A vision for bread: a Now and Not Yet church.
Jesus announced - and demonstrated - that the Kingdom of God had come. And yet, on the night before his death, Jesus prepared his disciples for a reality they had not expected: the Kingdom had come, but it had not yet come in its fullness. It is a tension we still live in 2000 years later.
At bread, we want to live faithfully in the overlap: praying boldly and expecting the supernatural power of the Kingdom to break into the present, while refusing to deny the very real suffering, disappointment and loss of the world we still inhabit.
So, how do we live with expectation and disappointment, miracles and unanswered prayers, joy and grief? The heart of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in John “Remain in me.” Correct theology matters, but theology alone cannot hold us. We make our home in Jesus, as he makes his home in us — and from that abiding place come the love, joy, peace and power we need to live as people of the Now and the Not Yet.
NB - serendipitously, the Lectio 365 app is working through the Remain in me verses in John 15 this week. Follow along there too!
By Hannah Flint
A vision for bread: a Biblical church.
From the beginning, Jesus' Church has been rooted in the Scriptures. This is seen no more clearly than in Stephen's biblical defense of the fledging Christian community in Acts 7.
At bread, we aspire to be a Biblical church. This means, amongst other things, never reducing God to a particular geographical place; never reducing him to a man-made cause; never shirking the reality of our human sin and weakness; and always having our eyes fixed on Jesus. To be a Biblical church is not just about teaching and interpreting the Bible well, it's about having it written on our hearts - so that we, like Stephen, might look just like the Jesus whom the Scriptures reveal.
By Ed Flint