Scot McKnight on the Jesus Creed

Jesus' life, from front cover to back cover, including the dust jacket, is a life shaped by the Jesus Creed. He learned the Shema from his father and mother; he amended it for his followers in the shape of the Jesus Creed. Most importantly, he lived it. We are called to participate in that very life, for it is that resurrected life that can form our lives.

Scot McKnight, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, 292.

letting anger go

Injustice as in God's righteous standard not being lived up to is part and parcel in this life. Of course we need to see God's righteous standard now in light of Jesus and the coming of God's kingdom in him, and the vision of shalom that this brings.

James informs us that we're to be slow to anger because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Human anger takes one aspect of reality, and our judgment of it, and makes it the all determining factor, when grace must be wed to truth so that we emphasize grace with the realization that we ourselves don't hold the entire truth, or anything that's true in its entirety.

If we harbor resentment, this will result in anger, and anger at least holds us back from expressing the love and truth in Jesus that God desires. But it often makes itself known in subtle and not so subtle ways which can be injurious to everyone. And violate the Jesus Creed.

If we don't let anger go it will increase, like a pot of water being heated on a stove. The steam will escape some way. And God will step in and rebuke us when we fail in this way. We shouldn't get this far, though at times we will. We need to be sensitive to pick up and accept God's rebuke and repent. We need to turn it over to God and let our anger go.

It is best if we could work through something entirely with one who we believe has mistreated us. Sometimes that's possible, but often it is not. Of course it's not like we're squeaky clean in the whole thing, as I pointed out in the post yesterday. But no matter what, we must turn over our perceptions and thoughts and all that is inside of us to God. And humble ourselves before God and let ourselves be humbled in the eyes of others even when we think it's not just, knowing that they don't know the worst about us. In time we will find ourselves walking in and with Jesus by the Spirit, if we persist in this way.

Any thoughts on this?

Christian civility

Over on Scot McKnight's blog they are beginning "an American civil discussion" on the health care debate our country (the United States) is currently engaged in. Pertinent posts here, here, and today's here.

This led me to the thought or the question, is there a true Christian civility? Civility is the idea of how we conduct ourselves in words and actions, precisely with courtesy and politeness. Our American culture is marked with rudeness. It seems like being rude has won the day nearly across the board, at least in perception, even if a silent majority squirms.

I would suggest that there is indeed a Christian civility, one that is truly like Jesus. One that does not cower from standing up for truth, but one that is full of grace as well as truth, in Jesus. This is a civility, and humanity that is indeed of God, made in God's image and patterned perfectly for us in Christ himself. One we see through reading of his life here on earth, and one we can partake in together, by the Spirit in community, for the world.

It is certainly a civility that is quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. It involves a righteous life, one which we seek to lead through Jesus. It involves meekness in being willing to turn the other cheek, to be wronged, to let others have the last word even when we're convinced they are wrong, but speaking for the good of another even if it may seem detrimental to us.

An important aspect to remember that can tie this all together is the primacy of love. We know what the first and greatest commandment is, and the second like it, called "the Jesus Creed." If we seek day by day, through Jesus by the Spirit to operate with this creed, we seek to do well. And this will involve a respect for all as inherently special, made in God's image. Those whom God loves as his creation, and who he has, in Jesus, come to save. And those we care for and care about.

I am growing in this area. One of the ways that was important to me for growth was (and is) to seek to be more quiet; I can be full of words. And to be a better listener. And be willing not to speak at all. And to keep working on not interrupting others, even when it seems that I am counted out of the discussion, or can't get a word in edge-wise.

What about you? Do you think there is a Christian civility we can nail down from Scripture? And what is it? Or are we thinking in worldy terms here? Or any thoughts?

first things first

Mary attended to the Lord's word, while Martha was distracted by her busy serving. It wasn't that Martha was wrong in what she was doing, but that she was distracted. And maybe she should have stopped what she was doing to attend to the Lord and his words.

This reminds me of other things we need to put first. Of course our relationship with God through Jesus. And our relationship with others as well: our spouse, our children, our friends, our relatives.

I have to admit I like nothing, or few things more than just relaxing with a book in hand. In my own world, so to speak. That's okay, and good, as long as others are not neglected in my life, as a result.

It's a joy to see people treasure relationships. After all, Jesus pointed out that love for God, and for our neighbor is to be at the heart of our existence. How that's worked out in our lives is not some set static way for us all. But it's something we need to keep at the forefront of our minds in whatever we do, and especially as we consider our lives from day to day, and from week to week.

