July 6th, 2006
Let me start this off by saying that this is an entry for the Christian community. Not that it doesn't make sense otherwise, but it would be a bit out of context. Either way, let me know your thoughts when you are through.
This is from Chuck Klosterman's book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." It is in reference to something that I utterly despise and yet still have a strange fascination with... Reality Television.
"Reality television has evolved to the point of true post-modernism, in as much as it is always aware of itself. Every new cast of any reality show is increasingly more aware of how they are expected to perform, or what character archetypes they are supposed to fall into. So much so, in fact, that watching reality television now requires that the viewer exersice a great deal of suspension of disbelief - a paradoxical requirement for something that is nonfiction."
Reading this last night, led me to a new thought; consider it the Heisenberg Principle of life. If we are people who love to watch other people, a species that is observatory to say the least, then how do we act when no one is watching? Can you ever be truly aware of the difference?
I have been spending a lot of time in the last few weeks thinking about three things. First, I AM GETTING MARRIED IN 15 DAYS! Second, I have been consistently thinking about how we are all connected into a community that is humanity. No person can exist in a vacuum. Third, and this is really just an extension of the second thought, as far as my faith is concerned, we are connected into an even more important community, the body of Christ.
Meg and I have two good friends, The Parmans, who we met for lunch this past Sunday. Quinn, is perhaps the first Anglican I have known, and as he is incredibly engaging to talk to, he has inspired somewhat of an interest in the current status of the communion. This in mind, I have recently read the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter to the Anglican community in response to some of the things that took place over their recent triannual convention.
As I have thought about this letter, as well as many shared conversations over the last year, and what God has been showing me in the word, I am at a crossroads.
I am not a universalist. I do not believe it is possible for drastically different views on the same issue to all be correct. However, I also know that answers to big issues can't be simple. God can't be placed in a box, neither for my convienence, or yours.
We are broken. We are people who have been rescued from our pit, but we have not been fully cleaned off yet. We are all saved by grace, but we are also sustained by it as well.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, we have and build community with each other in the same way we have it with God. Honesty. Sincerity. Truth. Confession of our brokeness. Shared Joy. Shared Sorrow.
In John chapter 15, and 1 John chapter 1, there are two very important pieces of advice and I do not think it is a coincidence that they are connected. John wrote both materials within about two-three years of each other and he is uses a phrasing of language that is very particular in both.
In John chapter 15, Jesus is speaking to the disciples in the upper room after the last supper. He says the following...
Joh 15:1 I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.
Joh 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3 Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you.
Joh 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
Joh 15:5 I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.
Joh 15:8 In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you shall be My disciples.
Joh 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
Joh 15:11 I have spoken these things to you so that My joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.
In 1 John chapter 1, John is old, the last remaining living disciple, he is writing to believers to pass on the knowledge of living faith out. He says the following...
1Jo 1:4 And we write these things to you so that your joy may be full.
1Jo 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jo 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.
I want to point out the usage of the phrase "that your joy may be full," in both scriptures. It is so cool to me how we are given two different scriptures as to how we live out life within our two most important relationships.
The first scripture is clearly about our relationship with God. Jesus is letting us know that we have been cleansed by the word he has spoken to us. We have been saved, but Jesus is telling us to abide in him and remain in him so that His joy may be in us and that it may be full. He is pretty clear about it. He even goes so far as to say that apart from him we can do nothing. This is the instruction for how we live out the relationship with our savior.
The second is clearly about our relationship with one another in the body. John tells us that it is not being perfect which gives us our relationship with God or with each other, but rather it is about honesty. John points out that it is in the honesty of sharing and confessing before each other that we have fellowship with one another, and in that God is faithful to cleanse us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we decieve ourselves.
So, for our joy to be complete, we must abide in Christ, and be real with one another. I know I said I don't like simple answers, but this seems to be a pretty clear one.
The problem arises when our brokenness steps in. We want people to think the best of us. We want people to believe better of us than is sometimes true. Who wouldn't? I certainly don't like the idea of people seeing the things that are ugly about who I am. So we begin to act differently. We begin to play the person we want people to see instead of who we are. It isn't a lie. It is just a recasting. We fall into a public one-dimensional character type. I am a Christian and this is how I supposed to act and this is what I supposed to say. It is the Heisenberg principle of real life. We are changed by being observed, and it creates a wedge between us all.
My point is this...
I want us to be real. I want us to be authentic. I want us to be honest about our brokenness, and collectively share in the joy of having already been rescued from it. I want us to recognize that, as believers, we are one body, and we do not cease to be one body because a denomination splits or because I live here and you live there. The archbishop wrote in his letter that the Anglican church would soon come to a place where they had to decide wether or not there were issues important enough to break from communion over. I agree. The Anglican church is at that place, and over what I believe are some very big issues. However, my question is this, can people, by democratic vote, destroy what is God's? Does the body cease to be the body because a part of it says that it is not?
I don't know. These are just thoughts and they are going about a mile a minute. In the end, I am thankful to worship a God that cannot be placed in a box. I am thankful that I worship a God that cannot be figured out with easy answers. I will trust in him and abide in him, and be confident that grace comes from him alone.
