Community of Care - Mark 6: 32-44

Last week we started a new sermon series about how to live a Christ like life as the Church. Specifically, what traits we want to embody and share with others because our Lord and Savior modeled them for us. We focused on humility and selflessness, words that are often misunderstood and dismissed as unappealing. 

This week, we will focus on Christ as caring. Another word that is often convoluted. Sometimes we use the word caring in a positive way, “I deeply care about this person” showing our concern. Other times we use care in a more ambivalent nature - when asked a question we may respond that we just don’t care. We have no opinion. No stake in the matter. And sometimes care can even be used in a hostile sense - “I’ll take care of him” or “I’ll take care of that problem.” No wonder we sometimes struggle to care for others as human beings with so many different ways to use the word. 

As Christians we sometimes don’t even know what we are saying when we state that Jesus cared. We think that Jesus’ care comes in his actions, but there are usually other indicators of Jesus’ deep care. When he met Mary in the garden after the resurrection he said her name in such a way that she recognized him. When he healed people, he sometimes asked them first if they wanted to be healed, acknowledging their humanity and choice in the matter. And in today’s gospel story, he invites others to be part of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus had went away with the disciples to a deserted place, probably to be refreshed in the presence of God as he was in last week’s message on seeking out places of stillness and solitude. But this time people recognized him. They crowed around him and wouldn’t grant him this time away, and Jesus had compassion on them. He saw how hungry they were for God. How much they needed a shepherd to care for them, lead them, and teach them. So Jesus discerned that he and the disciples abandoned their place of stillness in order to serve the people. 

Maybe the disciples were confused about why Jesus wanted to be away sometimes and other times he abandoned being alone for service. Maybe they were just tired of serving, but I read their response as a grumpy one. Send the people away. Let them go so they can eat. And implicitly let them go away so we can eat too. So we can rest like we planned. But Jesus responded differently then they anticipated. You feed them.

The disciples must of looked from one to another wondering how exactly they were going to feed all of these people - they didn’t even have food for themselves. Further, they were in a deserted place, a place where they wouldn’t even be able to go and buy food, if they had the money to do so. They told Jesus it would take 200 days worth of wages just to feed the people a little, not their fill. But Jesus didn’t tell them to go and buy food, he told them to feed the people.

And this is where Jesus’ care in this particular passage comes in. We’ve already seen his compassion in setting aside what he planned on doing in order to teach people. Now he is looking to feed the people out of their own resources, letting them be part of the miracle together. For he couldn’t feed people unless he received humbly from a stranger in the crowd. 

Jesus understood being hungry. He had kinship with those who gathered. Jesus understood that simply giving the people what they wanted wasn’t enough. For caring is so much more than simply taking care of a problem for someone, its feeling their pain, understanding their need, and inviting them to be part of the process of solution. 

Sometimes this is where we struggle as the church. We want to help people, but feeling their pain is just a bit too much. We’d rather hand them money and hope it helps instead of helping them change their circumstances by inviting them to part of their own healing. When we truly care we suffer with a person when they suffer. We cry out with them. We work with them. 

That’s why sometimes the best thing we can do because we care is sit with a person in silence. Not offer words that are meant to ease our own discomfort, rather we enter into someone else’s pain. And we don’t say “I understand” when we can never truly understand what another person is going through. Caring isn’t about fixing something for someone else. It’s about being present with them.

Perhaps this is the way we best know our Lord and Savior cares. Because he walks with us no matter what we are going through. Sometimes we may accuse him of not caring because he doesn’t respond exactly the way that we want or in our timing, but later we realize that his abiding presence with us is the best gift we could ever receive. 

The disciples would rather have dismissed the need of those gathered to hear Jesus. They would have rather made it someone else’s problem so they could move on with their day. But instead they got to witness an awe inspiring miracle as Jesus blessed five loaves of bread and 2 fish, hardly enough to feed one family, and made it enough with God’s blessing to feed all present until they were filled. 

