The Church as a Community of the Found

By Tim Hall

Tim Hall is an elder on session at Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Tim will be posting messages that help us think theologically about our faith.

When I was in graduate school, Sheree and I belonged to a rapidly growing church in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. The church’s commitment to excellence in worship, its reputation for grace-filled biblical preaching, and its lively children’s programs attracted well over 2,000 suburbanites. The church also attracted many lost sheep – street people whose presence contrasted sharply with the stained glass surroundings, rich traditional worship, and well-dressed attendees. One homeless man made a weekly habit of walking down the center aisle after the service had begun to take a seat directly in front of the pulpit. He often left early as well. Once, he stood up during the middle of the sermon, faced the pulpit, bowed conspicuously, then turned and strode out.

That incident exemplified for me the spirit of that church. Neither our pastor nor others in the congregation betrayed any reaction that would have made our homeless visitors feel unwelcome. On the contrary, many members went out of their way to extend greetings to such visitors, and the church invited a steady influx of street people by hosting a well-attended soup kitchen every Saturday. The open-hearted love of that congregation also extended beyond the visibly needy; Sheree and I received much needed rest and healing during some very tough years. I’m pleased that we encountered much the same spirit when we came to MPCC.

Jesus once compared the kingdom of God to a man who sent his servant into the “highways and along the hedges,” to bring in everyone he found to a great feast after the invited guests failed to show (Luke 14:23). In Acts 2 that parable became a reality when the first Christians responded to Peter’s preaching at Pentecost. Acts 2:42 tells us that those who received Peter’s words and were baptized that day “continually devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They also shared freely with each other, even “selling their property and possessions” to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters, and they encouraged and held each other accountable to live as God desired.

The Westminster Confession, our statement of faith, calls these practices “the marks of a true church.” The Bible tells us that as the early Church lived out these marks of authenticity, it looked like a party – going from “house to house,” sharing meals together “with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people.” Life in this New Community was attractive and contagious, drawing more and more people to Jesus every day (read Acts 2:42-45; 5:1-16).

Christ’s Church is a community of lost people who have been found.

Jesus said that there is “joy in the presence of the angels of God” over every sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). The Bible teaches that our faith in Jesus unites us “to Jesus Christ [our] head,” as the Westminster Confession summarizes it, as well as uniting us “to one another in love” (see Ephesians 4:4-16). This living unity gives us a share in “each others’ gifts and graces” and obliges us to exercise those gifts in ways that will contribute to “our mutual good, both in the inward and the outward person.”

We need each other’s help to grow in our Christian life. Yet Acts 2 reminds us that this New Community of the found was never designed to be an exclusive retreat where we focus only inwardly on one another.

A church behaving as God intended becomes Christ’s search party in the world, going persistently wherever lost people can be found, inviting them to share the “gladness and sincerity of heart” we have received, and celebrating with the angels whenever they do so.

Life together in such a radically open community stretches us all beyond our comfort zones. We may have to rub elbows with people we find difficult. We may encounter habits or beliefs that require an extra measure of patience, understanding, wisdom, and love. Yet as we remain faithful and open to God’s full purpose for the Church, we can take even greater comfort in this fact: a community that parties with the angels when lost people are found will also extend healing and grace to poor needy people like you and me.

As we enter this period of transition at MPCC, may we each remember that “we once were lost, but now are found, were blind, but now we see.” May we become even more the kind of place where others find that same grace and love.

Master of Storms: The Sovereignty of God

By Tim Hall

On the morning of August 29, 2005, the costliest storm in U.S. history made landfall on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina annihilated beachfront homes and property from Texas to Florida. It breached levees and flooded most of New Orleans with as much as 20 feet of polluted water. Katrina left behind over $81 billion dollars in property damage and at least 1,836 dead. More than three years later, many residents are still trying to pick up the pieces.

Such disasters confront us with the recognition that, far from being in control, we are radically vulnerable to life’s random circumstances. They prompt some to doubt that God exists and provoke in others the fear that he does not care. But an incident in Jesus’s life, recorded in John 6:15-21, suggests that even in the worst calamity, God remains in sovereign control.

Jesus had finished performing one of his most well-known miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. The people went home, he retired to the wilderness to pray, and his disciples began to row home across the Sea of Galilee. During the night, a gale whipped up the waves as they struggled to keep the boat afloat and steer it toward shore. Suddenly they noticed a human figure making its way toward them over the swells. The sight frightened the disciples nearly out of their wits--Matthew and Mark tell us that they thought a ghost was paying them a visit! Then the figure spoke, “I Am.” They recognized Jesus, welcomed him into the boat, and immediately found themselves at their destination on the other side of the lake.

