4 June 2014 - seeing beyond

4 June 2014 - seeing beyond

Sometimes we think it might be better if we could be walled off in some idyllic garden of isolated Christianity.  We often imagine how much better we could be if we had an unlimited amount of time to focus on things which are explicitly Christian without distraction from the world.  We imagine a place where nothing ever challenges our faith.  In a lot of ways it seems desirable.  But it is not what Jesus wants for us.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.

We have a purpose in this world that trumps whatever benefits we might get from shutting walling ourselves off.  Pope Francis warns, "When the church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick".
Paul wants to be dedicated to the preaching of the gospel.  Even so he does not shrink from the ordinary.

You know well that these very hands
have served my needs and my companions.

Even his mundane work, his not specifically missionary thing, is good.  Making tents to sell might seem like a hassle and a distraction.  Yet even this work, because he is living for the kingdom, is able to reveal something of God.

In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort
we must help the weak,
and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

But there is a threat we face while we are in the world.  It is considered an acceptable risk because of the greater good spreading the Gospel and building the kingdom.  We should be weary when Jesus warns of the Evil One.  We should pay attention to Paul when he tells us that "from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them."

We need to rely on "that gracious word of his" that can build us up.  Because of that word the world hates us.  And yet, at the same time, that word sustains us on mission to the very ones who hate us.  We need to be consecrated in truth, as Jesus prays.  If we seek to follow the truth with all our hearts the Evil One will not be a threat.  We will be able to navigate the world and all it's distractions, temptations without danger.  The mundane things of life are imbued with meaning when we who use them are consecrated in truth.  This is deeper meaning of dealing with the world as though we have no dealings with it (cf. 1 Cor.7:31).  This is what Jesus means when he says that we are in the world but that we do not belong to it.  Being consecrated in truth keeps us safe from the lies the world tries to tell.  Being consecrated in truth keeps us united to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Our lives in this world, consecrated in truth, are an invitation to those who are both in the world and of the world to look beyond and to recognize and higher truth.

You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God,
chant praise to the Lord
who rides on the heights of the ancient heavens.
Behold, his voice resounds, the voice of power:
“Confess the power of God!”