We too can be like the disciples. Running away from difficult situations. Substituting solutions for care. But Jesus calls us to be a community of care. A community where people can come to have their heart filled. To be a place where they are listened to, respected, and encouraged. A place where someone will sit with them in their grief instead of offering platitudes. A place where wholeness can be found in Christ Jesus. 

I have been blessed to see communities of care. At the safe house in Australia where women engaged in prostitution were treated with respect, protected, and listened to. In Denison, TX where a community garden was formed and anyone who wanted to plant could harvest the food for free. In Madison, NJ where an after school program to help with homework became a place where student’s voices were heard and they grew into women of God. Communities like this know that genuine care transforms lives. 

Every human being has the capacity to care, but the church should be the community that specializes in caring, because we have a Savior who taught us how to care. That’s not to say that we are perfect all the time or that we always care for another as we should. But this is also a place where we can come together and learn how to care more deeply as we fall in love with the one who cares for us. This is the place where we learn to set aside our own interests, opinions, and judgments in order to care like Christ cares. 

Caring is not about simply doing good. Its about having our heart in the right place and approaching people in their humanity instead of simply satisfying their need. Its about knowing that there is actually more than enough from God, both in our hearts and in our hands, to reach out to others in the name of Christ, with the same gifts that we have so generously received. What have you received that you are being called to share? How can you humbly care for others? How can we invite people to be part of their own healing instead of simply giving them a handout? How often have we turned people away either because we don’t believe God can do something in the situation or we simply do not care for the person? And ultimately what can we learn about the type of care the Christ models for us that we can offer to others with a right spirit? May these questions penetrate our hearts and change our lives in the coming weeks. Amen. 

Mark 1: 32-39 - A Life of Solitude

At one time I decided to ask some people I knew what the thought of when they heard the name “Jesus.” Some church folks and some non-church folks were asked and the overwhelming answer was nice. They thought Jesus was nice. Nice is often a generic word that we use when we don’t really know someone. We say that someone is nice when we can’t think of other words. 

Spiritual author Henri Nouwen speaks of Jesus not as being nice, but as being humble, which is a trait that his bride, the church, is supposed to try to carry out. But humble, like the word nice, is often mis-understood. Humility has somehow become affiliated with weakness or being a pushover, which Jesus was not. Christ’s humility came from setting aside who he was, the son of God with all of the power that comes with that, in order to advance the Kingdom. Christ’s humility was truly selfless, and we too are called to embody such traits. And it emerged because he was centered on what, and who, were important. 

For the next three weeks we are going to talk about what equips us to follow this way of Christ marked by humility and selflessness, which is counter cultural to the world that we live in. Often the pull of the world to propel ourselves upwards in society, no matter what the costs, is so strong. But Christ offers us a different way of being. If only we too, will seek to be centered. 

A few weeks ago at the Wednesday evening Bible study we were studying Psalm 73 In which the psalmist speaks about being disillusioned by the fact that those who choose the way of the world seem to get ahead, while those whom follow the path of God seem to suffer. Christ understood the Psalmists words, as do we, I would venture to guess. But a turning point comes for the writer when he goes to the temple. When he sits with the Lord and remembers whose he is and who he is. When he regains his center.

In this morning Scripture passage we find Jesus doing amazing things. He was healing the sick, and even those possessed by demons. It seemed like everyone was crowding in to touch Jesus, see his powers at work, and have their lives healed. And he did heal many of them. But three things about this passage can seem odd in our world that demands that we claim fame wherever we can find it.

First, Jesus does not let the demons speak, because they knew him. He would not let them tell who he was or exactly how much power he truly had. He wasn’t looking for fame. He was looking to be God’s vessel. Secondly, Jesus left the mission field to pray. Even though there was work to be done, even with as busy as he was with the disciples in this particular community, he stopped to seek out a quiet place to center himself. And out of that centering a third disturbing thing happened, he discerned to move on. Even though there were more people in need, even though “everyone was searching” for him according to Peter, he told the disciples that it was time to head out to the neighboring towns, there work here was done. 

