Saturday, January 20, 2007

Death for Inclusion

One evening during the Christmas break of my senior year of college, while back home visiting, I called my mentor, Todd, to see if he wanted to get together that night. In turn, he invited me to go with him to town, which from where I'm from, is about a fifteen to twenty minute drive. He had to go to Best Buy to look at cameras, so he thought, "We can go do that while we catch up." I agreed and off we went. Not only had Todd invited me to go along, but he had also invited his daughter's boyfriend to come along. You see, he's always had a way of being involved in his daughter's life and the life of whomever she's dating. The three of us chatted on the 20 minute drive up to Best Buy, caught up while there, and then continued our conversation all the way back home. All-in-all, we spent probably an hour and a half on that trip catching up.

There was another time when Todd did something similar during one of my visits home from college. I asked him what he was doing the next day, a Saturday, and whether or not he had time to get together. He said, "Sure. Why don't you come on over tomorrow morning. We can put in this new bird bath my wife and I just bought, and if you don't mind, we can catch up while we're doing that." Therefore, the next day, while putting together a bird bath, setting the foundation, and weeding out the garden it was going in, we talked.

We could simply describe Todd's family as includers. They are disciplers. They get that discipleship doesn't merely happen when we sit down for an hour every week, read the Word, and pray together. Rather, good discipleship occurs within the context of life. I've had the pleasure of watching Todd's house be open every Christmas Eve for anyone to come by and share that evening with he and his family. Some people's lives have been dramatically effected by this simple gesture. There is not a single guy his daughters have ever dated that he has not gotten to know on a deep level and poured into.

One young man that one of his daughters dated for two and a half years, he poured into so much that his role as a mentor and discipler didn't end when they broke up. Todd was the one that took him to check out different colleges he was thinking about attending. How often do you find people who are so kingdom minded that they continue to pour into the lives of their kids' friends even after their kids are no longer friends with them?

Their lives are characterized by inclusion. If we look closely (maybe even generally?), the life of a kingdom person is precisely that--one of inclusion. In fact, Christ died just for that.

REMEMBER

Paul, writing to the churches in Ephesus, gives them a simple command-- remember. It is the only command that he gives to them in the first three chapters of the letter. What is it that he wants them to remember? That they were separated from Christ, were excluded from citizenship, and without God and hope in the world. This is one of the most insightful passages in all of Scripture. First, notice that these two words "without God" are actually one word in the original language of the New Testament--atheoi, or "atheist". Granted, the Jews thought that anyone without the God of the Scriptures was an atheist. Setting that aside, is it possible that there is an inextricable link between the atheist and hopelessness? That when God is not a part of our world, hope is lost as well? If this is true, then the converse is also, that when we find the Eternal invading the temporary, we find hope as well. I think it is one of the saddest events when someone has fought against embracing the Life his soul longs for because his mind is unwilling to follow where his soul longs to be.

Now if this were all there was to their story, they would be left "without hope and without God." But for Paul's readers, his Gentile audience, they had "given in", and allowed their souls to carry them to their Creator. He includes this crucial word, "But," into the equation. "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." How often do we allow this truth to sink in to our Kingdom Identities. We are now brought near through the blood of Christ. It seems that more often than not, there is some not so subtle self-hatred within Christianity. It is more popular to wallow in our old identities. To claim how worthless, destitute, broken, and sinful we are, missing this crucial truth, that we were all of these things but are now near to God in Christ Jesus.

At the conclusion of the summer after my senior year of college, I was back at home, sorting through old stuff. You know, the things that you haven't looked at since high school that you thought were worth saving at the time, but now have little to no value to you. In the mix of math and English assignments I couldn't recall writing, I came across an old journal of mine. It was a journal from my junior year that I had to write in during the beginning of English. You see, the first semester of my junior year of high school was when I stepped into eternity with God through Jesus Christ, experiencing Life, wholeness, and hope for the first time. I was zealous for Christ, consuming the Word at an alarming rate, memorizing as much as I could, trying to satiate what my soul had always longed for and finally encountered.

Though I was new to the whole "Christian" thing, my primitive theology was already developing. I looked at what that kid wrote, things I could not recall writing. He seemed so spiritual for a high schooler, writing about how grateful he was that God had saved him, had made him whole. But in the midst of that was this sentence, a sentence that stood in stark contrast to "wholeness," "I'm so unworthy. I mean, I probably sinned 50 times before I even got to school today." Sounds very spiritual, very pious, but so far from what Paul says about our Recovered Kingdom Identities. So unbiblical. To this sentiment, Paul screams out emphatically, "No! You are a new creation! You are no longer separated, excluded, and without hope and God. You are near to Him now through the blood of Christ!" Paul desperately wants us to experience the new life we have in Christ, but we are more comfortable wallowing in self-pity than embracing our new identities. Christ died that we would have peace between ourselves and God. This is the logical progression that Paul establishes.

NO MORE HOSTILITY

Remember, the Kingdom is about inclusion. Christ died precisely for that--that we would be included with God in eternity. Christ died to bring peace between two different people groups--Jews and Gentiles. Paul's readers in Ephesus were well aware of the gap that existed between these two groups. In fact, a cursory reading of Paul's epistles shows us how deeply embedded this problem was. Galatians is an entire letter dedicated to the chasm between Jews and Gentiles. Romans consistently contrasts the Jews and Gentiles for the first eleven chapters as Paul disseminates how the Gentiles could possibly be included in the Kingdom, and conversely, how indeed there were natural born Israelites who were not included in the Kingdom! The letters to Corinth at various times address how Jews and Gentiles are to cohabitate with one another in the Kingdom. And most importantly, in our text, Paul screams out emphatically about the peace that Christ's death brings to these groups.

