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Resurrection Life starts…with the Church?!!

I have to admit I was a little frustrated that the first chapter in Eugene Peterson’s Practice Resurrection was on….the church.

I have been involved in conversations around the Church for years. I have friends from all spectrums when it comes to dealing with the Body of Christ…some who have had a lifetime of good experiences, some who have been disillusioned, some who have been frustrated, some who have left it, some who have been (legitimately) abused within the Body of Christ.  Sometimes I feel like I have exhausted the conversation.

Myself, I have had overall good experiences, with some that give me a reality check on the sinful humanity that we are who make up the Body of Christ. Still…I love the fellowship we are part of right now. I love the community and conversations and the worship, I love the missions we support and are involved with, I love the influence on my kids. I look forward to being with this group of people, and I am challenged by the teaching and the call to follow Jesus.  So, as I was reading Peterson’s book, with the hope of understanding better what it means to walk in the reality of the Resurrection…I thought, “ho, hum…we’ll get the church discussion out of the way.”

Nothing new.

Then I read this:

Church is an appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines: death of nations, death of civilization, death of marriage, death of careers, obituaries without end. Death by war, death by murder, death by accident, death by starvation. Death by electric chair, lethal injection, and hanging. The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, life out of death, life that trumps death, life that is the last word, Jesus life. This practice is not a vague wish upwards but comprises a number of discrete but interlocking acts that maintain a credible and faithful way of life, Real Life, in a world preoccupied with death and the devil.

Eugene H. Peterson. Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Kindle Locations 154-158). Kindle Edition.

Man that rang truth to me…in a world where death gets the biggest headlines. In the midst of this is a named people….Sarah, Steve, Noelle, Michael, Anita, Kim, Stephanie, Jill, Bryan, Kevin, Jim, Ryan, Andrew, Alyson, Bill….practicing a life of resurrection. It is not hap-hazard. It does not happen to us in a vague way; something that happens without our notice. Our coming together in worship and in the participation of resurrection life is an intentional, deliberate decision.  Life.

Ahhh….the product of ‘a number of discrete but interlocking acts that maintain a credible and faithful way of life, Real Life, in a world preoccupied with death and the devil.’

Discrete but interlocking.

Going to worship with the community of believers. Intentionally joining with others and declaring that God IS. That He hears our worship and is worthy. Intentionally turning our attention toward Him and recognizing Who He is and giving testimony to what He has done.

Intentional. Life over death.

The Lord’s Table…taking in the bread and the wine as recognition and embrace of the sacrifice and the redemption and the saving and the eternity altering act of God.

The Word. Intentionally turning our attention to the Word of God…believing that it is the Word of God and that it has bearing on our lives. Intentionally turning our attention to the testimony of the Spirit that this is Truth.

All these seemingly simple acts….added to the conversations and the involving in others’ lives…are part of Resurrection Life.

More, though….the resurrection plays out in our lives in ‘improvisation’….

The practice of resurrection encourages improvisation on the basic resurrection story as given in our Scriptures and revealed in Jesus. Thousands of derivative unanticipated resurrection details proliferate across the landscape. The company of people who practice resurrection replicates the way of Jesus on the highways and byways named and numbered on all the maps of the world.

This is the church.

The practice of resurrection is not an attack on the world of death; it is a nonviolent embrace of life in the country of death. It is an open invitation to live eternity in time.

Eugene H. Peterson. Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Kindle Locations 162-165). Kindle Edition.

I love this. This is what I needed to hear….especially the last line:  it is not an attack on the world of death, but an embrace of life in the country of death.

Worship, church, reading the Word, prayer…living life in relationship with other believers and hearing the testimony of God’s acts of resurrection in their lives…this is an invitation to live eternity in time.

We are not consumed with death. We are consumed with life.

Real life.

Life that is founded in the Resurrection of God. Life that is informed by the Spirit and is altered from the death we once knew.

There is more to this chapter, but I wanted to post just this for today. There is much here to think on, to pray on and to talk about. I so hope even just these brief quotations breath life to you as it has done to me this morning!!  But beyond that swell of hope…what does it mean. How does it affect how we view church.

