“And I ask not only for these disciples, but also for all those who will one day believe in me through their message. I pray for them all to be joined together as one even as you and I, Father, are joined together as one. I pray for them to become one with usso that the world will recognize that you sent me. For the very glory you have given to me I have given them so that they will be joined together as one and experience the same unity that we enjoy." John 17:20-22
One of the most provocative statements that Jesus would make while He was here was to use the word as it pertained to His relationship with Yahweh. This simple statement would send the pharisees, the religious mind and system into a three year witch hunt for the soon to be savior of the world. However, this family dynamic that Jesus begins to model actually starts when He is baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptizer. We’ve all heard the statement before that God declares over His son. The statement of identity long before Jesus “does” a single thing. This statement that Yahweh speaks to Jesus, declaring who He is, a son, THE Son, and that Yahweh is greatly pleased. This is the law of first mention. God’s heart for a matter. The first time we see interaction between the Father and the Son will be the foundation as to the nature and character of their relationship moving forward in the gospels. So why go back to all of this? How does this pertain to us living here over 2000 years later? Well, Jesus reminds us in the prayer that He prays for us in the verses above. An invitation into this glory. Unfortunately, in our culture today we have put the cart before the horse as it pertains to our relationship and spiritual practices within our western culture christianity. We jump to the end of the gospels and over focus on the “great commission” not realizing, that this was the culmination of a group of strangers learning to live a brand new way of life as a spiritual family with a brother Jesus and Father Yahweh. We tend to forget the soil that Jesus sows these commissional seeds into. I love a statement that I once heard as it relates to cultivating spiritual community. “You belong before you believe”. Jesus did this. He called his soon to be students to join a family before some even truly realized who He was. This is the same revelation that we are invited into to create healthy family. Unfortunately, we tend to look for the a family based on the community that already fits into our own predisposed belief system. If we are young, we look for young people. If we are charismatic, we look for other charismatics. If we are musicians, we look for other musicians. In this searching we tend to look for and find a fit for our function so we can feel safe in our functionality and usefulness. However, Jesus did not model this and neither should we. He actually invites us into the better way. Not a group of functionality based identity on outward successes and feats, but a family in spite of it. One where fruit grows because of time and commitment and where the language is one of who you are in a family of God long before you have a function within that family. You see this in nuclear families. Babies come into this world and we obsess over them, yet they have absolutely no functional value to the family, if anything they require SO much of our time and resources. Not just for days either, but years. However, the thought of discarding them because of their “so called” uselessness is absurd, yet we do this within the family of God. So how do we change the narrative and have healthy spiritual practices within the family that God has placed us within? First and foremost we can’t practice what we do not know. We have to unplug ALL of our functions within the body of Christ from our spiritual identities. Then set there. This may take a while to unravel. We have been conditioned to only have value through what we do or what we look like. How does it feel? Do you feel you have value apart from your gifting? Are you agitated or even depressed during seasons where you aren’t being “used”? Who are you outside of your spiritual and natural gifting? Do you feel connected to the same people even if you aren’t DOING anything? When you aren’t doing the THING you feel like you are called to do, how does that make you feel? Do you detach from community? Do you look for another place to plug your functionality into to make you feel valued and useful? It’s hard right? I know I’m being repetitive, but I’m trying to move the revelation diamond around so you get a clear view of what’s going on within your heart. This is where it begins. A decision within ourselves to stay connected to the vine and the branches even in the seasons when being useful don’t seem to be there. Next, we have to change our language and value system within our communities. This is where, as a spiritual family we create space for “John the Baptist experiences”, where we allow Yahweh to declare over us who we are before we DO a thing. Do we celebrate gifting over fruit? Is our positive language fixed on wether we knocked the song out of the park or wether we have been abiding in the nature of God consistently? What about this one. How are we responding and celebrating each others hunger and spiritual growth? Remember, what Jesus said as the disciples came back after doing all the awesome spiritual things? He corrected them and fixed their eyes back to the better thing. The fact that their names were written in heaven. They were part of the FAMILY of God! These are all questions we have to begin asking ourselves in order to begin changing the culture we live in. It always feels nice to be used and valued but never to be used up and this is the trouble we see time and time again in our modern christianity. When our value is in our functionality, there is no end. We don’t have an off switch because it feels so good to be used until it doesn’t and then we repeat the same cycle all over again somewhere else. However, if the rhythm of our lives flow from the revelation of who we are in the family of God we become less likely to fall into the never ending cycle of being a commodity. Because we are not for sale. We have be purchased already! We have to learn Jesus’ rhythm of living from the nature and voice of His Father. It was never too fast, never too slow, but in response of a Son to a well pleased Father. Are we longing to set at tables and wash feet, or are striving for usefulness as value? Nothing Jesus did was on accident. It was all a demonstration of the better way. I continually ask myself, is my “doing” coming from the soil of a daughter in the Kingdom of God, or is my “doing” an attempt to be pleasing to an already pleased Father. Do I feel pleased with even if I’m not doing. If my giftings were all gone, would I be satisfied in holy communion and community alone? Would I still have value? May our commissioning and prophetic promises never become an idol on the alter that we sacrifice to over the communion of our Father and the family of God. And here in this place God reveals His glory, the revelation of sons and daughters fully pleasing to the creator of all things, YAHWEH.
-Meagan