Jesus' Table

David Fitch writes these helpful words regarding the role Jesus' table is intended to play in our broken world:

We are a mass of disconnected souls with too many tasks to do and too much stress to do them. Nonetheless, our world starves for presence. After work is over, after we arrive home on the train, we swarm to restaurants and bars just to share a beverage or a meal in hope of making contact. Whole train cars on the Chicago Metro commuter train are segregated for those who want to bring a beverage and share a conversation at the end of a long day. It's not much but it's something. People everywhere long to be known. Our culture bears the signs of people wanting to share life meaningfully with one another. The world longs for Eucharist.

In our exploration of Jesus' Table in Luke 5.27-39, we learned that one of the things that got Jesus in trouble with the religious authorities was his table habits. It wasn't only his preaching that led to Jesus' crucifixion, it was also his eating. More specifically, the cast of characters with whom he chose to eat. Tables, you see, tell stories. They tell the story of who's in and who's out - of who belongs with whom - and the basis of our mutual acceptance. Think for a moment about the cafeteria tables in high school. The jocks sit with the jocks, the cheerleaders with the cheerleaders, the FFA students with the FFA students, the preps with the preps, the gothic with the gothic, etc. Jesus' table tells quite a different story. "For Jesus the table was to be a place of fellowship and inclusion and acceptance" (Scot McKnight). According to Jesus, if you have recognized your ultimate need, forgiveness and restoration to God and others, and have turned to him to meet that need, then you belong to Jesus, to God, and to all who have likewise turned to Jesus. This means that Jesus doesn't require purity or certain earthly identity markers before he will share a meal with us. Rather, when we share a meal with Jesus, the meal has a mysterious way of creating purity within us, of shaping us into the image of what God created us to be.

Indeed, "we are a mass of disconnected souls," What evidence of disconnection do you see in your life? Are you feeling disconnected in your relationship with God. What human relationships fee disconnected? Jesus responds to disconnection by inviting us to a meal. Most often that meal is what we call communion - bread and wine shared by Christians after the Word of God has been proclaimed. If you sense a disconnect in your relationship with God, Jesus is inviting you to this sacred meal that he longs to share with you (Luke 22.14-16). If you feel a disconnect in relationships with others, Jesus is inviting you to share a meal with those persons so that his healing touch can restore connection to those relationships. At both tables Jesus is present to forgive, heal, and restore. What's more, it is at these tables we learn to sense where Jesus is present elsewhere in this world. Be encouraged to perceive the restoring presence of Jesus among this mass of disconnected souls.

The next time you walk down the street, take a good look at every face you pass and in your mind say, "Christ died for thee." That girl. That slob. That phony. That crook. That saint. That damned fool. “Christ died for thee.” Take and eat this in remembrance that “Christ died for thee” (Frederick Buechner)

Click here to download and listen to our message, Jesus' Table. 

        

   

Monday Morning Thoughts about Sunday: Malachi

Here's the deal with Malachi. The kingdom of God is present and the kingdom of God is not yet present. During Malachi's ministry, God's people were doubting the love of God and what the prophet's preaching was designed to do was to get the Jews to look ahead to the promise of God's future in order to nurture present trust in God's unfailing love. Let's unpack this a bit, by describing two kingdom realities.

The kingdom of God is present. 

During Jesus' earthly ministry he taught that with his incarnation the long-awaited kingdom of God had come. The most basic definition of the kingdom/reign of God is "the sphere where God's desired will is obeyed." Jesus most clearly teaches that with him God's reign has come, in texts like Matthew 12.28. After healing a demon-possessed man and being accused by the Pharisees that he cast out demons by the prince of demons, Jesus responds that the reign of God has come and that is why the demons are fleeing. "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matt. 12.28, ESV). Jesus teaches the same in Luke 17.20-21. 

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (ESV).  

Here Jesus teaches that with his coming, the kingdom of God has also come. However, Jesus includes an important nuance. In the initial stage, the coming of God's reign will not be observable. It will not be visible. The kingdom of God will not at first displace the kingdoms of this world like Rome. Instead, for an unknown period of time, the kingdom of God will coexist with other kingdoms. This leads to our second kingdom reality.

The kingdom of God is not yet present. 

The not yet aspect of the kingdom is also illustrated by Jesus' teaching. In Matthew 13.31-32 he compares the reign of God to a grain of mustard seed that a man sowed in his field. The point of Jesus' parable is to teach the initial hiddenness - the present smallness of the kingdom. There is coming a future day then the kingdom will grow so that it is "larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches" (ESV).

Summary: The kingdom is already and not yet. 

This is not only taught by Jesus in the Gospels, but also by his servant Paul, in the Epistles. Paul tells the Colossians that King Jesus "has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1.13-14, ESV). By virtue of our union with Christ by the Spirit, the Kingdom of God's Son is a sphere in which forgiveness of sins is found. Furthermore, it is a sphere into which Paul says we have been transferred. The kingdom is already. On the other hand, Paul can tell the Corinthians that the risen Christ is the firstfruits, and then only at his coming will those who belong to him be raised to a life like his. "Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power" (1 Cor. 15.24, ESV). The kingdom is not yet. The New Testament holds these two realities in tension, and so should we.

What does this have to with Malachi? 

