Seems to me Jesus, by his example, prefers a table at the back of the restaurant. He prefers the obscure. The small places. The small people. The small things. So, he works his plan through a carpenter named Joseph. A teenager named Mary. Some Shepherds working in the fields. A little town called Bethlehem. An atmosphere of poverty, powerlessness, and oppression. He prefers the simplicity and the humility of a baby.
These are the actors and the factors in the Advent story. Not a random or meaningless group of details. Rather this is the Jesus way and God did it this way because this is who he is, and this is how he works. He is found in the small places. He dwells in the unspectacular. He sneaks in the back door. He prefers the shadows. We find God on the back roads, off the beaten path. So, we find God in children. We find him in the elderly. We find him in the Forgotten. We find him amongst the hurting. He's a community theater God, not a Broadway God, we might say. Big and flashy and loud and impressive are not his way. He can be found there, but often the big and the flash and the loud are distractions that keep us from seeing and hearing and encountering the humble God, who puts on flesh and shows us God's heart.
This Faith thing is a we thing not just a me thing. But today we remember that Jesus breathed on each of his disciples. John, Peter, Simon, Matthew and all the rest were filled with His Spirit. Each had a transformational encounter with God and ongoing experiences with him for the rest of their lives. Their lives were never the same. Everyday life was never the same because the Holy Spirit now inhabited each of them. He was at work in and around them.
So if you are a follower of Jesus, he has breathed His Spirit into you. And when Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us we experience God. And the key word is experience. The key emphasis is experience. This isn't the transaction in triplicate form. You know sign here, initial there. The spirit lives in you. You interact with him. He speaks to you and you to him. He teaches you. He reveals things to you. You hear his voice. In The Bible or through another person. He nudges you to take action. He stirs in you when you stray off the path. See, we're talking about an interactive relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, who right now lives in you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Yes we received him when we first believed and when we first asked Jesus into our lives, but we're not talking about just one experience. We're not talking about an experience with God back then. There are fresh experiences with the Spirit, in the course of everyday life, that without a doubt, hear this really loud and clear, without a doubt, are usually small and unspectacular. Not wild or wacky kinds of things, but real experiences, real encounters.
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit judges the world and the verdict is guilty and that has implications for the particulars of our lives here at the end of 2024. If Jesus and his way, and His Kingdom, truth, and goodness are true north, the way things are supposed to be. The way God intended them to be. The way God wants them to be. Then the world, that is wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment is morally, intellectually, ethically, and spiritually headed south. When the New Testament uses the term world, there's a whole lot of meaning packed up in that. When it uses the term world it often means, maybe even usually means, that the world and its systems are bankrupt. They're not slightly off course, they are completely off course. Instead of heading toward true north, they are heading toward false South. In every single way, a train bound for nowhere, literally. And the Holy Spirit's job is to alert the world that it's traveling this train bound for nowhere.
Sometimes we wish God spoke more often and more clearly to us about the specifics of our lives. What major should we take in college? Is this the right job? Is this the right marriage partner? Should we move to a bigger house? What President should we vote for? Should I retire? What should I do after I retire? And a million other particulars that we might wish God would just stand in front of us and say, “Do this and don't do that.” But here's the thing, the Holy Spirit's primary goal in guidance is not to give us the answers, but rather to shape us into people who follow and honor God even when the questions remain unanswered. His goal is not to give us specific guidance in every situation. His goal is to guide us to become a certain kind of person who is mature in the character of Christ, so we don't need his specific guidance in every situation. Or put it this way, we don't need to constantly consult the “All Trails App”, because we are an experienced and mature hiker, and we know where the trail is even when it's not obvious.
A scandal in the Bible is something that causes us to stumble, to trip. A scandal in the Bible then is a rock sticking up ever so slightly, in the middle of the trail, and we don't see it, but our left foot clips it as we walk by, and we stumble, and we might even fall down.
1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul writing, “…. we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block, a scandal, to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Christ crucified, a scandal, scandalous to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles, why? Because no King, no one with power, no one of importance, no great leader, no one claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be from God, claiming to be God. No one would die willingly, on a despicable Roman cross. But love the way God does, it is scandalous.
Christian hope is bound to the resurrection of Jesus. When you read the Bible on hope, you find hope very close to language about the resurrection.
1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…..”
The New Testament's rallying cry is, Remember The Resurrection. It's a good word of encouragement. Kind of a good thing to say to one another, “hey remember the resurrection.” Remember God raised Jesus from the dead. Remember his power brought him back to life. Remember that the God we follow has that kind of power. Remember the God we follow is greater than the sin, death, decay and all of the old that author such horrific pain in this world. Remember the God who raised Jesus from the dead is in charge of this world, and he is moving this world toward his will and purpose. And one day he's going to finish the job and all will be well. Remember The Resurrection.
Matthew 13:31–32, “Jesus told them another parable: “” The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.””
There are a whole bunch of things we could say about this short parable. But one will suffice for our purposes today, and it's this: when flawed and broken people take action in The Power of Jesus, for the sake of his kingdom, however small or insignificant that action may seem, God starts to move. And in ways I don't know how to describe, because I don't fully understand, the Kingdom activates, often slowly, often imperceptibly. We can't see what God is doing. Just like we can't see all that is happening under the ground when the Mustard Seed gets planted. But as God moves, good fruit eventually begins to emerge. And again, it may take a long time to even notice, and we may never notice. But as God's kingdom is established and this good fruit begins to grow, it extends in many directions and as it extends it impacts people. It rescues people. It redeems people. And it changes people. This little mustard seed that sometime in the past was put in the ground by flawed and broken people eventually becomes a kind of shelter. A kind of home. A place of restoration. And that's how the Christian story keeps moving through history toward its ultimate culmination. God moves through the small actions we take in his name and the goodness, and the grace and the truth of his kingdom expands. And as it does, it impacts people, it rescues people, it changes people. And many of us who are here today have a story to tell of how God did this in us and is still doing this in us.
We pursue relationships with those with different experiences, backgrounds, opinions, and life circumstances. Our differences create space for Jesus to unite us in Him. A unified community of un-likes proclaims good news to a fracturing world.
In Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 14, Paul says, “for he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility......His purpose was to create in himself one new Humanity out of the two, thus making peace."
When we think of community at Oak Hills, and walking that road together toward life in the Kingdom, we're talking about people who are different in every way. Unlikes, coming together and being the church in and through Jesus Christ. The walls of separation and division, constructed by attitudes like, "well I want to be with people like me", or "I want to worship with people like me", or "I want to do church with people like me." These walls get leveled by the real presence and power of King Jesus in our midst.
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.