One of my new favorite preachers was explaining that the Ascension was a great thing, because Jesus' bodily absence from one location, resulted in His presence world-wide for every believer through the Holy Spirit. When one is spirit-filled, one is truly charismatic. "Charisma" means spirit-filled. He began talking about what bodies of believers looked like when they were truly "spirit-filled"--they were filled with love and grace towards one another and towards their neighbors. He said that, in the PCA tradition, there was a moniker--TR--which meant "truly reformed." He said that these churches which focused so much on doctrine tended to be "mean." He said that, while doctrine is obviously important, he wanted their church to be TC (truly charismatic), not TR (truly reformed). I knew that he was right--churches which focus so much on doctrine do tend to be mean-spirited and judgmental. However, I hadn't focused on why until I was listening to PZ this morning.
Zahl was talking about Jesus' teachings which were antithetical to Judaism. I had always thought that Jesus was killed, because he claimed to be God. I knew also that he angered the Pharisees by pointing out their legalism. But, Jesus went farther. Jesus actually said that His teachings superseded those of Moses. We know how venerated Moses was in the time of Second Temple Judaism. (In fact, in this writer's opinion, the reason that God refused to let Moses go into to the Promised Land for a seemingly minor infraction was so that the Jews would know that Moses was a sinner, so that they wouldn't worship Moses.) Jesus said: "Moses said, but I now say." This would have infuriated the Jews.
In fact, this infuriates all of us who focus on concepts, rather than people. Zahl illustrated this through Jesus' teaching on the Sabbath--"the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath." In other words, man trumps concept. The concept of the Sabbath, and the Law, is trumped by man's needs. (Remember the story of King David eating the ceremonial bread, i.e., his needs trumped those of the Jewish tradition. So, this idea is present in the OT, but just not as explicit as in the NT.)
Zahl gave a wonderful example of his college friend who headed various action groups focused on helping people, i.e., he loved the concept of helping the needy and disenfranchised. But when Zahl desperately needed a ride from this friend, he declined to do it. I realized that I had been guilty for so many years, and still am, for elevating ideas over people. In other words, I would focus more on the truth of doctrine, than on loving people. When Jesus turned the tables, and elevated man over the Law, over the sacrificial system, over man's religion, He was killed. It's plain to see what got Jesus killed. Other people claimed to be God, but they weren't killed. It was Jesus' attack on what man held to be his road to righteousness that got Him killed. It's a lot easier to focus on externalities, rather than internalities. It's a lot easier to focus on keeping the Law, rather than looking into one's heart and trying to discern why one doesn't love one's family members or neighbors. But, it is only the internal heart-change that actually brings one into union with God.
So, I'm praying that I will become more and more TC, and less and less TR.
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