"Doing Church" in the 21st century... the fifth act

I was struck today from something I am reading on the thinking of David Lipscomb and James A. Harding.  It comes from Kingdom Come published by Leafwood publishers and is written by a professor friend of mine, John Mark Hicks and a co-author, Bobby Valentine.  On their chapter concerning Lipscomb and Harding’s emphasis on the importance of Bible study, the authors elaborate on an increasingly popular analogy that I found pretty insightful.

 

Living the story of God is like performing a drama.  Our life in Christ is analogous to a group of Shakespearean disciples who want to perform a newly discovered six-act play by Shakespeare.  But the fifth act is missing.  We only have the first four acts and the last one.  Suppose, however, these disciples wanted to perform the play.  How can they perform it without the fifth act?  They will have to improvise.  In order to do so, they would have to “live and breathe” the [other] works of Shakespeare.  By knowing the mind of Shakespeare and thoroughly understanding the extant acts, they are able to improvise the fifth act in a way that is faithful to the other acts.

 

Christian discipleship is like performing the fifth act.  Scripture bears witness to the mind of God in Christ.  We have the first act—Creation—and thus know God’s intent for his world.  We have the second act—Israel—and thus know how God intended his people to be a light for the Gentiles.  We have the 3^rd act—Christ—and thus we see how the Son exegetes the Father (cf. Jn 1:18).  We have the 4^th act—the early Church—and thus know how the church in the New Testament lived and communally practiced the values of God in their time.  And we know the 6^th act—the new heaven and new earth—and thus know God’s goal for his people.  We are the fifth act [the modern church] and we currently perform that act best as we imaginatively enter into the mind of God in Christ.  We seek to perform the fifth act in a way that is faithful to Scripture and faithful to how God has progressively worked in history to establish his kingdom.

 

Their conclusion was that our ability to faithfully improvise and perform this “fifth act” depends directly upon our “living and breathing” the works that we do know… the writings of Scripture.  We come to know the mind of God through our knowledge of Scripture… and without that knowledge we are left wandering aimlessly in this life.  Pretty insightful, I thought…

Another "Political Question" of the day...

Is it a good idea for the current #2 to offer the #2 position to the current #1… especially given the fact that the current #1 knows he is in the #1 position and not in the #2 position?  What does this say about the #2?  Just asking…

Whew!

I have to say that I was a little relieved this week with the way the vote turned out on "Super Tuesday 2." I had been afraid that it would be over and the daily news cycles would return to reporting important things like golfers hitting hawks in the sky (see FoxNews coverage of Tripp Isenhour). But NO... thank goodness!! The voters came out of their holes on Tuesday... voted... and it looks like we're going to have at least seven more weeks of Winter... and campaigning! Hillary made an outstanding showing (at least that's what the media outlets are reporting). She didn't actually make any headway either in the delegate count nor in popular vote, but she did do well enough to stay in the race. WHEW! That was close. It was almost over. Now we can sit back and enjoy seven more weeks of in-fighting, mudslinging and name-calling. It has already begun. Hillary's camp blasted Obama this week, likening him to "Ken Starr" (is that such a bad thing?) and one of Obama's staffers responded by calling Hillary a "Monster". Oh, doesn't it take you back to jr. high school?
Well, I'm looking forward to a lot more excitement keeping up with all of the fun. You know what they say, "It's not over till.... its over." I for one, don't wish for it to be over any time soon. Its too much fun.

The Cup & the Bread

Since the ancient days of the early church, Christians have regularly gathered around the Lord’s table to remember the incredible sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross through our partaking of the cup and the bread.  These emblems serve as an awesome reminder of his body and blood which was broken and shed for us.  Where would we be without the forgiveness of sin?  At Washington Street we are reminded of that each Sunday as continue to gather around that table.  Beginning this Sunday and going through Easter we are going to be examining anew this ancient tradition and this wonderful feast… let me encourage you to use it as an opportunity to invite friends and family to be with us.  They will hear the good news and we will all be challenged anew by this incredible sacrifice!

 

Political Thoughts...

I fear that tomorrow may be it for this preliminary campaign season. It has certainly been one worth watching these last many months. You know me… there are few things that interest me more than faith and politics (the two things you’re never supposed to talk about at parties since you might offend somebody.) Oh, well. I’ve never been real popular anyway. To be honest, I have been pretty disgusted this election cycle with the lack of a real good candidate that I felt like I could support. I eventually came around to Fred Thompson just in time to hear his concession speech. With that disappointment, I found myself without a real candidate that I felt like I could vote FOR. Resisting the urge just to cast a vote AGAINST another candidate (and since there were so many I would vote against anyway) I decided not to vote in the primary… for the first time in a long time!

