Reunited in God
Series: ROOTS
Brad Bailey – October 2, 2011
Intro
Begin with video: “Group Rescue of motorcyclist” (Currently on YouTube at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGphvejKlY)
Following video: Some of you may have seen this event just a couple weeks ago (Monday, Sept. 12, 2011)… 21-year-old Utah State University student Brandon Wright, a motorcycle rider without a helmet, collided with a BMW near campus, and the motorcycle burst into flames alongside the cars engine. The BMW driver quickly escaped from the car, but Wright was trapped under the 4,000-pound sedan. The horrific accident drew an immediate crowd of students and construction workers. The police officer on the scene directed people to do what is normally directed around a car on fire… stay back. But when a woman sees Brandon… the bystanders stop standing by… and they join together. It doesn’t seem possible… but a few more join and with urgency at work… they lift the car and save a life. One of the notable elements of this moment is the diversity of this group of lives. There were campus students and staff… construction workers.. men and women… and even different nations in that moment. For that group included Abbass Sharif - a student from Lebanon…and James Odei, a student from Ghana. And all of this… just one day after the ten year remembrance of the horrific 9/11 events which reflected a world divided. [1]
I believe that what can inspire us in this dramatic moment… is that it reflects something God has set out for us all… to be reunited beyond our differences… by something bigger than ourselves.
Today we are continuing in our series entitled ‘ROOTS’… focused on recapturing the life and work of Jesus in us. We want to hear afresh the real calling that is upon our lives… as individuals and as a community.
Jesus defined his whole and mission in that of ushering in the kingdom of God.
And he called all who would follow to take up nothing less. At the forefront of that preparation, he said that the Spirit is going to come empower them… anoint them for task… as we saw last week…. this was God’s plan from the beginning. His presence and power that once filled the temple would now be poured out into the temples of our lives.
Today he calls us to grasp that with that pouring out of the Spirit upon all… He reuniting the human community in relationship to Himself. [2]
We are hearing again what the day of Pentecost declares to us…
Acts 2:1-8, 12-18
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? …12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
There in the midst arises the question: “What does this mean?”
It means that the manifest presence and power of God is being poured out just as God had planned… reflected in prophecy and signs and wonders… all bringing forth the harvest… the gathering of lives in relationship to God. And that group of lives did indeed go into the world empowered… moving with the wind of God’s Spirit. The Roman Empire… in all it’s power and pride and pagan idolatry… could not stop the world from seeing the life of God in this new community. They were filled with a boldness and power that could not be put out. They also embodied a love for one another that defied the divisions of their time. Something was set forth as they were launched on that Day of Pentecost. On that day, God began reuniting the human community in relationship to Himself.
Background – God used this festival of harvest when Jews scattered from many nations came to Jerusalem to reveal that when the Spirit is poured out… the age of harvest begins… praises come forth that are not in the language of the those praising…but can be understood by the breadth of foreigners. What does it mean? It’s a sign of God reuniting humanity in Himself.
As many have noted, it is the reversal of what took place long ago in God’s hand upon humanity… as recorded in Genesis 11.
Genesis 11:1, 3-4-32 (NIV)
“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other … "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…”
With one common language there was nothing to stop the vanity of human pride. They had just come into the development of brick making… and it seemed to stir their pride of what they could achieve. But they needed to make everyone join.
God sends His Spirit to break up the process by confusing their ability to understand each other… dividing their languages. It became referred to as the Tower of Babel… because the word ‘Babel’ means confusion. This is where the term babbling comes from… and this area would later became known as Babylon — a city associated with evil throughout Scripture.
So the church is birthed on that Day of Pentecost as the reversal of Babel.
At the Tower of Babel – the people gathered to make a name for themselves.
At Pentecost – a group gathered to serve the glory of God.
At the Tower of Babel - God uses language to break up the human centered agenda.
At Pentecost – God uses language to unite people in “declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.” (Acts 2:11)
“Babel was the imposition of human will; Pentecost was the acceptance of God’s divine will. After Babel the people spread out over the earth in mutual hostility and alienation. It was every person for themselves. After Pentecost the people spread through the inhabited world to serve God and to live in love and fellowship. Pentecost is Babel reversed and undone.” - Rodney Buchanan
So it is significant that God begins a new work of uniting human community when lives are gathered for His glory.
> It’s vital to understand that the grand calling at hand is not simply about being united… but united in relationship to God.
1. We are called to join in the reuniting of human community whose CENTER IS GOD.
The world will offer finding ourselves in our differences (race, gender, age, etc)… which only divides. The very nature of community… is rooted in what defines the ‘common unity.’ Our world is faced with the dilemma that we are divided in so many ways… and yet continue to define ourselves and find ourselves in our differences… because without something beyond us… there is nothing to unite us.
