Discussing what the Biblical metaphor of the temple reveals for our life as a church family.
Church Family Metaphors: A Body
Church Family Metaphors: Gardening
Raised With Christ
Raised with Christ is now your orientation for existence. For seeing and living in heaven on earth. We now have a different perspective by which we engage our daily routines and relationships. A perspective of Christ with us appearing in the most mundane of places, the little conversations with our kids and co-workers, Jesus in enjoying dinner and doing dishes. Jesus in the choices of how to respond to our subordinate at work who has messed up or our boss who won’t let off. Jesus in the offense of a friend in Gospel Community who spoke harshly. Jesus is all and in all. Raised with Christ, Christ-perspective[7].
Into Christ
Christ Crucified
For as long as we human beings have recorded our thoughts on life we have sought to condense reality. To make things “simple”. Not so much out of ignorance but because our senses are overwhelmed by creation. The problem with condensing though is that it often comes via subtraction, amputation of the gargantuan excess that doesn’t fit in the simplified box.
Staying Power
Our history together and our future still ahead depends much on your response to the Jesus whose stories we have been sharing with one another. John, Jesus’ most beloved friend, says that he wrote his gospel stories in order that you and I might, “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31). Life in Christ—the apostle Paul’s favorite phrase.
Perception is Reality
Kingdom is a big idea word. We may talk of building our own kingdoms today, but in truth we own little and control little. We are not queens or kings of much. Kingdom is no small thing. Even an insignificant kingdom—such as Israel for example—would have history, wealth, organization, institutions, hierarchy, celebrations, traditions, military and power. Thus, one kingdom overtaking another kingdom is no small thing either. Such an invasion and overcoming would require spectacular means—whether through cunning, coercion, violence, or stubborn fortitude—kingdom work was glorious and grand.
The Gambler
A story out of its context, especially a story that includes morally questionable or outright immoral behaviors, leads the most reverent amongst us to make up all kinds of excuses for the seemingly out-of-line notions conveyed. After all, only good people and good behaviors lead to truth – so we are prone to believe.
Ridiculous Faith
Imagine you are in south Texas, a place with no shortage of people in need. You are there with a well-known and respected physician going about his work of healing and serving his fellow Texans. He is, by all accounts, a servant, sacrificing acclaim and prosperity to serve his neighbors in need. One day a clearly desperate woman enters into his healing tent. She is not a Texan. In fact she is from Mexico and while no one is sure if she is here legally, odds are by her dress and her broken-English that she is not. The woman walks up to the physician and begs his assistance with the plea of someone who is in obvious pain.
What would you expect this respected and servant-hearted man to do? What if he did nothing? Literally. He said nothing and completely ignored the woman without even a glance her way.
The Compassionate Employer
We often let our society and our own fears convince us that we live in a world of scarcity, a world that doesn’t have enough of what we need. In doing so, competition, success and money become the lenses by which we see and treat one another. Not only that but we get ourselves caught in what seem like endless cycles of lies, not realizing how absurd it is that we are going around and around, never receiving the joy and fulfillment we think is coming to us.
Against this world of scarcity, Jesus tells the parable of the Compassionate Employer in Matthew 20:1-26.
The Good Samaritan
A Greater Freedom
“(…) the minute we abandon (God’s) story, we reduce reality to the dimensions of our minds and feelings and experience…” – Eugene Peterson
We have to make decisions about the everyday stuff of life – money, taxes, schools, houses, etc. – but, in Christ, we are now free to make choices based on a much bigger story. We are free to not depend on those things to bring us goodness and wholeness.
Living Water
Two Builders
Sometimes you run across an expression that captures what you are thinking or feeling in a much more clear and comprehensive way then you ever could. Have you ever read a paragraph that summed up your thoughts on an idea with perfection? Ever heard a stanza in a song or dialogue in a movie that described your exact emotions in that moment? Sure you have, we all have. Well, I ran into one of those expressions a week or so ago in preparation for today.
Called Up
Living a Better Hope
To skip these stories and simply read the gospels and New Testament letters is like skipping to the final act of a Shakespearian play. While you can certainly understand what happens at the final moments of the story, are able to share with your friends the conclusion of tragedy or comedy, and are even able to make deductions of what has gone on before; you will undoubtedly miss the nuances and details that make the play a thing of beauty.
Taking God Seriously
We find ourselves in the story of our faith tradition at a moment of reprieve. Enough history as God’s people to have stories to reflect on. Enough history of faith to have struggles and successes. In the story, judgement and new life have been declared, and in short order—at least in page numbers—life will be very different. Yet here, in the in-between, we have the time and space necessary to consider, to ponder life with God and one another, what a whole and good life is or could be.
Identity Stripped
It is in the pitiless storm when we have nothing else, when we are nothing else, that we discover our true identity. Has your own exile story—we all have them or will—not proved to be discovery through suffering, unearthing your character, your hope through the stripping away of everything—relationships, expectations, dreams, vocations, etc.—which crowd your view of God and yourself. Exposed and helpless you are covered, like Adam and Eve, by the slain lamb, the good shepherd, the servant who gave his life so that you might be called a daughter of God, a son of God, a saint.
Devastated by Sin
We find ourselves in the story of our faith tradition at a moment of reprieve. Enough history as God’s people to have stories to reflect on. Enough history of faith to have struggles and successes. In the story, judgement and new life have been declared, and in short order—at least in page numbers—life will be very different. Yet here, in the in-between, we have the time and space necessary to consider, to ponder life with God and one another, what a whole and good life is or could be.