A Place of Level Ground

As I began to write this piece, I was reflecting on why chapel is important for our life together at Redeemer.  I was doing so through the grid of rising above the consumerism that causes us to see it in terms of “what’s in it for me..”

But those thoughts will have to wait because…

My mind wandered back to the plenary address by Brian Doerksen at our worship conference this past Saturday morning.  He referred several times to the image of “level ground”.  His address was so profound that initially his references to level ground rolled over me.

He ended his address by singing his song “Level Ground,” which is part of a critically acclaimed album by the same name and  which captures the meaning of the image.  Ponder the first verse…

                                               Welcome to the place of level ground

Welcome to the place where grace abounds

We all need mercy, we all need need mercy

 Welcome to the place where none can boast

          Welcome to the place where compassion flows    

We all need mercy, we all need mercy.

It hit me like a time delayed bomb:  what a wonderful metaphor for our chapel at Redeemer!

It is not about title, function, position or grade point average.  It is not about being a student, professor or staff member.  It is not about what church background we may have.  It is not about how long we have been believers.  

We come as members of an educational community in and under Christ. We come before Him all needing grace and mercy, and mutually aware of it. We come before Him not on the basis of what we do, but on the basis of our common identity in Him – as His children. It is here that temporal distinctions melt away and that which is eternal melds us together.

Consider the words of the apostle Paul to the Galatians

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  (Gal. 3.28)

That’s at the heart of chapel and our community life together.  On that foundation we can enter into 24/7 prayer week on Wednesday: on our knees -- on a place of level ground.

Let it be, Lord Jesus.

Overwhelming All-Ness

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col. 1: 15-20).

Look at the bolded words in this passage:  in these six verses, we find seven “alls” and one “everything,” i.e. eight references to totality.  I didn’t have room on the page to include Col. 1: 3-14, but there are eight more totality references in those verses.  Paul is either obsessed with exaggeration or he knows a profound truth that we need to ponder. 

I vote for pondering profound truth.  But how do we ponder overwhelming all-ness? 

Years ago I was taught that when one is overwhelmed, one breaks the situation down into its constituent parts and deals with one part at a time.  So, to begin our meditations on the “All things held in Christ” theme this year, I’ll name a three parts of the all-ness, and challenge you to choose one of them to focus on during this coming week (or beyond).

1.      Christ is Lord of every part of my life.  There are some parts that I try hard to keep him out of, and in those parts of my life I am a practical atheist.  That is, I say I’m a Christian but I’m not a practicing one in that area.  In what area of your life are you a practical atheist?  Are you ready to surrender it to the Lord of all?

2.      He is head of “the church,” which includes ALL believers of every shape, colour and size who confess that He is Lord.  Do you dishonour the “allness” of this community in any way (perhaps unintentionally)?  Or do you celebrate the “allness” of Christ’s community and seek to build it up?

3.      Our future is held together in Christ.  For many of us, pondering our future evokes the paradox of dreaming wonderful dreams and feeling paralyzing anxieties.  University life involves a unique weaving together of past, present and future.  How might you focus your future dreams and anxieties on the One who holds it in his hands? 

True confessions:  a week ago a passing comment from a friend unintentionally alerted me to an area of practical atheism in my own life, an area where I was allowing anger to dominate instead of the Holy Spirit.  That same day I made a resolution to repent and to walk in a new way.  Soon I realized that this was more easily said than done.  It’s like weeding:  some times the ‘above ground” weed is removed but the roots remain, and, when it comes to sin, removing those roots is a longterm, prayerfully persevering day-by-day process.  That tiny bit of Christ’s “all-ness” – repentance from practical atheism -- is my focus, one that will take a lot more than one week for me. 

What about you?  Which of these three bits of “all-ness” are you called to focus on?

Learning to be Lovers

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal…Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (I Cor. 13:  1, 12-13) Knowledge puffs up but love builds up (I Cor. 8: 1b).

September is the month of love at Redeemer – no, not couples falling in love (well, maybe that too) but rather the community honeymoon of the beginning of the year.  Just listen to conversations in the Williams coffee line or feel the hallway buzz between classes and you pick it up:  love is in the air.

The global news this past week is filled with hate:  an anti-Islam video posted on the web (produced by supposed Christians) hit the Muslim world and evoked riots, protests and killings in twenty-five different countries. 

The Redeemer bubble feels contagious with love; the world out there seems to be contagious with hate.  And somehow the name of Jesus is linked to both of these realities.  What’s going on?

Hatred and violence that flow from religious conviction often misunderstand the relationship between knowledge and love.  The misunderstanding (simply put) looks like this:  “I know that I am right; I know that you are wrong; therefore, I am permitted to treat you with contempt. You don’t deserve to be loved.”

Or, to rephrase it in terms of this year’s theme:  “All things are held in Christ,” is replaced with “All things are held in my kind of knowledge about Christ.”  And then the focus is placed upon me instead of upon Christ.  My knowledge becomes the idol that takes the place of Christ, and justifies treating those with whom I disagree with contempt. 

The Apostle Paul, dealing with a similar problem in Corinth, deliberately contrasts love and knowledge.  What is our knowledge like?  It’s “a poor reflection in a mirror.”  In other words, it captures the general outlines of reality and serves an important purpose, but it’s not our foundation and definitely not our idol.  Jesus is THE Truth (John 14: 6), and our call is to surrender to the one who holds all things together, and embody this surrender by being profoundly contagious with his sacrificial love. 

Living as sacrificial lovers in a broken world filled with hate calls for lifelong learning.  That’s what all of us (students, staff and professors) are called to do!   Embodying the love of Christ in all that we are and do is very complex and requires a great deal of knowledge, wisdom and discernment.  That’s why Paul writes to another church:

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1: 9-11). 

And my prayer for our Redeemer community is that the September honeymoon love that fills our hallways at the moment will mature into such profound and sturdy love.