Faith
About this blog
Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
Barry Ensign-George
David Gambrell
Christine Hong
Karen Russell
Recent posts
- Our Challenging Way: Faithfulness, Sex, Ordination, and Marriage
- Unity, Confessions, and the Book of Order
- Come and See
- Please and Thank You
- Back to Basics on Ash Wednesday
Categories
- Theology (32)
- Worship (26)
- Faith (23)
- Spirituality (13)
- Leadership (11)
- View all categories →
Archives
Christian Life is about Dying Well
So much of Christian living is about learning how to die well.
When I was young and my family was trying to get ready to go somewhere on time (often to church), my father would stand at the bottom of the stairs yelling, “Come on, people! We’re dying here. Let’s go!”
It’s an odd thing to say to motivate your children to get a move on. But it’s true. We’re all dying here. Every single second of every single day.
The question is what we’re dying for so that we might have the fullness of life.
For Christians, we are dying to self so that Christ might be more fully alive in, among, and through us. To use an image from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “A Musical Instrument,” we are having the pith drawn out of us so that we might be instruments of the divine, much like ancient flute makers drew the pith out of reeds in order to fashion a musical instrument.
And this hurts. Much like childbirth.
There is a moment during childbirth that some women experience toward the end of the process when it seems you hover between life and death. You can glimpse death even as new life is being born through you.
Perhaps this is where we are as a denomination. There is new life struggling mightily to be born. Many church leaders are laboring hard. Sometimes it seems we’re hovering between life and death. And the process is ugly and messy and painful--on those who have to suffer the birth pangs and those who have a box seat for all the gore.
But Christ, the good physician, patiently delivers instruction. Our Holy Spirit birthing coach encourages, “Come on, just a little more, and you’ll see that new life!” Somehow in all the fatigue, we will push through. I have hope that just when we’re pretty sure we’re going to split wide open, out will come new life. This just seems to be the way of God.
Yes, as a denomination, as individuals, we’re all dying here. But what are we dying for so that new life might emerge? For the same thing Christ died for—a world of sin that all might know eternal life? Or are we dying to try to save a denomination and our pensions? If we seek to save our life, we will lose it, as our Lord told us. But if we offer it in service to others, we will find it.
Besides, we CAN'T save our denomination. It's not ours to save. It's Christ's, and we're no Christ. Isn't his salvation sufficient?
So maybe instead of using our time and energy on acrimonious public debate, we can just trust that the church is in good, nail-scarred, but risen! hands. We can focus instead now on doing the work our Lord has given us to do--praying, worshiping, preaching, teaching, marrying, burying, comforting, advocating, challenging the powers-that-be, and helping folks like the single working mothers in our neighborhoods who have quit hoping that the church will help them so that they don’t waste what little energy they’ve got to come to us for help anymore.
So let's just relax over the state of the denomination and get on with the business of helping Christ birth new life by dying to self so that God alone may be praised. When we do our jobs as church leaders in our particular contexts, we often find the glory of God hovering over us. The Holy Spirit always has a few surprises up the divine sleeve. Christ alone is still head of the church!
Meanwhile, let’s go! People are dying here! Yes, we who are in Christ are continually dying that the risen Lord might be made manifest in the fullness of life. We're dying into the hope of eternal life. But those who are not in Christ have no such comfort or hope. Surely their hopelessness is more worthy of our ministration of the life Christ entrusted to us on his behalf than all our worry about our death--especially since our anxiety won't add a single day to our life or penny to our pensions.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3–5)
- Posted at 4:53 p.m.
-
- Tweet