Each one Known
Each one Loved
Each one Called
Each one Sent
Many churches have a strong emphasis on creating a "family feel". Kind of like the opening to "Cheers", church is a place where everybody knows your name. As the mainstream church, there is often some emphasis on knowing one another. Churches also seem to have a fairly healthy sense that they should love one another. We could do a lot better at this, but it is something I think most churches value to a great extent. These next two elements though are very under-valued and under-emphasized in the institutionalized church. This week I will look at the third element to a dream for the church. Let me talk a little about divine calling.
Every baptized member of the church universal has a divine call upon their life. Every person who has entrusted themselves into the care of Jesus Christ is called to full time ministry. Every Christian, every believer, every one who calls Jesus "Lord" is called by God to the work of realizing his Kingdom in their lives and in the world around them. Calling is not limited to vocation - job - career. A person can live out their calling in any job, setting, or environment. This calling emerges from the transformed life that results through conversion and discipleship. It is a calling that in many ways is common among all believers as far as its values and priorities. We are all called to love, to serve, and to live humbly. But each person has a unique calling that is tailored to use their passions, gifts, and personal relationships for the purpose of furthering God's Kingdom. Many Christians assume that a calling is some kind of anomaly reserved only for a select few. This is simply not true. Our Christian calling does not depend on our extra-ordinary talent or time availability. Every Christian is called by God to a life of service and love for God and their neighbor through everything they do.
One of the biggest obstacles for many Christians in realizing God's call on their lives is a sense that they are not worthy of being called. The mainstream church has recognized the call of Clergy persons and vocational ministries to such a degree that most "regular" Christians can't imagine that they too are called by God to full time ministry. Another obstacle is that many Christians don't feel like they know what it is they are called to. They cannot discern who God is calling them to be in the midst of their everyday lives. But I believe that if we seek in faith the reality that God is calling us and if we are open to hear that call in our lives through our own heart and through the community of faith, we will undoubtably hear the call.
We must encourage one another as Christians to understand and know that we are called. We are gathered as a community to affirm one another in our giftedness and passions. I believe that the body of Christ (the church) is not functioning properly unless each member is fully engaged in their calling. What if you are the leg that is not walking? What if you are the eye that is not seeing? What if you are the heart that is not beating?
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Each One Loved
In the last post, I talked about a dream for the church in which each individual would be known in a real and holy way. Here are the four parts of that dream together:
Each one known
Each one loved
Each one called
Each one sent
Today, I'll talk a little more about what I mean by "each one loved".
It is one thing to have every person known in a real and holy way within a community of faith. It is another thing to have each one loved. Knowledge is a powerful thing. To know somone and to be known is actually quite awesome. Intimate and personal information, when it is known, can either be used for good or bad. Love is the law of the church and it insists that knowledge of a person be used to build that person up in faith. When we say that each one must be loved for a truly Christian community to exist, this doesn't mean that we have a warm feeling of favor and affection for each person at all times. Rather, each one loved means that we have as our culture the practice of love and respect for every person in the community. This love, at its height results in mutual affection and brotherly love as Paul puts it. This love is the new commandment given by Christ by the example of washing His disciples feet. Love sometimes means that boundaries and guardrails be placed in someone's life and in their relationships so harm cannot continue to be done to that person or others. Love does not mean always giving a person what they want or always making sure they are happy, love is seeking the best for each person in the wisdom of God.
The way that love can be shared among the family of God stems completely from the way we are loved by God first. If we do not have a strong sense of God's constant, everlasting, and powerful love for us, how can we have any source to love our neighbors? Only when we are standing on the reality of God's grace can we offer that grace to others without exausting our own emotional resources. The Christian community should have as its first priority a meditation and singular focus on God's love for each person. When we know that we are loved and when we know that our brother or sister is loved, it becomes natural and even easy to love others and be loved by them.
The other important emphasis of "each one loved" is that we cannot only love those who are easy to love. The scriptures are clear that if we only love those who love us, we are no better than the pagans. But if we love our enemy and those who are most difficult to love, it will be a testament that God's love is true and higher than human love. If you cannot honestly say that you are able to love your enemy or those whom you do not like, what power does God's mercy, forgiveness and grace have in your life? In the community of faith there will always be people we do not like who are not easy to love. These are the ones we focus on loving the most by praying for them, meditating on God's love for them, and remembering God's great love for us in the midst of our struggle with that person.
Each one known
Each one loved
Each one called
Each one sent
Today, I'll talk a little more about what I mean by "each one loved".
It is one thing to have every person known in a real and holy way within a community of faith. It is another thing to have each one loved. Knowledge is a powerful thing. To know somone and to be known is actually quite awesome. Intimate and personal information, when it is known, can either be used for good or bad. Love is the law of the church and it insists that knowledge of a person be used to build that person up in faith. When we say that each one must be loved for a truly Christian community to exist, this doesn't mean that we have a warm feeling of favor and affection for each person at all times. Rather, each one loved means that we have as our culture the practice of love and respect for every person in the community. This love, at its height results in mutual affection and brotherly love as Paul puts it. This love is the new commandment given by Christ by the example of washing His disciples feet. Love sometimes means that boundaries and guardrails be placed in someone's life and in their relationships so harm cannot continue to be done to that person or others. Love does not mean always giving a person what they want or always making sure they are happy, love is seeking the best for each person in the wisdom of God.
