CATCH OR CLEAN ‘EM FIRST?

James Emory White wrote in his blog (Oct. 7, 2013, Vol. 9, No. 80) we need to keep “First Things First”. He emphasized the need to bring people into a saving relationship with Jesus first, and then we start the process of transformation leading to a fully devoted follower of Christ. Why bring up a topic like this? Because we have far too many churches who feel these people of the world need to come up to certain standards before we can allow them into the Kingdom of God (meaning our tight-knit little Christian family).

The Act comes before the Process, and conversion does not equal completion. You cannot shape someone into the image of Christ if that person has never met Christ. The words of Jesus to the rich, young man summarize the steps every individual must take to have that special relationship with him. (Mark 10:17-22) Rather than following all the right rules, a follower of Christ must eliminate everything that stands between him and Christ. “Sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me.” When we remove the idols from our lives, then we can freely follow Jesus and begin the process of replacing our idols with Christ. How many of our church members would have been able to follow through on Jesus’ command?

The Apostle Paul provides a valuable insight, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and see, all things have become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) New creation leads to becoming Christlike. It is a lifelong journey that involves commitment. The beginning, however, is a point of confrontation with the Living Lord. Only then can there be a lifestyle change that is heart deep.

Before Zacchaeus met Jesus (Luke 19:1-10), he was recognized as a Rome collaborating tax collector. He was under suspicion of taking more money from the people than he was due. No one could question what he did because he had the full authority of the Roman government behind him.

Yet after one meal with Jesus, Zacchaeus was ready to give away half of his possessions to the poor and make restitution to all whom he may have defrauded. That is what happens when Jesus says I want you in my company. After you have learned from me, you will start behaving in a new way. You will be a new creature and the old will have disappeared.

Too often our traditional way of allowing people into our group has been through the three step method of adopting proper behavior followed by believing the proper doctrinal statements and concluding with permission to belong. People had to act right (act like us) proving they really wanted to be a part of our group. Once they acted in acceptable ways, then we would teach them the great truths of our faith insuring they were of the right blood line. After they had passed all the tests and shown they were good enough, we allowed them to add their names to the roll and become a member of our family (though often on a probationary basis).

That, however, is not the way we find Jesus doing it in the Gospels. Jesus took risks. Jesus demanded faith. Jesus looked at what people were and saw what they could become. The Jesus Way was asking someone to belong to him and his company. That lead to believing, having faith in what he said was Truth. The result was a life that focused on behaving in a way that honored God and the redeeming love he offered the world.

Jesus called to a smelly bunch of fishermen and said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Come and be a part of my company. While with me you will learn about the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Then you will know how to behave as a citizen of my Father’s Kingdom, as a child in the Family of God.”

The Truth and Its Vessel

The Gospel According to Mark records this description of John the Baptizer. “John wore clothes made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.” (Mark 1:6) His outfit might have been right in style in some contexts, but few of us would have wanted to join him for his lunch. Old John was just a bit different in his lifestyle from the other folks of his day. In fact he looked a lot like Elijah of the Old Testament (II Kings 1:8). Yet God used him in a powerful way as the Messianic Forerunner.

How would he have appeared to the crowds of his day? Given his diet, he was probably underweight though not starving, definitely not overweight. The swarming locusts that made up much of his food were rich in protein and other necessary minerals (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 3). They were considered a delicacy when they weren’t eating your wheat crop and fig trees. If you were going to eat many of these little, six-legged creatures, the honey would have made a nice coating.

John would not have been hampered by our modern sanitation sensibilities. He probably smelled in ways that would not be approved by our standards, but he also smelled a lot like the people who came to him to be baptized. Daily baths were not considered essential requirements. Clothing likewise for the common people was utilitarian only.

Yet John was the vessel God chose to use to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. Our modern standards would question his public image, his social standing, and his background experience. The political and religious rulers of his day either rejected his message outright or missed the critical core of his mission. The end result was that both groups received his condemnation which brought about his imprisonment and death.

On the other hand he spoke the Truth and the common people flocked to him (Luke 3:7-9). This human vessel dressed in camel hair and smelling like the arid wilderness offered a way to meaningful life, something the old establishments could not. He spoke of a morality that was grounded in the nature of God and not subject to the whims of man. He pointed to Someone greater than himself (John 1:19-28), greater than the temple rulers, even greater than the Roman emperor. He brought a message of hope to a hopeless world.