The people of Malachi's day lived in a similar already/not yet tension. In obedience to God, they built the Temple. But all the glorious realities to which the Temple pointed as a sign, would not come until the time of Jesus. They were challenged by Malachi to live in light of the glorious future and not to let the disappointments of the present turn them into a herd of Eeyores who deny God's love. Like a child who wants to unwrap all her gifts before Christmas has arrived, we often fall into the selfish trap of wanting all of God's good gifts now. Instead, we are called by God to wait. Oftentimes what it is we want (healing, peace, all suffering to end) refers to a reality we are only guaranteed at the Second Coming of Jesus. These are good desires. These are godly desires. However, because God is graciously patient, our message from Malachi is to patiently wait. This means we shouldn't be surprised when we get bad news from the doctor, when a relationship falls apart, when we remain beset by a certain sin over which we can't seem to gain victory. Don't ever forget, it isn't until the day of Jesus Christ that God will bring his good work to completion (Phil. 1.6). Until then, be patient with the world as it is, with others as they are, and with yourself as you are.

Take a listen to our exposition of Malachi.

I am currently reading The Signature of Jesus: The Call to a Life Marked by Holy Passion and Relentless Faith by Brennan Manning.

Don't forget we are studying Deuteronomy each Wednesday at 6 PM in room 104.

         

The Presence/Future of the Kingdom and the Nature of the Church

The Presence of the Kingdom and the Nature of the Church

One of the joys of my life is the Junior and Senior High Bible Class at Somonauk Christian School. This semester I am teaching New Testament Survey and I cannot overestimate the benefit of broadly and systematically studying the New Testament. Also, the students are a gift from God because they help me feel the presence of Jesus and his kingdom as we submit to his authority through studying and learning and growing to follow him better.

I have been blessed with several “in-depth” studies of the book of Acts. This time around, however, something previously undetected caught my eye (with the help of N.T. Wright). Notice the way Luke frames his narrative of “all that Jesus began to do and teach.”

To these (the apostles) He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1.5, NASB).

And he (the apostle Paul) stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered (Acts 28.30-31, NASB).

With remarkable clarity Luke offers two “bookends” within which we should understand all that is found between. As Luke begins Acts (Vol. 2) (Luke 1.1-4; Acts 1.1), he wants the reader to understand that Acts is about Jesus and his kingdom. Within the span of the first eleven verses, he records that Jesus, over a period of forty days, appeared to his disciples and taught them concerning the kingdom. The questions the disciples asked Jesus regarded the kingdom. The promise Jesus offers the disciples pertains to the kingdom power they will receive through the Spirit to be Jesus’ witnesses to the remotest part of the earth. Jesus then ascends from earth into heaven to assume the King’s throne at the right hand of his Father. As both preachers and writers know, the introduction sets the stage for all that needs to be said, Luke clearly prepares us for the story he wants to tell – a story about what it looks like when “the kingdom of God comes to birth on earth.” So the kingdom of God is not another name for heaven – some place that is essentially far from us. Instead, the kingdom of God has come near; it has come upon us through the life and ministry and Jesus (Luke 11.20), a ministry that continues through the church because she has received the Spirit, the same kingdom power that enlivened Jesus. As we think about the kingdom, the words Jesus gave his disciples to pray are helpful in forming a definition. The kingdom is where the will of the King is gladly obeyed. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So while I don’t believe we should equate the church and the kingdom, I do believe that within the church, God is demonstrating to the watching world what it looks like when the sovereign and saving rule of God is coming on earth as it is in heaven. Therefore, the church is pivotal within God’s kingdom story for the world.

First, while the church is not the kingdom, the church is evidence to the world that the kingdom is already present. This leads us to wander if we understand the church as having cosmic ramifications? Or is it simply some optional weekly event that may or may not improve our “spiritual lives?” Second, the church is God’s advance preview for the world of what life will be like on earth when God’s sovereign and saving rule comes in fullness. Thirdly, we must never forget Luke’s assertion that the church is the continuation of Jesus’ life and ministry. Notice again, the beginning of Acts. Luke describes his gospel as an orderly narrative of all that Jesus began to do and teach. The church, therefore, is the continuation of Jesus’ presence and ministry for the world. Finally, it seems to me (and others), that the story of Acts is Jesus’ “yes” to the apostles’ question, about restoring the kingdom to Israel. Through the gift of the Spirit, Jesus is restoring the kingdom to Israel, but in a way that Israel did not expect. Israel failed to hear from the prophets, that when Yahweh poured his Spirit afresh upon his people (i.e. restoring the Kingdom) nations would become one with God’s people (see Micah 4.1-2; Zech 2.10-11).  This seems to be the narrative Luke tells in Acts. Through the Spirit-inspired ministry of the apostles and the early church, the nations are coming to the light God shined over Israel (Isaiah 60.1-6). Additionally, Luke’s sporadic descriptions of the church describe for us how the early church manifested the presence of the kingdom and also embody from Jerusalem to Rome the nature of God’s sovereign and saving rule.  So it seems imperative for the church to understand itself as evidence of the kingdom’s presence and a foretaste of the kingdom’s future.

May each of us participate with devotion and transparency within our local congregations empowered by the King’s presence and his promise to come again.