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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
And the truth is that so often Jesus' encouragement to be ambassadors of and witnesses to resurrection, that's been replaced by the pursuit of our success and our security. And maybe that leaves all of us in a way still asking, now what? Now today, we are going to jump back into this series that we've begun in the aftermath of Easter, a series we've called Strange New World because really this is what Easter is meant to spark in us. This awareness that Jesus' victory over death and darkness, over violence and grave, how it changes the way that we live. In Christ, we are invited to live a life in which hope can be our enduring posture.
Speaker 1:It's a life that can be marked by love as its underlying motivation in all things. It is a life in which imagination becomes an important spiritual practice. And this is not to say that Easter invites any of us to be naive in the world. Not not at all. But it does invite us if we live in the way of a risen Christ to participate in a new reality.
Speaker 1:Where we can see with hope, and where expansive love is possible, and also where we can imagine a whole array of possible outcomes around us. And this is why last week we started this series with a reflection on the Eucharist meal. How the new community that Jesus inaugurated, how it took a welcoming table as its central symbol. With this invitation to a simple meal that bids every hungry heart come and find its place. And each place is one in which our illusions fade that Jesus would ever be a broker of our power and our control.
Speaker 1:Around the table we find a place where we realize that we will never be able to police who is swept up by the audacity of grace. Because if Jesus would break bread with his betrayer, if Jesus would wash the feet of those who would disown him, if he would in the day to come forgive his executors, what strange new world might emerge from around the table that he calls us to. Now, today we are going to consider the mission and the purpose of the church and that is a lot. So let's pause for a moment. Why don't you pray with me before we jump in?
Speaker 1:Loving God, to you our hearts are open and all of our desires are known. And in this moment, we wanna take an opportunity to maybe slow down for just a moment. To be aware of our racing minds. To sense our aching or our tired bodies. To be aware of our heavy hearts too.
Speaker 1:And as we have worshipped together, we have maybe sensed the invitation to shift our gaze from what occupies us, to shift our attention toward your great kindness. How it appears in those around us who are sitting in these rows together now. How it appears to us in the chance to let our voices join as one, singing and praying toward a kingdom that will come. And so we pray, would you be present to us now as we turn to ancient text? Spirit of God, we ask that you would help us to trust your gentle persistent work that you have started in each of us.
Speaker 1:And help us to trust the words of Jesus that these can be our guide as we move forward. We ask these things in the name of Christ who is our hope. Amen. Okay. We have some work to do if we're gonna talk about something as big as the mission of the church.
Speaker 1:So let's jump in. Along the way I wanna discuss the now what of Easter. I wanna talk a little bit about the limits of our language. I wanna share one of my misadventures and then talk about our misadventures and then I wanna talk about where resurrection happens. And I wanna start by talking a little bit about how this series connects to Easter and the fifty days of Eastertide that we are in right now.
Speaker 1:See, since the beginning, since Jesus' first followers and the church's start, Christians have marked and celebrated time as it passed and they've tried to tell the redemptive story of scripture in line with particular days or feasts. And the sources of Eastertide practice are actually embedded in the scripture. Acts one tells us that post resurrection Jesus spends about forty days with his disciples. Then he mysteriously ascends and then ten days later the Holy Spirit comes and fills his friends. That's actually where we come up with these fifty days for which we would celebrate Easter and over time Christian tradition has used this season of Eastertide to think about exploration and imagination and renewal in the wake of resurrection.
Speaker 1:The world is new and astonishing because of Easter. But I'm not sure that we always think about this in the light or from the perspective of Jesus' friends. The Christian scriptures describe that Jesus appeared to them after that first Easter Sunday. That he spent some time with them in the days afterwards. And Luke's gospel in chapter 24 tells us that during this period Jesus opened their minds so that they could understand the scripture.
Speaker 1:And he told them, this is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And I'm going to send what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you've been clothed with power from on high.
Speaker 1:And just a quick note here, the book of Acts, which is a sequel to Luke's gospel that we're reading in, The book of Acts actually picks up the story with the same information. It tells us that Jesus is hanging out with his friends, he's telling them that they will be witnesses starting in Jerusalem and that they need to just hold tight until the spirit comes. But before Luke moves the story along, Luke describes how first Jesus leads his disciples out one day to the vicinity of Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. He lifts up his hands and he blesses them And that while he's blessing them, he leaves and is taken up into heaven. Now, if you think about it, the gospel stories like this one offer a curious frame for our Eastertide celebration.
