The Music And The Dance

For the last two weeks at Christ Community Church in Daytona, we’ve been looking at the new commandment in John 13.

Years ago a South African author named Andrew Murray wrote these words:

The subject of love … is one of the most difficult and profound of themes. It is no easy task to ascend to heaven and there behold the heavenly glory as an ocean of holy, all-embracing love! …. and then to return to earth and see how, among men, instead of brotherliness, hared with all of it sad results has characteized the history of mankind. Think of the state of the world at present, and then realise the power that the Evil One has to divide even God’s children from each other in bitterest enmity. What a task … to try to recommend this love and to find an entrance for it in men’s hearts! And how shall we above all, persuade God’s children to believe that this life in the love of God and in love to the brethern, is not only possible but a plain duty, and worth the sacrifice of all to possess and to proclaim it.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35

One thing that really strikes me in the story of Jesus and Judas at the Last Supper is how close Judas is in one sense and yet how far away.The painting above was done by an artist  named  Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, (January 7, 1852 – 1929). Notice the disciple to Jesus’ left (our right). I don’t have a catalogue of characters in the painting but I think this is Judas, which would be accurate to the Biblical story. Everyone else has their eyes on Christ but this disciple stares straight ahead. He’s so close and yet so far away. 

For those who believe in Christ, there is a promise that, as Jesus said, he will never leave us. He walks with us and lives in us by his Holy Spirit. However while he may be more than close to us we can be far from him in our awareness, our thoughts, and our feelings. This painting reminds me of something Alexander MacLaren said in relation to the story of the prodigal son. He commented; “The far country is easily reached; and it is far, though a step can land us in it.”

In this painting by Siegar Koder as the Lord washes Peter’s feet, the bread and the cup of the eucharist on the table nearby. Peter is objecting and protesting as John 13 describes the story. Jesus’ face is hidden in service but reflected in the water in the basin. I once read that in some earlier church baptism ceremonies the newly baptized were given a towel, not only as a practical gift for the dripping wet but also as a reminder of their mission to be of service to others. Where do we find the motivation for that kind of service? In the one who served us and gave himself in love for us. John 13:1 begins by telling us, just before the foot washing, that what Jesus was doing was revealing the “full extent of his love”.

I once asked my doctor why I had never heard of sleep apnea very much in the past. Now it seems like many of my friends suffer from it and are on CPAP. The doctor said, the problem was always there but before CPAP there wasn’t a great therapy for it so we just didn’t talk about it that much. I wonder if the same dynamic is a work when people refuse to face their sins. When we don’t really think there is a cure or anything effective to be done, why talk about it or even admit to it? Just struggle along. Could it be that we avoid an honest look at our sins and flaws sometimes because we have too small a view of his love and grace? Do we really believe the grace in him is bigger than the sin in us, always bigger?

If we don’t know or believe there is a cure for a problem maybe we just don’t like to really identify it. On the other hand if there is a cure, shouldn’t we be more open about naming the problem and applying the cure? Our deepest problem is the soul-sickness of sin. However we have a cure so let’s look for and identify our problem honestly, humbly and continually. John assures us, “the blood of Jesus, His (God’s) son, purifies us from all sins.” (1 John 1:5) There is no cure for my vague feelings, excuses or rationalizations but for sin there is a cure. And seeing that honestly and believing it deeply heals my heart and hands me a towel.

Here’s another video clip, this one by Tim Keller, gives  his perspective on what it means to be missional. Check it out and share your thoughts. okay— I want to stress this again, especially if you are part of Christ Community, go back and check out the vids on the last two post. All three relate to this issue and they are pretty short. 

Here’s the second part of the video clip discussing the difference between the seeker sensitive model and the principled missional church. If you haven’t seen part one check it out from my previous post. I’m pretty sure some in the “seeker church” movement would be uncomfortable with Driscoll’s description of “seeker sensitive” but I still think he does a lot to help clarify what we mean when we talk about being missional.

Sometimes when we talk about being missional at Christ Community Daytona folks ask if that’s the same as “seeker sensitive”. That’s not what we mean by it. Here’s an interesting comparison from Mark Driscoll. This was posted by John Piper for a Desiring God conference and it’s the first of several in a series of short clips on this issue. Check it out and let me know if it helps. I’ll follow up with more! This is an important issue not only for Christ Community Church but also with respect to our plans to launch the new church plant: Restoration in Port Orange in 2010

I’m adding a link here to my son Alex’s website: splinteredlight.com. Alex recently applied for and won a congregational fellowship from the Fund For Theological Education. They will match, dolar for dollar, up to $5,000.00 given by the congregation of Christ Community Church for Alex’s first year of seminary.

The picture above is Alex and his fiancee, Meghan Kiel. By the way they are being somewhat humorous in the photo they don’t usually stand around looking so stiffly serious! They plan to be married in July and then leave in August for Vancouver BC where he will be studying at Regent College. Regent is an international graduate school of Christian studies. Anyway, to win the scholarship Alex, among other things wrote an essay about his call to pastoral ministry. I think it is great so if you would like to read it, it titled: “Congregational Fellowship Essay” and you find it if you just click here: Alex’s essay at splinteredlight.com

When Connie and I first moved into our church parsonage in Topeka, Kansas years ago the back yard was a mess. It was overgrown with weeds, shrubs and even small trees. We wanted a garden so we went to work. I remember how surprised I was when under a thorny tangle of vines I found a scrawny rose bush with one little bud. I remembered something Jesus said.

