Inspired by the opening verses of Philemon, I offer a brief reflection on Halloween and offer us a chance to think of our saints earlier than we otherwise might.
Vision for the Church: Serve All
Over the last couple of weeks, our congregation has been talking about our updated vision statement. We have shared bits and pieces of it through worship in our sermons, our Bible texts, and our music, and some of the core words have been posted on signs around the church campus.
We have focused most of our teaching on the three actions that sit at the center of our renewed vision statement. Two week ago we talked about what it means to authentically welcome all people. Last week we talked about authentically loving all people. This week, using Luke 22:24-27, we look at authentically serving all people as we also release our full vision statement.
We have focused most of our teaching on the three actions that sit at the center of our renewed vision statement. Two week ago we talked about what it means to authentically welcome all people. Last week we talked about authentically loving all people. This week, using Luke 22:24-27, we look at authentically serving all people as we also release our full vision statement.
Vision for the Church: Love All
Through the month of October, we are rolling out an updated vision statement. This statement is thoroughly grounded in the Holy Spirit and rooted in the example of Jesus. Our statement begins "We desire to be a church empowered and united by the Holy Spirit." This is where we start, empowered and united by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that Jesus promised to us.
As a community empowered and united by the Holy Spirit, we seek authenticity in our life together. Last week, we explored the first of the core tenets of this relational community- we welcome God and all people. This week, we explore the second of our core tenants - we love God and all people.
In worship today, we focused ourselves on 1 John 4:7-21. We looked at how we are called to love one another and how this love is an intentional action, not simply a feeling or emotion. And we talked about the ways in which fear is the antithesis to mature love. However, I was also inspired this week by 1 Corinthians 13 when it came up in Bible study
As a community empowered and united by the Holy Spirit, we seek authenticity in our life together. Last week, we explored the first of the core tenets of this relational community- we welcome God and all people. This week, we explore the second of our core tenants - we love God and all people.
In worship today, we focused ourselves on 1 John 4:7-21. We looked at how we are called to love one another and how this love is an intentional action, not simply a feeling or emotion. And we talked about the ways in which fear is the antithesis to mature love. However, I was also inspired this week by 1 Corinthians 13 when it came up in Bible study
Season of Creation: Cosmos Sunday
Today, we take time to recognize the vastness of God's creation, the cosmos that extends farther than we can see or comprehend. Looking to Psalm 148, we see that all of this vast creation joins together in praising God. And so we look out in awesome wonder on all that God has created and join with the rest of creation in a song of praise to our Creator.
* * *
This week, we come to the end of the series we started last month. Over the last few weeks, we have been exploring God’s creation and our place in it. We have explored the waters of this world, particularly the oceans and the seas. We have looked at the plants and animals that fill the world around us. We talked a bit about our reliance on them and our call to care for them. Two weeks ago, we discussed the nature of storms, and we talked about how the power of storms can remind us of God even as we know that God is greater than any storm. God is a comforter who provides us blessing and strength in the midst of life’s storms.
Today, we expand our focus outward to encounter God in the fullness of the cosmos.
Two weeks ago, I mentioned how much I love storms. I love going out and watching a storm roll in or watching the flashes of lightning over the water. Today, I have a similar confession to make. I enjoy going out on a dark night, laying down in the grass, and staring up at the stars.
I don’t know about you, but when I look out into the stars I wonder what else has God created in this vast cosmos. It also helps to center me and remind me that I am not in fact the center of everything. A whole vast universe exists out there.
I feel a sense of awe as I stare up on a dark, cloudless night. It is not the same sense of awe I feel when standing by the sea or watching the play of lightning during a storm. At those times, I am in awe of the power, a power dwarfed by the power of God, who set it all in motion.
But staring up into the sky, I am in awe of the vastness of creation. God didn’t stop with the land on which we stand. God did not stop with the creation of the plants and animals. God created a vast cosmos that is greater than we can fully observe or comprehend.
And just as the seas and the storms point us beyond themselves to the greatness of God, so does the rest of creation. As we look to our Psalm today, we see this reflected for us. All of creation is called on to praise our creator. The heavens, the heights, the sun, moon, and stars. The waters and the land. The animals, the plants. Even the storms offer praise to God.
And, of course, all of the people. From the greatest king to the lowliest servant -- all are called on to offer praise to God. And all simply because God has provided us with creation.
