The Spiritual Life

We are living with the successful achievement of two modern myths here at the bottom of the great recession. These are the questions that people are trying to answer today. 1.) How can I make my life better for me, myself, my family, and my country so this doesn't happen again? 2.) How can I do that in such a way as not to offend you?

We know that’s preposterous. Humans are not islands so the world can’t be all about me or my people.

Humans cannot live a discernment-free life. We are told that we are either rich and poor, black, latino, and white, democrats/republicans, north/south, red/blue state. But in reality, based on the people that I know across the country, we don't fit in nice little boxes on a census form. We are a thousand different iterations of a thousand different views.

Playing the non-offensive game leads to greater judgmentalism. The only thing that people who are trying not to offend each other do is dogmatically agree on how offensive everyone else is. These are the questions that got us into this problem, and we certainly can't use them to get us out of our society's issues.

Some Christians have been pleased to accommodate these myths over the last 20 years. By retreating to the safe confines of Bible studies, bestselling self-help book clubs, and seminars, we have unwittingly withdrawn from the culture hoping for a better world to come. On the other hand, some choose to just take all their energy taught from faith, form a nice community non-profit keeping their churchianity to a safe hour on Sunday morning. Both of these forms of Christianity are important but cannot be ends in and of themselves.

Pentecost changes all that. The spirit of God is already at work in the world through one visible sign-- the believers in community together. Wherever two or three of you are gathered, you are showing the world a new way. By demonstrating what Jesus preached, and how churches like those described in 1 John lived, we are showing the world a better way.

We join in the victory over the myth of pride with self-sacrifice, generosity, and mentoring people in the love of Christ. We participate in the conquest by giving witness to what God is doing. We report like a herald on the field of battle showing and telling to each other that God continues to overturn society's values with a new all-conquering love through Christ's people. While society competes over the best condo at the top of the tower of Babel, we gently rescue children, orphans, and widows announcing the world, "the kingdom of God is here."

Created for Each Other

We were made for each other. This place we called First Baptist is the
fulfillment locally of the dream announced in Genesis 1, a community
living out God's creative work together. Our church completes the
mission announced to the Israelites: to be a light for the nations. The
folks at 1B demonstrate through our lives what Jesus commissioned: "Go
ye therefore and disciple." According to 1 John, by the way we conduct
ourselves with each other, we show what Christ's sacrifice looks like.

As Stanley Hauerwas suggests, the most important thing the world needs
from us right now politically, socially, spiritually, economically,
and relationally is to be this kind of church. In modern terms, that
means more than becoming a member of a church. Culturally, the word
"member" sounds more like a fraternity rush or a civic obligation
renewable because the group provides a service to us or is a good
cause to join. The Christian notion of membership, however, suggests a
lifestyle change. I am using this term as Wendell Berry does when
referring to the Port William community's membership. We are the kind
of people who "member (as a verb) one another, that when we're
together or apart, we take a piece of each other with us. The
difference is not between who is a member who and who isn't but who
knows it and who doesn't."

This month, through the lens of 1 John, I'm asking us to renew our
membership vows we made to God and to one another. Community life in
Christ is so different than the paths we were on that we need the
review occasionally. Baptists are good at backsliding into the old
habits of life before joining a community. We fall back into the
patterns of individualism, family life, club membership, self-help
books, friendliness, and random acts of kindness. All of these are
important, but none of them represent the church.

First Baptist Church is a Christ-formed community of shepherds who
move from saved individuals into a community of the forgiven. We take
all of our family ties and learn to grandparent one another in the
faith. We shirk off the self-help advice of bestsellers and engage the
culture with the mind of Christ. We move past friendliness into a
radical hospitality that shapes us as apprentices in love. We allow
the spirit to take our random acts of kindness and form us into a
vibrant community together.

None of this sounds very easy to do, but that's precisely why these
times ask us to thing differently about the commitments we have made
to each other. We were made for such a time as this.

Loving the Church

Christians can't understand the life of Jesus without the church. The church can't understand Jesus without living out the Christ life to and for one another.

As people of First Baptist, Knoxville, I am asking each person to commit to a new kind of membership in the church. You won't find these commitments on the "new member" card when you join. These are the steps members take to and for one another as they grow in their understanding of Christ and their commitments to First Baptist. These commitments are an expression of love that we have for one another as reflected in the book of 1 John. Each step comes with a place where we are now to a place where we are going.

1.) From saved individuals to a community of the forgiven
1 John 1:9-2:2

2.) From multiple generations to grandparents and grandchildren in love.
1 John 2:7-17

3.) From members in a group to owners of a community
1 John 3:16-20

4.) From good advice to engaging the culture
1 John 4:1-6

5.) From friendliness to apprenticeship
1 John 4:7-21

6.) From random acts of kindness to the spirit-formed community
1 John 5:1-12