Category: Community

How faith has changed

When Luther said we’re saved by faith alone, he did not mean we’d be alone in our faith.

No, it’s not just nostalgia; faith really has changed.

Long ago, people believed what their community did. If your culture was animist, Buddhist, or Christendom, that was your faith.

All that began to change when an Italian pointed his telescope to the planets and told his community he no longer believed we were the centre of the universe. The keepers of the faith told Galileo he wasn’t allowed to believe that. Their attempt to control him undermined the credibility of the Church’s faith. Galileo became a kind of unofficial saint of independent belief.

Continue reading “How faith has changed”

The mind of Christ (podcast) (Philippians 2)

How do you build community? God’s answer to that question is quite staggering, not least because we’re participants in the community he’s building in Christ. How? Well, that amazing hymn in Philippians 2 tells us how.

Continue reading “The mind of Christ (podcast) (Philippians 2)”

What is a Christian? (podcast) (Romans 12:9-21)

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Writing to Rome, Paul spent eleven chapters explaining who Christ is in relation to us, and then five explaining who we are in relation to each other under Christ’s leadership. Short answer: Christians are the community in Christ. Our identity derives from the leader God appointed for us.

This podcast draws on the transitional chapter of Romans, in fresh translation. Recorded at Riverview Church’s Joondalup campus, 15 August 2021 (34 minutes).

Related posts

Got the COVID jab

Finally got vaccinated. Want to know why?

Okay, I’ve had my first CO-VID vaccine shot. Reactions from friends ranged from:

  1. “Why did it take you so long?” to
  2. “Why put something like that into your body?”

I was slow off the mark because here in Western Australia we’re so socially isolated already that it made sense to let others go first (medical staff, quarantine workers, aged care staff, people in the eastern states).

To answer the second question, let me tell you a story.

Continue reading “Got the COVID jab”

The king is in community (Matthew 18:18-20)

How does the world discover her king? In the community that recognizes him.

How does heaven’s reign come to earth? We’re meant to be a kingdom of heaven, so how is heaven’s authority restored to the earth? The kingdom becomes our living reality as people recognize Jesus as heaven’s anointed king, the Son with his Father’s authority.

Continue reading “The king is in community (Matthew 18:18-20)”

Reading together

Before the printing press, few people had a Bible of their own. It was a shared book. People read together. The Old Testament was the Jewish community’s story. New Testament letters were for churches. The Gospels were communal memories, reflected in the way the Synoptics use identical phrases to tell Jesus’ story.

Then the printing press gave us each a Bible of our own. Reading it as a private book, we fragmented into 40,000+ denominations. There are people in our culture who promote the notion that a text can mean whatever a reader wants (reader-response theory).

Today we tend to read the Bible alone. I bring the Bible into my private world, searching for spiritual guidance for my life. I identify each character with my struggles, glossing over the bigger story of the faithful Father who reigns across the families and generations. Almost imperceptibly, I am the centre of my universe.

Continue reading “Reading together”

Society on the couch

Can you use cartoons in an academic paper? Ann Fink did. Her article is a case study I may use in ethics class.

She asks how to treat this police officer. During Algeria’s War of Independence, he presents to Dr Frantz Fanon (psychiatrist) suffering PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) as a result of his work, which involves torture. He’s not coping, and his home life is becoming increasingly violent.

The patient asks Fanon “to help him torture … with a total peace of mind.” Is it possible to treat the inspector in a meaningful way?

How would you advise the doctor?

Continue reading “Society on the couch”

God and the human family (Ephesians 3:14-19)

How do we respond to the news that God unites us as his family?

The gospel is the good news that God has restored peace to all the peoples of the earth through his anointed ruler (Ephesians 2). So what’s our response to this good news?

What people often do with the gospel today doesn’t match the response in Ephesians 3.

  • Evangelicals try to convince individuals they’re sinners and get them saved.
  • Justice warriors name and shame the regimes for their sins (systemic oppression).

But Paul doesn’t stand up to condemn individuals or regimes: Continue reading “God and the human family (Ephesians 3:14-19)”

Genuine love

What does this mean to you?

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good (Romans 12:9 NIV).

It says I must resist the temptations that suck me in, so I don’t fall into sin, right? That’s what most of us hear, but that’s not what Paul said at all. It’s actually about loving people, not individual struggle.

Continue reading “Genuine love”

A grassroots kingdom (Matthew 10:9-15)

Working with the people who want the best for their community — that’s how Jesus’ kingdom vision works.

Open Matthew 10:9-15.

How did Jesus expect to run a kingdom? They’re expensive! Government in Australia costs us $450 billion dollars a year — $50 for every man, woman, and child, every day.

It’s always been like that. When Israel first asked for a king, Samuel warned them how taxing human rulers would be:

1 Samuel 8:11–17 (ESV)
11 These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons …  13 He will take your daughters … 14 He will take … 15 He will take … 16 He will take … 17 He will take … and you shall be his slaves.

David’s son Solomon charged taxes and required his citizens to work to build the temple in Jerusalem. He built stables and garrisons and public works, and a harem and wealth for himself. After 7 years of temple construction, he required the work teams to build him a palace — for the next 13 years! So heavy was Solomon’s yoke that it split the kingdom when he died (1 Kings 12:4, 11).

If Jesus was restoring the kingdom, how could he fund it? He’s just appointed his first government officials — twelve kingdom emissaries — but how could he fund them? You’re not going to believe what he did: he sent them out with no money, to fend for themselves!

Put yourself in their shoes: Continue reading “A grassroots kingdom (Matthew 10:9-15)”