Bound in Blessing
Series: Living in the Blessing
Brad Bailey - October 3, 2010
Summary: When we cease to be rooted in relationship with our common Creator as our Father… we are left to find our identity through something secondary we share in common with others… and the result is that we become defined and divided by every difference. Jesus provides the Father’s blessing that unites all in ‘common unity’ in which we can be united while diverse. Point: Must let go of finding blessing in our differences… and join the common blessing that defines us as one in God.
Intro – In this series we’ve begun to engage how God has sought for us to experience his blessing upon our lives. … as Jesus lived in the constant affirmation and pleasure of the father of all… and said he came to restore us as children of God. I’m not referring to some form of material blessing that many presume in terms of wealth and health… for even Jesus had no place to lay his head and was crucified by the age of 33. The blessing that defined Jesus’ life was his relationship to the Father… the blessing of OURSELVES as those he loves.
As we noted over the past couple weeks… our deepest issue is not that we simply don’t do what we should… but that we don’t know who we are. We are not living in relationship to who we really are.
So as we noted… what is the first question God poses to human life that has sought life apart from Him? “Where are you?” It’s clear that God is not asking because he can’t find them… but because they can’t find themselves. In choosing to seek life apart from God… to define themselves independent of God… which is ultimately to lose ourselves because being those who bear God’s image as children bearers … is who we truly are.
So the first question God asks is “Where are you?” Like the sign that shows you where your destination is… but is of no value until you first can locate yourself with that little symbol and words: ‘You Are Here.’ Like the Prodigal Son who has left home and found himself in a distant country.. squandering his father’s inheritance and ultimately stripped of the dignity he was intended to hold…. so in Genesis we begin see the consequences of life apart from God.
When we lose our true sense of identity… everything other aspect of life becomes broken.
Show me a child who feels insecure… uncertain… and you can often begin to see how they act out in destructive ways.
This leads to the second questions which God asks. Do you know what it is?
“Where is your bother?”
Just as when he asked Adam and Eve where they were… it is not a question posed because of what God could not see… but of what we could not see. Just as the most important first question posed to humanity was that which would reflect the condition of having sought our own self determined and self-defined existence… now God poses that which reflects the broken relationship between the human family. [Note 1]
Genesis 4:8-9 (NIV)
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
When Cain struck Abel… the strike and the death was only the outworking of something at the root. Cain was jealous of his brother’s offering receiving the greater affirmation it deserved… and we are told that he became very angry. As soon as human life ceased to live in relationship to it’s true source of identity and affirmation… immediately we are told of the contempt that rises between the first brothers. No longer secure in relationship to the Father… we are easily given to competition… jealousy… anger….
He didn’t see a brother… he didn’t the one he was bound to as his own… because he had lost his own identity.
So God asks us today…’Where is your brother? ... Can you truly see the bonds you share with others?
First God asks… ‘Where are you?’ not because God had lost them but they had lost themselves… they had lost who they really were. (Notably they try covering their shame with figs leaves …reflecting the vanity of covering ourselves.)
When we lose that reference point… we lose everything… including our relationship with our very own.
Listen to his response…
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" - Genesis 4:9
When we lose ourselves (in reference to God)… we lose our bond with others.
(Could refer to Prodigal Son… the older son is jealous of the grace shown to his brother… and in response to his father… he does not refer to his brother as such… but notably refers to him as “This son of yours.” )
When we lose our common bond in relationship to God… we become defined and divided by every difference.
The very word ‘community’ reflects the nature of our challenge.
“Community” = ‘common’ + ‘unity’ … it is defined by whatever we are defining as the ‘common’ element we share.
The search for connection… is a search for the common.
When we cease to be rooted in relationship with our common Creator as our Father… we are left to find our identity through something secondary we share in common with others… and the result is that we become defined and divided by every difference.
We become ‘we’ and ‘them’… white and black and Latino and Asian…(could add breakdowns within each to note how it even divides further.. which kind of lightens up’ the issue)… male and female… young and old… haves and have-nots…. and may I dare say… Democrats and Republicans.
