Monday, February 17, 2020
692 - Close Call
Spirituality Column #692
February 18, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Close Call
By Bob Walters
“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with
glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
– Acts 2:46-47
I love this picture of the early church.
They weren’t dissecting personal problems (What about me?),
railing against Roman rule (politics), denigrating the Pharisees (doctrine),
dwelling on organizational protocols (churchianity), or focusing much on sins
or Are you / Am I really saved?
(legalistic doubts and judgment).
They marveled at what Jesus had done.
They didn’t ask God for “stuff;” they praised Christ’s courage. They took loving care of each other.
This early church pre-dated the “nature-of-Jesus” heresies
soon to come and the navel-gazing of later theologians and philosophers. These first worshipers likely wouldn’t
recognize much of the modern church – any modern church – but would have great compassion
for our distance of time from the events they experienced.
These earliest Christians were driven into sincere and
loving fellowship by their witness of Christ to each other and the outside
world. They had seen Him, Jesus. Or if they personally had not seen Jesus, in
their midst likely were one or several who had.
There were eyewitnesses everywhere not only to His pain and suffering
but also to His obedience and majesty, to His teaching, miracles, and passion,
and to His resurrection.
It is a story of life, success, and relationship; not death,
failure, and punishment.
Acts chapter 2 is thrilling in its descriptions: Pentecost,
the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s earliest preaching, the risen
Lord, the ancient prophesies, and the direct simplicity of “church” participation
– “Repent and be baptized.” The
Cross was near.
It is hard to imagine that the topics of personal needs or
comfort, of politics and interpretations, of organization and actions, of “Jesus
fix this for me!” – so prevalent in myriad congregations today – arose. In that startlingly new and divine bright
light of the resurrected Jesus, in their closeness to the Cross, redemption,
salvation and the person of Jesus Christ, their easy fellowship was underscored
by unrestrained joy and charity.
Others in culture around them noticed “and many were
added to their number.”
Despite the words of the revered hymn The Old Rugged
Cross, that Cross is anywhere but “On a hill far away.” The Cross of Christ is in my life here and
now and if you are reading this, likely in yours. It is the Cross we joyously bear in our hearts
that, yes, convicts us of our sin but also gloriously convinces us of the truth
of Christ. The Cross binds us in
fellowship to other Christians. The
Cross invites, insists, requires sharing its promise with “glad and
sincere hearts” as reflected in that earliest church.
Jesus succeeded in His mission. The early Christians quickly realized that
the horror of the Cross and what initially was a dispiriting death and apparent
failure was but a labored pass-through to resurrection and sharing the eternal
glory of God’s love.
The lesson of the Cross isn’t failure, nor is it “suffering
and shame” as the hymn suggests. The lessons
of the Cross are joy and truth; they are courage and purpose and obedience. The deep message of Christ is hope and love
driven by our faith in the full light of His truth – the truth – that
God exists, God is with us, and God loves us.
That’s salvation, that’s our purpose, that’s the truth … and
we do it together.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
hears that hymn and – shazam – another column.
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