Church: Joining Your Imperfect Self to Other Imperfect Selves

By Scott Sauls 
When the local church falls short of Jesus’ vision for the church as a “radiant bride” reflecting his glory, a “city on a hill” that shines with attractive good works, “the salt of the earth” that prevents decay and promotes flourishing, and “the light of the world” that makes dark places less dark, some Christians are tempted to leave the church for some other alternative.

For many such Christians, the common refrain is, “I want to be part of something that’s more like the New Testament Church.”

I always scratch my head when I hear Christians say this. In several incidences, the actual “New Testament Church” was less attractive, less authentic, less flexible, less loving, less truthful, less beautiful, and less Christ-like than the church of today. If anyone has ever been tempted to hit the eject button on the local church in favor of creating their own, more robust faith experience, it was people who were part of the actual New Testament church. It is because so many first century Christians had a foot out the door that the writer of Hebrews urged them to not give up meeting together, “as is the habit of some” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

One “New Testament Church” that we would all be tempted to abandon was the church at Corinth.
One of the most celebrated passages in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13, famously known as “the love chapter.” In this magnificent chapter, we are told that love is patient and kind. It does not envy or boast, and it is not arrogant or rude. It is not demanding or irritable, and it does not hold a grudge. It resists things that are wrong and celebrates things that are true. It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.

Wonderful, right?

Did you know that when Paul wrote to the Corinthians about love, he didn’t have wedding ceremonies or cross stitch art in mind? Did you know that he was actually rebuking them because each of the attributes of love was something that they lacked?

The Corinthian church, a prominent “New Testament Church,” was filled with problems. A brief journey through Paul’s first letter to this community of misfits tells us that they were known for judging each other harshly, creating major divisions over minor theological issues, committing adultery, initiating frivolous lawsuits, divorcing without biblical grounds, parading “Christian liberty” in front of people with a bruised conscience, ignoring the needs of the poor, and the list goes on. Paul could have very easily written off this community. He could have very easily thrown in the towel.
Why didn’t Paul throw in the towel on the New Testament Church? For the same reason that Jesus didn’t thrown in the towel.

Church is family.

Membership in a local church means nothing more and nothing less than this: Joining your imperfect self to many other imperfect selves to form an imperfect community that, through Jesus, embarks on a journey toward a better future…together.

Surprisingly, Paul begins his confrontational first letter to the Corinthians with affirmation and assurance. In spite of their many flaws, sins, inconsistencies, hypocrisies, and weaknesses, he is hopeful for them, not because they are stellar people but because Jesus is a stellar Savior. Jesus will complete the work that he began in them, and Paul knows this. So, instead of hitting eject on them, he doubles down on his involvement with them. Instead of shunning and shaming them, he speaks to them as his beloved brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters in the faith. Instead of running from them, he runs toward them. He names them not according to their failures but according to their redemptive status, using words like “saints” and “sanctified.” He thanks God always for them and reminds them that Jesus will sustain them until the end. Though they are messed up now, Jesus has a plan to transform them into people who are glorious and guiltless.

Paul looks at the broken local church and envisions beauty. He looks at the sinful local church and envisions sainthood. He looks at the undesirable local church and is overcome with desire for her flourishing. Paul thinks about the church in the same way that Jesus does. He thinks about the church as family. Daughters and sons of God, with whom he is well pleased. The bride of Christ, to whom he has betrothed himself forever. Sisters and brothers to one another, fellow heirs of the Kingdom.

Family.

As Saint Augustine once said, sometimes “the Church is a whore…but she is still my Mother.”

Not only is the Church our Mother, She is also Jesus’ wife.

By Scott Sauls   http://scottsauls.com/2014/07/10/church-whore-still-mother/  

A Pilgrim Song -Psalm 130

Psalm 130 The Message (MSG)

A Pilgrim Song

130 ^1-2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
    Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
    Listen to my cries for mercy.

^3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
    who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
    and that’s why you’re worshiped.

^5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
    and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
    waiting and watching till morning,
    waiting and watching till morning.

^7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
    with God’s arrival comes love,
    with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,
    buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

One Who Comes Alongside to Help

by Stan Ott:
 
I was waiting  in the hospital for a routine blood test when I became aware of a strained mumbling voice nearby. Looking up I saw a good-looking man in his early 40's in a wheelchair having difficulty speaking and clearly sitting uncomfortably. An older gentleman, almost certainly his dad, was trying to arrange a supportive pillow behind his head. Then I saw the sign on the wall next to them, "Speech Therapy."

