Reflections for Urban Disciples

On this page we post occasional reflections that are intended to encourage us as disciples of Jesus in the city.  We only post the four most recent reflections.  If you are interested in older posts, please visit our archive page.

April 26, 2010

God on Our Side

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. Psalm 118.6-7

This is a profound reality. “The Lord is on my side.” God is not simply on my side but he is on my side as “my helper.” Now the whole of biblical revelation shows us that this is God’s world not ours and that God is the main actor, the first and final mover. We are peons relative to God, this God who is infinite, almighty, all-knowing, holy, good, etc., whose purposes stand, whose work is salvation and whose trade is life. That we have anything at all to do with him is a privilege, and that is a substantial understatement. We are finite, temporary, fickle, weak - “Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!” Ps 39.5 - not to mention our hard-wired opposition to God. So we say, also with the psalmist, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Ps 8.4. And yet, we read here that God is on our side. This really is a profound reality.

Most of us have lived the schoolyard ritual of choosing teams. Sometimes we had the privilege of being one of two captains who picked their teammates from the motley crew of gifted and not-so-gifted playmates. Re-imagine this scenario with the Almighty God, only he is the captain and you are the clumsy playmate. He has chosen us, made a covenant with us, and has condescended to help us. He’s on our team. Actually, we’re on his team. Yet even though he is the most gifted, most equipped player, he is taking on the role of helper, lifting us up, breathing life in us, calling forth love, joy, peace, and hope as we drop balls, trip over our own feet, and run out of breath just as the game begins. We’re lousy teammates but God is on our side. 

In the context of our world of trouble and trial, this is great news. We shall not fear, “though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at it swelling” Ps 46.2-3. The Lord is on my side. And “if God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8.31. This is good news, no, great news.

One problem: we often take this great news and mistakenly conclude that life will (or should) now be free of difficulty and trouble. It should be the actualization of our childhood dreams. But if the Scriptures are our guide - and we have no other guide if we want to deal with God - then we must readily acknowledge that God’s way is the way of death and resurrection. This was the way of Jesus, and it is the way for us. That God is on our side does not mean that life will be free of pain or heartache or struggle. The God we know in Scripture does not work that way much as we wish he did. No, there will be many deaths, and though we need not fear these deaths, death is alway painful. But there will also be many resurrections or re-creations - the life of God being formed in us. And then there is the Resurrection. This is what having God on our side ultimately entails: new life, his life, in us, both now and in the final day.  

Posted by Mark Booker

March 19, 2010

The Motive for Living Missionally

2 Corinthians 5.14

“For the love of Christ controls us...”

Isolation - keeping to myself and remaining detached from others - flows from a dead heart, a heart of stone. Our needs fill our horizon and we pull back, take care of our own, and hoard what we have. Incarnation - coming among and lovingly dwelling in the lives of others as servants - flows from love, from a new heart, a heart of flesh. We engage, care for others, and live generous lives even at great cost to ourselves. Why? When Paul writes that “the love of Christ controls us,” he gives the answer. Beneath the surface of the counter-cultural, incarnational, missional life is the overflowing, life-giving spring of love deep within the heart. It is not duty nor fear nor guilt that fuels the missional life. It is love. In Christ, we have found - as a hymn says - “love vast as the ocean, lovingkindness as the flood.” And this love controls us, leading us to live missional lives, lives of incarnation not isolation. The motivation for Jesus’ incarnation was love. The motivation for our incarnational lives is love: God’s love for us in Christ grounds, animates and enables our love for him and for neighbor which are expressed in incarnational living in the everyday situations to which God has called us. 

