Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Transformation begins when a seed is planted in a safe space such as the soil, a womb or a heart. From there on its all miraculous. Seeds germinate and poke through the earth, hungry for light and moisture, ultimately yielding fruit. Cells multiply within the woman becoming a fetus and eventually emerging as a fearfully and wonderfully created human being, hungry for food, love and stimulation. If the child is nurtured it too will ultimately bear much fruit. In the fruit are more seeds making the plant or human capable of reproduction. Such is the natural order of creation. But what about the heart? Its growth too follows a natural order. This digression into biology was necessary as a backdrop to discuss the heart, the spiritual dimension of our lives which Paul is admonishing us to stimulate and encourage (care for) within each other as the day is drawing near.
Regarding the heart though, what seed is to be planted in it? How can that seed be nurtured? What would its fruit look like when it matures? I hope the following thoughts will help answer these questions.
From God’s perspective, we are the soil for the eternal seed of His Son. We receive the word implanted into our hearts and the miracle of spiritual transformation begins. Jesus called this being born anew (or born again). LIke the child, this living seed too emerges with incredible reproductive possibilities. And like the child, it is dependent on those around it to be nurtured. It needs specific things to reach maturity which is God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
Yesterday I proposed that the maturing process of the Church has been interrupted. I suggested that we (and we are all in this together by the way) are like frogs in a pot being marginalized and slowly being destroyed. You may or may not buy this idea but if you do not, I ask you to at least compare the reproductive success of the western church compared to the early church which seemed to multiply more in harmony with the natural order of wheat and other living organisms. I also recommended that a strategy to escape the cultural soup we are stewing in would be to heed the examples of those who are jumping out of the pot. I want to introduce you to a couple of them today. One is Bob Goff (BG). The other is Jen Hatmaker (JH). Let’s talk about Bob first.
When I met him this past week, Bob had me at “Hello, I’m Bob Goff, (saying essentially in a hundred ways) What’s a kettle?” It just got better, the more I listened to him speak and the more I read his book, Love Does. When he shared his core values I knew I was yoked together with him as a co-laborer with Christ. We share this core value that our mission is to “watch over each other’s hearts” from Proverbs 4:23. Why? Because; from them flow the springs of life. He is saying that guarding and nurturing the reality of Christ’s life within each other is our universal calling as God’s family because everything starts there. I think this is the same thing that Paul is saying when he says we must stimulate and encourage one another.
In the 31 chapters of Love Does, Bob presents love-driven kingdom values by saying in each chapter’s by-line, “I used to think this or that, but now I know that ……” Here is an example from Chapter 2 Sniper Fire…
I used to think I had to act a certain way to follow God, but now I know God doesn’t want us to be typical.
People ask this best selling author regularly about his religion (the kettle) and he will answer,
“You probably shouldn’t be talking to me because I don’t validate my faith with a church attendance score card. I think of church as a vibrant community of people consisting of two or more of varied backgrounds gathering around Jesus. Sometimes they are at a place that might have a steeple or auditorium seating. But it’s just as likely that church happens elsewhere, like coffee shops or on the edge of a glacier or in the bush of Uganda. All of these places work just fine, I suppose. When it’s a matter of the heart, the place doesn’t matter. For me, it’s Jesus plus nothing – not even a building.”
Just by being Bob, BG casts a legitimate vision of the Church. His “I used to think but now I know” represents the transformation of the mind (and repentence) that Paul tells us will lead us to God’s perfect will. Church to Bob is his vibrant anywhere anytime meetings. (which if you know him are more likely to be spontaneous than scheduled.) How similar to Jesus’ words, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” Thanks Bob for saying these things in you own words giving them the authority and power that can only come by making them your own. Now let me introduce you to Jen Hatmaker. She is the author of Interrupted – When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity
While Bob makes no mention of a specific church group, JH and her husband do and are endeavoring to employ the same values BG lives by inside a denominational church they planted in the south part of Austin Texas. While BG spoke of transformation indirectly, JM tackles it head on as she proposes that it is the natural byproduct of missional living. JM states that living on mission where you’ve been sent transforms your faith journey. This other-oriented intentionality toward community is what JH believes love does. To those raising the questions in their hearts about the water temperature in their kettle. JH offers….