And when we talk about "hostility" between two groups, we often don't think of it as being as serious as what existed between these two. Their hatred ran deep. In Luke's journal of the early church he recalls this story about Paul:

When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, "Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place." (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)

The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed kept shouting, "Away with him!"


Did you catch that? "While they were trying to kill him!" Though the accusation was incorrect, just the thought of a Jew bringing a Gentile into the Temple was grounds for being killed! That's hostility. The very hostility that Christ's death abolished. In Christ, the two groups are now one. In Christ, there is unity rather than division. In Christ, hatred has been replaced with love, malice with service, animosity with reception. In Christ--peace. Christ abolished the "dividing wall" which was the law. Where once the law reigned as an imposing force, Christ's death and resurrected life now liberates. Rather than the law, now there is the Spirit.

The Kingdom is one of inclusion. Where it used to be that one must follow the rigors of the law in order to be in the Kingdom, now there would be one man, brought together through belief in Christ Jesus. And out of that unity, there would finally be reconciliation, for anyone who believes, with God.

Have we learned anything from this feud? I would submit no. Christ died to bring peace among all people groups, all socioeconomic groups, and even between the genders. Yet our feuding and divisions continue between blacks and whites, rich and poor, male and female. Females are still largely downgraded as second class within many church denominations (at least when it comes to leadership). There are even some denominations that have gone through their entire organization and removed every woman out of leadership roles where they may be leading men. Is this peace? Is this the walls of hostility that Christ's death abolished? Rarely do we find a church with members of mixed socioeconomic backgrounds. And, often, when we do, it is by accident rather than design. I've actually had the pleasure of working with a church in St. Paul that has as its very mission building bridges between socioeconomic and racial boundaries. It is strategically placed right on the border of inner city St. Paul and the suburbs. Consequently, we are very effective at bridging the gap. Yet this, I submit, is the exception, not the norm

It's time for the hostility to die. Folks, its time for Christ to be our passion, for unity and peace to be the result. It's time to stop giving people reasons to turn away from Christ, when really, they are turning away from a bad version of the church more than anything. The Kingdom is beautiful. It's inviting. And as Kingdom people, it's up to us to be the includers. Our role is to show people the beauty of the Kingdom, which always looks like Calvary. It always looks like self-sacrificial love demonstrating itself through service. Why is it that when we hear of a church like Mosaic, which has over 80 nationalities represented, our hearts soar? Something resonates with our souls when we hear about the unity in diversity that exists in these situations. Could it be that our hearts recognize what the Kingdom looks like even before our minds?

A MISSION OF INCLUSION

Paul goes on,

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.


Notice what Paul is doing here with his language. "By which he put to death their hostility." He's not saying this as an aspirational goal. It's not, "By which you should put to death hostility." No, he states it as a foregone conclusion. The cross has abolished their hostility toward one another. Can you see why he's getting so frustrated with them? He's telling them, "That's not who you are anymore! You're not hostile toward one another. Christ has brought peace among you. Therefore, live peacefully with one another." It's not that once you live peacefully with one another that Christ will have brought peace among you, but it is precisely because peace already exists that you live peacefully. Are you followin' me here? Later on, Paul's going to do the same sort of thing. He's going to say, "Now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." It's not that once they live as children of light in the Lord that they will be light in the Lord. Rather, Paul's argument is that because they are already light in the Lord...go live as children of light. In other words, "Embrace your identity!"

Peace is already here, so why don't we see more of it? Could it be that we've become more concerned about ourselves than serving others? I mean when's the last time you went out of your way to pick up a piece of trash on the ground outside of WalMart? Or more importantly, stopped to set aside your crap long enough to serve a friend by listening to her? And I mean really listen. You know, not this stuff where you "listen" while you're working on emails, listening to phone messages, and reorganizing your bookshelf. But listening. Dropping everything to listen. When's the last time you empathized with someone else rather than expected them to empathize with you?

I have this vision you know. Maybe it's crazy or naive. But I see a Kingdom where people include others rather than form their little cliques. Cliques that are more destructive than we'll ever truly know. I see a place where people really find the community, the acceptance their souls long for. Where rather than defining who you are before you come to the group, we let you dictate that to us. Where we extend grace to one another when we screw up because God extends His grace to us when we screw up. Maybe we haven't embraced peace among our communities because we're so egocentric that we're only concerned about ourselves. "If they would just..." "If she would just ______." "If he would stop ________." Maybe we would see more peace among brothers and sisters in Christ, among marriages, among blacks and whites, among socioeconomic groups, if we would stop being so centered on ourselves and who looks like us and start being curious enough to get to know one another, to serve one another.

What does it look like when peace exists within the Kingdom? I submit it looks like Christ on Calvary--self sacrificial love demonstrating itself through service. The cross of Christ brought peace. His death brought inclusion. Within humanity, from one to another, there is peace. His death invited all, rather than just the Jews, to be united together as one body in Christ that would ultimately be united with God. For as Paul said, "Through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit." Through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

1 Comments:

Blogger Flint Cowboy said...

http://ergebung.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/ach-ich-wurde-getagt/

I’ve been tagged by Judy Redman in the 10-20-30 meme game. If I understand it correctly, I have to tell what I was doing 10, 20, and 30 years ago; then I have to tag three others.

So now I have to tag someone:

Derick, and Aaron whose histories don’t go back thirty years; and D. Timothy Goering, who was the first to greet “Theological German” with a warm and encouraging comment.

10/31/07, 2:47 PM  

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