Aux Perc

You're flipping through the channels and land on PBS. A symphony is playing, leave it there for a minute. The camera is picking up various musicians at work. It's not only the sound, but also the sight that is inspiring. Look at the way the string players lean into it, even the animation in the eyebrows of the wind players.

Hey, what's that? Some guy on the back row has picked up some kind of stage prop and made a loud noise. Where did he come from? Is he even a musician? Anybody can bang two gizmos together. Sheesh. What has he been doing during the song while the real experts have been giving it their all?

He was doing precisely what the composer and conducter wanted him to do. He was resting and counting the measures, staying in readiness to unleash his peculiar joyful noise at the right moment.

Cameras are deceiving. The art of the camera is in what it leaves outside of the frame. Great pictures are made by cropping. During our symphony, the camera is showing the guys who are playing the conspicuous parts. That's just good TV. But have you ever wondered what everyone else is doing?

They are counting. They are emptying spit valves and keeping warm air in the horn. They are looking and listening to their peers. They are obeying the composer and conductor by resting. They are silent by design.

I have a friend whose electronic signature contains the quote, "There is no music in a rest, but there is making of music in it."

If you think about it a certain way, a rest seems absurd for such gifted people. Here are these world-class musicians, the cream of the crop. They have spent the majority of their lives studying and practicing and performing their craft. Here they are on stage in front of a huge live audience, and also being recorded for posterity. And then they have to sit there and be silent. Here they are getting paid good money and they might be doing nothing at all for long stretches.

Imagine the thoughts of the first chair violin observing a rest. "Here I am, stuck with a 64 bar rest. I'm so bored. I've played everything Mozart has ever written. I know exactly what Mozart would have put here. I think it's time for a solo, so I can earn my bread. They aren't paying me to sit on my hands. Here we go."

That's absurd, right? But that's how we have tended to operate in the Body of Christ.

1 Cor: 26-29
"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."

First of all, most of us are auxiliary percussion. We just are. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is by design. But whether we're on triangle or first fiddle, we must follow the Composer and Conductor and enter into silence when it is time. In silence, there is listening and watching and readiness. Silence is used by the Composer as an intentional musical technique. A rest is every bit as musical as a note. It is crucial.

But nature abhors a vaccuum, and that goes for human nature as well. If you ever visit our gathering, one of the things that you will notice is that there are periods of silence. And this can be awkward for a guest (or even a regular). In the usual church gathering, things are scripted in such a way that there is no silence. One thing follows another, sight and sound always fill the senses. The meeting is just an example. But I'm talking about life in general.

The impulse is to fill spiritual silences with something, anything. And often, it is the gifted-ones who take it upon themselves to fill it, like the first violin in my absurd little illustration. "Here I am, stuck with a period of inactivity. I'm good at my thing. I have a good idea what the Lord would be saying and doing in this situation. I didn't go through so much preparation just to sit on my hands. Let's roll." And frankly, since inactivity does not make good TV (and all other media) we've only been shown the gifted folks in action. Quiet life is cropped out of the frame.

If a silence is scripted and we honk into it, we've played it wrong. In Spirit it might be hard to discern what kind of silence we are experiencing in a particular season. But at least the thought should enter our minds that a period of inactivity might be scripted. It might be a "Selah" like in a Psalm. We should at least consider the possibility. Because if it is a silence by design, we can with good conscience enter into listening, looking, counting, and readiness. We can greet the stillness with a sense of expectancy. At any moment we may be called upon by the Conductor to make that peculiar joyful noise that was penned by the Composer before the foundation of the world.

Come into the Circle

Recall in Princess Bride, Prince Humperdink ordering the priest at his wedding, "Skip to the end." That is what we tend to do when we get to the most important chapter in Paul's letter to the church at Rome.

What? Most important chapter? Yes, because everything Paul writes comes forth out of it.

It happens to be the guide for this blog. I could write about anything under the sun. I could write about things that stimulate me. I could paraphrase ideas of whatever author I am reading at the moment. I could react to the news. I could attempt to defend and persuade you concerning my favorite subjects.

But consider what Paul was doing. Everything he wrote came out of his relationship with actual flesh-and-blood individuals. As he dictated his letter, he had their faces in his mind's eye. In his letter are things he wanted to tell them face-to-face in the gathering, and therefore it would have passed the test of "let everything be done for edification".

In this blog I have determined to write down the things which I have shared in the gathering, because I spoke these things under the awareness of the rule of love. So it will pass the test for you, even though we have never met. By reading these articles, you have crossed into my circle of fellowship. Come in.

