TOGETHER WE FIND PEACE
Back in 1932 a carpenter from Denmark named Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys. He named his company Lego, which means ‘Play Well’ in Danish. In the late 1940s they started making plastic interlocking bricks. Since then generations have enjoyed Lego blocks. They have resulted in movies, games and even six Legoland amusement parks. A few years ago one advertising firm named Lego as the world’s most recognized brand. It is estimated that, since their beginning, over 600 billion Lego blocks have been produced.
Individually, Legos are just cheap pieces of plastic. I might add that they really hurt when you step on one in your bare feet in the dark on your kid’s bedroom floor. Despite their basic design, the magic is in the way they fit together. Legos are designed to be connected, that is what those little raised circles are for. Together these little pieces can be made into fantastic creations. Full-scale models of castles, cars, airplanes and spaceships have all been built from Legos. If you have ever been to one of the LEGOLAND theme parks, you’ve been treated to scaled replicas of the world’s most famous buildings and landmarks. It seems that Legos can be put together to create almost anything. Individually they are just small pieces of plastic. Together they create something much bigger and better than the sum of their parts.
The church is like Legos. It is a collection of individuals of various sizes, shapes, and colors. Individually, we may not be much to look at, but when we come together the way God intended, we form the Church, which is God’s creation and something much greater than the individual parts. God takes our chaos and, by His design, makes something spectacular and gives us purpose.
We live in a world that is increasingly divided. We come from different nations. We have different backgrounds. We share different customs. There are about a million things that could divide us this morning. Let me give you give you three things that unite us;
Ephesians 2:17-22 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Today we are starting a new series called Together. In the coming week we are going to be looking at the book of Ephesians. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus to remind them of who they were in Christ and therefore to remind them of how they should be living their lives. In this scripture we read today Paul talks about 3 different things that unite us this morning;
1. One Faith - believing
Even though we are a very diverse community, there are some things most of us have in common. We are mostly all Canadians here. I know there are visitors here but we are mostly citizens or residents to Canada. Seeing as you are here today you probably live in the area. However, the main thing that binds most of us here together this morning as a church is that we are all Christians. We are believers in Jesus Christ. At some point in your life you heard the truth and you gave your heart to God. When that happened you received the Holy Spirit within your heart.
Paul reminds us here that as Christians we are united in that we have one Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that is in you is also in me. That Spirit unites us. He tells us;
Ephesians 2:18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
We believe that Jesus Christ paid for our sins on the cross and because of that we all have access to God the Father. We share that common belief.
Mike Murdoch makes this observation, "Look at those who surrounded Jesus: A tax collector, a physician, fishermen, a woman who was a prostitute and at one time possessed with seven demons. Some were poor. Some were wealthy. Some were very energetic, while others were passive. Some were explosive like Peter. Others, like James, were logical"
The first followers were all very different. What they had in common was their connection with Jesus. Likewise, the church in Ephesus was a very diverse bunch. Not as diverse as this church is today, but it was made up of Jews and Gentiles from all over the Roman world who had made Ephesus their home. Paul wrote to them saying;
Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit -- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
What unites us this morning is the fact that we believe that Jesus is Lord. We have received the gift of salvation. We are Christians.
Every three years InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sponsors the Urbana Conference, a gathering that challenges university students to get involved in world evangelization. About 16,000 students from around the world attended the 2009 conference. After the main session each evening, students would leave the larger conference auditorium to meet in smaller groups for prayer and reflection. In one of the banquet halls, there was a group comprised of Chinese students, another group of Taiwanese students, and another group of students from Hong Kong. Large dividers stood between the three. These walls were important, because historically these three peoples have harbored bitterness and animosity toward one another. They felt it was best to pray and worship each with their own group.
One night as the Chinese students were praying they told their leader they wanted to invite the other countries to join them. When the Taiwanese students received the invitation, they prayed and sang a little while, and then they opened up the wall divider. It wasn't too much longer before the students from Hong Kong pulled back their divider, and some 80 students mingled together.