Something about it was unspeakably sad. I do not know if he is an injured veteran or suffering from some terrible affliction but this young man in the prime of life is in a deep hole and his father is in there with him.

As I was heading out of the hospital I was immensely aware of the gift of health and then of the thought, “Go back and say something.” I wondered what that would be and if it would be invasive. I paused puzzling and then headed for the exit except I found my legs taking me back the way I had come.

I knew somehow my mind was not directing my steps and I wondered what I would say. I walked right up to the old gentleman and his son looked them in the eye and said, "I feel impelled to tell you I am praying for you. May God bless you." The gentleman immediately and sincerely replied, “Thank you,” as he continued to adjust the pillow for his uncomfortable son.

This episode had nothing to do with me. My gesture of concern may have taken five seconds. That father is offering care 24 hours a day every day. The true paraclete, the one who comes alongside to help, comes alongside for the long haul.

God did want me to see something and to say something. I left overwhelmed with the feeling of sadness for this family and the deep awareness of those close to me and others who are in similar places of suffering. 

It may be a cliché to say it, but when our Lord said these words, he actually meant them, " “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,” Matthew 11:28* "...weep with those who weep,” Romans 12:15 and “Comfort, O comfort my people” Isaiah 40:1.

by Stan  Ott
Feb. 17, 2015
Perspective

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

February 10, 2015

  Harry Pickens

Special to Presbyterian News Service, by Harry Pickens

I turned 55 a couple of weeks ago. My personal assistant, Ellie, who is a former college student of mine, kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I really didn't know. At a certain point in life, your hunger for material things really begins to dissipate, and I really didn't want anything in particular except to enjoy a day of quiet celebration, joyful connection, and peace of mind.

About a week before my birthday, an idea came to me during my meditation. I had asked God to reveal to me what kind of gift I could ask for that would be of greatest service to me and to others (for the highest good of all concerned).

When the idea came, I knew it was exactly what I needed to request, and it would allow my birthday to be celebrated and commemorated in an unusual fashion, one that would definitely inspire positive action, and maybe even have an impact that would last more than a day.

There is a Native American tradition called the giveaway, in which the birthday celebrant actually gives the gifts to his or her guests. This is a recognition of the joy of giving, and an expression of one’s gratitude for living for yet another year.

My idea took this concept a bit further. When I next met with Ellie, I said to her, ‘I know exactly what I want for my birthday this year. I want you to mobilize your friends to create 55 acts of kindness on my behalf: one for each year of my life thus far. The one rule for the acts is that the recipient must not know who the person is who is gifting them, so that they experience a kind act bestowed by a benevolent stranger.’

I also told her that I wanted her to keep a record of what was done so that I could savor it all sometime the week after my actual birthday (there was not quite enough time available for her to get it all done by January 27th).

Ellie, who is a marvelous organizer and motivator, cheerfully accepted the challenge and was on her way.

A few days ago, Ellie and I sat down to share what happened as a result of my birthday challenge. She sat across from me and began to read a 5 page letter describing each of the 55 acts. (By the time this Sunday’s gathering occurs, I will have heard about all 55, because we didn’t’t have enough time that day and were scheduled to meet again on Saturday.)

During this conversation she got through the first 20 - more than enough to crack my heart open and let me know that I needed to have the kleenex ready at hand when she read the rest of the letter to me.
So what is the point of all this, the moral of the story? As I sat in my office listening to Ellie read the first part of this letter, I was struck by the power of a single idea to create a tangible positive difference in the lives of others.

I could see and hear and feel in my imagination the person who was waiting in line at the fast food restaurant who discovered that their meal had been paid for by a stranger.

I could feel the gratitude in the heart of the person who walked back to their car at the Douglass loop to discover that the parking meter had been paid.

I could almost reach out and feel the excitement of the doctor’s assistant who found an envelope on her desk containing an anonymous gift to cover the next patient’s copay.

As Ellie read each one of these acts out loud to me, I had this visceral feeling of an invisible yet tangible connection with every single person who was touched by this simple idea.

It was as though I finally understood, on a whole new level, the power of an idea , an idea that began as a simple question - a request to my Inner Source to help me figure out what the best possible gift might be — a gift that would touch the lives of more than me - that might change the world in some small way.

This invisible, intangible thought — translated into action — touched the lives of at least 100 people in less than a week. I started expanding my thinking — how could I expand this idea so that more and more people might catch the astonishing power of simply doing something kind for another human being?

As I sat there listening to Ellie read, a new idea came into my awareness. What if I could inspire others to celebrate their birthdays in this way? Perhaps I could start a new tradition, one that would multiply kindness and compassion and joy and love in exponential ways.

