on the walk

I am on a metaphor hunt.

I posted about gun barrels a few days back. I can’t stop thinking about this issue but the metaphor doesn’t sing for me.

First a few more thoughts on the issue. I easily can get drawn into an institution growth mindset. I love the church. I love Bible studies, and pot lucks. I love softball games and theological debates. I love weddings, and choirs. I love cantatas and seminaries. But in that love there is a great danger. I might be so excited to be in the church that I lose sight of God’s purpose for me.
Take a look at this little snippet from the apostle Paul. He is writing to the church in Corinth.

5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are called to be not just reconciled but to be agents of reconciliation. As we become the church at all levels we must live out this purpose. Not just to be a reconciled people but to be reconciling others. I sometimes plan events for the whole church. Do they meet this test? Do they function in a way that further our purpose as reconciling people? If you lead small group and all of your institutional energy is focused on maintaining the group and building internal relationship, then you are being reconciled but you have lost track of the “what for”.

What image for the church can remind of this call. I experimented with a gun barrel. Do our programs and services focus, direct and launch people into the world? But Paul’s ambassador language makes me think of an embassy. An embassy is a little bit of one country planted in another. On that little piece of land different laws are in effect and life is lived under a different order. But the embassy’s purpose is not just to be their but to go out as ambassadors in a foreign land on behalf of their true kingdom.

At whatever level you participate in the church, are you helping to build an embassy - a piece of God’s kingdom, established in a foreign land, not stuck behind a gate, but going forth into the world?

on the walk

-Ethan

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