About Me...what is an 'evangelical-catholic?'

Elk Grove Village, IL, United States
I was born & raised in rural mid-Michigan (M-go blue!). Life & work have taken me to many different places. God has too, as I've come to learn that faith is a pilgrimage. I very much resonate with the label 'EVANGELICAL-CATHOLIC.' I was raised Baptist, but found myself drawn to the Sacraments & Liturgy of the Church. I appreciate very much the words of the Augsburg Confession: "...nothing has been received among us, in doctrine or in ceremonies, that is contrary to Scripture or to the church catholic." Evangelical-catholic is a term of self-designation used by Christians coming from a broad spectrum of theological perspectives and commitments, ranging from Lutherans, Anglicans, and various Evangelicals yearning for greater catholicity .....to faithful Roman Catholics longing for an evangelical renewal of the Church. Perhaps beneath the apparent denominational differences there lies a common...groaning of the Spirit of God, who is seeking to draw the members of Christ’s mystical body into a communal life that is both fully catholic and fully evangelical. One can always hope and pray!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thoughts going in, Sunday May 13th


John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. (TNIV)

This Sunday's Gospel reading is a direct continuation from last week's. Last week we saw the first 8 verses from John 15 talked about Christ the true vine, and his disciples as branches. We also saw that the only imperative, the only 'command,' within those 8 verses was to REMAIN.

Building on this, we see now two commands in this section. First, "REMAIN," again, this time not only remaining "in Christ," but specifically in the his love (v.9), which is a reflection of the Father's love (v.10). Second, love each other.

Ironically, the first command probably sounds easier than the second. After all, if God hasn't done anything too bad to us lately (like let a tornado destroy our house, etc.) we can probably drum up something close to a generic love of God. After all, he provides the air we breathe, the rain and sunshine that allows crops to grow, and it's just sorta easy for people raised in the Church to have a "benevolent dictator" view of God. Occasionally he seems capricious, but if nothing bad has happened to us lately, he seems ok most of the time.

But what about "each other?" It seems that the more I've immersed myself in church work, the more I have sadly come upon the truth that very often Christians not only aren't characterized for their love of God's creation, or their love of for un-churched humanity, ..... they're not even characterized by their love for EACH OTHER. Indeed, often they're not even characterized by their general "like" for each other! How can this be? When the Bible has SO MUCH to say about love, how can people who claim to be interested in adhering to the Bible's teaching, fall so short?

Very likely there are enough aspects to answering that question to fill an entire book, but two things suggest themselves to me right off the bat. First, Jesus says in John 13:35 "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE for each other." If that's true, then it's probably safe to say that the reverse is also true. Something along the lines of, "By this nobody will be able to figure out that you are my disciples if you have no love for each other." Hence, while some may find the 'handywork' of the forces of evil most prevalent in wars, disease, destruction of our environment, etc., it's very safe to say that such forces are also fast at work in an anti-evangelistic crusade to blunt and silence the message of Christ in the world--and what better way to accomplish this than to turn Christians into an angry, hateful, bickering mob of fanatics who not only hate the world, but hate each other?

The second thing that comes to mind in terms of falling short of the Bible's concept of reflecting the love of Christ (and hence his Father) has to do with the true meaning of biblical love. Vs 13 is that very well-known passage: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. The great thing about this verse is that it turns our attention away from the 'emotional' side of love. Some people, after all, ARE difficult to like even if they are Christians. But in vs 13, we come upon a different concept: the idea of love = dedication to others; love = not living solely for oneself; love = living one's life with devoted to the needs of the community of friends [fellow Christians first, followed by an ever-widening circle of all creation].

cheers,

TM
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