Part 6
“Nobody should seek his or her own good, but the good of others.”
1 Corinthians 10:24
Edward Yarnold, in his paper titled, “Theology of Christian Spirituality,” writes after reflecting on the law of the grain of wheat that, “the glory of God himself lies in self-giving.”
The path toward living in this glory is born out of a posture of humility. Andrew Murray writes, “Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and highest virtue of the creature, […] it makes room for the Spirit of God to live in you.”
Humility is the first step toward living fully in God’s glory and thus gives us the capacity to become self-giving. When we become self-giving, we become healers.
You may be thinking, What’s this have to do with church?” I’d like to tell you. It has
The Church is Our Glory
I’ve learned during the search for a church family that I can’t go around asking, “What can the church do for me?” Viewing church this way is wreaking havoc on our communities. This self-centered, consumer-driven notion of the church needs to die in my heart and each of our hearts. The truer questions we should be asking is, “Who am I, as the Church, called to be, and how should we be living?”
We, the Church, were formed to edify, encourage and comfort one another toward our greater collective calling. The church serves dual purposes, and no, one is not to make us feel good and give us a good show once a week. First, the Church equips and serves one another toward communal health through worship, edification, spiritual growth and maturity, accountability, comfort, and solidarity of faith, so that we can fulfill the second part of our purpose–to love others. We are the light of the world, a city on a hill that radiates God’s glory (Matt. 5:14). God did not establish the church to be like a self-service gas station for a select few.
The Good News
We gather in worship as a testimony to a living God who has altered the path of our lives and put a message in our hearts. As living temples, our deepest truth is that we harbor a message of Good News that burns within our souls–it is our light. The essence of this Good News is Christ humbling himself to become flesh, lowering himself to serve his creation, sacrificing himself to death for humanity so that we can live in restored communion with God which includes the reinstatement to our rightful place within the now present Kingdom of God. This truth is our fullest glory and, we, the Church, should be living out our truth in practical ways.
You may say this sounds quite self-focused, and it does to our western culture that preaches a personal salvation experience, that then beckons an individual faith journey, but the nature of this Good News is that it’s for all creation and it draws us together as one–the Church. Our personal salvation is a stitch in a myriad of tapestries formed over generations of humanity’s salvation thus making the Good News bigger than our personal profession of faith, bigger than our local idea of the Church. Once inhabited with the Good News, by its nature, it seeks to go forth, beyond you and me in order to fully heal a broken creation. The Good News is a moving, living Spirit that compels its Body toward an outward vision, a greater plan of restoration.
The Good News implies sacrifice, death, repentance, and humility all toward dependence on our creator to complete the story of salvation. The Good News transforms us into self-giving, rather than self-serving people. It transforms us to live
“This is not an invitation to false humility or to the denial of our own value, but it is a call to enter into Christ’s healing ministry. Every time we pay attention [to others] we become emptier, and the more we empty the more healing space we can offer.”
Henri Nouwen
Self-giving Healers
Our glory through Christ is to live as Spirit-filled healers. This looks like offering a soothing salve to a broken world in need of empathy via a listening ear, love where distrust has burrowed into another’s heart, mercy where injustice took what wasn’t given, kindness where a harsh word broke a spirit, service where one can’t help themselves, an advocate where one has no voice, a peace-maker where war has ravaged lives or racial hate has robbed us of human compassion, a friend where one feels lonely, or a message of salvation where all hope seems lost.
Nouwen says, together “we contribute to an image much greater.” The Church is the active movement of God’s Kingdom on earth. When reading the news or hearing about global atrocities it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, even numb, “What can I possibly do?” When we live fully alongside our church family, our one becomes many, our efforts to give in whatever way possible becomes multiplied and our collective efforts transform into global influence toward healing. The tasks that looked overwhelming, become possible through God’s living and active Church across the world. If this is not something you believe, I encourage you to start looking. Our church family is giving, serving, and sacrificing in tremendous ways among the hard and ordinary places. Hope is not lost or dead.
What we can do is ask ourselves, “Is our local church contributing to this greater image? Are we personally using our gifting within the Church to serve, participate and self-give? Do I know what the global church is up to?” If not, what can you do to encourage your church family, what needs to change in you to start joining your family, and how can you discover how your extended church family is living into their kingdom calling as healers?
Begin With Prayer
Prayer “is the motive behind all human efforts” so let’s not give up on communing with God for our church family. Let us not give up being moldable before God so that we can be self-giving, practical healers in our hard-pressed world.
If you don’t know where to begin, I have found this prayer in The Book of Common Prayer a good place to start. May this also be our personal prayer by changing “it” to “me/I,” as we return to the Church.
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic (Universal) Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen
