Incarnate 2007: Session 3 - Tony Campolo

I love Tony Campolo. I love his passion. I love his compassion. He loves God and he love the poor.

He is now the other side of 70, but still preaches like a young man, getting so excited that it is dangerous to sit in the front row! But his enthusiasm is infectious. The passion is contagious. The prophetic challenge is uncomfortable. The insights are fantastic.

Once again the notes are in the “read more” section, but if you don’t want to read all of those here is a summary:

Tony was speaking on us literally being the body of Christ. The only Jesus that people will see is us. We are Jesus for people. To be this incarnation of Christ to the world, we need to let the Holy Spirit invade us. God is always with us, but has he invaded us? When we go to serve and love the poor, the downtrodden, & the oppressed we don’t go as others social work agencies go, but we go with the incarnate presence of Christ.

One of the fascinating things that he talked about concerned the purpose of miracles. He said the miracles of Jesus weren’t to convince people. Power never convinces people. The miracles didn’t convince people when they saw Jesus doing the miracles; Jesus said that if people didn’t believe in Him anyway, miracles wouldn’t change their mind. The purpose of the miracles was as a demonstration of His LOVE. All the miracles are an expression of HIS LOVE. That is what will lead people into the Kingdom, and that is what we are to - live out LOVE in the world.

[I think it is worth saying here, that Campolo was clear that he believes in miracles, and I think he saying that they are something that God is still doing ... he was just making the point about the purpose of the miracles, and that our job is to LOVE...]

I need to do some more thinking on that, and thumbing through the Bible, but it does make some sense as I scan in my mind through some of the gospel narratives. What do you think?

Tags: Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Missional Church, Tony Campolo, Incarnation, Miracles

Session 3 - Tony Campolo

There is little doubt that Christ always was.
There was never a time that Christ was not.
There is no point in time and history that Christ didn’t exist.

But 2000 years ago, this eternal Christ became flesh: incarnate.
People with spiritual discernment saw the internal Christ. The disciples eventually realised that they had seen the Father if they had seen the Christ.

Eventually Jesus breaks the news that is having to leave them. But in Jn 14 - “don’t be troubled” … He has to leave them to come again, to live in the disciples.

But difference between Jesus being with us, and in us. He is always with us.
BIG question: has Christ invaded you? to transform you …

Catholic mystics have so much to teach us to pray … not just asking for things. Centering prayer from St. Ignatius.

[Big difference between being still and being quiet.]

We must learn to wait … wait to be invaded by the Holy Spirit … but we often want instantaneous answers … to have someone lay hands on us …
But we must learn to wait for minutes or hours, to be invaded by the Spirit.
Jesus got up early in the morning to pray. All day long he will have people touching him, spiritual power would flow out of him. So he needed to get up early to pray, to be invaded by the Spirit.

But we must be still and wait. Mother Theresa was asked: what do you say? nothing, I listen. What does He say to you? Nothing, he listens.

When you are filled with Christ, you become the body of Christ. When a woman touched Jesus, power went from him. But the same power is in our mortal bodies (Rom 8). We are the body of Christ.

The same Christ that was incarnate in Jesus, is incarnate in us. Christ in us. We are called to be the incarnation of Christ now. Jesus healed people of sickness and disease. He prophesied. That same Jesus wants to be in us. We need to worthy of the calling. That is why we don’t sin … because our body is the temple where the eternal Christ lives. The Holy Spirit is offended when he has to live in the presence of filth.

The only image that people will get of Jesus is what they see in us. We are Jesus for people.

Jn 14 - do the work that Jesus did, but even greater works than I did because I go to the Father…

Not talking about miracles - miracles are not a big thing (we make them a big thing - Jesus said miracles won’t convince people). People will often say, when there is a miracle: “there has to be another explanation”. None of the miracles had any lasting influence, save the resurrection. What happened to Lazarus, after he was raised from the dead? He died. What happened to those who were fed when the food was multiplied to the 5000? They were hungry the next day.

At the wedding of Cana, when the wine had run out. The master of the feast would have been distraught, knowing the obligation to provide a good feast. Jesus saw all this, and turned water into wine, but told his disciples not to tell what he had done. He didn’t do to show off his power, but to express his love. People won’t be led into the kingdom because they are impressed by the power, but because they see our love.

All the miracles are always an expression of his love.

If we become the body of Christ, His love will flow through all of us. We live out LOVE in the world.

“It’s not WHAT we do; it’s the WAY that we do it.”

We do not go as others go, those in social work. We go with an incarnate presence.