The spirit of Babel can still claim that we have a greatness in ourselves… and exclaim, “Look we have bricks to build with… the technology of our day… satellites and cell phones… lets build upon the foundations of our own glory.’ But the pride itself never finds it’s glory. Only in relationship to our true source of common good… which is God… can we transcend our differences.
Our true unity must be that which transcends all differences… and unite us in what is truly the common good… which is God.
When we are centered in God we are then able to enjoy our diversity without being defined and divided by it.
This is what God had declared through the prophet Joel… which Peter now says is at hand… and calls all to join.
The Spirit is reuniting different ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds
(v. 17) God says, "In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people..."
It had been presumed that God was only at work through certain groups… and certain classes of people… the kings and prophets… but He is choosing and using all equally.
The Spirit has set in motion what God had first created. We all come from God. We are all created in His image. Though culturally diverse… our lineage is the same. We have the same parents. We are by God’s decree and biological fact ONE HUMAN RACE.
The Spirit is reuniting the divide between genders
(v. 17) "...Your sons and daughters will prophesy."
Women were deemed second class. So these words spoke into the conflict of their day just as they do today.
The Spirit is reuniting us across the ages and stages of life
(v. 17) ...Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
Both will share in what God is unfolding.
This is precisely the new reality of life in Jesus. He has united all life in his own life and sacrifice.
As the apostle Paul says in…
Galatians 3:26-28 (TNIV)
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This is a RADICAL statement. It doesn’t mean that these aspects of life have no meaning… or that we can’t embrace and enjoy our unique ethnicity or gender or even social position.
It means that they must no longer be our primary source of identity that defines us and divides us.
• It declares that our racial identity can no longer be more important than our common humanity united in God.
• It declares that we are no longer to so identify with the uniqueness of our gender that live in opposition to others with whom we are actually more ultimately bound as equals with.
• It declares that our socio-economic status is no longer that which we can allow to separate us from others.
Jesus had accomplished that which could allow all lives to be restored in relationship to God. In his sacrifice on the cross, he had provided what no one groups religion or self righteousness could offer. The playing field had always been level. No one could claim to live as they should. Now he made it possible for all to be restored to God.
It was that group on the Day of Pentecost who was the first to represent those who had no other claim of their own merits. Jesus was restoring God’s kingdom… where the central identity is that of being united in God. [3]
We are a preview community of the future culmination of heaven.
Notably this becomes a central part of what we see throughout Acts and the initial formation of the church as the new human community of God… reunited in God.
….and what we learn is that…
2. The Reuniting of Human Community is not SIMPLE, but neither is it OPTIONAL.
The entire Bok of Acts describes a process that was anything but easy… it was a process that had everyone in tension.
Those first lives were faced with having their whole way of identifying themselves change. They had identified their place in the world by their unique attributes… especially culture (including look and language) as well as how that related to distinctions in social status… class distinctions.
At the time of Christ, Jews were considered God’s people; Gentiles were considered to be separated from God. Religious Jewish men used to pray, "Lord I thank you that I was born neither a woman or a Gentile." [4]
So not surprisingly, the entire Book of Acts is an unfolding of the very deep and difficult process that the early church went through. [5]
It’s a process that was never finished. What began in the Book of Acts is continuing through our lives right here and now.
Here we are… with all our differences… trying deeply to define us and divide us. We are faced with our racial differences… our political differences… our social-economic difference… our gender differences. [6]
Neither lines drawn up long ago on maps… nor legislation drawn up in courts of law, are proving an answer to the deep pain and prejudice felt in the heart of men and women throughout our world. We must embrace and embody God’s vision…
• A vision able to replace apprehension with appreciation.
• A vision that is not simply imposed but inspired.
• A vision that is not simply political but personal.
• A vision that is not simply based in rhetorical ideals… but redemptive reality.
Indeed this world is longing for the KINGDOM OF GOD …where every tongue, tribe, and nation would be as one before God.
John 17:20-22 (NLT)
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one… so that the world will believe you sent me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”
Jesus prayed forth the very will of God; that all who would believe would be one. [7]
• Not that we would all be the same…but that we would be one.
• For he said we should be one as he and the Father were one.
• A oneness in which we like them are united yet unique; equal yet distinct.
It wasn’t simple then and it isn’t easy now.
