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Scripture
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
*St. Paul, I Corinthians 13.4-7 (ESV)
Wisdom Words
People usually read this [about love], and are taught to read it, as telling them to be patient, kind, free of jealousy, and so on-just as they read Jesus' Discourse [i.e., Sermon on the Mount] as telling them to not call others fools, not look on a woman to lust, not swear, to go the second mile, and so forth.
But Paul is plainly saying-look at his words-that it is love that does these things, not us, and that what we are to do is "pursue love" (I Cor. 14.1). As we "catch" love, we then find that these things are after all actually being done by us. These things, these godly actions and behaviors, are the result of dwelling in love. We have become the kind of person who is patient, kind, free of jealousy, and so on.
*Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy.
Comments
A leader in our United Methodist Church, Florida Conference, co-taught a seminar "Spiritual Formation in the Church." He referred to efforts at transforming United Methodist churches in Florida. The transformation plan began in the early 2000s. He mentioned key leadership wondered, after a few years, why effort at transforming did not occur. Noble changes were introduced in the vision and actions of congregations, but without sustainable transformation. Leadership concluded the problem: Spiritual formation was among several aspects of a transforming congregation, not the first and overriding aspect.
Since spiritual formation is central to spiritual transformation, we must understand what spiritual formation is for Christians? Spiritual formation is an intentional process of engaging specific spiritual practices, or disciplines, that gradually transforms the consciousness and behaviors of persons into the likeness of Jesus Christ, being transformed into His consciousness and behavior.
Diana Butler Bass notes, in Christianity for the Rest of Us, that from its earliest days followers of Jesus were people of The Way. They engaged specific practices that set them apart from other persons. But, she observes, "Too often, contemporary Christianity seems to be a religion about belief, a kind of spiritual club that can be joined by agreeing to a statement of faith."
Almost all branches of the Church in the United States have failed miserably in forming persons in the image of Christ. And most of what those outside the churches know of Christianity is the pathetic-political christianity, stuck in the head and cut off from the heart, of the conservative right: a religion-not spirituality-more defined by television evangelists and mega church preachers than Jesus Christ.
Now, let us return to the opening Scripture and Dallas Willard's comments. Willard observes exactly what spiritual Christianity affirms, and this affirmation is part of the freedom offered by spirituality, as opposed to religious christianity. This is the observation: We, in ourselves, cannot love with God~Love, nor can we do anything else truly divine. In fact, God does not expect us to.
Spiritual formation entails shaping within us, through intentional spiritual practices, a gracious space where all the good of Christ can move through us, blessing others and us in the process. Love, being of God, loves through you. Patience, being of God, is patient through you. Forgiveness, being of God, forgives through you. We simply offer ourselves to be and be becoming more of who Christ is. We, evidencing that offering, agree to spiritual practices as means of grace that nurture, sustain,and enlarge the growth and fruition.
This means we must reclaim The Way. Jesus Christ is not The Way in the sense of means to get somewhere. Again, much of conservative christianity defines Jesus being The Way as Christ being The Way to heaven and away from hell. This escapist reduction of The Way has fostered generations of confessing Christians who are little more than members of the church club and following a map handed to them, not practitioners of The Way being transformed into the very image of Christ Jesus. This, indeed, is a pathetically powerless show of faith, but not spiritual vitality and authentic spiritual power.
Diane Butler Bass' words on this provide a fitting conclusion to our writing today. She empathizes that The Way is Jesus Himself, and to follow Jesus is to turn from trusting the religious maps given by many churches, systems of belief that offer comfort and security and supposedly clear answers on mysterious realities, and get off the main road, accepting Christ leads us to faith that embraces mystery, lack of clarity, and, yes, risking. However, this does not leave us without faith or destination. For our faith is in the Three-in-One, not religion and religious maps, and our journey and destination is always in and to God. The focus as shifted from all other than God, including myself, morality, belief, spirituality, and religion to the One shown to us by The Way...
Jesus is not the way to get somewhere. Jesus is the Christian journey itself, a pilgrimage that culminates in the wayfarer's arrival in God. When Jesus said "Follow me," he did not say "Follow a map." Rather, he invited people to follow him, to walk with him on a pilgrimage toward God.
How, then, do we get there? How do we follow the Jesus way?
You have to exit the highway, risk getting lost, and follow the signposts on the ground.
Suggested Reflections
Do you find that the spiritual community you worship and serve through is effectively leading confessing Christians into being transformed to the likeness of Christ? Explain your response.
In what ways do you see yourself growing in the likeness of Christ?
If you, in yourself, cannot love persons with God Love (agape), but Love Itself loves through you, what does this say about spiritual formation? Your relationship to God? Your relationship with other persons?
For submission of replies, see below:
*Brian K. Wilcox is Pastor of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
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