Jesus…All I Need?

 

 

I have grown up in the church…a pastor’s kid…a church rat.  My journey has included rebellion, hatred of church, refusal of all things God, an embracing of God, jumping back in the church, building my life around the church, and then hating the church again, the church and me…we have a love/hate relationship.  I hate what it has become, I love what it was meant to be and despite the numerous hurts I’ve endured…I still believe and still have a dream that what is in my heart about the church can exist.

 

 

 

 

For as long as I can remember though one particular phrase has stood out to me that I have never felt comfortable with.  The phrase…JESUS IS ALL I NEED.  I’ve heard it in sermons, in the songs we sing, in books I’ve read, in Bible College classes, and from numerous individuals.  I’m not writing to offend anyone, I’m simply conveying my own thoughts and raising questions that have resonated within me for so long and I’ve kept them to myself instead of voicing them.  Let me tell you why I have a problem with this saying and the line of thought behind it.

 

First of all, I must admit that for a season I accepted this line of thought to be true even though I didn’t really believe it.  After all if the preacher or professor said it, it must be true.  However, recently I have been doing some serious study on the life of Jesus, and specifically his relationship with the Father and Spirit, we call this the trinity.  I have discovered for myself that Jesus’ goal was not to keep us all to himself.  In fact, by his own words his desire was to reveal to us the love of the Father, for they are one, so by being in Jesus we might also be in and with the Father with the help of the Spirit.  Jesus never had any intention for us to only know him.  The invitation he gave to share his life came with an invitation to share in the life and relationship that he enjoyed with his Father, and with the Spirit.

 

Secondly, I am convinced that the church as we know is not the dream that God envisioned.  We have organized, institutionalized, and ritualized what was intended to be a living, breathing, community comprised of ALL God’s children, which is to say the world.  Instead, the church has become an exclusive place of membership, it reminds me of a country club…where you are invited to participate as long as you meet the membership requirements.  I honestly believe that if Jesus were to come back, just for a quick visit to hang out in the world today…the last place we would find him would be in any of our church buildings.  God is about relationship…period…relationship with Father, Spirit, Son, and relationship with creation and all human beings who have ever lived.  God is not interested in our rules, our liturgy, our practices, and certainly not our religion.  Jesus was not sent to start Christianity, or a new religion, in fact the Son was sent to end all religion and all religious practices, his goal was to invite us into relationship.  He came to bring a revolution of the heart and a renewal of the mind, to cure our blindness and allow us to see the love of His Father so that we may grow to love him and come face to face with unconditional love and live in the embrace and dance of the Trinity.  God knew we would need help to continue with this truth so the gift of the Spirit and the church was given to help us in this journey.  While the Son is appointed as the head of that living body, we comprise the parts…and as hard as it may be for us to accept…it is not all about Jesus.  It is about relationship, which Jesus came to reveal and sent the Spirit to continually reveal and disclose all truth to all people that death has been swallowed up in victory and all creation has already been reconciled when God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself before the foundation of the world.

 

What I have realized is that Jesus is not all I need, and that statement does not offend him.  I desire to have a relationship with Jesus, and I do, but Jesus desires for all of humanity to have a relationship with not only him, but also his Father, and the Spirit has all kinds of ways of reminding us that this is true.  I have also realized that I need people, that God never intended us to walk this journey alone.  I have tried and that way has failed.  I haven taken the view of Just give me Jesus, He is all I need…I don’t need this world or anything it has to offer.  My friends I believe this is a lie that many have bought and believed to be true…for the world, this broken world, this fallen place, has plenty to offer because it is comprised of human beings that God intended for us to live in relationship with.  This has been true from the beginning by the way, with Adam not needing to be alone, with Israel, with the Jews, and in Jesus the whole world.  I love this world, I believe all things have been made new, I believe in people and while I am not of this world I desire to be fully in it.  I love Jesus’ creation, all of it, and need and desire to be in relationship with as many of his children that I can.  We need each other, not just Jesus.

 

Why I do I believe this?  Because I have finally experienced it, I had given up on this dream and then I found true and authentic community and it was not in the church.  It was in a group of people who were honestly seeking life, belonging, truth, and doing so by the sharing of life together.  It is beautiful, I have found it, and I am never going back.  I am living in relationship with people who know me inside and out, who accept me and have shown me more about the love of Jesus than any book I’ve ever read, any scripture I’ve tried to interpret, or any class I’ve ever taken.  They have shown it in action, by speaking the truth in love, by picking me up when I couldn’t walk, by being a picture of the body living and moving together in ways I never imagined actually existed.

 

Do we need Jesus?  Absolutely, we certainly do.  Do we need to know His Father?  Absolutely, if we desire to fully know Jesus we must come to fully know the Father.  Do we need each other?  Absolutely, the answer is a resounding yes…we NEED each other.  God has gifted us with the invitation to live fully in relationship in the dance of the Trinity, and with each other.  It is beautiful; it has nothing to with buildings, with membership, with attendance, or giving.  It has to do with love, for love is the greatest of all and as we love ourselves for who God has made us to be, we love God back, and we learn to love each other…and that is the desire and dream of the Father’s heart.  At least, this is how I see it, what I choose to embrace, and what I desire to live into.

