ComeFrom?
03-18-2006, 10:27 PM
Our spiritual communities are as susceptible to disease as our physical bodies. But it is easier to detect whatever is wrong in our stomachs and lungs than our worship and witness. When our physical bodies are sick or damaged, the pain calls our attention to it, and we do something about it, and we do something quick. But a dangerous, even deadly virus in our communities for a long time can go undetected for a long time. As much as we need physicians for our bodies, we have even greater need for diagnosticians and healers of the Spirit.
Jude’s letter to an early community of Christians is just such a diagnosis. It is all the more necessary in that those believers apparently didn’t know anything was wrong, or at least not as desperately wrong as Jude points out.
There is far more, of course, to living in Christian community than protecting the faith against assault or subversion. Paranoia is as unhealthy spiritually as it is mentally. The primary Christian posture is, in Jude’s words, “keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ.” All the same, energetic watchfulness is required. Jude’s whistle blowing has prevented many a disaster.
Jude’s letter to an early community of Christians is just such a diagnosis. It is all the more necessary in that those believers apparently didn’t know anything was wrong, or at least not as desperately wrong as Jude points out.
There is far more, of course, to living in Christian community than protecting the faith against assault or subversion. Paranoia is as unhealthy spiritually as it is mentally. The primary Christian posture is, in Jude’s words, “keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ.” All the same, energetic watchfulness is required. Jude’s whistle blowing has prevented many a disaster.