The other tool of late that is gripping me are a series of sermons from Mars Hill, a church in Grand Rapids where some Graduate Christian Fellowship friends attend. These are all focusing on the cross and what the significance today is of Jesus dying on the cross. Yes, our ultimate salvation, but is that only a thing for a future hope or does it mean more?
I've listened now to three of the four talks.
1. Because of the cross of Christ, the universe now operates on a new set of rules. Evil does not repay evil. Evil is no longer the requisite modus operandi. Think about everything that was done to Jesus--spit, hit, beaten, mocked, jeered, insulted, whipped, and ultimately horrifically killed--and every time He responded in love. And He lived. "They did the worst thing they could do to anyone--and He lived! Death? Not a problem for me. I beat it. I did it." God says to us in the cross: Love Wins. And my responses when people "abuse" me? Hmm... I'm hungry to live it out: Love Wins.
2. Love and control are in tension. You can't be loving if you're trying to control people, and if you're really loving, you aren't controlling people. But if you're God, in control of everything, how can you love? You give up control; you give up yourself. See Philippians 2:5-11.
3. Dying to Live...Built into the ecological, nutritional and agricultural systems is the fact that some things die in order to give life to others. For example, food once growing plants on trees, stalks, or vines is picked in order to become food that nourishes us. Even socially, when someone sacrifices for you, or we think of the huge sacrifices people made like the NYFD after 9/11, they gave up themselves, some totally so that others could live. It moves us and stirs us because it's in the fabric of creation. So, too is the Gospel: Jesus' dying gives us life. And the take home question in this one is: where in my life do I need to "die" to things that aren't life-giving in order to live more fully--to be most fully what God intends me to be? What needs to die in me/my life so that I can live more like Jesus--responding in love and being His true disciple--becoming daily more like Him?
Sunday, February 29, 2004
DISCIPLE
For the last four weeks I've been hearing Ray VanderLaan speak, connecting Jewish culture and Biblical landscapes with the Scriptures. Every week I've come away shocked, or moved or pierced by some conviction about knowing Jesus and the Word far better than I do.
Last week and this he talked about what it really means to be a DISCIPLE. We use that word so loosely, he says, because in Jewish culture being a disciple means you are absolutely devoted to becoming just like your Rabbi. There's no hesitation, no second guessing. Your life's AIM, the ONLY thing you live for--is to be exactly like he is: do what he does, go where he goes, live like he lives and become what he is. And as RVL ties the idea together, he calls us out on our weak and barely half-hearted devotion to Jesus...and yet we dare to call ourselves His disciples? Where is my passion to constantly know Jesus? Where am I desperately striving to know Him day in and day out such that the way He acts, moves, talks, prays, relates, loves, teaches, touches all become so familiar to me that I begin to imitate them constantly? Where am I living in His Word and letting His Spirit remind me of all He has said?
Oh, to be a true DISCIPLE--who walks so closely with Rabbi Jesus that the dust of His feet falls on me, that His sweat drips onto my arms, that even the very rhythm of His breathing begins to measure and regulate mine. Rabbi Jesus, Master, make me like You.
Last week and this he talked about what it really means to be a DISCIPLE. We use that word so loosely, he says, because in Jewish culture being a disciple means you are absolutely devoted to becoming just like your Rabbi. There's no hesitation, no second guessing. Your life's AIM, the ONLY thing you live for--is to be exactly like he is: do what he does, go where he goes, live like he lives and become what he is. And as RVL ties the idea together, he calls us out on our weak and barely half-hearted devotion to Jesus...and yet we dare to call ourselves His disciples? Where is my passion to constantly know Jesus? Where am I desperately striving to know Him day in and day out such that the way He acts, moves, talks, prays, relates, loves, teaches, touches all become so familiar to me that I begin to imitate them constantly? Where am I living in His Word and letting His Spirit remind me of all He has said?
Oh, to be a true DISCIPLE--who walks so closely with Rabbi Jesus that the dust of His feet falls on me, that His sweat drips onto my arms, that even the very rhythm of His breathing begins to measure and regulate mine. Rabbi Jesus, Master, make me like You.