"In Christ, we are all one family," said one leader. "Christ breaks down political boundaries. In Christ, we have the desire to make the first steps to connect." The Taiwanese students asked the students from China and Hong Kong to lead them in worship. The next night, they invited the Korean and Japanese groups to join them, nations which also had experienced fierce animosity. The leader told them, "We are living out what we have learned this week in John: This is 'God with us.'" One girl from China said, "It was a really moving time. This kind of thing just does not happen today without Jesus"
2. One Family - belonging
We are united by more than just belief. We are also united in fellowship. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We belong to the same family. We are all part of the church universal, but we are also mostly part of this local community of faith called Bramalea Baptist Church.
Ephesians 2: 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
We do not simply share the same belief, we are members of the same family. This is not simply believing but also belonging. Your father is also my father, and that makes us brothers and sisters in Christ.
Mark 3:31-35 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." 33 Who are my mother and my brothers? he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."
Sometimes Christians, especially from different churches or different denominational backgrounds, have a hard time remembering this truth. We may have different histories, different views on certain areas of theology and different styles of worship but that does not mean that we are not family.
Apparently Mark Twain used to say he put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so he put in a bird, pig and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholic; soon there was not a living thing left.
I heard of a guy who visited a small zoo and was surprised to find a cage that had a lion and a monkey in it. "That’s marvelous, having a lion and monkey in the same cage," said the visitor to the zookeeper "How do they get along?" "Okay, usually," answered the zookeeper. "Occasionally they have a disagreement, and then we have to get a new monkey."
Different denominations may have different a different emphasis than us, but as Christians we are family. We are a baptist church, but that is a small b. The emphasis is not our denomination but Jesus. We come from many different denominational backgrounds. The issue is not where we come from but where we are going.
A Baptist couple decide that they want to get a dog. As they are walking down the street in town, they notice that a sign in the pet shop is advertising "Christian Puppies." Their interest piqued, they go inside. "How do you know they’re Christian puppies?" "Watch," says the owner, as he takes one of the dogs and says, "Fetch." The dog runs over to the desk, and grabs the Bible in its mouth and returns. Putting the Bible on the floor, the owner says, "Find Psalm 23." The dog flips pages with its paw until he reaches the right page, and then stops.
Amazed and delighted, the couple purchase the dog and head home. That evening, they invite some friends over and show them the dog, having him run through his Psalm 23 routine. Impressed, one of the visitors asks "Does he also know ’regular’ commands?" "Gee, we don’t know. We didn’t ask," replies the husband. Turning to the dog, he says, "Sit." The dog sits. He says, "Lie down." The dog lies down. He says "Roll over." The dog rolls over. He says "Heel." The dog runs over to him, jumps up on the sofa, puts both paws on the owner’s forehead and bows his head. "Oh look!" the wife exclaims. "He’s PENTECOSTAL!"
3. One Focus - becoming
We are united today in that we have the same faith and the same family. What also unites us is that we have the same focus. We have the same mission. We are hopefully all moving in the same direction.
Ephesians 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
As members of this local fellowship, we have a common vision and purpose.
1 Corinthians 3:9-11 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
It is when we lose site of our mission that the problems start. When your focus is not outward, it turns inward. When you don’t focus on your mission you focus on your manners. People who are busy rowing the boat usually do not have time to rock it. When fishermen don't fish they fight. When our focus is not outward and we do not do the work that Jesus has called us to do then our attention and energy turns inward and often becomes destructive.
There can be union without unity: tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline. There you will have union, but certainly not unity!
Maybe you have heard that old Irish limerick that says, “There once were two cats of Killkenny. Each thought there was one cat too many. They fought and they spit, they clawed and they bit, till instead of two cats there weren’t any!”
