Personally, I think Floyd McClung is onto
something in You See Bones I See an Army
(2007: published by David C Cook) when he asks the question, “Is it too
simplistic to think we can define church in a few words? Is it possible for untrained non-experts to
grasp what church is about?” (p. 43). I
love his answer:
Some theologians would have us believe that it’s
impossible to describe in a few words what they have spent whole volumes trying
to define and describe. But from my
perspective, it’s possible to define the church in a few words because that’s
what Jesus did. Theologians have made
church far too complicated. The bible
defines church very simply because God wants everyone to be part of it. Jesus came not only to die on the cross for
our sins, but to give the church back to ordinary people…
In the religious systems of his day, religious rulers
used religion to control people. When
Jesus came he turned everything on its head
McClung goes on to say (p.44), “Though Paul
pioneered the first church in Europe, it was Jesus who modelled simple church,
and defined church in such simple terms.
He did this to help his followers understand the new way of doing
things. Here is the way Jesus defined
church: ‘Where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I am in the midst of them.’”
It is just such a shame that he doesn’t make
the distinction between the church that God is building (ekklesia) and the
church that man is building (kuriakos).
Unfortunately, like the vast majority of the material available today,
it continues to disregard Tyndale’s work and blurs the two, conflating them
into one and the same thing – which they clearly are not.
At a very fundamental level, we can see a
distinction between kuriakos and ekklesia that is as clear and distinct
as between a dog and a fish: legs > fins; hair > scales; land-based >
water-based; one gets oxygen from the air, the other from the water. Ekklesia
is not about meetings but about the over-arching mission of God and making a bride
for His Son; take the meetings out of kuriakos
and you have little left. Ekklesia doesn’t need a special class of
people using a special language in special locations and special buildings with
special music and special windows and special carpark; remove these ‘special’
things from kuriakos and you have
little left. Ekklesia doesn’t need a man-created program and agenda or an ‘order
of service’; do away with the program in kuriakos
and you have little left.
But what is to me by far the most exhilarating
thing about this issue is that it is people, not institutions, organisations
and programs that inherit the kingdom of God – both now in time and in eternity. The “joint-heirs with Christ” – the
inheritors of all the Father is and has – are redeemed, justified people, not
institutions organisations and programs.
In the eternal kingdom, there are no institutions, organisations and
programs apart from God Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and the Bride
of the Son. It seems to me that we would
do well to mirror that as we minister in the here-and-now Kingdom of God,
instead of perpetuating the will of the ancient monarchs and clergymen.
The things I am talking about here are also
visible to us in the messages of several of the Old Testament prophets
concerning old Israel. Jeremiah 2 and 3
are deep and penetrating charges brought by God against His kuriakos (His special possession). Listen to the ‘weeping prophet’ and see if
you do not feel his pain even today.
“What
injustice did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me and walked
after emptiness and became empty? And
they did not say, ‘Where is
the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt?’ The
priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ and those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers also
transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after
the things that did not profit.”
“Has
a nation changed gods, (when they were not even gods)? But my people have changed their glory for
that which does not profit. Be appalled,
O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they
have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves
cisterns, broken cistern, that can hold no water.”
“God
says, ‘If a husband divorces
his wife, and she goes from him, and belongs to another man, will he still
return to her? Will not that land be
completely alienated? But you are a
harlot with many lovers; yet you turn to me,’ declares the Lord. Lift up your
eyes to the bare heights and see; where have you not been violated? By the roads you have sat for them like an
Arab in the desert, and you have polluted a land with your harlotry…”
“Surely,
as a women treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt
treacherously with me, O house of Israel.”
Like Israel before her, Kuriakos prostitutes herself with all kinds of ‘lovers’ who promise
fame and fortune. In his wisdom, God has
now implemented His new administration which began in Jesus and was brought to
birth at Pentecost – ekklesia. And nothing will keep Him from His plan, His
mission, His passion. Paul wrote, “Christ loved the ecclesia and gave himself
up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water with the word [‘rhema’, not logos or scripture], that He might present to Himself the ecclesia in all her glory having
no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
blameless.”
A little further on, I want to mention the
work of Frank Viola – in particular, From
Eternity to Here – and spend some time on the subject of what is God’s
vision and mission and passion for the people he has created. For now, let me just give you a very short
summary.
I agree with Viola that a vast amount of the
theology and teaching of evangelical protestant christianity is built on the
contents of the bible from Genesis chapter 3 to Revelation chapter 20 – from
the fall of man to the judgement seat. We
have a tendency to make the bible fit our theologies rather than inform them, I
fear. But, the bible has Genesis 1 and 2
as well as Revelation 21 and 22. As
viola says, the story of God in relation to us humans begins with a man and a
woman in a beautiful garden and ends with a man a woman in a new heaven and a
new earth; it begins with a wedding and ends with a wedding. In between, is the wonderful story of God relentlessly
pursuing His passion and His mission until all is accomplished.
God has a most marvellous passion in His
breast and it flows out of Him in the form of His plan, His mission, His
purpose. Central to that purpose is
three things: a bride for His Son; a house and a home as a resting place; and a
large family living as a household. The story
of God is a romance – a love story – of epic proportions. The fall of man and the judgement seat of
Christ do not – will not – keep God from His eternal purpose. They are but means to His ends. And that purpose – that end – includes the ‘wedding
breakfast’ for the Son and His bride.
According to Revelation 22, “The Spirit and the Bride say come.” The Bride is – if Paul is to believed – the ecclesia, not the kuriakos. The kuriakos contains the works of man, the fingerprints
of man and the grubby tarnishes of man – ‘dead works’ that will all be burned away.
What a shame that we would spend so much time,
effort and money building kuriakos (our
own houses) and neglect the building of ekklesia
(God’s house): sounds a bit like Haggai 1:9.
Cheers,
Kevin.
Cheers,
Kevin.
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