Speaker 1:It's actually really interesting to think about the resurrected Jesus showing up, giving lots of high fives obviously, and opening his disciples' minds to the depths of the scripture. But then, the story just ends. Jesus shows up and says, can can you believe all of this? Can you see what it all means? And then, he leaves.
Speaker 1:So that a world that seems so different and so full of potential for Jesus' friends, now all of a sudden, it would have been so strange because Jesus wasn't in it anymore. And I think that's a helpful useful entry point into the rhythms of Eastertide. Yes. This is a season where we consider wondrous implications and we make room for renewed imagination. How?
Speaker 1:As Jeremy described this series last week, we want to think about how Easter shapes and guides our vision for the community of Christ. But if we take the perspective of Jesus' friends on that hillside, standing there looking up, so they're like, what? And looking around at each other, Eastertide becomes the season in which it is appropriate to ask, now what? And I imagine that there might be some of us here that are embracing this season with hope and anticipation. Maybe some of you have this awareness of new life somewhere.
Speaker 1:Obviously things are greening around us, we have this sense around us. There's this fresh opportunity. Maybe Easter for you feels like a time when the future is opening up. But alternatively Easter could also be a season where you feel maybe a little bit more like Jesus' friends may have standing there, looking out at a world that might be strange and new for reasons that you do not understand. And you might be able to give a sense to the idea of resurrection, But as for what to do and how to act in the startling situation that you find yourself in right now, in the circumstances where you struggle to sense Christ's nearness, maybe you are asking now what?
Speaker 1:And there's more doubt and uncertainty than joy. Whatever the case, trust me Eastertide is expansive enough to include all of the ways that we ask this question. Because as it turns out, Jesus' final words to his friends were meant to help them move forward. And every follower of Jesus since. And that brings us to a discussion of what all this means.
Speaker 1:For the church abroad that still rehearses and declares these mysteries every year. And for us, as a local expression of that global movement. Because in effect, we trace our roots to those few friends that walked off that mountain into the world, informed and driven by a sense of mission that they felt that Jesus had gave them. Those first followers that went and lived into the question of just what it is that Jesus commanded and dreamed that they might do. And what's interesting is throughout history, Christians have focused their efforts in the light of Easter on all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:And depending on the tradition of Christianity that you may have been raised around or been exposed to in your life, we might have very different understandings of the purpose of the church and its mission here in the room today. Some Christians have gone about sharing or proclaiming or spreading the good news about Jesus. The English word evangelize is derived directly from the Greek verb euangelos which just means simply to bring the gospel or bring the good news. And just about every Christian tradition continues to do this. The practice of evangelizing is often called mission or missions and the reasons for that are pretty clear.
Speaker 1:See the English word mission, it's just a transliteration of a Latin term, missio, which is a translation of a Greek term, apostleship. Now I don't want you to get lost in the etymological mess right there, but apostleship is simply the form of the Greek verb to send. That's why Jesus' friends, the ones that he said would go and preach forgiveness of sins to all nations in those verses I just read, they were called apostles. That's why in Galatians two we read Paul talking about Peter's mission or ministry or apostleship to the Jewish people. That's why there Paul will talk about his own mission, his apostleship to the non Jews of the Roman empire.
Speaker 1:And this is why Christians still refer to those who are gone or who are sent to share their faith, we refer to them as missionaries. And it's why, lots of you, I think, I asked you what the mission of the church is, you might reply by quoting Matthew 28 to me. Where Jesus told his friends and followers, go into all the world, preach, make disciples. And I don't wanna suggest that the impulse to go or that this language of being sent is misplaced. Jesus repeatedly sent his friends out during his ministry.
Speaker 1:And Eastertide reminds us that in the wake of his ascension, his followers asked themselves, what should happen next? And then as they asked themselves that question, they remembered that Jesus had turned them out toward the world. Now that said, I do wonder if our language for mission has limited our imagination at times. How in applying it to one kind of response to Easter, the going, the proclaiming that we have narrowed the experience in the practice of faith. Don't forget, some Christians like our Catholic siblings, throughout history have set out to build the kingdom of God that Jesus announced.
