Becoming Cosmic Christians. Acts 2.
(GLG Addressing Transformation Prayer Gathering, South Africa 2001)
This event was planned several weeks before the events of Sept 11 in NY and Washington. Yet in the light of those events we realize more than ever that there is an urgent need for the Church in South Africa and throughout the world to be drawn together in unity.
How we long for God’s blessing upon our nation. Yet the scriptures tell us in Psalm 132 that there is one place where God is in a sense obligated to command His blessing and that is where the body of Christ is at a place of unity.
As we have come together today in a unified declaration of confession, repentance and a commitment to work together for peace and justice it is important for us to realize the extent to which oneness is required for this to be accomplished. Jesus prayer. Father let them be one so that the world may see that we are one.
I believe that unity in the body of Christ ought to be characterized by a cosmic spirituality. By that I man that the spirituality of Body of Christ united is a world-conscious, world impacting spirituality. After all, this was the gospel of Christ. He was concerned for the whole world, with all of it’s needs. Cor. 5:17-20 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men\’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ\’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ\’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 tells us that He has come because the Father has sent Him to preach good news…proclaim freedom…recover sight for the blind. release the oppressed and declare the day of the Lord’s favor. And then in John 20:21 He makes His mandate our mandate when He says, “as the Father has sent me, so send I you.”
The first church members in Acts knew what this meant and they grasped the principal as some wonderful formulae for well being that they were compelled to give to a horribly sick society.
We read the historical account of that early Jerusalem church and we are amazed at the awesome power which was ushered into their midst on the day of Pentecost. We marvel at the miracles, we wonder at the signs, we are struck by their compassion and generosity. Yet these are the signs that follow the united church of any generation. And for the church today to come back to that place of effectiveness in the communities there are 3 primary characteristics found in that historic event in the early church that must define our Christianity once again.
Characteristics of a unified Bride of Christ. This is not a unified institution or organization. This is a unified bride.
The first observation is that a unified, cosmic minded church is characterized by a:
I. Contemplative Spirituality.
Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles\’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The word used here for “devoted” is the word “pros_ku_tereo” which means “to carry on in.” The Word that was passed on to them by the apostles governed their lives. They contemplated the deeper things of God.
They devoted themselves to the Word.
They desired the fellowship of other believers in reflection of the Lord’s suffering.
They dedicated themselves to prayer.
These activities relate to the disciplines of faith. The things of the heart. The things that matter to the Father. The things out of which transformation is born.
They kept the main thing the main thing.
For us to become world Christians, before any of the other characteristics of a world Christian can emerge, we must learn to be contemplative in our faith. This is something we have lost over the years in our tendency towards a herd mentality. We want to do things in a crowd. We want to do things in great numbers. Church, the place where it matters most is in the closet. When no one is around to hear our eloquent prayers or our distinguished vocabulary. When we don’t have a public platform to receive recognition. When it is Just Jesus and me. That is where God really does His work in our hearts.
Contemplation is more related to listening to God than it is to praying to Him. Some one else said that becoming world Christians will require a seeing that goes beyond looking, a listening that goes beyond hearing, and a perceiving that goes beyond thinking. It will require pushing open the doors and flinging back the shutters of hearts and minds to let God’s love flood our inner chambers, drive out our fears, and quicken our understanding”[1]
It will require people becoming so transformed to His likeness that we would cry out against a society afflicted with racism, violence, poverty, and all sorts of injustices.
When we devote ourselves to Him in this way. When every part of our being desires to be in His presence, practicing it daily, His heart will become our heart and then we will truly know His love and the world will know that we are one.
And this is what will drive us to the second characteristic of a World Christian. The characteristic of:
II. A Compassionate Spirituality.
44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
In order to become world Christians, our compassion will have to go way beyond the idea of feeling. It is easy to gather in a meeting such as this and become impassioned with the plight of the lost and the poor and the sick, and leave this place doing absolutely nothing about our feelings.
That is not compassion. The true definition of compassion is “to suffer with” Not to avoid the social skirmishes of the world, but to get right into the thick of it.
