Brian and Libby's Blog

"Just commentary"

Brian and I had a good friend in town last night. He is a rare breed, in that he not only makes me laugh until I pee my pants, he's also a reliable source of thought-provoking conversation. Jamie’s been pursuing God for years, and is a true Truth seeker in that he never lets himself become satisfied with what he does; what he knows.

Last night we spent a lot of time talking about some stuff he has been reading…stuff that challenges a lot of the way we traditionally interpret Christianity. Stuff like, what is the “Gospel” really? What/where/when is heaven? What does it mean to be a “Christian” or “Christ-follower” or however you want to say it. Sometimes its scary when you get talking about things like that because you start to realize how much of your faith - we’re talking faith you would walk out on a ledge for - is based on things people have told you about God, not on what God has spoken. Jamie thinks that Rob Bell said it best:

“God spoke, the rest is just commentary.”

So now I’m going through the mental exhaustion of determining which parts of my faith and the things I consider Truth are based on what God really said, and which of them are based on commentary. Scary stuff. Pretty cool though, and I think, a worthy exercise.

Anyways, if you’re into church, and have interest in looking at how different people “do” church, you’ve probably noticed that they all do it differently. There are some that like to do it the way that people have always done it. There are some that just want to do it their own way, based on what they think God has said. There are some who will try to do things in a new way just for the sake of shaking things up. The good news is that all of these people realize that God loves the local church. He loves it so much that He calls it His bride. He cherishes it, has pride in it, and he made the ultimate sacrifice for it. They get that God is passionate about the church, and they should be too. The bad news is that they take this passion too far, and spend a lot of time arguing with eachother because they think their way is the only right way. Of all the unintelligent things people who call themselves Christians have done (present company included), I think the absolute most foolish is making this argument public. As a result, a lot of people who should be attracted to God through the local church have instead come to the conclusion that Christians just do church as a result of their own selfish agendas, and they don't want to be associated with the God of those people. Can't blame them, really.

Anyways, the more we talked last night, the more I noticed Jamie’s genuine appreciation for our church and the way we do things. No church is perfect – no church is God’s favorite. And if Jamie had to choose, ours might not be his favorite, but he is so supportive of what we do and why we do it. Not to mention, he is as excited as we are about what God is obviously doing, and the fruit that is being produced in both individual and corporate ways. His personal preferences make him no less excited about what God is doing through Northway as he is excited about what God does through churches that are more his “cup of tea.”

You know how God talks about the church as his body? You know how every limb on the body plays a distinct role, and God says that each of those roles is critical to the healthy function of the complete body? Maybe every church in the world is part of the bigger body, God’s Bride, the global body of Christ. Maybe every church has a different role to play, and God loves, values, and uses them all equally; despite the lessons they learn, their personal preferences, their quirks and uniqueness, their methodology.

When I was 19 I got this ridiculous disease which I still don’t completely understand called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I can not explain to you the etiology or its course, but I remember the doctor explaining it to me. “Your body is attacking your thyroid. It is recognizing your thyroid as an ‘alien’ that isn’t part of you. Not only is your thyroid unable to function, your whole body is suffering because it’s using so many resources to fight off your thyroid.” I couldn’t get over how extremely absurd this was. Because I was appalled by the prospect of having my thyroid surgically removed, and have a very nerd-like but earnest belief that communication really can solve the world’s problems, I racked my brain trying to think of ways to just explain to my body that my thyroid was not in fact an intruder, but a valid organ – one that I needed pretty desperately in fact!

Because my physiology reacts better to modern medicine than to my own reasoning, it was surgically removed, and I now rely on a pill every day to regulate my metabolism rather than my dearly departed thyroid.

Conclusion you probably have already come to: Maybe each organ in Christ’s Body would be able to function more effectively and in the best interest of the collective Body if they were spending more time pursuing God, obeying Him, and doing what he tells them too. God did a pretty superb job creating man to sustain himself physically, creating the earth to sustain itself, and generally conceiving the idea of every single thing in the universe to work together to continue sustaining itself, much like it has done for the past (insert very large number) of years. If we say we trust God, we can trust that if we are truly seeking him as individuals, and as churches, He will orchestrate the objectives He accomplishes through each individual body to collectively accomplish his purpose for the global Body of Christ.

Thanks Jamie for getting my wheels turning. Now I have to go back and deconstruct this entire post, considering whether my assumptions are based on what God said, or on someone’s commentary. :)

posted by Libby @ 11:44 AM