"Be sure to welcome our friend Phoebe in the way of the Master, with all the generous hospitality we Christians are famous for. I heartily endorse both her and her work. She's a key representative of the church at Cenchrea. Help her out in whatever she asks. She deserves anything you can do for her. She's helped many a person, including me. Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked hand in hand with me in serving Jesus. They once put their lives on the line for me. And I'm not the only one grateful to them. All the non-Jewish gatherings of believers also owe them plenty, to say nothing of the church that meets in their house. Hello to my dear friend Epenetus. He was the very first follower of Jesus in the province of Asia.Hello to Mary. What a worker she has turned out to be!Hello to my cousins Andronicus and Junias. We once shared a jail cell. They were believers in Christ before I was. Both of them are outstanding leaders. Hello to Ampliatus, my good friend in the family of God. Hello to Urbanus, our companion in Christ's work, and my good friend Stachys. Hello to Apelles, a tried-and-true veteran in following Christ. Hello to the family of Aristobulus. Hello to my cousin Herodion. Hello to those who belong to the Lord from the family of Narcissus. Hello to Tryphena and Tryphosa, such diligent women in serving the Master. Hello to Persis, a dear friend and hard worker in Christ. Hello to Rufus (a good choice by the Master!) and his mother. She has also been a dear mother to me. Hello to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and also to all of their families. Hello to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the followers of Jesus who live with them. Holy embraces all around! All the churches of Christ send their warmest greetings!"

Allow me to join this passage up with a couple of things from Jesus.

"Who are my mother and my brothers? Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

If Christ, the very image of God, can say this to the very ordinary people in that room, how much more can we say this to one another?

"No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields."

This is the power out of which Paul writes his great epistle. When we read the letter, we enter into family relationship with Paul, who is giving his love to us. This is the center out of which we must speak to one another in the assembly. Come into the circle, brothers and sisters.

Teaching as Token

One of the joys of being a husband and dad is to see my wife and kids be creative. Their  week is filled with cooking, knitting, yarn spinning, lotion-making, photography, art, and music. Each family in the gathering has a bounty of giftings and interests that are peculiar and special.

Often, the brothers and sisters will share things with each other. We demonstrate our love to one another by offering the works of our hands and minds. We give forth from whatever "makes us tick". We are also mindful of others needs and interests.

Much of it is very practical, and we are not overly mindful of it. It is just the way we are. I like to play guitar. I'm more than happy to do it while we're singing together. Kimberly and Abby like to knit, and they are happy when someone can wear their stuff. If young Malachai Talbott grows something in his garden, he is excited that folks will eat it. When Emily V.H. or Emily Talbott captures the family photographically in a special moment, they are glad that we would display it proudly.

We all have pursuits. We gain expertise in something we love. We find satisfaction in detail, in good work. We discover something which resonates with us. Teaching is among the crafts.

In the "housechurch" or "organic" (or whatever) community, there is a tendency to keep at arms length (at least rhetorically) anything that smacks of clergy. Trust me, I'm no friend of the concept of office and hierarchy. But until recent events, I had not given "educated" guys enough credit.

First of all, let me say that teaching had been a big fetish of the institutional subculture I came out of. Every young man who became a believer asked himself, "Does God want me to be a teacher? That would be so cool." It didn't matter that he didn't know anything at all. But the one thing he did know, instinctively through the subculture, was that teaching was the highest calling. And if you proved yourself more "serious" than your peers, maybe the organization might send you to school to be the real deal, the only thing in church that really mattered. If not, well, you could get a wall full of books and position yourself to teach some Sunday School or weekly Bible studies. And then there were the folks who sat under the teaching. It was called "being fed". Is brother so-and-so feeding you right? Would you get fed better on the other street corner? Oh, the horror, if you're not getting fed properly. Everything, I mean everything, depended on the teacher.

I'm preaching to the choir here, if you're in my circle. We came out of that. But there can be a tendency to backlash against the imbalance of the old mindset.

So what does it look like when teaching comes back into balance in the setting of the simple gathering?

Not everybody demonstrates love in the same way. Some people like to hug and some don't. For some guys it's easy to say, "I love you brother," and for some it's awkward. Some guys aren't great at working with their hands, or don't have an ear for music, or a green thumb. But they still have tokens of love to give us. I think that this is how teaching (and other intellectual pursuits) should fit into the life of the body. Not elevated over every other expression, but not despised either.

Rather, teaching can re-orient itself as one of the various pursuits and crafts. Not everybody can knit or make goat's-milk soap. Nevertheless, in our gathering, everyone has soap and knitted items. In the same way, I recognize lately that not everybody can afford the time and effort to do seminary-level study. But fortunately there are brothers and sisters with experience that can whip up something intellectual for us once in a while as a token of their esteem.

It takes two to tango. Teach as a token of your love for your brother, not the emblem of your special status, but as an item from your craft. Receive a teaching as a token of love from your brother, and use it along with your hat and soap and other goodies from the body. There shall be no poor among you.

Kitty

Look at that cat, basking in her little pool of sunlight, eyes slitted, paws tucked under. She seems more satisfied that any human I know. I wonder, does she experience her Creator? If so, in what way?

Do I experience God? If so, in what way?

The immediate thought is "Word". I've been well inculcated, and think of the Bible first. But I'm also reminded that words are at the heart of what it is to be human. We're the animal of language, of concept, of symbol. God comes to us with the very thing that interests us most, the very thing that makes us unique.

But waking from her nap and from her long silence, the cat says, "It's always words with you people. In the beginning was the Rest, and the Rest was with God, and the Rest was God. The Rest was with God in the beginning."