Have you ever thought of Church as being part of the Resurrection life….a key element, however ordinary, in establishing the power and the reality of the Resurrection in your life?

Those who have been damaged by the church…how do we overcome that fear or hostility or anger or disappointment and come to a place where the Church again breathes life into our souls?

This weekend as we prepare to “go to” Church…how can we go with a different mindset? A mindset that intentionally approaches the community worship as an act of embracing life in a country of death?

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Touching like Jesus

We had a brief sunny day yesterday, however the clouds and rain and grey have greeted us again this morning. This has been a bit unusual for our area…more grey than we are used to, and people are feeling the impact. After living for 7 years up in Lynden, Washington and Vancouver, BC it feels comfortable to me. I even like the mornings like this..the quiet and the still. The sunshine makes me want to run out and start doing things; the rain and the overcast skies helps me be still and quiet for a bit.

This is my 100th post on this blog…which seems rather amazing. I’m thankful for a place to think out loud, and a place where I find that others are thinking or struggling or rejoicing with the same things.

We need that connection, and the world of the internet has opened up so many more resources for us to connect. I am amazed by how my kids already connect with people through games and other venues on the internet. Obviously there can be great pitfalls and dangers…but there can be such great moments when we find something that triggers a deeper thought or triggers a connection.

Still…there is a huge gap when we relate through the internet. When we place our significance in our associations made through quick comments. When we determine if we are funny enough or smart enough or thoughtful enough to warrant a ‘like’ or a ‘favorite’. I worry some about my kids and how they will navigate this new venue of peer pressure and standards. Will they think only in terms of fast and short encounters, or will they develop the ability to think well and to follow a discussion through logically and with tenderness and patience? Of course, my goal is to provide the foundation for that thinking. For that encounter.

I posted awhile back a few links to a discussion TED radio hour about the impact of the internet and computers on personal interactions. There were two that deeply grabbed my attention…one a woman who watched as her colleagues rejoiced as an elderly nursing home patient ‘connected’ with a robotic seal. They were thrilled that finally this woman had found something she could pour her heart out to about the loss of a child. The woman was suddenly aware of the impact as this group of people passed off their responsibility to connect with another human…to a robotic seal. And they thought through all the possibilities of passing this seal on to all those lonely people out there…with no awareness that those people longed for a human touch, not yet another way to be isolated.

The other speaker who demanded my attention was a doctor who spoke about the human touch. He spoke of all the wonderful advances that medicine had seen through computers and technoloty…qll testing and information that could now be gathered. And yet, he noted that the one thing that computers and technology will never be able to replicate or replace is human touch. Not only because the doctor is able to feel things intuitively through his touch, but because that human touch means so much to the patient.

Through the wonders of technology I was met with a short video this morning. Through Facebook a friend suggested I watch this video as we move through the experience of caring for my mother in her dementia.  I have seen first hand how she responds to the touch of my father…how when she is fearful at night she responds to her hand being held, to the touch of another. I have also seen the shells of people as they are in nursing homes who have been left in the corner and have no interaction. I am not placing blame…it is so difficult to see a loved one deteriorate…and yet, to be like the woman in this video. To be this compassionate and this patient…and this aware of the needs of those around us. Not just when they reach this point of utter isolation, but to be aware as we move through our day…to physically and spiritually touch the people around us in a way that brings healing and brings compassion.

To be Jesus to those around us. That sounds trite or cliche…but watch this video and I think you will agree with me that this is the heart of a savior who embraced us in our ugliness and our sin and our brokenness…who reached out and took on our humanity in order to touch us and awaken us to the knowledge that we are cared for and we are loved…and we matter and we are not alone. To be like this woman….would be to be much like Jesus, and that would be a very worthy goal:

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Practice Resurrection….a reading club.

We live our lives in the practice of what we do not originate and cannot anticipate. When we practice resurrection, we continuously enter into what is more than we are. When we practice resurrection, we keep company with Jesus, alive and present, who knows where we are going better than we do, which is always “from glory unto glory.”

(Eugene H. Peterson. Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Kindle Locations 138-140). Kindle Edition.)

