community

EMPOWERED TO BE HIS WITNESSES TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

DISCOVERING AN EMBODIED SPIRITUALITY WITHIN

Community

IDENTITY/EMPOWERMENT

Just as Jesus comes back from the dead and reappears, He mentions that He is going to leave once more! Can you imagine hearing this from the Messiah who has only just come back? After thoroughly defeating death, He can institute the promised Kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven. Only, He doesn’t, he leaves. Is He playing with their emotions? “But don’t worry, I’ll send the Holy Spirit to empower you to be my imagebearers from here to the ends of the world!” “It’s taken three years to get to know the Messiah and now He is sending someone else to us?” But, the Holy Spirit did come upon them in the upper room after Jesus’ ascension. Known as Pentecost, it is the moment that the Holy Spirit comes to teach, to empower and to comfort us. He makes Jesus’ incarnation accessible and real to us. This, one Holy Spirit unifies us into a new community of faith. Just as God built a nation from 12 tribes from the largest refugee camp in history. Now, God wants to build an eternal kingdom from 12 apostles, Inclusive of every tribe, and tongue and nation on earth. This is not about one people group. It has always been about every nation. Jews and Gentiles formed into a body of Christ to image God to the world. A human body – the church. A community to lay down their lives, to fulfil the suffering and work of Christ in the world. We do this through communion, worship, intercession, evangelism, discipleship, mercy ministry, and baptism in the one Holy Spirit. To be God’s witnesses going to the ends of the earth with this good news for all creatures.

The Body of Christ

JOINED TOGETHER IN ONE SPIRIT

Making space for the “other”.

The story of the Bible traces the line from Adam and Eve to a family. This family is told to take the small garden and extend it to the ends of the earth. The family branches off into 12 tribes as it grows. These 12 tribes are liberated from slavery and become the largest refugee camp in history in the wilderness. God takes them while destitute and forms a nation out of them through much suffering. They are His people and He is their God. Similarly, the story of the New Testament is an echo of this, but much more vast in scope. Jesus comes as the second Adam and asks us to once again take pockets of His kingdom into all the world through the Great Commission. Instead of 12 tribes, He calls 12 disciples. He gives them the Great Commission. They are to go and disciple all nations, yet they are all Jews. So, it is going to take some convincing for this group who balk at going to Samaria on outreach… Now they will need to extend God’s Kingdom to all nations, all tribes, tongues and cultures that cover the earth. The gospel is growing and it grows as we include all nations. From Jew to Gentile, God is calling all things back to Himself through the empowering Holy Spirit as God builds a temple not made with hands. Christ’s body “here on Earth, as it is in Heaven.”

Identity Empowerment

THEME

Something amazing happens in the book of Acts. The gospel, which is the good news for all things and reveals God’s commitment to His imagebearers has always touched God’s chosen people and many other gentile nations surrounding them. Even in the wilderness they were multi-cultural, with converts to Judaism. Nowhere do we see such a sea change to the inclusiveness of the gospel as we do in the Acts of the Apostles. Now, a new push begins to go into all the world. Just as Adam and Eve were told to spread the garden to the rest of the world through the 12 tribes as a chosen family of God. So now, the Apostles are called and commissioned from the start of Jesus’ ministry with the Beatitudes to the very end with the Great Commission. Go into all the world, disciple nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…

Entering into the story…

Not only do we have the help of the Holy Spirit to aid us in discerning and practicing God’s will, but we also have each other. We cannot image God alone, if for no other reason than that the image has a reference to our cultural rule over creation. And, as we have already seen, human culture-forming is a communal task. The biblical motif of the body of Christ also leads us in this direction. As Christians acting in unity, we need to address the issues of our culture. It means starting right where we are with our jobs and in our families. – Brian J. Walsh

Embodied Spirituality in Practice

A DISCIPLINE OR PRACTICE TO INCORPORATE INTO YOUR LIFE.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

– Jesus in John 15

IMAGEBEARER: TENSION REFLECTION

Getting in touch with members of the Body of Christ within every branch of the Vine.

Notice the Tension between every branch of the One Vine. In Christ, we are pulled altogether. There is life in every branch. We would do well to look for where we find the life Christ expressed in each.

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the prayer-filled life. Nothing is more striking in Jesus’ life than His intimacy with the Father. Prayer threads its way through Jesus’ life.

We all hunger for a prayer-filled life, for a richer, fuller practice of the presence of God. It is the Contemplative Stream of Christian life and faith that can show us the way into just such intimacy with God. This reality addresses the human longing for the practice of the presence of God.

Contemporary example: Frank C. Laubach

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the virtuous life. It is simply a marvel to move among the crowds of imagebearers, men, women and children – always timely, always appropriate, always capable. In Jesus’ forty days of temptation in the wilderness, we see a lifetime of practiced virtue coming to the fore as He fasted to prepare Himself for those three great temptations.

We too can rely upon these deeply ingrained habits of virtue to make our lives function appropriately and to bring forth substantial character formation. This addresses the erosion of moral fibre in contemporary life.

Contemporary Holiness example: Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the Spirit-empowered life. Nothing is more satisfying to observe than how Jesus lived and moved in the power of the Spirit. As Jesus arose from His baptism, “The Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’” – Luke 3:22. From then onwards Jesus did everything “filled with the power of the Spirit.”

We can partake of this same empowering Spirit in our Christian lives of faith through the gift of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of His work in our lives. This Spirit-empowered way of living addresses the deepest yearning for the immediacy of God’s presence among His people.

