Early Christians Attended Synagogue Like American Christians Attend Church

Apparently Jewish believers in Jesus still attended synagogue even after their profession of allegiance to King Jesus as Messiah. Did they attend as believers in Jesus looking for fellowship with other like-minded people or is it more likely they attended as a matter of tribal identity? In other words, they didn't depend on synagogue attendance as the means of growing as a community in Christ. It was simply what they did as part of their heritage and Mosaic tradition. Not only was that not a bad thing, it provided a setting for cultivating their shared identity as Jews. But to be clear, the believers in Jesus would no doubt gather in different settings (homes?) and practiced a different "liturgy" to cultivate their identity in the Kingdom of the God of Jesus. Attendance in one religious setting (synagogue) neither precluded nor replaced attendance in another setting in which a more transcendent identity was being forged. American church attendance likewise has become a reflection of "tribal" identity and our Westernized christian culture. Like the early followers of the same King, today's believers cannot limit the definition of our identity to that which is thrust upon members of a particular local religious institution (read: church). The identity of a true believer transcends what most churches can and do provide and must therefore find its definition encouraged in different settings and in different ways. So going to church should be accepted for what it is: participation in an American tradition. But let the community of Jesus seek out each other in ways that encourage us to love and good works (HEB. 9:25). Because its safe to say that the modern "synagogue" will not embrace true belief in Jesus as it will threaten its organizational fabric. New wine will need new wine skins. 

Some God-lovers Hear Jesus' Voice but For Some Reason Don't Get It

Acts 22:9- Everyone was exposed to Jesus but only one person understood what was being said and allowed it to change the trajectory of his existence. Paul's companions were no doubt lovers of God like Paul and undoubtedly shared both his passion and vision to protect God's interests. Yet, only Paul "got it". Only Paul's trajectory appeared to change. It's as if people of faith can sense something life-altering is happening around them but for reasons we don't know, they are unable to understand Jesus' message in that moment. Perhaps they would get it later- we don't know. In spite of being what appears to be the ONLY one that understood Jesus that day among the many that apparently heard him, Paul could not deny the reality of the experience. He could not soften or politicize it to make it more palatable for his God-fearing compatriots. He was compelled not just to allow his life's passion and pursuit to be eternally altered by the message which only he had ears to hear, but also to pledge his undying allegiance to the new and fuller expression of the God he loved now directly introduced to him as Jesus. The personal price he would pay for "getting it" would be the highest that could be paid but the daily satisfaction he claimed to experience from being "in Christ" was beyond his best efforts to describe.

Evidence of a New Operating System

The selling of personal possessions and the distribution of goods to those in need was not the First Commandment of the first congregation. This behavior was not the result of a carefully crafted three-point sermon by one of the power preachers. I doubt there was a call to the altar so the believers could repent of their greed and materialism.  This short verse seems to capture the instinctive essence of a people who are driven by the presence of a new filtering system. The fullness of the Spirit of God generated a perspective that when believed in, generated the kind of behaviors described. It is inevitable. The culture in which these believers lived probably frowned on the relinquishment of property and possessions. So the life of a faith-filled believer in Jesus inevitably and lovingly transcended the cultural setting in which they lived. A new and more powerful operating system had been installed by God. The believers were still living in the same community with the same friends and family but were now citizens of a transcendently better kingdom.  I live in America and there are cultural identities that are strong. Evidence, however, that I have pledged allegiance to King Jesus will be seen in how I live from a new and improved filter of faith in God and belief in Jesus. It will look selfless and probably counter cultural. 

Why Can't a Healed Person Return to their Village?

First of all, while the blind man might've been satisfied to see people better than he ever had (as "trees"), Jesus wanted his vision to be clear and to see others as he sees them. It would seem to many of us are willing to accept "better than before" but fail to allow Jesus to complete his desire for us. Secondly, why would Jesus instruct the newly envisioned man to not enter the village? The village had only known him as blind and perhaps would not know how to accept him as envisioned. Perhaps this is why I sense Jesus saying to me to not go back to the "church-village" as it will not accept my new status granted me by Jesus. The "village" is full of of good and well-intended lovers of God. Unfortunately, people struggle to accept the inexplicable and the different. An envisioned person who had a place in the village as a blind person disrupts to the point of either rejection by the village or discouraging doubt as to the reality of "seeing" on the part of the healed one. A new vision may need a new village. Something to consider...

