Who's my neighbor?

Hello to everyone! It has been a long time since I have posted so if you are still out there, I hope all is well. Things have been particularly busy for me lately for a couple of reasons. First, I took a heavy load of classes for my Religious Studies Degree. Second, I have moved forward with a church plant in St. Joseph, Mo. We meet in the Ice House Theater on Sundays at 11:00AM. With that said, I would like to share with you a bit of the message from this past Sunday.

Living in a ever increasing small world, the question 'Who is my neighbor?' takes on an even more interesting dynamic. In a country like the USA, where we consume far more than most when it comes to energy, natural resources, shopping etc., our local actions truly have global implications. For example, our desire for cheap clothes perpetuate problems such as child labor. Or, suburban sprawling, which is rampant in the US creates a high demand for raw materials such as lumber. All of that is a broad stroke of which I would be glad to discuss at another time. The question still remains however; 'Who is my neighbor?'

Traditionally, neighbor meant a fellow member of one's people. A people is a community of solidarity in which everyone bears responsibility for everyone else. In this community each member is sustained by the whole, and so each member is expected to look on every other member "as himself" as a part of the same whole that gives him the space in which to live his life. Does this mean then that foreigners are not neighbors? This would go against scripture, which insisted upon love for foreigners also, mindful of the fact that Israel itself had live a life of a foreigner in Egypt. Generally speaking, only the "sojourner (a temporary resident)" living among the people was reckoned as a member of the community of solidarity and so as a "neighbor." One rabinnic saying ruled that there was no need to regard heretics or apostates as neighbors. Also the Samaritans, who not long before had defiled the Temple in Jerusalem by "strewing dead mens bones" during the Passover festival itself were not neighbors.

Now that the question has been focused in this way and we have established a reliable foundation to work from, we see that Jesus answers the question with a parable of the man on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho who falls among robbers, is stripped of everything, and then is left lying half dead on the roadside.

This is a perfectly realistic story, because such assaults were a regular occurrence on the Jericho road.

A priest and a levite--experts in the Law and salvation, its their vocation! come along, but pass by without stopping. I don't think there is any reason to suppose these 2 guys were cold-hearted uncaring men. Maybe they were afraid and wanted to get to where they were going. Possibly they just didn't know how they could help the man, especially because he looked like he was beyond help. Have you ever met someone like that? Someone so beaten down by life you didn't know where to begin in helping them?

At this point a Samaritan comes along, presumably a merchant who traveled this road frequently and knew the owner of the nearest Inn; a Samaritan, someone who in other words, didn't belong to Israel's community of solidarity and is not obliged to see the assault victim as a 'neighbor', HIS NEIGHBOR.

How do we reconcile this type of thinking in the church today? So many people in our world feel marginalized, unwelcome and mistreated by the so-called 'Samaritans' sitting in our churches. I believe one way to reconcile this is to realize we are all the man in the ditch. We, all of humanity, are beaten, robbed, plundered and left on the road side. The burden of the question begins to make a pertinent shift at this point. The issue is no longer which other person is a neighbor to me or not. The question is about me. I have to become the neighbor, and when I do, the other person counts for me "as myself." When we learn to walk in the other persons shoes we in turn begin to realize that their shoes aren't so different from ours. We reconcile the question of 'Who is my neighbor?' by acknowledging also that God, who once seemed so distant to humanity, became our neighbor in His Son Christ.

Cheers,

Beau Walker
Make12 Fellowship
11:00AM Ice House Theater

Moving Forward

It is an interesting time indeed. The quest for the authentic Christian life often leads people down the road of history in hopes of discovering how one ought to live. Like an onion, they begin to peel away the many layers of religiosity and Christendom, only to look into their hands and find they are empty. In light of this, I cannot help but visualize what the church Christ came for is intended to look like. Aware of 20 centuries of missions history, the growth of the first century church continues to be an enigma to me. In the early church period, people were committed to the cause of Christ at the risk of martyrdom, using all avenues available to see the Gospel of Christ advance. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy were central to early missions. Samuel Escobar comments on the early church "Conversion to Christ brought a Christian experience that included belief in the gospel of Christ, who was confessed as Savior and Lord by His atoning death in the cross and resurrection; a change of behavior in order to live a life worthy of the gospel, patterned on Jesus' example; and belonging to the body of Christ, the new humanity God was creating in his church." In the centuries before Constantine, the expansion of Christianity took place because of the hundreds and thousands of testimonies of peoples lives changed by the power of Christ. However, beyond the 3rd century, maybe earlier, the spread of Christianity succeeded by other means. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in the year 313, inaugurating a period in which the church was tolerated within a framework of religious freedom. In other words, she lost her reason to fight to survive in a certain sense. In 381 the Edict of Thessalonica established Christianity as the state religion. In crept Christendom.

