The Church is for Dying

This is based on two Bible Readings, Colossians 3:1-10 and John 12:23-26, both of which are printed at the end of the blog.

What is the Church? The Church is for dying!

Coronavirus has brought death into sharp focus in so many ways.  It has been a really painful time and continues to be for many around the world. There have been some dreadful sights in the news of people in intensive care.  There are occasions for various medical reasons when people have to make a choice of turning a life support machine off because there is no hope.  When that happens, it is immensely difficult and sad for most people.  That is compounded by some people not having a faith in Jesus and not knowing of an eternal future that can be theirs.

I wonder if sometimes we try to keep the Church on life support. The body is there, but the signs of life are few. Death has not happened but the fragility and state is such that we are aware that it could happen soon – maybe at any moment. There are some fellowships who are very aware they are on life support – propped up, being given oxygen by helpers around them.  Dependent upon so much around them.  I am not thinking of the vulnerability that should always be present in the life of the Church as we reflect Christ’s life, but that human vulnerability where we have been trying to keep things going in the way that suits us.  Fighting to cling onto life as we understand it.  Maybe it would be better to turn the life support machine off.  After all death for the Christian and for Christ’s Church is not an end but an entry point into new life.  We are made for death because through death comes life. 

 In the gospel reading from John 12 Jesus says, ²⁴ Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 

Here Jesus was talking primarily about his death that was to come, but we recognise that we are given a principle which is important – a principle demonstrated through Jesus. ²⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life   To find life we have to understand death.

That is true of salvation – dying to sin. It is true of a holy life – allowing the sinful life to die

 ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  (Colossians 3)

I would venture the same principle is true for the Church. I don’t mean the divine, spiritual life of the Church will die.  Jesus says “I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”.  I am not talking of the divine spiritual Church of Jesus dying. It won’t. Governments, dictators, persecutors, mockers, atheists, haters – can all throw what they want at it. But within that the Church has to let go of its human, sinful bits in order to enter into the new life that Christ brings.

For some individual fellowships that might mean them coming to an end as I just mentioned, but what I am specifically thinking off is that the rhythm and principle of dying in order to live should be something that we embrace in the life of our churches.  Sometimes we cling on to the life that we know and sometimes we make every effort to keep things going – as if we are on that life support machine – alive in a sense but not really in the way we are meant to be.

During this period of lockdown in the midst of Coronavirus when so much of our ordinary regular routine things of church and church life have stopped now is a good time to ask what is it that we allow to die.  Maybe there are old ways of doing things that no longer work, maybe worship and preaching has drifted from putting God and the Bible at the centre.  Maybe we have not fully embraced our existence as a missional movement designed to make disciples of all nations. Maybe we have been confined in our buildings.  Maybe we have allowed finance to dictate our vision rather than vision our finance. Maybe we have not allowed the voice of the little people to be heard in the Governance of our churches.

Our understandable difficulty is that dying involves letting go, loss, and pain.  So, our inclination is to shun or fight these things.  But that is the wonder of Jesus in the life of the Church.  When we embrace death of those things which do not draw us closer to God then it becomes an entry point into the new life, the fulfilled life that Jesus brings. That is true of us as individuals. That is true of us as church.

Might we seize the moment and allow some of those things to slip away that have been holding us back – as individuals, as churches, as a denomination… in order that we might live?  Life awaits us.

The Church is for death! In order that we might know life.  How far can people see the death and resurrection life of Jesus in the Church?

Fresh Expressions of Church is a movement I am passionate about and want to encourage churches to look at (that in itself might require allowing other things to die to allow us to move into new areas of mission and ministry).  I sometimes wonder though if we have invented a particularly unhelpful fresh expression of church.  We have Café Church, Messy Church, Sweaty Church!  I wonder if we have invented “Zombie Church” and in too many places see churches stumbling around with the semblance of life but lacking the reality of it.

The words of Deuteronomy 30 are relevant, ¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life….

Colossians 3:1-10

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

 

John 12:23-26 

²³ Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.

Give me some good news: Evangelism beyond COVID-19

This is the approximate text of a webinar I shared in on 19th May 2020 on "Give me some good news: Evangelism beyond COVID-19.

I want to reflect on re-purposing principles of Evangelism and drop some words in that I will be cover.

Principles

(Re) – Purpose

Practice

Partnership

Prophetic

The central Principles of Evangelism remain the same.

In Matthew 28, Jesus said “Go and make disciples”.  This reminds us in the Church we should be outward facing and looking.  The principle remains even if we are more confined in lockdown. Give me some good news! – It’s still about “Go”.

Going is not just about physical travel but about “going” in the mind to understand people and the context around us.  Paul in Athens (Acts 17) was like this.  He got the context.  He understood their religious background and uses it as a starting point when he talks about the altar to the Unknown God.  He refers to the local poetry, “In him we live and move and have our being” and “We are his offspring)

Give me some good news!  It is still about understanding the people and context around us.

Then the Mission of God, the Missio Dei.  One of the things that has come to the foreground more and more in recent years is the acknowledgement that we are invited to join in the mission of God rather than inviting God to join in our mission.  Give me some good news - It’s still about God’s mission not ours.

