If new creation has any chance of reshaping and remaking us, then we have to do the hard work of listening. And here's the thing. If we are listening to Jesus, we are going to be rattled now and then. Our way is going to be out of alignment with his way now and then. And then we have to choose who to follow.
From Luke 6, let me just rattle it off. Love enemies. Pray for those who mistreat you. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Refuse to use violence to get back at those who've used violence against you. Help the hurting. Be kind to those who are not grateful for your kindness. Be merciful. Judge yourself. Forgive. Let me say this in case it's not obvious yet. New Creation Living is not exclusively owned by any of our political parties. A Christian's priority is their citizenship in God's kingdom.
Our current series is called practicing faith because faith works like a piano. We practice it. It slowly gets into us, and we are gradually trained in how to live with and live under God with increasing trust and confidence in him. But if we don't practice it, it sits there maybe in some way part of us but not a shaping part of us. And yet faith is not meant to be a decoration. Faith is meant to be played. It's meant to be lived.
Prayer begins with his daughters and sons interacting with Their very good Father, being with their very good Father. Imagine if all we did this week, in these in between times is go back to this prayer. And I would encourage this for some of you, if all we did was pray the opening line, “Our Father in heaven”. Our Father, good and loving Father who is right here and right now with me as I go into Raley’s, with me as I search for Buzz and Woody, with me as I do whatever I'm doing. It might surprise some of us how prayer might start to move from being a bore toward being something like a meaningful relationship.
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase the God of the Bible? What's the demeanor of the God who lives in your head? How does he feel about this world? Maybe more personally, how does he feel about you? Don't polish it up. Don't pretty it up when you think, "What does God think about me? How does God feel about me? Does God think about me? Does God feel anything for me?" If you could see his face and survive, what would his face tell you about how he feels about you? What expression is on his face at the mention of your name? Mad, disappointed, frustrated, pity. What emoji would God use when he hears your name; headshake, eye roll, laughter, frown. What adjectives immediately come to your mind when you hear the word God; maybe some of these: holy, distant, righteous, weak, annular, just, powerful, cheery, sinister, impotent, gracious, loving, kind. Question, how about joyous? Is that on the list? Does he laugh? Does his head, if he has a head, throw back when he laughs hard? Does he delight? Does God delight? Does God ever look upon the world? Does God ever look upon the oceans with some measure of, that was a good day. I delight in that. When he sees his cosmic masterpieces, and we've named only a few of them, but when he sees his cosmic masterpieces, is he bored by them now? Has he gotten tired of them? Is your God joyous? Is my God joyous?
Jesus incarnated the way of shalom. He taught us about it. He showed us what it does and how it drastically differs from the ways of this world. See, in the way of shalom, in the way of peace, people love their enemies. They confront violence with love. In the way of shalom, the strong care for the weak. The forgotten are included. The marginalized are valued. The poor are fed. Power is used for good. Reconciliation and restoration replace division and discord. Forgiveness instead of payback. Hope instead of despair. Humility in place of pride, gentleness instead of anger. On and on and on we could go. The Sermon on the Mount is the way of shalom.
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.