November 6th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--A-Ministry-of-Healing-and-Reconciliation.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=Qr14yWmBhTA

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Wednesday November 6, 2013 

A Ministry of Healing and Reconciliation

How does the Church witness to Christ in the world?  First and foremost by giving visibility to Jesus' love for the poor and the weak.  In a world so hungry for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and most of all unconditional love, the Church must alleviate that hunger through its ministry.  Wherever we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, listen to those who are rejected, and bring unity and peace to those who are divided, we proclaim the living Christ, whether we speak about him or not.

It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us.  Outside his Name our ministry will lose its divine energy.

My Commentary:

The last sentence of today’s meditation makes the most important point: “It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us.  Outside his Name our ministry will lose its divine energy.”  Ministering from a place of truthfully knowing/living God’s GRACE; we can remain true to being in the world but not of it.

Being in the world but not of it was a profound challenge to the Body of Christ to faithfully/spiritually keep true to.  The corporate Body—gathering of individuals known as “the church,” was supposed to live up to drawing people to itself as a culture of its own.  Instead we have allowed sin to divide us in a profoundly complex way. There are those in hoping to minister to the world abroad that feel the church needs to marry itself doctrinally to the fallen culture of society.

“If you can’t beat ‘um, join ‘em…” doesn’t disciple the spiritually poor and hungry to come to the feast of New life in Christ.  It makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the authoritative norm of the Word of God revealed in the Bible and all its’ GRACE-filled fruits irrelevant.  The Gospel of Jesus is radically and counter-culturally to be transformational as well as the disciples evangelizing, transformed themselves.  However, if we approach discipleship through a transactional, idolatrous “Epicureanism”… we lose the accountability and intentionality of why we believe!

The reality of living in the light of GRACE and spreading the Truth of the Kingdom of God as revealed by Jesus Christ is divine by its core energy: transformation.  Transformation of the whole self—the heart turned to God with a willing obedience to bear the will of God for the sake of the world is the divine reality of GRACE.  We turn away from GRACE in seeking self-oriented “works-righteousness,” when we idolatrize our intellect and self over and above God and when we are anything but Gracious and loving to both God and neighbor!

That last part is the more disturbing for me spiritually… when we can’t be bothered or concerned enough to be gracious to God and neighbor.  Our own little worlds should not be that precious!  The beauty of the kingdom of God is a reality of divine love; when the world is truly in harmony with one another… where perhaps being in the world, someday, will no longer need to include: “but, not of it.”  Our battle with Satan’s rule upon this world needs to be a daily aspect of our vocation within the priesthood of all believers.  Let us pray that someday our witness of Christ to the world will become pandemic.

God Bless Your Wednesdays!

Nicole Collins