We have a lot to learn from Jesus in this passage. Especially in a world that at best calls Christians “nice” and expects us to act immediately whenever a need arises. And in some instances this is the correct path for us to take, not because we are nice, but because we are humbly following the will of God. Because we have discerned it to be so. But other times, we are called like Jesus to not act as quickly, but rather to sit in the quiet center and seek the will of God. 

Jesus knows the need of the people around him. Perhaps he, like us, was even overwhelmed at the sheer number of people seeking to be healed. But even in the midst of people’s needs and demands he left and found a quiet place to pray. A place of solitude. A place to center himself and spend time aline with God. 

It seems counterintuitive doesn’t it? If we have a to-do list that seems to stretch on and people lining up at our door with needs and problems that we spend time in prayer. Yet it is so critical to who we are as the beloved of God and what we are called to do as the church. Pastor Bill Hybels put forth this sentiment in a catchy title to one of his books, “Too Busy Not to Pray”. Theologian Martin Luther said the more hours he had to work, the more time he spent praying. 

But that can be hard for us when we feel that things just have to be done. I feel that its the main reason so many people do not take a Sabbath, a full day to simply rest and worship God, because there are so many demands on our time. Its also the reason that some people can’t make it to an hour worship service or Bible study - there is too much to do. Yet, Jesus, when faced with too much to do, did something disturbing, something radical, he went away to pray. 

In order to engage he had to withdraw. In order to be active for the Kingdom he had to be still. I once had a colleague tell me that this is perhaps the most important thing we can do as Christians, be still and withdraw in order to be filled with grace to go and serve as a calm presence in the world. 

Jesus was able to withdraw, able to listen to the will of God, even when it may not be popular with those who were seeking him for healing, or the disciples who became impatient with him, because at the end of the day he was humble because  he knew that it wasn’t about the number of people that he healed. Or the praise that he received. Instead it was about responding to God and honoring God.

In a world that tells us to collect awards, more is better, and that we need busy lives to be successful, solitude is hard. A few weeks ago I went to visit a friend to celebrate my birthday and during the trip I went to see a Broadway play. While at the play the women next to me were complaining about the ranking system and college application process for their college aged daughters. They were listing off how hard their daughters worked, their achievements, and how many activities they were involved in, but it still may not be enough. And I found myself wandering - enough for what? Enough by whose standards?

Brothers and sisters, our lives are filled with enough. Enough accomplishments. Enough awards. Enough ways to spend our time and appear successful. But what we are lacking are those quiet place of prayer. Those times where we give God our very best attention. Because it is in this quiet time when we find the meaning to life. It is in this time of solitude that we are refreshed for the craziness the day may hold. It is also here that we learn how to be humble, as we follow God’s will not our own. Learn to live in God’s standards, not ours. And learn that as we are still, the world still goes on. 

We are called to be in the world but not of it. We are called to be a humble people, working for the Kingdom, which means praying to the one whose Kingdom it is. And that requires us being counter cultural. Seeking out the stillness, not for a few minutes here and there, but intentionally, every day, so we can grow in love with the God who will tell us where to go next, and grow more like Christ in our attitude and actions. Where can you find stillness? Where can you seek out a time to pray? And what will God say to you during that time? Amen. 

Funeral Meditation

In todays Gospel passage, Jesus is saying farewell to his closest friends. He knows that his time on Earth is almost finished, and he is trying to comfort his disciples who do not understand why he is leaving them behind. Jesus knows that the cross is before him, that he would be abandoned by these men before him now, but the Holy Spirit would be following him. Its difficult to understand. Like the mystery of death itself. That the one we love has left this Earth, yet we are never alone. 

Just as the believers of Jesus were not abandoned, so we too are not left desolate. Just as Jesus sought to comfort his disciples, so we gather together to seek comfort from this same Lord and Savior today. While God knew the number of days Al had with us, just as he knew the number of hairs on his head, we did not have such information. But we were blessed to know Al while he was on this earth. To hear of his passion for the scripture and share time with him traveling or outdoors. While we grieve that we did not have enough days with Al, we feel blessed for the love that he showed each person in this room as a father, uncle, brother, friend, during our time with him. 