Let us re-purpose these principles so they inform our Practice in the present situation of COVID 19 and beyond They are relevant and they work. So, if it is God’s mission, where is God at work?  That picks up the context emphasis again from Athens and is essential.  God is at work.  We will have identified various ways and places and there will be more.  Look at what is going in in society,

Rainbows everywhere.

Prayer spoken about more freely.

People engaging with online worship in greater numbers than when we were meeting in church buildings.

An emphasis on the importance of Community as people struggle with isolation and lockdown.

A longing for freedom when our freedoms have been taken away in lockdown.

Creation where pollution levels are falling because so much air travel and other travel is reduced.

Health, Life and Death issues are to the fore

Mental Health challenges.

Domestic abuse challenges.

Those who are involved in extra marital relations will find it more difficult to pursue them and relationships may become even more strained with the hidden undercurrent.

The Church has something to speak into all these areas and having reflected that it is still God’s mission we can look and listen and discern where God is at work as we seek to apply the same principles of understanding the context and “going”.  We move to join in with what God is doing in his mission.

What else might help with our “Practice” then?

The good news is we have an opportunity to speak and act into the present situation, lifting our eyes up from the most familiar and usual routes of evangelistic practice and taking account of what is real to people at the moment. We can do that by learning from those around us.  Too often we might seek to re-invent the wheel in the Church.

Learn from the lockdown Church (that is prison, perhaps more like lock up church).  I was a Prison Chaplain for a number of years and saw how powerfully God can be at work in that environment.  What can we learn from those who have experience in a place where people cannot freely move around and meet?  I discovered Prison Ministry encourages a recognition that many are Biblically illiterate and we need to respond to that.  There is great Biblical illiteracy in modern society. Prison Ministry enables us to be more aware of spiritual hunger that exists within human kind. Prison Ministry encourages ecumenical co-operation and teamwork rather than a spirit of competition. Prison Ministry encourages the discipling of people one to one as well as in small groups.

Learn from the Dispersed Church  Look how the Early Church grew.  We may not be physically moving around under lockdown, but we are moving into different ways, mind sets, encountering people in different situations.  Perhaps we are getting to know neighbours in different ways, e.g., WhatsApp groups. We may be more aware of who we might meet via social media or the telephone. We might reach out through foodbanks and home deliveries to the vulnerable.  The dispersed Church really can be like salt being shaken out across communities.

Learn from the Persecuted Church  It is not that we are being persecuted, but we are not able to meet openly.  The persecuted Church might remind us of the thirst for the Bible, the encouragement into deeper prayer life and holiness, an emphasis on quiet communication of the good news of Jesus through one-to-one situations, and growth in perseverance.  Oh, what lessons we can learn from our sisters and brothers in the persecuted Church.  Maybe you know someone who had to live their faith out under persecution.  Ask them what we can learn to sustain us today.

Into this I want to bring an eschatological angle which was important for parts of the Persecuted Church, just as it has been in other groups and times.  Slavery would be another example.  Working for life before death (a Christian Aid slogan) is really important and part of the outworking of the Gospel.  In some parts of the Church, maybe more so in a relatively comfortable West, the Church has been a little more circumspect about mentioning things like assurance of life in Christ (now and eternally) and sharing insights about death, judgement, heaven and hell.  There are a lot of uncomfortable people around at the moment who feel frightened and vulnerable and some who are dying,  We have a message of hope and assurance for them.  For some who have suffered under persecution and who have suffered in other ways the realisation that in the end God holds them for eternity is central.  Of course, that does not and should not stop us working for change now.

I am reminded in some of what I have just shared that it is good to learn to Partner with others.  Prison, Hospital and Forces Ministry and the global church are all examples of where such partnership is seen.  We should make a point of partnering with God’s Church which is bigger that the Methodist Church. We should partner with communities and local government, with para-Church organisations in order that we might “seek the peace and prosperity of the City for when it prospers you too shall prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).  Burst the bubble of Methodism and live on a bigger map.

Another element to inform our practice is the Prophetic voice.  What is God saying to us?  It is good to ask that question.  It is not always easy to answer.  I have been trying to listen to others and to prayerfully reflect myself.  Maybe God is saying Stop, to the World and the Church

Our normal routine in the life of the Church is not something I am keen to go back to and I wonder if God might be speaking into this time saying to us Stop!  Stop your struggling and die.  Because it is through death that we enter into life.  Think differently, act differently.  Do not start the same meetings up, do not use Preaching Plans in the same way.  Look past the boundaries of your buildings.  Listen to the concerns of the world.  Put mission at the centre.  Do not start or restart anything unless it has a missional edge.

Finally, there is no lockdown on love and no lockdown on the Holy Spirit who still brings the living Christ to us.  They tried lockdown on Jesus once, on a Friday in a tomb.  It did not work.  It does not work.  The essential thing is to keep Jesus at the centre.  That is the uniqueness of what we bring.  I heard a radio interview several days ago.  Two people were being interviewed and one of those was a Church Minister.  The Minister was asked whether this be a moment of spiritual revival.  My own view is that it could be with the many questions and concerns that are being expressed across society.  The minister was asked about what the Church offered into this and shared that we can encourage people to be kind.  Now I do not want to encourage people to be unkind, but if that is the best we can offer……

Give me some good news!  I want to say what we have to offer is Jesus – nothing more and nothing less.  That is still good news.

Reflection on John 14:1-14 - Jesus the Way