Shane Ash

For 26 years of my life I lived with a widely-accepted but yet majorly-distorted understanding of the Gospel. There were bits and pieces of the Good News…but honestly, it was mostly mundane news filled with pride, fear, judgement, and escapism. Not to claim my view today is absolutely clear, but without a doubt I can point back to a day and time that everything changed…mundane news became amazingly Good News.

Today I have the incredible privilege of pastoring a people called New Beginnings Church. Daily I realize the importance of being able to articulate the biblical vision of the Good News. Without this ability we struggle to proclaim and we struggle to actually live out and demonstrate the biblical call of the Gospel. So…we are on a journey together to re-discover the original Good News; to repent of our ignorance’s; and to begin to proclaim, participate, and demonstrate the reign of King Jesus.

One of the influences (through his writings) who has helped me understand how to read the Gospels is NT Wright. Perhaps his book, Surprised by Hope, is the most influential book I have ever read. In the video below, NT Wright speaks from the subject of his latest book, How God Became King. It would be worth your time (1 hr) to grab a cup of coffee, a pencil and some paper, and let your mundane news become truly Good News.

John 14:8-11

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
Jesus answered, “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. So you should know me. The person that has seen me has seen the Father too. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you truly believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The things I have told you don’t come from me. The Father lives in me, and he is doing his own work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or believe because of the miracles I have done.” (ERV)

Have you ever wanted to see God? Do you ever think to yourself, “If God would only tell me what to do…”.

We don’t have to look far to see God. We don’t have to struggle to know the will of God.  The picture of God is given to us in the stories and words of the scriptures about Christ. And as we understand the life and message of Christ…we can see directly into the heart of God.

For God has unfolded in Christ every one of his blessings.  “For it pleased the Father, that in Him all fullness should dwell” (Col. 1:19), not by adumbration or according to the shadow, but bodily.  For this reason he is called, “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” (Heb. 1:3), in whom the Father condescends to afford to us his infinite majesty, his immeasurable goodness, mercy, and philanthropy; to be contemplated, beheld, and to be touched and felt…For those things which lay hidden and indiscernible within the Father, like the fine and deep traces in an engraved seal, stand out, become prominent, and may be most clearly and distinctly seen in Christ, as in an exact and protuberant impression.”  - Jacobus Arminius, The First Oration: The Object of Theology

If you want to know what God is about…start with the life of Jesus.

Sadly, my normal seat in the corner was already taken this morning. I settled for a seat directly across from the soda machine.

It’s not that it’s a bad seat. It has all the necessary requirements. A close plug in for the laptop, a padded chair with a high back, and plenty of table space for the plethora of bags, books, and papers I brought with me today.

It’s just that it’s not the same seat. It’s different. And it comes with a different view.

Not long after settling in and adjusting to the new spot I noticed something interesting. As people would approach the soda machine with a cup in hand, they would just stand there…with a confused and lost look on their face.

Soon a group would gather. Each with the same confused look.

I could hear them asking one another, “Where is the water? Doesn’t this place have any water?”

From my seat it was fairly obvious…the giant blue and white letters on the dispenser in the middle clearly read, “WATER.” So I would quietly speak up, “It’s the blue one in the middle.”

They would all exclaim the same, “Oh, there it is.”

Again and again the pattern emerged…confused and frustrated people unable to read the sign right in front of them.

I guess it was the obligatory task of the seat I chose for the day. I became the water awareness maker.

Finally, after once again speaking up to help a gathered group of water-wanters, an older lady offered some insight, “I’m just so used to the little tabby-thingy that it didn’t occur to me to even look at the label.”

The applications are endless…and I am struck by the similarities within the Church today.

But for you…how does this narrative apply?

What if someone recorded a documentary of your life today? Or your church?

I was recently reminded again of the Letter to Diognetus. It is an amazing documentation and interpretation of what the early church established by the apostles looked like.

I want to be accused of living like this…

I want New Beginnings Church to be this kind of community…one devoted to living out Christ-likeness for the sake of the world.

“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.

They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.

To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.”

From a letter to Diognetus (Nn. 5-6; Funk, 397-401)

Here is a list of some of the books I have read in the past few months and would recommend for others to read. Some of these books appeal to my role as pastor…others appeal to my continued Christian formation. I have included a “*” by the books I would recommend for all to read.

• *The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited. 
• Disruptive Grace: Reflections on God, Scripture, and the Church.
• *The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World. 
• *Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship
• AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church
• On Writing
• *Necessary Endings
• Building a Discipling Culture
• *Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He did, and Why He Matters
• Finally Comes the Poet

Books I am currently reading:

• Desiring the Kingdom
• *Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ
• To Change the World
• *Scandalous Obligation: Rethinking Christian Responsibility 

And since I have shared with you…what are you reading that you would recommend for me to read?