-Rob
Let me start this off by saying that this is an entry for the Christian community. Not that it doesn't make sense otherwise, but it would be a bit out of context. Either way, let me know your thoughts when you are through.
This is from Chuck Klosterman's book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." It is in reference to something that I utterly despise and yet still have a strange fascination with... Reality Television.
"Reality television has evolved to the point of true post-modernism, in as much as it is always aware of itself. Every new cast of any reality show is increasingly more aware of how they are expected to perform, or what character archetypes they are supposed to fall into. So much so, in fact, that watching reality television now requires that the viewer exersice a great deal of suspension of disbelief - a paradoxical requirement for something that is nonfiction."
Reading this last night, led me to a new thought; consider it the Heisenberg Principle of life. If we are people who love to watch other people, a species that is observatory to say the least, then how do we act when no one is watching? Can you ever be truly aware of the difference?
I have been spending a lot of time in the last few weeks thinking about three things. First, I AM GETTING MARRIED IN 15 DAYS! Second, I have been consistently thinking about how we are all connected into a community that is humanity. No person can exist in a vacuum. Third, and this is really just an extension of the second thought, as far as my faith is concerned, we are connected into an even more important community, the body of Christ.
Meg and I have two good friends, The Parmans, who we met for lunch this past Sunday. Quinn, is perhaps the first Anglican I have known, and as he is incredibly engaging to talk to, he has inspired somewhat of an interest in the current status of the communion. This in mind, I have recently read the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter to the Anglican community in response to some of the things that took place over their recent triannual convention.
As I have thought about this letter, as well as many shared conversations over the last year, and what God has been showing me in the word, I am at a crossroads.
I am not a universalist. I do not believe it is possible for drastically different views on the same issue to all be correct. However, I also know that answers to big issues can't be simple. God can't be placed in a box, neither for my convienence, or yours.
We are broken. We are people who have been rescued from our pit, but we have not been fully cleaned off yet. We are all saved by grace, but we are also sustained by it as well.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, we have and build community with each other in the same way we have it with God. Honesty. Sincerity. Truth. Confession of our brokeness. Shared Joy. Shared Sorrow.
In John chapter 15, and 1 John chapter 1, there are two very important pieces of advice and I do not think it is a coincidence that they are connected. John wrote both materials within about two-three years of each other and he is uses a phrasing of language that is very particular in both.
In John chapter 15, Jesus is speaking to the disciples in the upper room after the last supper. He says the following...
Joh 15:1 I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.
Joh 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3 Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you.
Joh 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
Joh 15:5 I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.
Joh 15:8 In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you shall be My disciples.
Joh 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
Joh 15:11 I have spoken these things to you so that My joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.
In 1 John chapter 1, John is old, the last remaining living disciple, he is writing to believers to pass on the knowledge of living faith out. He says the following...
1Jo 1:4 And we write these things to you so that your joy may be full.
1Jo 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jo 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.
I want to point out the usage of the phrase "that your joy may be full," in both scriptures. It is so cool to me how we are given two different scriptures as to how we live out life within our two most important relationships.
The first scripture is clearly about our relationship with God. Jesus is letting us know that we have been cleansed by the word he has spoken to us. We have been saved, but Jesus is telling us to abide in him and remain in him so that His joy may be in us and that it may be full. He is pretty clear about it. He even goes so far as to say that apart from him we can do nothing. This is the instruction for how we live out the relationship with our savior.
The second is clearly about our relationship with one another in the body. John tells us that it is not being perfect which gives us our relationship with God or with each other, but rather it is about honesty. John points out that it is in the honesty of sharing and confessing before each other that we have fellowship with one another, and in that God is faithful to cleanse us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we decieve ourselves.
So, for our joy to be complete, we must abide in Christ, and be real with one another. I know I said I don't like simple answers, but this seems to be a pretty clear one.
The problem arises when our brokenness steps in. We want people to think the best of us. We want people to believe better of us than is sometimes true. Who wouldn't? I certainly don't like the idea of people seeing the things that are ugly about who I am. So we begin to act differently. We begin to play the person we want people to see instead of who we are. It isn't a lie. It is just a recasting. We fall into a public one-dimensional character type. I am a Christian and this is how I supposed to act and this is what I supposed to say. It is the Heisenberg principle of real life. We are changed by being observed, and it creates a wedge between us all.
My point is this...
I want us to be real. I want us to be authentic. I want us to be honest about our brokenness, and collectively share in the joy of having already been rescued from it. I want us to recognize that, as believers, we are one body, and we do not cease to be one body because a denomination splits or because I live here and you live there. The archbishop wrote in his letter that the Anglican church would soon come to a place where they had to decide wether or not there were issues important enough to break from communion over. I agree. The Anglican church is at that place, and over what I believe are some very big issues. However, my question is this, can people, by democratic vote, destroy what is God's? Does the body cease to be the body because a part of it says that it is not?
I don't know. These are just thoughts and they are going about a mile a minute. In the end, I am thankful to worship a God that cannot be placed in a box. I am thankful that I worship a God that cannot be figured out with easy answers. I will trust in him and abide in him, and be confident that grace comes from him alone.
-Rob
posted by Rob @ 5:24 PM
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