How do you seek to do this? Or any thoughts?

the essence of humility

Yesterday's post on proud Christians is not one of saying I am not proud and they are. How subtle pride can be! When we think we're not proud, that can be, and most normally, or readily is for us, nothing more than a proud thought. We are often blind to our own pride.

At the same time, Jesus not only epitomized humility, but he calls us as his followers to humilty. All indeed is a gift from God, and we all are in this together. God lets no one out of the mix, and loves to show his blessing through the most humble of his servants. When we think we have a leg up on others, we'd best beware. We're treading on dangerous ground.

As we look to Jesus, as recorded in the gospels, we find one who shows us the way a life of humility. It is one essentially of love. Love for God, love for others. A love which is by God's grace and in the Spirit. A love from which true humility flows. The love of God in Jesus by the Spirit.

What would you like to share on this?

quote of the week: John Ortberg on "the true indicator of spiritual well-being

The true indicator of spiritual well-being is growth in the ability to love God and people. If we can do this without the practice of any particular spiritual disciplines, then we should by all means skip them.

John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, 45 quoted by Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 97

meekness

Meekness has to do with strength under control. We may think we need to put someone in their place either verbally or nonverbally. Meekness refuses to do that, but continues in humility. To be meek means we must lead by example, all the time being gracious and sensitive to the one we are seeking to lead.

This is about our call to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We don't do that by abandoing meekness and either setting someone straight, often bluntly in one way or another, nor by rolling one's eyes and shaking one's head. No. We need to lovingly seek to lead them by example, being sensitive to them and what they might need at that time. And being patient in letting it work out over time.

Something I'm working on, and important for us, who may be in higher stress work for one reason or another.

What about you? How would you describe meekness, and what challenges does being meek bring in life?

quote of the week: Scot McKnight on the Golden Rule

I used to think the Golden Rule was pablum, food for a child. I also thought that when I grew up spiritually, I'd put away pablum and eat meat. The older I get, the more experience I have in the church and with Christians, and the longer I seek to follow the Jesus Creed as developed in the Sermon on the Mount, the more the Golden Rule looks like the real meat and the supposed deep things look like commentary on the Golden Rule.

Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 109.

life is more than work

My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work.

Abraham Lincoln (from Al Gini, The Importance of Being Lazy, 15 quoted by Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 101-102).

While in Ecclesiastes we're told that God can give us enjoyment in our work, and in all of life, received as a gift from God's hand, nevertheless, I think these are words we need to hear, particulary in busy, businesslike American society.

As Scot McKnight says in the book mentioned above, we're not to be centered in our work. Our lives are not to revolve around it. Not that we're not to work hard, and sometimes have to do so for long periods of time.

Our work should be one expression of our endeavor to be centered on "God and God's ways" (McKnight, 104). And we need, somehow by grace, to find pleasure in our work. Not that that is always possible. But by God's grace and gift we can find such pleasure. As we endeavor to do it as an expression of love for God and for others.

And one of the blessings of work is the rest and relaxation which follows. Add to this that we should do what we enjoy doing. And this should include loving God with all our strength. Because toilsome labor in and of itself is not normally desirable. We need to keep who and what we are to be centered on, in Jesus, in view.

What would you like to add to these thoughts?

your mind matters

John R.W. Stott, one of my favorite authors from years past once wrote a small, helpful book entitled, Your Mind Matters. I think that thinking Christianity is one of the biggest needs and challenges for our day.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. No one needs a degree to hear, accept and share it with others. In fact God chooses those of low esteem in the world's eyes, both in becoming followers of God through Christ, and helping others to come to do so themselves.

But just as this post indicates, Scripture mirrors life in complexity. We don't do well not to work at learning to think well, and in dialogue with others. Indeed Jesus calls us to love God not just with all of our hearts, soul and strength, but likewise with all our minds.

Back to a balance, I don't think we're just minds. We're whole people, and life is more than just figuring out what we need to do. Revelation is not just in terms of mind, but it involves experience and relationships. So this post is not a call for everyone to sit in a chair and read much of the time. Though some of us will do that (or try to). We're all gifted differently.

But this is a post to call us back to loving God with our minds. Learning to think well in reference to God's kingdom revealed and present in Jesus by the Spirit in the community of the church. And the new reality in Jesus that is touching earth in transformative ways now, eventually to make all things new.

Again another meandering post. But just some food for thought. As we seek to live out of a deepened communion with God as members of Christ in this world.

What thought would you like to add here?

caught up in

What are we caught up in?

There's just a multitude of things we can be caught up in, taken up with, living for. I am not referring to what we might call subsets of what is most important, such as caring for our families, or doing our job well. But what drives us, what motivates us in life.