Contemporary Charismatic example: William J. Seymour

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the compassionate life. At the start of His ministry, Jesus stood in the synagogue at Nazareth and declared,”The Spirit of God is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to he captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” – Luke 4:18-19. With these words Jesus declared a war cry for social revolution.

We can also seek for justice and shalom in all human relationships and social structures, seeking equity and magnanimity among all peoples.

Contemporary Social Justice example: Dorothy Day

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the Word-centred life. Jesus came proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, In his person, He embodied as an imagebearer the good news itself. Jesus was, and is, the living Word of God enfleshed among us, standing in His person as the very good news He proclaimed. In Jesus, the doors were thrown right open: “Whosoever will may come.” The Kingdom of God’s love has been made available to all. Whenever. Wherever. Whoever. In His imagebearing.

We are are enabled by the power of God to take the word of the gospel into our hearts in such a transforming way that others, seeing this, want it for themselves. This addresses the crying need for people to see both the good news lived as well as proclaimed in their midst.

Without God we cannot, Without us, He will not – Augustine

Contemporary Evangelical example: Billy Graham

Unity in Diversity. This is the branch of the One Vine that exemplifies the sacramental life. Jesus life is incarnational at its very heart. The wonder and glory that one pinpoint in history the great God of the universe stooped to take on imagebearing form as a human being just like us. He was born a baby in a backwater of civilisation. “…who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” – Philippians 2:6-8.

We can make present and vital the realm of the invisible spirit in an incarnational way through our imagebearing. This way of living addressed the need for the experience of God to be truly manifest and notoriously active in daily life.

Contemporary Incarnational example: Dag Hammarskjold

One Body, One Faith, One Church, One Bride

Unity in Diversity. All of these branches are of the One Vine that Jesus speaks of in John 15. When every branch of the vine is connected in, they will bear much fruit and fruit that will last. This section of the module is abbreviated from a wonderful book called “Streams of Living Water” by Richard J. Foster.

Here is a related Spiritual Practice called “Shaping Communities” for you to explore.

Application

DISCOVERING AN EMBODIED SPIRITUALITY OF DESIGN CREATIVITY AND THE ARTS.

At each step along the itinerary of the Biblical Timeline we will look at how the following themes come into play at each juncture of the journey…

Creative expression

INSPIRATION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION FROM A CREATIVE

TIM MACKIE

THEOLOGIAN/BIBLE PROJECT

Tim resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Jessica, and two rambunctious and amazing little boys. In all of his work, whether as a pastor or as a co-founder of BibleProject, he loves helping people understand how the overall biblical story works together and leads us to Jesus.

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Creative Assignments

DISCOVER HOW TO MAKE SPACE FOR “THE OTHER” TO INCLUDE THEM IN THE BODY OF CHRIST, HIS CHURCH

add-e1557741871377.png Assignment: “As you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me!” – Matthew 25:35-40. How do we actively make space for the other in our lives? Who is the other in your life? Give this some thought and write or create a response… Wherever we encounter an imagebearer, how we treat them, is how we treat God. This is where every law stems from…! How do we dignify every imagebearer with dignity, respect and value as we would do with God Himself? How does this challenge racism, bigotry, hatred, sexism tribalism, and de-humanising of others? Read this article on the de-humanising of others and then Upload your response here!

This is a chance to express yourself creatively. Perhaps something in this part of the timeline has challenged, excited or inspired you. You may want to think about how you could express that through drawing, writing, painting, filming, designing or photographing something to share with others here at creativeimagebearers.com.

Optional: In addition to the assignment above, please write a haiku, poem, song or create a piece to express yourself and share it with us!

Submit Creative Assignments

This is where Creative Imagebearers submit their creative assignments for each module of the coursework.

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    Final Take-Away to give context…

    PROVOKE THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS…

    We can underestimate what Pentecost did. With a wind, clouds, flames of fire and the joining of all languages into a heavenly one that pulls all earthly languages into a new empowering framework. God is speaking, just as He led the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, as He appeared to Moses in the cloud of the Holy of Holies and in the burning bush to Moses. So, the Holy Spirit will be in us, to guide us into all truth. As the Tower of Babel separated one empire into all the tribes and nations of the world by confusing their language so God is now building His church as He built the temple garden of Eden, the tabernacle in the wilderness, the second and third temple. He will build His church out of believers gathered together the world over in One Spirit as Christ’s body here on earth as it is in heaven.

    The Great Commission is our call to go to the ends of the earth. The body of Christ is not complete until every nation, tribe and tongue has heard. First, though God has to deal with the racism and bigotry in our hearts, just as He did in Jonah, in His disciples when Jesus said they were going to Samaria, in Peter as God shows Him a sheet of unlearn animals and tells him to eat. Or when Paul confronts Peter for not eating with the gentile believers. God has to deal with the wickedness in our hearts, by the power of One Holy Spirit who dwells in us. He fills us up so that we can pour out our lives for the last, the least and the lost. Only to refill us and empower us again and again to be the body of Christ to the world. Wounded, suffering death but also animated by resurrection life again and again to do the work of God.

    God calls us into a New Story, which is actually the same story. Except now the temple is not built by human hands. The body is not an individual, but now communal. We are part of a church and God is calling a people for His name, a community set apart for Him, filled by Him and in which there is no Jew, or Gentile, no slave or free, no male or female. We are made one in Christ and this supersedes all racism, sexism or ethnic divides in the early church or today. The life of God is now found in a community, where two or three are gathered. We should be finding our home in a body, God’s church. The church became more and more inclusive of every tribe and nation and tongue. If you are a Christian from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas etc. we should be so thankful that the gospel is so inclusive of us.

    Your take-away

    WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

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