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| Back at the beginning of January I was invited to join a discussion
about the effectiveness of the church. There were some good comments
and a pretty good debate going, but most of the suggestions were mostly
cosmetic in nature. Meaning, how should the church service look in
order to attract people who have no relationship with Christ -
logistical changes, more or less, and the term "rebranding" was thrown
around. I enjoyed that conversation. The blog is owned by a particular
church, and I truly believe that they are desirous to see changes that
would lead and/or draw "non-believers" to their community. I'm writing
this here so as not to hijack their foum. ;)
But conversations like this and others that I've had along those lines often leave me wondering, Is this enough?
The
debates over style, tradition, presentation, etc. are important -
vital, even. We often hear ourselves say, "The delivery changes, but
the message stays the same."
I think a lot of people and
churches really get the ball rolling on modifying their appearance in a
sincere but perhaps misguided effort to reach "the lost." And, again,
that is necessary. However, most times it ends up that we're
repackaging the old traditions that we're rebelling against or
reforming into new traditions. In essence, we're saying the same things
that our parents and grandparents said, only we're wearing jeans and
they had on 3-piece suits. And still "the lost" don't show up on
Sunday. Why? I don't know. Why don't our evangelism tactics, no matter
how cutting edge, or simple-step-ey, or
air-tight-logical-reasons-to-accept-Jesus-Christ-as-your-personal-Lord-and-Savior-ey
they are, get anyone "saved"? I have no idea. Why don't our programs
work? I'm not sure, except that maybe our programs are aimed at people,
not machines. And people don't respond the way that machines do.
So
we seek to change the method of delivery. The problem is, maybe the
method isn't necessarily the problem... maybe its the message itself.
Maybe it's our theology. Maybe what we believe is the problem.
Thoughts? | | |
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Is this your ass in a hole in the ground?
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| Why do we practice communion? Was Jesus some sort of cannibalistic nut job? Is all this symbolic? Is there something more?
“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” – John 1.1-5
God created us in his image, making us intricately linked with him. An unexplainable connection that we can try to explain but more or less just sense or feel. Even those cultures tucked deep away in jungles and deserts claim a link with nature, the sun gods or the river gods… something outside of themselves that makes them unified with creation. Our Scripture claims the same, in that we and the rocks and mountains and zebras are all creations of a Creator. This image, though, speaks something different – we are intimately linked not with creation only, but with the Creator himself.
Adam and Eve were in paradise, in total communion with God. They walked the same earth, occupied the same space as their Creator. They loved him and he loved them. The whole deal was pronounced “good” by the Creator, and Love ruled.
And then serpent spoke. Adam and Eve sought to become like God by their own means and failed to recognize or forgot about the God already in them and with them. They ruined their fellowship, banished from paradise for their own sake.
Thousands of years passed. Humanity, the object of Divine Love, constantly rebelling against the Divine Lover, turning away his sacred romancing, drawing them constantly back to him. They refused, still seeking, aching to be reconciled but insisting on their own way.
And then the Creator became the created. Divine became human. Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, at the same time. God, above space and time inserted himself into it. Why? To reconcile that thousand-year-old divorce.
Jesus had a ton of people following him. The sick followed him – they heard he sometimes touched people and they were suddenly not sick. Tax collectors followed him – he took time to eat dinner with them. Prostitutes followed him – he spoke to him as though they were actually human. The religious elites followed him – he ticked them off. The healer, the friend, the radical… he was many things to many people.
On this particular day, he was a provider.
A large crowd enveloped him, drawn by the miracles they had seen and heard about. Jesus crossed Galilee and climbed a hill to sit with his closest friends for a while. He looked over the crowd and asked one of his friends, Phillip, a question.
“Where can we buy bread to feed these people?”
Philip answered in the way most of us would, “Uh, nowhere.”
Another friend spoke up, “There is a kid here who has some fish and some bread… but not enough to feed all these thousands.”
I imagine Jesus smiled his “I’m Jesus and I’m about to do something that will blow your mind” smile as he said, “Make the people sit down.” He took the food and gave thanks for it, and told his friends to distribute it.
No one went hungry. In fact 5000 people ate their fill, and there was enough to take home for later.
Later on, the crowd noticed that Jesus’ boat was gone, but that no one had seen him leave. So, as good crowds do with someone who just fed them, they went and found him.
Once they found him, someone asked, “Teacher, when did you get here?” The implication was, “Why didn’t you invite us?”
“You are just following me because I gave you free food, not because of how you saw God in my actions,” Jesus said. “Quit wasting your time searching for cheap tricks – search for the kind of food that will stick with you. The kind of food that I, the Son of Man, provide.”
The crowds longed for this food that wouldn’t leave them hungry ever again, but they weren’t quite sure what Jesus was talking about (as was often the case with Jesus). “Why don’t you just show us what’s going on? Our Scriptures tell us that Moses fed our forefathers. The bread from heaven and all that.”
