Where Are My Priorities?

There are a few things that have been on my mind over the past couple days that I figure should be written down. The first, and most prominent, is the emergent church (both what it means and what it looks like), but I'll dive into what I think it is in a later post. There are two smaller things I've been chewing on though...

The first thing is something I actually read in an article by Chris Munroe in an online emergent publication, so I can't really take any credit for it. (Should we be at all concerned with taking credit for our contributions to the emergent discussion? Maybe I'll come back to that some other day.) Anyways, in his article, he brought up the issue of whether we as evangelical Christians have so emphasized "inviting Jesus into our hearts" that we've neglected the importance of being "in Christ". I think the ramifications for such a distinction are huge: it could mean the difference between understanding Jesus as someone who we invite to participate in something larger than Himself (that something being our lives), or understanding Jesus as that something bigger that we're invited to participate in. It could mean the difference between "accepting" Jesus and "following" Jesus.

The second thing I've been mulling on is a phrase I heard during a prayer on Sunday. God calls us to "live above the issue". I've never heard it worded that way, and perhaps I'm just getting caught up in semantics, but I think there's something key to living like Jesus there. Even with the New Covenant, Jesus abolish the Law (or "issues"), but He fulfilled them. The issue is no longer defining the law and laying out definitively the way in which we live that is most glorifying to God, but the heart-condition we have when we live our lives. Take the woman at the well, for example: according to the issues, she didn't stand a chance. She was a Samaritan. She was a woman. She was divorced. Five times. She was having sex outside of marriage. She worshipped at the wrong Temple. Jesus had no rope or bucket to draw this "Living Water". The issues go on and on. Jesus didn't ignore these issues; in fact, He faced them head on and brought them all to the surface. He rose above the issues, and changed this woman's life. What would it look like to live above the issue today? Maybe instead of worrying about homosexuality, we would focus on James, who happens to struggle with homosexuality. Maybe instead of worrying about whether women should be pastors, we focus on Rachel who feels like she's been called to vocational ministry. The issues are still there, but what would it look like to focus instead on the person once held captive by the issue?