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Week:02, Season:1,
2014
Posted on Saturday by PCT
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Church as One Body
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Scripture：《
Ephesians 3:1-12
》
3：1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
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Three stories about “church”
The first story is about the Saturday afternoon in November 1999 (two months after the 921 Earthquake) when a team from Taiwan Theological College and Seminary was sent to Snow Mountain Presbyterian Church in Taichung County to help with the reconstruction. A Christian from Taipei County came to the tribe and asked whether there was spare land where they could build a church. He said, “Our church has a special mission to disaster areas and we would like to build a church here as one of our branches.” A theological teacher who was there with the relief team asked this man, “This area already has a church, why would you not help them to rebuild?” This man replied with embarrassment, “Well, then we will look for another place…”
The second story is that I was once sharing my gospel work with a young lady from a different denomination. She said, “My church sent a missionary team to the Philippines where thousands of people attended the Evangelism conference and made decisions to give up their traditional beliefs to become Christians.” I wondered aloud, “Isn’t that a Roman Catholic region?” This young lady replied agitatedly, “There is no Holy Spirit in the Roman Catholic church. They have fallen. People there lived terrible lives and it is our responsibility to bring the Holy Spirit into this land…”
The third one; one day my niece, a first grade pupil at primary school, was complaining to my mother, “Grandma, I really want to punch XXX in face. He says his church is the ‘real’ one and ‘all Presbyterian churches are fake.’” My niece continued, “If it didn’t say in the Bible that we should love one another, I would definitely beat him. However, the Bible also tells us ‘If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ Doesn’t it mean I can slap him? ”
Love crosses hatred and groups
When Taiwan was colonised by Japan, conflicts happened all the time because the Japanese invaded aboriginal tribes to collect camphor. At the end of July 1906, Inoue Yanosuke and other Japanese were killed by the indigenous people in Eastern Taiwan. Later, Inoue Yanosuke’s son, heard of the tragedy of his father at church treat and was going to take the revenge for his father’s killing but then he thought of the teaching from Jesus to “love your enemy” and started to understand that “the best revenge is to love not to hate.’ In 1911, Mr Inosuke started his “revenge” in the Atayal tribes near Hsinchu where he started his medical mission. He did not criticise the Atayal culture as a colonist but rather, he tried to understand the tribes’ people and their culture. From his observations, he found that the foreign cultures had influenced the indigenous people and caused GAGA (means “the traditional beliefs and way of living” or “commandments”) to disappear. As a result, the tribe had gradually fallen apart. Before Mr Inosuke left Taiwan, he claimed that his gospel mission had failed, but in fact, he had successfully spread the seeds of the gospel into the land of the Atayal tribe. This was the foundation of ministry to the Taiwanese indigenous people. (Reference: God is weaving, translated by Kaori Reiko, 1997: Ren Guang Publisher.)
In 1953, a Canadian missionary named Revd Dr. Clare Elliot McGill came to Taiwan and started his ministry with the Atayal tribe. He did not begin teaching immediately but started by learning the Atayal language from tribes in Wulai, Taipei. Revd McGill tried to translate the Bible into the Atayal language through Roman characters and made booklets to be given out in the tribe. Later he realised that many tribal people were illiterate, thus he visited Ms Ciku Sabiy (Unlicensed contracted preacher, Ms Chen Hui-Chin) who was studying at Hsinchu Bible College and Watan (Revd Lin, Chun-Hui) from Taiwan Theological School and Seminary so they could work together translating the Bible and Hymnbook into the Atayal language. The translations were recorded on vinyl disc and played to the tribe.
In 1973, the the National Government prohibited all regional “dialects” in Taiwan and made it a“principleto speak Mandarin in Taiwan’s mountain towns” so prohibiting the church from using theTaiwanese Hymnbook in Roman characters. Revd McGill then applied the Zhu-yin system to the Hymnbook in Roman characters so people could still sing in Taiwanese by reading the Zhu-yin characters. Revd McGill spent thirty one years in Taiwan and dedicated himself to ministry with the Atayal tribes. He completed the Atayal language hymnbook, part of the Atayal language Bible and established Sunday schools and women’s fellowships at churches in the tribes. (Reference: The Pathway of Life, Grace McGill, 2003: Yong Wang Publisher)
Breaking prejudice and making church as one body
“Why do you want to attend that church? Their service is informal and they don’t even have Sunday school for children. Come to my church! My church is very friendly and less stressful.” “The worship at our church is better than at other churches.” “Our church emphasises the need to be filled by the Holy Spirit.” “We have many church members. We are more revivalist.” “Come to my church and it will make you feel at home.” These sentences seem to have become essential advertisements of a modern church. We need to be aware that when a church focuses on promoting its special character, sometimes it may also have the effect of underestimating other churches or denominations; even worse, picturing a pretend enemy and making conflict between churches. This also happens within the church: “You are not filled by the Holy Spirit if you can’t speak in tongues.” “You should raise your hands when you sing so that the Holy Spirit will descend on you.” “You are not a real Christian if you don’t attend church groups and prayer meetings.” “You are not a good Christian if you don’t support church ministry by donations or participations.” These statements eventually make new church comers and believers who want to stay at one church start wondering: why does it seem so hard to be a follower of Jesus? Should I wait for a while to decide whether I want to come to church? Should I wait until I am dying to repent and then come to church frequently?
Paul reminds us in Ephesians, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Paul said to the Ephesians that not only the Jews should receive the blessing of God; it was more important to help the Gentiles so that the different groups with different faiths coming from different backgrounds can become Jesus’ followers. Therefore, all types of services, events and ministries are tools of the gospel which aims to make the church the one body of Christ. The existence of church is to practice love of Jesus. If there are conflicts between or within churches from different theological teachings or drawing on specific spiritual achievements, will this “body” be attractive to non-Christians?
In the movie Have a Little Faith, an old Jewish Rabbi is shopping with a journalist at supermarket. An Indian girl greets the Rabbi and the Rabbi said to the journalist that the belief this girl has is very beautiful. The journalist felt confused. The Rabbi says, “In the forest, God does not create one kind of tree but there are many: cypress, pine trees, cedars, etc. In the same way so are religions. If we cannot appreciate each other, how do we be sure that what we believe is the best?”
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For discussion：
1.Does your church work with other churches on expanding the work of ministry? Can you share your experience?
2.The new church nearby or the one with increasing church numbers, are most of their members non-Christians? Is the increase the result of competition in quantity between churches? What is your church’s view of these churches which aim at members’ quantity rather than quality?
3.What is the relationship between your church and the community in which it’s located? How does church break down barriers and bring in more new members?
Please pray for：
1.For brothers and sisters who are studying outside your home town. Pray for God’s guidance on them and help them focus on the path of the Lord which will fulfil their life.
2.For churches in your area. May God help all churches to work for the gospel and witness for the Lord.
3.For your community or tribe. May God bless it.
Prayer：
Gracious Lord, please make me a channel of peace to help churches support and accept one another. Gracious Lord, make me a channel of sharing to care for the community/tribe and bring blessing to them. Gracious Lord, make me a channel of actions to forget my own self-interest and to live only to witness to your kingdom. Amen.
Something you can do：
1.Plan events to help people participate in the community/tribe and enrol your fellowship or team members in the events.
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