How Application can Short-Circuit Revelation

Earlier this year Dori and I visited a congregation and the Spirit was ministering to our hearts as the pastor worked his way through passages on the passion of Christ. It wasn’t a flashy sermon but Dori and I both commented afterwards that as the Scripture was read we felt part of the story. We could see what was happening as the Spirit ministered through the story. But alas, the sermon couldn’t end without application points being added; how this story is relevant to our lives. And the application really didn’t have anything to do with the thrust of the particular passage in the Scripture, though it was true generally in Christianity. I know this is the normal way Christians give and receive communication these days, but I would suggest that the biblical stories are not simply the husks provided to contain spiritual truth (application), but in themselves have their own message to convey. There are things that God wants to speak to us, specific things, and the Scripture is more than a big storybook. And 25 minute sermons are limited in what they can do, and we have to “get to the point”, so I guess I’m suggesting that we ought to challenge the idea that we can receive the spiritual meaning of God’s story within the paradigm of three points and application. We live in a pragmatic age that exalts efficiency and brevity (and that’s being generous) at the expense of engaging in living an alternate reality.

Thoughts on The Body of Christ

Biblically, to be in Christ is synonymous with being in the Body. This Body is the church. Most of us, when we think about church, think about local church. At best when we think big picture thoughts about church it is in some non-tangible, spiritual form. My wife and I talk about this from time to time and marvel (sadly) that religions that don’t have the Spirit of God are nevertheless at least as unified outwardly - if not more so - than those of us who have denominated ourselves and yet claim some sort of profound inner, spiritual connectedness in Christ.

Could it be that our preaching for the past centuries has been so focused on a personal, individual relationship with God (Jesus) that we have completely excluded the idea of our common life being found in belonging to the same justifying system – the kingdom of God? In other words, are we so wary of anything that smells of obligation to one another because we consider it a legalism that might take away from our "personal" (read private) relationship with Christ?