With every label we have found an identity that identifies us with some… but it is defining us by dividing us. The very process of trying to find ourselves leads us to over identify with these differences… and we further lose ourselves.
From school grade cliques… to urban gangs… to ethnic hatreds… to niche marketing… we are so hungry to find ourselves…to belong … that our identity is bound in the differences that divide. And those divisions prove not only destructive… but dissatisfying…. far too fragile to really provide the deep connection we long for.
The great human search for peace is the search a ‘common’ element in the midst of the distinct elements.
We don’t need bland conformity. We need unity amidst diversity. [Note 1]
> Differences don’t divide when they are centered and secured in the commonalities that connect.
> Which is precisely what God has at hand… to reunite us in His Fatherhood… His blessing.
Ephesians. 1:5 (NLT)
“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.”
> We are here because God created a family. The Bible says He planned everything in the entire universe so we could be born, so we could share in His glory, so we could be part of His family.
‘Family’ may be a word that strikes us with both a sense of warmth… and a sense of wanting.
This is not about the pain of what may have been missing in our experience of family… nor the damage of dysfunctions.
Family exists eternally and perfectly through God… referring to that which provides BELONGING… serves as the REFERENCE POINT for our place in the world.
For some of us, our earthly experience of belonging has been a good and helpful taste of what God intends family to be…. For others of us the bonds may have proven fragile.
At some level … our earthly family bonds leave us with a level of ultimate connection that eludes us.
> We all long to belong. The pain of not belonging is so deep we can deny it with a façade of independence… but such independence denies our true nature. We were made to belong and that is what God has come to restore.
Hebrews 2:10-11 (NLT)
”God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. …So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.”
We are united in God… ‘for whom and through whom everything was made.’
Everything centers in God.
Living in relationship to the blessing of my Eternal Father begins with replacing my self-centered identity with a God as Father-centered identity.
Many of us long for community… but have never given up our individualism.
Individuality is from God… but not individualism.
Individuality reflects the beauty of diversity… but diversity that is lived within the common life of being God’s people.
Individualism is a way of life that makes the individual supreme or sovereign over everything.
The process we refer to as ‘individuation’ reflects the nature of discovering that one is an individual… connected and yet separate. The tragedy is that the soul is no longer returning to a defining common bond and is often left adrift. I see a growing tendency in which individuation is never being completed… and the result is an individualism that we may find easy because it demands nothing … but excludes us from real life. Individualism is separation without connection. We’re becoming dictators of a one-person country… our own gods… only to discover the world we rule is the isolation.
We need a radical internal change of perception in identity…
When I say ‘radical’… I mean in the true meaning of the word. ‘Radical’ actually means ‘root’… it’s a change at the root of our thinking… our whole perception.
Galatians 3:28 [Msg]
“In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Paul is not implying that these distinctions do not exist… he is saying they are now secondary to how we see ourselves and others… and how we see ourselves in relationship to others.
This ‘root’ change means that I don’t internally think of myself as a male… who is white… who is educated… and who is married… who also believes in Christ.
Rather I must understand that the most defining aspect of who is simply and a child of God with all others…through Christ who is has extended his blessing to be a child again by grace. I will live as a child through my gender, age, race, and role… but they don’t define or direct me. They are only secondary and serve how I will be faithful as a child of this family. [Note 3]
I have had to consider my own personal process regarding race… facing that this meant confessing what I have been bound in… and shared in allowing. That it was not easy… and I am still in process.
I’ve come to realize that this change involves how we relate to our possessions. The self centered identity says “My possessions are mine and I am my possessions.” The God as Father centered identity says all I have is God’s, given to me as a blessing to be shared with others.”
The self centered identity says that the chair you’re sitting on is the Vineyard’s – part of some wholly distinct entity you have no real connection to. The God as Father centered identity says it’s God’s, given to His community … something you are potentially a part of… share in.. co-own.
We are members of a household… bound in blessing as children.
Keys to Living In the Father’s Common Household
1. Enjoy affinities (similarities) without being limited by them.
Affinities are similarities that naturally cause us to feel more familiar and connected to particular people.
