Life + Faith

Tag: Jesus

  • A Radically Ordinary Faith

    There is much written about the radical nature of following Jesus.

    The call to come and follow Him.

    The call to take up your cross.

    The call to be a radical disciple.

    Whatever way you put it Christianity can be portrayed as some type of hyper-enthusiastic, always active, and amazingly awesome life.

    And then you have to clean the dishes currently lying in the sink, change the babies nappy, make your bed, or put the rubbish out.

    That’s not amazing.

    That’s mundane.

    That’s ordinary.

    A Radically Ordinary Faith

    And what do you do with a verse like 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you…”?

    Sounds pretty ordinary to me.

    There can be a tendency to believe we’re not ‘radical’ enough in our faith,  that we’re not doing enough radical stuff with our lives. The implication of this is that we’re not being obedient. We’re not living up to the kind of discipleship required of us as followers of Jesus.

    But when we think this way we begin to diminish the life God has given us.

    If God has created us, made us who we are, and has us in the place we currently find ourselves in, then perhaps we can trust that our faith is ‘radical’ enough.

    This isn’t to be used as an excuse for laziness, a reason to neglect serving others, and avoiding any form of growth in our faith. But, our faith must be something that relates to and be relevant to our daily lives.

    I always find it inspiring to hear of the adventures and opportunities missionaries have as they serve God overseas. It’s inspiring to see people get involved in missions, church planting, and other evangelism initiatives. Every now and then I get an email from a university worker working with international students. The stories that are shared are quite incredible, hearing of the way people are attracted to hearing more about faith and understanding the Bible for themselves. Some of these stories are very encouraging.

    And so it’s inspiring to see the work people are doing, and even more exciting to see people become interested in knowing more about Jesus. But I’m not sure they’d tell you they’re being radical in their faith because of the work they’re doing, and neither will a missionary or a pastor. The work is often very ordinary.

    And so what does a radical faith look like for freshly minted teaching graduate who is in the middle of a long first year, struggling to find time to read their Bible because the nightly preparation takes so long. Or the plumber who has been dealing with crap all day, trying to spend time with the family among the household chores. Or the mum who looks after the children, who is waiting for her partner to arrive home from work in order to help her out.

    What does ‘radical’ faith mean for them?

    It may be me in my most cynical moments, where I totally turn deaf to this call to be radical, but I’m not sure whether telling people to be more radical is helpful. To me, it adds another burden, another layer of guilt, where I end up feeling my faith isn’t good enough and I need to do more. I see the need to make the call for people to be more radical in their faith, many of us aren’t. But at the same time, what does it mean for my faith to be relevant in the mundane?

    What do you think?

  • The Eighth Sin: Apathy

    I’m inspired by today’s The Dailypost topic “The Eighth Sin”.

    image

    First, I’m intrigued that sin is still talked about. Outside of the church I don’t hear too many people talking about sin. It should be talked about more. I’m glad to see it on the radar here in this little exercise.

    Second, what came to mind when thinking about what might be the eighth cardinal sin was apathy.

    When reflecting on the past couple of weeks I can’t help but think we’re an apathetic people.

    This is an apathy that is best wrapped up in the saying, ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. But because of the information age we’re in there is no real excuse for being out of sight. My social media feeds are filled with people sharing articles and posts written about the persecution of Christians in Iraq and the terrible conflict in Gaza. Yet, as I reflect further I notice that it’s only a handful of people that are talking about this, or commenting or liking.

    I don’t expect everyone to have their say. For some it’s not a forum where people wish to discuss or even mention their views on anything. Yet, that is one of the main reasons we are so apathetic.

    Apathy allows us some emotional distance from what is going on for others. Apathy means we don’t make a stand when we should. Apathy means we don’t give a voice to the voiceless. We let injustice run its course.

    To be apathetic means we don’t care. And that’s sad.

