Several months ago, if you remember, the Bruderhof Community ended their daily e-mail ‘meditation’ known as “The Daily Dig.” I loved their posts not only because they presented good stuff to think about, but also because they were simply, graphically wonderful. I love simplicity, subtlety, and understatement. There was a guy (Gentry) who wanted to encourage the Bruderhoff to resume their Daily Digs and started a web-mail campaign, but the Community ended all their Internet projects, including bringing down their extensive website. It was a shame.
Now, there is a new project that achieves about the same thing from ‘Church of our Saviour’ in Washington D.C. and their daily e-mail ‘meditation’ (if that is the right word to use?) known as “On the Way.” It could be good. We shall see. Regardless, here is today’s message, an excerpt from Bruce Willis from ‘Sojourners:’

People of the Way
by: Jim Wallis
The early Christians were known for the way they lived, not only for what they believed. For them, the two were completely intertwined. The earliest title given to them reflected the importance of their kingdom lifestyle. They were not called the people of “the experience” or the people of “right doctrine” or even the people of “the church.” Rather, they were the people of “the Way.”
It is equally significant that the Christians were known as “the people” of the Way. More than just individuals who had been converted, they were now a people, a new community of faith, which had embarked together on a new way of life. To follow Jesus meant to share Jesus’ life and to share it with others.

I love the way Jesus handles people – sometimes with the utmost compassion and gentleness and other times with withering sarcasm, accusation, and challenge.
Take, for example, this bit of writ:
The Authority of Jesus Questioned

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
(Matthew 21)

Julie posted a comment on one of my previous posts about mercy, and in it she mentions a company that makes t-shirts with one of the printed sayings being “Jesus loves porn stars.”
“Mercy,” “Grace,” “Love,” “Forgiveness,” and all such notions are profoundly beyond our ability to comprehend. Truly, Jesus does love porn stars – and the vilest sorts we can imagine. Jesus loves the Hitlers, the Pol Pots, the Jeffrey Domers (sp?) of the world; He loves the multinationlists, the corporate raiders, the CEOs; He loves the child molesters, the rapists, the murderers; He loves the liars, the cheats, and the selfish – and Julie and I. In our self-righteousness, we can hardly conceive of it, even though with our words we profess it and condescend to it.
We grapple to accept it. We try. We fail. Yet, it is always present with us.

I’ve been thinking for a while now that we need to institute a new catechumenate process within the Church that moves us away from “punch your card” kind of emphasis on “salvation,” and moves us to a more ancient pre-Constantine notion of journey and process leading up to a mature and informed decision to join the Church, to become a Christian, to devote one’s life to Christ.
I came across this blog entry from Tim Neufeld, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, via Kendall Harmon’s website, Titusonenine.
Here is the blog entry:

This Side of 313
“Something remarkable happened in A.D. 313: Our understanding of conversion was radically shifted. When Constantine granted most-favored status to Christianity, social frameworks and religious paradigms shifted almost overnight. Those who were once persecuted, the Christians, were given status in the new world, and those who once held positions of power, the pagans, became the outsiders. Everything that was once at the center was now at the margins of society, and all that was on the edges was now given status. Christendom was born.
“In a pre-Constantinian world conversion was a long, extended process. It typically took three or four years to gain membership in a church. Early church fathers developed a four-phase catechism that moved the initiate on a journey of discipleship. While there were elements unique to the different geographic areas of the second and third century church, a general pattern did emerge. At the beginning of the journey a young candidate would be mentored by an older believer, often two or three times a week for up to two years. Not until the disciple had proved faithfulness through mentoring would he or she be allowed to join the local house church. Even when admitted to a congregation the new attender was dismissed before the Eucharist (communion); only baptized members could participate in this most sacred of rituals. The next phase of the catechetical experience was a series of classes and exorcisms that led to the culminating act of baptism on the night before Easter. Finally, the believer was allowed to participate in his or her first communion on Easter Sunday, enjoying the full membership of the body of Christ.

Continue reading →

This is just so I will have record of this when I need it later.
…you could say the lavabo psalm while your hands are being washed (Ps. 26:6-12, “I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord, and so will I go to thine altar…”).

