All this was prompted by my meditation on the first chapter of Colossians, wherein we find that the hearing of the Gospel played a crucial role in the transformation of the Colossians from a people under the dominion of darkness to a community of Christ-followers. The Gospel was spoken to them by a messenger (Epaphras), they heard and believed it, and the fruit of all this was a noteworthy faith and "love in the Spirit."
So all this was fresh in my mind when the guest preacher at our church began to speak about hearing, but with quite a different "take."
He said that we live in an age when the eye and not the ear has become "the organ of decision." People are looking for solutions to their needs "with their ears plugged."
This is cool, he said, because Christianity has nothing to do with words, but with deeds.
Shall I repeat that in bold?
He said, Christianity has nothing to do with words, but with deeds.
This fellow – who by the way seems to be a wonderful man and I enjoyed his sermon very much, even though I thought it was drastically wrong-headed – this fellow went on to say that the way to reach a society with its ears stopped is by being a community in which the love of God is visible. People, you see, are looking for community. They’re looking in all sorts of places. The church is positioned to be that community of love in which they can be themselves and can grow, which is what we are all looking for. The church can be that community through the following three practices: 1) fellowship, 2) forgiveness, and 3) unconditional live.
Finally, we can only be that community by dying to self, like the kernel of wheat that Jesus spoke of. We cry out for God’s help, and God fills us and empowers us by his Holy Spirit to be that community of love that people are looking for.
A few observations by way of response:
1) This is not the Biblical pattern. In the Biblical sequence, vividly described in Colossians 1, community is the "fruit" that followed from the hearing and believing of a message. That message was brought to them by Epaphras, who, by speaking the message of the gospel, ministered Christ to them. He was a "faithful minister of Christ Jesus" precisely because he faithfully spoke the message of the gospel to the Colossians.
2) The suggestion is that people today are drastically different than people in Paul’s day, and therefore different methods must be used. Back then, the ears were "the organ of decision." Now, the eyes are. Therefore, the NT pattern is no longer relevant. I’m just not willing to go there. I’m not willing to displace the message upon which depends, according to the New Testament, our very destiny, replacing that message with, ummm, my demonstrably inferior acts of love and good deeds.
3) According to this fellow's suggested pattern, our community of love is simply so attractive that people will choose us over other possible communities. Shall they join, say, the community of the Mormons, the community of the Buddhists, or the community of the Christians? Is our love as a community really so impressive? Mormons, for example, can make a very loving community.
4) One cannot help but notice that to join a community, even to join a community of loving Christians, is not the same thing as to hear and believe the message of the Gospel. It is simply to join a community. That is why, in my church-community and yours as well, I’ll bet, are numerous unbelievers. Membership in a "community," no matter how wonderfully loving, is not salvation. Believing the message of the gospel is.
And, finally, this is the most important point I want to make today: 5) We come very close to making an idol out of our good deeds and acts of love (or out of our wonderful "community"). I have found this to be a common mistake among us. But our good deeds and acts of love are not the gospel. They almost never, if ever, even come close to embodying the message of the gospel. The only act of love that did so was the act of Jesus described, for example, in Philippians 2. To displace the good news of that act of love with the demonstration of our own community of love in its stead is an act of idolatry.
I’m really quite amazed that a preacher and church planter could give such a sermon as this. That is, I suppose, a measure of the state of things in some parts of the church today. I am not, by the way, downplaying incarnational ministry as a vital part in the transmission of the message of the gospel. I am not forgetting that Jesus said that we should let our light shine before men, so that they will see our good deeds and give glory to the father. But I also remember that,
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
9 comments:
here is what i think
people use both their eyes and their ears just as much as they always have.
Holy Spirit speaks to people's hearts, through the word of God, or through a believer abiding in Jesus.
Holy Spirit speaks to others through believers in many different ways. ways that the believer is not even aware of. so abiding in Jesus is very important for the life of the Christian, hence the name Christian, as well as being important to God for more reasons than we can understand.
we do not need to understand how people are seeing or hearing, because the Spirit will be reaching them. our concern is to abide in Christ, to Love our Lord, to relate with our God.
i think that sometimes we try too hard to come up with something to say, when we could just talk to God and listen.
Wise words, Nancy.
This post also makes me think about Acts 1:1 where Luke claims that his gospel was about what Jesus began to DO and TEACH. Now, Acts is about what Jesus continues to DO and TEACH through His people. We are to be about both proclaiming the words and performing the works of the Kingdom.
Also, I'm reminded of Jesus' prayer in John 17, particularly vv. 20-23, where He prays that the way His followers live in community together (like the community of the Trinity) would be instrumental in the world's knowing and believing in Him.
When God sent His Word, He sent His Word in the flesh. People need to hear the Gospel proclaimed and see it practiced. Our communities are responsible for both.
Here's the point I think you're stressing in this post: We can't practice the Gospel unless we've heard (and continue to hear) it proclaimed. Galatians 5:6 reminds us that "faith expresses itself through love." As you've said, "faith comes by hearing" the gospel. Too often we preachers tell our people to be a loving community for the sake of the gospel without reminding them to repent and believe the very gospel that produces that kind of community.
Excellent comments from both you guys. It's interesting how quickly we are willing to downplay the gospel as "mere words." Jimmy, you're summation of my main point is actually a clearer statement of my thoughts than I was able to make myself. Thanks!
It seems to me that Christianity has everything to do with words and deeds...
I appreciate your thoughts on community as well. Our church is bad about this. We do things on purpose to try to create community and so see it as end goal rather than as a by-product of other stuff we do.
It also occurs to me that we can't have true community that is just based on "fellowship, forgiveness, and unconditional love". Sure, those things should be present but they have to be found in Christ. He has to be our basis for fellowship with each other, not just deeds.
"Christianity has nothing to do with words, but with deeds."
"In that case, sir, you won't mind if I leave right now."
Nate
Brian, I agree completely. The danger I run into most often is the rapid setting aside of the "word" piece. Speaking the "words" seems far more difficult than performing a deed, and so we are more likely to drop it as essentially unnecessary. This tendency says allot more about the influence of the flesh in us than does the good deep about the influence of the Spirit.
Nate . . . heh . . . I wish I'd thought of that.
Bob: Today's quote from Sinclair Ferguson on the Of First Importance blog supports what you're trying to say, I think.
Go see the whole quote there, but here's a sample:
"We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people."
Wow, that is a simply marvelous nugget of high truth, Jimmy. Thanks for sharing it. In its essence it is what I hope always to be sharing with people as a small group leader and friend. Thanks again.
This is what happens when we have a theology centered on what 'we do' as opposed to 'what Christ does'.
Proclaiming Christ and His cross (St. Paul..."we preach Christ crucified"), the administering of the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, along with that preached Word...that is the job of the Church.
All this focus on 'community' BS, just takes us away from Christ and right back to where the problem started (and continues)...'in us'.
His talk was just that, a talk. it was not a sermon in the proper sense. A sermon is where the whole council of Jesus is preached in it's fulness. The law is used, not as a tool to make 'us' better, but as a hammer to crush us and to kill us off. Once the hard word of the law has done it's proper work, then the gospel (the unqualified forgiveness of sins) can go to work and open the ears and hearts and minds that hear it (actually hear it!)
Law and Gospel...that is what a sermon ought be. Save the politics and self help for another place...it does not belong in the pulpit.
Thanks.
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