These can include our…
• Gender, age, and ethnic background
• Education & socio-economic status
• Personalities & interests
We believe that there is a healthy value in joining with others who can most naturally understand us.. as it helps them encourage us. A great example can be a men’s group.. or our Mother’s Group.
What’s vital is not to be reducing and defining ourselves in these roles. For instance… mother’s groups serve best as they offer support to being a mother while helping a mother realize she is not just a mother… but first and foremost a child a God.
And f we just connect with people like ourselves we will never see life or God clearly. For God is reflected in all our diversity. So our approach toward community is to welcome the affinity that is easier… more comfortable… but value and pursue the richer life that comes with diversity.
2. Embrace your distinctions as a responsibility rather than a right.
Our insecure selves… that isn’t operating out of relationship to the father… will see our distinctions as a right… I’m a man… I’m stronger.. I’m relatively wealthy (successful)…. I’m educated…
> To every one of these… God says they are not my rights at all… but my responsibility.
Romans 12:4-6 [NLT]
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.”
God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.”
Ephesians 4:16 (NLT)
“As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
The lives around you should be more complete because you are in relationship to them.
3. Make some real connections with others
Many years ago…I had the privilege of visiting the Union Rescue Mission downtown… and meeting with George Caywood the director at the time… who was known for one of the most sensitive and compassionate souls. While we may have sought to get insight into the problems behind homelessness… what came out of his heart spoke to so much more… as he summed everything he saw stating:
"Our love of privacy has made us the loneliest people on earth." (George Caywood, Union Rescue Mission - visit 1989)
There is no substitute for actually connecting with people… making REAL connections.
We all need some real connections… by that I do not mean we should be pursuing some deep intimacy with everyone in this room. (That’s usually just self absorbed processing which is bears little fruit.)
We can engage our being united with others at various levels of connection.
This week in our Home Churches… we will have an opportunity to explore four dimensions of such connection. [See Note 4]
While the levels differ… it is always a matte of identifying and affirming our common bonds.
At some level we all need to connect beyond what we DO… and engage something about who we ARE and are seeking to become… some aspect of character formation.
That can include our fear… but also our dreams…
4. Treat conflict as a sacred responsibility.
Most of us are not going to have really deep and dramatic conflict with each other… we save that for marriage. But if we do seek to connect… we are going to feel our differences. That becomes when we discover how safe a person we are going to be to others.
Ephesians 4:2-3 (NLT)
“…be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”
There is a lot we can learn about how to work through conflict… which we don’t have time to explore… but perhaps nothing is as vital as giving ourselves to those works… “Make every effort.’ Most of us are so uncomfortable with conflict that we make very little effort and they say “Well I tried.” We need to make every effort… to take initiative even when it feels awkward or vulnerable. We need to ask and then listen. We need to make every effort. Because as any parent knows.. it is hard to see their family break apart… choosing fight or flight… and forgetting they are family.
5. Focus on our common identity and purpose in Christ.
When our life is focused on the one begotten son who has come to reclaim and restore us as children of God… we see not only who we truly are… but who all around us truly are.
When we focus ourselves in his purposes.. we will overcome our worlds pull towards defining and dividing us by our differences. We will see our differences as secondary… and as a responsibility to serve the greater good. We will be able to transcend the tendency to join the drama of conflict… as we see that the real drama behind everything is God reconciling the world to Himself.
Nothing captures this calling more than what we call the Lord’s Supper or Communion…the receiving of that which Christ offered as symbolizing his own life.
‘Communion’… the very word captures the same root as the word ‘common’ and from which we get the word ‘community.’ The apostle Paul spoke of this ‘communion’ of the body and blood of Christ as the very foundation of our being united.
1 Cor. 10:17 [GW]
“Because there is one loaf, we are one body, although we are many individuals. All of us share one loaf.”
That brings it all home… many individuals (God loves us as individuals… in all our uniqueness… diversity)… but we are bound together as one body… who therefore come to one loaf… one source.
I believe we need to do a little searching of our own hearts… and consider what we have allowed to define and divide us. I want to encourage us to be very open and honest,,, because it isn’t easy to transcend our differences.
We need to be real about how we allow our racial and cultural attributes to define us.. and divide us.
