“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk 3:35)
Now this is our question. If those people who do “the will of God” belong to Jesus’ family, then how can we acknowledge the will of God? Yesterday I mentioned that church community is very precious. It does not mean that the church itself is the absolute. Rather the church should obey the will of God. If she does not, then it is not an ideal church. In fact, when we look back the history of the church, we can discover that there are many things that go against God’s will. We have many such scars. We must put our concerted effort to come into the new flesh by agreeing on it even from now on. Without such an effort, the church cannot survive as a family of Jesus.
No one knows the perfect will of God. The Bible can be the answer. Yet, it is not easy to find out the will of God, since the Bible should also pass through the medium of interpretation. May be the life of faith could be the process of knowing the will of God. So Paul, who is much senior to us, said that he had not already obtained all. Not only that, he confessed that what he saw was a poor reflection as in a mirror.
Some Christians claim as if he or she knew all the will of God, and as if he was the only one who does the will of God. Pastors have greater risk of being exposed to such danger. As the pastoral experience getting piled up, any moment a pastor could be sunk in self-righteousness. Being aware of such possible danger, it is utmost important to strictly observe the ideal policy “I still don’t know many things”.
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THE MOST IMPORTANT SEATS
“…and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.“(Mk 12:39)
The synagogue is the Jews’ gathering place for having religious activities and ritual services. From here the Jews read or study the Bible or celebrate those festivals such as Passover. The religious activities are not sacrificial offering. A sacrificial offering can be performed only by the priest in the Jerusalem temple. In the synagogue meeting the ruler of synagogue and Rabbi sit at the seat of honor while the general public sits at the lower below. Seating arrangement at the synagogue meeting is similar to that of the Christian worship service in which the worship leaders sit in the platform and the congregation sits along the pews below.
We cannot arrange the seats in a uniform level in the meeting of synagogue or worship service. It is always better to separate the seats of the leaders from that of the congregation for the sake of mutual convenience in the worship service. Some criticize it as clericalism. For example, there is no fixed order or form in the Quake. They are sitting around and those who are impressed by the Holy Spirit pray, reading the word of God and preach. Such fundamental and dismantle position can be an alternative but it is hard to employ in the center of Christian tradition.
The word ‘watch out the teachers of the law who wants to sit at the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets’ does not mean to abolish the formality altogether. It is a warning against human love for fame. The love for fame is the desire to be recognized by others. Everybody has this natural instinct though the degree of one’s desire varies from one person to another. Therefore this natural tendency cannot be attributed to the teachers alone but it applies to everyone.
Such trend of psychology predominates even in the church. Most of elderly people in the church want to be an elder. It sounds a little ridiculous. If he a true Christian with deeper spirituality, he would certainly refuse to be apart of the elders. An attempt to be in the spotlight is an irritable thing in the real search for spiritual truth. How about our spiritual status?
The synagogue is the Jews’ gathering place for having religious activities and ritual services. From here the Jews read or study the Bible or celebrate those festivals such as Passover. The religious activities are not sacrificial offering. A sacrificial offering can be performed only by the priest in the Jerusalem temple. In the synagogue meeting the ruler of synagogue and Rabbi sit at the seat of honor while the general public sits at the lower below. Seating arrangement at the synagogue meeting is similar to that of the Christian worship service in which the worship leaders sit in the platform and the congregation sits along the pews below.
We cannot arrange the seats in a uniform level in the meeting of synagogue or worship service. It is always better to separate the seats of the leaders from that of the congregation for the sake of mutual convenience in the worship service. Some criticize it as clericalism. For example, there is no fixed order or form in the Quake. They are sitting around and those who are impressed by the Holy Spirit pray, reading the word of God and preach. Such fundamental and dismantle position can be an alternative but it is hard to employ in the center of Christian tradition.
The word ‘watch out the teachers of the law who wants to sit at the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets’ does not mean to abolish the formality altogether. It is a warning against human love for fame. The love for fame is the desire to be recognized by others. Everybody has this natural instinct though the degree of one’s desire varies from one person to another. Therefore this natural tendency cannot be attributed to the teachers alone but it applies to everyone.
Such trend of psychology predominates even in the church. Most of elderly people in the church want to be an elder. It sounds a little ridiculous. If he a true Christian with deeper spirituality, he would certainly refuse to be apart of the elders. An attempt to be in the spotlight is an irritable thing in the real search for spiritual truth. How about our spiritual status?
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