    Not everyone can care about everything. That’s impossible in such a complex and issue-ridden world. But on things that aren’t ‘issues’ but are to do with the life and death of human beings, then perhaps we do need to care. Perhaps we need to shake off the comfort and ease of apathy. Perhaps we need to confess we are sinners and one sin that affects us is our apathetic nature.

    Thankfully sin is forgiven, even our apathy. Yet this doesn’t mean we don’t have to change. Just as the sin of apathy is forgiven through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the ability to change and work toward a more just world, a world where the voiceless are heard, is achieved through the continual trust in Him and His rule.

  • Jesus And My To-Do List

    tdlistWhy is it that I often walk out of church on a Sunday morning feeling more guilty and with more on my to-do list than I did walking in?

    I’ve had this occur numerous times over the last couple of years. I’m not sure if it says more about me or the church service and preacher. I can’t help wondering whether it’s my expectations of what it is to go to church and worship that leaves me wanting. Nevertheless, I occasionally walk out having that sense of needing to do more in the coming seven days.

    I’m a preacher myself, so I know I need to work hard on the application of my sermons. The explanation of the Bible and understanding of the passage can be worked through slowly or quickly but application needs to be there…somewhere. And it is within this application section that I need to know that the burdens I’ve been carrying for the last however long can be lifted. That my cares can be taken care of. That I can hope and know God is in control of all things.

    I need to be reassured that I don’t have to do anything more this week to have God love me more. 

    I know God. I know God because of my faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. Through that work he has enabled me to have my sin forgiven and be in a relationship with Him.

    I understand this will mean I will need to change. Following Jesus means growing as a disciple. This happens over time and with the Lord’s help.

    But when I am weary from a week where I know I’ve sinned throughout, where I didn’t read my Bible as much as I’d like, where things haven’t gone right, then I come to church seeking comfort, seeking encouragement, and to be reminded that God still loves me and is taking care of me.

    Of course, I may know this at a cognitive level. I may know this at an emotional level. But I need to know that this is the case again this week. Just as it was the last.

    This reminder may happen through the Scripture passage, or through the words of the preacher in explaining the text, or through the application part of the sermon.  Whatever way it may be it needs to occur in a way where the application doesn’t mean I walk out with more to-dos this week.

    Because guess what?

    When Jesus died he didn’t add a single to-do to my list. He took many, many, many to-dos away though. When Jesus died he didn’t add guilt to my burdens, he took them all and dealt with them.

    So, preacher (and I speak to myself as much as any other), preach Jesus. Preach Jesus in such a way as to articulate what he’s done without adding more to my week and my to-do list. Please.

  • A Miley Cyrus Missionary

    Miley Cyrus can help us think through what it means to be “on mission”.

    Last year was Miley’s year. She captured the world by storm with her performance with Robin Thicke at the MTV VMAs. FM radio, the Twitterverse, and every news website had something to say about her and her performance.

    A couple of weeks later she released her single, Wrecking Ball, which finds her swinging naked on top of a wrecking ball (as you do). The YouTube video broke all sorts of records and again caused another celebrity stir amongst those who care for such things.

    But believe it or not the performance and single had me thinking about mission and the church.

    patrick-schopflin-38734

    Miley Cyrus is the latest in a long line of so called celebrities who’ve moved from teenage prettiness to young adult ugliness. Miley, of course, was the lovely, sweet, little girl who played Hannah Montana a number of years ago. This earned her celebrity status among the world’s teenage girls, which has now progressed into superstardom, making herself famous for twerking, nakedness, and shock.

    The image of Miley Cyrus has changed dramatically.

    So, how is this related to mission and the church?

    The thinking and actions Miley has taken in the last 12-18 months can be the same thinking that seeps into the church and its missions endeavours.

    For some reason we fall into the celebrity trap where we believe that to stay relevant, to be on the cutting edge, to be noticed, and to have influence over others means our methods of mission need to become outrageous, attention grabbing, and over the top.

