Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

Loading...

Archives > darren huckey

cityView: in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 06.04.2010 7:59 am

cityView blog series

we began this series with the following introduction:

faith is everywhere. or lack of faith. or a little faith. regardless of which it is, there’s a bigger conversation occurring in our city than just a single church or a single faith perspective. instead of becoming an insular community, we hope that eikon can be a place that listens to & engages in the broader faith conversation in our city.

over the past few weeks of this series, i think we’ve begun to do just that. we’ve poked around in the faith conversation in and around little rock. we’ve turned over a few of the loose rocks. certainly, it hasn’t plunged us into the deeper waters, but we’ve waded in, getting our feet wet.

the conversation continues, though. in just the fledgling stages of this thing called eikon, we hope this series has been an introductory connecting point with the larger community around us. we simply don’t want to be an island church, floating in the waters of ecclesial and social isolation.

we want to continue conversations with people like thomas hudson, who is seeking out an image of jesus that actually does, instead of just says. we’re seeking out more conversations with people like darren huckey, who’s looking past our modern christian notions of god to capture the essence and jewishness of jesus. we’re looking for ways to connect with people like rich wiebe, who is seeking a life filled with deeply abiding love and compassion for others. all of our writers have expressed a unique dimension of the conversation revolving around faith in our city.

certainly, these aren’t the totality of perspectives in our community.

so, we’ll continue to seek people beyond our “four walls” that are trying to figure out if there’s some Thing beyond us or more to life than what we see in front of us. we’ll continue to talk and write and dream and debate and grow and engage the our city.

there’s a broader view in this city, in our community of little rock. our hope and prayer is that this series is only the entry point to engaging those many views.



cityView: darren huckey Posted by Ryan Byrd 05.21.2010 9:18 am

cityView blog series

The Men of the Great Assembly said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah (m.Avot 1:1)

The above quote from the Mishnah (the Oral Law of Judaism) is, in essence, a recapitulation of the words of our Master in Matthew 28:18-20. There are three components: 1) Authority, 2) Discipleship, 3) Observance. Unfortunately, I have to leave this unattended. However, we could write volumes on the parallels of these two passages.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of discovering the Jewishness of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, placing him back into his Jewish (and Biblical) context. It has allowed us to take Jewish passages, such as the one above and help us contextualize the message of our Master. But only recently has this discovery moved from the hypothetical to the tangible. And, as people come to these realizations, there are Messianic groups popping up all over the world.

So, what’s all the fuss? In a nutshell, people are rediscovering the rich Jewish heritage of Jesus and his disciples (including Paul), which point to a more Hebraic context and understanding of the New Testament. And this “new perspective” is freeing people from the paralyzing fear of “legalism” within the body of Messiah. Dallas Willard spoke well when he said:

“Currently we are not only saved by grace; we are paralyzed by it. We find it hard to see that grace is not opposed to effort, but is opposed to earning. Earning and effort are not the same thing. Earning is an attitude, and grace is definitely opposed to that. But it is not opposed to effort.”

In this new paradigm on Jesus and his Apostles there is freedom, and it is transforming lives and I believe it will transform our world. Here are a few things this new understanding is changing. We are realizing:

That Jesus & his Apostles (including Paul) were observant Jews their entire lives, and highly esteemed and lived by the Law of Moses, understanding it in its proper context of guidance for the spiritually resurrected, rather than salvation of the lost.

That Christ’s message of the Kingdom affects not just our theological perspective, but our lifestyle.

There is more to our faith than salvation (spiritual conception).

That the commandments of God (the Law of Moses) are not in opposition to the Gospel or the work of Christ.

That Paul’s gospel is not in opposition to the Law.

That εργων νομου is not equivalent to מיצות.

That the Gospel is more than a creed, or belief system, but a life of repentance and a call to holiness which affects the world around us.

That, as one philosopher said, “We can only possess what we experience.” Hence, living out the biblical expressions of faith actually endear us to a deeper understanding and relationship with the Almighty.

That “living like Jesus” is more than wearing a bracelet. It’s discipleship that makes us want to live like our Master, not an attempt at earning our salvation.