One more thing needs to be said: in a world where isolation rules the day, the incarnational life fueled by love is often misunderstood. This was true for Paul. The Corinthians were critical of Paul because he was not living the victorious, successful life that was typical for accomplished religious teachers of his day. There was no flashy personality, soothing eloquence, or elevated status, and the Corinthians were actually offended that their leader was constantly “afflicted - perplexed - persecuted - struck down.” Paul’s defense is that the “love of Christ controls us,” that is it has led him to live differently, not for his own glory or comfort but for the sake of Christ and of others - at any cost. As one lives the missional life, families, friends, colleagues, and neighbors may, at times at least, not understand. I have heard countless stories of people choosing the path of incarnation only to be reprimanded by those close to them for going down such a foolish road. Duty, guilt and fear will not withstand such criticism. Only love. So, in defense of the counter-cultural life he leads, Paul appeals to the love of Christ that controls him and frees him to forego isolation, to forego the expectations of others, and to give himself fully, joyfully, and sacrificially to the mission of God. Only love can do this.

Posted by Mark Booker

March 12, 2010

Grace and Mission

“...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2.12-13

Ever since I was five years old I remember reading and hearing about Noah, Abraham, Elijah, David, Daniel, Jesus, Peter, Paul and a host of other bible characters.  My mother bought a children’s bible for me and I remember reading it with my brother when I was a kid.  By the time I got to college I thought I had this Jesus character down.  I took a course on the New Testament with a professor at college and I remember walking out of class one day thinking that I had got Jesus wrong.  I read the Sermon on the Mount for the first time with new eyes.  I saw a Jesus who preached generosity instead of greed, peace instead of war, dying to self instead of selfishness.  I saw a Jesus who purposefully spent time with the unpopular and marginalized.  I saw what the death and resurrection of Jesus really cost him.  Suffice to say I met Jesus in a new way and I have never been the same.

We talk a lot about this Jesus at Church of the Cross.  We also talk a lot about “kingdom living” and “being on mission”.  Those phrases describe a lifestyle that is other centered.  A life that seeks to serve others, to live out those radical ideas of the Sermon on the Mount and to share the story of God with those far from him.  However, we must remember we cannot do this apart from grace.  In the verses above Paul reminds us that it is God who works in us, even as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling (1 Cor 15.9-10).  It is easy for us to focus on the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection and forget the grace given to us by his death and resurrection.  May we, as the body of Christ, be a people that continually preaches the gospel to itself; a people who reminds itself that we can do nothing apart from the grace of Jesus Christ and a people who boldly proclaims both the implications of the gospel  and the gospel through word and deed.

Posted by Ben Rey

March 5, 2010

The Test for Living Missionally

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” John 1.14

Our parish took a day retreat together last Saturday. While looking at the book of Acts, we talked about being a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered mission on the frontier. Naturally, this raised questions about what this actually looks like in Boston. Certainly, the specifics will look different in each of our lives, according to our gifts, callings, vocations, etc., but in Jesus’ mission to the world we find an answer that pertains to all. Though he is certainly more than this, Jesus is our model and Jesus’ mission was incarnational. This is the primary test of the missional life. To be incarnational is to embrace (to dwell among) the particular and local - which is often the unspectacular and mundane - and to resist generalities and abstractions. The frontier where risks are required and where sacrifice is necessary is not somewhere else, perhaps somewhere exotic, but rather in the midst of the people, neighborhoods, workplaces, and cities in which God has planted us. Your neighbors, your spouse, your kids, your co-workers, your classmates, your city, your campus: these are the frontiers that require bold and daring faith. Jesus came and dwelt among. Are we coming among and lovingly dwelling in each other’s lives and the lives of those in the world around us? The incarnational way is relational and people and life-oriented, and therefore quite messy. It is always a movement toward and not away. This way is marked by faith and great love. The opposite of incarnation is isolation, keeping to myself, staying neat and tidy and task-driven, and remaining detached, detached enough so that I can hold on to my advantage instead of advantaging others. This way is marked by fear. Any mission in Jesus’ name will entail messy involvement with real people and real places on Monday mornings and Saturday afternoons. Do we resist and remain detached or lovingly, sacrificially embrace and dwell among? 

Posted by Mark Booker

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