STOOL

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

God calls us to live wisely and well in circumstances that can’t always be understood or changed. In John 17, Jesus is meeting with His disciples for the last time before He is crucified. He is praying for them - and part of His prayer is: ‘Father, I’ve finished My work down here. This world has been no particular friend of mine. I’ve loved it, but it hasn’t really loved Me ... but I’m going to leave here shortly.’ Then, He said, probably to the dismay of His disciples, ‘But My disciples will be left in it.’

Jesus was praying about the fact that He would be leaving them in a world that was hostile to the purposes of God -- and one of the things we have to accept if we’re going to be disciples of Jesus Christ is this: The environment we’ve been left in is an environment that will not necessarily be friendly to us being disciples of Christ.

What many of us seem to want is an environment that is pre-disposed and hospitable to God’s purposes, but it isn’t --- and it isn’t going to be. Jesus said it wouldn’t be friendly to us. Yet ... He has left us in it.

That’s the first thing. The second thing Jesus said was: ‘You are left in the world, but you are not of the world.’ In other words - the challenge was not only to be left in a world that was less than wonderful, but there was a clear distinction between the life of the disciple and the culture the disciple was living in.

So - I’m left in it ... I don’t have to like it, but I’m here. Therefore, I’m going to try to find as many ways as I can to totally withdraw from it. I’m going to find as many ways as possible to build a buffer between this hostile world and me. I’ll box myself in; I’ll circle the wagons in this present world. Right?

Not quite. Not of the world, yet in the world. That’s the second thing. Then Jesus said there was a third thing the disciples (and we) need to know. You are also going to be sent to the world.

And so Jesus gave us this three-legged stool - this tripod - that immediately puts great tension on the follower of Jesus Christ --- in the world, not of the world, but sent to the world.

If it were just a matter of being left in the world but not having to be concerned about being of it, then we could say, ‘OK, I’m left here - and there’s all kinds of disgusting stuff down here I know God doesn’t approve of -- so I’ll isolate myself from this cruel, nasty world.’

And believe it or not, it is relatively easy to do this in the American church today. This is one of the reasons so many churches have over-full menus of programs -- that, if you wanted to -- you could live most of your life in an Evangelical Christian privatized sub-cultural bubble. That is one of the reasons we believe in staying true to our focused mission and purpose at KFA of discipling and equipping thru Sunday morning and Wednesday night discipleship small groups as well as weekly life groups - because we believe God has also called us to lifestyles that are relational - one of our church values - which requires time for every believer. We’re not going to provide something for you every night of the week - we want you out in your neighborhood on mission.

So if you just concentrate on the not being of it part, you can become isolated from the world. And if you concentrate on the left in it part, you can become very unhappy with God for leaving you here in all this mess. And if you concentrate on the sent to it part, you can become over-interested in identifying with a culture that is very much anti-God. And it’s easy to do any one of those three.

But we’re not free to choose any one of those - we’re called to stand on the three-legged stool and hold these in some tension and balance ... in the world -- not of the world -- yet sent to the world.

We are called to be separated by our values - and yet to be in touch with our society by understanding it and having relationships so we can be agents of change in it. That is the daily challenge of the Christian disciple.

And be blessed.