We are not left alone. We have gathered as this community to grieve the loss of Al today, but also to proclaim the truth that Al believed with his unshakable faith - that we will be reunited again for we have victory over the grave through Jesus Christ. So today we gather together in our grief while looking forward for the hope in the life to come. God gives each of the same Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke to the disciples about, to give us hope and peace, especially during difficult times like this one. 

And Jesus also blessed us with this community. For we have not been left to grieve alone, though surely we will each grieve in our own way. The promise Christ makes in today’s passage is two fold - the gift of the Holy Spirit, to bring Jesus to our minds, and to remind us that we are to follow the way of Christ laid before us, but also the promise of community. A community that remembers. A community that seeks to live faithfully. A community to comfort and support one another.

So we have gathered together as this community to speak truth into each other’s lives. To remember who Al is. To proclaim the hope and home that he found in Jesus Christ. I believe we will be reunited with Al one day to laugh at his unique sense of humor and celebrate the Yankee’s wins, to break bread together and talk about his favorite scriptures. To share together in all that Al loved. But as we look forward to that day, we come together this day to remember. To remember what we loved about Al. To remember the hope that Al believed in. May we now share our memories with one another, and feel the peace and presence of the Holy Spirit that Christ has promised us.

Fathers and Children - Gen 22: 1-19

We are now in the final week of our sermon series exploring relationships in the book of Genesis. We’ve talked about our relationship to God, to our brothers and sisters, those we love, and ourselves. This week we will be focusing in on the relationship between children and parents. 

The story of Abraham binding Isaac is a familiar one, but I would invite us to hear it with new ears today. Abraham is commanded once again to go, to go and take his son Isaac and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Abraham has been commanded to go before. Go and travel to the land God would reveal to him. Go and become a father of the nations, even though he did not have any offspring and his wife Sarai was beyond being able to conceive children. Go and send away his other son, the son he had circumcised and loved so dearly that he pleaded with God not to take him away, Ishmael. Abraham is so familiar with the command of God to go that he does not even ask any questions or tell God to spare this child of promise, fighting as passionately for him as he had fought for the condemned cities. He simply goes.

And where is Isaac’s mother, Sarah in this passage? She is silent. Her voice is missing. She is not able to argue with her husband or God to spare the life of her child. We want Sarah and Abraham to fight for their child. We want to understand how Abraham could ever consider killing his child, let alone walk for three days with him, knowing how the journey will end. 

Can you imagine all that is weighing on Abraham’s heart during those three days? How heavy his feet must have felt. The burden of the secret he was keeping from his son and his wife. 

This story is complex and unsettling - calling to the carpet family relationships and our relationships with God. Abraham is being asked by the God he loves to do the unthinkable to the son he loves. Can he even look at his son when Isaac asks where the lamb is for the offering? 

For many of us the story seems so distant from our reality. We love God and we love our family, but there is no way we could see ourselves offering up the ones that we love to the Lord. Once when speaking at a baptism service about offering our children up to God for service the mother started to weep. When I asked her about it later, she recounted this scripture passage, fearing that God would ask the same thing of her. Its incompressible. 

And yet. And yet, so many children are offered up on alters every day. Children that are not cared for by their parents. Who are treated as a nuisance instead of one to be embraced and raised. Not given proper food or clothing, even if the family can provide. There are so many stories of children that are treated as if they are unloved. One such story is chronicled in the book A Child Named It, an auto-biography of Dave Pelzer. Dave was horribly mistreated as a child - starved by his mother, physically harmed, and even made to drink ammonia. The torture went on for years until one of his teachers stepped in. 

And is that not exactly what Abraham needed? Someone to step in as the angel does at the critical point in the narrative. When the angel of the Lord called out to him, just as God had called out to him before telling him not to harm the boy in any way. 

Too many children in our world today are being sacrificed on the alter of greed. Too many are being abused and harmed. Too many are being neglected and forgotten. Who may not be physically harmed, but have affection and love with-held. Who never heard the words “I love you.”