In Luke 8:14 he said, The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

I think what sometimes happens is that I do believe deeply and that faith shapes the big decisions daily but I can easily let other concerns and issues grow so thick in my mind that the vitality of faith is to some degree choked out by the many concerns of life and, in my case, even of ministry.

In Luke 21:34 Jesus said, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.

Here he’s talking about the last days but what I want to stress is the way the heart can be weighed down. The word “weighed down” suggests a heavy sleepiness. Not just sadness but weariness and dullness of thought. Notice what brings this dullness of heart about: dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Okay drunkenness we understand. What about dissipation? Dissipation means a careless and wasteful life. Drunkenness is a kind of dissipation but there are other ways to dissipate or waste your life. You can do this just by giving too much time and attention to foolish things in a kind of wasteful self-indulgence. It can take many forms; hobbies, TV, shopping… Paul even warns about worthless theological arguments. 2 Timothy 2:23 says, Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. Titus 3:9 says, But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

If we waste our life’s energies on unimportant things we may find the vitality of our faith slipping away, or shrinking and growing flabby like an unused muscle. Think about it, could it be that what seems a crisis of faith in someone is really just the atrophy of faith due to a wasteful indulgence of modern life without the essential discipline of weeding and cultivating the garden. The last issue Jesus mentioned in Luke was “the anxieties of life”, an overanxious heart so concerned with this present earthly life that there is little room for deep faith to grow. Sometimes when we feel our faith is weak the problem might not be the vitality of our faith so much as the crowding of our faith. Faith can’t thrive if it is just be one plant in a garden overgrown with weedy worthless thoughts and emotions. Faith in Christ has to be guarded, cultivated, nurtured and encouraged. Everything that gets in the way of that faith has to be ruthlessly cut away, rooted up and thrown out. Psalm 139:23-24: says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Some of us need to believe in a completely different way than we have been believing! Because what some of us call believing just isn’t working. Please read this whole post! I know I’ve told the story before about a man told about a friend he was visiting. They were driving somewhere and this friend wasn’t wearing his seat belt. So the man mentioned this to his friend. He said, “Uh, you know the statistics don’t you, you really should drive with a seat belt.” His friend just shrugged him off. About a year later they got together again and he noticed that his friend put his seat belt on when he got in the car. So he said something like this. He said: “Wow, now you’re wearing your seat belt, how come?” His friend said: “well, I visited a man I know who was in a car accident he didn’t have his seat belt on. He went right through the windshield and had about a hundred and twelve stitches in his face and now I always wear my seat belt.” So the man who was telling the story says to his friend: “Are you saying you didn’t really believe in seat belts before?” And the man said something very interesting and very human. He said: “Well I did believe it but I didn’t believe it. I believed it but I wasn’t effected by it. I didn’t get any new information when I saw my friend all stitched up in the hospital but all the information became sort of new to me. What about you and your faith in God?Does it really make a big difference in daily life or do you pretty much act as if it doesn’t when there are struggles and temptations?

I remembered this story after a couple of conversations I recently had that left me sad and a little discouraged. In both cases I was talking to a Christian who was struggling with certain issues that were difficult or sad or caused anxiety. In both cases I felt I listened sympathetically and expressed sincere empathy. But in order to share the only truth that has ever, ever, ever helped me and in order to be faithful to the gospel I believe myself called to preach, I, having listened, started to talk about Christ and the promises we have in Him. The responses were slightly different but similar in that neither person seemed to be helped by the promises of God’s love, help, presence, or for that matter any aspect of our Christian faith. I wish I could say this surprised me. It frustrated me but it did not surprise me because it happens fairly often. Sometimes the attempt to call people to actually believe in real life with they confess so readily in church results in the person being upset. It sometimes seems as if we are supposed to have a social contract to support each other in our troubles only by listening sympathetically but never by exhorting faith in Christ, or God or the gospel and it’s promises. Sometimes the person who is being encouraged to believe isn’t offended but they aren’t really responsive either. They just look at you as if to say, “You can’t seriously think that I should find any comfort in my difficulties or strength to fight temptation just by taking to heart the cardinal truths of the faith I profess”. I guess I sound a little frustrated. Well, maybe so but it’s okay. It really is because as Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:12 I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. 

Are we in danger of succumbing to a culture, even in the church, in which we profess a faith that doesn’t work in our lives? Wouldn’t that be the kind of dead faith that James warns us against? At Christ Community I long for us to be a church of believers who truly believe. Can we honestly claim to believe that Christ is Lord if we actually let emotions, temptations, self-pity, the desire for comfort or affirmation or any number of other idols or issues actually rule as Lord in the day to day of life? What actually rules your life? That thing is your Lord. If it isn’t Christ then repent and believe in Him! If you have to do that a thousand times a day do it. I’m not talking about just trying harder. I’m talking about first believing more, or believing what you claim to believe more deeply. Choosing in the temptations and emotion to believe the promises. That’s how we listen to the music. And unless you do you won’t dance! If you aren’t dancing well (living the life) you just aren’t hearing the music. The music is beautiful and sufficient and moving but only for those who listen and receive and really believe. Check your emotions and temptations and let them show you where you are not believing and then turn back to faith and worship. Sometimes it is in choosing to worship that faith sinks in and becomes real.