All of this is to say God doesn’t worry about the condition of the vessel he uses to bring the Truth into the world. He wants to know if the vessel is available for use. If available, he’ll make it useful. John was available and God used him to prepare a nation for the coming of the Christ. Throughout history God has been using individuals who made themselves available regardless of their background.

Abraham lived in a far country. Moses was the son of slaves. Deborah was a woman. David was a shepherd. Isaiah was a priest. Jeremiah was a young man. Amos was a shepherd and tree trimmer. Hosea had a messy home life. Ezekiel watched his wife die. Elizabeth was an old woman. Mary was a young virgin. Several of the apostles were fishermen. One was a tax collector. Saul persecuted the church before becoming Paul the Apostle. Timothy was of mixed race being Hebrew and Greek. Luke was a Greek physician. Throughout the Old and New Testament periods, God used the people who were available. He does that still today.

Their names are Evelyn, Bob, Don, William, Irene, Billy, Charles, Elizabeth, Stephanie, Wayne, Tim, and so on. They are in their twenties and thirties with critical illnesses, but they are faithful in their prayers and service as they are able. They are in their late seventies and eighties and still working for the Lord. They are in your church and mine. They have made themselves available to God and he is using them. The condition of the vessel is not important, only the willingness to proclaim the Truth.

My Passing Role

We Baptists are great about having a rotation process among our church leaders. Serve in a position for two or three years, then you are automatically replaced by someone else. They serve a prescribed term, then they too must step aside for another person. Some feel this would be a good system for our state and national legislatures!

There are positives and negatives to such a leadership exchange system. The positives include gaining the experience of others who might not otherwise have a chance to serve in leadership roles if the positions continued to be filled by the same person. An individual might come into the position with limited experience but an abundance of wisdom and insight gained in other circles. A new individual to a position will bring a fresh perspective that is critically needed at the time. New relationships can be developed in an organization that would otherwise be restricted to a handful of insiders.

Negative dynamics can also be seen. Years of experience are lost as leaders vacate their positions. Rotation may force an individual into a position who is neither prepared nor gifted to assume the leadership role. The strength of a group to accomplish its task might be found not so much in the individual gifts of the members but upon what they bring to the group as a whole. Breaking the relationships already formed will lessen the ability of the group to succeed in its task.

Almost every leadership role is locked into a rotation system of some kind. If nothing else intervenes, death itself will require the need for a new person to come into the position. A Kentucky author, Jesse Stuart, made the observation about the transient nature of ownership where he was raised in the eastern mountains of his home state. He commented his family had lived on the farm for fifty years. The previous owners had lived there for the same period of time. Others had taken ownership after his family. The land remained, but the ownership came and went. Each family had a passing role.

One of the great insights we can gain as individuals is to recognize our transient place in this world. Shakespeare wrote this wisdom into one of his plays. “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances” (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7) We come and we go, but we must never lose sight that even in our transiency, we have an important role to play. The lives of others will be the poorer if we do not give our best.

The Apostle Paul gave a simple but vital command to his young disciple, Timothy, “What you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (II Timothy 2:2) Timothy, you are a link in a very important chain. What you have will be lost if you do not pass it on to others who will share in that same responsibility.

God’s great plan was in progress before we came along, and it will continue after we are gone. That doesn’t lessen the importance of the role we have to play. Our part is important. How important will only be known when time comes to an end. Our influence will linger into the lives of those we touch. The uncle for whom I am named has this thought inscribed on his tombstone, “If you would find him, seek him in the lives of those who knew him.” Here was an awareness that death does not end our investment in those who follow us.

We all have a passing role as it is limited to our lives. Looking at who we are in terms of those who have been influenced by our lives, we come to see that what may be transient in years can be magnified an uncountable number of times. That is how God sees us, for better or worse, as we use our passing role.

The Bible Is Rather Useful

An engineer friend of mine once gave credit to two of his supervisors for teaching him how to work in the control room of the local power plant. One boss talked about being able to come into the control room and determining the shape of things by scanning all the main indicator panels. This gave him a broad picture of the general status of the plant.

The other supervisor emphasized knowing the manual that described the operations of the plant. Knowing the technical workings behind those panels gave my engineer friend a perspective on how it was all supposed to work together.

Know the manual and you will understand the “why” and “how”. See the big picture and you get an idea of the “what” that is actually happening and how close it might be to what is supposed to be happening. The two sets of knowledge allowed the people with the day-to-day responsibility to succeed in stopping the plant from blowing up.