Friends, it needs to stop. We need to read this passage and see that while yes, God tested Abraham’s relationships, the sacrifice was not what God desired or demanded in the end. We need to step up as the church and reach out to parent not only our own children, but those who have been sacrificed by so many for too long as well. We need to be spiritual parents to children who are hurting and are in need of direction. And we need to help parents who are struggling learn how to be parents. 

We pretend that the story has a happy ending - and in a very real way it does. But it also is a story of shattered relationships. Isaac and Abraham go home different ways, never speaks again as we are only told that Isaac returned upon Abraham’s death. How many of us know families that have shattered relationships? Where children and parents are estranged? Where family members haven’t spoken in years and carry around regrets? How can we as the church bring forth a message of hope and faith to people who are hurting. 

We also need to ask how this event effected Isaac? We see him growing into an old man with dim sight, who passed the family blessing on the younger son after being tricked. The stories of Isaac we see in scripture from this point on show a weak man. A broken man. A man who doesn’t seem to know his place in the world, even though he is carrying with him the weight of the promise of God. How can the church reach out to men and women like Isaac who don’t understand their own parents actions so they cannot be the best parents they could be themselves?

The truth is that children need strong adults in their lives. Adults who speak words of hope and truth for them. Adults to learn from. Research on children and faith shows that children who grow up with parents of strong faith tend to have strong faith. And those whose parents do not have a strong faith, tend to have the same level of faith. When things are perfect, parents can provide these needs for their children. And when things are broken, the church is called to step in, just as the angel of the Lord stepped in, and say enough is enough. To teach the lessons the children need to learn and teach parents how to be parents so that our world does not wander around looking for substitutes for parental love. 

When parents cannot train their children in the faith, we can help as the church. And when children lack personal discipline, we can help as the church. Growing up I hated the fact that when I went to church I felt like I had fifty parents instead of two, with as many people scolding me and teaching me and shaping my faith. But that’s the job of the church! To help raise up children. To help parents be parents. We need to help love and honor people. 

At the end of the day Abraham passed the test with God, but lost two sons in the process. I think God tests us in the opposite way today. God asks us to raise up children, not sacrifice them. God asks us to care for the children around us without families to raise them. Care for the children who have suffered for far too long, and care for the parents that suffered at the hands of their parents. May we be a place that cares for children, a place of healing for relationships, and a place where we step in when called. Amen. 

Giving It Away for the Kingdom

This week each person was asked to bring something for our alter that symbolizes ministry to them. The ministry of Mainesburg United Methodist Church. Our personal call and ministry. Mine is a bit odd, a tea cup. 

Many of you know that I am not a coffee drinker, but I’d like to tell you the story of how I became a tea addict. The first mission trip I ever took was overseas, to Vladimir, Russia. Through our time in Russia wasn’t spent playing with children at an orphanage or painting walls, though these are wonderful things to do for the Kingdom of God. Our time was spent drinking many, many cups of tea. Talking with people about their city, families and dreams. For it was only with such conversations over tea that we were able to be trusted enough to talk about faith and the love of Jesus Christ.

So tea for me reminds me of the time I spent in Valdmir over two Easter breaks during college. And tea reminds me of the ministry I was involved in at St. Paul’s UMC in State College at Abba Java Coffee House, making myself available to students to have discussions over cups of tea. But the tea cup also reminds me of today’s scripture passage in the Gospel of Luke. For a teacup can only hold so much before it runs over the brim, transferring the steamy liquid outside of the cup to items around it. So it is with our faith. God has filled up with good things, with blessings, that we should not try to contain, rather it overflows out of us to bless others. The funny thing about overflowing is that we still have what we started with in the cup. We are still blessed, we have simply passed on the blessing to others. 

One of the most profound questions I have ever been asked about overflowing is if I am giving away myself or Jesus? Am I so full of the love of Jesus Christ that his love flows out of me for others, or do I simply try to get through each day giving myself away. For when we give away Jesus, we are sharing for the sake of the Kingdom. But when we are simply giving away ourselves, it is often to make ourselves look better and can lead to being burnt out.