Again, it's the Jesus Creed which should motivate our lives, by grace, in Jesus through the Spirit. Loving God and loving others as ourselves.

May God bring us back to this again and again each day, day after day, as long as we have breath in this life. That we might be caught up together in God's will for us in Jesus in God's working and mission in this world.

What would you like to add to these words?

commitment

Related to the recent posts on repentance is the importance of commitment. During Lent these are good things to be considering and pondering in an inventory of our lives before God. 

True commitment has a power from God if it is truly a commitment to God. Related to this is the Biblical truth of covenant. Covenant in Scripture starts with God, but it needs to be reciprocated. In other words, returned to God. Of course this is all of grace, a gift from God, something we wouldn't do on our own. But since God takes the intiative in grace, I take it that we can respond in faith. Of course there is mystery in this. 

But to get back to the point I want to make, commitment if made sincerely to God has a power in God. This is a commitment that like repentance is of little if any value at all, if after it is made it is not lived out. One has to seek to live it out by grace day after day.

Within a commitment is an entrusting of oneself to God through Christ by the Spirit. This is intensely personal, but must be lived out in community. God gives us community in Jesus in order to help us live this out. This is where that commitment is tested (beginning at home, by the way) and in a true sense maintained, through ongoing confession of sin, and accountability, as well as sharing our faith in each of our unique, gifted ways, to each other. 

Of course commitment looks beyond one's own benefit, to following Christ in mission in this world. Loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves is at the heart of all of this.

This was at the forefront of my thinking and praying yesterday. Life goes on for all of us. We need to ask ourselves about our commitment to God. Is is just one to get us through this life into the next? Or is it truly a commitment by grace everyday to really seek to follow Christ in everything? To do so in community and for mission to the world?

What would you like to say here?

quote of the week: Scot McKnight on The Jesus Creed

The Jesus Creed exhorts us to see that the most important commandments in the entire Bible are two: to love God and to love others. All the other commandments and prohibitions - and there are 611 others - derive from one of these two most important commandments.

Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 1.

the Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight, in his simple, yet powerful and provocative book, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, points out how Jesus changed the Shema, which was the confession of Israel. To love God continued to be at the center, but Jesus included with that the directive, from the Pentateuch (from Leviticus) to love one's neighbor as oneself. Jesus also changed the Jewish prayer, the Kaddish, reflecting the change he had made from the Shema, in the "Our Father" or "Lord's Prayer".

The Shema we can take to be the new confession of Jesus' followers, the Jesus Creed. Yes, it's a command, but it's likewise a confession. As Scot tells us in the book, as we learn to repeat it daily, just as Jesus and all religious and faithful Jews of Jesus' day recited the Shema, God can help us more and more make it a reality in our lives. And as we pray the "Our Father" prayer, we end up praying God's will. Not our own. The prayer reflects the Jesus Creed, and is really a prayer from God in that we are asking what God wants. It is good for us to recite that prayer, as well as hang our own thoughts and prayers on it, praying from it. This is not to say that we shouldn't be praying many other prayers. But it is saying that this can help us pray more, according to God's will.

I am once more rereading the book in preparation for reading Scot's 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, which I plan to do during Lent season, which begins February 25, Ash Wednesday (in Western Christendom, the Eastern Church's calendar is a little different) and ends this year April 11, 46 days later (Sundays are excluded in the count), Easter Sunday being April 12. So I plan to read prayerfully, with intentions for Christian formation in my life, Scot's book written for a 40 day period, and I think quite fitting for Lent.

Anything you would like to add? And has anyone read either of these books?

doing

One of my most helpful antidotes against worry or fear is to do something. Not just to exercise faith in some kind of passive way. Oh, of course there's a time for that. Sometimes we need to be still and know that he is God. Sometimes we have to shut up and listen. Sometimes we need to quit trying to solve the problem ourselves, and just rest.

Doing gets bad press among us Protestant evangelicals. After all, we're children of the Reformation which makes it clear that our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone apart from works. But as I was reminded today by N.T. Wright, what we do really does matter.

Yes, again faith can be passive. But quite often it's active. By faith I do certain things, whether or not it seems to make sense to me at the time or not. For example for me taking communion is important. All do it once a month at our church, but it's made available for any after each service. I think it keeps us close to being accountable as well as aware of the salvation of Jesus for us. Reminded of this great salvation through his death for us- his broken body and shed blood. And accountable to both receive and live in this forgiving, sanctifying (cleansing, making holy) grace.