Then I thought, how else might I inspire acts of kindness? I went to the randomactsofkindness.com website, which is the ultimate repository for ideas and resources for spreading kindness, and I discovered RAKWEEK 2015 — a week long initiative with the goal of inspiring 100,000 acts of kindness between February 9-15 2015. Just in time for this reflection and our gathering.

So, my invitation to you is this: what might you do to catalyze kindness and compassion within your circle of influence? How might you express the love and mercy of God by serving and loving others in this way? How do acts of kindness express the living, loving presence of God in, as and through us? What if you decided that you were going to inspire one act of kindness for every year of your life thus far? Where would you start?

And perhaps the most important point of all is this: everything that I’ve shared with you in this brief reflection began with a single question: ‘What do you want for your birthday?’, which I translated into a direct request to God.

I asked ’what gift would be of greatest service?’

And this simple question changed everything.

Harry Pickens is a spiritually inspired American jazz pianist and a blessing to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.. This was reprinted with his permission.  http://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/2/10/best-birthday-gift-ever/ 

Tom Brady's Secret Weapon in the Super Bowl

By Thomas George on Feb 3, 2015

 

 

PHOENIX - "I didn't even think about it," Tom Brady said as he walked toward an elevator after his Super Bowl news conference on Monday morning. He held in both hands a shiny trunk that stored his silver, football-shaped MVP trophy. He was surrounded by security, yet comfortable, at peace. He looked tired. He looked relieved. He looked patient.

And that was the question: just how much patience it took in this Super Bowl 49 victory over the Seattle Seahawks for him to be content with a night of dinks and dunks and darts. The New England Patriots correctly discerned they could not block the Seahawks for long; that quick, timing passes were the formula. Brady kept picking, plucking. None of his Super Bowl record-setting 37 completions was for more than 23 yards.

This requires extreme patience for any quarterback. Their instincts are often to chuck it long. It demanded an extra dose of patience for Brady, whose long completions in each of his last six seasons were for yardage gains of 69, 81, 83, 99, 79 and 81. Each of those was for touchdowns, too.

So, I'm not buying that Brady "didn't even think about it" when considering a Patriots Super Bowl offensive design that took a dump-truck approach rather than a race-car one. Somewhere in the game plan creation, installation, practices and through four quarters of championship play, Brady had to keep pinching himself, reminding himself of the art of patience. To staying the course and sticking with the plan.

Consider that Brady averaged 6.6 yards gained per pass attempt in the Super Bowl. And that Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson averaged 11.8.

Brady's patience won. Seattle's lack of it, especially in the end, lost.

Now Brady is a four-time Super Bowl winner and three-time Super Bowl MVP and resides in rarified football air. But there is a DeflateGate investigation ongoing.  Was Brady involved in the AFC Championship deflated football controversy?

Brady must patiently wait for that answer to be revealed in the investigation's results. Some people think he already knows. That his fingerprints are all over it.

Brady found a way to navigate through this ruckus, patiently, while preparing for and then rising in the Super Bowl. This is an odd NFL moment. A player just received two of the richest honors the game offers -- a Super Bowl championship and the game's MVP. Yet, the threat looms that soon he could be punished and his team fined for cheating.

This is like hopping on a roller-coaster ride at the end and riding backward.

This trashes that popular notion of "it's not the destination, it's the journey." Heck no, Tom Brady just won it all. This, for now, is all about the destination. Mission accomplished. He will live fully in this moment. For now, it is the safest place.

With patience, he will deal with any potential later fallout, with another trophy by his side and with another ring on his finger.

Ahead by 10 points in the fourth quarter, the Seattle offense kept giving the ball back to Brady, unable to convert third downs and maintain possession and keep him off the field. It is always a dangerous track for a team when Brady has the ball in the fourth quarter with something to prove.

Brady reminded everyone of that once again. So did Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. He said he has never coached a fiercer competitor than Brady.

"It's a game of emotion," said Brady, referring to cornerback Malcolm Butler's game-clinching interception. "It happened so quickly. It was, obviously, as emotional a game can be at that point."

It's a game of patience.

There is no hurry-up-and-wait now in Tom Brady. He will just patiently wait. He will savor the arrival at this latest destination. Then dink, dunk and dart his way through.

Coped from http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/2/3/7969325/new-england-patriots-super-bowl-champs-tom-brady-mvp-deflategate 

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Those who actively trust in God and his Spirit will have patience.   God, in his wisdom, has shown so much patience with his people, in waiting for his people to turn from our sins, to Christ and his Spirit.  If you want patience, turn to Christ and trust in His Spirit to flow to you and through you to others!