God had a vision, a vision to create order out of chaos. To take the emptiness and to fill it with good things. God took the nothingness that existed and created life! This is God’s vision for us--that we live. God wishes for all of creation to live.
And so all of creation is guided by God’s vision. God commanded the trees to grow; and they did. God commanded the animals to fill the earth; and they did. God put the waters in their place and created the cycles of weather and climate, of night and day, of growth and rest. And so all of creation is alive due to God’s vision.
God’s vision provides structure and guidance to everything that exists.
God put it all in motion and gave us the command to care for it all. God created us as a part of all that surrounds us and told us to live in relationship to each other and the rest of creation. God gave us everything we need to live and to thrive and for the rest of creation to live and to thrive.
But we know we sometimes fall short. We lose sight of the relationships that God has created around us. We lose sight of our relationship with the rest of creation. Sometimes we think it’s all about us.
This is one reason I think we need the night sky. We need to be reminded that we exist within something far greater than ourselves. We surround ourselves with light to keep the darkness at bay, and in doing so we deprive ourselves of the beauty of God’s cosmos, of the way it inspires us to praise God for the mighty things that God has created.
As we consider the ways in which we are connected to the rest of God’s creation, as we consider our place in this great cosmos that God has created, we must of course consider as well our connections to each other.
For the first thousand or so years after Jesus, all congregations were connected to one another as a single big “C” church. But due largely to a single word inserted into the creed, along with a few other disagreements, the Church centered in Rome and the Church centered in what was at the time Constantinople split apart. The Church continued split in two like this for another 500 years or so before it was fractured again by disagreements over various doctrines within the church. This fracturing has led to hundreds if not thousands of denominations existing today.
When we consider the goodness that God pronounced as the world was created, as order was placed on top of chaos, as the cycles of creation were put into motion, it is hard to see the divisions we create between ourselves as a part of God’s vision for us.
In the last 100 years, efforts have been made to promote greater unity between all of the different churches that exist in the world today. This was born out of a recognition that as Christians, there is far more that unites us with one another than separates us. We all believe in the same ministry of Jesus in the world. We all believe that we are called by Jesus to love one another and to serve others. We all gather at a table to remember and celebrate Jesus’ meals with his disciples and others.
And so, in keeping with God’s vision that all of creation work together in praise, churches around the world celebrate World Communion Sunday on the first Sunday of October each year. In congregations around the globe, believers gather at the table. In doing so, we are all reminded of our unity in Christ and of our common place in God’s creation. We are, all of us, in need of God’s grace. We are, all of us, guilty of sins which separate us from God and each other. And so we come, all of us, to the table that Christ has set before us.
Through this meal, we take part in Christ’s redemption of creation all over again. We share in the bread and the cup, the body and the blood that was offered to us all. We are reminded again of a love that knows no limits, a love that gives up everything so that we can live in harmony with one another. We are reminded again that the grave did not stop those meals, that Jesus continued to eat with his disciples, assuring us that God’s love for us is without end.
Jesus came to reconcile all of creation, to bring us all back into relationship with God and each other. And so as we gather at this table today, we do so knowing that the entire cosmos sings praise to God alongside us as we partake of this meal.
So we shift our focus now from the vast cosmos of creation to vast meaning contained in the bread and the cup.
As we do, we remember the elements of God’s creation that come together on this table.
We remember our need for grace.
We remember that we are connected to each other through this holy meal.
And we remember that Christ invites us all to the table together.
* * *
This week, we come to the end of the series we started last month. Over the last few weeks, we have been exploring God’s creation and our place in it. We have explored the waters of this world, particularly the oceans and the seas. We have looked at the plants and animals that fill the world around us. We talked a bit about our reliance on them and our call to care for them. Two weeks ago, we discussed the nature of storms, and we talked about how the power of storms can remind us of God even as we know that God is greater than any storm. God is a comforter who provides us blessing and strength in the midst of life’s storms.
Today, we expand our focus outward to encounter God in the fullness of the cosmos.
Two weeks ago, I mentioned how much I love storms. I love going out and watching a storm roll in or watching the flashes of lightning over the water. Today, I have a similar confession to make. I enjoy going out on a dark night, laying down in the grass, and staring up at the stars.
I don’t know about you, but when I look out into the stars I wonder what else has God created in this vast cosmos. It also helps to center me and remind me that I am not in fact the center of everything. A whole vast universe exists out there.
