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Life Together by Gary D. Collier |
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___________________________________ FamiliesI grew up in a family of 9 children. Living in a 700 sq. ft. house, we had to learn more than how to love each other. We had to learn how to put up with each other. Anyone who has children knows that every child is unique: this one has particular interests, that one has her own idiosyncrasies; he likes green vegetables, she likes nothing at all; being an older brother, he delights in tormenting his sister, to get back she is constantly borrowing his shirts; his room looks like a tornado hit it, hers is never out of place and she will not let her messy brother enter the room; he is constantly picking on his sister, reminding her who gets the better grades, she is constantly besting him in impromptu wrestling skirmishes -- and he warns her to keep her mouth shut about it; he excels in art, she in sports. And on it goes.At home they argue and occasionally fight. Sometimes there are tears and hard feelings. Sometimes they won't talk to each other. But at school, when a bully picks on any one of them, the others are there to protect and defend.Learning how to put up with one another is a vital part of getting along. Life together does not depend on agreements on every single issue. It depends on a core belief that, come hell or high water, we are family.In our churches, we often forget that we are family. Too often, it is more like we are a big court room -- or maybe an extermination company. Ok, maybe its better than that. But maybe not. We theoretically talk about love, Christ, God's grace, helping the poor, and all that kind of thing. But what rises to the top in our discussions are things like, "Who is my brother?" (just a new form of an older question about "Which is the right church?"), or even "What are the essentials," (which is also part of the same question). If we want to know what really makes us tick, just look at what we end up talking about the most. In this presentation, I will start with this question of "What is essential" and try to think in the direction of who we are called to be as Christian people. Essential or CrucialWhat is essential for salvation? We are caught up in the question of "essentials." Why? Perhaps Acts 2:38 sent us there: "What shall we do?" Or Acts 16:30 "What must I do to be saved?" These are good questions, of course, but we should remember in each case how short the answers were. In fact, it is interesting to note that the Bible contains only one reference to "the essentials" in the sense we are interested -- and we don't even do it. The text is Acts 15:28-30, reportedly, the first Christian letter: For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things [Greek = e)pa/nagkej]: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. But the context of this passage makes it clear that these "essentials" were not considered essential elements for salvation. They were rather a (local? temporary?) solution offered by the Jerusalem church to help fledgling Gentile Christians avoid the wrath of the Jewish communities with which the Christians were still closely associated. In other words, the instructions were given because of current cultural conditions, and this is apparently so even though the letter does not say, "these are essential only as long as there is a cultural situation demanding it." No time limit is given with the instruction, nor any other qualification, and if we applied the same rules to this as we have to other parts of the NT (say, on baptism) we would have added this text to our list of "essential" doctrines. In fact, this would be the only one in the list with the word "essential" in it! Perhaps our focus on "essentials" – or at least the way we have come to discuss it – is misguided. Perhaps we have been too concerned about lists of things to believe or do (about what makes the list, and what doesn't), and not enough about matters of life and character. So, perhaps we should alter our concern. Instead of asking, What is essential, and what is non-essential? perhaps we should simply ask: What does God want from us? This, in fact, is the question asked by the OT prophets and by Jesus himself. Instead of pointing to essential and non essential items (which makes it sound like God has a check list and that items not on the list are unimportant), this question helps us to distinguish between what is crucial and what is important. The crucial, said Jesus, were things like love, which he called "the first and greatest of all the commandments" (Matt. 22:38); and justice, mercy, and faith, which he called "the weightier matters of the law" (Matt. 23:23). The other things (details of the law) were merely important. Without the crucial, the important becomes worthless and can even be dispensed with altogether, as Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 51:16:17 and other texts make clear. These are not just OT texts: they are answers to the question: What does God want from us? and are the basis of Jesus' attitude against the Pharisees (Matt. 9:13; 12:7). So, if we are wanting to know the external “community markers” (otherwise called our “identity markers”) which distinguish us from others, we should not be surprised that Jesus both spoke to that concern and tied it firmly to what he himself identifies as crucial. We can see this clearly, for example, in the Gospel of Matthew.
