In Luke's gospel, there is a story of Jesus and the disciples entering a Samaritan village. The Samaritans are not receptive to the message and Jesus and the disciples are not welcomed. The disciples want God to send fire down from the sky to consume the village, but they are rebuked by Jesus.
Israel had been in ethnic and religious tension with Samaria for hundreds of years. Israel condemned Samaria for intermarriage with those who were not Jewish and for not complying with the Mosaic law. TO say that Israel and Samaria did not like each other would be a vast understatement. It is no wonder, then, that the Samaritan village was not immediately receptive to the disciples' message given all the baggage of this ethnic and religious tension.
There is ethnic and religious tension in the world today. There always has been. Our instinct is vengeance and annihilation of our enemies. These instincts are born out of fear, not righteousness or holiness. God wants salvation for Israel and Samaria and reconciliation in those dividing walls of hostility in this world that tear us apart.
We have no control over what Samaritans choose to do or not do. We do have control over our own actions. We can choose not to respond with fear, but with courage and a heart that seeks the salvation and redemption of all people. In doing so, we are acting as God's agents.
Supporting the work and mission of Caney Spring United Methodist Church and Berlin United Methodist Church, two churches partnered in the ministry of making disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, located in Marshall County, Tennessee.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
People of the Way
Many ancient Christian communities did not call themselves "Christians" and they did not refer to their faith as "Christianity." They called themselves "People of the Way" and referred to their practice as "The Way."
This is a good springboard for considering the cornerstone of Paul's theology: justification by faith. "Justification" is from the Greek "Dikaioo" (to be made righteous) and "Faith" from the Greek "Pistis" (conviction and persuasion). We become righteous through our conviction that God has already redeemed us through the cross of Christ. And we arrive at this knowledge by following Jesus as the original disciples were called to do. Through our fellowship with Christ and with those who follow, we come to realize who God is and the wonder that God redeemed us before we could even speak God's name. This is why the early followers of Jesus referred to themselves as "People of the Way." It is not a coincidence that followers of Jesus stopped referring to themselves with this term when the Church became institutionalized and made compulsory by Rome. Christianity became just another set of abstract principles and practices that people followed in order to be identified as Christians.
In his epistle to the Galatians, which arose out of the controversy about whether you needed to follow Jewish religious practices to be a follower of Jesus, Paul is not setting Gentile Christianity against Jewish Christianity. Rather, he is revolutionizing the very notion about what religions is. Judaism was just used as an example of works-righteousness--the notion that you needed to do something to achieve redemption, which was shared by all religions. Paul was questioning this underlying assumption of all religions
We don't run around doing good works to achieve redemption. We run around doing good works because it is the natural consequence of truly knowing that in Christ God has already redeemed us and redeemed the whole world .
This is a good springboard for considering the cornerstone of Paul's theology: justification by faith. "Justification" is from the Greek "Dikaioo" (to be made righteous) and "Faith" from the Greek "Pistis" (conviction and persuasion). We become righteous through our conviction that God has already redeemed us through the cross of Christ. And we arrive at this knowledge by following Jesus as the original disciples were called to do. Through our fellowship with Christ and with those who follow, we come to realize who God is and the wonder that God redeemed us before we could even speak God's name. This is why the early followers of Jesus referred to themselves as "People of the Way." It is not a coincidence that followers of Jesus stopped referring to themselves with this term when the Church became institutionalized and made compulsory by Rome. Christianity became just another set of abstract principles and practices that people followed in order to be identified as Christians.
In his epistle to the Galatians, which arose out of the controversy about whether you needed to follow Jewish religious practices to be a follower of Jesus, Paul is not setting Gentile Christianity against Jewish Christianity. Rather, he is revolutionizing the very notion about what religions is. Judaism was just used as an example of works-righteousness--the notion that you needed to do something to achieve redemption, which was shared by all religions. Paul was questioning this underlying assumption of all religions
We don't run around doing good works to achieve redemption. We run around doing good works because it is the natural consequence of truly knowing that in Christ God has already redeemed us and redeemed the whole world .
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