    In my experience, and in my conversations with those involved in missions in any form – local and global, as well as reflecting on Scripture, I’ve come out a firm believer in simple relationship building as being the means to making disciples.

    This type of mission is invested in the long-term where relationships can take years to build and disciples of Jesus are a brick by brick labour.

    I’m not for one moment saying that we shouldn’t have cutting edge and relevant methods but I’m wanting to suggest it requires more time, energy, and intentionality than just putting on a show.

    There are plenty of ways this can be done, plenty of methods I suppose, but the impression I have when reading about Jesus and his ministry is that it’s pretty simple. Make disciples by modelling our lives on Jesus and speaking about him to the people we come across.

    One could argue that Jesus used all sorts of outrageous ways to have people follow him, such as healings and miracles, but I think that would be a mis-reading of scripture. Jesus’ disciples were with him for three years, each day they saw how he operated and soaked in what he taught. What I see when I see Jesus is simplicity. Simply building into the disciples and teaching them everything he needed to.

    Jesus was both relevant and counter-cultural. He showed us how to be a disciple without giving into culture too much nor losing that relevant edge.

  • On Unity

    The following post is something I had published in The Witness, the monthly Victorian Baptist magazine, published by the Baptist Union of Victoria, in 2009.

    Unity seems to be something which is hard to find in the church today. Well, maybe it’s always been hard to find, church history seems to suggest so too. It’s surprising isn’t it; one would think that the church would be the one place that is united.

    If we look outside the church there are plenty of things that unite people. Football unites supporters like nothing else here in Melbourne, but sport in general does that in almost every nation. Community events show a united people, look no further than Black Saturday and the out-pouring of unity that came from that. But we could also think of book clubs, favourite cafes, the RSL, the local lawn bowls club, and the like. Being part of a community, being part of a family, brings unity and commonality.

    In recent months I have been pondering unity within the church.

    It’s been hard to nail, and hard to find.

    If we are honest with ourselves we must recognise that there is a wealth of disagreement that occurs within the church. These may be things like where the pulpit should be placed when one is preaching, to the ways in which we reach our community with the Gospel, to the various theological positions church members have. Differences occur, they are bound to, but quite often they cause disunity rather than mutual encouragement and respect.

    While on holiday a couple of months ago I read volume one of Arnold Dallimore’s biography of George Whitefield. Whitefield was a preacher who spread the Gospel throughout the UK and America in the 18th century. He was one of the first to preach outdoors, outside the church building, and for his day this was radical. Instead of avoiding such “corner preaching” like the plague, which we tend to do, Whitefield was able to preach to tens of thousands at a time. What impressed me most about his character was the way in which he tried to be unified with other believers. Wherever he went he would first stop by the local church or parish, and in his theological disputes with John Wesley he continued to pray and hold him up as a brother in Christ.

    Whitefield modelled, what I believe many in the church today miss, unity.

    Paul speaks no better about unity than in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. Beginning with the illustration of the church being one body with many parts he moves on to the most crucial point regarding unity–love. While one may be particularly enamoured by the passage regarding love in 1 Corinthians 13 it actually stems out of Paul’s thinking regarding unity and the body of Christ.

    It is love which is most central to unity, it is love which is most central to Paul, and it is love which is most central to our faith. It is the “more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). Christians are to be marked by love and to be unified by love.

    That love is best expressed when we head to the cross. That sacrificial, God-exalting, sinner-redeeming love is most clearly seen through Jesus’ death and unifies all believers to love others rather than themselves.

    Why is it that churches split, that conflict occurs, that disunity abounds?

    It is because there is no Christ-like love.

    Why does a supporter of a footy team actively go to all the matches and buy the team scarf? Why does a community rally in the face of adversity? Why does unity occur?

    It is because there is love.

    “Unity through diversity” seems to be a current catch-cry but perhaps “unity through love” might be a better way to put it.

    Through the cross of Christ and the love of Christ unity is at its peak.