APRIL 18, 2021 SUNDAY MESSAGE
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Gospel Movement Part 2
Transcription
...As we begin our sermon this week, I want to call us to respond to the cultural moment we find ourselves in as we consider the lives lost by listening to a special song - anointed song - written by a gospel and worship artist from Chicago named Dee Wilson who I am proud to say is a graduate and leader in the worship school I attended a few years ago. He is also a part of the group of artists known as Common Hymnal who write songs that regularly engage at the intersection of PRAISE & Protest in our day and age.
The words of this song have been on repeat for me personally in our reconciliation journey and I want to bring the power of these lyrics to our congregation as a moment to draw us into lament, to honor the memory of those lost, and to call our church into a deeper recognition that we must keep fighting the Gospel Fight that Black and Brown Lives Matter.
At the same time, I also recognize that for some the pain is overwhelming,
revisiting this is could be triggering and
this is not what you need,
you are exhausted and need rest from the pain and
even as an outpouring of lament, it could be too difficult to enter right now.
This is Rose Petals by Dee Wilson and Common Hymnal… <Video>
Common Ground Northeast, I’m asking you to:
look at all these roses, petals on the ground, they call this one Daunte Wright
I’m asking you to look at all these roses, petals on the ground, they call this child Adam Toledo
<PRAY: Sadness, Grief, Anger/Rage>
It’s been a rough few weeks.
At times, people ask me why our church talks about Justice and Reconciliation so much, why we engage in cultural issues…and so I want to focus today’s sermon on the way the Gospel helps us to see our UNIQUE PLACEMENT in the midst of such darkness and pain. TURN IN...
Turn in your bibles to 2 Cor. 5:14-21
The word of God says this…
2 Cor. 5:15-21 “15 And he (that’s Christ) died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here!
That is: the Kingdom of God resides in them, the renewal of all things, Heaven as it WILL BE is realized inside of anyone that is in Christ!
As we approach these verses today, I want to do so not exegetically, not from a function of teaching/learning but I want us to recognize, and focus our attention on, the way these moments reveal to us that our IDENTITY as a heavenly presence is at odds with a broken world that is not our own and we are the HINGEPOINT between those two worlds!!
The tension anchors us between being humans made from the dust of the earth and the breath of the divine in our nostrils.
The tension that anchors us in the promise that things will be made right again AND the fact that we haven’t seen the final renewal where all things are made new, where there is no death, or tears, or pain”
...and THIS is the tension that anchors HUMANITY between the way God created this world to be and the way it currently exists!
...and WE FEEL the PRESSURE OF LIVING BETWEEN THESE TWO WORLDS, don’t we?! Just in the past couple months:
Multiple mass shootings across America (in schools and other public venues including the FedEx Facility here in Indianapolis)
Chauvin Case with a roller coaster ride of events...paying attention and praying to see justice come from it.
The assault on Lt. Nazarrio by police in Virginia.
The killing of Daunte Wright in Minneapolis MN.
Adam Toledo killed in Chicago Illinois.
Each of these moments and each news headline shouts out to us that:
“this is not the way it’s supposed to be!”
The Gospel Story tells us that “God created the heavens and the earth and it was ordered in such a way that it was meant to be GOOD...but it is no longer!!”
If you are sad, I want to validate your feelings of sadness, grief, and loss
If you feel confusion, like all of this doesn’t make sense, that’s because it DOESN’T make sense, it’s been scrambled.
If you are angry at these moments, you are right to feel anger and even rage
AND I want you to know Jesus is weeping with you and angry right along with you.
The death and sin that entered the world and the communal structures of sin that emerge constantly remind us this world is not good anymore...it is not ordered the way God intended it to be.
Daunte Wright, and Adam Toledo should not be dead today.
They are victims of a society that was set up in a way that it is leveraged against them and their black and brown bodies.
The victims of multiple mass shootings, but most recently, those in the Indianapolis FedEx Facility
THIS WORLD IS DEVASTATINGLY, HORRIFICALLY WRECKED!
Our only Hope is found in the fact that Christ stepped into it. That Christ died for all and for those who are in Christ, “the new creation has come” That’s the IDENTITY we’ve been given. That we WALK upon this earth today as sons and daughters of God. We are:
A sample of the reconciled, renewed creation has come TO YOU!
A deposit of something other- worldly has been placed IN YOU.
And we recognize If things were AS they were meant to be, our presence for the purpose of change would no longer be necessary...and we long for that day of rest to come.
Until then, we have a job to perform...
Verse 18...
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.20 We are therefore Christ’s AMBASSADORS, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Just as God’s people, in Abraham, were BLESSED to BE a blessing, you have been reconciled for the work of reconciliation in this broken world!
God has put us on this earth to step in, just like Jesus,
to be a part of setting it straight,
of laying down our lives for the purpose of BEING the heavenly presence of God in the midst of the brokenness:
We don’t do this to distract ourselves from the hurt, pain, and the suffering
we are not pretenders acting as if we are immune from its effect,
we don’t just stuff all of our emotions down as if they don’t exist
BUT WE DON’T INTERACT WITH THESE CIRCUMSTANCES AS THOSE WHO are OF the earth but as Ambassadors of heaven IN it!
SO, we take hold of the deposit that has been placed IN US BECAUSE WE have been placed INSIDE this world…
to expose it to the alternative way of living
To expose the UN-renewed, broken creation TO the presence of heaven!!
To expose a good and better story for humanity!!
IN doing so, we reveal the order of God’s original intent FOR WHICH the creation itself is longing to return!!
ROMANS 8:19 “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
So we are:
the hingepoint, stuck between “already” and “not yet,” waiting for the fullness to come as we reveal the new world.
We are Ambassadors - Representatives of a Good News message in a world immersed in bad news.
The cultural realities we see ourselves immersed in serve to highlight - and DEMANDS the urgency that - every believer lives into their identity so the world does not lose itself to the darkness...
Embedded deeply within each of us is the hope that is only found in the Kingdom Ambassadors is the living proclamation that, though this world is broken, it doesn’t have to be this way.
SO, as we end today, I want to encourage you to:
Push for legislation according to the Spirit’s conviction within you,
Push for reforms that reveal God’s Kingdom come,
donate to the victims of the shootings and show support for their families
stand up and speak out against injustice wherever it is found.
Keep praying. There is a prayer vigil at the circle at 2 PM today for the FedEx shooting and for Daunte Wright this afternoon.
God’s presence should be there.
You see our world has no hope outside of God’s Kingdom and God has chosen to put that kingdom on display through us to make it Good, and right, and just, and whole again.
It is this hope, THIS TRUTH, that has the power to disrupt - to PUSH BACK - the kingdom of darkness with the presence of light.
AMBASSADORS of GOD, don’t lose heart, don’t give up, shine even more brightly than before and let the deposit found in you be known in the world!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
SAVE THE DATE: The 2020 Marriage Retreat is scheduled to be Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and November 8!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
Coty Miller’s own “Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.