history lessons

Some people just like to study. That's me.  Two weeks at home with my 8th grade son, and I am back into studying quadratic expressions and equations with great gusto.  I think I've worked harder than Nathan has this past week on studying Algebra and factoring polynomials.  I've been teaching Nathan from home since his injury/sickness, and he can't remember the last time he's so thoroughly covered a math chapter.  I gave him the chapter 8 test today, and I think I was more excited about his readiness than he was!

While we were home last Monday around the house, I took great interest as the television began to report the election of a new pope in Rome.  It brought back another time of study for me that has stuck with me over the past decade.

Ten years ago, I was teaching junior highers and high schoolers on Sunday mornings at church.  Over and over again as a youth director, I would get questions from students about Church history.  "What is the difference between the various denominations?  When did they split?", "What were the Crusades?", "What was the Reformation?", "What does the Catholic Church believe?", and on and on.

I had never learned about Church History as a kid growing up in a Protestant church, but I grew really interested in getting a better understanding of what happened between the Book of Acts and  the 21st century.  I picked up a book on the History of Christianity and took copious notes through the sections:  the roots of Christianity, Church and Empire, Christian Empire, conversion of Europe, Crusades to Renaissance, the Reformation, Enlightenment and Revival, Mission and Revolution, and the Global Church.

This past Monday, as I watched  and listened to the new pope, Pope Francis I, I dug out all my notes from that period.  A decade ago, at the end of studying that book on Church History, and after writing dozens of pages of notes, I concluded with a short paper on the 5 themes that I saw run throughout Church History:

1.  God has a plan of redemption and has continued to work despite human's fallenness and the circumstances found in the world.  

2.  God has continued to bring His Kingdom through people who are in a love relationship with Christ; people who are devoted to Him in a personal relationship and devoted to His Word.  

3.  God works through people who have His heart for the poor and oppressed and who serve.  Seeking justice for the sick, marginalized, forgotten, weak are key in the way the Spirit has moved throughout the history of the Church.

4.  Power is a problem over and over again throughout Church history.  Those in power have repeatedly abused power and forgotten God and the poor.

5.  Wealth is a problem over and over again throughout Church history.  Those with wealth have repeatedly become inward-focused and have forgotten God and the poor.  

I don't remember a lot of the facts of what I studied through that book on Church History.  But I do remember reading over and over again, across the span of centuries, about the centers of religious power vs. the faith communities on the fringes who humbly and sacrificially loved and served Christ and neighbor.  Repeatedly, the centers of religious power would oppress, war, collapse while God's Spirit would move through the remnant of those who were devoted to His Word, to compassion for the least of these, and to spiritual disciplines that kept them in a close personal, obedient, love relationship with Jesus.  It was such a stark pattern time and time again.

I am prayerful for this pope who is known for his devotion to Christ, his humility, and his compassion for the marginalized.  I'm hopeful that in his position of religious power, He will steward his leadership in such a way to call the whole Church back to Jesus and His way of acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.