God is always at work rebuilding shalom. He is healing the sick. He is feeding the hungry. He's bringing Comfort to the lonely. He is caring for the Foreigner. He is freeing prisoners. He is soothing the pains and the scars that life in a broken world brings to the people in it. God's mission is not merely a conceptual one. It's not merely theoretical. It's not merely a new philosophy to be discussed and debated in the halls of the learned, and those with the luxury of time and energy that think about and discuss such things. God's mission is a hands-on felt need, tangible dirt under your fingernail’s kind of mission. Where he is addressing not just the spiritual damage that sin has done, but the physical and emotional damage as well. And we have the opportunity to join with him to address those needs as an extension of Jesus's presence here on earth. Jesus himself invites us and reminds us that whatever we do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of his, we are doing it for him as Matthew 25 reminds us. So, we engage in a lot of what we call around here, shalom building opportunities, where we are working to promote this universal flourishing.
Christian formation is character formation. It's about growing in the fruit of the spirit, not just trying hard to do the fruit of the spirit. Let me ask you something, how is the holy spirit forming your character to be like Jesus these days? What is the spirit of God seeking to cultivate in you in terms of the fruit of his spirit? And a pretty good way to draw back the curtain on our own formation and peek into who we are, is to sit down with potentially disruptive questions, and just let them work on us a bit. Not to feel shame, not to feel guilty, but just simply to let some things percolate and see what surfaces. What am I talking about? I'm talking about questions like this, what rises in me, and at times flows out of me, when I don't get what I want? Or this one, what activates the volcanoes within me? Am I learning to recognize my false self when it starts talking or acting or posing? Or this one, what is my relationship with anger? Am I growing in the art of encouragement? Am I growing as a forgiver of those who have hurt me? Or how about this one, what good and beautiful character quality is the holy spirit currently crafting in me?
One thing I can almost promise us, almost with certainty, I'm not a fan of certainty, but almost with certainty, I can promise every one of us this, that if we take the time to tune in and listen it is highly likely the spirit of God wants to craft some good and beautiful character quality in us, that is not yet fully developed. Do you know what that is? Can you point in some direction toward it, even if you can't name it specifically? Let me put it in kind of goofy ways, what is the “da Wan” God wants me to toddle toward as it relates to my character formation? Where is the spirit inviting me out of the chair and out of the shallows and into deeper water?
Your intentional presence and mine in these gatherings is our way of remembering God is the audience, we aren't. This is for him not you or me. This is about him not you or me. Or to get back into the football analogy, which I don't like using football analogies, but it's here. We, you and I, are the players in this Gathering. And when we come to this Gathering as a player not a fan we soon find out how big of a player God is in these gatherings.
The Hebrew word for worship literally means, work or serve, it's not a passive thing. In the words of one commentator worship means, and these are his words, “to expend considerable energy and intensity in a task or function.” Think about this, have you ever left here on Sunday exhausted, because you expended considerable energy and intensity in what we're doing? Using the language of this author, “to worship God, is to expend considerable energy and intensity honoring and adoring him in this Gathering.” Note the intentionality that's embedded in Psalm 100, “worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs, enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise His name.” In short, be intentional, show up, engage your whole self, in worshiping our good and great King.