Are You A Pollinator Of Peace?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we consider our role as Christians spreading the good news of the love and peace of Christ and compare this purpose and important function to bees sent out to the world, so we all might live in a land of milk and honey. We consider what God wants us to be and the temperament of the hive as a local congregation and of its health and spiritual DNA. Here we consider what it might be like to swarm, to work, to harvest, and to sting like a bee and even to be threatened with extinction if we do not get it right. So, Are You A Pollinator Of Peace?
Scripture: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
After a while he returned to marry her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
Judges 14:8 (NRSV)
He said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” But for three days they could not explain the riddle.
Judges 14:14 (NRSV)
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Psalm 119:103 (NRSV)
Message: Before my wife and I began raising children, thirty-five years ago, we both taught Bible Study groups and we also raised bees in Southwest Florida. We never made beekeeping into a business. We were backyard apiarists. But we did learn about nature and got to share the experience with others. We learned the habits of bees and how they worked themselves to death and the comings and goings from the hive during the different honey flows of the year. For several Halloweens, we would dress up as, “the bee and the beekeeper,” “Sampson and the bee” or “To be or not to bee” and give Mason jars of honey to friends at their door. Today there are better and less invasive ways of harvesting honey, but back then it meant harvesting the honey, working the hive, extracting the honey from the frames, straining the honey and bottling up gallons upon gallons of the sweet stuff. Then one day the mature worker bees were gone leaving only the queen, eggs and a few immature workers. The critical link in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and our dinner tables was beginning to disappear all over the world as colony upon colony collapsed. We got to see it firsthand… perhaps it was over breading, malnutrition, pesticides, fungus, bee mites or other environmental factors. It is a bit of a mystery but what is most disconcerting is that it mirrors, in many ways, what can be seen happening in the pews of mainline churches in America. Perhaps people in the pews have been exposed to too many spiritual toxins. Perhaps we are not diverse enough to survive. Perhaps we have spiritual malnutrition. Perhaps we need to consider the practices we hold so dear that may be killing us as surely as losing our stinger…that certain authority that comes with consequences and sacrifice. Perhaps we should consider the health of the worker bees in our churches. Perhaps we should better understand worker bee motivations. Perhaps we need to obey Holy Spirit wisdom rather than sacrifice ourselves needlessly. Friends, we always need to remember that Church is not about programs, it is about people gathering together for a purpose set forth in today’s scripture. We need to cultivate relationships with one another so that we can teach each other. And to teach also implies that we know something as well as how to apply what we know to real life. We need to have a passion to teach others about Jesus and to show others how to live for Jesus by the way we live. Our life is to be a mission for Jesus but if it is not then the effect is not neutral but negative. You see, written into our new creation DNA code is the call to be God’s people in this world and invite them to a life in Jesus. This is how we survive. So, if you think that being a Christian negates you from sharing Christ with others, you are going against the charism of Christ. We are called to reflect Christ daily and invite others into this new family in Jesus. We are to be pollinators of peace.
And so, our mission is Jesus and if we are actively engaged in this healthy mission we would not be so threatened by a lack of relevance in the church. The thing is that missions and church can be toxic if they become charity without love. Our Christ-centered DNA and charism is to describe who we are as a body of believers. Sure, our mission might include feeding and education and health, but it must always be not about programs but people becoming Christians. Our mission, values and vision are to be built on the collective health of the individuals of the community manifested as we come together in Christ. Friends, when we become Christians, we take on a new DNA profile that informs our life as people who are redeemed and belong to Christ in the ministry and ongoing mission of the great commission. And we are to be sent out and Jesus not only goes with us but before us into the communities we serve in the continuous work of the church universal. Here we are to go into the world and teach and disciple and immerse people in the Spirit of Christ so that they too might become productive replications of the love of Christ in us.
Pray we are not afraid to be worker bees for the cause of Christ. Pray we consider the sweetness of our relationship with God worthy of replication. Pray we realize that God’s Word is sweeter than honey. Pray we realize that all authority rests in Jesus even though we have been given a stinger. Pray He uses each of our assigned tasks to benefit the whole. Pray we go out into the world with a purpose. Pray we make not just honey but also disciples that understand the work of the Church Universal. Pray we are transformed by the experience and those we serve as well. Pray we learn to float like a butterfly and not just sting like a bee. Pray we take the work of the Church beyond the pews. Pray we are sent to do work and commissioned for the good work of making disciples and equipping them for a holy purpose. Pray we reflect Jesus but also discover Jesus in the work of missions. Pray we implement asset-based church development not just for others but with others as the Holy Spirit empowers them and us to use our gifts to be deployed for the cause of Christ. Pray we pollinate the world with the love of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 