 

Let it be.

 

Be Blesssed Friends…You Already Are!

 

 

The Healing Process – Part II Community

Confession is a great start to the healing toward wholeness.  In my opinion it is the first piece of the puzzle.  The straight edges if you will that allow a framework for the rest of the puzzle to be put together.  Now, it’s time for those jagged pieces to be in some sort of order so they can be fit together.  Here is what I have learned about those pieces:

Part II – The absolutely essential piece of Community

While confession is an important piece, community is the catalyst for it.  Have you ever tried to confess on your own?  Especially if the lies of our fallen mind are in full effect, confessing to an angry dis-approving God is nearly impossible.  When we fail to see the unconditional love of the Father we need others in our lives who can help us not only see it, but who can make it a reality in the ugliest of circumstances.

The journey toward wholeness in my opinion must include a healthy community and family.  It is one of the unique characteristics of our DNA, part of God’s design in creation.  He never meant for life to be lived alone.  The islands of our western world and way of existence go against God’s original plan for us to live in circles of extended family and community.  I absolutely hate it when Christians say really uneducated things like, “Jesus is all I need.”  It’s simply not true.  Many books have been written from this position and numerous songs of worship composed around this thinking.  It’s not only untrue, it’s not even Biblical.

Community has always been God’s intention for the human race.  The early church is a great example of this as they absolutely depended on each other both spiritually and physically for their needs.  The church for them was a collection of human souls deeply desperate for the need of not only the supernatural but also the physical touch and support of each other.  This is not just a New Testament concept.  Community was a huge part of the Old Testament as well.  The children of Israel may have wandered for 40 years, but they didn’t wander alone.  They were led not only by a cloud and fire, but with each other.  They understood the concept of community, family, and their need to accept and give love and support to one another.

Unfortunately, this concept is almost non existent in our American, Western understanding of faith and view of the world.  No where in the world does the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality exist like it does in the US.  We live isolated in our neighborhoods and suburbs, hardly  knowing the people who live right around us.  Our faith communities are no different.  Sure we go to church and attend worship but that is hardly community the way God intended it.  It has become way too easy for a person to just be a number in a service.  Our churches are silos where people who suffer sit alone in their darkness, instead of hospitals where the sick are loved and cherished for who they are.  Unfortunately our  past experience says church is no place to share pain, hurt, loss, and struggle.  After all Christians are supposed to have it all together right?  And when we have tried to confess in those faith communities the outcome is often tragic.  Often we are shamed by the very ones who should be extending grace.  The church is the only community I know that is good at devouring its own.

Confession is a great way to start to healing.  Community is the catalyst and I believe healing happens best in community.  So how do we find it?  Community is hard work, plain and simple.  Not only does it require us to be completely open and honest with our struggles, it also requires us to gracefully receive others and all their junk as well.  Families are messy and community is all about building extended family.  Don’t be dismayed though, there are communities out there that exist and thrive like this.  I have found two of them.  There is no doubt that I would not be where I am at today if it weren’t for the healthy communities I have found.

1.  While it seems like I have bagged on the faith communities (trust me it’s for good reason and past experience) there are healthy communities of faith that do exist.  What to look for?  A church that is solidly grace based.  Way to much shame is thrown around the church.  This is mostly due to awful theological interpretations and a misunderstanding of the triune God of love, mercy, and grace.  Look for a leader of a church that displays and promotes this kind of acceptance and grace publicly.  It it is not happening in public, it is not happening in private either.

2.  Don’t limit your search to churches.  When the church (the institution) fails, seek it elsewhere.  The church isn’t the organized system of religion we’ve come to know it as anyway.  The church is the body, the people.  Find a support group, talk to others who you know have gone through hard times, communities are out there.  If you live in the KC area I highly recommend researching the BT community I have grown to love and know as family.

I also happen to be a part of a faith community that functions in this way.  For KC folks Kaw Prairie Community Church is the most grace filled church I have ever seen much less been a part of.

3.  Build your own.  Starting and maintaining healthy community is not rocket science.  It requires a few key essentials and starting your own can be difficult, but it can be done.  I have done this as well.  Here a few things I looked for in starting my own extended family.

• People I could trust.
• Environments of safety.  It’s hard to open up when we don’t feel safe.  If we are to share our stories we have to trust our listeners with our hearts.  Don’t share your heart with people you don’t trust.
• Fellow sufferers.  Nobody offers love, grace, and support better than people who have been there and done that

The road to wholeness is not an easy one.  We cannot do it alone and you are not alone.  You would be amazed at the people you rub shoulders with everyday who suffer alone.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  Confession is a great start and community, extended family, is a beautiful gift from the Father.  Together, as we learn to be in relationship and receive blessing from Father, Son, Spirit; we naturally want to give that gift and affirmation to others.

This is a major part of the ugly beautiful.  In community our ugliness is not alone.  It is shared, cared for, and turned into a beautiful story of redemption and wholeness.

Be blessed friends, you already are, and you are not alone.

For a good listen and truthful reminder I love this song.