We have gathered together today to celebrate how this church has poured out the love of Jesus Christ, giving away the bounty we have been given by God for the Kingdom. You have heard about some of the ministries of this church, ministries that God has called us to for the sake of this community. You have heard about new ways we envision reaching out with other churches spreading the good news of the Gospel. The Church universal does not exist for its own sake, or for its own glory. It exists to over flow the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Mainesburg United Methodist Church gets it! Gets that it is better to give then to receive! Gets that its not about merely paying the bills or surviving but about being the hands and feet of Christ! Praise God!

We give this love away, because it is not ours to possess. And we share our blessings because they were showered down upon us by God in order to bless others, a more perfect gift. Every time I think about how much God has blessed me I want to shout in praise and thanksgiving. And when I think of how this church has responded so generously because of the gifts we have been given together, I want to sing a song and weep with gratitude. Friends, I am so thankful to be serving a church that understands its not about us, but about God working through us for the Kingdom. Believe me, not all churches get it. And I brag about you whenever I get the chance! You may not realize it all the time, or fully see what God is doing, but God is working in and through us! May we celebrate that today and feel energized for the ways we will be called to bless others in the future. And in all we do and say, may we praise God, the one who makes our cups overflow! Amen! Amen! Amen!

Somebody to Love - Genesis 5: 1-2, Mark 3: 31-35

When you say that you are in a relationship with someone, what exactly do you mean? When I say that I have a relationship with someone I am trying to convey that I love them, they mean something to me, I care about them. Its what I mean when I talk about my relationship with my family, or friends, or you as part of this wonderful body of Christ. 

However, the English language misses the nuances of the word love. In Greek there are actually four different words that can be used for love that translate as affection, friendship, romantic love, and charity. C. S. Lewis explored each of these loves in his book The Four Loves, based off a radio presentation he gave in 1958. Lewis was trying to explain what we mean when we say that “God is love”. That love is so much more than a romantic feeling, and God’s love goes even deeper than the Greek understanding of love, because love is complex.

This morning we started by reading a scripture from Genesis 5. If you read Genesis 5 in its entirety you would see a genealogy that goes from Adam to Noah through ten generations. Ten generations of humans that have been made in the image of God, that then link into our genealogy. When I look at a genealogy like this one, I see two types of love. First, there is Eros, or romantic love. The love that creates and builds families. That builds families for generations in fact. When I read early genealogies like this one, I also hope that the people being chronicled got something about romantic based love that we sometimes forget today. That romantic love is not just about seeking pleasure, but rather about connecting with another person for a sake bigger than yourselves.

But this genealogy also speaks about God’s love for us, as God created us in the image of God. This love of God is agape, also called charity. The type of love that is unconditional, even when we screw up and in all circumstances. This is the greatest love that can exist, and is the love that God showed us not only in our creation but also through Jesus‘ sacrifice on the cross. A few weeks ago I was leading a Bible Study at Mansfield and one of the young men attending described agape love this way - we cannot do anything to make God love us more, and we cannot do anything to make God love us less, for the love of God isn’t based on us, but is a self-giving of God’s own spirit. Agape love is self-sacrificing, and can be seen as the highest form of love that anyone can ever give to another. 

In our second scripture lesson this morning, Jesus shows and speaks about the two other types of love. When he points to his disciples and proclaims, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister” he first is speaking about affection. That fondness or familiarity you can feel between family members or those whom you have known for a long period of time in deep ways. This is the most natural love that we feel. We are loved simply because we are part of the family, not because of what we can bring to the relationship. Jesus is turning the tables on who are family is in the church, by proclaiming that our affection for one another isn’t based on what we do, but simply on the fact that we are all part of one family, regardless of whether we recognize it or not.

But Jesus is also speaking specifically about his disciples. These men who have been traveling with him, being engaged in ministry with him. Those that he would call his friends. Phileo, or friendship, is the love experienced between two friends, sometimes bonded by a common experience or interest. This is the least natural of the loves, but it is also the love that is most freely chosen. Here are men who chose to be with Jesus day in and day out. They are not obligated to, and yet they have these profound experiences with him. This type of friendship, deep and lasting friendship, seems far too rare in today’s society, but Jesus shared such a relationship with his disciples, which makes them just as much his brother, sister, and mother as being in the family of God. 