And the sparrow at the feeder says, "Typical cat. In the beginning was the Seed. The Seed was with God and the Seed was God. The Seed was with God in the beginning."

And the hawk on the branch says, "In the beginning was the Wind. The Wind was with God and the Wind was God."

And the earthworm says, "The Soil was with God in the beginning."

And the oak says, "Through the Sunlight all things were made; without the Sunlight nothing was made that has been made. In the Sunlight was life."

And I say to them, "That life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkeness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

And they say to me, "Son of man, experience him as the Word because that is how you are fearfully and wonderfully made, but don't forget to enter into our fellowship as well."

So I'll sit next to Kitty in her pool of sunlight. She will close her eyes and I will speak to her, and we will experience God together.

Slots

Several years after leaving the institutional church system, my wife asked me a question as we were driving.

"Mark, do you think I'm properly submissive?"

I was silent for a few moments. Often, when someone is silent after a loaded question, it means they are reluctant to answer. I'm sorry to have made Kimberly worry for a few beats.

"I honestly don't know. I don't think about you that way any more."

I surprised myself with my answer to her question. And then I was delighted. It meant that at some point I had stopped measuring her performance toward me. She is who she is, and I love her.

You see, I was the product of a system in which every relationship was measured by dominance and submissiveness. We had certain expectations for everybody to live up to. Is your wife submissive to your satisfaction in every way? Is your husband the spiritual head of the household to the proper degree? Are your children properly conformed to the collective expectations? Are you in mental and verbal assent with the opinions of the appointed inner circle? Have you volunteered enough of your free time to the operation of the franchise? Are you writing a check (which can be evaluated), or are you giving cash (which can't be traced to you)?

We lived in a pre-fabricated set of relationships. You could walk through the door and instantly enter into them, if you had determination and the right vocabulary. But you know, love was not required, not really. Blood, sweat, tears, resolve, stomach acid, but not necessarily love. All that was required was to be sorted into the right slots (whether it be unto men or unto theories of men), and things would turn out okay. When you come right down to it, we were people all desparately wanting things to turn out okay. And we found systems that made promises.

It's been a dozen years away from that now, and tales come to my ears. For many, there was no payoff. It would have been better for many of us to stay home and discover love for one another before signing up for anything else.

Don't evaluate her. Love her.

Northing, Easting, Elevation

I am a land survey technician. Maybe you are familiar with surveying. Picture in your mind's eye those two guys on the side of the road, one holding a rod, the other peering through an instrument perched atop a tripod. When those guys are done for the day, they bring their data to me, and I turn it into a map. Together, our business is to measure things and then report those measurements.

Imagine that you hire us to survey your inheritance, a vast parcel of land. After some weeks I come back to you with a map in my hand with a vague outline of your property. You ask me, "What is this? Is this supposed to be a survey?"

"Your land is vast! It is huge! What a wonderful, glorious piece of property you have! Words fail to describe it! Mere numbers cannot measure it! I am humbled by your tract's majesty. The sheer magnitude of your parcel renders me speechless. Amen."

"Mark, I'll see you in court."

Have you ever heard anybody gush about the love of Christ? Does it sound like that survey I describe above? "Vast! Huge! Indescribable! Beyond measure!" It all sounds very right, a very correct attitude. It conveys that you are really impressed by something that's really impressive. Thanks, I guess.

Ephesians 3:14-19
I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth
and length
and height
and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

If you are a believer, you are a surveyor. Paul is sending us out to the field, giving us instructions to conduct our survey. Our subject parcel is the Love of Christ. He gives us the scope of services.

• Establish benchmarks and control points. All collected data will be adjusted to these monuments. "Be rooted and grounded in love."
• Take measurements and record the data. "What is the breadth and length and height and depth?"
• Process the data and analyze it. "Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God."

Yes, it sounds contradictory. To know something which "surpasses knowledge". To contain the uncontainable. "Filled up to all the fullness of God". I didn't say it, the Survey Manager did.

Notice the part where Paul says, "Comprehend with all the saints." We're not to go out alone. We go out as a field crew. We need several sets of eyes. We need some backup, some help carrying stuff, help chopping brush, help finding monuments, someone to drive if we get snakebit. And when the data is collected, we need someone to organize the data, someone to put together the plat, someone to count the cost. In a mom-and-pop shop, a few people wear different hats, and in a larger shop, the are folks who specialize. But however it happens, it is to happen with all. There is no room for someone who is eating overhead, someone who is not billable to the client. Everybody pitches in.

Is a picture starting to form here? The love of Christ is not some amporphous blob. It appears among His people as a very definite thing. Just because a thing is vast does not mean that it can't be described. The love of Christ has a shape. It has contours. It can be looked at from different angles.

Paul desires that being "rooted and grounded in love" that we would "be able to comprehend with all the saints" the Northing, Easting and Elevation of the love of Christ. And though he says it "surpasses knowlege", we are to know it anyway. And though it seems even a fraction of the "fullness of God" would cause any vessel to burst at the seams, he desires us to be filled up with all of it.

Who are we to question the Survey Manager? Let's load up the truck. Let's make some detailed maps together.