This is the Life
This is the Life
This year marked a significant milestone in my life - my 50th birthday as a Christian - and I can say without equivocation, I am a bona fide product of the Christian life. Yes, there is a Christian life, and it is not unlike every other life in its highs and lows, troubles and triumphs, failures and successes, laughter and tears, except in one very significant way. It is a life that has been informed by the work of the Holy Spirit in me and through each of you.
I was very fortunate to find Christ as a teenager, because it exposed me very early in life to people who understood my struggles and my new-found desire to please the One who gave His life to save me and promised He would stay with me to the “very end of the age.” You see, with Christ we receive a new family with the God-given mission (Matt 28:20) to teach us to obey everything Jesus taught them and to walk in the footsteps He still leaves on the pathways of our lives.
It will always be a mystery to me why God has has chosen to pour His precious Spirit into flawed, cracked, and empty vessels like us, but He does. First, “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). He set aside His own divine privilege, so He could walk in our shoes and be tempted and suffer as we do, even unto death. Then when He had gone, He sent the Holy Spirit to us, so we could do as He did – immerse ourselves in our culture, being fully in it, but not of it – bringing with us the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). His presence is the key to the life of the church. It is in and through the church that Christ encounters, calls, transforms, equips, and sends His people into the world. He has called the church to (1) introduce salvation to those who don’t know him, and (2) to nurture the faith and edify the life of believers.
Last week, I began this three-part series by pointing you to the banners hanging on the eastern outside wall of our sanctuary. There are three of them and they read, “Light,” Life,” and “Love.” I explained that those banners describe the three elements of the NUMC church vision –
“To be the Light, Life, and Love of Jesus Christ.”
A vision is simply a statement of WHAT we are working to BE. It offers a view of what we wish to become and what we hope to be known for in the community. As I said last week, It is a leadership responsibility to articulate and cast a vision for the church, and it is our individual responsibility as members to interpret that vision in the light of what God is calling each of us to do to make it a reality. That can be a little challenging. What does it look like for a church to be the light, life, and love of Jesus Christ? It takes a lot of prayer, a lot of preaching, a lot of Bible study, a lot of service, and a lot of good discipleship to help us understand what the vision means to each of us and how it can inspire and energize our work.
I am doing this series in the hope that sharing my personal understanding might make that challenge less daunting for some. Last week, I began the series with the first element of our vision – Light. Today, I will continue with the second element - Life.
Here’s a heavy thought for you. Whether you totally get it or not, YOU and I are instruments for delivering His love and grace to the world, and that is our primary purpose. Whatever else we choose to do with the time we have here, there is no more pressing responsibility placed on our lives. When I open my daily calendar in the morning, the top priority on my to-do list better say, “be the hands and feet of Jesus in my world today.” I must do whatever it takes to remember I don’t just represent Jesus to this world. I bring Him. The “why” is simple - Jesus filled the church (that’s us) with His Spirit and put us here so He could be here.
So, here we are. What now? In last week’s blog, The Light of the World, I said that discipleship always begins with a rescue mission. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) gives us three clear tasks. The first is to go into world to make new disciples. We are to introduce the world to the saving grace of Jesus Christ and rescue them from the consequences of separation from God. Our second job is to baptize these new believers into the faith and family of God. The third task is to assume the life-long responsibility of teaching one another to obey His commands and to live the Christian life.
To put this process in life-cycle terms – the first two tasks are about birth or rebirth (we often refer to people in this stage as being born-again, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3-5). To me, this last task is about growing in that new birth. In fact, if I were sum up this last task in one word, it would be Growth.
So, the church that is Life will bring Growth. It will give the community a life-enriching alternative to the many competing systems that take far more from us than they will ever give. The church that is Life will build a place where learning and teaching is a priority and service is seen not just as a way of helping others, but as an opportunity to strengthen life-giving relationships. It will promote the Christian life, bringing people increasingly closer to their Creator as they age and offering a solid foundation and framework for overcoming the challenges common to us all, as well as the sins that beset us as individuals.
