"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Thursday, 14 May 2009 | |||
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We Shall Overcome | |||
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I'm just barely young enough to have missed the impact which
the signature song of the civil rights movement had on friends and
colleagues a little older than I. Though it's hard to grasp it fully,
with a secularized account of the civil rights movement now an accepted
part of the American story, "We Shall Overcome" reflected the
Christian spiritual roots of the hope in which a generation demonstrated
for fair and equal treatment of people of all races. Ultimately the hope which motivated the civil rights marchers goes back to the connection we've seen drawn throughout I John between love for God and love for others, between a living faith in the saving work of Christ and living acts of love in the name of Christ. In I John 5:1-8, John begins the final weaving together of these two threads. In verse 4 we receive reassurance that the Christian hope is not just for a world of love somewhere in a future paradise, but that the love of Jesus Christ is already breaking into, transforming and overcoming this troubled world. The common lectionary ends the lesson with verse 6, an odd stopping point because there is a natural break between verses 5 and 6. Verse 6 begins a line of thought that really carries forward all the way through verse 12 or 13. So I've opted to extend the reading on through verse 8 for this coming Sunday. It's partly because verses 7 and 8 are so wonderfully mysterious and the lectionary leaves them completely out of any assigned reading. Verses 7 and 8 are certainly difficult. They were apparently corrupted in Latin texts of the third or fourth century (adding a specifically Trinitarian mention of Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Even with the addition the meaning is murky. What is the significance of the testimony of the "the Spirit, the water and the blood?" Augustine tries to work it out in terms of the Trinity, arguing that the Spirit here is actually the Father who is pure "spirit" (see John 4:24), the water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit (see John 7:38, 39), and the blood is a symbol for Christ. I prefer an ancient understanding which sees the water and the blood as the brackets of Christ's ministry, His baptism and the Cross. From there we can understand Spirit, water and blood as ongoing witness to the life and work of Jesus in the life of the Church, specifically in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and in the sacraments of baptism and holy communion. Thus the arena for victory in Christ is seen to be the worshipping Church. If love for God and love for each other is going to take form in a visible overcoming of the present world, then it will take place within the lives of a people who gather in a community collected by the Spirit and marked by the celebration of the sacraments. In other words, the Christian practice of love cannot be separated from nor replace our practice of worship. So let me with utmost respect for the zeal and loving spirit of sister congregations, question a recent innovation by which some fellowships have taken to dispensing with Sunday worship, as often as once a month, in favor of a morning of community service. I hesitate to disparage this, because so much good is being done and so much good will is generated. Yet I do wonder if the spiritual energy which pushes us into loving service can be sustained if we start to sever the connection between the witness of Spirit, water and blood and the good we are trying to do. Even more deeply, I wonder if we can continue to be people of God, people of Christ, without the continual and regular witness of worship and the sacraments. In the meantime, for me and our congregation, I freely admit that we are probably stronger on the worship side and need to be drawn a little more into visible displays of the reality that Christ is overcoming the world in our midst in acts of love. So my questioning of the practice of others is only with a deep sense of my own deficiencies. And, in the end, thanks be to God and not to our own efforts, we shall all overcome, or better, He shall overcome. | |||
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I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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