The resurrection is not about us…it is not about our power to control our lives or to produce a change within ourselves. The resurrection is about God being beyond us and about us being transformed. The resurrection is about Jesus…alive and present.

I said the other day that I know I have not seen the impact of the resurrection in my life in ways tht I should. I know that the reality of God…come to humanity and redeeming us…and raising from the dead…has not sunk deep into my soul.  Not in the way that I would hope and like and desire.

I believe. I consent. I follow. I worship.

I have tasted the goodness of God. I have seen His wonders and I have been struck to worship and to pray as a result. I have sensed His presence and I have known the truth of His Word.

And yet…

I have not grown up in Christ in ways that I hope I can. I hope that He can work in me.

Apparently that reality is true for a few of us. I am going to begin reading through Eugene Peterson’s Practice Resurrection. I’ll post notes here once a week…maybe doing a chapter or two a week. The hope is that you will engage the conversation. We’ll have our own little virtual reading club.

You won’t have to read the book to participate…you can just engage and comment on what I post for the week. It would be great if you’ll read along though. I’ll post the first article on Friday…covering the introduction and the first chapter. Hope you’ll come along!!!

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April Fool…yep, that’s me.

Something seems a little strange about the day after Easter being April Fool’s day.  I have friends who are not Christians who might find that very enticing for hokes.

The other night one of the kids asked us what would it mean if God wasn’t real. What would it mean if we died and He wasn’t there…if there really was nothing.

We asked him what he thought…would he think he had lived a wasted life? Paul says if the Resurrection is not true, then we are to be pitied:

 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.  1 Corinthians 15:14, 19

If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is just about living a good life. Golden Rule. That was what our son said…if we die and nothing is there, then at least we lived a good life. I have agreed with that statement, however, this morning it strikes me differently.

If Christ has not been raised…how much differently would I live?  I guess if I realized this when I was in my twenties I might become more ruthless in trying to achieve status or financial standing. I would be more aggressive and live more for the moment. I doubt it though, I think I would pretty much live as I have.

That bothers me.

I would live pretty much as I have whether or not Jesus rose from the dead? I mean…I believe and I pray and I count myself a Christian. I try to live in a way that brings glory to God…a way in which God is present in my life and evident.  I seek Him, I worship Him and I look at life through the lens of a Creator God who redeems His people.

Still….look at the comparison Paul makes to how he lives because of Jesus’ Resurrection:

 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”  1 Corinthians 15:30-32

Did you get that?! Paul faces death every day. Fights wild beasts. Because he has hope beyond simply human hopes. If Jesus is not raised….then let’s just give up.

Again, I can hear some of my friends who are not Christians saying…”Well, that’s great, but I live in a way that is compassionate and seeking good even though I don’t believe in God. I don’t just give up.”  And that is true.  The thing that catches me this morning is not how I would live if Jesus did not rise from the dead…but why do I not live more “alive” because He did?

I truly believe that He did. He conquered death.  That is amazing. Astounding.

Life Changing.

Reality transforming.

Miraculous.

So on this April Fool’s Day….the fool has been me for living as if nothing has really changed. Believing, but being satisfied to just go on as normal.  I do not know exactly what it means, to be honest…in this life I where I find myself, how it alters today. I have believed in Jesus and in the Resurrection for 30 years. Today it sits differently with me…at least in this moment with the sun shining through the window. Maybe that is part of it…the visual change from a grey weekend to the sun shining and the reality that things change.

The Resurrection changes everything. Our sins are dealt with. All of them.  Our separation from God is dealt with. Completely.  Our longing and ache to know who we are is dealt with; we are loved and sought and redeemed. Individually and personally.

The Resurrection. It takes more than one day for this to soak in to my soul. Maybe it takes a lifetime…but I long to live more like Paul. Maybe not battling wild beasts…but aware that life is dramatically different because God Himself died….and that should shake us…and Rose Again.

So…no pranks for me today. Reality that I play the fool far too often. Aching for the Resurrection reality to soak deeply into my soul today and unleash the freedom to live lightly in this world because the reality of eternity changes everything.