Another important activity of doing for me is both reading and listening to God's word, Scripture. I have to keep at this, and every day. Like the manna that was to be gathered daily, we too are to live on the bread that God supplies in Jesus and in his word, Scripture. And it takes the whole word, not just bits and pieces of it, just as we need the whole Christ.

One more important activity I'll mention here is the necessity of praying. This is something we do. It has passive elements, and there's a dependence on the Spirit. But we have to pray whether or not we feel like it, or sense the Spirit in it or not. We need to keep praying to God. This is something we need to be doing. It's a matter of faith, but faith without doing, is no faith at all, according to James.

All of this needs to be done in the context of the Jesus Creed, by the way. This is of the utmost importance, and we dare not lose sight of it. If we're not moved by love for God and for others, our faith is empty and of no value (1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:6). Of course this is all "in Jesus". And ends up being a part of his special ongoing work of God in the world through the Spirit.

What would you like to add here?

praying the Our Father prayer

One thought that has particularly resonated with me lately is that when we say or recite "the Lord's prayer" or the "Our Father" prayer, we learn to pray more in God's will, and less in ways that are taken up with our own wills. Indeed, Jesus himself at the Garden of Gethsemane had to pray, "Not my will, but your will be done."

We need to be praying this prayer daily. Both in helping us in how we pray, but also in simply saying the words. Both are needed for us, as in set or liturgical prayers as well as spontaneous, personal prayers. Both have their place Scripturally.

Such praying can help us more and more towards living for God's will in Jesus, and not for ourselves. Along with reciting "the Jesus Creed" several times daily, I am trying to pray the "Our Father" prayer several times as well. I want to see God change me more and more as a person who does not look out for my own interests, but for the interests of Jesus. Not to say we don't have human concerns that need to be addressed. Scripture makes it clear that we do, and that we should come to God as we are. And God wants to change us more and more to be like his Son.

How about you? Has anyone reading this found liturgical praying (as in using prayers like the "Our Father" prayer, or such as I post on Sundays) useful in your own life? Or what would you like to share here?

quote of the week: Scot McKnight - the wedding wine- Jesus

What this sign reveals, John tells us, is "his glory." Jesus, who is himself the manifestation of God's glory, reveals his own glory - who he is and what he is here to do - in this miracle. When the water turns to wine and the eye of faith peers into the purification vessels, it sees not sacred water but sacred wine. The eye of faith sees not an image of itself but the image of Jesus floating on the surface of the wine. Jesus is seen in this wine for who he really is: the one who not only provides but is himself the joy of the kingdom.

All human yearning is ultimately a yearning for an abundance of the sort of wedding wine that is Jesus himself. This is to say that our yearning is really to know the joy that comes from knowing the love of God (in Jesus). The Jesus Creed reveals that what humans ultimately yearn for is love for God and others. To know that love is to know the joy of the wedding wine Jesus alone provides.

from The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, by Scot McKnight, p. 165

balance

I've been thinking a bit lately on how to keep my life balanced. I like to be in Scripture alot during the course of a day (not to say I'm in it everyday like that). Of course we can't just be in Scripture, that's not what God's word calls us to do. We're to be meditating on it in the midst of our doing, our living. How I live out the truth of God's word in Jesus is what matters, not merely what I know about it. The kind of knowing in Scripture that God wants for us is both relational and active- to God and others in accord with God's revealed will in Jesus for us in this world.

Politics, the national and international scene I believe are matters that should concern us all. Sports, interests we have- all have their place. More important are our relationships with our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and how we live out the faith in Jesus, in the world so as to fulfill God's calling for us. Of course we need to keep all things in mind in relation to the Jesus Creed.

I do think what is best for us in the matter of balance always differs from person to person, and differs from season to season. I do find myself as I get older wanting to slow down and do what I do better, rather than thinking I would like to do x amount of things, while knowing there's likely no way I'll get all of that done.

How about you? How do you look at balance and how it pertains in your life?

the Jesus creed- refresher

I learned this term from Scot McKnight some time ago, and blogged on it here and there, especially in the earlier days of this blog. And I believe we need to go back to it again and keep going back to it.

The Jesus Creed is simply as follows:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Mark
12:28-31

It is important to our faith and life to be followers of Jesus, and how we're to live on this earth is summed up in these two commands: we're to love God supremely, in all our being and doing, and we're to love our neighbor, that is our fellow human being, whoever they may be- as ourselves.

After Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, this did not change! Actually all Jesus taught was then implemented in the way it needed to be, in the way Jesus promised on the eve of his departure, by his death into his new resurrection sphere of life.

