All posts tagged Christian lifestyle

Lesson 11: Community – Love

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Christian Lifestyle with No comments

Let me build on the very, very fine discussion taking place in “Comments”. Juan laid the foundation observing that our lifestyle gives witness to the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Bob suggested that lifestyle is necessarily divided into worship and ethics. Anne pointed to the need for community, succinctly defining its role as giving support and accountability. All the commentators agree with Bob that the overarching Christian ethical principle is love for all (even your enemies). However, Marland pointed out this is a tough love and warned we have to avoid the “Lutheran curse” of making people feel they are “not good enough”. He suggested we do that when we base all on love not fear.

I was reminded how important these insights are when two of my pastors preached series on “Behave as if you Believe” this summer. They forced me to remember that Jesus goes beyond other religions in proclaiming God is a father and we are all brothers and sisters.

Using the standard of this unconditional love enables us creatively to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in our time, as Juan counseled. Bob observed it is still difficult to know for certain “if we are doing the right thing?” We always need to share our perspectives with others in the community and to remember together the lessons from our tradition (Anne’s support and accountability). The reaction to the recent Lutheran study on human sexuality illustrates how difficult this can be. We seldom find certainty in this world. Faith, hope, and love are always related

I think we can agree our lifestyle includes participating in the Church where Word and Sacrament are found. I propose this kind of community establishes priorities rather than imposes rigid rules. Let me suggest a few:

1. Working on co-operation rather than competition. Sharing our gifts. Not insisting on our own ways. Working for the common good rather than only personal happiness, even if this means self-denial and sacrifice.

2. Taking special care of the weak and vulnerable. Making the care of the needy our standard for justice.

3. Building up rather than tearing down. Seeking to give more than we take.

4. Serving the family and nation without making them idols.

6. Giving priority to the local and everyday, the real rather than the virtual.

7. Avoiding self- contempt. Loving neighbor as we love ourselves calls for healthy self- esteem.

Does proclaiming the Church as the Body of Christ mean as Teresa of Avila said “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet by which he is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands by which he is to bless people now”? Does confessing the “catholic Church” mean we must move beyond the natural boundaries of family and nation and love everyone the same way? Does emphasizing love of “neighbor” mean we have the greatest responsibility to those with whom we live “face to face”.

Lesson 10: Tradition – Faith

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Christian Lifestyle with No comments

I failed in coaxing more readers to make comments. However, I received more rave reviews for the three that did than in any previous week. So I am going to proceed as planned, begin building a lifestyle with hopes that others will join in. That will involve making observations and asking questions.

1. Let’s begin with Myron’s wondering what is uniquely Christian about the Kirkridge list. We (because I am as member of the Company) saw this as making the reference point “a contemporary, Christian community”. We hesitated labeling this “Church”, because members attend a variety of meetings, everything from monasteries to house churches. But maybe you have to go beyond that. Certainly one of the problems with the Mainline Churches was they were little more than social clubs for respectable people in the mid twentieth century.

Lutherans define the Church as the gathering of believers for Word and Sacrament. One of the ways we nourish ourselves is by remembering how God has graced life in the past. Does a Christian lifestyle involve observing the Sabbath in the sense of taking time off to regain perspective by remembering our tradition? Does this have to include the sacraments? What else?

2. I think Bob and Matt did a good job answering Myron’s question about how we “delink from the world’s value systems”. I especially liked Matt’s keeping it simple with things such as controlling your schedule and getting beyond the distractions and emotional exhaustion of modern life. Certainly tradition helps in this task as well. Remembering what Jesus said and did is our standard for evaluating what is going on around us. Is being grounded in the scriptures an essential?

3. Tradition does not mean conservative. To remember tradition is not returning to a vanishing way of life, but rather remembering what the past has taught us. It is not the basis for certainty, rigid rules, authoritarianism, or uniformity, not about taste in worship services or sexuality. Matt’s definition works for tradition as well as rules: “guiding lights that draw you back, not fixed borders that disqualify you if you cross them”. How do we respect tradition while still following the creative moves of the Holy Spirit in our time?

4. I struggle with Bob’s questions about whether our actions really bring a significant change in the world. Does “living as tenants of a small fragile planet” conflict with the traditional picture of God providing everything? Can we live as if God provides abundance? Matt reminds us efficiency and productivity are not our standards for determining this. After all, the traditional logo of the faith is a guy hanging on a cross.

What does it mean to follow Jesus in our time and place? Try this more traditional lifestyle. It is the promise made by confirmands and new members in a Lutheran Church. One of our readers once reported how pleased she was that her daughter would promise to work for peace and justice in the earth. “She’ll never be asked to that again in her life”

Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism:
To live among God’s faithful people,
To hear his Word and share in his supper,
To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
To serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus,
And to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?

What do you think of this as a summary of the Christian life style? Is it too traditional? Is it general enough to embrace all those who belong to Christ’s family?

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