“In a word, what I'm saying is, grow up. Your kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” ~ Matthew 5:48 MSG
The other day I was walking through this room. No one was here, and I was on my way to that kitchen right there to see if anyone had recently had a meeting where there were more sandwiches than people. And as I strolled in here on a food finding mission, it occurred to me that pretty soon people will be in here, slicing, and cutting, and pulling, and tugging, and prying up, this old carpet. And it might come up easily or the years of foot traffic, and basketball games, and chair legs, might mean the glue underneath the carpet hangs on for dear life. And the challenge of getting this up and out might be extreme. And then this thought, just jumped into my head, where is their old carpet in me that God wants to replace? Where is there a door in the building, that is me, that needs new paint, a chair that needs softer cushions, or some other aspect of my interior world that the Holy Spirit wants my permission to renovate and my cooperation on the project? I mentioned earlier the importance of eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that are open to what God might want to say and do in us. My experience in my Christian journey and my experience as a pastor suggests that it is most wise for you and me to assume we don't have eyes that see, ears that hear, or hearts that are open, and I realize that's harsh, but I think it's true.
It’d be a lot easier if we all pulled the same lever, just a lot easier. I'll trade that in any day of the week. There's only one problem, if you have that you don't have the church you've got a group, you've got a click, you've got a hobby club, but you don't have the church. Because, the church by definition is this mess of messy people all over the map going, we're coming to be this, the table holds us together. Jesus Christ is King. We're going to orient to that and we're going to trust that the bond we have in Jesus being King is bigger than our differences. That's the plan. We're held together because we believe Jesus is bigger than our differences. Unity in our differences points to God's power.
Pastor Mike Lueken finishes up our "Send Me" series with an interview with Shawn Young who shares how we can recharge and refuel as we go out into the world on mission together for God.
“Our life together as the community of followers of Jesus is the most powerful proclamation of Jesus we can make” ~ Mike Lueken
For people to hear that proclamation they have to be invited in. And so, Jesus sends us out to be hosts, to practice hospitality. The practice of hospitality has been one of the most foundational practices of the church since the beginning, two thousand years ago. All throughout the New Testament, over and over, we are told we are commanded to offer hospitality. In addition to that, we know from the history of the first centuries of the church that hospitality was a mark of the early Christians where they welcomed people into their homes, they cared for them regardless of who they were or whether or not they could pay them back. And while hospitality and practice can take many forms and shapes at its core, hospitality is a spiritual posture. It is an attitude. Hospitality is the posture of making room for the outsider whether this is in our homes, in our work places, in our social circles, in our church community. To practice hospitality is to assume responsibility for the care of the guest. To make sure they feel at home and have what they need. Really it is the spiritual act of adoption. Even if only for a short time so that the guest feels like part of the family. And when we open up space in our Christian community for those who do not know Jesus, they are able to experience the reality of Jesus and not just hear about it. And for a world that is reluctant to talk about Jesus, creating spaces where they can experience it, is essential.
The Bible tells us that God deeply cares for people. He wants none to perish. He wants all to know him and live with him; rulers of Rome, thieves on the brink of their own death, Roman guards, Jewish peasants, the blind, the rich, the sick, the powerful, the person you named when we started. None is too far gone. No one is outside God's loving reach. His heart breaks for those who want nothing to do with him. One day his judgment will come in its full expression. He waits because he wants people to turn to him and his plan A is to send you and to send me to be guests who demonstrate the beauty of the Kingdom.
What better way to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, who changes lives, than to have people in our life actually see Jesus transform us. Actually, see Jesus transform our character. I mean imagine when the people to whom I have been sent notice that where I used to be consumed by worry there actually now is peace. When the people who could see my addiction to work, my addiction to performance, and success, all of a sudden experience me being free from that. Imagine the power of the people in our lives, who have known us to gossip, or be judgmental of others, finding us being, I don't know, encouraging, thinking the best of others. You get the picture right? I mean this is how awesome the redeeming power of Jesus is. That when we continue in an ongoing process of transformation. When we allow him to do his transforming work in us. Even the rough edges, even the blatant cracks in our character, can be used to declare the praises of him who brought us out of darkness and into his glorious light. So, what comes to mind for you? What has the Holy Spirit been stirring in you during this message?
Is there an area in your life that is getting in the way of you proclaiming Jesus?