I feel a sense of awe as I stare up on a dark, cloudless night. It is not the same sense of awe I feel when standing by the sea or watching the play of lightning during a storm. At those times, I am in awe of the power, a power dwarfed by the power of God, who set it all in motion.
But staring up into the sky, I am in awe of the vastness of creation. God didn’t stop with the land on which we stand. God did not stop with the creation of the plants and animals. God created a vast cosmos that is greater than we can fully observe or comprehend.
And just as the seas and the storms point us beyond themselves to the greatness of God, so does the rest of creation. As we look to our Psalm today, we see this reflected for us. All of creation is called on to praise our creator. The heavens, the heights, the sun, moon, and stars. The waters and the land. The animals, the plants. Even the storms offer praise to God.
And, of course, all of the people. From the greatest king to the lowliest servant -- all are called on to offer praise to God. And all simply because God has provided us with creation.
God had a vision, a vision to create order out of chaos. To take the emptiness and to fill it with good things. God took the nothingness that existed and created life! This is God’s vision for us--that we live. God wishes for all of creation to live.
And so all of creation is guided by God’s vision. God commanded the trees to grow; and they did. God commanded the animals to fill the earth; and they did. God put the waters in their place and created the cycles of weather and climate, of night and day, of growth and rest. And so all of creation is alive due to God’s vision.
God’s vision provides structure and guidance to everything that exists.
God put it all in motion and gave us the command to care for it all. God created us as a part of all that surrounds us and told us to live in relationship to each other and the rest of creation. God gave us everything we need to live and to thrive and for the rest of creation to live and to thrive.
But we know we sometimes fall short. We lose sight of the relationships that God has created around us. We lose sight of our relationship with the rest of creation. Sometimes we think it’s all about us.
This is one reason I think we need the night sky. We need to be reminded that we exist within something far greater than ourselves. We surround ourselves with light to keep the darkness at bay, and in doing so we deprive ourselves of the beauty of God’s cosmos, of the way it inspires us to praise God for the mighty things that God has created.
As we consider the ways in which we are connected to the rest of God’s creation, as we consider our place in this great cosmos that God has created, we must of course consider as well our connections to each other.
For the first thousand or so years after Jesus, all congregations were connected to one another as a single big “C” church. But due largely to a single word inserted into the creed, along with a few other disagreements, the Church centered in Rome and the Church centered in what was at the time Constantinople split apart. The Church continued split in two like this for another 500 years or so before it was fractured again by disagreements over various doctrines within the church. This fracturing has led to hundreds if not thousands of denominations existing today.
When we consider the goodness that God pronounced as the world was created, as order was placed on top of chaos, as the cycles of creation were put into motion, it is hard to see the divisions we create between ourselves as a part of God’s vision for us.
In the last 100 years, efforts have been made to promote greater unity between all of the different churches that exist in the world today. This was born out of a recognition that as Christians, there is far more that unites us with one another than separates us. We all believe in the same ministry of Jesus in the world. We all believe that we are called by Jesus to love one another and to serve others. We all gather at a table to remember and celebrate Jesus’ meals with his disciples and others.
And so, in keeping with God’s vision that all of creation work together in praise, churches around the world celebrate World Communion Sunday on the first Sunday of October each year. In congregations around the globe, believers gather at the table. In doing so, we are all reminded of our unity in Christ and of our common place in God’s creation. We are, all of us, in need of God’s grace. We are, all of us, guilty of sins which separate us from God and each other. And so we come, all of us, to the table that Christ has set before us.
Through this meal, we take part in Christ’s redemption of creation all over again. We share in the bread and the cup, the body and the blood that was offered to us all. We are reminded again of a love that knows no limits, a love that gives up everything so that we can live in harmony with one another. We are reminded again that the grave did not stop those meals, that Jesus continued to eat with his disciples, assuring us that God’s love for us is without end.
Jesus came to reconcile all of creation, to bring us all back into relationship with God and each other. And so as we gather at this table today, we do so knowing that the entire cosmos sings praise to God alongside us as we partake of this meal.
So we shift our focus now from the vast cosmos of creation to vast meaning contained in the bread and the cup.
As we do, we remember the elements of God’s creation that come together on this table.
We remember our need for grace.
We remember that we are connected to each other through this holy meal.
And we remember that Christ invites us all to the table together.
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