This brief, dramatic scene encapsulates one of Scripture’s most potent conflicts, the battle between chaotic void and divine creative order. Ancient peoples viewed the sea as a symbol of chaos and destruction. One of the most powerful and feared of Ancient Near Eastern gods was named Yom, a word which also meant “sea.” Mariners knew how fickle, capricious, treacherous, and deadly Yom could be. Mediterranean storms could blow up huge waves to swamp fragile vessels, sending sailors to a watery grave in Yom’s immense belly.

Consequently, the Old Testament made a point of showing that when Yom and God collide, God always wins. In the beginning, God brought his beautiful creation out of an earth originally “formless and void,” with “darkness on the face of the deep.” Psalm 23:2 reminds readers that the Good Shepherd leads his sheep by “still waters.” Another psalm declares, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, for he founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters” (24:1-2). God’s reign is peace, but the wicked “are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud” (Isaiah 57:19-20). When Christ ultimately triumphs over evil to establish his eternal kingdom, his people will worship him from the shores of a sea as smooth and still as crystal (Rev. 4:6).

Jesus’ stroll on the waves that night, coupled with his effortless ability to bring the disciples safely across the water, provided unmistakable confirmation that he was “I Am”--the God who “sits enthroned over the flood” (Ps. 29:10), who conquered the Red Sea to rescue his people from slavery (Ex. 14:21-231), who will subdue the sea completely when he remakes heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1). We can call to him from the depths of whatever trouble comes our way, “for with God’s arrival comes love, with God’s arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it--he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity and sin” (Ps. 130:1, 7-8).

Such promises do not mean that we will never suffer calamity, but they do leave no doubt that nothing takes our sovereign God by surprise nor diminishes his concern for us. He has promised never to leave or forsake us. His sovereignty ensures that his is both with us in trouble and able to carry us through it, working “all things together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).

God the Almighty

By Tim Hall

Tim Hall is an elder on session at Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Tim will be posting messages that help us think theologically about our faith.

2,600 years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon dominated the territory of present-day Iraq along with most of the Middle East. His fabulous wealth and power excited the envy of the ancient world. Yet at the peak of his glory, when no human force on earth could touch him, this mighty king lost his sanity. He spent seven years living as a wild animal in Babylon’s countryside, wandering naked and surviving on native grasses. After regaining his sanity, Nebuchadnezzar admitted that his own power was nothing in comparison to that of the Most High. God is unstoppable, the humbled king declared. He “does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.” Even the most powerful ruler on earth could not hold back God’s hand or say to him: “what have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35).

The Bible commonly expresses God’s unlimited power--his omnipotence--in terms of his ability to “do whatever pleases him” (Psalm 115:3). Powerful though Nebuchadnezzar was, he recognized limitations to his might. Even the United States, which wields weapons the ancient Babylonian king could not begin to imagine, cannot do whatever its leaders want. By contrast, God’s voice alone can make a whole nation “skip like a calf.” One word from the Almighty can “shake the desert. . . and strip forests bare” (Ps. 29:3-9). The God whose command brought galaxies and black holes into being laughs at the pretensions of contemporary nuclear powers. As with the rulers of the ancient world, he merely “blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff” (Isaiah 40:24). For humans who are so easily impressed with displays of force, God has an unlimited ability to astound them.

Yet God’s power is far more subtle, pervasive, and awesome than flashy displays of mere physical might. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” Jesus warned his disciples. “Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt.10:28). God can penetrate beneath our physical being to the spiritual essence of who we are--our life in its deepest, most elemental sense. As the good and holy creator of our lives God also holds the authority to intervene in them, as he did with Nebuchadnezzar. Bombs may kill the body, but the God who does as he pleases holds the power to reunite dead bodies with their souls, to restore them to life, and to decide the eternal destinies of those he has raised.

This was the power people saw in action when Jesus lived and taught in Palestine 2,000 years ago. His power forgave the sins of an adulteress (John 8:1-11). It gave sight to a beggar (John 9). It gave life to a widow’s son, to a ruler’s daughter, and to his good friend Lazarus (Luke 7:11-17, 8:40-56; John 11:1-44). His power tripped up those impressed only with political and military might. They refused to understand it, rejected it, and ultimately did their best to wipe it out. Yet that power remained deep and subtle enough to turn his enemies’ short-sighted treachery into the redemption of the entire world. “We preach Christ crucified,” declared the apostle Paul, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:23-24).

As Christians, we celebrate the triumph of the one “declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). Jesus’ death and resurrection was the mightiest act of the one who does as he pleases--the deed that has changed everything. It has reconciled us wayward people with God. It has opened the way for us to receive his forgiveness and experience his love. It has given us hope that physical death is not the end, but the prelude to a glorious life with God forever. It has set in motion a process of restoration that will eventually put this broken world itself back together as God originally created it (Romans 8:18-21).

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