When you say that you love someone which of these sentiments are you trying to express? And when we proclaim that we love Christ or seeing Christ’s Kingdom expanding, what are we trying to communicate? And how do we grow in love for this community so we can passionately reach out to it for the sake of Jesus Christ?

As Christians we believe that we have a relationship with God that propels us into relationships with other people. In fact, we serve other people because of our love for God. We even love and serve people that others may deem to be unworthy, because our love for Christ beckons us to do so. But this isn’t always easy. It isn’t always easy to love God and love our neighbor. It isn’t always easy to love a family member who doesn’t believe what we believe, or that neighbor who is across the street that we keep inviting to church but they just won’t come. 

We need to start praying for God to give us the love of Christ in our hearts. That agape love that is unconditional. One way that I have found to grow in love for our neighbors is to walk around praying for each house. You may not know what the family inside is going through at a particular time, in fact you may not even know the family that lives there, but praying that God would bless them. Not because they did something good or if they go to church. But praying that God would bless them and that God’s love would embrace them. Praying one neighborhood at a time that God’s love would become known so the Kingdom can spread. 

It sounds really simple, but the act of praying for others can be hard. It requires us to set aside our own agendas and let our hearts be broken open for others. And the longer we pray, the easier it will be for us to see with the heart of Christ. See that we are  part of the same family, created in the image of God, and let our hearts be captured by affectionate love for our brothers and sisters, even if people do not realize that they are part of the family of God yet. And because we are each other’s family, even if people do not realize yet that they are being pursued by the relentless love of God, we need to treat them well. Because God takes our relationships seriously. And Jesus redefines our relationships. No person we encounter is to be taken for grant it. 

Relationships matter. Whether they be family relationships by blood, church family relationships, neighbors, friends, or spouses. Relationships matter because God uses them to shape our hearts and reach out to others. And relationships are never to be taken for grant it. We all have somebody in our life, in fact a lot of some bodies, that we were given to reach out and love. To let our love radiate to them because God loves them. Even if we can’t quite grasp or display the agape love of God, our loves allow us to proclaim God’s sacrificial love. Allow us to speak about our faith. And allow us to remind each other that God designed us to be a people who have somebody to love. Amen. 

Who Am I? - Gen 1: 26-31

For the last few weeks we have been exploring the relationships that we find ourselves in. Our relationship to God. Our relationship to each other as brothers and sisters. And our relationship in marriage. This week we will be exploring our interior relationship - how well we know ourselves and the words that God has spoken over us. 

Human beings are different from other creations of God. We have the ability to be creative. To love. To dislike. The ability to do things that nothing else on this earth can do. And yet, we haven’t even begin to tap into all that we can do and be because we do not understand who we are. We do not listen to the God who created us. We settle for what we feel comfortable doing, what comes easily to us, instead of what we are called to do.

In today’s scripture we are told that the Godhead decided to make humankind different, to make us in the image of God. Honestly, I think that statement scares many of us. We mis-interpurt it to mean that we are ourselves mini-gods, which is not what the scripture is saying. Instead, it is more like this - in Biblical times when a ruler had a vast area of land to watch over, too much land for one person to be in at any given time, they would put up images of themselves around the region they were not physically present at. It was a reminder that the ruler, even though he could not be seen, still had rule in the area. While we bear more then simply a picture of God, the idea is still the same. God created human beings to remind each other of God’s rule, even when we cannot physically see God. To be reminded that we do not rule ourselves, but are subject to the one who created us and whose image we bear. 

But bearing the image of God also goes beyond simply reminding others about God. We also have certain traits of God that aren’t seen in other creatures - the ability to be spiritual, to feel emotions, and to think creatively. However, these gifts are to be reflections of God, as we use them to be God’s ambassadors here on earth. To act on God’s behalf. We were created for God’s purposes, not our own. 