The church that is Life will provide a setting of openness and welcome; a place for dialogue, asking questions about life, sharing fears and concerns, and finding reasons for hope. It will allow believers to strategize together on how to engage the world in a better way to affirm all people, advocate for all people, and spread God’s message of love, acceptance, forgiveness and peace.
The church that is Life will facilitate a process of life-long growth that starts when we come to faith and does not stop until we go home to Jesus. I see the desire to be just such a church at NUMC, and I want to be certain I am doing everything I am called to do to help us realize this vision. As I regularly evaluate my readiness to support our vision, I find there are several areas where I am in continuing need of growth. They include:
• Teaching and studying the Word of God. The Bible establishes the foundation of everything we know about Jesus and His plan for humanity. Every one of the sixty-six books points the reader to Him in some way. How much do I need to know to teach His Word? Just a little more than the plethora of potential students in my life. I should also always study with the intention of teaching what I learn to someone else.
• Living as a witness to the peace and hope of the Christian life. I need to remember people are watching our lives closely. They know the genuine article when they see it. They also know the hypocrites when they see them. People sometimes ask why I wear the NUMC polo shirt almost everywhere I go. I assure you, it’s not because I’m a slave to fashion. To be candid, I wear it because the logo helps me remember whose I am in those many circumstances each day when I am prone to become frustrated and not so Christ-like. When I do fall short in my witness, I don’t want that to be last thing people see in me. I also want them to see that my failure is always followed by contrition and a desire for forgiveness.
• Teaching and coaching the next generation of the church. We are so blessed to have a church rich with seniors, who have significant experience living the Christian life. Sadly, I now find myself among them! What I love most about our seniors is their willingness to contribute the wisdom of their experience with the next (and next after that) generation. I want to be better at doing that the way they do – not through criticism or judgement, but by working side-by-side our younger people on every project we undertake.
• Offering and accepting loving accountability. I need to develop more relationships that are close enough survive the “rebuke of a brother.” We ALL need correction from time-to-time. Our zeal for Christ alone is enough to drive many of us over the line into behavior that hurts people or misrepresents Christ’s love for people. We will all sin and none of us should be willing to casually ignore or tolerate sin in someone we love – not just because it is repugnant to us, but more because of the damage it does to them. Christ has proven over and over the safest and most effective place for a loving rebuke is inside a healthy and trusting relationship.
• Engaging everyone in ministry and nurturing the growth of our future leaders. There should be no one sitting on the sidelines. I sat in amazement one morning about a year ago as I witnessed a man walk up to one of our previous staff members and say, “Is there anything I can do to help out today?” only to be told, “No, we’re good. We’ve got it covered.” I had to jump in and offer the man some work. Do I really have to say this in church – never turn down help! I want to always have something on my list that someone else can do. In fact this should probably be a list I publish somewhere! Service is at the very heart of discipleship. This is where we learn the most, grow the most, and love the most. Our young people are most eager to take up a cause and do some good. I want to give them all the opportunities they can handle, and one goal for me is to actively encourage more young people to consider careers in full-time ministry and missional service.
Whether it acknowledges it or not, our community is in a daily search for a spiritual mentor. Even with the current culture trying to convince us that the answers to our problems lie deep within ourselves, we instinctively know that’s not true. The church that is Life will be the spiritual mentor for a community that needs to know the Christian Life.
Jamel and I wrote a song about this Christian life. It’s called, “This is the Life.” My favorite verse is the one that describes how the Christian life lived on this earth changes our whole perspective on eternity. It goes like this:
Your mercies are fresh with every rising of the sun;
All things are new – another chapter has begun;
In a story that takes us to glory with Jesus as our Friend;
And happily-ever-after cause this story has no end.
Followed by the chorus:
This is the life you promised we would know.
This is the life of the redeemed;
You are the Way. You are the Truth.
And Jesus – this, this is the life.
I have lived it for fifty years. It is the only life I want to live. L’chaim!!
Grace and Peace, my friends.