Jesus paused, perhaps deciding how to phrase his thoughts. “The significance of that story is not that Moses called down food from heaven, but that God stands right now, offering you bread from heaven. Real bread. The bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.”
The crowd became excited. “Give us that bread! Let us eat it forever!”
“I am that bread of Life. Those who come to me hunger and thirst no more. Ever. Once you embrace me, I never let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim, but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me. What is that will? That all of you would be made whole – my job is to put you on your feet alive and whole when time ends.”
The religious elites got real uptight. “Who is he to say he is the bread from heaven? Isn’t this that poor carpenter’s son? We know his family! He is a liar!”
Jesus could sense their anger and said, “Don’t argue over me. This is not about you! You’re not in charge – the Father is in charge. If you sit under my teaching, you’re listening to the Father. You hear and see it firsthand from me, and I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father… and you can see me. If you believe in me, you have real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate bread in the desert and they died. Here is the bread out of heaven – if you eat it you will not die. I am living Bread! This Bread that I present to the world so that can eat and live is myself, this flesh and blood self.”
Some weren’t getting it. “How can this fool serve himself as a meal?”
Jesus kept going. “If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have life within you. When you eat my flesh and drink my blood, I am in you and you are in me. If you make a meal of me, you live because of me.”
***
Some time later Jesus and his followers met together for the Passover meal that the community celebrated every year. Jesus’ mood turned very grave as the meal began. “You have no idea how I have looked forward to eating this meal with you before my suffering begins. One final time with my closest friends. This will be the last we share before we meet again in the kingdom of God.”
He raised the bread, blessing it. Then he tore it, passing it among them. “This is my body, given to you. Take it. Eat it.”
He then raised his glass, blessing the wine. “This is my blood,” he said, his eyes reddening and his voice quivering. “This is my blood poured out for you. A new covenant between you, me, and my Father. Drink.”
Memories washed over his followers. That day after he fed all those people with the fish and bread. I am the bread of life. If you make a meal of me, you live because of me. Eat my flesh and drink my blood…
***
Jesus seemed to be adamant on the point. Eat my flesh and dink my blood. Why would he be?
People living during the decades following Jesus’ death and resurrection thought the Christians were a cult of cannibals, due directly to this story and the practice of communion (the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist).
Through the centuries, many Christian denominations have come to view communion as more or less simply symbolic. The juice and the bread are simple reminders of what Christ has done. I agree with that.
However, that doesn’t seem to reconcile Jesus’ insistence for his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Obviously, he wasn’t insisting that we have Fried Jesus for dinner. Rather, he was insisting that we partake of his very essence. That we, in a sense, become Jesus.
But this becoming doesn’t mean that we will soon be able to walk on water and be able to call ourselves equal to the Creator. No, this means that we become Jesus by spending time with him, learning from him, being captured by the Holy Spirit, striving to have his mind, seeing people as he sees people, talking to people as he spoke to them. In a word, Loving.
Love, after all is the truest essence of God. It propels him in his every action – Creation, all the repentance messages of the Old Testament prophets, and ultimately Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus’ message to us was for us to consume him so that we may live as he lived. That we may be in his presence.
The bread and the juice are reminders and symbols and also much more. This simple eating and drinking is where we intersect with countless men and women across the ages who have done the same and where we ultimately intersect with Christ.
Where we become the Word.
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| I come to you today to bring up a very sensitive issue. With tragedy striking all over - miners trapped, earthquakes, Russia starting to fly bombers again, the war on tuhrur - journalists are feverishly working to bring you, the Public, their unobjective objective reports. Taking these momentous times into account, I now offer the following tripe.
Toilet paper. What the heck?
Now, don't you sit there and act like you're taken aback. In America, everyone uses toilet paper. (If you don't, please don't shake my hand anymore.) It's just a fact of life. Death. Taxes. Toilet paper.
If you underestimate the importance of toilet paper, remember the last time you woke up at 4:02 am, visited by those extra refried beans from the night before, only to realize that there are approximately 2 squares of flimsy paper on that blessed cardboard roll. I shudder now even typing these words. The horror. A deluge of thoughts courses through your mind. What can I use? That ratty hand towel in the closet? Should I just take a shower? Are there any napkins here? Coffee filters?* It is likely this horrendous scenario has occured to many a person in many a restroom. The worst offenders of toilet paper mismanagement (other than college freshman) are probably department stores and other public nuisances.
In an effort to pinch pennies, public restroom operators are willing to give you, pardon the expression, crappy toilet paper. Standard families across this great land of ours rely on good ol' God-given two-ply TP for their most precious assets. The more affluent among us even go to such lenghts as to obtain "extra absorbent" and "quilted" varieties. But such is not the case for the evil tyrants who administer the procurements at the local Kohls, JC Penny, Sears, Belk... the list goes on.