Happy New Year!
There are two considerations I keep coming back to whenever I try to deal with all this acrimony and divisiveness within the Christian community, and particularly in the “orthodoxy-wars” going on within Anglicanism right now. By the way, I think we see in the problems overwhelming world Anglicanism a foretaste of what is coming for global Christianity – the fulfillment of Philip Jenkins’ forecast in his book, “The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.” Perhaps…
Anyway, these battles between “conservative” and “liberal” camps (groups defy labeling, really) concerning morals, sexual issues, Biblical authority, interpretation, and application, and polity are truly prompting realignment within global Christianity. We will only know in hindsight who will be right, although in my opinion none of us are “right.”
Of course, the issue that has prompted all the acrimony and division within world Anglicanism is homosexuality, which then bleeds into greater issues of Biblical authority and application, our interface with contemporary culture, discipline, accountability, and the catholic nature of our Church – polity. This issue of what is and what can be accommodated concerning homosexuality and same-sex relationships is dividing all Christian groups, despite the certain claims from denominations or churches and their leaders that the issue is settled against homosexuals in THEIR churches, jurisdictions, or domains. Whether we like it or not, our ecclesial politics mirror our cultural politics – the wars wage on to the detriment of the call of and purpose of the Way of Christ.
What makes one a Christian? Who has the right to judge and determine how Christians should live – what God calls us to? Who is right and who is wrong? The endless debates and proclamations will continue forever. Yet, how should we live regardless of what others may say about us, be we conservative/liberal, gay/straight, Modernist/Post-Modernist, male/female, et.al.?
In my mind, at this particular time, there are two primary criteria/points we need to heed (I need to heed!) – for me these have become primary as my foundation for living out the Way of Christ.
1.) We know little, despite over 3,000 years of trying to know!
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (New International Version)
Since we know in part, we must be very careful to make too strong of a pronouncement concerning who is right and who is wrong. At any particular point in time, all of us can and will think or believe heretically, even in the midst of thinking we are right and think we can “prove” it. We grow, we mature, we experience life, and as we do we change our opinions and understandings. If any of us act and believe exactly the same way and thing as we did ten years ago, we are babes still suckling on spiritual milk rather than moving onto the meat, and we all know what Paul wrote about that!
We know in part, and we must come to a place of absolute humility!
2.) Jesus gave us the greatest commandment, a new commandment, which is really the summation of all the Law and the Prophets, but is not the Law.
“One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:35-40
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’
“‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.'” Mark 12:25-33
Consider, also:
The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Romans 13:9
(Romans 13:8-10 in Context)
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14
(Galatians 5:13-15 in Context)
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.” James 2:8
(James 2:7-9 in Context)
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 19:18
Well, we can debate until the cows come home whether Jesus meant to bring into the New Covenant the Moral Law of Moses or not (I don’t see how anyone could read Galatians or Hebrews and think that any of the laws of the Levitical Code are to be specifically obeyed by Christians under Grace as they were by Jews). Regardless, we are called to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves – by and in faith. The rub comes when some believe that they must define and categorize how the demonstration of these two objects of our love is to be expressed or experienced. New demands are instituted as proof of whether we truly, honestly, and completely love God or not, and often we seem to forget about loving our neighbor. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, we make new laws to prove to others our devotion to God.
So many of us cannot deal with ambiguity and cannot trust our neighbor that he or she is doing the best s/he can to honor God and neighbor. Some of us have to demand compliance and conformity to a particularly defined standard, and we then develop organizations to institutionalize these demands.
Live this way: I am to love God; I am to love neighbor; I must know in humility that at any moment I could be completely wrong because I see in part and will not know fully until I see Him face-to-face. If I can keep these two considerations in the forefront of my mind and intentions, I think I just might make it.

From the Bruderhof Community’s Daily Dig:
So That We May Awaken
Alfred Delp
There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Where life is firm we need to sense its firmness; and where it is unstable and uncertain and has no basis, no foundation, we need to know this too and endure it. We need to recognize that we have stood on this earth in false pathos, in false security, in spiritual insanity.
For this is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things. Only then will we be able to guard our life from the frights and terrors into which God the Lord has let the world sink to teach us, so that we may awaken from sleep, as Paul says, and see that it is time to repent, time to change things.
From “Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas”
Read the whole thing

A good read from the Bruderhof Community:
http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/Meditation.htm?source=DailyDig

From the today’s Bruderhof Community’s Daily Dig –
Excerpted from The Violence of Love, available FREE in e-book format.

The mission entrusted to the church community is a hard mission:…
A community is a group of men and women who have found the truth in Christ and in his gospel, and who follow the truth and join together to follow it more strongly. It is not just an individual conversion, but a community conversion. It is a family that believes, a group that accepts God. In the group, each one finds that the brother or sister is a source of strength and that in moments of weakness they help one another and, by loving one another and believing, they give light and example.
In such a group the preacher no longer needs to preach, for there are Christians who preach by their own lives. I said once and I repeat today that if, unhappily, some day they silence our radio and don’t let us write our newspaper, each of you who believe must become a microphone, a radio station, a loudspeaker, not to talk, but to call for faith.

Once again: A primary problem Americans have, whether deciding issues of theology, sociology, politics – whatever, is our propensity to view the world, and all things of/in the world, through the very narrow lens of our American culture. All cultures and nationalities are prone to this mistake, but we are overwhelmed by it. This is not simply an issue of believing we are the best, but about an inability to perceive that we do in fact look through a “colored” lens – many of us cannot even comprehend that there is such a thing as a culturally “colored” lens.
This has a devastating effect on the American Christian Church, and individual Christians in this country.
We must understand that we have to put aside, as best we can, our culture peculiarities in order to get to the heart of what God intends to teach through Scripture. If we do not, we are letting cultural bias interfere with our knowledge of God and God’s ways. If we refuse to even consider our propensity for cultural myopia, we are guilty of cultural pride and arrogance. Maybe some of us do understand and determine that our particular lens is in fact God’s lens!
If we are to know timeless truths, we must comprehend Scriptural teaching from the perspective of the original writers. Only then can we get to the heart of what is required of us and promised to us – rightly dividing the Word.