Over time we see her being the catalyst of the political, social and cultural fabric in the west. Additionally, she brought with her the many ideas of Christendom. She spread across Europe by forcing herself upon the masses. Now in Western America the church is in a somewhat similar state. For example, there isn’t the resistance to the church like there was in the first century. People’s lives are not threatened due to religious orientation in the west as they were in past.

Today, the spread of Christianity is now measured by other means. Now, some schools of church growth, for example, regard mission as a manageable task that could be completed by a certain date, using appropriate technology and following business principles of management by objectives. When realizing the traditional way of doing missions, I realize to what degree it has become just a human enterprise. It saddens me to think of how far we are from the first century, not just in years but in mission. Nevertheless, the sadness quickly turns into a deep hunger and passion for Christ to move on humanity as He once did. Convicting us all of what He did and changing our response from apathy to action as we share our testimonies in power and love to humanity. Outside our doorsteps lies a world in wait of our stories. The powerful story of Christ and what He did to us may be the most powerful weapon we have for a skeptical postmodern world. The skepticism we face is nothing the first century church didn’t experience. Our fears and doubts are not our own either. As we step into the world I pray we all understand our mission is the same as it was 2000 years ago. To live a life believing the Gospel, compelling us to share the greatest story ever told about a Man who lived among us, relating to us, transforming us and allowing us to share in a Kingdom with a status we don’t deserve.

Environmental

This morning I was excited to read that a group of Southern Baptists are stepping up their game in caring for our environment. It is great to see the church responding to what could possibly be the most pressing issue our global-community is facing. The Southern Baptist has a membership of 16 million people. We can only hope that this emphasis on stewardship of creation will spread through all denominations like a shock wave. Secular scientists have already declared that our environmental problems, pollution and global warming, are deeply rooted spiritual issues. I agree. Read my previous blog on Christianity and the Environment for helpful guidance in adopting a christocentric approach to caring for creation.
Here is the link: Christianity & Environment

The link to Southern Baptist: church to step up climate fight.

Additionally, the Vatican has added care of creation to the list of their "deadly sins." 7 Deadly Sins

Question: Does your church leadership emphasize caring for creation? In what ways have you heard them or seen them practice Biblical stewardship of our earth?

Food for thought: Population Growth

What Would Jesus Buy Trailer

The shopping holidays have passed us by and now we enter into an Easter season. This video comes at you a couple of months late but nevertheless makes you wonder where American priorities are. Do you fall into any of these categories? I know I like spending money on coffee.

" extra ecclesiam, nulla salus"

“No salvation outside the church!” For those of you who have recently heard this for the first time I feel obliged to inform you, it is not a new idea. That’s right, this “doctrine” has been handed down through the centuries by many a theologians, mostly from the Catholic camp. What? Yeah, this type of teaching is prominent in Catholic teaching and other Eastern Orthodox Traditions (capital T emphasized). But don’t take my word for it, read further.

Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said:

We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation;
that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for thisin the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?

Doesn’t this contradict scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

If it is God’s desire for all men to be saved, then it is fair to say there is a possibility the Institutionalized Church is limiting His redemption. But that is just it. The way this dogma is taught today contradicts its original meaning as well. Today you hear “There is no salvation outside the institutionalized church.” This basically means “where people are married and buried.” If these basic tenets are not observed then “two people having coffee are fooling themselves, that isn’t church.” Even the Catholic Church understands the universal (not to be mistaken as universalism) salvific will of God. But today, the phrase is used differently. What are they really saying? They are saying that unless someone is a full fledged, baptized member of the Institutionalized Church they will be damned. Even a perfunctory reading of Catholic teaching will enlighten a person’s awareness at where this teaching comes from and originally meant.

Bottom line, all of this is nonessential. Why? Because if it were true, that a person cannot be saved outside the Institutionalized Church, then we need to stop doing outreach, street ministry, Bible study, hospital visitations, home visits, Bible discussion over coffee, and so on the list goes. Missions are useless as well. So instead of making yourself feel good by going to visit people in a 3rd world country who you can’t play a part in “redemption” sow that plane ticket money into the Institution because that’s who has trump on salvation.

What do I think? Me thinks this is man’s attempt at preserving a way of life he created that is daily growing more and more irrelevant to what God wants to do on earth. The Institutionalized Church is not the access door for the Kingdom, Christ and the work of the Cross are. Read the beatitudes. Consequently, we, the Church, the ekklesia, the called out ones, are the access door for the Kingdom and everything within range of our effective-will can and should be touched by it. My prayer is we all see God’s desire to use us outside the Institutionalized Church to further His Kingdom. I encourage you not to fall into this same trap that was set by the Catholics during the Reformation when experiencing a mass exodus. Look at what came of people being obedient to God and not man. The birth of the Protestant Church!