Unity

I found myself praying a lot this morning for unity. I know that word can have a lot of meanings so much so that we might even find it difficult ever to achieve "unity" around a definition for the word itself.

Somewhere, we were taught that we had to lay down hard defenses around our own particular way of thinking about things or else risk being diminished by someone else's point of view. Flexibility and movement in our idea life look a lot like uncertainty and that looks like weakness and self-doubt. And who wants to be perceived as weak and doubting!

I think there's an alternative.

In seminary we studied Jewish interpretation of scripture and I remember especially the conversation we had about the Talmud. The Talmud was the Jewish commentary on the Mishnaic teachings of Judiaism - all of those do's and don'ts developed by Jewish rabbis in the latter part of the first century after the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Following that earth-shattering event, Jewish teachers felt it necessary to write down what they saw as the essential Jewish beliefs and practices so that they could be preserved for succeeding generations.

That was wonderful until the Jews gradually drifted or were expelled from their homeland, found themselves ensconced in other cultures and had to translate what was obvious Jewish teaching and practice to not so obvious circumstances. Follow?

What the new rabbis did was to take the Mishnah (the book formed around the first century teachings) and begin writing in the margins. They didn't want to mess with the text because the text itself was considered sacred. Not on the same level as Hebrew scripture, but definitely revealed and inspired by God. And so if you go to your local Barnes and Nobel and look in the Judaica section there, and locate what is called the Talmud (published by Jewish Publication Society) you will see that there is the main text with lots of commentary on the edges and then even some commentary on the commentary. It's a pretty fascinating read, actually, to see Jewish interpreters adding layer upon layer of commentary all in an effort to make Jewish belief and practice relevant and meaningful to the setting they now find themselves in.

Fast forward to our own time. What if we saw truth not as crystallized statements handed down for all eternity around which we had to stake out our ground and build high our walls... but as a process of God's revealing a core (through both words and experience) and then ALSO God's presence, guidance, and wisdom in the conversation that followed? If you believed that God was actually revealing truth on an ongoing basis THROUGH you, how would that change the things that you spoke or the way you lived? Would we be more humble, seeking out not only the truth that God revealed in us, but also the truth God revealed in... OTHERS? It might also cause us to want to enter into community more and have our own kooky ideas about things tested to make sure that what I believed was true was actually true. And that might mean laying down my protection about my identity and my need to always be right so that I could be free to speak truth and have truth spoken to me.

When I consider the ways God has shown how amazingly big he is over the course of my lifetime it's clear that if I had stayed hard and fast with my limited perception at let's say the age of 22, I would be really stuck in a pretty shallow way of seeing God, the world, and other people. Development comes only after engaging others, listening, testing, adapting, sometimes eliminating, sometimes accepting. It comes after the give and take and give and take of an ongoing conversation. Are you involved in a conversation with others about your faith? Or are you pretty much content with the way you see things right now? Your answer will reveal a lot about your willingness and desire to grow deeper in what God wants to do through you.

Buiding Up

One of the things I love about our church is people's hunger to know and experience Jesus Christ. I was reading Ephesians chapter four this past week and reminded again that the measure of every spiritual experience we seek is its conformity to the person, the ministry and the purposes of Jesus.

In that amazing chapter, Paul reminds his listeners that all teaching, all experience, all "programs" and "offices" of the church are directed toward the building up of God's people and their service together in unity. Anything that doesn't contribute to unity among believers is to be pushed to the side. Kingdom people are focused on relationships far above any specific experience or individual belief. Our experience can be misinterpreted or our belief may be wrong, but LOVE never fails.

This is defining for our church. We're open to what people have to say about their experiences with God. We will practice scriptural discernment in matters of doctrine and prayerful discernment when someone makes a claim that God has revealed to them knowledge or wisdom. We look for the "fruits" of the teaching (Gal. 5:19-26) to guide us to see evidence of the Spirit's presence.

There is always the possibility in this atmosphere where the value is relationship that we will be presented with an experience that challenges our point of view or that we even think is wrong. Far more important than our reaction is our willingness to engage the process of discernment and conversation IN COMMUNITY. If you're like me, you've reacted to a new idea or experience only to find yourself warming up to it over time as you've seen it manifest truthfully and powerfully in people's lives. The "fruits" are evident in a way that our reason can't always comprehend.

I'd like to challenge all of us to be so oriented around our Christ-formed relationships with each other (living out of Acts 2:42ff) that we are willing to suspend our own unique "notion" of things if it means rupturing a relationship. If we learn to speak the truth in love, then we can seek truth together with people who have had radically different life experiences and God-encounters. And together we can begin to see a much larger picture of what God is doing than our own personal perspective allows.

The conversation can only occur, though, when we are actively engaged in community. I intentionally seek out people who see things differently than me knowing that if I'm only around people like me, I will grow spiritually stale and stagnant. I don't always agree with them. But I love them. And I love what God is doing in their lives. And for me, that is living closely to a correct "theology" of Jesus.