A PRAYER TO START
We are who we are, because our Father created and fashioned us, has appointed us a time and place to dwell, and is reconciling all that is broken in us and evil done to us through his Son. All he requires of us is to live into who we are in him—which is often a bit different then we can assess through our twenty-first century vision. Pray then for the discernment to know yourself as you are in Christ, and even more so, the courage to live by the faith gifted you…
Thank you Father for fashioning me while in my mother’s womb and forming me until this very day to be your child. Grant me the knowledge to know that in every way you have marvelously made me, gifted me, to be a part of the body of Christ. Let me not know myself in comparison to others, but in relation to you and to the family which you have adopted me into. Let me not attempt to be more than you have made me to be, but fully who you have made me to be. It is by your gracious creating that I took my first breath, and by your gracious re-creating that I am born again; alive to you and to the world that you have determined is best for me to help flourish. Let me live with embolden by grace today. Amen.
GETTING THOUGHTFUL
We have been, for nearly a month now, doing a deep dive into Romans chapter 12. Digging to unearth the functional nature of this wondrous life we have in Jesus together. As a body of Christ, when operating in good health, we contribute to the cultivation of a good world; for us and for our neighbors.
As in any good excavation, we began by assessing the environment in which we this community as a body is lived out. What we discovered is that we find ourselves in a moment of great division; typified but not solely in our politics. While most would desire, and some are working against, such divisive extremities; it appears that much of our everyday environment—intentionally or unintentionally—fosters the elements that mix to encourage our separation and distance from others, not interdependence. Unity, it seems, is only an ideal. Perhaps this is why Paul urges us not to be “conformed to this age” (v.2), to participate in ebbs and flows of culture without thinking. He is not asking us to be removed from this world, but rather to be something different within it (John 17:15-26). We cannot live outside of culture, but we can worship amidst our culture.
By worship, Paul doesn’t mean singing or attending a Gathering. Rather, worship for Paul is embracing what God has done for us in Jesus and offering our everyday, ordinary life—their sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—as a living sacrifice, holy, set-apart, different, and acceptable as our rational response to the grace we have received.
But here is the thing, this rational service of life together in Jesus, this geyser of grace that we discover just under the surface; a grace that recognizes that God is creating good and saving what is broken, that our Father has not overcome evil through destruction but sacrifice, that division is not overcome with combat but with good works, that we are each of us contributors to the horrors we appall and separation we despise, and yet awoken each day with an invitation to God’s continued creating and saving; a rational response to this grace looks, to our divided environment, quite irrational. As one author comments,
“None of us is a stranger to the task of living and working with others. It is, after all, an ordinary part of growing up – we call it ‘socialization.’ We learn to do it in various settings, in the family, in school, at work, on athletic teams, playing in band and orchestra, belonging to Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, [cross-fit gyms, climbing clubs, service organizations, etc.] It is understandable that we will bring what we have learned in these various settings into the church. But more often than not what we have learned isn’t appropriate in this community – worse than inappropriate, it is wrong. The community of the resurrection [this dead to sin, alive to Christ; baptized community] is different.” (Peterson, 301)
This life of faith together in Jesus, is not like any community that we are born into or which we voluntarily join. And so, sobriety will be required for you and I to function well in this set-apart community—this body of Christ. A sobriety we strike upon in verse 3,
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than she ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Notice that it is grace that compels Paul to confront and exhort. Because he has received grace, he confronts his brothers and sisters. Not because he is righteous, or better, or has it all figured out, bu rather, because he too is in need of grace and has accepted it. Because he is continuously receiving, he sets out to help them receive it too. Grace also compels Paul to not let division remain by dismissing it as simply preference or personality. He understands that what divides us is not our differences that are God-given, but something more subtle and sinister. Grace compels Paul to speak. To speak truth in love. To speak to , “…everyone among you…”
No one is left out. He is not speaking to a select few, but all who have been baptized into Father, Son and Holy Spirit life. He is speaking to each of us, “…not to think of himself more highly than she ought to think, but to think with sober-judgment…”
When we hear the phrase, “not to think of himself more highly than she ought to think”, what kind of thinking comes to mind? Pride, right? Certainly we all, some more than others, have many times we think we are better than we are, or at least better than others. But, I would argue, that we are pretty good as a society of sniffing out inauthentic or snobbish characters. At least we are good at shaming them on every media front. So what if there is something else that could make us think more highly of ourselves than we ought, besides classic pride?
Personality psychologist and generational examiner, Jean Twenge (94), gives us another trend, more subtle in how it is twisted, that has as much of impact on our ability to function soberly in our context,
“Individualism is behind most fundamental cultural changes of the last few decades…Individualistic cultures focus more on the self and less on social rules…Individualism also encourages people to feel good about themselves—not just as good as they should but even better than might be justified. Positive self-views are one of the hallmarks of individualistic cultures, which encourage self-promotion and self-esteem.”
Individualism is the belief in the importance of the individual and the virtue of self-reliance and personal independence. No longer is our concern for the society in which we participate, and no longer to we discover ourselves in relation to others (how we are made different to compliment) but only in comparison (f am connected only to those who I want to be connected with, which is usually people like myself). We are individuals entering into groups. Not innately a member of anything. Paul would call such thinking, being inebriated. Intoxicated with self we no longer see the world and our place within it as established by God for the purpose of flourishing—not just ourselves but the society in which we have been destined to live our lives among.
