The Church is Bigger Than You Think II: Jesus is the Church

“[W]here Jesus is, there is the Church; the Church as the assembly of those who are finding their relationships, their lives transfigured by the presence of Jesus. Church is the event of Jesus’ presence with its effect of gathering people around him and making them see one another differently as they see Him. The church is the immediate affect of Jesus. And hence St Paul can write about the new creation which happens when people are drawn into fellowship, drawn into relationship with the risen Jesus and encourages us therefore to think that the church itself is the beginning of the new creation.

It is not an institution designed to further a programme, not an association of people who happen to have the same ideas, but the beginning of God’s reclaiming of the territory of human life and not just human life either, God’s reclaiming of creation as his own and God pouring into creation of his saving and transfiguring power so that the world, human and non human will once again show radiantly who and what he is as God…The church is what happens when Jesus is there, there received and recognised.

- Rowan Williams, keynote address Mission Shaped Church Conference, June 2004.

Jesus in himself constitutes the church. Church is not what we do. It is where Jesus is present. Not that he is bodily present with us. However, Jesus is present with us now both Verbally and Spiritually:

"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1.13-14. See also the 'in Christ' language in 1.3-12 and 2.12-16.

Jesus Christ is the Church - made present through the Word and Spirit. It is in him that we find our identity as the church: chosen in Christ, adopted God's children through Christ, redemption through his blood, knowledge of the mystery of God's will (for Jews and Gentiles), and obtaining an inheritance. So that in Jesus the church (the covenantal family of Jews and Gentiles) is now one new humanity. We are one body, with many parts, but connected to the one whole, which is the body of Christ.

Our church assembly is important. But we are all connected to each other and united together in Christ by faith. And where is, there is the church.

Part I

The Gospel and the Happiness Paradox

You may like to check out this article by John Ortberg (author of 'If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat'; source of all good sermon illustrations) talking about 'The Gospel and the Happiness Paradox'.

Discipleship or obedience is not something we have to cajole people into by obligation or gratitude ("after all, Jesus died for you; the least you can do is deny yourself happiness for a while on earth"), it is simply the process of learning to enter into the good, with-God life. The gospel becomes social as well as personal—not because individuals don't matter, but because to be "saved" means (among other things) to be delivered from the chronic selfishness that contributes to the world's hurt and to my misery.

To Those Who Are Near and Those Who Are Far

Ephesians 2.

It's pretty good being a Gentile who has become a Christian. Having once been dead in my trespasses and in the sins that I once walked in, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What is true of Jesus is also true of me.

This is by grace, and not by my works, because I am after all God's workmanship.

And now? Jesus has ended the enmity that existed between Jews and Gentiles, having killed that enmity on the cross and made peace between those who were far off and those who were near. So that now, Israel's story is now my story. Israel's hope and polis (commonwealth) are also now my hope and polis. The covenant for Israel is also for me in Christ Jesus. No longer a sojourner or a house guest, I'm know a fellow citizen and part of the household itself. And where as 2000 years ago I would have been excluded from the temple in Jerusalem, stuck in the Court of the Gentiles, I am now apart of the temple, and a dwelling place for the Spirit of God.

And it's pretty good for Jewish Christians too. The purpose and story of Israel has found it's climax in Jesus Christ, and they too can find their identity not in the works of the law but in Christ Jesus.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

No longer Jew or Gentile, we are the new humanity, and the great family promised to Abraham long ago. How great is God's grace and the richness of his mercy!

'Jesus is my Boyfriend'

I've found something that Rowan Williams and Mark Driscoll (from the very little that I've read) agree on. Williams, that a good deal of twentieth century theology has been characterised by bewilderment and agnosticism about the figure of Jesus, sitting next to a hugely popular devotional 'idiom' that s uncomplicatedly focused on the worship of Jesus.

"The late twentieth century has witnessed an extraordinary explosion of devotional song, whose popularity seems to cross an unprecedented range of cultural and linguistic boundaries; in a way curiously reminiscent of the Middle Ages, there is now an international language for worship - not literally a single tongue, but a strongly unified style. Its roots are evangelical and charismatic, but it has conquered great tracks of the Roman Catholic world as well. Some of it, perhaps much of it, has a solid theological basis, and can be strongly evocative of the paradoxes of 'meekness and majesty' (to allude to the refrain of a well-known example); much of it is utterly unadorned and often deeply moving adoration of Jesus. But there is a disquieting element in a good deal of this literature.; it is not just that devotion to Jesus can often be expressed in a way that detaches it from the Trinitarian dynamic of the New Testament, it is also that the erotic idiom of medieval and Counter-Reformation spirituality can reappear with fewer checks and nuances than in early centuries. Jesus as object of loving devotion can slip into Jesus as fantasy partner in a dream of emotional fulfillment. To avoid sentimental solipism, there needs to be either a strong and self-critical theological environment or (which is often the same thing in other guises) a clear orientation to the world's needs and the action of Chris in the whole social and material environment."

Similarly, in The Radical Reformission, Driscoll talks about being a members of churches (pre Mars Hill) where the minister was a manly man (i.e. a former NFL star), who taught the Bible 'verse by verse' and didn't make Driscoll view Jesus like a life long prom date.

Can you think of any songs that have the problem Williams speaks of? Or can you think of any songs that meet the standards of the Archbishop? Write and let me know.

'Jesus is God' According to Early Christians

John Dickson and the film crew from The Life of Jesus have gained rare access to an archaeological find that cements historical evidence early Christians worshiped Jesus as divine. It is a prayer hall in Meggido dating back to the third or even second century. According to John Dickson:

“The inscriptions on the mosaic floor are remarkable, one of them names a benefactor called Gaianus who is described as a centurion. Another mentions a woman called Akeptous who ‘…offered this table in memorial of the God Jesus Christ’.”

You can find more information here and here.

Resurrecting the Gospel

I'm writing an article for AFES Salt Magazine on 'Resurrecting the gospel – why the resurrection lies at the heart of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15; the resurrection = the centre of the gospel formula of preaching in Acts)'.

What do you think I should say?

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel..."


Kudos for naming where the photo was taken.