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.
Grace has much to say about these things, but Grace encompasses more than sin and forgiveness and post-death destinies. Grace is the beginning, middle, and end of the biblical story. In John 1:16, Jesus said, “out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” Now I don't really know what that means. It's kind of confusing, but it seems to imply Grace is the start of the story, the point of the story, the theme of the story, and the end of the story.
Throughout his letters Paul describes the power of Grace actively at work in the details and particulars of life and hardship and difficulties and relationships. Grace is a dynamic force in other words in the real-life stuff we deal with. So, Paul had some sort of weakness in his body. Literally some kind of weakness, brokenness, something or other in his actual body. Some think it was bad eyesight. Others think he had a bad leg, and he walked a certain way. Maybe he had a proclivity toward depression or discouragement, so it was emotional or psychological. Or some other kind of persistent Frailty plagued his mind or his body or his circumstances and the point is he was burdened by this pain. So, we read in our reading, he earnestly prayed that God would heal him by removing this, “thorn in his flesh”, as he calls it in our passage, but God didn't heal him. God didn't heal the Apostle Paul of this thorn in his flesh. I think it's good to pause here. If all this Grace talk feels nice and churchy, but its tad bit removed from reality. We are now standing at a door that leads into the real lives we actually live in this broken and fallen world. Paul experienced pain and he prayed fervently for it to be healed, but it wasn't. Now who of us sitting here can't relate to that?
Certainly, the Garden of Eden was not some place where Adam and Eve strolled around going, oh my gosh look how pretty that tree is, I'm so sick of looking at that! There's none of that. There's a sense of renewal and growth and they worked with their hands. They took care of things. It seems to me the future involves discovery and learning and working. The Bible calls it reigning with God. The perishable will put on the imperishable as in 1 Corinthians 15, but I don't see anything in the Bible to indicate we instantly get a brand-new character, and all the crud Gets zapped out. Again, maybe that's what happens, but since that's where we're heading it makes more sense to me to start now. And perhaps, some seem to think so, who we are becoming and who we will be when all is said and done is part of our offering of worship to God. We offer him the life that we have lived and the person that we have become. God the Holy Spirit at work in us to form his character in us is preparation for an eternity with him. Life before death matters. What we read, what we watch, how we spend our time, who we become and are becoming, life is the practice field for eternity. Heaven before we die, and Jesus is our example.
I suppose in some isolated Chambers at Nassau or Space X, gravity is not currently at work. But in nearly every other square inch of this planet, if I throw a ball up into the air it will come back down. Or if I jump out of an airplane without a parachute the fall might be fine, but the landing will be a tad messy, because gravity is present and working everywhere. And in a similar fashion God is present and working everywhere. I wonder if we believe this. Everywhere we go, every single day, every single moment of every single day, God is already there. And he's already at work bringing the reality of his Kingdom to those who inhabit those spaces. And if we are his follower then our primary vocation, if you don't like vocation insert job, if you don't like job insert calling. Our primary vocation is to be his agent and Ambassador in those spaces where we go. Verses 5 and 11 of our passage, Moses the servant of the Lord who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt. Servants are sent to do things for the one they serve and a life well-lived is one spent in service to something bigger than self, bigger than success, bigger than comfort, bigger than safety. A life well-lived is one poured out in service to God and the work of his kingdom. And of course, we still do our jobs and build our careers and go to school and raise our families and celebrate along the way as much as possible. But we do all this remembering that as followers of Jesus our primary vocation, job, calling, is to serve God and be about his kingdom work right where we are.
Believe It or Not prisoners had to finance at least a portion of their incarceration. They had to pay for it. So, they needed money to buy food and clothes and other supplies or they went hungry, and they got cold, and as you can imagine nobody really cared. So The Philippian Church sent Paul money and maybe some other gifts. And they sent them with a man named Epaphroditus, who traveled from Philippi to Rome, found the Apostle Paul and delivered these gifts. And Paul was thrilled, and he was thankful that they showed him their Love by providing for his practical needs. And he says in verse 14, by doing this, he says this marvelous thing, “they share in his troubles.” And once again we can see, and we can feel, Paul's love, and Paul's connection with the people in this church. Relationship, connection, partnership in the work of the kingdom. And it reminds us that this thing called church, this thing we do, is not a machine. It's not a program. It is not a weekly event. And it is not a building. Church is people connected to God and to each other through Jesus Christ. It is about relationship. It's about togetherness. It's about using this phrase, “sharing in each other's troubles.” It's about caring for one another. It's about investing in each other's lives. It's about journeying together on this adventure with God. In a word church is family. Certainly, an imperfect family and in all sorts of ways a dysfunctional family, but still family.
But all that said, Paul's real passion, just like my professors many years ago, was never merely to inform his readers, but to transform them. His interest was not that they and we would know our Bibles, important as that is, but that they and we would know that, using words from Oz Guinness; “Spirituality for the follower of Christ is a matter of a different world, with a different reality, different energies, different possibilities, and different prospects.”
The goal is not to know our Bibles, but to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God whatever our circumstance. Or in the words of Philippians 1:27, “Whatever happens conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live it out in the daily grind of your everyday lives.” See the words in these Bibles that we look at, read, and cherish, are inspired by God, to inspire us and to empower us to live as his people no matter the situation we are in. And one way we live as God's people in this unhinged world is by experiencing his peace regardless of the turmoil and regardless of the tough circumstances we might be facing. Verse 6 of Philippians 4, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Now just sort of contemplate the last few days, contemplate the world, contemplate your life. The Apostle Paul says to not be anxious about anything. Here's my response, “Are you serious Paul? You losing it there buddy?”