Together – a powerful word
We can do all things in Christ, if
… we are … together
We can support one another and be
a strength for each other, if … we are … together
We can establish a powerful and
radical culture for Christ, if … we are … together
If we know each other, and connect
to each other, we can stand as one, if … we are … together
But I want to pose this.
Together is also a dangerous word
Together, we run the risk at
seeing ourselves as better than others, better than the people outside of the
walls of our church
Together, we can be so closely
connected that when new people come, we are so busy supporting each other that
we don’t see the need walking in our door
Together, the culture we create,
we can also use as a measuring stick to compare and disregard others to ourselves
Together, if we know each other,
and connect to each other, we can stand as one and the outsider has no place to
join us
Together is both a powerful and dangerous word.
As we journey into 2021, let us not just become closer with each other but let us be self-reflective on our togetherness. Let us question what ties us together. Let us challenge ourselves collectively and become a church that is truly open to outsiders, just as our saviour was open to outsiders.
Today, I am going to be preaching from Luke 15. A chapter with three parables. A parable about a lamb, a coin and a lost son. I won’t read the whole chapter, but you are welcome to read it as I share from the chapter.
But as we begin, let us watch the events coming up to Luke 15 and the final parable in Luke 15 from the Bible Project
Watch: The Prodigal Son, Luke 9-19 - Luke-Acts Series Video | BibleProject™
The Pharisees were a tight-knit religious group that supported each other. They created their own powerful and radical culture. The pharisees were a group that stood as one.
They had to. In the years between the Old Testament and the New, Israel had gone through some of the roughest times it had ever faced. The persecution of the Jewish people in this time would have been comparable to what the Jewish people faced in World War Two. And what is one question, we all ask when we go through hard and trying times – Why? Why God Why?
The Pharisees came up with the answer. We, the people of Israel, have lost favour with God because we fell away from the life he called us to live through Moses. For things to change, we need to return to God and his Law. We are a people of the Law, we live under God’s Law, if we want to receive the redemption of God, we must strictly adhere to all aspects of the Law. Every letter down to its last core. They had established a powerful and radical response to the times that they lived in. They believed they had the right answer and that the path they walked was right. They became a tight group, together, bound by their own concept of togetherness.
As such they expected their messiah would be one that would come and say to them – my sons, I am proud of the work you have done. My sons, I am proud that you saw the light and you turned to my Law. But Jesus didn’t. He dined with them, yes, but he dined with the sinners as well. He dined with the rejected. He dined with the people that the pharisees would never allow to sit at their table.
So, they asked Jesus, why do you choose to dine with sinners? And his response came through three stories.
And this is where our challenge to togetherness comes through. Because we often treat these stories separately. The lamb, the coin, the son. And, we often read these stories as if they are directed at the lost when they are not. Now, don’t get me wrong here. They are about the Father’s love for the lost. But reading these stories to celebrate our foundness was not the original intention of Jesus in telling them. Jesus used these parables to explain to the religious leaders of the day why he chose to dine with the lost and not just with the found.
A bit of the hook in the story here, is the pharisees are the older brothers in the last story. They stayed at home and diligently kept the Law and felt angered when the brother who had gone off the rails was celebrated for returning home. If the pharisees, really knew the heart of the Law and their place in the story, they would welcome the restoration of the lost. But just as the last parable finishes, the really twist is found – just really who is lost in this ultimate story? It’s the older brother, the one who lost sight of grace and love. But, that is another sermon in itself – a sermon on how the found can become lost and never see it coming.
Back to these parables and their place.
By Luke 15, the pharisees were outranged with Jesus. Together as one they had diligently put God’s Law above all else. They held strong to their faith and yet the Son of the God they worshipped treated them no different to the ones that had gone astray.
And Jesus tells them three stories. And it is like a trilogy with the climax building and occurring in the last of the stories. In the first story, there are 100 sheep, one goes missing and instead of leaving it the shepherd looks for it; in the second story, there are ten coins, one goes missing and instead of leaving it the woman looks for it; and in the last story, there are two sons, one becomes lost, but when he finds himself, his father welcomes him home.
That is the greatness of God’s love for the lost. But for the pharisees these stories meant so much more. They were offensive stories because of the characters that were central to each – a shepherd, a woman and a disgraced son. Each story featured an outsider who the pharisees would never dine with. It wasn’t just the objects that were lost, it was the reality that these people, in their own ways, were lost.
The stories weren’t just about something being found, they were about the attitude we have to those who are lost.
The stories are about how we treat outsiders. Those that offend our togetherness.
When I was researching this sermon, I tried to think of modern-day equivalents. If I were to take a moral stand, I could probably list some straight up – homosexuals, abortion supporters, child abusers; the list goes on. But sometimes outsiders are simply those we don’t want to be seen with.
Andy has already shared with us in his series on advent the outside position of shepherds in the urbanised Israel in which Jesus was born. And our Sunday school pictures of shepherds really don’t cut it. So, I tried to think of a job which most of us, okay maybe just me and not you, would not want to do because it comes with shame.
I also tried to think of modern-day equivalents to groups of people who are excluded from many activities in a society because of factors of birth like gender. Phil has already shared with us about the disregard women faced at this point in time in history. While, Jewish culture would not do this, it was not uncommon in the Roman world of the time for female babies to be put out with the trash.
Finally, I tried to think of shame occurring to a family in the context of a chosen life-style of a child. And outside of church culture, and a return to moral examples, I found it hard to come up with equivalents of lifestyles that bring shame into families.