3. The Reuniting of Human Community involves our PERSONAL PARTICIPATION… and pursuit.
Jesus made the call to love one another central. It was his prayer… and he was clear that it called for real change in our lives. In the Sermon on the Mount he says…
Matthew 5:21-24 (NLT)
“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. 23 “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, 24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
Jesus challenges the freedom we often give to our divisions.
You can’t separate worship from relationships. You can’t come celebrate your love with dad when you are aware of unresolved hurt with one of his other children.
So the first thing that living out the restoration of human community will involve…
1. Recognize the SIGNIFICANCE of criticism and comtempt
One of the biggest chalenges to the western church today is the accetance of our subtle prejudices… as well our personal conflicts and contempt.
While it’s vital that we don’t supress our feelings… we have accepted that it’s our right to hold onto them.
I don’t know of any other issue that has challenged and disgraced the church more.
I don’t know of any issue that has ruined more lives than unresolved contflict… and anger that grows into contempt. It doesn’t only divide marriages and communities… it divides us from God.
Jesus is encouraging us NOT to deny that is a part of what is at work in us. He wouldn’t have spoken these words if he didn’t know it hard. Some of us need help because anger and conflict were never resolved well in our families.
Jesus reminds us that we are to live as a new family… as he refers to others as your brother an sister.
Jesus isn’t just challenging us… he is encourgaging us.
It IS POSSIBLE. The lie we give into is that it just won’t work to try and work things out. What I have found is that it may be hard at first… but if we embrace humility… we can resolve our hurts and reconcile our conflicts. And the most important element is the next point we get from what Jesus says.
2. Confront the position of our HEARTS.
Jesus gets to the heart of the issue… reveals that righteousness lies in the unseen heart…our inner disposition. Jesus goes on to speak of adultery, divorce, and honesty in the same light. He doesn’t negate the letter of the law, and societies need for laws and labels as such; rather he makes clear that while those may be fitting for social standards, laws and labels fall short of bringing forth true righteousness. He gets to the heart of the issue, and quiets the accuser and defender in all of us. If you ask me if I’m a liar, adulterer, or murderer I may quickly say “no.” But they are all within me… all of them can surface in my heart.
In discovering the spirit of the Law, we discover the Law is not simply a boundary marker of behavior, but a plumb line of the heart.
And if we are to search our hearts concerning division … what are the seeds of separation we may find?
I believe there are two pervasive seeds we must confront in our hearts.
• PRIDE – vain confidence in our personal attributes
Pride is that subtle inclination of superiority and judgment
I don’t imagine many of us would think outright of ourselves as superior to others; or in a position to judge others; but we are all vulnerable to very subtle perceptions that creep in.
I recall having lived in India.. and decrying the caste system with it’s overt superiority… how God began to show me that as a white wealthy educated male... I had to face my own unconscious sense of superiority.
Paul raises this to us all…
Philippians 3:4-7 (NLT)
If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
Paul says I had the racial prominence… the education… the social status… and the success… everything that reflected a superiority that separated me from others. But now he understood his common humanity in Christ, a humility that lead him to describe how “we are to put no confidence in the flesh.” In this he became free to God’s work of unity.
How might you look at others as inferior? How might God call you and I to come to terms with our own “confidence in the flesh.”
• FEAR - born of the subtle intimidation of our differences.
Social science experiments have proven over and over the POWER OF FAMILIARITY. Familiarity isn’t wrong in itself…neither is diversity…or preference for styles.
> BUT FAMILIARITY CAN PLAY INTO FEARS THAT SEPARATE US.
What are we afraid of in others? How do you feel threatened right now by others?
3. Take responsibility to INITIATE restoring relationship
Jesus says that when we become aware of a problem… we need to go to the other person.
At another point he makes it clear that if we are aware that we have something against someone else we are to stop and go to them. He adds that we are to go directly and personally… only involving others if we are not reconciled… and only those appropriate.
The most challenging words that Jesus speaks to us today may simply be this…
“Go and be reconciled to that person.”
Closing / Communion:
Jesus is calling us to step out because it is part of something grand at hand. The world is trapped under a horrific wreck. See eternal life with God will be seen when it can be seen that He overcomes our differences.
This gathering is a great start. This room is full of diversity.
Together we are going to share in communion. The word ‘communion’ has been given to the sharing of these elements because they reflect the very source of common life.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (ESV)
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
I want to lead in this celebration of common life by asking someone to join me who may be a bit different from me. I’d like to ask if there is a woman here today… who is 40 or under (or 60 and older)… from a non-European background. (Whatever person first joined me on stage… I just noted these differences…and how thy reflect very different experiences in life… and then asked if they would serve these elements of communion with me. We served each other. Then from those elements the whole congregation was served by various servers.)