We need to be honest if we have become rooted in being rich or poor…a have or a have not.
We need to consider of our political perspectives have become more defining than the common grace of Jesus giving his life.
Have we been so hurt that we deny being close to anyone? [Note 5]
The Lord asks us… “Where is your brother… and sister?” What’s our answer?
> COMMUNION
(Taken in more communal format… with central table of full unbroken sheet of matza and chalice of juice from which then four a station to receive is served at all four corners of room.)
NOTES:
1. Actually the second question God asks is Why are you angry? … downcast? In response to when Cain becomes angry by Abel’s offering finding favor and his not… but the question of ‘Where is your brother?’ follows right after as Cain kills Abel. So it could be considered a part of the second questions… or set of questions.
2. God is a divine community… a benevolent community of Father – Son – Spirit
Here we discover the very nature we need…the ultimate beauty of unity amidst diversity… one God in three persons… Father, Son, and Spirit.
3. Becoming God as Father-centered reflects that we are a ‘centered set’ rather than a ‘bounded set.’
We are not united simply by outward forms and behaviors that determines who is in and who is out… but by the center… which is God and our response towards Christ.
The old covenant with Abraham and Moses was uniquely with the nation and people of Israel… not as an end boundary of God’s blessing… but on this people through whom God would bless all nations and people. They were bound as either being a part of Israel or being included through some formal process. In the new covenant Christ’s life is given for all… and the blessing is deemed as extended to all… equally… and receiving or responding is simply what allows one to enter. Jesus seems to see all as equally potential children of God… some returning and some yet to have returned. While there is obvious difference in terms of who them has chosen to be family… all are sought as such because that is what they originally were created to be. So when told to love and care for all people… we are told to do so ‘especially to those who are fellow believers.’ It is not that they are better or more deserving… but simply that they are in a mutually understood family bond. However we are to love all people… including ‘our enemies’… and will be deemed to have loved Christ when we love strangers. So to recognize that Jesus has sought to ‘bind us in the Father’s blessing’ does not mean we are bound only to those who enter a boundary… but rather that we see all people as our intended brothers and sister… but will truly experience a mutual bond with those who join that bond of the God as father cenetered life.
When we meet together… yes it is around the reality of family through the Father… but it understands God sees family as those who are returning to his Fatherhood… not believing in Jesus merely as a set propositional truths… but as one we receive as the restorer and entrust to rule within us.
In this sense… I consider this gathering an Open House… the father’s house…
4. The following way of considering the different levels of connection in life can be very helpful.. and come from my friend Dave Andrews.
The level of our FEET (Where we stand in common)
As basic as recognizing that we share this time and place with others… the simple power of gathering each week with those in whom the primary common ground isn’t just some academic interest or athletic activity… but a God thing.
Part of the freedom to do so is accepting the limits… God’s purpose is not necessarily deep friendship… but divine fellowship.
Our COMPATRIOTS…with whom we can expect and engage with ACCEPTANCE.
In the life of Christ … we see this in his relationship with the crowds that gathered with him.
2. The level of our HANDS (What we do in common)
Our COLLEAGUES… with whom we can and engage with HELP.
In the life of Christ … we see this in his relationship with the 70 who are often mentions and described as co-workers…. working together.
Could be workplace… but also the work of Christ… teams… worship, prayer, service.
3. The level of our HEADS (What we think… enlighten and inspire)
Our COMRADES… with whom we can expect and engage in SUPPORT.
In the life of Christ … we see this in his relationship with the 12 disciples.
For many of us… Home Churches.
4. The level of our HEART (What we feel)
Our COMPANIONS… with whom we can expect and engage in INTIMACY.
In the life of Christ … we see this in his relationship with his closest three companions… Peter, James, and John. These are the three that he invites to share his deepest moments…. those to whom he feels the comfort to travail in prayer.
5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book "Life Together”, describes something vital about the bonds we share. He recognizes that the greatest enemy to authentic community… is the ideal of community.
“We must not look for some extraordinary social experience...must not confuse Christian brotherhood with some wishful idea of religious fellowship...it's not an ideal, but a divine reality…a spiritual, not psychic reality.
Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
