Behold! The Man!

            You think you know the stories of the Gospels like the back of your hand, and then they reach out and slap your face.  This hit me this afternoon:

            First, some backstory.  I love the way N. T. Wright understands John’s Gospel.  Wright sees John expertly weaving several themes together.  So, the attentive reader will see that John is more consciously concerned with Passover than the other Gospels.  He is concerned with the Temple and the presence of God.  And He is concerned with new creation. 

            Wright and others think that those last two are closely intertwined.  The argument goes something like this:  in Genesis 1-2, God created the heavens and the earth as a sort of Temple for Himself, a dwelling where He could live in the midst of His beloved creation, humans.  Ever since the arrangement was torn asunder by the incident in Eden (Genesis 3), God has been working towards the ultimate renewal of the arrangement.  (Cf. Revelation 21-22, with God’s declarations that the dwelling of God is now with men.)

            So, Wright says, look at what John is doing:  John 1 begins with obvious echoes of Genesis 1 with its, “In the beginning.” And John 1 anticipates the dwelling of God with man in the Word made flesh (John 1:14).  There is a progression of six major events (the first two of which are labeled ‘signs’):  the wedding at Cana, the healing of an official’s son, a healing at the pool of Bethesda, feeding of 5,000, healing of a man born blind, and raising of Lazarus.  Then, John makes a pretty broad point that Jesus died on a Friday, or, in Jewish reckoning, the sixth day.

            Sixth day, culmination of creation, creation of Adam and Eve, death of Jesus—and here’s my brain blast for the day—Pilate stands up and declares of Jesus, “Behold! The man!”  But the Greek might be better rendered, “Behold!  The human!”  In Jesus, battered, torn, condemned, and dying, behold! Humanity!  That’s our death sentence He’s standing under there.  But, behold! The Human!” Here’s the one who by taking the whole race’s death sentence into Himself is renewing the race and re-opening a garden for humanity.  (Notice that John’s the one who tells us Jesus’ tomb was in a garden and that Mary mistook the risen Jesus for a gardener.)

            “Behold! The man!”  John loves irony.  He loves to show us God’s enemies being turned into stooges advancing God’s goals.  John tells us about Caiaphas announcing that it was better for one man to die for the nation than the whole nation dying.  (Snicker.) Do you think he lived to regret saying that when the first Christians began preaching in Jerusalem?  And John tells us about Pilate’s “Behold! The man!”  Here’s the curse and the hope of the race in one.  Here is the pinnacle of God’s creation being renewed and becoming the agents of God’s ongoing act of renewal until all things are brought under Christ’s feet.

            Maybe you saw all that before.  But it slapped me in the face at lunch today.

Expressing the Purpose of the Church

From my April article for the Chronicle, Divine Savior's monthly newsletter:

            A few weeks ago, I concluded a sermon series on the book of Ephesians, and we are still working through it in adult Bible study.  If you’ll recall, I had said that one of the reasons for studying Ephesians was to think deeply about what the church is for.

            St. Paul’s answer to that question goes something like this: the church is part of God’s eternal designs for humanity and for His whole creation.  She exists now as a sort of down payment on and demonstration of God’s plans and purposes for the whole world, namely, that He desires all humans to live together in one renewed family.  This family is not marked by the old divisions of sin, but by humility, patience, and unity.  And this new family stands as a testimony against the fallen world and the cosmic powers that dominate that fallen world, as if the Father proudly pointed at the church and declared, “See, there!  You cosmic powers who were so jealous of the creatures I made in My image that you couldn’t wait to corrupt them, look at them now—recreated in the image of My Son, gloriously reflecting My glory into My world!”

            I find that a deeply compelling vision of the church and our life together.  In practical terms, it means that the way that we live and operate together, the gentleness that we show to each other in our dealings about all sorts of things from altar flowers to budgets to acts of loving service, the bond of peace and unity that we exhibit even when we have argued fiercely over strategies and directions—all those things contribute to truly understanding what it means to be the church.  They are as important as regular church attendance and a common confession of the faith.

            I think that churches too often pass over this aspect of their life too easily.  Most churches expect their members to show up on Sundays (worship).  Lutheran churches, for sure, understand that church membership means that we’ve agreed to speak about the faith the same way (common confession).  But I wonder how often we really express to our members that our life together as a family matters just as much as 1) a function of what distinguishes a church from a club and as 2) a testimony of God’s work for the world?

            Again, as a practical matter, business guru Peter Drucker always says that you ought to be able to fit your vision on tee shirt.  So, how do you say all of the above in a succinct way that says what exactly it means to be part of a church?  I’ve kicked this around a lot over the years and I’ve come up with these two vision statements for the church:

Exhibiting Christ to the Word

Inviting the World to Christ

Loving God,

Loving One Another,

Loving the World

I wonder if either of those resonate with you as a ‘slogan’ for Divine Savior?  If you have thoughts, especially about the two vision statements, post them in the comments section.  Perhaps we can have a small conversation about how to express what it means to be the church.