Even knowing all of this, the idea of being created in God’s image may still scare us. We may not like the idea of being called to represent God’s presence in the world. And let’s be honest, many times we have not reflected God accurately. A few weeks ago I was working at a festival in North Carolina where I heard the Christian author, Phillip Yancey speak. Yancey explained the complexities of representing God in the world through the following story. He lives in a small town in Colorado where not many people are able to hear live concerts. In fact one of the only places that live music can be heard is at the local high school orchestra concert. The problem is that the orchestra often tries to play pieces that are beyond their means. When they botch pieces by Mozart however, its not Mozart’s fault. Just as when we, as the church, bearing the image of the God who created us, fail to live up to God’s standards or reflect God in the world, it is not God’s fault. And yet, even when the high school orchestra botches a piece of beautiful music, it is still many people’s only exposure to that particular work. So it is with the church. We are God’s ambassadors in the world, reflecting the love and grace of God, even if we do it poorly at times. 

Creating us in the image of God gives us a lot of responsibility. For when we claim that we are God’s and we bear the resemblance of God for the sake of the Kingdom, we have work to do. We need to shine the light of God for people through all of our actions and words, not just when we are in certain situations or with certain people. 

Secondly, we are told in the scripture that we have been given dominion over all other created creatures on the earth. But we cannot grasp the magnitude of this task, or do it well, until we let the fact that we bear the image of God sink into our hearts. For if we try to have dominion over things without remembering that we represent God’s motives and heart, then we can quickly let our own ideas and purposes distract us from the task we have been given. We are not allowed to treat creation any way that we want to, rather we need to treat it as God wants us to treat it. We are to be God’s stewards over what we have been given. God gave us everything that we need to both survive and thrive, if only we tend to it as God intended. 

Thirdly, we are told that God claimed us to be good as creation. Good does not mean perfect. In fact, it does not even mean finished. It simply means that we have purpose. A God given purpose to fulfill. Think about good in terms of household items. When we say an item, a chair or a vacuum, is good we mean that it works. It functions well. Conversely when something isn’t good, it doesn’t do what we expect it to do. It fails at its function. We bear the word good being spoken over us. We have the ability to fulfill the purposes God created us for, to live into our calling. Yet, all too often we stumble and go our own way. Insisting that we do not need God or to follow God’s word or direction. That is sin. It is not who we were created to be. 

Brothers and sisters, we were intentionally created by God with a purpose. We need to realize that we are God’s idea, God’s creation. We belong to God, not to ourselves. And because we were created by God, that is where our identity lies. Our worth. Our value. Are you looking to God to speak over you and to remind you who you are? Or are you searching for that answer to come from other sources, other people?

Because you need to know whose you are to know who you are. And you need to know who you are in order to fully live into what God created you to do. For how can you be called Good by God if you are looking for that affirmation to come from other people? And how can you have dominion if you are doing what others want you to do instead of what God wants you to do? Because often they cannot co-exist. 

Have you ever met someone who is sure of who they are? Its actually a rarity in today’s world. Someone who knows who they are and are 100% comfortable in their own skin. Often we notice such people because they are different. In fact, something can seem off about them because of the security in their image that comes from knowing themselves on this deep level. These are the people in the world who take risks, because they know what they are called to do. These are the people who aren’t afraid of failure by the world’s standards, but rather are afraid about not reflecting the one who created them and gives them purpose. These are the people who don’t need to be busy for the sake of looking important, but the people who know what is truly important and work towards that. They get that they exist for a much greater purpose.

Brothers and sisters, have you let the fact that you are created by God sink into your heart? Do you know who you are as a creation of God and what you are called to do, or are you simply moving from one moment to the next, unsure of who you are and why you are here? Are you looking for God to speak over you or are you listening to others to define your worth and value? Are you serving man or God? Are you comfortable with who you are or do you simply crawl within your own skin with dis-ease? We were created for so much more. We were created for God and by God. May we live in such a way that we are ambassadors of God in this world, shining the light of glory for others. May we live in such a way that we embrace what it means to be created in the image of God, not for our own sake, but for the praise of our Creator. Amen.