In January we titled a few of our messages, “With God…on a Mission.” It was an attempt to link our teaching on the “mission of God” with the traditional Advent theme of “Emmanuel…God with us.“

Now that God is with us…so what and what now?  Mission.

It seems for many Christians today there are two major thoughts missing in our thinking. I am convinced that if we could re-shape our imaginations around these two truths…it could change the world.

(1) We must understand Jesus’ invitation and our role in the ongoing work of God in this world. Jesus started something..and asks us to join him in completing it. This work is more than proclamation, it is looking at the whole model of Jesus’ ministry and seeing our mission as the same (demonstration).

“The crucial form in which the Great Commission has been handed down to us (though it is the most neglected because it is the most costly) is the Johannine. Jesus had anticipated it in his prayer in the upper room which he said to the Father: “As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).

Now, probably in the same upper room but after his death and resurrection, he turned his prayer-statement into a commission and said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21).

In both of these statements Jesus did more than draw a vague parallel between his mission and ours. Deliberately and precisely he made his mission the model of ours, saying “as the Father sent me, so I send you.” Therefore our understanding of the church’s mission must be deduced from our understanding of the Son’s.” – John R.W. Stott in Christian Mission in the Modern World

(2) We must begin to see our vocation as our missional service. It is an unfortunate reality that often Christians (and even non-Christians) segregate their lives into “sacred” and “secular.” But dividing our lives in this way presents a major issue – we begin to see mission as the role of the church (institution) and Sunday’s as the spiritual part of our week. But the reality is what we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is just as important to the mission of God as what we do on Sunday.

Jesus worked. We often forget that the whole life of Jesus is important for us to model…and he spent the majority of his years as a carpenter. His work was building and improving the life of those around him. He worked to better the lives in a small community called Nazareth.

How does your vocation partner with the mission of God?

I wrote this several months ago…but thought in light of our recent studies in the book of Mark it would be good to share it again.

The Kingdom of God. For many it is confusing. Their confusion is understandable. Because when we speak of the Kingdom of God we are talking out of both sides of our mouth…we speak of the already present kingdom and the yet to come kingdom. Which is it? It is both. The already but not yet kingdom.

John Wesley dealt with the same tension with his theology of “imperfect perfection.” By the grace of God we have been made perfect, yet we are still being made perfect. That is to say, although we are in Christ, we have not yet fully attained the perfect and final mark of Christ-likeness.

“I realize that many people scorn such a doctrine of “imperfect perfection.” But to deny the possibility of being filled with the Spirit and knowing God’s perfect love, because we are still finite creatures subject to the limitations of an earthly existence, is to miss something which is vital to New Testament Christianity. We therefore subscribe to “the Wesleyan paradox” of Christian perfection. The full truth is not gained by removing the tension between the two poles (“perfect – not yet perfected”) but by holding these two truths with equal emphasis. Only thus does the Christian life flower into Christlikeness.” – William Greathouse. Nazarene Theology in Perspective. Pg. 23-24.

So how do we live in the tension? How do we confidently walk as perfected but knowingly admit we are still deeply flawed? How do we boldly proclaim the reign of Christ but still cringe at present evil in the world? How do we live in these days?

We must live in the tension. See it as a good thing. We must recognize the stretching and the forming of the tension. We must look for the glimpses and listen for the stories of mercy, justice, hospitality, healing, hope and love. We must seek to freely forgive and be forgiven. But we must do more than witness, we must seek to proclaim and become living illustrations of what the kingdom will look like when Jesus returns. And we must pray…earnestly pray for our King to return!

“The kingdom of God is the rule or reign of God. Whatever or whoever is subject to his authority is under the authority of the kingdom. We do not “build” the kingdom of God. Rather, God invites us to enter (Matt. 18:3); receive (Mark 10:15), or inherit (Mat. 25:34) the kingdom. When we enter the kingdom, we also participate with what God is doing in the world (Matt. 10:7-8). The mission of the kingdom is always God’s mission. Our calling in the church is to bear witness to what God is doing in the world, primarily by proclaiming and exhibiting the character of the kingdom in the grace-filled stories of redemption in our lives, in the nature of our relationships together, and in the way we engage the world around us.

Our confident hope as Christians is that Jesus is coming back to earth to establish his kingdom fully and forever. When he returns, the dead in Christ will be resurrected. Faithful saints from every language and every tribe will welcome his return and will be gathered together as one people, reconciled to God and one another, kneeling before him in worship, wonder, and praise. In that day, there will be no sorrow, no sickness, no suffering, no death. As God created the universe in the beginning, the new creation will reflect its original pristine beauty and purity. We will forever be with the Lord.” – Ron Benefiel in Missio Dei: a Wesleyan Understanding. pg. 107.