Our church is preaching the texts retelling the post resurrection appearances of our Lord. We fit the texts within the lectionary and it has been a great challenge to us all to live new life in the Christ’s post-resurrection reality. Yesterday we preached Luke 24:36-53. This text is a magnificent unfolding of what “the gatherings” of post Easter believers would be in the early church. This text describes what I earnestly seek for our gatherings at Life on the Vine church.
Notice the development of the meeting. It is Sunday … first day of the week … The text says … they gathered (vs 33). Then our Lord .. shared the “peace” saying “peace be with you” (vs 36)… before they even know the depth of what this now means, He shares the new and deep fellowship binding one together in the peace made possible in the forgiveness of sin and new life in Christ’s now accomplished work on the cross. Then they are invited “to see” Him for themselves, to touch, and Jesus eats some food “amidst them” (vs 38). This suggests the Lord’s Table and His presence once again in the fellowship meal. He then opens Scripture … and teaches them and “their minds are opened” (vs45) … Something happens here by His Spirit that illumines things they had not seen or been convinced of. As a result, they see things totally differently. He then pronounces them “witnesses”(vs 48) and tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit.(vs 49). He sends them out for mission.
Something marvelous happens here to the disciples in the presence of the resurrected Lord. Somehow, these disheveled disciples go from “startled and frightened” (vs37), to “doubting and amazement” (vs41) to “worshipping Him with great joy” (vs52) being sent out into the world for mission. A true transformation beyond belief has taken place. They have come, seen, touched and eaten, their minds have been opened by the Word, and they are changed. They leave from this place, in the power of the Holy Spirit, into the Mission of God in the World. This pattern of worship is old as the first centuries. Yet amid the glamour of the mega lecture halls and the pep rally concert halls of evangelical worship, is this not a model for the gatherings of the churches emerging for mission?
I have said in the Great Giveaway, that worship in the modern evangelical church often resembles either a “lecture hall” or a “feel-good pep rally.” That neither one can measure up to what we see here going on in Luke 24:36-53. We must go beyond “information distribution” and/or “feel good self expression” to the recovery of the encounter with the historical reality of Jesus’ continuing resurrected presence in the gathering. It must be a worship that invites us to come, see, touch, eat, open our minds to God’s Word in Christ and be changed for Mission. It requires for evangelicals a reinvigoration of the Lord’s Table, a preaching that unfolds the new reality of the resurrected Lord, a recovery of the sense of supernatural mystery in worship and the supernatural empowerment from the Holy Spirit from which we are transformed and sent out for Mission. The disciples went forward from here proclaiming the saving gospel, busting up prisons, healing the sick, defying the governments, reordering how the world must think about money and justice (think Ananias for instance). Our worship gatherings must likewise be encounters with the living Christ that transform us for missional engagement.
Instead of grand lecture halls, pep talks about what Jesus can do for you, instead of pep rallies which give us an experiential buzz but leave our character untouched, we must instead come, gather, see, touch and eat, open our minds to the Word, and be changed to go out from our sacred places, in the Holy Spirit, into the Mission of God in the World
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Dave,
Good stuff. I’m completely onboard with it. Loved your unpacking of the text in yesterday’s sermon. It will change the way I look at that passage from now on.
At least one person said to me that they understood the liturgy better as a result of it, too.
Peace,
Gordon
Yes! Yes! Yes! We must be seeing the supernatural elements as Eugene Peterson says “camouflaged in the natural , the presence of God revealed in the places and among the people involved in our day-to day-living. The entire biblical text stands in sturdy contrast …to the potpourri of religious psychology, self-development, mystical experimentation, and devotional dilettantism that provides the textual basis for so much contemporary religion.” This is critical for us putting ourselves under the scriptures and allowing it to form us so that we can take to the world and meet real people with real needs in the name of Christ. This post got me all worked up
//Jenny
david,
can i assume this post to be a response to my last response to your previous post?
dwight
david,
can i assume this post to be a response to my last response to your previous post?
dwight
Excellent comments and very challenging and thought provoking.
Are you calling us to consider going to the method and practice of the early church ? or a restoration of the original intention of the Church
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of your post (not to say that it is merely sentimental). And I am struck, in a good way, by what you pulled from the text. My view is that scripture does not prescribe THE format or structure of a gathering, and rarely even describes one. I’m coming to a temporary conclusion that HOW we do it is largely up to us or at least the parameters we must work within are quite broad. That being said, I think we must choose to do what we do in ways that are meaningful and authentic. (Granted, much of the various debates concern meaning so I don’t intend to be simplistic.)
Clearly the gathering/assembly is quite important. My “beef” is that we’ve made it the dominant thing. In my experience churches tend to focus on all their resource on this event and yet two areas that are almost alwys identified as needing improvement are outreach and discipleship (or equivalent terms). Can you give your perspective on the place of the gathering in the overall life of a church? (I’ve not read all of your book yet so it may be that you deal with this issue there.)
Bill …
I believe so much effort and energy are spent on the “gathering” because we have turned it into a production … dare I say .. a show … with the drive for so-called excellence … What I have tried to say is that worship is a gathering that encounters Christ presense thru the Holy Spirit with the simplest of practices that transforms us for mission … granted the more gifted folks we have the more expanded our use of art, symbol, even poetry and performative reading may become … But we can gather to “share the peace”of feelowship, the Table of Our Lord, the readings of scripture and some preaching, and the sending out in blessing to live and to serve Christ. I am asking we go fom lecture hall, feel good pep rally to a worship of encounter with Christ and an immersion into His Story, what He is doing in and thru the church in the world …
To Dwight … not directly … I’ll try to coment below if I get some time ..(I’m off traveling again Sunday afternoon .. and booked between now and then) …
DF
I preached something similar a few weeks back at my church. Very well said. I like your lines about lecture halls and pep rallies. That is so often the extent of our sunday morning service.
Peter (Canada)
http://www.lublink.ca
Many thanks for the info on Reclaiming the Mission » Luke 24 and the Telos Of the Worship Gathering – Transformation for Mission I currently performing a handful of these recommendations yet there are several alternatives could be new to me Before I forget have you read Tunisia awesome media stories just what do you really think ! Regards ! Rob Rasner Comedian