On Philippians 1 in Brevity

Paul, to the Church in Philipi while in prison:

"I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose."  ~ MSG

 Death is Gain

It is odd in our hyper-secular culture to think of death as a gain. After all, it seems modernity has brought about nearly every conceivable way to avoid death. Even as Christians here in the U.S. it is easy to simply assume the worldview of our culture and see death as the ultimate sacrifice...as if it were something that only a few could embrace and those few are to be thought of as supreme for some reason.

Here in the midst of Memorial Day weekend, many are gearing up to mourn again those that have lost their lives in battle and so they should. Scripture speaks to us that the greatest love is to lay down our lives for another... but even in such a sacrifice, a Christian should know that there is no loss in death.

In fact, it is death - our baptism into the crucifixion of Christ - that brings about our true life: our resurrection after the Messiah. Paul writes well when he juxtaposes these two states of existence. Death, he says, is gain because in death, we are Christ's prize, his bounty and we gain unity with him eternally. Death may hurt those who we leave, but it is not to be feared or avoided; it is natural and thus set right again by Christ's resurrection as it was intended to be from the very beginning of time.

To Live is Christ

 The more vital piece of Paul's attitude toward his ministry is this portion: while living, we are to be the arbiters of the Kingdom of God. Consistently, Jesus points his followers back to this mission and back to the focus of the Kingdom. When asked about the end of days, he reminds them that now is the time to act; now is where their focus should be.

So too should we contemporary Christians be focused on the now. There is truly no shortage of Kingdom-bringing for us to accomplish here in our world. I only want to encourage those that do work towards this Kingdom reality that there is life in your work. This life - this Christ-life that we participate in - is manifest in small ways, in daily ways and it is always followed by peace in the soul. We were built to be a part of Christ's Kingdom and so there is a settling in us when we act in accord to our intended nature.

Go Forward

So, in light of these wise words from our older brother, Paul, let us go forward in our week remembering that this is the attitude to have towards our individual ministries. And what is your ministry? It is your life; your day-to-day interactions, your example and spiritual foot-print that you leave behind. Go and face this ministry with the fact in mind that when we die, it is all to our benefit because we will be with Christ. More immediately important, though, we are to live as Christ's. Reflect on how you're doing with this; is this your attitude? Do you fear death? Are you living as Paul did, with the mission of Christ's message as your motivator?

peace,

C.M.

On Miraculous Healings

This morning I want to write to you and tell you about one pondering I had yesterday while working (I work in a vinyard so I have lots of time to think). I ran out of coffee, however, so I had to go get some this morning and my writing time was cut into, so we'll see how far I get :)

I was thinking about Jesus healing people because of the faith of others, mostly relatives, in the new testament. There are several times where Jesus tells people that their "faith has made them whole" and this makes sense to us because we generally like to feel like we have a say in what happens to us. But what about those who were healed because of the faith of another? The possessed boy healed because of his father's struggling faith: "I believe, but help my unbelief". When Jesus brings the little girl back to life, he tells her parents to "believe". So my question in all of this pondering was "why this"?

In light of modern medicine, we often feel like there is little that can happen to a person that can't be saved if caught early enough. Sadly, this is a misplaced confidence. Still, when we pray that God heals someone and they don't become well, we are stuck between our mourning and this Biblical heritage of miraculous healings. Why doesn't this happen now more regularly?

After the better part of an hour trying to wrestle something sensible out of this conundrum, I finally just gave up and said "God, if you have a good answer for this, I'm up for it". Then nothing really happened. It wasn't until a couple hours later, after I had been praying and singing while I worked that a thought came to me. This thought was to view Jesus' miraculous healings in a cosmic framework; one that superseded the event itself.

What if God was getting at something more than just the individual event?

If there is one thing that is true, it is that God knows the big picture much better than we do. So, what if the miraculous healings that Jesus accomplished were not merely to the end of bettering that individual's life? Furthermore, what if those healings were for more than just establishing his authority and divine status for those following him (which they certainly did)? What else could they be for?

An Exemplary Event

I think that the healings that we see in Scripture which were accomplished by another person's faith were to be a demonstration to us of how our faith is not our own. Perhaps there is a metaphysical principle at work in these events in which the faith of a believer - even a struggling believer - is enough to heal a person.

When I think about sin, I think the most accurate understanding is to hold to the Eastern Orthodox view in which our propensity towards sin is understood as an illness instead of a dirtiness, like it's understood in the Western Church. This reminds me of Jesus saying that a doctor doesn't come for the well but for the sick - the sick in spirit.

Our faith in Jesus can heal other people. Where we miss out on much life in our faith is when we stop short with this idea and think that miraculous healing via one's own or another's faith is only needed in physical maladies. The reality is that Jesus comes as a healer of spirits, a mender of hearts and a restoring breath of fresh air to a stagnant soul. 

The Take-away

So, when you read about Jesus healing someone because of another person's faith, remember that this principle holds for today. 

Your faith may be the difference between life and death for someone's spirit.

Whether you demonstrate that faith through your friendship or through your prayers, know that the faith in Jesus that you live in can be a healing force in a person's life. Perhaps that person ends up becoming a brother or sister in Christ. Perhaps all you ever accomplish is for them to feel like, because of your relationship with them, that there is hope for the Christian religion and we're not all "hypocritical, moral-nazis with long 'don't do' lists". 

When you pray for other people like these parents in Scripture did, pray that Jesus heals someone's body AND spirit because of your faith.

Peace,

C.M.