Paul also says that it takes sober judgment, “balance, clarity of vision, and good sense” (Schreiner, 651) to function as a healthy body, a holy community. A soberness that is gained through assessing ourselves and one another “…each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
The phrase “according to the measure of faith” is difficult to translate directly into English. Paul writes in a language that uses words to describe rather than define, making them fuller, ready to burst, and often overwhelming to our precise English ears. For instance, this idea of measure of faith is doubly packed.
First Paul uses a similar exhortation in Ephesians 4:1, when we urged us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called”. The idea is one of equal weight. Think of a balancing scale. On one side is the grace that saves us, the tremendous and excellent call to be a part of God’s family. On the other side is our daily life lived in response to that grace. Do we live to the same measure of the grace we have received? Not an earning of the weight upon the scale, but in balance with the weight of grace.
Do we understate what is on the other side of the scale and live impoverished in our faith?
Or do we overestimate what we can or are required to put on the scale and live crushed beneath our own efforts?
To think with “sane view of oneself” (Morris, 437) means first to recognize the gracious calling on your life. You have been created by God, for God and the good of others. For his enjoyment and yours in a world that he sustains and saves. Indeed you needed, continue to need, his creating and saving; and thus we live with humble boldness, meek courage in living on the faith that has been given to us in Jesus.
But Paul encapsulates the measure of faith with God’s “assignment”. While we, each of us, are to live in correlation to the grace we have received through faith, we have not all been given the same gifting of faith; as Paul says in verse 6, “having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us…” There is, innate in our creatureliness, diversity. We are not all made the same, nor are we to function exactly the same either. And perhaps here is where we differ the most from other forms of community. Our differences not only fail to divide us in body of Christ, they are utterly necessary for our healthy and prosperous functioning.
While our culture says that differences lead to division, to the separating of classes, races, ideals, cliques, the in-crowd and the out-crowd, geeks, jocks, pious and petty, etc.; and therefore the solution is to remove, overcome or ignore the differences, our life in Christ says that what makes us unique actually makes us one. Just like a finger and a liver are unique but are still one body.
One commentator notes, “that Paul does not avoid this problem [of pride or division in differences] by appealing to the concept of equality. What prevents pride from cropping up is a sober estimation of one’s faith, and this sober estimation is based on the truth that God apportioned to each one a measure of faith. Pride is eliminated when one recognizes that the faith one has is a gift of God, not the result of one’s own virtue.” (Schreiner, 653) Whatever you have been gifted is yours, not in comparison or contrast to others, but in compliment.
When we think with sober-judgment, we “find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body”, regardless of what specific part that is. A body is not whole unless all its parts are attached and functioning, and not healthy unless they are all functioning as they should—uniquely but in connection, in concert with the rest. This is gift that we are invited to not only receive but to apply in our life together as Christ City and “the Church” today as one commentary says so aptly,
“The idea of a different distribution of the measure of faith leads to the idea of the gift (ver. 6). No one should apply more than the gift of grace, for what lies beyond this is presumption; but the whole of the gift of grace should be applied, for if this be not done, something would be withheld from the society which is designed for it.” (Lange, et al, 383)
When we apply the faith given to us, uniquely to us for the sake of the whole, we actually discover who we really are and live freely and confidently in our calling to betterment of the society in which we go to work, make friends, and minister. This is why we are emphasizing the Giftedness Discovery Workshops. Not because we want something more to do, but because we desire to help one another think with sober-judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. We need to discover in history and community God at work creating and saving you and we into something more than yourself. In other words, we need to discover ourselves in relation to God and to others; not simply by ourselves.
This is not our normal way of self discovery, through relationship to others. Normally we find our individual gifting, talent, desires, etc. and a place to use them. But what if I can only find my gifting while sharing my past and present within a community of faith? What if I can, as Jesus said, only find myself when I loose myself in him and his body?
REFLECTION
We, often unwittingly and always without exception, bring into our ideas and investments in our faith family concepts of community and groups that keep us from missing the holy uniqueness of body of Christ. The misconceptions of our “age” most commonly stem from the individualism our culture is intoxicated with. So, how do we sober up to the reality of being, by creation and salvation, “members one of another” (v. 5)? By applying the gift of grace given us, and the whole of it.
Use the questions below to help you prayerfully reflect individually and/or discuss as a DNA group.
What things keep you from thinking soberly about yourself?
Do you know yourself (your gifting) in relation to God and others, or only to yourself? (i.e., What’s different about knowing yourself as a part of something rather than simply through personality tests, strength-finders, and the like?)
In what ways do you underestimate the grace and faith gifted to you, and thus live a diminished life in the kingdom?
In what ways do you overestimate your own contributions to grace and faith gifted to you, and thus are being crushed under the weight of your own efforts?
What would your life look like if you applied only the gift of grace, and the full measure of it?
REVERBERATIONS
Speaking to the disciples as they he sends them to proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom he has opened their eyes to, Jesus speaks these words. Words that challenge and encourage us to think differently about this life of faith today as we proclaim and demonstrate his kingdom still coming. Let these words reflect off the walls of your mind, the chamber of your heart, and the actions of your hands this week.
Whoever finds her or his life will lose it, and whoever loses his or her for my sake will find it.
(Matthew 10:39)