Gathering: 9-24-15

This is the Thursday night group which, in my opinion, is, by far, the most advanced among the three groups that compose our small community of gatherings.

In this group, the taking of the Lord's Supper is nearly always an intense experience.  (And, it was again yesterday as the guy whose family hosts the gathering took us through James 2 and part of Isaiah 64 asking us to reflect on living out works that demonstrate genuine faith in the Lord while we also understand that, as Isaiah described, our righteousness can be as filthy rags to the Lord.)

In this group, there is a laser focus on fulfilling the New Testament purpose of gathering to "spur each other on to love and good works."

And, normally, there is a spirit in which it is understood that, because of the incarnation and of the cross, there is no act of obedience or sacrifice that the Lord can ask of us that can be too great.  But, in the past two gatherings, I believe we have hit a bit of a snag as far as that degree of commitment is concerned.

We are working on Francis Chan's call, in chapter 8 of CRAZY LOVE, to be obsessed by Jesus and to live a life obsessed by a desire to obey His most difficult teachings--particularly those in the Sermon on the Mount and demonstrated in Acts 2:42-27.

I think, actually, that it is not that we lack the commitment.  Rather, it is that we are struggling to understand how that works out in a practical way as we live in the world and, especially, in community together.  The angst surrounding this struggle was so great last evening that we couldn't actually focus on what we came together to discuss.

I must say, as I did in my KATE BURKHOLDER post entered yesterday, that this is the sort of struggle I long to be engaged in.  I am pleased to be in a group that has this struggle, yet I am hoping that, in the end, we work through it in a Christlike way.

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I will add this note:  Beyond the community of gatherings that I participate in, I see few self-identified Christians who are in the midst of this struggle.  And, my prophetic heart weeps for all the people who don't know this struggle or the overcoming of it.