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Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.
Life Together In The Goodness Of God
What a day to be together. There's a particular kind of fear I'm curious if you've ever experienced. Does anyone here willing to say, like, I am prone to be afraid of being alone? That's me. I don't like that sometimes. Or being abandoned, or left behind, or overlooked, right? I feel like every hand should kind of slightly go up. Some of us telling the truth. Parents, I know that, yeah, thank you, Dennis. Parents, I know that, especially parents of little kids, I know that there's no such thing as a fear of being alone. It sounds like a vacation, like a blessing. I'm not talking about that kind of alone. I'm talking about something else. The fear of walking into a room and realizing the people you counted on are gone. Of waking up and not knowing who will be with you when you face these hard things in your day. That kind of alone. Many of us know what it feels like to be left behind, or abandoned, or left alone, on not great terms. I think, if we're honest, some of us are today, right now, in that fear. Experiencing that feeling of being abandoned, or left behind. That's a really tough place to be. The disciples, I think they knew this fear pretty well. I can relate to them. And I think this is why we pray the prayer we prayed just a minute ago this morning, not as a formality, if you heard this prayer that Scott prayed for us, but a cry from the gut of every person who has ever wondered whether God would show up for them. Or whether, in the end, we would be left to face it alone again. We prayed asking God not to leave us comfortless, that's what we prayed, but to send the Spirit to strengthen us and to exalt us to that place where Christ has already gone before. Christ has ascended. This last week was the Feast of the Ascension, and we are reflecting on that today as well. Christ has ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father, in the seat of power, superintending the course of all creation, the course of all history, but yet not abandoning us. How is that? The disciples are still here, staring up into the sky, wondering, what the heck just happened when we saw our friend swallowed up by the clouds and disappearing? And the question that lingers that's still hanging there is, will we be left alone? Will we be left alone now? Look what happens in Acts chapter 1. Jesus has just told his disciples they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. We're looking forward to Pentecost, right? That's coming. And then a cloud takes them up out of their sight, and they just stand there staring in the sky, and the two angels have come and basically say, why are you still looking up? What's your problem? What are you looking for? He's gone. Now go! That image just sticks with me. I can relate to that, that feeling of, well, now what? Because I think most of us at some point have been those people, those disciples, standing in the place where something good used to be, and now it has changed, staring at the sky, not quite ready to turn around and face what comes next. You know those moments where you're just like, I just need a moment before I take that next step, before I turn and face what's coming? Amen. I feel that. But here's what Scripture, the whole of Scripture, insists, and we hear it read to us again and again, and if you're as dense as me, you need Scriptures read to you again and again, and maybe sung sometimes, because you get twice the points for it at that point, but also because we need to hear it again and again, and Scripture is univocal about this. You are not alone. You are not alone in that moment. And friends, honestly, even when we feel alone, when we're certain we were alone, we never were alone. In John 17, before any of this happens, before Christ ascends, before the arrest, before the cross, before the ascension, Jesus prays this prayer, not for Himself, but for them, for His disciples, for us. He prays, Holy Father, protect them in Your name, so that they may be one as we are one. I'm not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom You gave me. Jesus, on the night that He was handed over and abandoned and betrayed, spent His breath praying for His people that they would never experience that, that He would always be with them. It's not the prayer of someone abandoning his friends, what we just heard from Jesus. This is the prayer of someone who loves them so completely, so profoundly that even His departure is an act of care. And then in 1 Peter, written to a community that's suffering and scattered, it says this, me and Tishar heard this, and we both thought, mm, we need to hear it. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Mm, right, Tishar? Mm-hmm. She could do it better than I can. Cast all your anxiety, not because life is going to be easy, not because nothing hard or no suffering is going to happen, but because God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same God who will restore, support, strengthen, be with you, and establish you. Amen? Amen. That same God that went to the depths of death and hell and suffering and raised Christ from the dead is with you in those same depths. We are not abandoned. We are not alone. We are held in Christ in the Spirit's power and friends in this community with one another. Look around. Oh, let me do this. My Black church friends taught me how to do this. Turn to your neighbor and say, you're not alone. Turn to your neighbor and say, you're not alone. Turn to your other neighbor and say, you're not alone. This is awesome. Yeah. How do you suppose to say it? Oh, turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor. You're not. All right, we get it, right? We'll do it better next time. We'll do it better next time. We're not abandoned. We're not alone. Which is where Tashara and Courtney and Ange come in. This is such an illustrated point here. I think of Courtney sitting at the bar at Stout House having a cup of coffee