Are We Experiencing An Interlude or A Bigger Opportunity?
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday in Immokalee we were discussing how we share in the incarnation of Christ when we show up in an unexpected way to bless people. The context was the iCo dance team that One by One Leadership Foundation has sponsored through the funding of the work of Keith and Lisa Banks… who one might first think should never be in Immokalee of all places. But somehow they chose to accept the call to loving service and to live into it. The success of the implementation seems to hinge on the issues of dignity and elitism and frankly is the very challenge our nation faces. It is a challenge we face in our places of worship. It is a challenge we face as individuals too. That is why the arts are important in helping us communicate. You can learn more about the work of how iCo empowers Immokalee High School students through dance to build their confidence. Check out this story by Naples Daily News on naplesnews.com: http://nplsne.ws/2farwLi . Now some of you will see them perform at Moorings Presbyterian Church this Saturday at 3:00 pm. Hopefully people will experience little acts of kindness converging in a larger story. And that is the point, as with Christ we have a choice to accept or reject the offer to engage. And it makes us mindful of that day when we stand before the King, and it will be either a blessing or a rejection. So today we prepare for the incarnational celebration of Christ coming to earth as well as hope in the life to come. And we ask a practical question that requires our attention to what is happening holistically in our lives during this post-election pre-Christmas, pre performance season.
And we wonder. Are We Experiencing An Interlude or A Bigger Opportunity?
Scripture: I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.
Job 29:16 (NRSV)
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
Matthew 25:31-40 (NRSV)
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,
Ephesians 3:17-20 (NRSV)
Message: Recently I have been thinking about the incarnation Christ through the arts.
Society is constantly attempting to put us in a box to better control us and the arts help us move our culture’s direction by pointing to a future. The arts help us to see beyond the coffin box realizing that Jesus would not be put in a box. He would not stay in the tomb. He and the Spirit in him would not submit to things that diminish the worth of another person or of God. His focus was in revealing the sacred worth of all people. Here Jesus found truth in diversity and individualism as well as the corporate. Here we discover that love and religion is be universal in its validation of life.
I don’t know about you but, when I die, I want to be able to stand in the presence of Jesus and look back over my life and see that it counted for something. If we desire that goal as a necessity of life, if we want to pour ourselves into the lives of God’s people, I believe we can become significant. The key is learning to be a servant…learning to be in His service…learning to share in the incarnational life…of the Word made flesh… of His body broken for us as our gift given we are to share… You see Jesus embodied God and repeats in his earthly life God’s plan of choosing one to reach many. We can see it in the miracles. We can see it in his choosing the disciples. It is always from one to many. And we are to see it as an opportunity each and every time. It is the way God works. Today in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats we see an example of how every act of kindness is to be a direct service to Christ…. from one to many. And here we might just learn that there is something incarnational about being in a place you are not expected to be….in being kind and loving to those in need. The craziness is that we read books about when Jesus told how we could meet Him in the flesh. And this often means going where there is some tension…some uncertainty… but always a place where there is love. And firsthand knowledge of this experience is worth more than acquiring secondhand knowledge anytime. The reality is that there is a symmetry and art of seeing diversity. When the contrast is extreme… the power can become intense. That is the power of the incarnation. When the Son of God becomes what we are, it makes it possible for us to become the children of God. When we risk going where we do not seem to belong…being with those who are not like us, we begin to be sanctified into the presence of Christ by the experience…we get to meet Jesus. And that is exactly where we are supposed to be.
Pray we embody the Spirit of Jesus in our actions each day. Pray that each time the Spirit interrupts our secular actions we see it as an opportunity to multiple the sacred message of God. Pray we realize that God not only became one of us but also came into us so we might multiple the experience. Pray we pursue the right ambition under Christ’s rule with the desire others might share in the Kingdom. Pray we see to make the right decisions. Pray we look at our hands helping others out of the box not halting their freedom even as we grasp theirs in our ascent out of our pit. Pray that God free us from bondage in the box. Pray we not become elitists.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 