We’re beginning a short series today… and at the heart of this series is a call to consider perhaps the most sensational words ever spoken to us… one phrase, seven words, spoken by Jesus…
that lifts our lives into a whole new level of meaning… those seven words…
“You are the light of the world.”
Lets read aloud together the broader words which Jesus says to his followers…
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. - Matthew 5:14-16
"You are the light of the world.”
Hard words to embrace… perhaps fitting of Jesus…. but ourselves?
After all, there can be plenty of darkness around us… and within us as well. All too often we may not feel like we shine.
Yet these words are spoken by Christ to ordinary people who had simply encountered him… and begun to follow. They were as surprised as us… not the popular or powerful within their social culture… and nearly slaves to their Roman oppressors… yet they bore a light that would enlighten the world forever. So can we.
This series is entitled “Holy Conversation” because our focus is going to be on how we talk about the reality of God in everyday life.
We’ll consider this for the next four weekends… but the real personal process will be shaped by actual conversation with others that begins in smaller groups. This series is drawing upon a great work by Richard Peace that is really a personal formation process developed in small groups over the next 10 weeks.
Today… just want to step back and help us grasp the process of being light. I think for many of us it may begin by clarifying the paradigm.
Paradigm Shift
Most of us in this room probably sense some tension between two things: One is that there is nothing more significant than talking about the spiritual dimension of life… and sharing what we have found in Christ. The other sense is that the actual process can feel challenging. We know that something about the good news isn’t translating and easily understood as such. Within our unique culture it is often recommended that if we want to keep peace in our relationships we should avoid talking about politics and… religion.
Yet here is the irony… not only is the human spirit deeply spiritual by nature… but our culture is overflowing with spirituality. The spiritual dimension of life is more dominant in television shows, bookstores, and music than ever before.
This series is about helping us develop the ability to share in holy conversation… to more naturally help us talk about God in everyday life.
Part of challenge lies in carrying the weight of some false presumptions.
The paradigm that may often be felt is that of being a salesman or saleswoman.
What are some of the dynamics that such a paradigm reflect? (Draw out some from audience)
• Obligatory…. A product we have to sell… to fulfill a job description… or a quota.
• Uses people to fulfill a need or burden we have
• Pressured – ‘Closing the deal’
• More packaged than personal
• Disingenuous… we feel we have to say more than we actually know and therefore more than what is personal and natural.
If any of this burdens us… we may do well to ask:
When did Christ send his followers out to share anything other than what they had discovered?
When did Christ presume to convert people … or that his disciples would actually convert people?
I want to suggest that…
A better paradigm is that of being fellow travelers… with the Light of Christ.
Those who offer spiritual companionship, conversation, and challenge.
While confrontation has it’s place… as we see in Jesus and the religious leaders who confronted him… our cultural reality is more like Greece… a land of many ideas and gods. And as such we need to think less confrontational and more conversational.
People today are skittish and gun-shy about being pressured religiously. We need the skills of a horse whisperer. Horses are flight animals. They get easily spooked and away they go. Any jerk can try and beat an animal, but there’s something ennobling to us when we simply use our voice to guide or influence them… like a horse or dog whisperer you woo and win that animal’s confidence. You are here this morning because you’ve fallen under the spell of the God whisperer who knows your name and has wooed you and called you into the adventure of knowing and loving him. victor pentz
There is often a greater process involved. Studies now show only 15% of us come to faith in a sudden conversion. More people will have a process like C.S. Lewis, who came to faith over a number of years while traveling a circuitous path. Lewis was an atheist from age 13-31 and says, “I was very angry with God for not existing.” Then after years of reading and reflecting he begrudgingly admitted the existence of a Supreme Being. Still a far cry from following Christ, he explored Plato, Hinduism, and Nietzsche, and every week he’d meet in a bar and have a holy conversation with his Christian friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. Then he took the step of admitting that, yes, Christianity seemed to be the best available explanation of reality – but he wasn’t ready for it. Later he wrote in his book Surprised by Joy that one day he got into the side car of his brother Warnie’s motorcycle for a trip to the London zoo. He later wrote, "When we set out I did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did." Now that’s a long way from the Damascus Road. Lewis didn’t get slammed to the ground – if he did I’d hope he’d been wearing a helmet. The fact is that most of us don’t come to faith on the Damascus Road but on the London Zoo Road, zigging and zagging through holy conversations over a period of years until the God whisperer leads us home. victor pentz
We do well to remember that Jesus spoke more about disciples than decisions…
• He clearly DID speak often of decisions… many very difficult and defining ones… but listen again to his propositions… they are rarely given with a sense that they were to be simply answered in a single moment… nor that any one decision said it all. It becomes clear that many propositions… and many decisions were a part of becoming a disciple (follower / apprentice).
