Thanksgiving

One of the practices we have in our community is our Friday morning thanksgiving time. The men meet early before work each morning, and on Fridays we take time to tell each other what we're thankful for. It's fun hearing from the other men what blesses them and how they're seeing God's goodness in their daily lives.

But the best part of the whole thing is to hear how often the men thank God for their wives, children, and each other. It's not uncommon to hear someone waxing lyrical about how wonderful his wife is, or what a blessing his children are, or what an inspiration his parents are, or how helpful the Sunday meeting was, or how appreciative he is for our leadership. For us, Thanksgiving happens every Friday.

Honesty, Communion, Happiness

Over the years I have seen that the one essential virtue is honesty. Honesty is important because it is what relationships are built on. Honesty creates closeness in a relationship. When someone speaks truthfully it enables you to trust them. You simply can't have a warm and intimate relationship with someone you don't trust.

Honesty provokes communion. It creates an atmosphere conducive to friendship. By removing the fear of being manipulated and deceived, it allows us to drop our guard and be known for who we really are. I don't have to hide what I know will be handled with care. When two people are in this state of mind, communion is inevitable.

In a sense, honesty is “keeping the commandment” of others. It is staying loyal by not having a hidden agenda that may injure them. This act of love elicits love back and enables others to disclose themselves to us. And disclosure is the fuel of communion.

It just so happens that communion is the stuff happiness is made of. Poets and prophets have forever told us that real meaning in life is found in friendship. It's simply an established fact that life is empty without someone to share it with. Our greatest joys, and sorrows, come in the form of people. Honesty creates communion and communion creates happiness.

This remarkable little formula – honesty, communion, happiness – is the key to our relationships: father and son, brother and sister, husband and wife, and every other relationship. And not surprisingly, it holds true with our relationship with God.

John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Mission Phrases

In my last post I laid out the biblical story in nine points. This helped give me perspective about the mission of the Church. I've also been collecting various phrases from different authors with the same intent, namely, to clarify what is the mission of the Church. Below is what I've compiled so far:

1. “prefigure the peaceable kingdom of God”
2. “palpable signs of God's reconciliation of the world”
3. “concrete social manifestation of the righteousness of God”
4. “the way of Jesus reenacted in the church”
5. “harbingers of God's new creation.”
6. “prefigure and embody the reconciliation and healing of the world”
7. “embody the costly way of peace”
8. “the sphere where the future of God's righteousness intersects – and challenges – the present tense of human existence”
9. “winsome embodiment of the Christian faith”
10. “to be an expression of the new creation”
11. “to live out the new creation in the old creation”
12. “To bear witness to the life of God and His nature revealed in His relationship to the world as creator and redeemer by our life together.”
13. “a sign and agent and foretaste of the kingdom of God”
    
14. “it is the task of those gathered together by God to live, to the extent possible, as citizens of the new age”
15. “The very best contribution which the people of God can make to society is that of lives and works which already participate in the 'age to come' and which point toward the quality of relationships which characterize the kingdom of God.”
16. “Peoplehood is a part of the good news as well as an essential instrument in mission.”

I thought about putting, "To boldly go where no one has gone before," but it really didn't fit.

Footnotes:

1. Richard Hays, Ecclesiology and Ethics in 1 Corinthians
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p. 343
5. Ibid 292
6. Ibid 32
7. Ibid 344
8. Ibid 344
9. James Sire, A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics
10. Alec Brooks – audio lecture, Life Mission Fellowship
11. Ibid
12. Ibid
13. Leslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, p. 136
14. Joel James Shuman & Brian Volck, M.D., Reclaiming the Body, p. 31
15. John Driver, Kingdom Citizens, p. 74
16. John Driver, Images of the Church in Mission, p. 211