Gospel

Looking to the interests of Jesus

/ Craig / Leave a comment

You don’t have to look long through the pages of on-line media to discover that having the role of pastor or minister does not mean that a man or woman is actually “looking to the interests of Jesus.”  But I have also heard sincere followers of Jesus indicate that they cannot “look to the interests of Jesus” because they don’t have time be full-time.  That’s a problem of perception:  life with Jesus is full-time.  Life in His Kingdom is full-time.

So, what does it mean to look to the interests of Jesus?

Paul writes of Timothy, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.  For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 2:19-21

1.  Be with Jesus.  At the the heart of the Gospel is desire of God to be with His people.  Jesus called disciples that they might be “with” Him. (Mark 3:14)  So seek daily to be “with” Jesus.  Paul saw this experience of God’s love and grace in Christ as the source of the attitude required to look to the interests of others. (Philippians 1:1-4) In the practice of being mindful of Jesus’ presence with you and reflection on His words, you will learn to hear (sense) his voice in your daily life.  (John 10:3, John 14:15-21).

2.  Be transformed by Jesus.  The new creation work of God (2 Corinthians 5:14-17) in the life of a disciple translates into new affections, new attitudes, and new actions.  As we follow Him the transformation of our lives through the practices of repentance and faith will show His glory even in our weaknesses.  Even as He has occupied our lives by His Spirit, He is cleansing our lives from the inside out.  (Mark 7) To cooperate with His work we take hold of that for which He has taken hold of us–being like Jesus in His Kingdom.

3.  Be on mission with Jesus.  We must trust that as we submit our lives to Jesus the King He is going to take liberty to progressively call us and place us strategically in His mission of loving people and transferring them from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God.  For Origin, we are living this out in the UBC campus community and the city of Vancouver.

We trust that God will call out people like Timothy and Epaphroditus, and Euodia and Syntche, mean and women who are giving more and more of their time and energy to the ministry of the Gospel and the church.  But God will also continue to create disciples who remain anchored in the context of their work, their faculties, their dorms, their neighbourhoods, and their families to fulfill His mission.  In those settings, the call is the same, look to the interests of Jesus by contributing somehow to the disciple-life-journey of another person.

Now anyone in a friendship that matters, or married, or working, or responsible for children or parents, will discover that good relationships require that we temporarily suspend our own interests in order to look to the interests of others.  But this willingness and sacrificial attitude is also required at times of Gospel ministry .  To look to the interests of Jesus will sometimes require that we set aside our own interests, just as our Lord Jesus has done for us.  We may need to set aside our own interests in order to “witness” to the grace of Jesus in our lives or to “proclaim” the Gospel, or to meet regularly to share our life with another disciple, or to sacrificially serve another person or His church with the gifts His Spirit has give us.

Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Today, its full-time: look to the interests of Jesus.

love is in the follow-through

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Sitting with a friend at my dining room table I listened to a champion of love.

At the moment he doesn’t feel like it went well.

I believe love is not wasted.

As I listened I was convicted on how hard it is to follow-through with love.

Love may have a feeling; but it sustained as action over time.

Love may have created contact.  But the experience of love is in the follow-through.

Tenis, golf, basketball:  there’s always talk about the follow-through.

Follow-through is after the initial contact.  Why does it matter?

Follow-through creates a trajectory.

Love is in the follow-through.

“Always be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults, because of your love.”  Ephesians 4:2 NLT

At Origin we have our original moment conversation each week.  When did you love God or love people or when did you experience the love of God and the love of people?

Self-righteousness is fuelled by a short-sighted  satisfaction — “Yah, I made contact with the ball.”  “But, where did it go?”

I needed this cautionary word:

Love is in the follow-through.

“Our people, our songs.”

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Just read a review of an interesting book for pastors, worship leaders, and community developers trying to sort out the common lingua questions of music in worship.  Gerardo Marti busts some of our assumptions about community connectedness and music.

Emerson notes that we often assume everybody has to have “their kind” of music to feel like they are a part of the community.

What does this have to do with the problem of the musical-buffet style? Marti finds that this style actually “essentializes” racial groups and draws on narrow stereotypes. Want white people in your church?  Play Vineyard, contemporary Christian music (or for the older crowd, play European-origin hymns). Want black people in your church?  Play gospel music. Want Hispanics in your church?  Play salsa music. Want Asians in your church?  Play, ah . . . well, play white music.

The end result? Instead of bringing people together and transcending racial boundaries, this approach reinforces boundaries—boundaries built on gross, oversimplified stereotypes. It unwittingly even assumes that somehow we have inborn preferences for certain styles of music, rather than tendencies to prefer the type of music we most often hear those around us enjoying. Fact is, musical preferences are learned.

So what did Marti discover?  I love this statement:  “what matters is the network of relationships.”

What “succeeds” musically in multiracial churches is not a certain type of music or how well it is performed. Rather, it is: (a) people of various backgrounds all practicing together, spending time together, singing together, worshiping together; and (b) the fact that it is “our choir, our people.”

To get downright sociological, it is the transcendent experience in which worship becomes at the same time a celebration of the group itself and of God who has brought the group together. At its essence, then, what matters is the network of relationships of the people in the congregation, not the type or even the quality of the music.

What matters is “the network of relationships.”

Read the whole review of Worship Across the Racial Divide: Religious Music and the Multiracial Congregation.

divine selflessness

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Gordon Fee writes about Philippians 2:5-11:

Christ’s selflessness for the sake of others expressed itself in his emptying himself by taking the “form” of a slave.  Historically, far too much has been made of the verb “emptied himself” of something.  However, just as harpagmos requires no object for Christ to “seize” but rather points to what is the opposite of God’s character, so Christ did not empty himself of anything; he simply “emptied himself,” poured himself out, as it were.  In keeping with Paul’s ordinary usage, this is metaphor, pure and simple.  What modifies it is expressed in the phrase that follows; he “poured himself out by taking on the ‘form’ of a slave.”

Elsewhere this verb regularly means to become powerless or to be emptied of significance (hence the NIV’s made himself nothing; cf.KMV, “made himself of no reputation”).  Here it stands in direct antithesis to the “empty glory” of verse 3 and functions in the same way as the metaphorical “he became poor” in 2 Corinthians 8:9.  Thus, as in the “not” side of this clause (v. 6b), we are still dealing with the character of God as revealed in the mindset and resulting activity of the Son of God.  The concern is with divine selflessness:  God is not an acquisitive being, grasping and seizing, but self-giving for the sake of others.  Gordon Fee, Philippians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, p. 94-95.

Stirs up worship doesn’t it?

This is Our God:

 

Consistency — its about the “who” and not the furniture

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Three weeks ago we finished cocooning with our newest daughter and have now been out in the “real” world with great regularity.  The intent of cocooning was to establish consistency and attachment for Mica in our family.  The family becomes a referent point for her engagement with the world.

So here’s the real world for our church experience at Origin: for the last three weeks we’ve gathered in a different location every Sunday.  Different address.  Different set up.  Different washrooms.  Different children’s space.  Different lighting.  Different feel.  So much for consistency!

Its made me think a lot about her experience of the church.  Who reaches out?  Who prays for her?  Who creates safe space for her to be her, to explore, and to hear again that God loves her?  Who celebrates what God is doing in her life?  Who affirms her growth?  Who challenges her to explore again Jesus’ grace?

Who?

See its all about the people & the Gospel, not the furniture.

But its not just about her.  My hope is that our gathering and life together is a referent point for many students and the UBC community in their walk with Jesus.  Origin, church, wherever, and whenever we gather, is a community that acts as a reference point for people to encourage them to keep going with Jesus and His Gospel.