If an endless array of Bible studies, programs, church events an sermons (Honestly, the last thing we need is another sermon.) have left you dry, please hear this: living on mission will transform your faith journey. At the risk of oversimplifying it, I’ve seen missional living cure apathy better than any sermon, promote healing quicker than counseling, deepen discipleship more than Bible studies, and create converts more effectively than events……There is no formula to living on mission.
JM won me as a pioneer in the ways of the kingdom of God. The Hatmakers came to understand the kettle for what it was. She notes…
What we see becomes our reality…..Church influence if followed exclusively distorts our perception of real life and our role in it.
In other words, if they go unchallenged, we can easily fall victim to the dangerous paradigms of our religious cultures which we and our tradition hold sacred (and normal). We know that Jesus came to preach good news to the captives with a view to setting them free. We know he has called us (as His disciples) to do the same. JM quotes Isaiah 56:6 her in chapter titled Mission Possible….
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
She comments….
Responsibility for each other is the first description of the fast God requires: an abstinence from selfishness, greed, and egotism. Discipleship is not a personal journey with a few links to community; it exists for us to spur (encourage?) one another on toward liberation and execute justice for those too trapped to free themselves. It is a lifestyle obsessed with the broken members of our human tribe: those living next to us, in our families, and everywhere someone is devalued. We have a mandate to liberate our fellow man, in every context. We are in this life together, we belong to one another.
I know now more than ever that an organized church is simply a loose structure to hold us together; people are truly the church. They are its life and breath and strength. It is you. It is me. The kingdom advances in our small neighborhoods and small acts of love and small moments of faithfulness and small feats of courage. It is not encapsulated in programs and top-down structures but activated through the body of Christ daring to be faithful everywhere we’ve been planted.
Dear and precious brothers and sisters, we are being transformed into the image of Christ by way of the seed that was implanted in us and the natural transformational processes within community and discipleship. Christ in us is the treasure that transcends all the accumulated wealth of this world. Our culture looks enviably at Gates and Buffet. They are but paupers without Christ. As we watch over (encourage) this life within each other we invest in the only kind of wealth that will survive our mortal existence – His Life. If we are patient and we will persevere in the trials of this process we will be getting prepared as the glorious Bride of Christ and one day, not so far off, we will inherit an even fuller glory in bodies living in an environment where moth and rust will no longer have a say.
To expand His kingdom God is raising up networks of saints who are grasping that the kingdom within must be expressed outside of ourselves. In other words, having missional expression. its not just about having a peaceful easy feeling about ourselves and our lives with God. Its not an inner refined sense of holiness that brings order, efficiency and certainty to our daily lives. If anything its a holy mess where we are becoming aware of each other’s burdens and needs and discovering ways to shoulder them together.
This tribe of saints is grasping the reality of Christ in them by simply getting over themselves (as impossible hindrances to God in their flesh) leaning instead completely on what He has done as our great high priest, making a safe place (a new and living place) for us (through His sacrificial life and death) where we can confidently relate to God and others with full assurance and great confidence. Please note that this is no way secured or improved upon by seminary, bible study, title, pedigree, race, gender, age, IQ or anything else. We cannot sanctify our selves sufficiently to qualify for inheritance. It is a pure gift. Any other approach to God is a type of religion that denies the life within the Seed. If we are attempting to follow Christ without this type of rest we will be swimming in the religious cauldron from which Christ died to liberate us from.
The kingdom of God is not dependent on the pastor or the sermon or the building or the programs. As it has always been, the kingdom rests on its unshakable foundation, Jesus Christ. And so it is Christ in you and in I on which the future of glorified Church and Bride of Christ depends. What an incredible adventure!
Father, please awaken us from any wordily spell that has enchanted us, binding us to things destined to perish. Help us to rest sufficiently in You that we could attract others into this rest. Grant that we would find our tribe, those you have called us to walk alongside to reach into the highways and the byways where your banquet invitations are now being sent. Enable us to lay hold of the creative ways You have given us to discover and stimulate each other in our respective callings. Help us to bond together in communities that create safe spaces for your word to grow and return to you with the fruit You anticipate. Show us how to watch over each other’s hearts for the sake of Your Name. Help us, by just being ourselves, to cast a vision that is compatible with the one on Your heart. Wreck us if need be.