fishbowl fellowship.

another boring day at the salt mines. that’s what my Papa always calls the place i work. i’ll stop by my Nana and Papa’s house after work in the evenings occasionally and he’ll ask how the salt mine was that day. it’s one of the myriad sayings he has stored up. i hope i’ll remember them all when he has gone home.

some of you may be aware that i am in a chinese philosophy class this semester. this week we had a long discussion about the golden vs. the silver rule. it was disappointing in the sense that my buddy and i backed the professor into a corner on a position he could not logically defend and though his expression acknowledged his position, he would not relent. anyway, the silver rule is thus: “do not impose on others what you yourself do not want” (Kongzi, Analects 15.24). and if you do not directly recall the golden rule, here it is: “whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them” (Jesus, Matthew 7.12). and without giving you the entirety of the discussion, the conclusion we proposed to the professor was that each rule does not eliminate the possibility of selfish action or even the necessity of the self. we also stated that the rules are each the reverse side of the same coin. my point was that to refrain from doing bad is to do good (silver rule) and to only do good unto others is to refrain from wrong (golden rule). the professor, along with his assertion that the silver rule excluded selfish behavior, tried also to state some neutral, middle ground that was free of good, bad, or self; my friend and i disagreed.

i state that to abstain from all malevolence necessarily means promoting goodness. and promoting goodness means that malevolence must be removed. it seems redundant because it is. fullness of good means absence of malice, regardless of which side of the coin you consider, it is still a coin that represents harmony.

well, thinking on these things reminded me of Philippians 2.3-4: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  and on considering these two sentences i couldn’t help but consider the contrast between true New Testament fellowship (holding all thing as common and breaking bread together and sharing life) with what so many “churches” peddle today as the Christian life. show up Sunday and Wednesday, etc. 

lately, in our little family of believers, we have discussed much the importance of true covenant life and fellowship. and that always makes me think of these words of Paul. one pivotal point in this command is that you cannot consider interests you do not know. how can you put others first who are only pew #5 attendees?

and my next thought was how shallow fellowship can become. oddly, or perhaps quite sensibly, enough, my next thought was of a little glass fishbowl. there is no depth to a fishbowl. it’s shallow. transparent, yet not in the good way. it’s fragile, easily broken. what’s worse is that the only thing that can inhabit one of those little fishbowls is either a little goldfish that soon will die or one of those beta fish that are unintelligent enough to beat themselves senseless or dead if placed beside a mirror. contrast that to the depths of the oceans. the unknown regions deep beyond the reach of the sun’s rays. and consider the creatures that live in the ocean’s vastness. tuna. squid. sharks. whales. incredible.

so what happens to Christ’s bride when kept in a fishbowl. death. infighting and turmoil. sure, it makes a pretty presentation and display, but it prevents anything great or deep or majestic.

pick the analogy apart if you will. i do not mind.

but let me not trap myself in a fishbowl, though it be a comfortable and “safe’ place.

no fishbowl fellowship.

give me the deep and the dangerous even if the current is too strong for me.

i’ve known and am learning just how great my weakness is.