May this God of hope help us be lanterns of hope, in the world that we live, in the circumstances we are in, with the people we interact with as we go through Advent, that we may be lanterns of hope. That we may be people whose words and lives and attitudes and actions convey to a hurting world that there is hope and his name is Jesus. And this hope is there no matter what we're facing, no matter what is happening in our world or in our nation, no matter how fragile things are, no matter how disoriented the world is, that we might be lanterns of overflowing hope in this hope starved world.
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.” Ephesians 4:31
Today’s verse is about pivoting away from whatever degree of anger is in us, whatever form it takes, whatever level it’s at, toward a new Kingdom way of being, responding, reacting that is far more beautiful and good. Today is about the action that you and I can take to open a space for the Holy Spirit and to start transforming the anger within us.
When you think of anger, where is it in you? How does it show itself? And maybe the most important question of all, what is the story behind your anger? Do you know it? Does anyone who loves Jesus and is near you know it?
One reason why the people of God are called to be mature is because our vocation, yours and mine in this world, is to be Jesus's representatives. To demonstrate the goodness of his way to proclaim the gospel, through our deeds and words, to show the world what it looks like to love God and to love others.
The Bible describes a hard-hearted person in Matthew 13:15, This is Jesus speaking, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes."
I have just an observation, you can decide it's not true, but to me it has been. The longer we are Christians, the more certain we become, the more we nurture anger and think it righteous, the higher our risk of becoming hard hearted. And throughout the Bible Gods people have often had the hardest hearts.
Did God really say you can't do this, or you can't do that? This kind of thought gets in our minds and then we nurture the thought. We cultivate the thought and so begins the process of eventually firing God and replacing him with me, ourselves, and off the rails we go to live happily ever after, or maybe not. So let me just bring this down to us again. I want to keep warning us to not let this stir up in us anger with finger pointed to some group out there, that is absolutely fruitless, if not outright uncchristian.The thing for us to do is draw this onto ourselves.
So let me show you what I mean. I am at the center of futile thinking. At the center of futile thinking, in other words, is the me and everything the me wants. I want to do what I want to do. I know best. I think this is good. I think that is right. I want to do whatever I feel like doing. What's true for me is true for me, even if it's not actually true. If I think it's true or want it to be true or think it should be true, then it is true enough for me even if it is not objectively or actually true according to reality as established by God. And if all of this is starting to sound just a tad bit absurd, then I am communicating very clearly because it is.
The politics of the world matters; right, left, Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive. But the church is a community of those whose first identity is who they are in the Trinity and to the Trinity. So, our first passion and first agenda and first focus is not right, left, progressive, conservative, Democrat, Republican. It is kingdom. It is the way of Jesus. Ephesians 4 and verse 15, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
Immaturity is one of the glaring problems facing the church in our country right now. Immaturity. Christian immaturity. Christians acting immature. There are far too many who claim to be Christian, standing in their highchairs with nothing on but a diaper, demanding dessert right here and right now. Christians who have not and are not, allowing the gospel to penetrate their pathologies and transform them into a new person who increasingly thinks, feels, acts, reacts, chooses, and responds the way Jesus would if he were in their shoes and in their situation.
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