• In contrast to the way we often think… it would be hard to state at what point any of the disciples believed… or at what point their decision really counted. What mattered is that they held onto the central.
• It’s more like a marriage… the implications of saying “I do” reflect a decision that will only be as meaningful as the thought beforehand…. And a commitment in all that follows. Las Vegas quikie weddings really aren’t the best model for marriage.
So what’s involved with becoming good fellow travelers with the light of Christ?
What is involved in lighting the way for others to know God?
1. CULTIVATING our own inner life with God
“You are the light…” assumes that we bear a relationship that is enlightening our lives. It doesn’t require perfection or completion… but a relationship that is authentic.
We are in a process… and don’t need to be afraid to be honest about it.
Remember what the first great missional life… the apostle Paul said…
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 (MSG)
“Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ…. If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.
> THE HOPE THAT HAS COME INTO THIS WORLD, DOESN’T BEGIN WITH PROGRAMS… BUT WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE MET JESUS… in him is the light of life.
2. RELYING on God to draw people to Himself
Who does light itself change? No one. We don’t convert anyone. Stop any notion of control and embrace influence.
John 12:32 (NLT)
“….when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
He will draw lives… just as he was at work drawing each of us.
3. SERVING… and be served.
“…. Let others see your good deeds…”
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Many have heard the words of the gospel; few have heard the music. By serving others, we play that music.
Mark 10:45 (Msg)
“That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage."
Jesus made known that love is known by such a laying down… sacrifice… and in this… God was not suddenly doing something new…. But expressing the love that forever within Him
The Disciples, the Followers of Jesus’ Way through all history -- YOU and I --are called to learn such love from our Savior that we will live that love every day in this world.
Sometimes we perceive serving as merely an act of passivity and weakness… nice but hardly powerful. I think the reason we can think that way s because serving can come out of weakness… it can flow from insecurity that simply wants to appease people. But serving can come from a place of power as well.
• Jesus was anything but passive… and he exercised a strength that overcame more than any other.
• No more telling picture… than that of Jesus in the Garden… Peter takes out a sword and cuts off a guards ear… and Jesus heals the ear. Which will be more effective… cutting off ears… or healing them?…
• I dare say that Mother Teresa was one of the strongest women of modern times… whose care for the poor was out of such deference to the world… that she was intimidating.
All who grasp what it means to serve, not merely in response to the whims of others, but in response to God, truly create light out of darkness.
> Our light in this world depends on our ability to confront and overcome that notion.
Important to recognize that embracing a heart to serve with Christ… also allows one to be served by others. The humility to serve will be the humility that allows us to be served… and to avoid any sense of superiority and separation.
Jesus was born dependent… it was a part of his connection to be nursed by a teenage mother… taught by a young carpenter…. fed and housed by friends.
> Example: Recently on the night before trash day…. Up late… remembered my own trash cans needed to get out because they pick up at dawn on our street… noticed neighbors… so I took theirs out as well Mother thanked me. Next week…. Son thanked me… and begged me not to tell his mother…. AND HE BROUGHT MINE IN.
> We became more truly neighbors.
4. IDENTIFYING through what we share in common (experiences and feelings).
Two very different impressions have been made throughout history by those who have been correlated with the name of Christ…
One has been that of those who have felt they were to use force to impose their moral and governing ideals of life… along with a sense of being judgmental…. of superiority and separation.
The way Jesus related to people led to him being accused of being ‘a friend of sinners’ … and he released into the world those who care for the poor and weak.
The whole incarnation expresses the need to identify.
John 1:14
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
= moved into the neighborhood… pitched his tent among us.
Then he lived it out….eating meals with peasants and prostitutes…which in early Jewish culture was the ultimate expression of fellowship…. Reaching out to lepers… all in such sharp contrast to the religious leaders.
Paul… one of those religious leaders grasped this power of identifying.
1 Cor. 9:22 (NIV)
I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
MESSAGE translation…
“I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.”
