May 22nd, 2007

Going Before our Leader

Read Luke 10:1-17

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others

and sent them two by two ahead of him to every

town and place where he was about to go." vs. 1

Life as a Christian is balanced upon a dynamic of following and going before. According to Jesus, if anyone is to come after him, they are to "deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him." Only by surrendering our need to lead can we hope to find the gracious salvation of God in Christ Jesus. We have been taught throughout our lives to lead, to take control, to become the masters of our own destinies. We submit and surrender these learned practices and in favor of heeding the ongoing call of Christ in our lives that beckons us to follow after Him. Following Jesus is premised on the spiritual discipline of looking to his life in scriptures and manifesting the actions and life that He offered to this world. This isn't a mere copycat moralism, however; we don't simply follow by our own initiative. We follow by the prompting of the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us. It is that Spirit that gives us the grace and capacity to follow wherever Christ should happen to lead us.

Subsequently, our journey isn't one of just following...our following faithfully inevitably leads us to "go before" Jesus. Please understand that I in no way mean that we start leading. Even in going before we are still following...confused yet? Jesus sends us out before Him to serve as the mouthpiece of his impending arrival. The church is the vocal and embodied announcement of Jesus Christ in this world. Through the proclamation of hope and the lived out reality of God's power in our lives, the world is confronted with a message that declares..."The Kingdom is near."

The Kingdom is Near! Do those around you everyday witness the power and hope of such a message, such good news. Do they recognize in your life the announcement of Jesus' coming? The church can't satisfy itself with just receiving the grace of salvation and then going on our merry way. The church must seek to follow the life of Christ, to heed the Spirit of Christ that will send us out before him to tell the world of his coming...a coming that remembers that He is both here now and will come again.