life message

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I believe the answer is found in 1 John 4:18 – “Fear is not found in love.”  We need to open a true and meaningful dialog with both groups – a time when they can come together and share their fears with each other.  A time when we can bring these fears to the light and let God deal with removing them.  As Pastoral Leaders we need to let Moderns know that change is coming, and ask that they understand and trust the heart and faith of the Leadership to know we will not lead the lambs to the slaughter.  As Pastoral Leaders we need to let  Postmoderns know that change is coming, and it is coming in God’s time, and they need to trust the Pastoral Leadership to know they are doing all in their hearts to bring about change.  The Pastoral Leadership needs to be the people who can willingly and lovingly flow between the two groups and be the bridge of Christ to ensure a true and open dialog in love.

In Scripture Christians are called “Ambassadors of Christ” and as Pastor we need to truly take on the role of Ambassador of Christ to heart.  In the First Century Rome would sent out Ambassadors to areas they already controlled, but where there was conflict between two factions of the population.  We, as Pastoral Leaders, need to be, and teach others to be, Ambassadors of Christ in our Community of Faith to help both people know that God's loves them both.  We must increase the dialog, and encourage the dialog to continue.  The best way any Community of Faith can deal with fear, it to continue an open and honest dialog.

"the end of the law" -  this message deals with the fact that the law is over, and we now live under grace.  it was turned into a position paper.  delivered on 01.14.01 by pastor john 

I think that Jesus Christ in the New Testament calls His Last Day people to be different, to be like Him, to be open and accepting of each other and to truly do what He asks of all His followers from then until now: to love one another.

Our society exists in a world where boundaries and lines are blurring together and bleeding into each other all the time.  Forty years ago the lines between people of different ethnic backgrounds were very rigid.  Today those lines have been erased and we know it is a good thing.  It is a step towards the Brave New World God is bringing.  Twenty years ago the lines between Russian and her allies and the west were thought to be permanent.  Now the wall has come down and we have begun to associate with Russia and her former allies as we seek mutual benefits for each of us.  I don’t think anyone here wants to return to the days of East verses West, of cold war, and of uncertainty and fear.  Again, it is a step towards the Brave New World God is bringing.

All we have to do is look to Israel and Palestine today to see what happens to people who should be neighbors and live together in peace but who instead hold firmly to boundaries and lines that do nothing but promote hatred and mistrust, all in the name of God (or Allah).  

When God returns to usher in His Brave New World, He will not come down here and pick the Israelites or the Palestinians and say one was right or wrong.  He will instead look for those who dared to cross the traditions and beliefs of their rigid and unholy discriminatory religions and show each other the one thing that matters in the eyes of God: love.  In the same way, He won’t come down here and pick one system over another, Jew over Catholic, Adventist over Baptist, Mormon over Jehovah’s Witness.  He will chose those who understand that in God’s world, only two things matter:  love for God and love for each other.  If we have one without the other, we have neither!!!

You see, I believe traditions and religious systems and denominations and all that stuff is good.  I think it is important to hold onto something that gives us a sense of identity, but not if that identity causes us to see others or to treat others as unequal to us or unworthy of a relationship with God.  Rules and traditions change, beliefs come and go, only one thing is unchangeable, God and His love for you and me. 

I believe the community God asks his last day people to create is a community where we love all people and accept all people, regardless of tradition, just as they are, in the same way God loves and accepts us.  We must not try to make people fit our definition of what God expects of them.  If we did that, we would be God and since we are not, we can only be guides.  A pastor or minister should aspire to nothing greater than to be your guide to God so that He can tell you what He wants of you.

Life is a journey from this world to God’s, and the church body on this earth needs to be a safe place for people at all stages of the journey and on all different paths, can come together to celebrate the common goal, not debate the differences of the paths.

The Bible tells us that if we truly know God and His love for imperfect people like us,  we too will love each other and we will move beyond concepts that make us unloving towards each other. 

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that that as the world winds down, prophecy will cease, the gifts of wisdom and speaking in tongues will cease, but that only faith, hope and love will remain forever.

We are not asked to build a community based on some person’s individual gift of prophecy when we know it will pass.  We are not asked to build a community based on worldly knowledge or wisdom or the gift of tongues, nor on the laws and traditions and rules of men.  We know those things will cease.

Instead, we are given the great commission of building a safe community based on three things that will never change, because they are the only things God gives us that will not change.

Faith:  faith in the life, death, resurrection and soon coming of Jesus.  I don’t know how or where or when that will happen, but I have faith that it will.  I also have faith that when it does, no matter the form it takes, because I have faith in Him, I will be there.  And that is Hope.

Hope is the belief we have that what we are doing here is not a waste of our time or just a delusion we create to make sense out of a world of chaos and confusion.  Martin Luther penned this great hymn that says “We have this hope that burns deep in our hearts, hope in the coming of the king.”  

And finally, Love:  A love for God and for each other that will not allow what other people say or expect of us to do away with or change.  A love for old and young, rich and poor, denomination traditions not withstanding.  A love that sees beyond where humans can see, to try and see each other as God asks us to, as brothers and sisters.

If we can see that, if we can experience that, then I believe we will have tasted of God’s Brave New World!