Now it looks like McCain has the nomination all but sealed up on the Republican side… BUT the Democratic side has been the real one to watch this year! Who would have ever imagined this time last year that anyone but Hillary was even going to come close? She has been the clear front-runner since shortly after the last election in ’04. Everyone all but assumed that she would be the nominee. And out of nowhere comes this vibrant, energetic, young unknown running on a platform of little else other than the catch-word “change”. Sounds a whole lot like another vibrant, energetic, young unknown who came out of nowhere (Hope, AR) to achieve the nomination of his party and ultimately even the presidency… in 1992, remember?

So who will it be… Hillary or Obama? Tomorrow may very well be the defining moment… “Super Tuesday II” as the papers are dubbing it. Will Obama continue his momentum and deliver Hillary a knock-out blow? Or will the “come-back kid’s spouse” make a come-back herself and stay in the game for another round? Who knows? It is exciting to watch, though. I’m not sure who I’m rooting for… Obama or Hillary? My beliefs usually fall more in with the traditional tenets of the Republican party, but I’m not a real huge McCain supporter either. So, what to do? I actually believe that Obama will be the tougher candidate for the Republicans in the Fall, so I guess that just leaves me… ambiguously ambivalent. One thing for sure, though. I’ll be watching and listening to the results tomorrow night… I just can’t help it.

The "Closer"

Man, I want to thank by co-hort in crime here at Washington St., Brad Sullivan, for the great job he did in "closing" my recent sermon series from Genesis this past Sunday. Its great to get away for the weekend every now and then, but I sure do hate being away from my church family and the opportunity to preach. I did so this past weekend, however, confident that Brad would do a great job filling in and wrapping up some of the themes we've been exploring lately... I wasn't disappointed. I rushed up to the sound room this morning to grab the CD of yesterday's sermon and then listened to it over lunch. Man, outstanding and challenging! Thanks, Brad. We really do have the best youth minister around... (he's going to kill me for stealing this pic of him off of his Facebook page!)
The whole purpose of our study thru the book of "beginnings" hasn't been to wallow in the past, but to remind ourselves of WHO WE ARE and WHERE WE CAME FROM so that we would be better prepared to face the future! I believe God is still doing great things at Washington Street and that he wants to continue to do great things in each of our lives... but will we be ready to face the challenges ahead? That's the thought I want us to explore this coming Sunday. And I am VERY VERY interested in hearing what you have to say. Here are some questions that I would like to hear back from you on...

• How do you feel about the future of the church here at Washington Street?
• What would you say are some of the biggest challenges that we as a church face?
• What specific ideas do you have that would help us in the future?

Our Elders, deacons & ministers will be meeting together soon for our annual Leadership Summit to discuss just some of these very things. We value your input and suggestions.

Babel

An unfinished skyscraper in the Gulf state of Dubai has become the world's tallest building, at 141 storeys, its developers say. Emaar Properties said the 512m (1,680ft) Burj Dubai is now taller than Taiwan's 508m (1,667ft) Taipei 101. It is thought Burj Dubai will eventually be 693m (2,275ft) tall.

"Burj Dubai has now reached 141 stories, more stories than any other building in the world," the company said in a statement. There is speculation that, spire included, the final height could be more than 800m, but Emaar is keeping structural details secret.

It's curious to me after reading through Genesis 11 again that we're still building buildings all these years after Babel and still trying to reach toward the heavens. I did a Google search on the world's tallest buildings and learned that there's quite a competition going. Every year it seems a new building beats the record and arguments are raged about exactly WHAT is being measured. Does the spire count? What about the cell phone towers on top? Everybody wants theirs to be the tallest building. And they want to put their name on it. Funny.

Given all this interest in tall buildings... it makes me think again about the tower at Babel. What exactly was the problem? It sounds to me like a good thing that the people were able to come together and building something so monumental using such archaic tools and methods. I look back at history and see some of the great architecture from some of the great civilizations of antiquity and wonder... what was the problem? It is beautiful, much of it. Why did God get so upset at Babel... and why did he confuse their languages? THAT one especially get me! If it weren't for Babel I could go to Honduras and order a hamburger and be understood! Aargh!

This Sunday we're going to be looking together at Gen. 11 and the story of Babel. Read it again this week and let me know what you think...