Letters from Kosovo

I believe the church as we know it has gone so far out from what it was in the New Testament we have a misunderstanding of what it is. I believe changing the way we talk about church would be enough to impact our lives and our understanding in such a way that we would never be the same. Here I am not talking about “Christianese” but rather the way we reference church.

If we completely quit referring to any building as the church, we might figure out what the church really is. We all know that on a surface, intellectual level, the church is the body of Christ which is made up of all of God’s people, us. Yet, we use the word to mark a geographical location and structure. “I’m going to church,” “he’s at the church,” “that’s a beautiful church.” etc. In none of these circumstances are we talking about a local and/or global group of believers. The church is also known as the bride of Christ. Men don’t call their wives buildings and consider it a compliment. Do a word search in the New Testament of the word church and in every context replace the word church with group. It will make more sense. This is because the first century church met in homes; they weren’t identified by the place they met. They didn’t start meeting in separate buildings until the Roman emperor Constantine made it popular to be Christian around 300 A.D. and people (mostly pagan converts) continued to practice religion as they knew how, in temples. The difference was that they worshipped Jesus instead of their local false god. But the tradition continued until the present.

Think of the money that could be better given if we didn’t feel obligated to have an increasingly bigger and more comfortable building. Imagine not feeling the guilt for not going to church as is our current religious duty. What would it be like if we didn’t just sit quietly in a pew all facing one direction? Consider all the good that could be done with our giving if we weren’t paying a church mortgage/rent or any other utilities to keep us comfortable once or twice a week.

Aside from the practical, on a spiritual and communal level imagine what would happen to our lives if we stopped going to church and started being the church.

The vision that God delivered to me blew my mind. It was not exactly what I expected, though I didn’t know what to expect. However, though I initially had doubts, I couldn’t deny the validity of what I was learning. God opened my eyes to see the church in a new light. The New Testament is not extremely detailed about how Christians should meet and thus there is no single way set in stone, instead we have a certain amount of flexibility (liberty if you like). However, during the course of history from the time of Christ’s ascension till now many traditions have filled those gaps. The problem with traditions is that they generally are the byproducts of worldly culture. Some such traditions have infiltrated the church and have become so common place, we don’t even ask why we do it anymore. Many of these traditions, though perhaps not blatantly, contradict principles of scripture. Many of them have been justified by reading the scriptures at certain angles, but put within their context they look nothing like what the first century church did according to our Bible. Some of the ideas I will be expressing in the next several posts (because this post would be a monster if I tried to fit them all in one) might be labeled controversial, so I’ll start with something small.

Let’s talk about what we call the “Lord’s Supper” or “Communion.” The Gospel of John has nothing to say about it. It mentions that after supper Jesus washed his disciples’ feet which tells us of the intimacy of the environment that was created. On the other hand, Matthew and Mark’s account of the event are very similar. Found in Matthew 26, here is what happened:

18And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. 19And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover. 20Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve…. 26And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. 30And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

And here is a slightly different account given in Luke 22: 8-20:

8And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat. 9And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? 10And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. 11And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? 12And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. 13And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the Passover. 14And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: 16For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

So where are the tiny bits of crackers or shot glasses of grape juice? They were celebrating a Jewish holy day, a tradition practiced as law in the culture, by eating a meal together. I want to point out that in verse 26 of Matthew’s account that Jesus spoke up “as they were eating.” He wasn’t administering a ceremony, he just decided that in the middle of the meal was a good time to talk about the parallels of breaking bread and poured out wine to what he was about to go through (crucifixion) and in according to Luke the cup with the wine part wasn’t until after supper, which goes furthermore to say that this was not a formal, linear ceremony. Also interesting is that it is only in Luke’s account that we see Jesus’ words, “this do in remembrence of me.” So tell me, Bible students, how often should we form doctrine based off of a single scripture reference? But the bigger question really is, what did Jesus mean by “this”? The only logical answer to that question I can think of is, the blessing of food and drink shared among brothers eating a full meal together. Nowhere in Jesus’ ministry does he support religious dogmatic practices or traditions (unless you count baptism as one of these things) and I find it hard to believe that he is giving us one here.

I don’t have the time or the reference material on hand to give a full history of the practice of the Eucharist, but basically, when Christians started meeting in places other than homes and developed a clergy (something I’ll talk about in the future), someone thought it would be a good idea to implement a ceremony to remember the Lord’s last supper. Of course as is almost always the case, there were no bad intentions involved but nonetheless a tradition was born. The tradition became law in the church and for a long time there was all sorts of rules and theology involved and debated about concerning this practice to include, who could administer the sacraments, how often should it be given, did the sacraments literally become Jesus’ flesh and blood when prayed over, etc. When Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others lead the protestant reformation in the 16th century they dropped some of the silliness that surrounded the practice, but did they ever ask what the point of performing a ceremony involving crackers and juice really was? Is it really what Jesus told us to do? Do we really benefit from this?

I’ll let you be the judge. I would strongly encourage anyone reading this or my following posts to pick up their Bibles first of all, but also some good books about these subjects and read and figure these things out for yourself. I don’t expect you to believe my rather lightweight explanations, six months ago I certainly wouldn’t have believed me. So don’t take my word for it, but don’t go blindly following traditions either. Research, ask questions, and you should certainly pray that God would lead you to truth rather than some radical twenty-something.

For the last week I have been going through the army’s sergeant course which is called the Warrior Leader Course (WLC). I have been doing a lot of thinking about leadership as you can imagine and what it means and how what I’m learning translates into the body of Christ. So here are some of the thoughts I’ve had, I hope you can gain something from them.