It's common guy knowledge that department stores, such as those listed above, are more frequently staffed and visited by females than males, which means, of course, less competition. And here I am not referring (only) to competition for female attention. Rather, competition for a quality stall for making an *ahem* deposit. Married or otherwise involved men learn this while spending countless hours waiting for their Significant Other to finish trying on 15 diffferent shades of blue shirts to go with the blue shoes that she bought and whether or not she should just get a pair of shoes here, too, to go with the purse she bought last thursday. A man is not typically suited for such information processing, so he whittles away his time counting ceiling tiles, reading the very fine print on the credit card offer signs, daydreaming about trading his running back in the fantasy football league, or how about use this down time for something constructive, i.e. "talking to a man about a horse." Single men learn to dash in and out of these establishments on their lunch breaks or maybe between work and dinner, in order to spend some quality time alone, without fear of 450 other men wandering in and out, opening doors, almost opening stalls, talking too loudly into their cell phones, or talking too loudly to... no one in particular. For both the attached and the free these public havens are much more relaxing when the comforts of the home throne are not avaliable.
That is, until the time comes to wrap up the event. When the proverbial slate is proverbially wiped clean. Clearing the chamber. You get the idea.
He immediately begins cursing under his breath due to the utter impossibility of pulling off an adequate swath of paper, bringing out perhaps 2 or 3 squares at a time, and he fears a potentially lenghty and thurough hand-washing. His anger accelerates as the 1-ply begin to disentegrate as soon as it meets the air. Finally, all decorum is lost as he finally gets to the bottom of the problem and feels what seems as though a thousand razor blades are ripping away at his most intimate places. As the acid-coated sandpaper makes its rounds, he breaks out into a sweat, because some idiot somewhere just turned off the air conditioner. He reassembles his attire, only to discover the flames of a thousand hells have taken up residence in the Grand Canyon.
Where is congress on this issue? Astonshingly silent. They're probably in their posh Capitol Hill lavoratories, being swabbed with the gentle hands of the American Taxpayer. Also known as YOU! It's all your fault, of course. Here you are spending your hard-earned money on 45-ply silk/satin toilet cloth for people like Tom Delay and statues such as John Kerry. Meanwhile, thousands of men and women all over the country are walking just a bit oddly.
And lets not even talk about the remedies for that kind of pain.
* - Josh. Haha. Man, times were hard.
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1. Do you have a college degree?
BA in Communications.
3. Do you have life insurance?
No... number 2 got deleted somewhere... weird.
4. How many hours per week do you work
32-40
5. Have you ever attended a Toastmasters event?
A what?
6. Favorite place to attend Happy Hour?
I haven't ever really done a happy hour.
7. How many miles is your commute to work each day (one way)?
About 30.
8. What time do you get up every morning for work?
If I work in the morning, then usually at 6:30.
9. What is your definition of sleeping in late?
8... hahaha. Yeah, I know its pathetic.
10. Do you check your cholesterol on a yearly basis?
Nope.
11. How large was your first cell phone?
My own personal first cell phone was the standard 2000 size, but the first one my dad had was a bag-style "car phone." And that thing took up a lot of room in the front seat.
12. Does your employer provide good health insurance?
Fair to midland, I would say.
13. Did you use the internet to write a research paper?
As in, just copy one? No. As sources? Yes. I'm not that old.
14. Have you attended a HS reunion?
Still have 3 years for that one.
15. How many jobs have you held in your professional career?
Um... "professional" being described as what?
16. Have you ever been fired or laid off from a job?
I was laid off from Lowe's six weeks after I started.
17. What is your favorite drink?
Sweet tea.
18. What is the most expensive bottle of wine that you have in your residence?
Maybe 6 dollars. 7 with tax.
19. Have you been divorced?
Nope
20. How old were you when you stopped getting ID'd for Alcohol?
I've always been carded.
21. Favorite casino?
Um... probably one of those riverboat ones. But I'm just guessing, since I haven't actually been to one.
22. Are you happier now than you were in high school?
Yes.
23 Did you ever have Hypercolor shirts?
Totally.
24. Do you remember when Michael Jackson was black and was attracted to older people?
Haha... yeah.
25. Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?
Yeah, but I didn't like it then either.
26. Do you have a will made?
Don't you have to own things first?
27. What music was in your cd / cassette player when you were 16?
Probably dcTalk's Jesus Freak
28. Favorite fancy / upscale restaurant?
Red Lobster.
29. How long has it been since you attended a kegger?
Haha... never ever.
30. Where were you when you found out about 9-11?
In my Writing for Public Relations class at Lee.
31. Do you have any children yet?
None that I'm aware of.
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