So for now, it is sufficient to make a start in what we have come to call, the first Gospel. For Jesus in this Gospel, three matters stand above all others, and all of these matters are related directly to a central Matthean message: namely, that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah. Not just the fact of it, but the significance and implications of it. 1. A belief in the resurrected Messiah who brings and establishes faithfulness, justice, mercy, and love (Mt 16:21-28; 25:31-45 and related texts). The focus, here, is not on the mere discovery of who the Messiah is, but on the implications of that identification with how disciples will subsequently relate to him, to each other (in the community of Christ), and to the world. 2. Baptism as identification with the person, principles, and community of that Messiah (Mt 3:13-17; 28:18-20 and related texts). The focus, here, is on baptism as a disciple's acceptance of and identification with the principles of Jesus' messianic message, work, and community, not on the ritual aspects (mode, timing, etc.) of the baptism. 3. The community meal of the Messiah as the integration of his principles and practices on a personal and community level (Mt 26:17-30 and related texts). The focus, here, is on the manner in which Jesus' teachings for his community are to impact the life and activity of the whole community. Virtually no attention is given to ritual aspects or details of the meal in a living community of disciples. NOTE: In the class presentation, I looked up each of the forgoing items, read the texts, and made extended comments about each. In fact, we spent the bulk of our class time on these crucial items and did not get to the rest of the lecture written out below, except in incidental ways. For class purposes, I consciously chose to focus on the crucial items as opposed to giving them lip service and then running on to talk about the other things, as so often happens. This discussion will be on the tape. Important MattersIf this approach (viz., that we follow Jesus in distinguishing the crucial from the important) is worthy to be considered, how does it apply to some of our specific questions? The best I can do now (for lack of time) is offer a general statement about how such an approach would apply to our many concerns. Certainly, I do not expect everyone to agree and I am, as always, open to dialogue. Stated succinctly: I do not think that instrumental music, the role of women in the church, abortion, divorce and remarriage, the form and order of worship, and other such things can be classified as part of the crucial, the "weightier matters of the law". Such things may be, important, but they are not, to use Paul’s language, of first importance. They are secondary or tertiary matters and are subject to variation of belief and practice. This does not mean they are of no value, or that they are not important matters. It means rather that good, honest, hard working students of the Bible will possibly (!) come to different conclusions about the particulars of such matters (just like on days and foods in Romans 14. In such cases, we must learn to be careful and patient with each other, just as we have on other topics such as, May a Christian go to war? or Should a Christian be pre-, post-, or a-millennial?) Stated another way, I believe that leaders in individual congregations, through the study of Scripture, prayer, and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have the right to make up their own minds on these types of questions and to say, This is what we will do here in this place. May God bless our faith and efforts, and may he help our ignorance. I would, for example, champion the decision of a congregation to have men only participate in what we often call "the public assembly of the church," as long as that congregation based its practice on its understanding of specific biblical teaching and the guidance of the Spirit, and as long as its leaders do not become arrogant or dogmatic in their positions. I would also champion the right of a congregation to have women participate publicly in "the assembly," if it did so based on its understanding of specific biblical teaching and the guidance of the Spirit, and as long as its leaders do not become arrogant or dogmatic in their positions. I would not, however, champion the right of any group who made major changes on such matters just because they are tired of the "old" ways, or don't like the "new" ways. And because I have been criticized heavily in the past for statements such as these, I simply remind us all that I am not proposing a new "procedure." We already follow this practice on numerous other issues. Consider for example four direct and clear commands from the NT: "You also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you a pattern-example, that you also should do as I have done to you." (John 13:15) For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil. (1 Cor. 11:6) Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; (James 5:14) Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. (1 Cor. 14:5) I list these clearly stated and specific NT commands from the NT to make one simple point: there are numerous commands in the NT that we have consciously decided not to follow literally or at all. Of course, we have our reasons, and we are quite happy with them (but I won’t go into those reasons here). So what have we done? We see these as important texts, but not as texts that should be followed literally or even primarily. This is a long-established practice in Churches of Christ borne out of necessity and good sense and should not be considered "new" by anyone. The point is this: we don’t care about foot-washing, veil-wearing, oil-anointing, and tongue-speaking any more. Just like we don’t care about a Christian's role in civil government, involvement in war, millennial views, men and women's hair length, women's attire in "church," and which translation is read in "the assembly," to name only a few. These are not “hot items” for us any more. So it doesn’t bother us when we don’t include these things in lists of “essential items.” But a few other concerns are on our “hot” list. music, the role of women, divorce, abortion, who is our brother, and a few others. And because these are on our minds, many or some of us have become very pushy about particular conclusions on these topics. It has to be our way, or the highway. Stated bluntly: I am very aware that there is pressure by some among us to force particular conclusions on some of the “issues” stated above on all Christians before they can be considered “Christians.” But I am not going to fight over this because I've seen it before -- when I was a little boy. I simply see this as my brother coming in my room and trying to tell me what to do. I might not want him in my face telling me what to do, but I don't really have to do what he says, either; and I don't have to let him set my agendas for me. I see my agenda as set by Jesus. I am called to encourage all Christian leaders and Christian people everywhere to follow Jesus’ example of distinguishing between the crucial matters from other important matters, and then to live accordingly. If my brother wants to yell at me for saying this, that is fine with me. ConclusionsWhat distinguishes us as disciples of Jesus is not whether we keep a list of laws or have a set creed of things to believe. The distinguishing mark is rather whether we see him as the risen Messiah (Matt. 28:18-20; cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-11), and whether we follow him: his character and manner, his life and teachings (Matt. 19:16/Mk. 10:17; Matt. 28:18-20). He said, "Go and learn what this means, I want mercy and not sacrifice," and "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 9:13; 12:7; 5:20). If we want some essentials, we should focus on these. And why not? They carry a marvelous promise: "I will be with you always, even to the close of the age!" (Matt. 28:20). If we start with the person, character, and life of Jesus, several things will happen.
"We are followers of the risen Lord, and his Spirit of love, compassion, healing, and justice are at work in us. Let us help you as he has helped us." What a message! Do we, then, even need to give attention to issues that are not part of the "crucial"? Well, of course we do. As individuals, we are part of Christian and world communities. How do our crucial Christian convictions affect who we are and how we interact with those around us? Do we become political activists? Or should we be political pacifists? What message should we be sending the world on abortion, and the role of women in the home, the church, the workplace, and society? What message do we really want to send about homosexuality, or the practice of unmarried cohabitation among heterosexual partners? As Christians, we cannot avoid these questions: they are part of the fabric of our lives. We must give our best to them with diligence of study, prayer, and concern. But as we do so, we must remember that our answers to such questions are not what make us distinctively Christian. They are not crucial, they are merely important. So, instead of canonizing our views and berating each other, let us come to Scripture as brothers and sisters, even where we may have different opinions about important matters. Let us not fight each other. Let us rather serve each other, even when we are not all at the same place in our understandings.
For I have given you an example, that you also should do
as I have done to you.
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