This is the second article in the series 7 Practices of Gospel Formation for Missional Presence
Redeemer Family,
On Sunday, we introduced Practice #5: Context in our Gospel Formation for Missional Presence series. If you missed the sermon, here’s the link. I would encourage you to find some time to listen this week so we can continue to track together as a parish.
Practices of Context are ways of answering that basic human question, “Where do I make my life?”
Place and time matter. To be human is to be embodied in a particular place and time. Therefore to live a life of placelessness and timelessness is dehumanizing.
Embracing Our Time
I was raised in Ivy, just outside of Charlottesville, VA. Ivy is semi-famous as the place where Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of the Corps of Discovery, grew up. As a kid I would daydream about what it would have been like to lead that band of adventurers across our continent. I used to say things like,”I was born in the right place, but the wrong century.” I loved my place, but I did not love my time.
I think this is true of many of us. We love our homes, our neighborhoods, our city, and our country; but we do not love our culture or our secular age. We feel out of step with our time.
But we are alive now! We are not an accident, the Lord has placed us in this age; and therefore the only time we have to live faithfully is right now. Today.
Embracing Our Place
In a similar way, there are many of us who feel right at home in our time and age, but out of step with our place. Perhaps the place where we lay our head does not feel like home. Perhaps you wish you could afford a different house, a different neighborhood, maybe escape Richmond to move to a different city. Did you move here intentionally? Or do you feel stuck?
What might it mean for you to choose to willingly, intentionally, voluntarily put down roots right here, in this place? What might it mean for you to quiet the restlessness inside of you that keeps suggesting that there is a better place for you somewhere else?
The Incarnation is Both Our Model & Means
The incarnation of the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God in the flesh - Jesus - is both our model and our means when it comes to practicing our context. Christ was incarnate in both time and place, living as a first century Jewish rabbi, fully embracing His context every way.
We look to Jesus as our model. How did Jesus inhabit his context? How might I do the same?
But more than that, Jesus is also our means or our resource for practicing our context. Jesus is here, fully present, in time and space now. Last week we talked about Practice #4: Cultivating Virtue and we said that to truly cultivate Christian Virtue, we must take up practices that help us to abide in Jesus. He is the vine, we are the branches. As we abide in the vine-who-is-Jesus, we who-are-the-branches become more fully incarnate in our place and time the way He is. We begin to see through the eyes of Jesus, listen through His ears, love with His heart, serve through His hands.
As we contemplate together what it might mean for us to be church that practices our context, here are some things we might consider:
Practices of Stability
Commit to Richmond for the long haul. Resist job opportunities or career advancement that might take you away from this place.
If you live in the city, within walking distance of neighbors, consider staying in your home, even if you could afford a larger, nicer one elsewhere.
Practices of Proximity
If you live out in the county, consider moving into the city. Giving up space and comfort to prioritize proximity to both neighbors and fellow brothers and sisters in the church.
Get to know the people and things nearby. What businesses can you walk to from your front door? What people live within 0.5 miles of you?
Practices of Understanding
Get to know Richmond more deeply. Consider reading Richmond’s Unhealed History by Ben Campbell.
Get to know the importance of the church being embedded in a city. Consider reading Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric Jacobsen.
Get to know the importance of cities for the spread of the Gospel. Consider reading Loving the City by Tim Keller.
Seek to understand our culture and time in history. Consider reading How (Not) to be Secular by James K Smith.
These are potential practices not mandates or requirements. They are also just a handful of ways to get started.
Redeemer family, I love you and I am learning to love our place and time. Let’s practice our context together.
In the Father’s love,