Compassionate spirituality is the spirituality of the Cross. The first Christians embodied this idea in every sermon they preached. In every hymn they sang. In every instruction to a new believer, they included the mandate to take up the Cross of Christ’s suffering.
The apostle Paul exhorted the Philippians in Philip. 2:5-11
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us confess that our spirituality has not been of the compassionate kind. It has been more like that of the Pharisees who believed that the giving of alms exonerated them from their greater responsibility to give love.
This is what we would prefer to practice. Arms length Christianity. Part of the problem is that we believe that if we do too much for the riff raff of the world they may want to become one of us, and that would not be proper. Family, this is not compassion. This is pity.
Church, this is not compassion. This is pity
What the world needs now is not more arms length, but more “suffering with” spirituality.
Like that of Francis of Assisi, who, as he expressed it, married “Lady Poverty” so that he might be one with the poor who begged at the city gates.
Like that of Catherine of Genoa, a noble woman, who overcame her nausea and spent most of her life cleaning the wounds and tending the needs of the poor in the Pammatone Hospital in Genoa.
Like that of John Woolman, the American Quaker, who refused to ride horseback or in carriages because blacks were not permitted to ride. He wore unbleached muslin suits because the dye for making men’s suits was made from indigo, and indigo was made from slave labor. He stopped eating sugar, rum, and molasses made in the West Indies because they were produced by slave labor. All of this while at the same time in terrible turmoil lest too many would follow his example and hurt those he wanted to help.
He was a world Christian. He rejoiced in the resurrection of his Christ while at the same time fellowshipped with all of His suffering.
We may not be able to do that. We have many other ways that we can put our hands to our compassion. Whatever it is, we must make up our minds to do it.
A contemplative spirituality that births in us the heart of God, a compassionate spirituality that manifests itself in social action. But it cannot stop there. When social action becomes the end in itself, we have a social gospel which has no greater impact on a society than any other social organization.
If we fail to feed the hungry, it would be a terrible thing, but someone else will. If we fail to clothe the poor it would be a terrible thing, but someone else will do it. If we fail to help the homeless, it would be sad, but someone else will.
But if we fail to meet the greatest need, which is to experience the life changing power of Jesus Christ, then we will be most miserable of all people because no one else will tell them.
That is why we must consider for a concluding moment a third characteristic of a world Christian.
World Christians are recognized by:
III. A Conversionist Spirituality.
Acts 2:44
All the believers were together and had everything in common.
47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
These believers were a living example of the exhortation given in Romans 12:2 “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed to by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.
They themselves were radically changed by their encounter with Christ, and then, as they began to share His love through and active kind of compassion, they went beyond the social concern. They went beyond what we would call their felt needs to the far greater need of the human soul. The one that most do not even realize they have, and that is the need for an intimate relationship with a living Christ.
You see, true liberation from all of societies ills is found in conversion. It is found in the renewing of the mind through the converting of the heart.
Paul sets it out for us in Philip. 1:9-11
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ–to the glory and praise of God.
We get so hung up with the front end of Christianity that we miss out on the need for a continuing transforming conversion.
You know why South Africa is in a mess? Because we have leaders that have bought into the front end of Christianity without the renewing of the mind. It’s no wonder we don’t know right from wrong. We can murder innocent unborn babies. We can rob and steal from the elderly. We can shoot each other because we find ourselves in the wrong neighborhood.
None of this changes until the mind is changed. And the mind does not change until the heart is converted. In Paul’s view it is God’s love alone that recycles the mind.
Oh, how we need to foster conversionism in our churches.
We must become Cosmic Christians with a contemplative spirituality. Seeking the heart of God. A compassionate spirituality. Transforming our feelings into action that meets the deepest needs of humankind. A conversionist spirituality. Recognizing our need for a total change in our way of thinking. Letting the mind of Christ become our mind so that His heart becomes our heart. We may not be able to change the world, but we can change our corner of the block. And if enough of us say, “Yes, we can and we will by the power of almighty God it shall come to pass.”
[1] “Therefore” CLC of the BGCT, essay by E. Glenn Hinson, A Social Spirituality