The Word Made Flesh – Then and Now

Post a Comment » Written on February 6th, 2009     
Filed under: News
By Don Meyer

CHICAGO, IL (February 6, 2009) – What does it mean to live a life worthy of Christ?

That was one of the questions posed by Evangelical Covenant Church President Gary Walter in his message during the closing worship service of the Midwinter Pastors Conference that concluded today.

The answer to that question comes from examining the life of Jesus himself – the Word made flesh – and the manner in which he engaged the world and its challenges, Walter suggested, using the text in the first chapter of the Gospel of John to help frame his remarks.

“He came as God, embodying a real mission to change real lives in real places.”

Three challenges in particular formed the core of his message – reaching out to those who are spiritually afar, those who are vulnerably at-risk, and those who are culturally at-odds, all issues that Jesus considered as priorities and addressed, and issues that remain as top priorities for his Church today.

How do we understand the priorities of Christ in the world that we are to pursue? Walter asked. “We look at what Christ pursued when he was in the world,” Walter responded, adding “the mission for which Christ was born is the mission for which the Church was birthed.”

Playing off the conference theme of the centrality of the word – one of six Covenant affirmations – Walter reminded his audience that we are to carefully examine what the scriptures say “and then humbly do our best to align with it.”

“Jesus didn’t come bringing abstract concepts about God,” Walter said in describing our biblical mandate. “He came as God, embodying a real mission to change real lives in real places.”

Jesus came to reach those who are spiritually afar, Walter said in addressing the first of three core priorities he sees in examining the life of Jesus. “God is a seeking God,” he noted. “And because of that, we are to be a seeking Church, sharing the hope of Christ with those spiritually afar from God.”

Walter, who has a long and deep involvement in evangelism ministries, observed that “evangelism is simply recognizing that in addition to the searching heart of God, there is a searching heart within each and every person, yearning to know that there is more to life than what is going on around them, that they are loved unconditionally by the very God of the universe. Especially in these days when every other foundation is being exposed as sinking sand, people are yearning to know that there is a solid foundation upon which to build their lives.

“Do we have a passion in our hearts for telling the story of Jesus?”

“When the cause is biblically rooted … calls out the best in us … and demonstrates life transformation, then Covenant people want to respond.”

Those who are at-risk also commanded the attention and heart of Jesus – he embodied compassion and mercy and justice, and we are called to do the same, Walter said. He recalled one pastor’s sermon from many years ago that suggested Jesus was all about the lost, the last, and the least. “We see that in the actions of Jesus,” Walter suggested, noting how Jesus gave sight to the blind, strength to the paralytic, cleansing to the leper and raising back to life the widow’s son. “We also see it in the teaching of Jesus” – good news for the poor, freedom for the prisoner, and the oppressed are set free.

“In the actions of Jesus, in the teaching of Jesus, and in the very life of Jesus the issues of the at-risk are front and center,” Walter said.

The president reminded listeners of Mimi Haddad’s appearance at the 2008 Midwinter conference, and her observation that it was the evangelicals of the 1800’s who took on the tough issues that held people back.

“And now, the Evangelical Covenant Church can show the world a renewed kind of evangelicalism – not one that arrogantly and angrily shakes a stick at people, but one that takes the cross in love, and hope, and courage into the path of this world,” Walter continued. “Just like our evangelical forebears … whose faith compelled them to be at the forefront of abolition, and suffrage, and temperance, and education, and care for the sick, and care for the handicapped, and care for the elderly.”

Observing that this kind of pathway is not always easy, Walter also noted that Covenanters historically have risen to what he termed the high aspirations of the gospel. “When the cause is biblically rooted and it calls out the best in us (not just points out the worst), and when it demonstrates life transformation, then Covenant people want to respond. That’s how I will lead and that’s how Debbie Blue wants to lead in these areas – to take a pathway that is thoroughly biblically rooted, calls out the best, and celebrates the fruit of changed lives and changed communities.”

Using Jesus’ life as his illustration, Walter addressed those he described as culturally at-odds.

“Realistically, when it comes to being reflective of the entire Kingdom of God, we are probably at best consciously incompetent, quite aware of our shortcomings, but with a heart for moving forward.”

“Jesus lived in complex cultural currents,” Walter said. “He spent part of his childhood in Egypt, he was raised in a Jewish home, he lived in a Roman empire, he ministered to a Syro-Phoenician woman, and his cross was carried by Simon of Cyrene from the continent of Africa. The incarnation is impossible without a woman, the cross is witnessed by women, and the resurrection is announced by women. He used a Samaritan as the star of his most famous story, and he cared for the family of an occupying soldier. He moved among the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. The Romans didn’t know what to do with him and the religious leaders wanted to get rid of him. At every point, Jesus moves among those who otherwise are at odds with one another.”

Walter suggested that it is at the cross of Christ we find our common worth – that Christ died for all – calling us to a radical new way of relating across the fractures that typically divide the world. “The Covenant carries this value in our heart. It even gives rise to our very name Covenant – meaning ‘In It Together’ – sharing our new life in Christ.

“Realistically, when it comes to being reflective of the entire Kingdom of God, we are probably at best consciously incompetent, quite aware of our shortcomings, but with a heart for moving forward,” he said. “And in moving forward, that mosaic will more and more form the very image and picture of a community that the world longs for, but is afraid is not possible. We can show that in Christ, it is.”

In his closing remarks, Walter restated the core question: What does it mean to live a life worth of Christ who lived his life for us?

“It means that we will never forget that the mission for which Christ was born is the mission for which the church was birthed. It means that in pursuing Christ’s priorities in the world, we will reach out to those who are spiritually afar, to those who are vulnerably at-risk, and to those who are culturally at-odds. It will not be easy, but it will be impossible if we are not in it together.

“I’m in. Are you?”

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