Missional Communities

"For most of its first three centuries Christianity was mainly a street movement, a marketplace phenomenon that spread through slave populations and social guilds of free laborers.  Gatherings of adherents took place primarily in homes and some suitable public places, convening primarily for fellowship, teaching, and worship.  However, the gatherings were not the point or focus of Jesus-follower spirituality.  Christianity was primarily a practice, a way of life."
- Reggie McNeal in Missional Communities

Photo of the week-The Coastal Experience

The Coastal Experience, Costa Rica
The Coastal Experiences - Race. Explore. Experience.

Rabbouni

The story of Jesus healing Bartimaeus, the blind man,  tells us that one day as Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples he came upon Bartimaeus sitting beside the road begging.  Bartimaeus began calling out loudly.   Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  Bartimaeus responded, “Rabbouni, I want to see!”

This Hebrew word Rabbouni struck a chord in my heart as I read it.  I’ve encountered the word many times before in my Scripture reading and seen it translated as ‘teacher’.  Jesus is, of course, a great teacher.  This is universally acknowledged by most all who have studied his life, even agnostics and atheists agree.  Many of us who follow him readily call him The Teacher, the one teacher above all other teachers.  However, this morning I noticed the footnote for this occurrence of rabbouni is translated as ‘my teacher’ and that ‘my’ is what touched my soul. 

After Bartimaeus called him Rabbouni Jesus told him, “Your faith has healed you.”    Immediately he could see and began to follow Jesus on the road.  Bartimaeus’ faith healed him and led him to follow Jesus.  Likewise, through my faith Jesus is calling me to follow him.  He is healing me of my ‘blindness’ to the needs of others around me and my blindness to the harm my actions/inactions may be causing the physical world.

Yes, he is ‘a teacher’ and can even be called ‘the teacher’ but most importantly to each of us who seek to follow him he is ‘my teacher’.  Isn’t it wonderful to know that we can call Jesus Rabbouni?  That Jesus takes pleasure in mentoring us daily as we struggle to follow him?

If you are not already following Jesus on the roads of your life I encourage you to check out this teacher.  Don’t be discouraged or distracted by all the extra “Christian” baggage many will try to add to your load.  Just simply do as Bartimaeus did.  Call him Rabbouni, share your needs and then follow him.

Photo of the week-Monastery visit in SE Asia

As we were leaving a monastry in SE Asia these two girls came up for a photo. They then escorted me to their gift shop (the building in the rear of the photo) where their mother sold me a beautiful carved dragon which now sits on my mantle.

That Solitary Individual

I’m convicted today by Jesus’ willingness to go to the vilest of places seeking out the opportunity to touch the individual person – “that solitary individual” as Soren Kierkegaard puts it.  The Holy Spirit pointed his finger at my cold, callous heart as I read the story of Jesus healing a lame man in John chapter 5.  In this story Jesus arrives in Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate and heads to the Pool of Bethesda.  This pool is known as a place where multitudes of sick, destitute people hang out waiting to be helped and healed.  In the story Jesus finds a lame man that had been lying there for 38 years waiting for someone to help him into the pool when the angel stirred the waters. 

Take a minute to think about how long that is.  If this story were taking place today he would have been lying there since 1973!  Nixon was President (although not for long with Watergate coming) and the Vietnam War was going on when this man began coming to the pool.   He came back to the pool every day for 13,870 days waiting for someone to help him into the pool.

As I meditated on this story I began to imagine what the scene was like.  My travels have taken me to some pretty gruesome places.  The leper colony in Tajikistan.  Gangrenous limbs in remote Honduran villages.  The sick wasting away in a huge hospital ward in Zambia.  I visualized the multitudes of sick, lame men lying around the pool.  The smell of unwashed bodies.  The flies, probably even maggots in the open wounds and bed sores.

Although I know it is not right this is still the kind of place I try to avoid.  Yet, Jesus went out of his way to not only go to this place of disease and despair but he sought out this one solitary individual to help.  It seemingly cost Jesus nothing to heal the man.  Just a word from Jesus’ mouth and it’s done.  But there was a cost as this incident provided yet another piece of evidence for those wanting to crucify him.  Jesus went to this place of great need and sought out this man while fully knowing it was one more nail for those plotting his crucifixion.

This touch of the solitary individual is where I come up short.  I’m good with working to feed the multitudes in drought stricken places, drilling water wells in dry villages, giving out shoes by the thousands but when it comes to the individual one I’m afraid I hesitate.  My monkish personality comes out.  I seek refuge in my office hermitage where I can help the masses without personal interaction.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit I can see that as a Jesus follower this withdrawal from “that solitary individual” is simply not right.  I pray that Jesus will help me follow him more closely as together we help the ones we encounter along life’s pathways.

Should the Church Be Led by Teachers and Scholars?

Don Miller has some really interesting thoughts on church leaderships in his blog post at FaithVillage.  What do you think?

Enoughness

Joan Chittister uses this word "enoughness" in her commentary on The Rule of Benedict. She indicts me with the line, "We have lost a sense of 'enoughness'." She goes on to say, "We measure our successes by the degree to which they outspan the successes of the neighbors".

Solitude

"In time we come to see that the really important action occurs in solitude."
Richard Foster