Speaker 1:They tried to make the world more just or equitable through the formation of things like organizations and hospitals and liberation movements and so much more. Some Christians, like our orthodox friends, have given their efforts to try to preserve and maintain and remain true to the earliest practices and ideas of the church. Some, like our affirmation on the front page of the Commons Journal, have defined their efforts as simply joining with God in the renewal of all things. And then those people have just gone to work locally and abroad. And maybe framing that diversity helps you see the ways that you've been sent into the new world as well.
Speaker 1:Now, as any responsible conversation about the mission of the church in the twenty first century demands, it demands that we are honest about our missteps, our misguidedness, and our misconduct. Because mistakes have been made in all of our going into the world. And they range from the benign to the horrific. And I wanna give you a couple examples of what I mean. The first is a personal one.
Speaker 1:Right after graduating from high school, I went and I studied in a gap year ministry program in California. It was an accredited biblical studies program. We did that in the mornings and then there was practical ministry opportunities and stuff that happened in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. This just mean meant that we organized like sports programs and we led Sunday services in churches around California and Nevada and we helped run conferences for youth all over the Western US. We also, with some regularity, did what is sometimes called street evangelism.
Speaker 1:What's that, you ask? I will tell you. Well, imagine going to a jazz festival in San Francisco, beautiful, right by the pier, and encountering a group of sincere college kids sitting on blankets playing worship songs far too loudly while you're trying to watch the main act. Imagine. Or imagine walking your dog in your neighborhood and encountering some sincere college kids who might come to you and they would ask you how your day is going and you try to walk past and they would somewhat randomly ask if there was anything you needed to be prayed for about.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I did those things. But one of my key memories is actually of this time we went down to Huntington Beach, California, which is this community South Of LA that boasts these long waterfront streets loaded with hip restaurants and shops. Huntington's also the surfing capital of The US. It's a cool spot today.
Speaker 1:It was super cool back then too. And this is why on one Saturday night we went down to the bustling main street and we started doing some unsolicited pop up dramatic performances like you should. And in one of them, I played the part of Jesus, complete with an ankle length white robe. And at one point, in the performance, I would step out into the passing pedestrians of date night couples and surfer bros and I would quote Jesus' words from Matthew 11. I would say, come to me if you are tired and heavy hearted and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1:And I remember feeling those words that night. I felt them so much, I really projected them to the degree that I saw, I still remember this guy, he was sitting on this like raised patio across the bustling street and I see him look up from his surf and turf and he's so confused why some kid in a bathrobe is yelling at him. And to this day, I'm so grateful that all of this predates cell phone cameras. You know you'd be finding me on YouTube. Right?
Speaker 1:And I submit this as an example of my own somewhat misguided, but hopefully benign expression of Christian mission. And maybe you have your own embarrassing misstep too. That said, it's so important to acknowledge that the line between the benign and the problematic isn't always so clear. For example, here in this city, we have a neighborhood called Mission. Some of you might live in it.
Speaker 1:And why is that there? Well, because the earliest Catholic activities here on Malkinstis began beside the Elbow River in the early nine or eighteen seventies. And that can seem innocent enough, but only if we fail to acknowledge the ways that our Protestant and Catholic institutions were intimately connected with the traumas and abuses of colonial development in this region. And those processes have repeated themselves throughout the history of the Christian church whenever Christian practices of mission have been aligned with and used by the powers of expanding nation states. The truth is that Christian theology has often been mirrored in foreign policy.
Speaker 1:Where ideas like the doctrine of discovery and the ideals of manifest destiny gave Christians, many of them sincere. It gave them a God given right to take and control land and wealth and people. And the truth is that so often Jesus' encouragement to be ambassadors of and witnesses to resurrection, That's been replaced by the pursuit of our success and our security. And, maybe that leaves all of us in a way still asking, now what? Resurrection is a grand enough idea to give us pause, think.