Resources: Bob Briggs, Rodney Buchanan
Notes:
1. One news story about this event: Logan heroics restores faith in humanity
Published: Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011 By Jay Evensen, Deseret News
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700179381/Logan-heroics-restores-faith-in-humanity.html
“By now you probably know the story: 21-year-old Utah State University student Brandon Wright, a motorcycle rider without a helmet, collided with a BMW near campus, and both vehicles burst into flames. Wright was trapped beneath the escalating flames of the car's engine.
That's about the time the bystander effect is supposed to kick in. Researchers have found that a person's willingness to intervene when someone is suffering becomes less in proportion to the number of bystanders. People tend to look around, see a lot of other people, and assume someone else will offer help.
In this case, the video clearly shows a police officer arriving on the scene quickly. Surely, bystanders would step aside for an officer who is trained to get help, especially when a car's engine is on fire and threatening to explode any minute.
But not these people.”
Information about the two international students:
Abbass Sharif - a doctoral candidate from Lebanon. "I don't consider myself a hero. It's just our humanity ... Everyone is going to help."
James Odei, 35, a doctoral candidate from Ghana who is studying statistics. "All I wanted to do was grab that car and raise it."
2. Being a reconciling community is one of the core stated values of the Vineyard movement.
From The Association of Vineyard Churches core values:
Reconciling Community
Jesus is reconciling humans to God, to each other, and to the entire creation,
breaking down divisions between Jew & Gentile, slave & free, male and
female. Therefore, we are committed to becoming healing communities
engaged in the work of reconciliation wherever sin and evil hold sway.
We seek to be diverse communities of hope that realize the power of
the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin. This requires us to
move beyond our personal preferences to engage those who are perceived
to be unlike us and to actively break down barriers of race, culture, gender,
social class and ethnicity.
We are convinced that the church, locally, nationally and globally, is meant
to be a diverse community precisely because Jesus is Lord over every nation,
tribe and tongue. We are not satisfied with the status quo when it doesn’t
reflect this kingdom reality, but are eager to pray for the coming of God’s
kingdom here and now and to realize this mark of the kingdom in our midst.
3. God is our beginning…our common Father… Jesus is our brother… our common savior… the Spirit is the redeeming force at work… our common agent of life and breath. This is the reclaimed humanity… being restored in relationship to God. It is open to all. We are to invite all and welcome all. Exclusion is not made by any but those who choose to it… exclusion is ultimately only made by choosing not to accept life with and under God.
4. Bob Briggs notes ‘Though Gentiles could convert to Judaism, they could never enjoy the full package of benefits as one who was Jewish by birth--and, really, strict Jews had no use for Gentiles at all. Some even went as far as saying that help should not be given to a Gentile woman in childbirth, because it would only bring another Gentile into the world.’
5. While it is common to read through the Book of Acts as the unfolding of the Spirit’s ministry through the church, it is more clearly the Spirit moving the church out into the breadth of the world. The breaking through of divisions is central.
• Acts 6 we see how the one cultural group widows were being neglected in the distribution of food by the dominant group… and it was a problem that required new steps in leadership.
“At that time, as the number of disciples grew, Greek-speaking Jews complained about the Hebrew-speaking Jews. The Greek-speaking Jews claimed that the widows among them were neglected every day when food and other assistance was distributed.” - Acts 6:1-15 (GW)
• Although the disciples were commanded to go unto all nations, it took them a long time to go until the stoning of Stephen and persecution (Acts 7). They stayed in Jerusalem. This shows the struggle when we are faced with cultures and ethnicities that are different than ours or what we are comfortable with.
• When Samaritans respond and the Spirit comes upon them… they are forced to consider that God may be including those they deemed unclean and excluded.
• Then the Spirit comes upon Gentiles… and the ultimate questions arise. God has to bring Peter a dream to show him that they are to be part of God’s household. And finally in Acts 15 one of the earliest Council finally recognizes that Gentiles should be welcomes apart from becoming culturally like Jews in their traditions.
7. Jesus sought unity because it reflected God. It would allow the world to see God. Inherent in our new life in Christ is the fulfillment of the vision of eternity given in Revelation, when every tongue, tribe, and nation will be united before God. Every “nation,” every ethnos…every ethnic group. God is glorified when every ethnic group are again as one, because only together are we the fullness of the human race which God created to be in relationship with and to be glorified through. Only in the fullness of our diversity will God be fully glorified.
That is why Jesus said he would not return and bring the consummation of human history, as we know it, until the Good News of eternal life in Him reached every nation, every distinct culture, and people.