After thinking, researching and reflecting, I think I have something, well someone to be exact. Meet Kenny the plumber. Well, he really isn’t a plumber. He drives human waste trucks, disposes human waste, cleans out septic tanks used for human waste, and oversees portable toilets at major public events. He drives the truck you don’t want to be behind on the commute to work. While he is proud of his job, his choice of employment is a factor in his divorce and he brings shame to his proud father.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzP10yQMaN0
Now, I am certain that none of us here would say that having a Kenny in
our lives would offend us. I am certain that none of us see a person being
defined by their job. Afterall, Kenny really isn’t a plumber, here in New
Zealand he would be called a “Portable Toilet Service Operator”.
But, in New Zealand, we do have a bit of a problem in that we often try to start up a conversation with – where are you from and what do you do. Both questions are asked to position others to the groups we associate with. Now let’s be honest, our reaction would be slightly different after we have shaken hands with a Portable Toilet Service Operator, as opposed to a plumber.
And as a parent would you be proud to say, my son, my daughter, is a Portable Toilet Service Operator. And even if you have said yes here, would you be encouraging them to find a different job, have different career aspirations, or would your heart secretly jump with joy when they came home and said, they have been given a different job with Spashdown – same pay and hours but now they are Accounts Manager.
Kenny is an outsider. He is in a job that still has shame attached to it. Now I know that we would accept Kenny and others like him into our group. He could be part of our together here in Wainuiomata Baptist. I do think we have a culture that Kenny would love and I can see him connecting in with groups here. But I think there is more to this. And I do think that for some people, those of different cultures, backgrounds and political positions, the challenge is real.
Outsiders are people we avoid, they are people we are afraid of, they are the people we chose not to see.
The movie Kenny starts with a quote “None are less visible than those we decide not to see.” Who are the Kennys in our lives? Who are the people in our communities that we are ashamed of? Who are the people we teach our children not to see – these are our outsiders. What message are we giving about our group and our own concept of togetherness when we decide not to see particular groups, or types, of people.
To use an extreme example; I personally find it so hard to avoid the eyes of the homeless begging in Wellington. For me personally, when our eyes connect, I am obliged to give – I see Jesus in their eyes. Now this giving might not be money or food, it just might be an ear and a relationship. It might be just to shake their hand and listen to their story. It might be to treat them as human. But there are times when I am in a rush, there are times when I even had children with me, and the context means I find myself actively avoiding eye contact and crossing to the other side of the footpath.
At this point I have decided not to see the outsider; worse, I have taught others how to not see need when it presents itself. I have been a Christian version of a Pharisee.
And kids, when they are young, don’t have this skill. There have been times when Eric and I have been asked – why are we not giving the person something? Why did we cross the road? We give an excuse from the head and not the heart – they are probably alcoholics. But addicts are welcome in the Kingdom of God too. God’s heart for the lost extends into addiction.
You know to have faith in God is to not fear. I have been listening to the Holy Post Podcast and it was recently pointed out in the podcast that if you walk in fear it is impossible to do the things that God calls us to – to love our neighbours, feed the homeless, visit the prisoner, speak up for injustice and speak into the Love of the Father for the outcast. Fear blocks and stops us responding as Christ would.
But how can we overcome this fear. How can we open our culture of togetherness to not be one that protects us but one that invites outsiders to be present? I think it starts right here – because even in our church whanau today there are people and families who feel like outsiders.
Our church is filled with mini-bubbles of families, life groups and friends. We should be prepared to expand our mini-bubbles and take the challenge that Royce and Phil have given us. Invite each other into our homes so that we can really know each other. And go further, in church, when you say hi to people at the beginning of church – don’t aim for your bubble – expand it.
In this very action, the action of expanding our mini-bubbles, we are practicing the skill of opening conversations with people we don’t know. And this is key and important. To be welcomed is to be welcomed, it is not to be ignored. It is to make the visitor visible in our eyes and respond as Christ would.
You, I, us developing skills of hospitality enables us to connect more authentically with outsiders. How many of us really do want strangers to come into our building and into our church services? Well the strangers might come, but they will only return if they feel like this group of ‘together’ people are radically different. We are a people who aren’t afraid of outsiders.
The core message of the parables of the lost sheep, coin and son is one of attitude.
We can be like the pharisees as a church, and we can treat those on the outside of our church with indifference. We can just ignore them like the pharisees did with the woman and the shepherd. We can even hate them like the pharisees did with the lost son who had clearly put shame on his family. Or we can welcome them with open arms when they come to us. Or we can take the challenge one step further, we can be like the shepherd and the woman, we can radically seek out the lost. We can carry the heart of the Father for the lost – a heart of radical love.
To be demonstrate radical togetherness church is more than reading, Bible stories from a position of being the sheep, the coin and the lost son. To demonstrate radical togetherness church is to see the shepherd, the woman and the lost son as outsiders excluded from the banquet table. To demonstrate radical togetherness church, is to hear Jesus say, I have come for the outsiders. If you believe in me, you are no longer an outsider. You are found, create a seat at my table for those who offend you, those who shame you and those you ignore. Be a place of radical togetherness. Because if you don’t, then you yourself will be the most lost in your comfort of being found.
No rei ra
And just when you think the story is finished – the ultimate twist is found. If we see past ourselves, understanding the Pharisee in each of us, we may just hear the Father in Luke 15: 31 “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
You see church, when our own concept of togetherness is challenged by others, our Father is still with us – our Father is for us. He is for you. He is for you. He just wants the blessings he has bestowed upon you to extend out to the lost.
Tene koutou, tene koutou, tene tatau katoa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQPifs2kjo
