Will you be comfortable underground?
Our adult Sunday school class has begun a study of Ephesians. I am so weighed down with why I started this blog, I would on my own see this study as fluffy. Big mistake. It's food, the same as all scripture is food for the mind, soul, and spirit. So at the same time I want to roll my eyes, the Holy Spirit is ready to cuff me if I do. I'd much rather dig into Ezekial in a group setting and of course the end result would be one foot exchanged for the other in my mouth as I carry on about the current political swirl. Thou shalt not discuss religion and politics and particularly not politics in a religious setting. Is that what Mama said?
Messianic music is playing in the background. My computer area, decorated in a landfill motif, needs sorting and rearranging. Clutter is not a sign of genius, it is a consequence of procrastination. There is no pill for this. But instead of cleaning up first, I blog. I think I'm terminal.
I believe we are in the days of Ezekiel. I believe the bones coming to life is Israel in the 20th century, 1948 to be exact. That said ........... I'm going to go read Ezekiel after this in between The Book of Enoch, laundry, finishing the blanket I promised for the Buddy Walk, color my hair, and add or correct at that point. This logic allows for the procrastination, and justifies the impatience. Others call it shooting from the hip.
It was one of those perfect evenings on the patio in Minnesota. Honey and Son had been piling up the wood scrap from the door replacement project and decided to burn it in the nifty little metal campfire-on-legs. DIL nursed the newborn, cuddled his sleeping body and passed him to his daddy. One of my greatest blessings is that after stumbling through the parenting process, failing at every turn, fighting over this and that, and negotiating church attendance, the son eventually gave his heart to Jesus. wow. I think surviving a quadruple rollover on a wet Texas highway while stormchasing might have gotten his attention as well. This perfect evening, we talked.
They had just completed a casual discussion format in their small group in which they shared their observations and assumptions of other religions without doing a lot of research. It was more mind mining than data mining. So Son asked me, "What's up with the Messianics?" As he explained his question, I realized that neither he nor his group knew much about them and assumed that the Messianics were wierd at best, mysterious, not like standard Christians, that maybe they haven't gotten the Jesus thing right or are they just another Jewish sect?
My answer was short: worship style. They worship the same Jesus we do, call Him by His Hebrew name Yeshua, they know his physical ethnic origin and believe His current ethnicity to remain Jewish, and as a matter of comfort zone, may worship Him in the style they grew up with, which is Jewish. They refer to themselves as completed, not converted. "Converted" brings back ghosts of the Spanish Inquisition. I know of an American Jew who worshiped for many years in a typical gentile Assembly of God style and he is pentecostal. He and his wife, also Jewish, are now in Jerusalem ministering to their own in more of a gentile style than Jewish. The reason for that is that the youth they reach in Israel are tired of the orthodox ways. The American Messianic congregation here in Tennessee is reaching out to the Jews and worships in a Jewish style complete with the shawls and scroll. They sing and pray in both English and Hebrew (so G-d doesn't have to translate -- that's humor), and celebrate the Jewish festivals, all the while acknowledging Yeshua as Messiah. They embrace both testaments since the New mostly quotes the Old anyway (more humor).
Style. I am swimming in the music by Paul Wilbur and when I wind up this post, I just may run around the house for a while. If I were speaking to the sunday school class and said that, some of the eyebrows would rise and stick. Someone would undoubtedly dive into a diatribe of you can if you want to but not everybody has to dance. Happens every time in non-pentecostal groups everywhere. Raising hands in worship starts those conversations too. Let's not go to the tongues discussion. Who's right and who's wrong and never mind Psalms 100.
We're studying Ephesians. Safe. Comfortable. Familiar. Don't we know these basics already? I'm not able to judge the needs of the others as I look around the room. Isn't our time left too precious to go over the same material again and again? Yet, when our Bibles are burned, our buildings turned into "One World Centers", and we're meeting secretly, this old familiar basic stuff needs to be in our hearts.
When that happens, how concerned will we be about style? Is it ok if one of the group wants to dance? Speak in tongues? Raise hands in worship? Wear a Jewish prayer shawl? Or will we be networked according to our personal traditions and taste in what is right and wrong about worship style?
I pray we will finally be the answer to Jesus' prayer in the garden when He prayed in John 17:21 that we be one. His prayer does not refer to worship style per se as much as our schisms of doctrine and endless quarreling.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we stopped bickering about who is right and who is wrong before that persecution/purification process begins? How strong we might be as a unified church body by focusing on reaching out instead of criticizing each other.
