The Wildness of the Family of God

Saying that the church is a family doesn’t risk making the church sound tedious. If anything, it risks the opposite. We always flee our families, not because we have figured them out, but because they are the only people that we cannot figure out. That we cannot control…

“The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap. There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us, like brigands from a bush. Our uncle is a surprise. Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.”
— G.K. Chesterton

The Uncommon Community: The Family of God

Modern life moves at light speed- always another promotion to vie for, always another like on Facebook or Instagram to chase. In this sort of world, real human relationships are a hindrance. As George Clooney’s character in the 2009 film Up in the Air says, “relationships just slow me down.”

Central to work of Jesus of Nazareth, however, is this: the invitation to the slowest, messiest bundle of human relationships possible: the family. And specifically, the family of God. Join us for the next six weeks as we learn about what it means to be the Uncommon Community: the Family of God.

Our text and sermon are below.

John 17:1, 11-13, 20-26. 

[1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you… [11] And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. [12] While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. [13] But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [20] I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…  [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (ESV)

Why the Biblical Story Matters

“After all, counsel is less an answer to a question than a proposal concerning the continuation of a story which is just unfolding. To seek this counsel one would first have to be able to tell the story . . . . Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom. The art of storytelling is dying out because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.”
— Walter Benjamin

Psalms and Advent

Doctrine instructs the mind. Instructions guide the hands. But music gets into the heart, the soul. Kant calls music “the quickening art” because it restores life to us. It makes us who were were supposed to be.

As God prepares us for advent, he uses a hymnbook to do it. Psalm 85 is meant to be sung, so that the longing for righteousness and peace to kiss can get into your soul.

The King is coming.

Social Media and the Neighborhood

How did it happen that the thing which was supposed to bind us together is the thing that drove us apart? What if (digitally) leaving the neighborhood to associate with like-minded people actually increases our loneliness, instead of ameliorating it?

There is a better option: stay in place, and associate with people different than you. Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser are trying it out- getting together, not to fight about things they disagree with, but to live in the physical world, and eat physical bread. As critics have pointed out, this sort of relationship is hard, its costly, and there is only one thing that can sustain it: the meal with the God who left the place of power, comfort and authority, and moved into our neighborhood (John 1).

What sort of guest are you?

The holidays are upon us, which means food, travel, and family. Some of us are hosts, and some of us are guests. And there is nothing worse than a terrible houseguest: they smoke in your rooms, they threaten to spank your children, and they never leave.

The book of 1 Peter is written to encourage Christians to be a different sort of guest. To be the sort of people who are self-controlled, and seek the good of their hosts- even when the hosts are malicious gossips. The motivation for being this type of guest? That one day we are going home. Or to be more precise, home is coming to us. Sort of like this:

Becoming the People of God

The language 1 Peter uses to describe his readers is fraught with tension- sojourners and priests, exiles and royals, not a people and yet now a people. How do this radical transformation occur? How do we see ourselves as the home in which God lives, while we don’t have a home ourselves? How can we proclaim his excellencies as his priests when we long and wait for him? It is only as we see his love for us, the love of him who saw our need and saved us, that we can ever express our praise (1 Peter 2:10). Sorta like this epic story:

Become a Better You

To become the best version of yourself, go on an archaeological dig deep within yourself. Excavate your desires, and express them to the world. This last bit will be the hard part- the world will try to keep you down. Here’s a helpful guide on your way:

But what if this doesn’t work? What if “Excavate and Express” depends on a false set of assumptions? What if we aren’t stable, coherent, calm, individuals? What if we our desires are unstable and paradoxical? What if pretending like they aren’t makes us freaked out and anxious?

What if we need other people? What if pretending we are individuals instead makes us slaves?

If that’s the case, then becoming the best version of yourself is going to be an entirely different process. We will need our identity to be conferred- given to us- confirmed- by somebody who loves us- and conformed to- worked at.

What if worshipping Jesus is the only way to become the best version of yourself (1 Peter 1:13-21)?