My wife and I the other day were looking around some interesting ‘youtube’ documentaries, and we came across one that was titled “The Holiest Places on Earth.” It peaked my interest and we watched about an hour of it. Top on the list of holiest places was a monastery on an island in Greece. It was built centuries ago; was constructed multi-stories high on a crazy rock (to this day engineers are amazed how they did it a few hundred years ago); and is overlooking the Aegean Sea. There are no roads to get in – no airports to land there. There is absolutely no internet, cell phones, grocery stores, markets, no visitors allowed —- there is NOTHING but small rooms to live in, gardens that are cultivated to produce the basic food that the monks eat for their 2 very simple meals per day, and chapels where they gathered for worship. The area is gorgeous, but the life is about as simple as you can get. They are at full capacity all the time and there is a long waiting list of applicants who want to get in. And once you are there — after a three year “trial” run… you can stay for the rest of your life, and most of them do. And what do they do???? Pray and Worship – non-stop. They do not have entertainment or activities outside of praying and worshiping and gardening.
I pondered why anyone would want to move away from the rest of the world and isolate themselves. At first glance it all seems so very noble. A lifestyle like this would tend to keep most of us out of trouble… at least I think so. Is this what God wants from us? Insulation and Isolation?
This Sunday I will be teaching from the 4th of what we call the “Christology Hymns” of the New Testament finding out who Christ really is. This week it is very short but amazing — 1 Timothy 3:14 -16. Spend some time reading and contemplating this before worshiping with your church family. But I will be spending time on how the Lordship of Christ (Christology) changes the behavior of the Church. This passage links together the person of Christ with the conduct of the believer. 1 Timothy 3:14 begins by saying… “I am writing you these instructions…” Then in vs 15 it says “this is how you ought to conduct yourselves…” One version calls it “the ‘mystery’ of godliness.”
Come prepared this Sunday. I will be reminding us of the power of all four of the Christology hymns, what they mean to the Church, and how this all fits into the grand story of God.
See you Sunday
