You see, whether we realize it or not, we are all living a story. I know some of you in your mind, are in your head just saying, "No, I'm not. I live in the real world.” But you see the real world is a story. The real the real world is a series of connected events and actions by significant characters that are leading to a particular end. You are living a story. The question is, which story are you living?
Is it a fantasy? One that you made up in your head? One that requires you to ignore truth and be blind to the realities around you? Or is it the story that makes sense of reality as it is? Is it the story of God?
Jesus comes though not to abolish the tedium of God's laws, but to actually live them out, to show us what a life lived by God's system under God's government looks like. And not only that, he teaches us the details of how with God's ongoing help, we can live that way.
If I were to give you two words for the role of the prophets, they would be, WAKE UP! Remember, they were a people who were to represent the way of God, the alternative to the systems and cultures of the world, but they like us, continue to believe that their ways were somehow better than God's ways. And as we see not just in the Bible, but in both the world without and our worlds within, the way we live comes with consequences.
Maybe the choices that you've made have screwed up your life. Maybe they've screwed up the lives of others. But regardless of which mistakes that you are carrying today or maybe even running from today, the mistakes that we're trying to ignore, the the mistakes that we're trying to avoid, the good news of the story of the kings of Israel is that no matter how bad the mistake, no matter how poor the decision, no matter how far you or I fall. God does not give up on you. He does not give up on his plans for you. He does not give up on his plans of bringing good into your life. If we would just turn, if we would just change our mind, if we would repent from our rebellion against him and allow him to be the actual king of our life.
The story continues to unfold today as it has for thousands of years. God is creating a community that identifies as God's people and they and he interact, relate, and work together toward the fulfillment of his purposes; land, people, God, place, heaven, earth, co-mingling, interacting, intersecting, roots being set down, and all of this adding up to this demonstration to the world. This is who God is, and this is what life can be like under him. See, this is what church means, what I'm describing. This is what church is. And this is why church matters.
Our service on Sunday was a deep breath from the day-to-day crazy of our lives. Pastor Mike encouraged us to sit in this idea that God's invitation to you to follow him, to trust him, to live in his ways, is immense. It covers quite literally everything.”
“The one who loves fulfills the law.” - Romans 13:18
In Exodus 14:13, Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance that the Lord will bring you today. These Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. You need only to be still.”
Was it Abraham and Sarah's choices that made a nation, a people, a world where a poor teenage Judean girl could answer an angel? Yes, I am the Lord's slave. May it be to me according to your word. Or was it all God acting, directing, intervening? Yes. And yes, God has willed and designed his creation to be partnership. That is something we have to reckon with every day. A covenant includes two parties and that's the world you live in. The story you've received that is not yet finished, that has come and is coming. And the fulcrum of righteousness is partnership, and trust, and passivity is never an option.
What is church about? Why does it matter? Does it matter? What are we attempting to communicate? What are we attempting to say to one another? What are we attempting to say to ourselves? And what are we attempting to say and demonstrate to a hurting world?
There is no one like our God!
But when you think about it for a second, you think about what would have to be true about the world for us all to be walking around naked and feel no shame. What would have to be true about the world? What would have to be true about us for us to live unguarded, unshielded, fully transparent lives with each other? Well it would have to be a world where we were not a threat to each other, where we weren't always trying to manipulate and control each other. It would have to be a world of honor. A world of respect. A world of truth and humility. Not to mention, of course, it would have to be a world with really good weather and completely free of mosquitoes. And when you think about it, you realize that it is actually the perfect phrase to encapsulate the storyteller's opening scene of how God created a world that works. A world of harmony. A world of flourishing. A world where everything is as it should be. In short, it is the perfect phrase to describe this state of being that the biblical authors refer to as shalom, peace, universal flourishing, the way things ought to be.