Genesis to Jesus: God Grows Up

Even as an eight-year-old I remember it well. My "conversion moment". My dad was a Baptist minister and after a sermon by a travelling evangelist on the first night of a week- long "revival", I felt drawn to "give my life to the Lord" and "accept Jesus into my heart". I went forward, then to a room in the back, and not only did I "recieve Jesus", I also was "baptized in the Holy Spirit" and spoke in tongues. And unquestionably, my life was changed and from that moment on I operated from a new perspective. I was "in".

Even as my life has progressed I have not only been faithful to my "new birth" moment but have never doubted that what happend on that fateful night was authentic and real. Only lately have I tried to analyze the process of faith-filled followership more deeply. I don't question that there are landmark moments in peoples' lives at which time a renewed and more developed discipleship emerges. I do wonder, though, how much of the "salvation" process is infected with an unhealthy virus that has become part and parcel to the culture of Christianity and is therefore suspect to some scrutiny. I think it is safe to say that many who "accept Jesus" after an emotionally charged sermon combined with an abundance supply of internal guilt have not experienced the life that Jesus wanted his followers to know. The Kingdom values may be acknowledged but not necesssarily lived. The seed was sown but for a number of reasons (see Mark 4) it has failed to bear the kind of fruit it was meant to when it landed in the soil, generally speaking. What worked for me doesn't seem to have worked for others who followed the same formula.

So at this stage of my life I'm asking a more transcendent question: What is the transcendent/universal process (if one exists) that all humans would follow if and when they are to become true citizens of God's eternal kingdom? And if there is a deeper understanding of how to see more fruit borne in God's design, how did my experience fit into it and how can others be encouraged to experience the authentic conversion of which Jesus speaks in John 3?

If the bottom line (an American metaphor for sure!) for God's economy is love (and does anyone disagree with this?), what is the process by which this fruit matures and blossoms in our lives to the same degree as it was manifested in Jesus' humanity? Anything less than this falls short of the plan God demonstrated and fulfilled in Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Simply attending a church, serving on a committee, voting as a republican, and paying your taxes does not define citizenship in God's Kingdom. Devotion to God through mimicking Jesus in our earthly existance does!

So my thoughts have meandered into considering the possibility that perhaps what we see in biblical history offers hints into this "conversion" process. Perhaps from Genesis to Jesus we see God maturing to the place where what we see recorded about Jesus is a the "fullness of God", i.e., love.

Follow this idea and see what you think:

• A happening occurs "in the beginning" in which the Spirit of God hovers over darkness and chaos and a "word" is spoken that brings life and light into the chaotic darkness. Could this not be compared to the prevenient grace of God and the way a faith perspective starts in us? It starts with God giving us life and we respond to his "word".
• The Bible records a period of bliss and spiritual interaction that follows this moment of "birth". Perhaps this is taken for granted to the point that when pride tempts us, we fall victim to our own sense of worth and grandeur. At this point, a new sense of chaos takes hold without denying us the favored status we hold with God as his creatures. God again provides what we need to continue to live.
• As time passes, the human spiritual journey evolves to need some form of legislation to continue. We struggle apart from some code that we can turn to and rely on. Of course the downside is that the code becomes a burden that we cannot bear. Yet we are not given permission to ignore the code. It apparently has a role to play in this process toward "salvation" (re: maturity). Unfortunately, the comfort provided by the "code" prevents us from moving forward. We remain adolescents at best, infants at worst.
• Prior to Jesus' birth, there are plenty of periods recorded in Scripture where God's people experience some form of "wilderness" . Like those we read about this can cause rebellion or a simple succombing to enormous confusion and fear. Inevitably, we turn to some form of "idol", be it tangible or theological to offer us a means of comfort and hope. We are uncertain about a God we cannot touch, feel or figure out. These periods can be extensive and burdensome. Thankfully, God is present in each of them in hopes that the culmination of them will yield the kind of life he initiated in Genesis 1. God hopes we don't get stuck here but courageously step forward in our explorations.
• Enter Jesus. Finally humanity is privy to seeing a full-grown God. And not just a full grown God, but a full grown human who is living the life God originally designed. Apart from legal restrictions and unecessary human codification, we are given permission to wonder and walk with a God that we will not have to please but are still driven to try because of love and gratitude.

