grace covered, full of hope.

August 18, 2007
Why is it so hard being back in Minnesota with my family and in this nice big house in the burbs? I think more things happened in my heart than I realized. A different understanding of community and people and justice. People are people, no matter what they look like, no matter what they do or what they’ve done, no matter what their sexual preference, no matter what their family history or economic status. I am so tired of my stereotypes and predisposed judgments. God fights with me all the time, saying, “No, Shelli, I’ll do the judging. That’s my job, my responsibility. Your job is to fight for peace and for the fruits of the Holy Spirit, to do the things that my Scripture says to do. To bring love to your neighbors and to Me.” Why does the evangelical church have such a caste system set up. We go the Puritan way, the way of self-monitoring, self-advancement, self-secrecy, self self self. We need community, but a community of grace, not a community of do’s-and-don’ts and perfectionism (so that no one is open about all the garbage in their lives). We need truth. We need to be smacked by it, we need it to shift our thinking, to rock our boats, to kick us in the pants. We need justice. Not the kind that comes prepackaged in a nice monthly check or the justice that makes us believe AMERICA IS #1! We need the kind of justice that defends the orphaned and widowed, that lives among the broken, that fights for the sinner, that stands against the Pharisee.

We don’t need saavy religious mottos or cute church logos, we need God.

We need more and more God until we are so saturated with Him that our minds are completely discontent with worldy trifles and we are even more confused about the intensity and complexity of the Incarnate Father. We need to be culturally relevant, but we need to base our selves on the solid teachings of Scripture. To be mindful of the people we witness to, to the context in which we live, but to understand that the Gospel was and is and always will be offensive and that sometimes we just need to give it up and live it right. We need to love the communist and the terrorist, the jailed and the jailor, the proud and the weary- all of these people somehow fit into the Kingdom of God. We need to not be so sure of ourselves. To not be so sure that our way of thinking is always right and there’s nothing that ever needs to change.

We need to constantly be slammed with Scripture, so that it compels us to be uncomfortable and a bit unsatisfied with the things we’ve previously enjoyed. We need to look more closely, more deeply, at a world that is beyond the borders of Washington and D.C. We need to see the injustices taking place in a global context, to our brothers and sisters in Brazil, Iraq, Ethiopia, Yemen, India, the Dominican Republic. We need to look at the faces of our world-neighbors and know their stories. The gospel is bigger than America, it’s not just for America. The gospel is for a world in need and it’s no wonder the Scriptures talk about the new heaven as the “New Jerusalem,” a heavenly city (a city means community) built in complete accordance to God’s will and satisfaction. We need to be people of faith, to take care of the earth God has created, to not kill it and thus kill ourselves. We need to stop with our excessive consumption, our plastic packaging, our pedicures and tanning beds, our fuel-sucking cars and SUVS- all of these things that take away from the once healthy earth that God created in the beginning. There is a system in the balance; and the more we take, the more others get taken away from them. If there is enough for everyone, then why doesn’t everyone have enough. It’s a simple game of re-distribution, if we’d only allow ourselves to give we could understand equality in a world that is driven by greed, power, corruption, wealth, deception, my list could go on. If we have answers (good ones) then why isn’t the world listening and why are we being so quiet. We need voices that prove the truth of the Gospel, that give clarity to the questions of this world, that speak not out of hypocritical piousness, but out of a love that gives when there is nothing and believes in things that the world can not give or create.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
~Albert Einstein

The significance of the Lord’s Supper is revealed in its sacramental nature. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible reality. In many ways the Lord’s Supper opens us wide to a divine mystery. This mystery is sometimes dubbed the “paschal mystery” of redemption: Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again. Explaining this mystery may be beyond us, but that does not mean we cannot participate in it. In Communion, Christ is here for us. We eat of his body and are part of his body- the one loaf. Though we may feel alone in our journey, we are part of the train of apostles, prophets, martyrs, saints and all servants of God. The meal reminds us that we belong and are not alone. Because of Jesus, all will be well.

Years ago Tim Keller used this illustration from The Lord of the Rings to convey the immense meaning of the Lord’s table. Enemies and dread weapons pummel the walls of the city of Gondor. As the city gates begin to give way, death, doom and the bitterness of defeat take hold. The evil dark lord grimly claims the city for himself. But in that moment of bleak despair the Riders of Rohan come charging, their horns blowing. J.R.R. Tolkien writes in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, “Pippin rose to his feet…and he stood listening to the horns, and it seemed to him that they would break his heart with joy. And never in after years could he hear a horn blown in the distance without tears starting in his eyes.”

The Lord’s Supper reminds us that when the dark lord looms before us shrieking ‘all is lost,’ the Lord of light stepped forth and said, “This is my body broken for you.” When we partake, we taste what redemption cost God in order to call us home. Indeed it is hard to see the bread and wine without “tears starting in [our] eyes.”

What is participating in the Lord’s Supper like for you?
What do you hope to receive at the Lord’s table?

SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
Prepare yourself for Communion ahead of time. Read John 13:1-17. Imagine you are there at the table with Jesus. What are your feelings and thoughts? How does it feel to have Jesus wash your feet? How does it feel to drink the cup knowing your own betrayals? Confess your sins and then attend Communion with what is in your heart to say to God.

striving for holiness is not so much of an action, but a state of the heart. i’ve realized in my own life that i must walk away from and put an end to the nasty habits in my outer self if i want to change [not just feel sorry for myself for being a failure]. i begin to walk in truth; the truth of the Bible, the words that Jesus said in the book of John, and I feel my countenance begin to change. i become more of who i want to be and less of who i was before reading it. and my prayer life changes too. the things i always prayed about before suddenly become alive in my Spirit and i can’t stop speaking out to God about them. He listens and responds, sometimes with yes’s, other times with no’s, other times He is just telling me to stop talking and worrying and just wait. and when i choose to obey Him, really obey Him, my heart is changed. my holy agenda is to bless God, bless His people, but mostly to bless God. i can do that for Him because He’s set the example for me.