Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve written here; there have been a lot of things going on in my life, demanding a large chunk of my time. Through it all I have been thankful to have my brothers and sisters (spiritually speaking) here for me. Our Thursday night gatherings and just plain old fellowship has allowed me to weather some difficult decisions and circumstances involving career, home, children and the like.
So I sat down this afternoon, finally with a chunk of time and a clear head, and struggled with what I wanted to write—it has been a long time, after all, and all the threads I had going seem to have slipped out of my grasp. So I guess “Back to Basics” is as good a theme to restart with as any.
Bible Study Groups
My wife and I attend a Bible study on Thursday evenings, and for 2-and-a-half hours a dozen or so of us share our lives with each other, pray for each other, feed each other (both physically and spiritually), and teach each other. In other words, it’s actually far more than merely a Bible study. I’ll be writing a little more about this and past study groups I’ve belonged to in future posts, because the people in them have all had a great impact on my faith.
Now, the dynamic of this particular group is wonderful. There are couples and singles, ages ranging from mid-20s to late 60s. Some have been Christians all their lives, others have found their faith only recently. There are business owners, professionals, wage-earners, contractors, and some unemployed. The point is, when we read and study together, we have available a wide assortment of perspectives, experiences, biases and expectations.
Probably the most interesting thing about the group is that those who have been in the faith for some time and are more well-read than others are always learning from those who have only recently come to Christ or have not taken the time to delve more deeply into the faith. The newer among us are constantly encouraged by the fact that their views of God are not only relevant, but also impacting others in profound and meaningful ways. This brings home the fact that we never stop being disciples; none of us have all the answers, and none of us have progressed so far in our discipleship that we can’t learn from others—even those with far less “experience” than us. And none of us have reached the status of Master, and we never will; that title is reserved for Jesus alone.
The Basics
So what are the “basics?” Jesus would say,
“Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.” This is the most important, the first on any list,
and,
“Love others as well as you love yourself.” These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.
Matthew 22:37-40, The Message
The apostle Paul would say,
The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says…
I Corinthians 15:3-4, The Message
or,
Say the welcoming word to God—”Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Romans 10:9-10, The Message
Problems begin when we abandon the basics and start following the rabbit-trails so often offered by doctrine and tradition. Don’t get me wrong—there certainly is a place for both doctrine and tradition in the life of a Christian. But when issues like “How often should we take communion,” “when should a person be baptized,” “should electric guitars be allowed for playing worship music,” or, “what types of clothing are allowed in church,” become more important to us than the truths quoted above, there is an imbalance.
These topics have been in the forefront of my heart and mind for some time for a couple of reasons. First, I am a junior high youth leader for my church, and I desperately want those students to “get it” in a way that has meaning and relevance in their lives. Second, I have always felt that the churches I have attended have been missing something very important: discipleship. I believe that finding an effective way to actually disciple the people in the pews will move them beyond the stereotypical, televangelist caricature that many outside the church have of Christians. Of course, both require that, at some point, we move beyond the basics.
Beyond
I have been an ice hockey fan since before there were three professional teams in California (go Kings… please!). If you mentioned it to anyone, they would just give you a blank stare. And despite what most non-hockey people think, the basics of the game are pretty simple: six guys on a side (five “skaters” plus one goalie), each using a stick to try to knock a heavy rubber disc past the other side’s goaltender and into the net. Simple.
But that’s not all there is to it. Blue lines and red lines, faceoff circles and penalty boxes, checking and line changes and icing and offsides… there’s a lot more to the game, and although you could watch the game without knowing all these nuances, you wouldn’t be able to play the game effectively. Oh, the basics are still there—they’re the foundation of the game—but you won’t get far without moving beyond them.
It’s the same for Christianity: we can merely learn the basics, making sure we’re “saved” but not bothering with all that discipleship stuff, sitting on the sidelines and cheering for the home team as if faith were a spectator sport. But God wants us in the game.
That’s what’s referred to as “maturity” in the Church. Faith is an action word; look at the quote from James in the sidebar. There’s a time to be fed, to embrace our new found standing with God—our salvation—all by itself and rejoice in the perfect grace that brought us into His presence. And then there’s a time to step out and become an active part of the Body of Christ, never forgetting the basics yet also never letting the basics become an excuse to stay home, or to stay in the stands when God longs for us to lace up our skates and take to the ice.
There’s more to say on the subject, but this post is already getting pretty long. So I’ll write more later.
Blessings, Robert.
Meditations 