Jesus as our Core Value

Core Value One: Jesus Christ.

I realize that it may seem odd to say that Jesus Christ is a core value. After all Jesus was both an historical figure and is, at the heart of our faith, the risen and reigning Lord. It might appear to be more appropriate to say that faith in Jesus, or following Jesus is a core value. However, in the end it is the person of Jesus Christ; his preexistence, birth, life, death, resurrection, reign and return that are at the heart of who we are. To limit our core value to faith in or following of Jesus limits how Jesus' existence can impact our life together.

Each of our statements contains Jesus or Christ language. Such repetition demonstrates that we believe that Jesus Christ matters. We believe that this person who lived, died and was raised more than 2,000 years ago still has something for us today. Even in the face of those who have tried to limit Jesus to being no more than a mystic first-century wisdom teacher or advocate of social reform we profess that he offers us more than either good advice or a new social ethic (though he does offer us both).

We do so because as Presbyterians we profess the mysterious orthodox understanding that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (think of in-fleshed) in our midst; fully human and fully divine. In other words if we want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If we want to know who we are to be, look at Jesus.

We do so because as Presbyterians we profess that in Jesus Christ salvation has come to the world. The Bible tells the story of Jesus in which he understood his life and death to be a fulfillment of God's plan to save all of creation. He died on the cross in order that we might find full life; that we might find forgiveness; that we might find a new relationship with the living God. This salvation changes us and changes the world.

Having Jesus as our primary core value is not only of central importance in defining who we are for ourselves, but for the world. In his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball quotes a young man who says, "I would be totally into going to a church if the church revolved more around the person of Jesus than around the personality of the pastor." In other words people in the world around us are hungering for a spiritual relationship with God (or as some put it "a higher power") and are open to finding that relationship in and through Jesus. By keeping Jesus as our core value then we open the door for others to encounter and be encountered by the living God….thus changing their lives (as well as ours) forever.

As the PCUSA Book of Order puts it, "Christ calls the Church into being, giving it all that is necessary for its mission to the world, for its building up, and for its service to God." (G-1.0100.b) My friends Jesus Christ is our first core value, above all others, because he is not only our hope, but the hope of the world, that God is at work forgiving, reconciling and saving us and the whole of creation.

Peace, John