The great body of the church grew cold. Many were offended.
Messianic music is playing in the background. My computer area, decorated in a landfill motif, needs sorting and rearranging. Clutter is not a sign of genius, it is a consequence of procrastination. There is no pill for this. But instead of cleaning up first, I blog. I think I'm terminal.
I believe we are in the days of Ezekiel. I believe the bones coming to life is Israel in the 20th century, 1948 to be exact. That said ........... I'm going to go read Ezekiel after this in between The Book of Enoch, laundry, finishing the blanket I promised for the Buddy Walk, color my hair, and add or correct at that point. This logic allows for the procrastination, and justifies the impatience. Others call it shooting from the hip.
It was one of those perfect evenings on the patio in Minnesota. Honey and Son had been piling up the wood scrap from the door replacement project and decided to burn it in the nifty little metal campfire-on-legs. DIL nursed the newborn, cuddled his sleeping body and passed him to his daddy. One of my greatest blessings is that after stumbling through the parenting process, failing at every turn, fighting over this and that, and negotiating church attendance, the son eventually gave his heart to Jesus. wow. I think surviving a quadruple rollover on a wet Texas highway while stormchasing might have gotten his attention as well. This perfect evening, we talked.
They had just completed a casual discussion format in their small group in which they shared their observations and assumptions of other religions without doing a lot of research. It was more mind mining than data mining. So Son asked me, "What's up with the Messianics?" As he explained his question, I realized that neither he nor his group knew much about them and assumed that the Messianics were wierd at best, mysterious, not like standard Christians, that maybe they haven't gotten the Jesus thing right or are they just another Jewish sect?
My answer was short: worship style. They worship the same Jesus we do, call Him by His Hebrew name Yeshua, they know his physical ethnic origin and believe His current ethnicity to remain Jewish, and as a matter of comfort zone, may worship Him in the style they grew up with, which is Jewish. They refer to themselves as completed, not converted. "Converted" brings back ghosts of the Spanish Inquisition. I know of an American Jew who worshiped for many years in a typical gentile Assembly of God style and he is pentecostal. He and his wife, also Jewish, are now in Jerusalem ministering to their own in more of a gentile style than Jewish. The reason for that is that the youth they reach in Israel are tired of the orthodox ways. The American Messianic congregation here in Tennessee is reaching out to the Jews and worships in a Jewish style complete with the shawls and scroll. They sing and pray in both English and Hebrew (so G-d doesn't have to translate -- that's humor), and celebrate the Jewish festivals, all the while acknowledging Yeshua as Messiah. They embrace both testaments since the New mostly quotes the Old anyway (more humor).
Style. I am swimming in the music by Paul Wilbur and when I wind up this post, I just may run around the house for a while. If I were speaking to the sunday school class and said that, some of the eyebrows would rise and stick. Someone would undoubtedly dive into a diatribe of you can if you want to but not everybody has to dance. Happens every time in non-pentecostal groups everywhere. Raising hands in worship starts those conversations too. Let's not go to the tongues discussion. Who's right and who's wrong and never mind Psalms 100.
We're studying Ephesians. Safe. Comfortable. Familiar. Don't we know these basics already? I'm not able to judge the needs of the others as I look around the room. Isn't our time left too precious to go over the same material again and again? Yet, when our Bibles are burned, our buildings turned into "One World Centers", and we're meeting secretly, this old familiar basic stuff needs to be in our hearts.
When that happens, how concerned will we be about style? Is it ok if one of the group wants to dance? Speak in tongues? Raise hands in worship? Wear a Jewish prayer shawl? Or will we be networked according to our personal traditions and taste in what is right and wrong about worship style?
I pray we will finally be the answer to Jesus' prayer in the garden when He prayed in John 17:21 that we be one. His prayer does not refer to worship style per se as much as our schisms of doctrine and endless quarreling.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we stopped bickering about who is right and who is wrong before that persecution/purification process begins? How strong we might be as a unified church body by focusing on reaching out instead of criticizing each other.
The great body of the church grew cold. Many were offended.
posted by Jane | 9:32 AM
1 Comments:
Amen from Minnesota!
Benjamin Franklin said: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
True for us Christians, too.
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