Narrow Way with Steve Phillips Silent Sharing
Sammy is quiet. Sammy just listens. Talk, talk, talk; listen, listen, listen.
Sammy rides the Sunday Carousel. Round and round he goes smiling silently.
Babylonian hierarchy of authoritarian rule does not invite mutuality of brotherly equality. Passive observation of ritual prescribed by custodians is all that is expected. Programs are fixed from the top down without solicitation or participation. Consumers are served up a menu of the custodians’ preparation.
Passive observation of ritual ceremonies is not the NT reality of the priesthood of all believers [1 Peter 2:5,9]. Having equal access to the Throne with each actively participating to build up one another is given lip-service to by some, but rarely practiced by any. Why? The custodian is terrified by it.
His fear is that he may become irrelevant to the Church shrine. Recognition and dominion in his petty kingdom may begin to slip through his desperate grip. The pride of life will never allow him to actually practice NT directives. The distinction of being above and in charge of the Church shrine and those under his authority holds sway in his heart. He must rule and direct and control; he is the custodian.
So, Sammy sits and listens. How could someone like Sammy have anything worthwhile to contribute anyway? Sammy is not a custodian: he is unlearned, uninitiated: he’s not in charge; he’s not one of “us.”
“The king said to him, ‘Have we appointed you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?’” -2 Chronicles 25:16. “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? And they cast him out” –John 9:34. “As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching” -Acts 4:1,2.
But the enforcement of Babylonian hierarchy is not the Pattern of Christ. 1 Corinthians 14 is: “Pursue love, especially that you may prophesy. One who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. I wish that you all would prophesy. What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation; let all things be done for edification.
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted” -1 Corinthians 14:1,3,5,26,29-31.
This is participatory fellowship that is the NT norm. Passive observation of the custodian’s performance, ritual, and ceremony is Babylonian, but not Christian. What characterized NT gatherings?
“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” –Hebrews 10:24,25. We are to encourage and stimulate one another to love and good works when we assemble: not Share Silently.
Gathering is to be participatory. It is mutual. Each one has something to contribute to the encouragement and building up of one another in love. We gather purposefully with the intent of being a blessing to others. True Christian gathering is quite in contrast to meeting together in order to get, to gain for self, to build up myself. “Treat one another as more important than yourself” –Philippians 2:3.
“But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” –Ephesians 4:15,16. Every member’s function is vital to the life and service in Christ’s body, the church.
“We…the whole body…every joint…each individual…building itself up:” This is the “one another” dynamic of NT gathering. Everyone has something to contribute. Each member’s participation is necessary if the body is to be built up in love. There is no such thing as Silent Sharing in the NT.
And it is commanded. It is not optional. No substitutes accepted. No rationalizations are approved.
And Sammy’s Sunday morning program fails on nearly every account. Babylon’s legacy has injected its evil virus into entire generations of passive, irresponsible, self-seeking consumers at man-made religious shrines. And so Sammy sits silently and shares in what is dished up to him: Silent Sharing.