From as long as I can remember I was always enchanted, intrigued, and inspired by the stories of heroes. You have to excuse me, but I know my geek is showing. Yes I was the comic book collector of the neighborhood. I would trade my sports cards for Marvel Super hero cards. I remember being upset that DC Comics began killing off heroes like Superman and Batman’s sidekick, Robin. As a kid I wished that a radioactive spider would crawl into my bedroom and bite me while I was sleeping, or that the local area industrial plants would explode and expose me to gamma rays. When that didn’t happen, I decided that my only other choice was to become a billionaire so that I could spend my fortune developing a flying indestructible iron suit. I wanted to be a super hero, not just for the benefits super powers or because I am addicted to adventure, but because I wanted to save the world. And I thought, just like every other super hero fan, that I was the one to do it. When we were kids we thought we could do it. When did we stop believing that we were heroes? When did we stop believing that we were called to save the world? The place that is supposed to be breeding, training and dispersing more heroes than any other institution in world is the church. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case in recent history. But the world’s need for heroes has grown more and more in recent history. We may not be indestructible or fly or are freakishly strong, but we still have a world that needs us. We stop wanting to be superheroes because we lose our vision. We lose our since of adventure. We lose the zeal of the calling that we originally had when the call was fresh. As people of God, we simply embrace that it is our turn. It is our turn, because it is a new world, with new people, but it is the same God. We aren’t the first heroes to do this. There is a difference between first and new. We aren’t the first people to go through this, we are just the new heroes that are doing this. We are the latest additions to the heroic storyline. When you choose to enter into this story with God, you are joining a line of heroes who said God, will you please use me to serve your world? Church!
When it comes to faith, everybody has it. I have often heard people say that they are unable to have the same faith that I do because it is just too hard. The idea that some people have faith and others don’t is a very popular, although it is not true. Everybody has faith! Everybody is following someone or something. Over the majority of modern history, Christianity has been under the scrutiny of the world’s religions for being “closed-minded” and believing that Christians are the only ones with faith and this is not true. No matter what your perspective is on life, it is a faith perspective. The person that says we are here by random happenstance is using faith to determine and follow that notion. An atheist is a person of tremendous faith. We are not talking about faith or no faith, belief or no belief. We are talking about faith in what? Belief in what? The real question is not if we have it or not, but what we have put it in.
The tension of faith is not a new one. Paul argued this point for the Gentiles that had received Christ in Galatia, when they faced the challenge of what to believe, how to believe and what should be the expression of their belief. (Gal 4) This argument transcended time and raised its head again in the 16th century and was the wedge that created the Reformation and formation of the Protestant church. Martin Luther stated that Sola Fide (Faith Alone) is “the principle on which the church rises or falls.” John Calvin later affirmed this statement by saying that “justification by faith is the principle hinge by which religion is supported”. But the message the moves through the minds of men for the dawn of time is how to get the all knowing, almighty, all seeing God on your side. Mankind seeks acceptance, and questions what will be enough to get the thumbs up from the creator.
The fight of faith was exposed in the lives of the first family with the first sibling rivalry between Cain and his brother Able. This story of a favored offering that sparks untamed anger and leads to ultimate destruction is a conflict between Cain and Able, but it is an insight for works vs. faith and even deeper, religion vs. revelation. Psychologically man becomes uncomfortable with the notion that what I do, what I participate in, and what I offer through my actions may not be good enough. What can I do to be enough? I mean, we live in a quantifiable world. I know when enough is enough with every intersection of my life, but this invisible God leaves this unquantifiable gap between humanity and divinity. But does He? Does an all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, almighty God leave justification to be an ambiguous undefined subject in our existence?
This is the question that man attempts to answer with the creation of religion. Man uses religion to restore himself to God due to his unpleasing fallen state. But there is a fatal flaw in religion. Religion will always find its strength in what my hands do themselves. Religion puts the emphasis on the work that I do. The problem with religious justification is that what I do is already flawed, if I am doing it for myself. Religion only gives you the credit for what you did. Religion will always honor itself and a faith in that is misleading. This is the tension that Cain found himself in. The work that he did with his hands; the plowing, the tilling, the hoeing, and the harvesting was not acceptable enough. This was because Cain was his work. Cain was his religion and to separate the two meant destruction to who he was, not knowing there is a difference between religion and revelation. True faith brings about revelation. It was this revelation that Able operated in. If man is going to be in right standing with God, it is going to take blood. It is the shedding of blood that will redeem a fallen state of man. Able had the revelation from God that it is not about what I raked and hoed and labored to do. But it is through only what God can give that I can obtain righteousness. Because what God demands, God will give. What God asks, God will answer. What God needs, God will supply.
“It strikes us, when year after year our longed for perfection of life does not appear. The only thing one can do is accept the fact that you’re accepted. This is grace. You may not know more than before. You may not feel different than before, but everything it transformed”-Paul Tillich
CHURCH!
When people find out that I am a pastor, there is usually a series of questions that they ask me: “What is the name of your church?” “Where is it located?” “What time does your service start?” Most of the time I will answer those questions directly with the proper responses, but there are other times I may insert some broader answers that make them stop and question my answers. They may ask: “Where is your church? And I will say, “right here”. Or they may ask: “What time does your service start?” And then I will say, “what time is it now?” Yes these answers are meant to a little sarcastic and confusing, but they usually help people understand that church is more than just an event, or a time, or location. The church is a movement. A movement that was never supposed to be constrained and constricted to a finite place and time. The church is a continuum that can function in any variable. The reason why my sarcastic answers confuse people, it because we have adopted traditions that are contrary to the first century church.
Look at John 4:4-21
Jesus had a conversation with a woman about where people should go and worship. Jesus was taking a break at a well, and he met a woman there. Now the woman was at the well at an unusual time. She did this because she was ashamed of who she was, and what she had done, so she didn’t want people to see her. But she ran into Jesus.(of all people to run into right) After a pretty confrontational conversation, she recognizes that not only is Jesus Jewish, but he was a Jewish Prophet. This opened up a whole new world of questions for the woman. As a Samaritan she had a totally different religious background than Jesus. It was even decreed that Jews and Samaritans where not even allowed to be associated with each other, not only sitting at a well, in a common area discussing faith. But the woman liked what Jesus was saying and wanted to be a part of the freedom that He was offering.
So the woman asked Jesus the deepest theological question that she could think of: Where should I go worship? She said,” Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.(vs. 20). I love the response that Jesus gives her; Jesus tells her that there will be a time where none of that matters. Essentially Jesus tells the woman, you go worship wherever, and whenever you want to. If you want to have worship at this well, you are more that welcome to do so. Jesus set her free in thinking that the power of God that we experience can tied down to a location. God is bigger than a location. God is bigger than an event. God is bigger than our religious traditions. We cannot trap God and expect to control Him by our own religious experiences.
Jesus would be confused with our modern day church model. Jesus only used the word “church” only twice in the gospels. Jesus said more about circumcision than HE did about church. This was on purpose, because His favorite word was kingdom and His focus was disciples. Church is simply an extension of the kingdom of God with His people, where ever they are. This is what the “gospel” is all about. The “gospel” is made of people. The gospel has its power because people propel it. We need to release God’s people and not retain them to an attraction. We don’t need them in our churches, we need them in God’s world.“No empire building, No control, No Glory.”
This is the church that God is calling us to. This is the church that I want to be a part of. This is the church that you should be excited about joining. Not a building. Not an event. Not a time. God is calling us to a world that needs us, because it needs him. So what time does your service start? It starts right here, right now!
CHURCH!
