What Is The Secret Of Your Church?
Good Morning Friends,
Anonymity is a wonderful thing sometimes.
For some very practical reasons Jesus desired it during his ministry. Promoting Himself as the Messiah before his death and resurrection would have exasperated the tension between the religious leaders, Rome and his followers. Such tensions needed to be managed strategically so events could be timed, and the full revelation of his purpose revealed. He did not exactly have a covert ministry but just say that his Messiahship was a topic not to be announced overtly before the time had fully come and Satan had been defeated. Institutional bodies of organized believers over history to this day have tried to manage events in this manner but rarely to hide something good. Usually it has been to hide something evil. What Is The Secret Of Your Church?
Scripture: Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.
1 Peter 5:1-4 (NRSV)
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 16:13-20 (NRSV)
Message: Today my Catholic friends are celebrating the life of Peter and it must be bitter sweet for the reality is that those who celebrate the chair of authority have lamentably had few saintly popes and unarguably even by their own standards many leaders who were looking out for shameful gain or worse abuse over those they were supposed to serve. This gave rise to the Protestant reformation and revolution but if one looks to scripture and what Christ is saying, he must have known there would be confusion that could not be satisfied by a media blitz. The thing is that Protestants have their own divide of liberals and conservatives forming a separation that in many ways has made the church irrelevant. The battle here is spiritual and in our hearts. Here truth without freedom is just another form of slavery…freedom without truth insanity. They must exist together destroying the illusions of life and substituting love. History, including that of the institutional church is full of dictators, legalists and controlling people that are afraid of the marriage of truth and love. And that is the ugly secret of the church that cries out for Jesus to be revealed.
And So, friends, today there is no reason to keep who Jesus is a secret. We are not to dedicate our lives to the insanity of separation. But we are to find some value in the trouble we face in the leaders of our faith. People are a poor substitute for Jesus. True spirituality is counterintuitive. The Man of Sorrows became incarnate among us to set us free in the full dynamic range of our troubles, not to help us deny them but to discover ourselves as we seek to find God. Here Truth and Freedom must exist together in a marriage of love.
Pray we not grieve the Holy Spirit. Pray we are more defined by what we are for than what we are against. Pray we enter the sorrows of others so that we understand their pain. Pray we believe that Jesus wants to show us something through the unspeakable sorrows of the souls of others when we are married to the Truth and are naked in our honesty with God. Pray we find an immortal identity with Christ that is preserved and fulfilled as we draw near to the love of God though missions. Pray that we realize that Christianity has died many times only to be resurrected again. Pray the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, helps us live in abundance with both joy and happiness…Truth and Consequences that encourage a healthy Freedom.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 