Magyar Egyház, 1991 (70. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1991-01-01 / 1. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 11. oldal LET'S GET PRACTICAL “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me” (Luke 4:18). From the very beginning, there have been Christians who understood the Gospel Message to mean that if you have faith it doesn’t really matter what you do with your life. But Jesus teaching and example demand more of us than that. As Jesus’ followers we are called into a ministry of demonstrating our faith through works of love. Having accepted the reality that God accepts us, having professed our trust in God’s goodness and His promise of eternal fulfillment, we enter into the Christian ministry, we take up our Cross and follow Jesus’ example in doing God’s will. As members of Christ’s Community of Faith, we gather together regularly to worship and praise God and thank Him for His gift of life and His gift of faith. And, as members of Christ’s Community of Faith, we go forth as doers of the Word: a people of compassion; a servant people, a “salt of the earth and a light to the world” people. It is so easy to say we have faith, but this faith “is as dead as a body wihtout breath” the Book of James tells us, unless it is demonstrated in our love for all others (Jas. 2:26). “There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope and love,” Paul has written, and the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13). Our faith is expressed through specific, concrete, practical works. When John Wesley was six-years-old, the parsonage in which he lived with his family caught fire. The alarm was given and the parents thought everyone was out of the house safely. But when they started counting, they discovered that one of the children was missing. And, to their horror, they saw young John Wesley at an upper-story window, caught in the burning building. The father, a devout, scholarly Anglican Minister, immediately dropped to his knees, praying that God would save the boy. His mother, who not only was a person of great faith but also a very practical woman, immediately ran next door, got a neighbor with a ladder and, working with the neighbor, rescued her son from the flaming house. There are times when the best way to express your faith is to get off your knees, go get a neighbor with a ladder, and do what has to be done in a given situation. Apart from works of love, your faith is dead — “as lifeless as a corpse.” “My brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it?” the Sacred Author has written: Such faith has no power to save one, has it? If a brother or a sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, “Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well-fed,” but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless (Jas. 2:14-17). The Letter to the Romans is the Apostle Paul’s masterpiece. Paul had never been to Rome. He was planning to go there. He felt that it was most important to have a strong Christian Community there because Rome was then the capital of the then-known world. Consequently, he sent a letter ahead of him so that the people of Rome might know his interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Corinthians” is something else again. Corinth was what we might call the “sin city” of the ancient world. We can imagine the difficulties involved in trying to sustain a strong Christian Community in that kind of environment. How to live the Christian life in a world like that? Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are written in that spirit. But in Romans and Corinthians both, Paul describes the Holy Spirit. And when we put these two passages together, we get a clear view of what the full Christian life is meant to be. When the New Testament writers talk about the Holy Spirit they are telling us that God wants us to move from an occasional experience of His Presence into a rich, immediate, full, ongoing experience. They speak of being baptized in the Holy Spirit which means immersed in God’s Presence. They speak of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which means to be filled with God. As we begin to experience the Holy Spirit, the particular, unique talents, gifts, insights, abilities of each one of us are called forth. They begin to develop. They begin to flower. The best that is in us begins to well up and spill over, if you will. Everyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ is offered the fullness of God’s presence. And Paul helps us to explore the results of this deep religious experience. One of the results of the coming of the Holy Spirit in our life is that the particular unique gifts of each one of are used for the common good. God rejoices in our gifts because He loves us, and we rejoice in them by sharing them. We rejoice in the gifts of others and they rejoice in our gifts. “To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good,” Paul says in First Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:7). “If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging symbol. ... If I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-2). “We have gifts that differ,” Paul says in Romans. Each of us has our unique contribution to make to the common good of all in the spirit of love. “Your love must be sincere,” Paul says. “Love one another with the affection of brothers. Anticipate each other in showing respect. . . look on the needs of others as your own; be generous in hospitality. Bless your persecutors ... rejoice with those who rejoice ... weep with those who weep ... if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink... conquer evil with good” (Rom. 13:6, 9, 14-15, 20-21). John Kelinger, a seminary professor, has written a little book with the thought-provoking title, “The Second Coming of the Church.” In it, he describes what he sees as the weaknesses in today’s institutional Church. The book also is full of hope as the author expresses his belief in Church renewal. Actually, the book revolves around a conversation which the author had with a young woman, on an airplane flight. The woman held a degree in architecture and she was flying to New York City on business. She asked John Kellinger what he did for a living and he told her he was a minister teaching in a seminary. Her disinterested response prompted him to ask, “What Church do you stay away from?” She replied, “All of them.” He asked if she had had a bad experience in the Church. She said she hadn’t, but thought it was “hopelessly antique.” Then she went on to describe her version of a whole new approach to Church building architecture. Some of her ideas were very thought-provoking. As she continued to talk, she began to expose her longing to belong to a Church Community in which she could be her real self. Finally she made a statement. This modern, young, professional woman said, “I would like to be part of a Church in which all the particularities of myself are accepted as important.” To be part of a Church Community where we accept each other’s particularities as important is precisely what Paul is talking about in Romans and Corinthians. To do whatever needs to be done to bring this to life in our relationships