The rank of sergeant comes from the French Serre-Gent which means people compressor. In napoleonic warfare a row of riflemen needed to keep a concentrated and straight line of fire, so each riflemen team would have two sergeants, one on either side, and as the men began falling in battle the sergeants would push them together to keep them condensed and thus most effective. In the U.S. Army, the rank of Sergeant is the first rank in the Corps of Noncommissioned Officers. A noncommissioned officer (NCO) is a leader from the front whose two basic responsibilities consist of the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of the soldier. Although officers also consider these two things their responsibility, their main focus is the development, execution, and completion of the mission. An NCO is always on the soldiers side and has the greatest amount of work to be delegated and done, thus NCO’s are know as the backbone of the army.

The church also has those whom we call commissioned, however the greatest amount of work to be done does not happen by their hands. Rather, if church leadership is doing it right, they hand down responsibilities to those who may not have all the knowledge, training, and experience, but who are faithful to get the job done. 

Many armies around the world are trying to model themselves off the U.S. military because they have no NCO corps. They just have officers who give orders and subordinates who obey them. The downside to this is that no one is taking care of the soldiers. The mission is important, but to be effective, the soldiers in the fight must be trained, equipped, and ready and who better to do that than the most experienced soldiers? That is why an effective church, while mission minded, is also discipleship minded because if the body isn’t healthy, no matter what the order that comes down, it won’t be able to accomplish the mission.

I was recently talking to a British friend of mine about religion. He was raised Methodist, but does not believe in any religion, though he once mentioned that he would like to have one for the comfort of it. However, he cannot get past the hypocrisy and contradictions of the religious community. He is appalled that one Christian denomination often condemns the next. He recalled a conversation with a baptist who told him that Mother Theresa went to hell because she was Catholic and did not believe the “truth.” As is often the case in these type of conversations he brought up many negatives things faster than I could explain the truth, but I did what I have learned to do: present the very basic gospel message. We will talk about the rest if there is time. 

Yesterday, I read Matthew 23 and saw it with new eyes in light of these thoughts. It tells what Jesus said while in Jerusalem to a multitude including his disciples and the scribes and Pharisees. The first few verses is what really provoked me. Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” And then he goes on to verbally tare them apart. He calls them hypocrites, blind, and serpents; and that they will receive a worse damnation!

What amazes me most is that Jesus was not condemning the people for following them, he even told them to observe what they were told by these horrible men! I have often despised many of the things I have read and learned about the history of the Catholic church and other denominations (including Baptists), but I firmly believe that our enemy is never another believer whose heart is given to the Lord. I will not bend in my doctrinal convictions and I am not suggesting compromise, rather I am condemning condemnation. God judges people by their heart because he alone knows the heart of men, and if they believe some wrong details about Him and His church who are we to send them to hell? As a result of our rivalries people fail to see the love of God, and that is the greater sin. 

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honourteth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
-Matthew 15:1-20

For several weeks now I have been working at the NATO headquarters for Kosovo, located in the capital of Pristina. It has been very interesting working with people of all sorts of nations. I have had roommates from Germany, Holland, Austria, and France. I went to a St. Patrick’s Day party put on by real Irish people! And I work with an Englishman, two Greeks, and an Italian. It has been quite amusing.

Last week the Italian, who is a Lieutenant Colonel that works across the hall and constantly pops in to tell jokes and occasionally for something work related, caught me with my Bible open, which I read and write from when I do not have work to do. He began interrogating me about why I do this and what I believe. It was a cool opportunity to share my faith. He liked it so much he told me to prepare a 15-minute sermon for him every day. It has not happened every day but on a number of occasions I have given him Bible lessons from whatever God is showing me in his word, and each time clearly presenting the gospel. However, nearly every time, no matter what the topic, it becomes a question & answer session about Catholicism vs. Protestantism. It has been very interesting. Yesterday God gave me the above passage. So, allow me to explain its significance.

The Pharisees come complaining to Jesus that his disciples are “transgressing” because they were breaking the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate. But Jesus fires back that their traditions transgress the commandments of God. He gives an example. God says honor your father and mother, and if you curse them then you should be put to death. But you, the Pharisees say, if you have not honored your parents, than you can give them a gift that profits them and you will be okay. In other words the Pharisees created a loophole (what they would call a tradition) that contradicts the word of God.

Then Jesus preaches to a crowd that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out. As usual, his disciples were not getting any of this, so they come and ask Jesus if he noticed that the Pharisees were offended (duh!). He tells them that the things (traditions, teachings, etc.) that are not of (not planted by) God will be uprooted and not to worry about them because they are blind leading the blind (religion for the sake of religion) and when that happens everyone ends up in the ditch (which is a funny picture in a sadistic sort of way). But they did not get this either, so Jesus has to break it down for them.

He says if you put stuff in your mouth it goes into your stomach and it comes out anyway. But what comes out of your mouth (bad thoughts, malice, lust, covetousness, lies, and dangerous philosophies) these are the things that come from the wicked heart and they are what condemns a man, not the breaking of silly traditions. The problem with their thinking was that they were not dealing with the source of the real problem: that men are already infected with sin and it does not matter what they do, they are screwed from the start. So why bother with stupid traditions?

I do not have the time, space, or knowledge to go into a lot of detail about how this applies to the Catholic Church, but allegorically, it is the Pharisees. Rather than relying on the word of God, “the Church” puts their trust in men (whom the Word says have wicked hearts) and the traditions they create.