The way that love can be shared among the family of God stems completely from the way we are loved by God first. If we do not have a strong sense of God's constant, everlasting, and powerful love for us, how can we have any source to love our neighbors? Only when we are standing on the reality of God's grace can we offer that grace to others without exausting our own emotional resources. The Christian community should have as its first priority a meditation and singular focus on God's love for each person. When we know that we are loved and when we know that our brother or sister is loved, it becomes natural and even easy to love others and be loved by them.
The other important emphasis of "each one loved" is that we cannot only love those who are easy to love. The scriptures are clear that if we only love those who love us, we are no better than the pagans. But if we love our enemy and those who are most difficult to love, it will be a testament that God's love is true and higher than human love. If you cannot honestly say that you are able to love your enemy or those whom you do not like, what power does God's mercy, forgiveness and grace have in your life? In the community of faith there will always be people we do not like who are not easy to love. These are the ones we focus on loving the most by praying for them, meditating on God's love for them, and remembering God's great love for us in the midst of our struggle with that person.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Each One...
The next four posts will be about a dream I have for Christ's church. Actually, I don't think its my dream, I believe its God's dream revealed in scripture and put in my heart. The dream is simple but tremendously challenging: that EVERY believer who makes up the body of Christ would experience, practice, and embody 4 things...
1. Each one Known
2. Each one Loved
3. Each one Called
4. Each one Sent
1. Each one Known - I believe what sets the church apart from the world is that people are known and seek to know others in a real way. This begins with our primary relationship - the one with the Lord. If we were to intentionally focus on how deeply we are known by God each day, it would radically alter our attitudes and behaviors. God knows us because God made us inside and out. 1 Corinthians 13:12 describes heaven in this way - we will know fully, even as we are fully known. There will come a day when we will know God as deeply as God knows us! It is important to be in communication with the God who knows us far better than we know ourselves - this is how we constantly grow in self-awareness of our needs, our gifts, and our short-comings.
Being known doesn't stop with God. I believe that it is God's intention that we be known by others. By "being known" I don't mean recognizing an acquaintance, I mean being known deeply and personally by another human being. Most will only have a hand full of people who truly know them. Some people feel like no one ever really knows them. The community of Christians is built upon the premise that we will actually be known by other people outside our blood relatives and spouses. This is a scary prospect for many people. What if someone knows us and violates us? What if someone knows us and doesn't accept us? What if someone knows us and shares with others who we are before we want them to? These are all reasons (among a host of others) why we don't want people to know us. But I believe we cannot truly experience church the way God intended it until we are in a community where people knows us as we truly are. We are called to be real, be honest, and be vulnerable about who we are with people we can trust in faith.
Being known means we have to know others. It means that we have to have actively pursue with patience and compassion a deeper understanding and knowledge of other people with whom we share a faith covenant. The flip side of being known is knowing someone else. We often overlook the gravity that comes with truly knowing another person. When you know someone, their lives become unified with yours. When you know someone, you are compelled to care and be involved in their lives. When you know someone, you are entrusted with a part of them that is extremely valuable and fragile. But God intends us to know one another in the context of Christian community.
In order for the "Each one Known" element to work there must be communities of tremendous trust, care, sensitivity, and compassion that are built on the foundation of God's knowledge of each one of us. The only way we can be known and know others is by first understanding that we are known by God.
Are you in Christian fellowship in such a way that you truly know others in Christ and are known by them? Do you realize how well God knows you and are you actively seeking to know Him more?
1. Each one Known
2. Each one Loved
3. Each one Called
4. Each one Sent
1. Each one Known - I believe what sets the church apart from the world is that people are known and seek to know others in a real way. This begins with our primary relationship - the one with the Lord. If we were to intentionally focus on how deeply we are known by God each day, it would radically alter our attitudes and behaviors. God knows us because God made us inside and out. 1 Corinthians 13:12 describes heaven in this way - we will know fully, even as we are fully known. There will come a day when we will know God as deeply as God knows us! It is important to be in communication with the God who knows us far better than we know ourselves - this is how we constantly grow in self-awareness of our needs, our gifts, and our short-comings.
Being known doesn't stop with God. I believe that it is God's intention that we be known by others. By "being known" I don't mean recognizing an acquaintance, I mean being known deeply and personally by another human being. Most will only have a hand full of people who truly know them. Some people feel like no one ever really knows them. The community of Christians is built upon the premise that we will actually be known by other people outside our blood relatives and spouses. This is a scary prospect for many people. What if someone knows us and violates us? What if someone knows us and doesn't accept us? What if someone knows us and shares with others who we are before we want them to? These are all reasons (among a host of others) why we don't want people to know us. But I believe we cannot truly experience church the way God intended it until we are in a community where people knows us as we truly are. We are called to be real, be honest, and be vulnerable about who we are with people we can trust in faith.
Being known means we have to know others. It means that we have to have actively pursue with patience and compassion a deeper understanding and knowledge of other people with whom we share a faith covenant. The flip side of being known is knowing someone else. We often overlook the gravity that comes with truly knowing another person. When you know someone, their lives become unified with yours. When you know someone, you are compelled to care and be involved in their lives. When you know someone, you are entrusted with a part of them that is extremely valuable and fragile. But God intends us to know one another in the context of Christian community.
In order for the "Each one Known" element to work there must be communities of tremendous trust, care, sensitivity, and compassion that are built on the foundation of God's knowledge of each one of us. The only way we can be known and know others is by first understanding that we are known by God.
Are you in Christian fellowship in such a way that you truly know others in Christ and are known by them? Do you realize how well God knows you and are you actively seeking to know Him more?
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