Hebrews 10:19-25

In conversing recently with a gentleman at a hotel where I was staying, I learned that the church across the busy freeway had just gone to 5 services. This had been necessitated by their 25% annual growth rate. I asked myself if that achievement in numbers alone constituted success? Is  God monitoring the same statistics we do? To Jesus, what does the expansion of His kingdom actually look like? I believe growing numbers could happen concurrently with authentic kingdom growth but in light of Jesus’ comments about broad and narrow paths, numbers should probably not be considered the sole benchmark. Neither should the size of budgets be considered true benchmarks of the Bride’s health. How tragic that the numbers of heads and dollars have become the default gold standard of church success.

What is the consequence of building something using our plumb line versus God’s? Can we really build the city whose architect is God using our standards of measurement and our tools? As you read the New Testament, how do you think God is measuring success?  By their New Testament teachings, can you tell what the apostles’s were using as a plumb line?

Once upon a time there was an apprentice carpenter who was handed a board by the journeyman carpenter and instructed to use that board as his standard of measurement. He instructed him to produce 100 boards exactly like that one.  Eager to please, the zealous apprentice laid the board on top of the board to be cut and struck his line. He made his cut and produced his first board. He then took the second board and used it to mark the cut for the third board. He followed this procedure for 98 subsequent cuts. When the journeyman came to see how his apprentice had done, He was not pleased. He asked where the original board was. The journeyman picked up the template and the second board. He compared them to the 100th cut and showed the apprentice the difference, how setting aside the original pattern had resulted in a slow accumulation of error in each subsequent board. The consequence was that much time and materials had been spent cutting 98 boards that would not fit the application.

As I see the masses avoiding the Church and Christians increasingly marginalized in our modern culture, I ask myself “Why?”  The story we devout ones often tell ourselves is that they are not attracted to Christianity because they are by nature either hardened, depraved or unelected (probably all three). While I see an element of truth to this assessment, I don’t think this is the whole story. I believe that substituting heads and dollars for the simple transformation of human lives has resulted in the accumulated errors that we now live with and must call normal lest we delegitimize our existence. In other words, each subsequent board that has been cut over the centuries became a tradition (or wineskin) sanctified by time and practice. Institutions perpetuate themselves by comparing themselves to their own traditions not by comparing themselves to the original early church example and raising threatening questions about themselves. I believe that many who are yet-to-be-saved keep Christianity at bay because their gut tells them something is amiss.

What if, in the gut of man, there is something as ancient as Adam, some remnant of knowing related to his having been created in God’s image, that knows that if Christianity is anything at all it must be a family. What if many remain disinterested because what they see when a Christian approaches is an agenda as opposed to a kindred and caring spirit armed with nothing more than an authentic interest in them as persons?

For the purpose of searching out those ancient boundaries I am proposing to my friends, that in our precious smaller gatherings that we continue to read and meditate on the the New Testament narrative, as our plumb line, free of the biases we have inflicted upon it through our traditions. We must learn to read in a new way, not just to glean more Bible information, but in such a way that its light searches our hearts.

The current questions that are being discussed in many circles I associate with, revolve around the Church. What is the Church supposed to look like when it gathers? Does our assesment of her health mirror that of God’s?

Regardless of where we are,  our passage reminds us all to not forsake our own assembling together. The passage implies that when we meet, it should also be our intention to encourage and stimulate each other to love and good deeds. Keeping in mind that where two or three are gathered in his name, He is there in our midst, will serve to export Christ’s life outside the boundaries our traditional thinking has created.

Father, I believe You desire to pour out Your new wine, Your very own abundant life upon us. I believe You desire to see us even exceed Yourself in the good works that You did while on this earth.  Just as in Cana, I believe the Bride Groom has saved the best wine for the last.  As we revisit the New Testament and search out the ancient markers and the original plumb line please show us how to be transformed and to transform our institutions into communities where new wine can be better received, retained and served up to the called and thirsty ones all around us. Amen.