Membership Vows 2: The Christian Life

A church is fundamentally a covenantal community, founded on the belief that promises power passion, and not the other way around. This is the second in our series on the promises that we make to one another as we join the church. See others in the series here.

“Q: Do you accept the Bible, comprised of the Old and New Testaments, as the written Word of God; and that is is the only perfect rule of faith and how to live?

Q: Do you promise to trust in the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit so that you can live all of life as a Christian, following the example set by Jesus Christ?

Q: Do you promise to exercise faithful stewardship of God’s resources entrusted to you for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom and purposes?
”

“Authority” can be a scary word, in part because everyone has suffered under bad authority. Bad bosses, corrupt governments, angry parents… the authorities in our lives so often use the power they have for their own ends and glory, instead of the people under them. As a result, it can be tempting to say that the best thing to do with authority is to get rid of it, all of it, and free the individual person to live their life the way they see fit, with no external constraints or guides. This sounds great, and much of our cultural and personal energy is devoted to casting off the constraints of authority. There are only two small problems with the constant revolution against authority: we are never successful in dethroning all authority in our lives, and if we were to be successful, it would kill us.

The revolt against authority is, in some ways, a relatively new feature in human life. Prior to the time in Western European history known as the Enlightenment, most human cultures saw submission to the rightful authorities of tribe, family and nation as an honorable thing. In the privileged and affluent West, however, submission to authority came to be seen as a sign of weakness. The fact is, submission to authority can be either a strength or a weakness, depending on the goodness of the authority. In some ways, our struggle to trust good authority is not new, but is in fact as old as the human race (Genesis 3). These vows invite us to see that our Creator is our rightful authority, and that we submit our lives to him and to his will as he expresses it in the Bible. And not just our lives during worship… all of our lives, all of our life.

The good news is this: we all know, deep down inside, that life is only possible if we trust good authorities. None of us ever proved to ourselves that food would nourish and sustain us; instead, we took it on our mother’s authority, and we ate. And we lived. The old saying is true: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).

The implications of our view of authority are these:
1. The Bible, as God’s Word, is the good rule which keeps us alive. It is the operating instructions for the human machine. Any other operating instructions will misuse and ultimately destroy that machine.

2. The Bible is God’s rule, not just for our Sunday worship, but for all of life.

3. Everything we have (our time, relationships, money, etc.) is God’s.

4. The best way to be a human being is to follow the example of the Word of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

Membership Vows 1: Who Am I?

A church is fundamentally a covenantal community, founded on the belief that promises power passion, and not the other way around. This is the first in our series on the promises that we make to one another as we join the church. See others in the series here.

“Q: Do you confess that you are a sinner in the sight of God; that you deserve his punishment; that you are unable to save yourself; and that you are without hope of salvation except for God’s love and mercy?

Q: Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners; and do you receive and trust in Him alone for your salvation?”

My wife and I (Soren) have philosophical differences on the nature and essence of a “good parking spot.” She is of the belief that it is always worth it to spend as much time as necessary to park as close as possible to the destination; I would just as soon park in the back and walk. Come to think of it, these are the sorts of people we are, pretty much all the time. Once, on the way to watch a sporting event with a good friend from college, we reached an intersection. But it was more than an intersection. It was a metaphysical crossroads. And at this metaphysical crossroads there was a sign: Right, towards stadium parking. Left, towards overflow parking. “Which way?” my friend asked. “Right!” she screamed maniacally. “Left,” I stated calmly. Pity the friend. But the statement is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: unless you know who you are, and where you are going, you won’t be great traveling companions. This is what our first two membership vows attempt to capture: who are we, and where are we going? Scripture teaches that all human beings are:

1. Created by God, and bearing his image (Genesis 1:27, James 3:9). Therefore, every human being, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, physical or intellectual capability, or any other qualifier at all, has dignity, value, worth, and is worthy of respect. Furthermore, every human being is called to use their giftedness to reflect God’s glory in the world He has given us to cultivate.
2. Rebels (Genesis 3, Ephesians 2:1-3). Though we, as humans, have value and worth, we have used our giftedness to serve ourselves, and not the source of our life, value and worth. Though we owe God our allegiance, we have not given it to Him. We have willingly disconnected ourselves from the source of life, and therefore cannot even find the power to fix what we have broken. By God’s grace, we are not as bad as we could be; but without his mercy we can never find life on our own.
3. Offered Hope through Jesus (Genesis 3:15, Ephesians 2:4-10). The true image of God, Jesus, God’s own Son, came into the world to save and restore those who would look to him alone for life.

A Christian community that can answer these questions in the affirmative has several concrete characteristics:
1. Given that humans are made in God’s image, and that Christians recognize the seeds of rebellion in their own hearts, they strive to maintain a gracious and patient disposition towards those who think or live contrary to Christian teachings. Christians are not those who are perfect already; they are those who look to Jesus for his grace.

2. Given that humans are rebels, we look, not to our own feelings or reason for what is right, but only to Jesus himself as the trustworthy definition of what it means to be fully human.

3. Given that Jesus has offered himself as our Savior, we strive to trust, honor, magnify, and delight in him.

A Sacrificial Community

In this article in the Atlantic, Derek Thompson argues that “workism” has replaced Christianity as the de facto religion of American life- to devastating effect, because workism sacrifices others for advancement to a job or career that will fill life with meaning and purpose. The DNA of the early Christian community is exactly the opposite- wherever you found people confessing Jesus as Lord, you found them sacrificing their relationships, time, and even money for one another. Listen to our sermon, “The Sacrificial Community” at the link below, from Acts 2:36-47.

The Uncommon Community: A Confessional Community

Any good confession does three things: it accounts for all the facts, it establishes motive, and provides inside information that only somebody who was personally involved could have known. This is exactly the sort of confession the Christian community has always produced: That God has revealed to his people that he is keeping his promise to save the whole world under the Lordship of Jesus. Listen to our sermon on living as a confessional community at the link below.

The Uncommon Community: A Covenant Order

We live as if following our passions will bring us joy. But in reality, this way of life brings us not joy, but happiness- a temporary feeling of pleasure as our desires are met, leaving us with a renewed longing for satisfaction when the glow recedes. What if the safety, comfort, and hope we long for is found, not in following our passions, but by making (and keeping) promises to one another? What if the church is a community of people bound together, not by their common passions, but by their common promises: from one another to one another, from one another to God, and most importantly, the promise of God to them?

The Enemy of Reconciliation

What is the primary enemy of the church in her mission to be a community of reconciliation? As Arthur Brooks points out in the New York Times, its an enemy common to us all: Contempt, or the “unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.” What would it look like for the church to begin taking her view of the “other” from Scripture- that all mankind, though fallen, is also made in the image of God- instead of from the politics of the moment?

The Uncommon Community: The Embassy of God

In 1984, Apple changed the world. They did it with a commercial that talked, not about what their products did, but why their products did it. The “why” was so powerful, so compelling, that we all live in the world in which that commercial created.

If the “why” is so powerful, the question needs to be asked- Why did God bring his people into his family? The way you answer this question shapes the trajectory and lived experience of the Christian faith. Check out our sermon on 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, “The Uncommon Community: the Embassy of God” at the link below.

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)