How Do I Become Real?
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDuring the Covid lockdown in London,
I spent a lot of time
reading Greek
and getting my head around
what Jesus was actually teaching.
As many of us have experienced,
sometimes you come to a passage of scripture
and it doesn't fit inside
the theology or the framework
that you have received.
I call these frameworks "grids."
And when we come upon
something that challenges your grid
you have three options,
you can ignore it,
and say it isn't very important.
You can come up with an interpretation
that is often not obvious,
but somehow makes the passage fit your
belief system.
Or, you can wrestle with what the text
obviously clearly says,
and adjust your grid,
your beliefs
to fit the text.
John Wesley said that the church
was called to be in a constant state of
reforming.
To put it more simply,
people create things to make systems work,
and those systems
over time atrophy
and get out of alignment with God.
A grid not founded in scripture and the person of Jesus Christ
will eventually get out of alignment.
And sometimes a grid is for a season,
because God is highlighting something
that has been ignored.
A lot of movements camp out
in things God was doing for a season
and they stop moving with God.
God wants you to move with him
in relationship,
not stagnate in something he did
20
50 or
500 years ago.
Six years ago,
possibly in my first teaching
for the House of Artisans
I said a simple but revolutionary statement.
Jesus Christ was not born
to found a religion.
Jesus Christ as born to establish his kingdom.
And another statment follows from this,
Jesus Christ is the most relational being in the Universe.
The Kingdom is a relational kingdom.
The Kingdom is all about the King.
Jesus is the King of the Kingdom.
Religion,
theology,
and religious systems,
tend to not be relational
but rather
rule and performance based.
Again and again
I see this in people who come to me
for healing.
They want the one quick trick that they can do
to get healed, cured, or have their problem solved.
Healing is not about a method.
Healing is about a relationship.
If you get to know Jesus
you will be healed.
It is not going to be a system.
All of these ideas come from one place.
Matthew 5:17.
This is an often overlooked verse in the Sermon on the Mount.
I came not to abolish the law and the prophets.
I came to fulfill them.
The Pharisees were teaching, rightly,
that the time of the Messiah was coming,
and that they needed to prepare.
They believed that if they kept the law
perfectly,
then their good works would initiate the Messianic Kingdom.
And so
they added more and more
to the Law
believing that if you did more than the law
you would keep it perfectly.
There are many Christians today who believe,
rightly,
that Jesus is returning soon.
And so they believe that if they perform
twenty-four seven prayer,
fulfill their belief that John 17:20 demands Christian unity,
or if we raise red heifers in North Carolina,
our good works will force the return of Christ.
Today there is a growing Jewish sect
called Chabad,
who believe,
rightly,
that the Messiah is coming,
and their founder
created a system of adding even
more and more
to the law.
It's the same idea as the Pharisees.
And to this
Jesus reveals something about his nature.
I come not to abolish what came before.
I come to fulfill.
He is saying,
the law and the prophets
speak of me.
I am here.
I AM the law and the Prophets.
I am the WORD.
I am the Word made flesh.
I am perfect theology.
Apart from me
you can do nothing.
And then,
Jesus speaks to the people
and he takes laws they already know,
and he intensifies them to the point of
impossibility.
The Torah says
thou shalt not commit adultery.
I say,
if you look twice at a woman,
or even have a thought
based in your carnal human nature
toward her
you have committed adultery.
Ouch.
In the upper room
Jesus says,
a new commandment I give you
love one another.
Another one.
It is really impossible.
Jesus is telling us
your human nature,
your natural inclination,
your religious performance,
and even your religious niceness
are not enough.
Your ethics will never measure up.
I am the fulfillment.
Not more rules,
not more guidelines,
accountability,
precepts,
etc. etc.
Me.
I am the fulfillment.
Come to me.
This is why revival doesn't happen.
People want the fruit of revival without
the God of revival.
Just like in the Old Testament.
They didn't want to talk to God face to face.
They wanted Moses to talk for them
and give them rules to follow.
They wanted a religious beauracracy,
not a relationship with God.
I see Christians who come under the same veil
that hangs over Israel,
the desire to add to what God said
without God.
That is a curse.
There is another side to this,
and I see it especially in the gifted and talented
people in our community.
People who have been living out in the world,
come to Jesus.
And then they look at their worldly life
and they think that Jesus wants them to
give up the creative work
and do something spiritual.
And today we have another problem,
worldly churches and Christians
wanting you to not become a disciple,
but rather make money like the world,
so that they can take advantage of your gifts and talents
to build something.
Both are a problem,
because they are trying to abolish something.
One wants to abolish the true self,
the other wants to abolish the true faith.
Both lead to death.
Jesus
says,
come follow me.
Embrace dying to your old life,
and I will manifest the resurrection
in your life.
All the true things in you,
the real things,
the things God put in you,
Jesus says, he will fulfill.
Every few years
someone comes along with a new system
of healing and deliverance.
It always involves steps,
classes,
and workbooks.
They last for a few years,
and then they disappear.
They disappear
because coming into wholeness and maturity
does not happen this way.
It happens when you come into relationship with Jesus
and begin to learn to have a conversation with God.
In that conversation
God will speak to you and you will be called into something more
than you.
God will fulfill all that is really in you.
I saw this in my own life.
My writing and teaching
are more than what I can do.
Jesus has fulfilled something
in me
that I didn't know was there.
It is amazing
when you learn to cooperate with God,
and God takes the rough, raw, broken material
and makes more.
So often we think God wants us to abolish things
when he wants to fulfill them.
God wants to make your life
more than you think it can be.
It's an interesting process.
It is the process of becoming.
In the book the Velveteen rabbit, by Margery Williams,
there is this poignant conversation in the nursery
between the Skin Horse, and the Velveteen rabbit.
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
Lent begins on Wednesday.
When I was a kid,
Lent was about doing more things for Jesus.
God is calling us
as a community
to embrace more reality.
I am inviting you to embark on a media fast with me,
no news,
entertainment,
or social media.
No doom scroll.
I have received a little push back about this,
mostly because Americans think that everything is rules
and religious obligation.
This isn't a negative.
It is about making open space that only Jesus can fill.
That's the point.
God isn't calling us to ban things or keep rules.
God isn't calling you to abolish the world.
God is calling us closer to himself.
God is saying,
You once lived under the law
and the hope deferred.
Those rules,
and those hopes
make you hard
and make your hearts hard.
I am calling you to have a soft heart
and I am going to take away your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh.
I am the fulfillment
of all that you have tried to do for me,
and all that you have desired for me to do for you.
The kingdom
is about me.
Jesus is the King of the Kingdom.
There are a lot of subtle things going on in the media landscape.
The late Scott Adams thought that there was mass hypnosis happening.
God is calling us out of the media fishbowl
so we can hear his voice more clearly.
As always,
there is grace for you
to engage at whatever level you feel comfortable.
Maybe you need to wean yourself off the media one step at a time.
Start with news,
then Youtube,
then social media.
This is a great way to develop self-discipline,
and learn to lean on Jesus.
Wednesday morning we will begin Lent together,
and ask God to open the way for us.
I encourage you to take the step.
All of this
is leading up to Holy Week
where we will retell the story,
and the Passover of the Lord
where we will renew our covenant with God.
Come Kingdom of God
be done will of God.
Move us out of the law
and into the fulfillment
of all you have for us.
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