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April 24, 2022 "We Are Lampstands, We Are The Church"
Sometimes we like to think of Jesus people as the "hands and feet of Jesus." Or, we think of Jesus people as the presence of Jesus in a lost and broken world so loved by God. Those are good ideas. Scriptural ideas. But they can also be dangerous if that's the only way we think of Jesus. What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when people abuse power? What happens when Jesus people cozy up to power and make all kinds of compromises to integrity? Well, people look at that and say, "I want to have nothing to do with Jesus if that's what Jesus is all about!"
In Revelation, the first seven churches were called "lampstands," a beacon of light in their place. It's important for us to remember that Jesus is also outside, above, and yet among the lampstands - the churches. He speaks words of encouragement and healing. But sometimes warnings and corrections.
The beginning of the Church was based on enthusiastic small gatherings of people who wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus, whom many of them had followed while he was on Earth. The formation of that version of the Church was spontaneous...courageous...sacrificial...chaotic. It seems that, a generation later, this thing that started off as chaotic has become a thing. It's organized now. Now there are people coming in and focusing on right doctrine, right belief, having the right people in the house and in leadership. Jesus essentially says, "Those are good things, but you've forsaken your first love."
Perhaps this is what happens when churches become too internally focused and forget that they are a lampstand, bringing God's light and love and healing and forgiveness to the world. If we as Jesus people neglect to welcome and care for those who are abused, forgotten, pushed aside, and unwanted by the rest of the world, we are failing to live out the calling that Jesus put before us.
And specifically within religious spaces, when we fail to include and protect and welcome...we must face that reckoning and do things differently. We are called to do so much more merely than repeat the words of Jesus.
ReNew Community Worship Service
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7
http://bible.com/events/48882226
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Sometimes we like to think of Jesus people as the "hands and feet of Jesus." Or, we think of Jesus people as the presence of Jesus in a lost and broken world so loved by God. Those are good ideas. Scriptural ideas. But they can also be dangerous if that's the only way we think of Jesus. What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when people abuse power? What happens when Jesus people cozy up to power and make all kinds of compromises to integrity? Well, people look at that and say, "I want to have nothing to do with Jesus if that's what Jesus is all about!"
In Revelation, the first seven churches were called "lampstands," a beacon of light in their place. It's important for us to remember that Jesus is also outside, above, and yet among the lampstands - the churches. He speaks words of encouragement and healing. But sometimes warnings and corrections.
The beginning of the Church was based on enthusiastic small gatherings of people who wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus, whom many of them had followed while he was on Earth. The formation of that version of the Church was spontaneous...courageous...sacrificial...chaotic. It seems that, a generation later, this thing that started off as chaotic has become a thing. It's organized now. Now there are people coming in and focusing on right doctrine, right belief, having the right people in the house and in leadership. Jesus essentially says, "Those are good things, but you've forsaken your first love."
Perhaps this is what happens when churches become too internally focused and forget that they are a lampstand, bringing God's light and love and healing and forgiveness to the world. If we as Jesus people neglect to welcome and care for those who are abused, forgotten, pushed aside, and unwanted by the rest of the world, we are failing to live out the calling that Jesus put before us.
And specifically within religious spaces, when we fail to include and protect and welcome...we must face that reckoning and do things differently. We are called to do so much more merely than repeat the words of Jesus.
ReNew Community Worship Service
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7
http://bible.com/events/48882226