The Bible has often been called a manual for life. It won’t tell you the various forms of rock or how they developed. It won’t tell you why the sky is blue or the sun is yellow. It won’t tell you the history of Australia, China, or America. It won’t tell you how to cook pancakes or which cheese makes the best fondue. However, deciding what is right or wrong is hard to do without a biblical foundation.

A phrase I am coming to detest is “the new normal”. It seems to say that normal is whatever the majority or the loudest group of people says it wants. “The new normal” allows individuals with a fear of absolutes getting in their way to determine for themselves what they want to do. They change the laws or the wording or the definition in such a way as to support what they want. That is much easier than changing to fit into what had been seen as normal or according to someone else’s absolutes.

Since the Bible is clear in most areas about what makes for a society that allows for individual and corporate growth in mutually upbuilding aspects of life, rejecting those guidelines forces society and its members into what is termed “the new normal”. When the Bible is rejected, something else must be put in its place. If the divine origin of the Bible is rejected, then new guidelines of human origin are the only option. Who has the most insight into what these guidelines ought to be?

We find ourselves gods unto ourselves with authority over everything except our own lives. Where someone may disagree, then it becomes the law of fang and claw. He is right who can make the biggest threat. Morality is determined by popularity or fear. Whoever has the biggest gun makes the laws. This becomes the new normal. Biblical foundations are rejected because they deny the divine right of the individual. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is grasped once more.

To choose to live as Christ in the midst of a society seeking a new normal is difficult without that biblical foundation. The manual for life offers the guidelines for a life that builds up others. At the same time it emphasizes the value of the individual. This does not spring from a foundation of human superiority, but from the absolutes of divine love shown on the cross of Calvary.

If it is difficult for an individual to live as a believer in Christ without a strong biblical foundation, it is impossible for a body of believers called a church to fulfill its calling as the Body of Christ without a clear understanding of what the Bible contains. The Body of Christ does not make up its own rules. It does not follow the dictates of society. It does not accept a new normal that contradicts the nature of God and his eternal plan for his creation. It accepts the existence of absolutes, God’s absolutes.

Set Aside

This last Sunday I participated in an ordination service. Among us Baptists that is a worship service in which a local congregation says through its actions it recognizes in an individual a special call to service by the Lord. It might be to become a pastor of a church, a deacon-styled servant, or some other identified task within the church. Ordination says you have been set aside, set apart, and unfortunately in some cases declared a new person someone else can blame for something they don’t like!

The church ordained three men to serve as deacons. The New Testament defines these as individuals who are to serve the congregation with a heart guided by the Holy Spirit and carry a positive reputation both within the congregation and the greater community. In many ways a deacon is called to set the example for the rest of the church membership to follow. The position of deacon doesn’t give an individual extra power or control. It does convey extra responsibility. The role of servant and standard bearer can be a tough one in a world that says social conformity and personal power are everything.

The service reminded me in light of the differences between the world and God’s Church we all should see ourselves as just a bit different from the society around us. Jesus said we were to be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), the light of the world (Matthew 5:16), and as Kingdom citizens leaven for society (Matthew 13:33). He also told his followers to be merciful (Luke 6:36) and perfect in love (Matthew 5:48) even as their Father in heaven was merciful and perfect. Later in the New Testament, we are reminded we are to be holy even as our heavenly Father is holy. (I Peter 1:14-16) All of these statements are a call for us as followers of Christ to examine our lives and see if we are setting ourselves apart to identify with Jesus or if we are still identifying with the world.

The Apostle Paul gives some rather blunt guidance for us in taking this awesome and sometimes painful step of allowing ourselves to be set apart from the world. Our God intends for us to be ordained into a special relationship with him that makes us different from the world. Our actions and the motivations behind that should be such that the world recognizes we live by a different standard, a different set of rules, and answer to a different code. Paul says, “Do not conform any longer to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind; then you will know what God’s will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

God has ordained that all who called by the name of his Son Jesus Christ should live according to a different pattern from the society around them. The transformation of which Paul speaks is the often referred to process of metamorphosis, the caterpillar changing into a butterfly. It is only as we become as different from the world in our motivations and thoughts as a butterfly is from its caterpillar phase can we be what God calls us to be.

When we live as individuals who have been set apart by the Spirit of God, then we can be salt in society that helps preserve the best and eliminates the corruption. As set apart individuals we can be light that drives away the darkness and allows the Truth to be revealed. As leaven in our relationships we can permeate society, enriching it, and helping it to become more than it ever could without our presence.

When we practice a lifestyle in which we seek to be perfect in our love, merciful in our relationships, and holy in our walk with God, then we can be the people of God Jesus died to create.