October Newsletter: To Love One Another
October Newsletter (PDF)
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
It is point of interest to all who would to follow Jesus that the line of demarcation that separates those who are a part of the family from those who are alienated from the inheritance of sons is the issue of Love. Jesus makes the dividing line between the sheep and the goats the issue of Love. The saints on the earth will not be identified by their piety, or by their dress, or even supernatural power. While these, each in the there place and in their time, have value, they are not that thing which distinguished the Christian witness from all others in the world.
To the measure that we become offended, taken aback or defensive at this truth is to the measure that we have failed to really grasp that which Jesus spoke of when he commanded us to Love one another. So alien from the definitions the world would seem to force upon the word, Jesus was bringing love to central place of his gospel is a striking way with equated true love with true obedience. Where before the Law and Love seemed ever at odds, Jesus in one glorious moment marries the two.
In commanding his disciples to Love he invited them into the path of humility, that they would serve, suffer and die all to contend for the faith of a people who would exemplify the new humanity. The Community which the early apostolic writers are contending for was one radically different from the immoral, licentiousness of the day. The Christian church was to be a haven where humanity lived life out in a new way exemplifying for the world the live of the age to come through the way in which people loved.
As a testimony to the transformative power of the gospel, the church was to be showing the world that there was a better way to be human than how they had always done it. Yes, the church was to be a community of radical holiness, high devotion and transformative faith, but this was only because it was a community that was first and foremost of real forgiveness, practicing patience, caring for its needy, giving to the poor, serving the downtrodden, and blessing their enemies.
The offense of the gospel the persecution it incurred was to be as result of the fact that they loved one another. Here was to be found a people who were free from backbiting, who rejoiced more in their enemies’ exultation than their own honor, who refused to claim their own rights, who walked the extra mile, believed the best, refused envy, and never insisted on their own way.
The Christian community was to be a beckon in the earth of what Humanity was always meant to be. Touched by the redemptive act of the God-Man and now filled with his Spirit; their mandate, our mandate, is to win over the world through extraordinary acts love; true love which is birthed in obedience, tempered in prayer, that costs nothing and demands no reward. The Church, to mend a broken world back to the creator must be those who Love.
Silent Retreat
One night not too long ago, while standing outside before our weekly small group was about to start, some of the guys in my class were looking up at the stars and mentioned how with our schedule we never really get out and see nature that much. This got me thinking about a way in which the men who are 2nd year FSM students on the NightWatch could get to know each other better and grow in their spirituality. This last weekend my idea became reality as we took a day to go on a silent retreat with seven of the guys from our Nightwatch class.
We drove about 5 hours south-west of Kansas City to one of the guys in our class’ parent’s house of in Oklahoma. After eating a great meal, laughing, and telling stories around the dinner table we went outside and started a fire and prepared for the night. The idea was to grow in fellowship with the Lord and each other by sitting vigil through the night in silence; being close to each other and yet choosing to savor the intimacy of silence.
We prepared for our time of silence by talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died alone, that we, in our suffering, might have a companion with us, then read the first half of the 22nd Psalm and ended with the first four verses of the song “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” With the last words of the hymn — “when they laid him in the tomb?” — hanging somber in the air we began six hours of silence were we meditated upon the sufferings of our great Lord and Savior.
When we gathered together in the morning we broke our sober silence by singing four more verse to the song — “Were you there when he rose up from the grave?” — and read the rest of the 22nd psalm in great joy. The trip was a great experience to grow in love for one another and to get to know the Lord better. In the woods, under a starry sky, and midst shooting stars we were able to meet our suffering Lord in the place of our own suffering and their find fellowship with him.
Order of Service: NightWatch FSM Guy’s Silent Retreat (PDF)
