT. If the desire for orthodoxy is extinguished, then we lose the foundation to a faith system, and our journey becomes a religion at best; with empty actions that are not birthed in divine perspective. We lose our hearts and will eventually lose our hands and feet.

Wonder begets Worship

Orthopraxy must be rooted in the wonder of orthodoxy. The revelation of who God is and what He says to us, enables us to respond in thoughts, words, actions, and lifestyle. To know Christ, the reality of who He is enables us to live in Christ and live out Christ; to grow in the revelation of the Holy Spirit enables us to live out in communion with God continually. This thing called faith, is really a divine dance between revelation and response. God reveals, and we respond. The wonder of God begets in us our response of worship.

If ever we come to a place in our orthodoxy where God is understood, and all our questions answered, we will have squeezed all the wonder out of relationship. If we ever come to place in our orthopraxy where our lives do not respond to relationship with God, we will have retorted to profaning truthful and spiritual worship. To grow in orthodoxy means that we continually grow in the wonder of who He is and what He has revealed to us. To grow in orthopraxy means that we continually grow in our worship back to God (our response). Wonder is the catalyst for healthy orthodoxy; worship is the catalyst for healthy orthopraxy.

Convictional Ambition

I believe there is a place where humility can drive our orthodoxy and our orthopraxy. I believe incarnational and transformational can be in the same sentence as systematic theology and biblical philosophy. There is a place where propositional, revealed truth, as it pertains to the doctrines of scripture, can have a bearing on living out the kingdom and being salt and light. May convictions drive our ambition. May our knowledge and understanding drive us to action and devotion. May the wonder of relationship with God enable us to respond in worship to Him. May our practice demand perspective.

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy…We need both.

There’s a curious passage I want us turn to, as we prepare for worship. With the focus that has been on head, heart, and hands,¹ I wanted to turn our attention to the words of Jesus:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 9:35-38 NIV

As Jesus went through the towns and synagogues of Judea, He saw the hurting and the needy. He saw the tax collector who was stealing money from the underprivileged. He saw the orphans who ran the streets with no family, as they begged for food. He saw the leper colonies, where the lepers stayed out of sight and out of mind. He saw the pain of people who were under the oppressive authorities of their day, in the Herods, the Roman magistrates, and Rome’s Caesar. In Christ’s redemptive eyes, He saw through a lens; a lens called compassion, where sin and suffering had taken its toll on people.

As we look to our example in Jesus…let’s ask ourselves these questions…

How much do we sorrow over a sinful and hell-bound world?
How hard do our hearts beat knowing that a co-worker is on their way to hell?
How much do we cry over a family member who walked away from God?

See, before we can be laborers, we have to actually care. We have to actually want to help people and see them experience God’s best. We have to actually come to a place in our hearts where we actually care.

Tomorrow, we have an opportunity to care. As a student body, we have the privilege to serve our community. Let’s look with eyes of compassion as we move forward tomorrow. Whether we’re helping a widow and her family, or feeding a homeless person; whether we get to see a child experience the love of God through a carnival, or as we minister to a lost soul who’s given up all hope…let’s never forget, that a broken world needs the love and peace of God. Let us be Christ’s hands and feet in our communities.

As we engage with the world around us, may our compassion and care drive us to action. May our hands embrace cold hands in love and care. May our words offer hope and life to the hopeless and lifeless. May we look upon the world through the eyes of Christ.

May Christ’s love grow in us and work through us. May we never just pay lip service to Christ’s mission and call, but may Christ be incarnated in our lives.

I pray what we do tomorrow in reaching out, will merely be our entrance to a reality of loving the world to heaven.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Matthew 25:34-36 NIV

As we enter into worship today, let us find God’s heart…and may our hearts beat to the rhythm of His heart.

Let’s all stand and pray…