Speaker 1:But in light of all the ways that our tradition has misused it, in the ways that maybe we feel like we've messed it up or the ways that we feel we're still so far from realizing the humble non violent way that Jesus said he would transform all things, In the face of all that, it can feel like we're a little bit lost when it comes to mission. And this is why I want to argue we need fifty days of Eastertide. Eastertide in a way is a kind of detox and it's a bit of an invitation to be more hopeful and intentional in a fractured world. Right? But also I think Eastertide is also a spiritually healthy practice because it calls us to return to Jesus' final words each year.
Speaker 1:Because at the very least, we should take some comfort in the fact that Jesus had to walk his friends through the landmarks of a world transformed by grace. Luke tells us that Jesus spent much of the first Eastertide opening the scriptures to his friends. As scholar Joel Green points out, Jesus had to teach them how and why and where resurrection fit in the scope of Jewish history. And I I appreciate this because Christ reappearing from the dead would have been, and really it still is, the kind of idea that should just steal the stage. It's so easy, as it must have been for Jesus' friends, to see resurrection as a feat, as an accomplishment, like, yeah Jesus, you did it.
Speaker 1:Rather than it being the sign of a complete and fundamental shift in reality. That's why it's not inconsequential that Jesus had to teach his friends. He had to teach them how the scriptures pointed to all of this, how the redemptive ark of grace was now pulling all nations in and in teaching them that Jesus was making something very clear to us as well. That resurrection doesn't happen in a vacuum. It unfolded in the scope of history in the person of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yes. It unfolded in the first fitful attempts of his friends to proclaim and model the forgiveness of sins to their neighbors. You bet it did. But also, resurrection continues to unfold in the lives and the fabric of those who try to go and be witnesses to it. Listen, Luke says that Jesus walked them through the scriptures, but what's curious is that when you read what Jesus says, there's that quote in there where Jesus says, this is what is written, the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:When you take that quote and you look at it closely, Jesus isn't quoting from any actual passages. As one scholar notes, one would be hard pressed to locate specific texts that make these prognostications explicit. And that is monumental. Because in effect, Jesus' post Easter messages seem to have been less concerned with teaching his friends how to proof text their way forward into whatever was coming next. Seems like Jesus was way more concerned in waking his friends up to the fact that they had encountered resurrection.
Speaker 1:That they were witnessing it right in front of them. You are witnesses to these things Jesus said. And, I imagine a kind of earnest mischief in his eyes. And, so too are you witnesses. I can imagine Jesus saying to us.
Speaker 1:You are witnesses when you gently try to explain your theology to somebody who's curious in your life or someone who disagrees with you. You are witnesses when you go and you form relationships and homes and communities that are based on radical welcome. You're witnesses when you don't just work for profit or for your own means, but you do so so that others will flourish and so that you can be generous with your resources. You are witnesses when you partner with local groups that serve the shut in and the vulnerable and the voiceless. Or when we try to do this at Commons, when we partner with international groups like Hands at Work that pursue equitable development at the speed of relationship.
Speaker 1:You are witnesses when you comfort a grieving friend. When you march and you work for change. When you do the slow, methodical work of choosing to try to heal well, and then move on. You are witness every time you choose a new course. See, in calling us witnesses, Jesus taught us to trust that while the grounding claims of resurrection might be in the scripture, the enduring truth of resurrection is that it's found right here where we struggle and where we grow weary and where we find ourselves uncertain of what it means.
Speaker 1:In calling us witnesses, Jesus then makes our mission very simple and very clear to just go out into all that is strange and yet remarkable and simply do your best to point out resurrection, to witness it and make it more true. Let's pray. Loving God, it is it's a lot to do our best to look back and think about what resurrection might mean. It's a lot to to even maybe know how to respond. It's also a lot to look out at our world and know how to carry this fragile story.
Speaker 1:To know how to share it, how to make it come to life. That's why in many ways, it is such an incredible thing to consider that you tried to help your friends understand that resurrection was something that was happening in the tangible elements of their life. It was there in their learning. It was there in their encounter with you. It was there in their efforts to tell the story.
Speaker 1:And so this is why we pray, as they surely must have, that you would open our eyes, that you would open our hearts, that you'd give us courage to walk intent on spotting, intent on catching a glimpse, intent on gently announcing resurrection wherever we can find it. Walk with us now into today, tomorrow and in all this week brings us. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. Can also join our Discord server.
Speaker 2:Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.