Paul writes, "and so it was with me brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." - 1 Corinthinas 2:1-5
Paul, here in this passage, is writing to his friends in Corinth at the church that he started there. And he's reminding them about the very clear, focused purpose that he had when he went there. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Which when you think about it, realistically, is an astounding statement. Corinth, we know from history, was a pretty spiritually derelict city. Paul would have had any number of Shalom-destroying issues to talk about when he goes there. Anything from slavery to temple prostitution, to pagan witchcraft and worship, to economic injustice, to ethnic discrimination. There was a lot of Ten Commandment breaking going on in Corinth in those days.
Along with that, of course, we could imagine there was the humanitarian crisis that was typical to any City in the Roman Empire; the poor, the sick, the widows, the orphans. And yet, Paul characterizes his focus, his mission, in the city, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Of all the things he could have been talking about, of all the problems he could have been addressing, Paul, was laser-focused on this singular message, Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Why?
It's the picture my friend sent me of the flames at the end of his street, that keep me up at night. And again, this is not just the case for the people that I know in Southern California. It is the case for people everywhere, all around the world, all the time. Every major catastrophe, every downward trend, every systemic issue in the world from human trafficking to racism, to road rage, to sickness, and economic uncertainty. All of them are made up of individual people, with individual lives, individual experiences, individual circumstances, and they are in in trouble. And it's not just the people in the crises that are being covered in the news either.
Turn off the radio close your laptop and simply scroll through the images in your mind of the people you know, the real people. The person in the house next to you. The person you sit with on the sidelines of your kids’ games. The people in your class in the cubicle next to you, or on the other side of the zoom call. Even those in your own house. An honest look at their lives would reveal trouble and devastation that though unseen on the outside, if we could see inside, we'd see it burning at the same rate and heat as the center of the hottest wildfire. An honest look at the people that we interact with every day, would find them harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. To borrow Matthew's words, and the question in all our minds at this point, is does God even care? He sees the destruction. He sees the pain. He sees the fear. He knows the stress. The anxiety pulsing through the psyche of our friends, of our family, but does he care?
Epiphany sets in front of us the reality that Jesus Christ claims to be King of everything, and everywhere, and every person, and every moment. And all of His truth, goodness, holiness, righteousness, love, mercy, grace and beauty saturates every square inch of His reign. That’s just a really good reminder to savor and soak in here at the beginning of a new year.
And to do that, today, I’d like for us to consider what I’m going to call, Three Worthwhile Investments in 2025. And each of these investments is ultimately an investment of our most treasured, precious, important commodity; time. If Jesus Christ is King. If He is Lord of all. If He’s the sovereign One. And if He’s more than a plastic Jesus sitting on the dashboard of our car. If we are someone who is seeking to orient ourselves around Jesus as King, Lord, Sovreign One. Then these three investments of time seem not only reasonable and wise, but I would suggest necessary, for those who profess to follow this King.
All the time, Jesus the Messiah, the one born King of the Jews and of the entire universe for that matter, lay helpless as a baby born to a poor unimportant family, lying in obscurity, literally just a few miles away from Jerusalem. And however tempting it might be to look at Herod, and the Magi, and Snicker, and comment, like the emperor that wasn't wearing any clothes. Probably better, is to see ourselves in this meeting. This meeting between these fake kings. You see, our whole society is like that. People trying to impress each other, with their money, with their degrees, with their accomplishments, their sports team affiliations, how well their portfolio is doing, how attractive their boyfriend or girlfriend is, how smart their children are. And us religious people, we're probably worse of all. Constantly trying to pretend that we are better than we actually are. That we know more than we know. That we are certain, more than we are actually certain. We are half breeds and frauds pretending to be kings. The good news of course is that we don't have to live that way.
Advent, in other words, is a time for wondering and marveling at the Christ child and a time for wrestling with the mystery of life's hard questions like, how, and why, and when? And just to wrap this up, this is not some psychological cathartic purge so we can really enjoy Christmas dinner. This is our faith in action. This is the Christian faith; not sugary, not phony, not surface level, not dabbling here and there, not, oh yeah God's cool, it's not that. This is our faith in the action of real life, where there's real pain, no matter what time of year it happens to be. Confidence we might say, in the reality of God's presence with us. Confidence in the knowledge, and I use that word on purpose. Confidence in the knowledge, the reliable knowledge, that in Jesus, as Simeon said, “our eyes have seen our Salvation”, a light for revelation.