I was raised under the influence of evangelicalism, which in my younger years, even in my Mennonite church was influenced by the Scofield Bible. Not to put that Bible down, or its adherents, but its theology is certainly different than a sound Mennonite, Anabaptist theology. But the people in the pews are still influenced by the trends of the day, just like today with some of the winds of doctrine blowing around. We all need to be aware of how we may be impacted in ways we wouldn't imagine, just left to ourselves.

So it wasn't hard for me, and even for some Mennonite pastors I think, to see Paul's letters as being what we need to focus on. And don't get me wrong: those letters and homily, along with the rest of the New Testament, all have their place, and it's a vital and important place for our faith and life today.

But we do need to get back to a proper emphasis on the coming, works, words and work of our Lord Jesus, as given to us in the gospels. And "the Jesus Creed" found in them needs to be at the heart of all we are and do. If it's not loving God as in drawing near to him and obeying him, and if it's not loving our neighbor like Jesus did, then it's not according to God's will for us today.

Not to say that we ever keep these commands perfectly, though I believe by grace and by the work of the Spirit, there are surely instances when perhaps we are doing it at least without any conscious sin.

And it needs to be emphasized that "in Jesus" we're all in this together for the sake of the world. Jesus' coming and our being "in him" in this world is not just so we can know salvation here. It's missional at its heart, and we must not forget that. We're to love God and our neighbor with that in mind.

Alot of words here, and a bit scattered, but what would you like to add on this?

Tomorrow: "Seedstone - healing" from L.L. Barkat, Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places

"Goldsworthy's Wall - sacrifice" from L.L. Barkat

From Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places.

L.L. and her husband have their first child. A baby girl, and a joy, but L.L. looks forward to getting back into her teaching job, and with that the prospect of a good house.

Little seven month old Sarah lets L.L. know, in no uncertain terms by her not eating while at the day care, that she is not accepting the separation from mother. She is not herself when L.L. picks her up, and L.L. is confronted with a choice. God seems to make it clear to her: you can have a big house, empty- or have a home filled with love. L.L. chooses in faith the sacrifice of love for her daughter, for her family, in answer to her God.

Andy Goldworthy's stone wall is an interesting piece of art, reminiscient of how God works in taking simple things from his creation, and making something new and special as when he created humankind- or in Jesus, helping those through such acts, such as when Jesus takes the mud to the blind man's eyes, and has him wash in the pool of Siloam, for healing, so that he could see.

L.L. remarks that we often think of the "great" things we can do, as in bigger, such as in her case, speaking, instead of the little, earthy things we can do for others, during the course of each day.

I was raised by parents who lived during The Great Depression. Dad and Mom always (and Mom still does) worked hard. I picked this up, so that to me the most important aspect of most of my day was, and to some extent still is to work hard, and do my work well. Of course that's good to a point. But one can lose sight so easily of the central place that relationships have and are to have in one's life. And with relationships comes sacrifice, beginning at home.

I extended the work ethic all too often in ways and places that were not good. For example, you get your work done first, then after that you see to a relationship with someone. Of course if you think you have things to get done around the house or a work project, or some other project, then relationships can take a back seat. When in reality, it should be all about relationships, work revolving around them. Not relationships somehow revolving around an all important work or task.

So if we think of sacrifice in terms of serving others, and not losing sight of our first order of life, to build and maintain relationships, beginning at home, then we're getting on the page that God has not only written, but inhabits. After all, love that at its heart is relational, is the only motive that gives value to any work or sacrifice. Without it, any sacrifice is empty and hollow in God's eyes. As Jesus told Peter, "If you love me, feed and take care of my sheep."

This chapter is a good, down to earth reminder, from L.L.'s own journey. It really made me think about the scope of my own life, and where I am in my actions now. And though I've come a long way, it is easy for me to get lost in my work, or in my own reading and thoughts, even prayers in a way that is not conducive to building with the gold, silver and costly stones, which will stand the test of the Lord's judgment. Good works are important, but the best works are done in relational ways, the mother raising her children being perhaps the epitome of this.

What thoughts do you have on sacrifice as depicted here, by L.L.?

1. Stepping Stones - conversion
2. Christmas Coal - shame
3. Tossed Treasures - messiness
4. Heron Road - suffering
5. Sword in the Stone - resistance
6. Howe's Cave - baptism
7. Palisade Cliffs - doubt
8. Holding Pfaltzgraff - inclusion
9. Indiana Jones - fear
10. Old Stone Church - love

Next week: "Clefts of the Rock - Responsibility"