People of the Way

            

Pretty long time ago, which was for the occasion of my 20^th birthday, it was quite special that some friends from my university’s Christian student movement visited my hometown and stayed at my parents place. Their gift to me at a time was tea set that they have hand painted by themselves. The tea set was in purple, and on each cup and plate they have written a Bible verse with gold color, adding some illustrations. The one that spoke to me most at a time was with heart painted on it and these words: “The God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples built by human hands, but in your heart” (based on Acts 17, 24). It was the time when a shift was starting to happen in my understanding and I realized that we ourselves are the living temple of God. I also had studied the Bible enough to start to see that some things in the traditional church do not match the original gospel message of the Bible.

A recent happening to experience that we are God’s temple was at our women’s group planning meeting just before Christmas break. There were only three of us there – me, our host, and a precious new sister who joined us some time ago. She has been a wonderful testimony, turning to God with sincere heart and seeking Him seriously as well as already serving Him with joy whenever opportunity presents itself. At this meeting, she shared some serious spiritual struggles she had been having. We prayed for her strongly in the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our host also had the prompting that she felt was not from her, but from God. She believed we need to baptize this sister here and now and seal her deal with Jesus. I believe the authority for doing that also was coming from the fact that she has been in ministry for many years in different countries, and has received a call from God to make disciples wherever she goes. There was agreement among us that this is the right thing to do and it comes down to baptism right now. Preparations were made upstairs at the bathroom to baptize this sister in the bathtube. Our host did the baptism, as I was taking pictures and video. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2. Corinthians 5, 17), I said afterwards and read a longer explanation of that verse that I happened to have on my phone.

It was a bit unexpected turn of the events that day, but isn’t Christian life supposed to be exciting and full of adventures? We went for planning meeting and ended up baptizing someone. “I like this kind of planning meetings,” I later on told our host, “not just planning, but already doing something!” Isn’t it wonderful to flow freely in the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we fulfill our roles to be the living temple of God? The early Christians were doing just that, and they were not at a time called Christians yet or having cross as their symbol: their symbol was a fish and they called themselves “the people of The Way.” Some of that original dynamism of early church was lost some centuries later when church became institutionalized. But it is possible to go back to that and to live the gospel, to exercise our authority as believers, to break bread of Holy Supper at home, to baptize someone, and more. I like the episode in the “The Bible” TV series when the converted Saul speaks to the high priest Caiaphas: “Jesus has washed me clean. There is no need any more for sacrifices, no need for the temple, and no need for you.” Each believer is a priest for God: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1.Peter 2, 9)