Example: Relationship with a neighbor… culturally Jewish… had a 2 year old… and older teenage daughter. Spoke almost apologetically about what a good father I was compared to him… nice to hear but it really was overly simplifying and separating… it just wasn’t a basis I wanted to relate on. Told him what I go through. We became better neighbors. Now begin to talk about the common questions about life… and God.
In building bridges, we must introduce ourselves with our commonality, not our differences.
Mt friend Dave Andrews put it like this…
- To Vineyardite, I’m Vineyardite
- To Catholic or other, I’m follower of Jesus
- To Muslim or Jew, I’m believer in God
- To agnostic or athiest, I’m student of Truth.
- In my neighborhood, I am a neighbor.
Along with finding our common life and challnges… we can discover…
The Reality and Value of Common Ground of inner longings
In referring to ‘common ground’, it is not to imply that we will be able to approach these with those who don’t share a commitment to Christ with total agreement or without tensions… but they become something of a common longing out of which we can explore our human experience and what lies behind it. They are ‘echoes of a voice’ that calls us.
These include…
• Justice – longing for the world to be made right
• Meaning and Purpose – longing for that which can transcend and guide us amidst life’s pace and problems
• Spirituality – longing for transcendence
• Relationships – longing for acceptance and connection (love)
• Beauty – longing for what inspires us to be fully realized
5. EXPLORING life through authentic questions and listening.
Proverbs 18:2, 13 (NIV)
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
but delights in airing his own opinions.
He who answers before listening--
that is his folly and his shame.
> These simple words stand as an indictment to myself… and perhaps many of us.
Proverbs 20:5 (NIV)
The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out.
AIDS BABIES CRIED SILENTLY UNTIL CARED FOR
A group of women in Washington D.C. wanted to show God’s love to a special group of people. They wanted to communicate in ways that could be understood. These women had heard of a group of babies who were destined to live and die in hospitals, rarely held and loved. These were babies with AIDS whose families had abandoned them. These AIDS babies did not get much attention because the nurses were very busy. They began to cry silently but shed tears. No one had responded to their crying out loud so they stopped doing it but would shed real tears. These women took a number of these babies home and cared for them even though they knew that the children would die by their second birthdays. They would respond to the silent tears when they saw them and would hold and rock the babies often. After a while, the AIDS babies began to cry out loud again. They had been spoken to in the only way that they understood. (Submitted by Rich Thornton, Yocumtown Church of God, Etters, PA)
> How many around us simply need attention to what is lost within them?
“Attention is the oxygen of modern man.”
Good exploration involves…
• A spirit of genuine relationship that allows mutual conversation.
As C.S. Lewis pointed out so eloquently in The Weight of Glory, other than the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the spirit of the human being to whom you’re talking is perhaps the holiest thing you will ever encounter. So take off your shoes as Moses did at this burning bush. Treat the conversation with sacred seriousness and Christlike calm.
- Irresistible Evangelism by Steve Sjogren, Dave Ping, Doug Pollock, pp. 108-116+
1 Peter 2:17 (MsgB)
“Treat everyone you meet with dignity.”
• Exploring honest fears (i.e. regarding God, religion, etc.)
“I would rather be disagreed with by someone who understands me, than to be agreed with by someone who does not understand me.”
-James D. Glasse, Leadership, Vol. 3, #4+
6. SHARING how our story has discovered God’s Story.
Jesus… made it all so simple… never did a lot of complex training… or programs…. Just said ‘go tell your story.’
• There is certainly more that can be involved… the light of reason… but the essence must remain authentic and personal.
1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… “
Notice it doesn’t describe ‘defending a propositional faith… or a set of truths… but our PERSONAL HOPE.
You are a story… and your story relates to the larger story of God.
CLOSING:
Holy Conversation is about deconstructing the distance between our faith and our friends. It’s about developing the ability to become fellow travelers… who offer companionship, conversation, and challenge.
How can we join God in this process?
1. Taking off the false expectations of a salesman.
2. Consider investing and enjoying being a part of a group…
3. Consider the potential of a partner…
As a boy Robert Louis Stevenson was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighter who went about with a ladder and a torch, setting the street lights ablaze for the night. One evening in Edinburgh, Scotland, as young Robert stood watching with childish fascination, his parents heard him exclaim, "Look, look! There is a man out there punching holes in the darkness!"+
> Let’s make some holes in the darkness.
PRAY
