Playing the Whole Deck

Part 2 of The Three Passions Series
Read Part 1

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
—Acts 2:42

The central quality of a disciple of any kind is devotion. Someone who is devoted to chess, for example, pours his time, thought, and resources into the game. A true disciple of chess actually plays it, not just follows the exploits of the grand masters.

The first group of Christ’s disciples is described as devoted. Yes, they were devoted to some things (the focus of later posts), but it is important that we understand what is meant by devotion in the first place. Since we are ultimately talking about a devotion to Jesus, it is his definition that most interests us. This is how he characterizes it:

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
—Matthew 6:24

For Jesus, true devotion is single and categorical; it can be offered only to one thing. This runs counter to the way we play it out. Think of devotion as a deck of cards. We tend to deal out our “devotions” to a number of players. My wife gets a few cards; my kids get a few; my job gets some; maybe my church gets a few; my hobby gets some too. We pass out the devotion cards in proportions according to the value we assign the recipients. But Jesus’s perspective raises a question: Once I’ve rationed out my cards which person has the deck? None of them. For Jesus, devotion is the whole deck, which is why it can’t be given to two masters. If you cut the deck (by even one card) it is no longer devotion.

This is a radical position, especially for us who live daily with divided hearts. To be frank, there is something freaky about a demand for total devotion. (We’ve all seen fanaticism run amok.) But aside from the issues of misapplied devotion, there is another question inherent in Jesus’s perspective. If I hand the whole deck over to God, thus fulfilling the greatest commandment, how can I fulfill the second greatest commandment, to love my neighbor as myself? There aren’t any cards left over.

The Apostle John answers this question for us (whew). He writes, This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands (1Jn 5:2). According to John, the way we love our neighbors is not by giving them a few devotion cards, but by handing the whole deck over the God. In fact, if I do hand any cards to them, I am not fulfilling the second commandment or the first!

All this may seem a game of words, but for anybody contemplating what it means to be a disciple of Christ, this is essential stuff. However, as we read in Acts 2:42, this “whole deck” devotion is not some abstract or fuzzy feeling; it is expressed in three important and definite ways. These are the focus of upcoming posts.

But next we’re going to take a look at what the first group of followers experienced when they were together, an experience that was both the fruit of and motivation for their commitment to play the whole deck.

The Three Passions

Part 1

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
—Acts 2:42

This past Sunday we started a series that focuses on the three passions of the early church. Our interest is in how the scriptures describe that first group of believers regarding its devotion to certain things and in what those things actually mean.

By way of introduction, we noted that the defining characteristic of disciples is devotion. And though we agreed that the early followers were devoted to Jesus, we also concluded that this devotion expressed itself as a passionate commitment to the following things:

• The apostles’ teaching
• The fellowship (and breaking of bread)
• Prayer

For the next few Sundays (and in the next few posts) we will explore the concept of devotion itself and take a careful look at the early church’s three expressions of that devotion. Our goal is to learn how authentic church life reflects and enacts these passions—and how U-Church might do the same.

It’s exiting to think that, by embracing these three passions, believers can live out in the modern world the experience and witness of that first spiritual collective. We will not attempt to “reclaim” the primitive church, but rather explore how their passions might express themselves through us today.

Stay tuned—and visit us if you like. The door is always open.

Read Part 2

Principle vs. Person

At our last Sunday gathering we continued our look at the Gospel of Mark and made a simple observation. As we read the second chapter and part of the third, we noticed that Jesus kept insisting on the primacy of person over principle. Even when the principles were good—and sometimes Scripturally mandated—Jesus demoted them to submission. He viewed the religious statutes as servants rather than masters. Jesus did not devalue those religious principles but rather insisted on the unique nobility of the human person, a nobility which found its apotheosis in him. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

As someone remarked that morning, “That’s so hard to remember!” And it is. What starts out as a vibrant relationship so easily devolves into a vague collection of numb obligations. Our intentions may be upright, but we so often drift from the dynamic of engaging the resurrected Christ. Rules are easy to take hold of, but a person eludes categories and quantifications. We are often left with a chronic, low-grade sense of absence.

That’s why it’s so good to gather together as believers. We remind each other that the whole Christian reality is founded on personhood, each of us encountering the others and all of us encountering the living Christ. The church, as a collection of redeemed people, objectifies our faith; we experience each other as others (along with all the hassles that entails) and are reminded that salvation is in knowing Someone Else. This is personhood as both the saved and the saving. Principles serve to guide our relationships, but they have no real substance in and of themselves. This Jesus knew full well.

It’s funny how the simplest truths are often the most profound and easiest to forget. Jesus himself is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the First Principle, if you like. And it is into fellowship that we are invited. At U-Church, at least, we have to remind ourselves of this over and over again.