How many times have we seen the saga of the Killkenny cats played out in different churches. When a person is only concerned about them self, when church is just about meeting their own need, there are bound to be arguments and division. When our focus is on others and on our mission and purpose there is unity of heart and direction.
A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Pursuit of God, tells us the secret of how to gain greater unity. "Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."
When our eyes are on each other there is bound to be trouble. When our eyes are on Jesus and His will and mission for our lives there is unity.
These are exciting days for us as a church. It was great to see all the kids at camp a few weeks ago and to see the change in so many young lives. Our children’s ministry is growing. It was also good to hear from Pastor Mark last week. There are many challenges that youth and young adults face today, but there are also so many opportunities!
Over this summer we had a number of opportunities to do ministry over at Knightsbridge. We had the bike clinic and prayer tents as part of Love Brampton. Then we had the kids camp and the Across Queen for the youth. We had collected backpacks for Peel Family Shelter but they ended up not needing them so we had the opportunity to bless the people of Knightsbridge with kids backpacks and school supplies. We had 155 backpacks. Josh was concerned that we would not have enough but the last person in line took the last backpack – we had exactly the right number!
We have had a number of young adults getting excited about missions. You saw Scott and Tanikah in the service a few weeks ago, but we have so many others who are interested. We have some not-quite-so-young adults Dan and Sherri Lou Kerr heading back to Thailand in a few weeks.
There are so many more exciting things happening in different ministries this coming year, I could go on and on but my time is done.
In a month we are going to be having the official opening for our new building. We were going to have the mayor here today since this was supposed to be the official opening but the delays made it impossible for us to get everything done in time. So as I mentioned a few weeks ago we will be having the official opening on Thanksgiving weekend. We will be having two services and it will be a wonderful celebration. After the 11:00 service we will be having the ribbon cutting and maybe some cake in the new gym. There will be more details in the coming weeks but plan to be here.
Buildings are only tools. We are the church. Together in Christ, we are the church. When we focus on what unites us; when we focus on our mission, we can make a difference.
An atheist lived in a certain village. He was not a terrible person, he just had no interest in going to the boring, traditional church that was the only one in the village. One day the church building caught on fire, and the whole town ran toward it to help extinguish the flames, including the village atheist. Someone called out: “hey, this is something new for you, it is the first time we’ve ever seen you running to the church!” He replied, “It's the first time I have ever run to the church because it is the first time I’ve ever seen the church on fire!”
We want to see a church on fire. Together we want to see a church that makes a difference in this city that God has planted us and in the world.
I started off talking about Legos. Do you know what the largest Lego structure ever built is? It is a Lego version of London’s Tower Bridge created to promote the new Land Rover. At over 40 feet tall and with almost 6 million individual blocks, it is the largest individual structure ever created. Pretty amazing considering that it was all built from small plastic blocks. God created us for community. Like Legos we were designed to fit together. When the church of Jesus Christ comes together to do the work that God has given us to do, it is amazing the things that we can become.
I heard the story of a guy who sold Christmas trees in New York city. One day there was a couple that came in looking for a tree. Both were wearing clothes that looked like they had from the bottom of the bin of the Salvation Army store. After finding only trees that were $50 and up, they decided that they were too expensive and they started to leave. Seeing that they had no money, the owner walked over and told them that he had two trees in the back. Both trees were OK on one side but very bare on the other. He knew that he would not be able to sell those trees and that he would probably end up throwing them away. He told them he would sell them both trees for only $5. They agreed and took the 2 trees away.
A few days later the owner was walking down the street and saw the most beautiful tree he had ever seen in the window of a nearby apartment. It was thick and round, completely perfect. He knocked on the door and realized it was the couple who had purchased the two discarded trees. They told him how they had worked the two trees close together where the branches were thin. Then they tied the trunks together. The branches overlapped and formed a tree so thick you couldn’t see the wire.
You take two trees that aren’t perfect, that have flaws, that might even be homely, that maybe nobody else would want. If you put them together just right, you can come up with something really beautiful.