So our lives may take this same evolutionary trail: From a miraculous "word" that invades us to layers of wilderness journeys to a well-intended but horribly misguided effort to instituionalize our relational understanding of God to finally dying to God on the cross and allowing resurrection to grip us and mold the way we live.

What I experienced as an eight year old boy could be seen in light of this process. God spoke to my darkness and I came to life. My journey over the next 40+ years was frought with legalism and theological infection yet I can see God's presence patiently moving me along. I am happily in a new wilderness but this one is on the other side of the resurrection. I am discovering the abundant life Jesus revealed in simple love of God and others. I am detoxing from the viruses and live in hope of exhibiting an incarnation of Jesus that transcends the boxes, tools, and formulas that have been successfully embedded in our institutionalized Christian experience.

While it may be relatively easy to identify both the beginning and the end of this process, it is the middle area in which we will continue to struggle. Yet if we can see the bookends- and agree on them- perhaps we can take responsibility for the middle by encouraging one another in the process toward fruitfullness.

At the risk of an over-simplified suggestion, it seems that for this process to move in the right direction all it takes is courage- courage to not allow ourselves to get stuck or comfortable. Courage to move toward the Mysterious and Unknown. Courage to be a resurrected human.

Jesus Didn't Drool on Himself or Howl at the Moon

Yet according to Mark 3:21 his family considered him looney. Crazy. Out of his mind. Why? All we can assume is that his expressed beliefs about God God were different than theirs. His loving and miraculous activities cultivate neither family unity nor devotion to the God of Israel. There was no pride in knowing that the eldest son of Mary was preaching the word of God. Jesus was deemed "out of his mind" because the God he revealed in his words and actions did not match the interpretation of the Torah's Yahweh that had been passed on for generations. Perhaps the same thing happened to John the Baptist when instead of falling into the levitical line of his father, he preached a new message in the wilderness. How did Elizabeth and Zachariah feel about his state of mind? How did Jesus feel to find that not even his family could consider him or his message sane?

New Wine, Unshrunk Clothes, and Lipstick on Pigs

As a "cutting-edge" contemporary service executive producer (or, "staff pastor in a mainline church trying to boost attendance by offering a contemporary option")for over a decade, it was my philosophy to create healthy spiritual change from the inside, a movement in the roots of the grass as it were. I patiently (well at least some of the time) and persistently encouraged new wine to not burst the old bottle. Yet time and again I would see not only the unshrunk cloth be frustrated with its incompatibility with the existing insitutional garment, but the old tired garment would tear leaving it wounded and in need of its own repair. It seems that Jesus' oft-repeated parable in Mark 2:21-22 about wine and wine skins had an insight I was unable to see until a few years after I left that church realizing that it was not going to be the kind of "healthy" I was hoping for. Starting with Moses through Jesus, then the Reformation and more currently, the great Emergence, these words of Jesus seem to carry transcendent and timeless significance. While most readers generally apply this parable to personal conversion and the changes one should make in their own life, I want to suggest a larger and more congregational application. A new and more relevant point of view apparently cannot survive within a pre-existing institutional mindset. Both the perspective and the institution are placed at risk. Unfortunately, too many church planters take their initiative and bury it in an old and tired institutional environment. Their new and improved idea ends up looking like the institutions from which they emerged but with a new leader. Jesus is saying that radical changes emerge from radically new perspectives. Courage must be mustered to analyze what this might mean for a closet full of old garments. The overflowing cupboard of old wine skins does not need yet another bottle of new wine; I believe the whole closet needs to be torn down. To make the body of Christ in America healthy and a more accurate reflection of the Kingdom of God, I would suggest two things: 1. Raze every institutional church to the ground. 2. Make it a capital offense to be a follower of Jesus. Do these two things and get ready for a cataclysmic shift in Christian experience and manifestation! This goes beyond simply renting storefront space in a shopping center and coming up with a cute name (something with "fellowship" or "community" in it). This new kind of wine that tastes like Jesus insists on fermentation and that takes time. Can the people of God take the time and resist the urge to "do" in order to see what the Master requires for us to "be"? If what Jesus says about wine and garments is true (and I'm gonna take a leap of faith and suggest that it is), then there is no way on God's paved parking lot that the people who pledge allegiance to King Jesus and seek to live from a faith-perspective can expect their existing institution to turn into new wine or unshrunk cloth simply because they attend and are highly committed to it. Both parties will lose the battle. It will be-and I have the scars to prove it- putting lipstick on a pig.