and just sharing with me sort of the first time that I heard it that maybe you had some sort of call in your life. Do you remember that? I remember that. Tashara at Galaxy Cafe talking to me about how you would work with your dad preparing his sermons and there was a seed planted about some sort of calling that I feel like everyone else knew except for you at that point. And Ange in my office. I remember sitting there talking to you about spiritual direction and this whole world breaking open to you. And I think then it was those moments where those conversations started happening where you go, Sean, I think there's something more here. I think there's calling here. I remember these. I wish that all of us could have been in those spaces to hear these people, these beloved people courageously share that maybe there's something more going on in their lives. To witness their courage in that moment, you know how much guts it takes to say, I think there's something going on here that I need to respond to. I wish you could have seen that, but also I wish you could witness that moment so that you would see again the evidence of what Jesus has promised us in these texts. The Spirit showing up in ordinary people doing exactly what the Spirit has always done. You three, Ange, Tashara, Courtney, you are evidence that God has not abandoned us and that the Spirit of God is still at work. The church is not left alone. When we say, God, we need help, God says, have Courtney, have Tashara, have Ange, and by the way, from St. James, have Scott, right? God gives and gives and gives, and we are not alone. We are not without strength, as our prayer says. They are the evidence that God has not abandoned us, and your ministry to us, you three especially, has the mark of God's power and presence that we are reminded by constantly. If you don't know these people, let me just say this, if you're here and you find anything about Rez that you really love, I promise you, I could point to, I could trace that back in some part to their contribution. They have done something about that. The reason this community is so amazing and so beautiful and people find belonging and hope and the gospel of Jesus Christ here is because these three people concretely worked at it, served, poured out their lives, and more importantly, stood before God in those moments and said, yeah, Lord, maybe, I'm open to that. What do you got? What courage that takes, and we are the benefactors of that obedience and faith. So thank you, by the way. You've made Rez what it is. God does not leave us staring at the sky. God sends the Spirit, God sends the Spirit that moves through ordinary people like these three. God sends the Spirit to move through this community in so many ways to so many people, through whoever says yes when God calls them. And it doesn't need to be to ordained ministry. Please, take me seriously about this. There's so many other ways, like save yourself. There's so many other ways to serve the Lord. Whoever says yes to the call of God, even in small things, serving and teaching our children in the classroom is saying yes to the Spirit of God saying, would you serve the least of these? Serving coffee. You look around, you'll see it. Which is why today is more than just saying goodbye to three people we love, even though that's part of it. It's about the kind of church we are and the kind of church we are becoming. Not one that hoards its best leaders out of scarcity, but an Easter church, an Ascension church, which gives what is most precious to it away for the life of the world and the mission of God, because we know we are not alone and God continues to give to us. Right? The same Spirit that turned a group of sky-gazing disciples into witnesses to the end of the earth is still moving through South Austin, through us, through Jubilee, through St. Mark's, St. Paul's. Let's mix it up with St. Paul's Waco. We are not left comfortless. The Spirit is at work. Friends, the same Spirit that moved through them is moving through you. Have you asked this question recently? Have you paid attention to the way that the Spirit is moving with you? And the Spirit, if you say, I'm good, leave me alone, the Spirit will leave you alone. And that's a scary place to be. But if you're open to it, you say, well, Lord, I'm listening. What are you doing in me? The Spirit will breathe and move in your life. And whatever anxieties or concerns or calculations you may have that self-select yourself out or disqualify yourself or say, here's why I can't be used and here's why you should see my path, Sean, I would say to you, honestly, it's none of my business, but God knows all of it. We just prayed. There's nothing hidden before the sight of God. God knows and yet still wants to use you. That's between you and God. Cast your anxieties upon him because he cares for you. So today, as we send out our friends and as you stand there looking into the sky and we all together sort of bump each other and say, hey, we need to get going. Spirit, what are you doing in me? As we do that, we stand in a moment of transition. We grieve a little bit, but we also have great joy because the Spirit is at work in our lives and in this world, and we so desperately need the Spirit to be at work. So to you three, Courtney, Tashara, Ange, please go with our blessing. Go with our blessing. Kick me, Scott. Go with our blessing and with our love. Go with the power of the Spirit, the same Spirit that brought you to us. And to the rest of us, remain open. Open yourselves to the movement of the Spirit, the call of God in your life. I promise you, there is something there. It's the same Spirit that brought them here. It's the same Spirit that now goes with them all the days of their life. It's the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, is the Spirit that dwells in you and calls you by name to your ministry, to your calling, to your leadership. May we make ourselves available and open to that call. Amen. Amen. Let's take a moment of silence so I can compose myself,