Wilderness Wanderings

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)

This week we've focused on the horizontal relationships between us as a church, together in faith. But today we return to the reminder that the vertical dimension is where we really hang our hats.

We began this mini-series talking about how the church's foundation is not really in the Acts 2 church where everyone had everything in common and where the church was growing like crazy. The church's foundational command and posture comes instead from Acts 1 where we are told to be a church that waits for the work and power of God.

Having dwelt with that idea for a while now—it's time to come back to the Acts 2 church. This was a church living in response to a work of God through the Spirit. A work they had waited for. The Spirit had blown the refreshing Word and power of God over all of them that Pentecost day through the preaching of Peter. And in response, the church gathered, devoted themselves to this teaching about Jesus and to one another. They prayed, broke bread together, and shared everything in common with generosity and gladness of heart.

Notice that this Acts 2 church is not said to have gone out evangelizing. And yet, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Did the quality of their life together contribute to the growth of this early church? Certainly! Their generosity, hospitality, gladness, and message was evident to all as they met together openly in the Temple Courts in the name of Jesus. But the Lord is the only one said to be actively at work in the mission fields.

This is a key piece. There are times in the book of Acts that God is gathering people up into a congregation, and there are times, like in Acts 8:1 where God is scattering people away from the church. Growth and numbers and decline are all matters that the church must entrust to God. It is ultimately his Kingdom and his mission. Our calling is to live as witnesses to Jesus who cultivate a life that looks and smells like Jesus. We are to be witnesses who are visibly devoted to God and to one another. We are to be witnesses who live a life together that is supple and responsive to the Spirit's movements, filled with the Spirit's fruits of love, joy, peace, and the rest.

But, as Paul writes elsewhere (in 1 Corinthians 3), it is God who gives the increase. Our job is to wait and to witness. Waiting for God's work and witnessing to God's way—this is what it means to be a church Together, in Faith.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

This week we are considering various texts that help us live out the horizontal elements of Immanuel's tagline, "Together in Faith". Today, we consider 'the good life'. Most of us have an idea of what makes up "the good life". Often, it includes greater financial security. One definition suggests it is "self-satisfaction, self-mastery, and personal fulfilment." Another says, "doing things you enjoy, feeling interested in your activities, and feeling like what you do matters. A third says simply, "good relationships." Notice that these are largely self-centred.

Our text addresses a Christian understanding of 'the good life'. We are encouraged to 'take hold of the life that is truly life.' Even if we do not consider ourselves 'rich in this present world' there are lessons for us to embrace in this passage, helping us to take hold of this life that is truly life. A Christian understanding of 'the good life' is rooted in the vertical dimension. It's God-orientated, not self-orientated.

It begins with a warning against arrogance. This is a posture that says, "I have made my life as success. The wealth I have, I have earned with my own hands. It's mine. I now get to spend it as I desire." We call this 'entitlement.' It often morphs into the attitude that if the poor would just work harder, they would get here too. With this warning is a reminder that wealth in this world is fleeting, eroding easily. Money is easier to lose than to gather.

Regardless of our financial security, the 'good life' begins with putting our hope in God. In place of arrogance, we embrace humility which comes when we acknowledge daily and even hourly that we deserve no better than the poorest citizen of this planet. Deuteronomy 8:18 helps us cultivate this, "Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth." Whatever we have is a gift God has given us to steward.

These gifts of God are to be used in two ways. First, we may to enjoy the material blessings God gives us. Christians are not called to have sour dispositions unable to enjoy life. God is a good God who gives good gifts to His children for their enjoyment. We must cultivate a spirit of joy in what God gives, no longer looking at what others have, but delighting in the things we have. Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from fewer wants.

Second, we develop a spirit of generosity. The ability to enjoy good things is not rooted in selfishness but in a deep understanding that they are gifts from God to be enjoyed and shared. Generosity is a lifestyle that is reflective of God's blessing in our lives. Because we have been blessed, we use our material blessings to bless other people.

With blessing comes responsibility, comes opportunity. We have opportunity to be conduits through which God can channel resources for his kingdom work. Do we have eyes that our open to the possibilities God places before us?

Notice again, how Paul puts it: "In this way"—by being generous—"we will lay up treasures for ourselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that we may take hold of the life that is truly life."

Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

The question is not how much we have, but what has us. It's not what we hold, but how tightly we hold it. Not what we have, but how we got it. Do we think we earned them, or did we receive them as a gift? Do the things we have make us proud or grateful; self‑sufficient or God‑sufficient?

Our words of blessing for this series, help us embrace the 'good life':

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

For the past number of years preceding Tim Keller's death this past May (and even since), there was much controversy over his approach to being a Christian in a secular culture. Keller's detractors all seemed to agree that he was a good and kind man who, "as far as it depended on him, lived at peace with everyone." In fact, that was part of the problem that both the conservative and liberal ends of the spectrum had with him. His kindness covered up the injustice of his conservative positions according to liberals, and it was just plainly too weak and accommodating for conservatives.

The reaction of both ends against him suggests that Keller walked in the middle—an increasingly lonely place to be in a polarized world. But there's more to this middle than staking out a position. Whatever ones' agreement or disagreement with Keller on various matters, what I'm getting at here is something different. Jesus is not only the fulness of life, and not only the embodiment of truth—Jesus is also the way. It is this way of Jesus that Paul speaks to here across these verses of Romans 12 and it is this way of Jesus that Keller so beautifully attempted to imitate himself.

In a world that continues to deepen and harden in its polarization, such a Christian witness to the way of the Prince of Peace is hard to come by. In order to live in this counter-cultural way of the Kingdom, a few things are required of us that this Romans 12 passage speaks to.

The first is a submission to God. Paul tells us not to take revenge, but to leave that to God. There is a strong undercurrent in current evangelical conversation that suggests that we can no longer be nice—we need to take the gloves off and fight, using whatever means necessary to achieve the ends we seek for the sake of Christ and the church. Paul speaks against such notions by reminding us that God, as God, can take care of himself just fine without us. Not only that, but he can take care of us too. We are to wait in submission on God to do the judging and avenging. Our work is to submit and so live in a posture of peace.

The second thing we are called to do is perhaps less obvious in this text: we are called on to suffer. If we are not permitted to fight back by "repaying evil for evil," then what we are invited to do instead is to bear that evil as we wait for God to do the repaying. This is the way of Jesus on the cross. He does not fight back, nor he does not call forth a legion of angels. Instead, he submits himself to God the Father and bears the suffering of the world in the form of all its sin and evil as it's pounded into his hands and feet. "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also," Jesus said. Why should we get up in arms as if this is a strange thing? We are called to bear the sin, evil, and suffering of the world as we take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Thirdly, however, a strange thing happens as we submit ourselves to God and bear the suffering of this world by taking up our cross. In the cross of Jesus—the suffering, sin, and evil we bear begins to die and a strange new life begins to appear. A new, Spirit-fired life arises that enables us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, even to feed, refresh, and forgive them as we serve them with kindness. And in this way—the way of Jesus—the world is slowly transformed from death to life, from evil to good, from sin to forgiveness.

It is through the cross of Christ—through this way of Jesus—that we are able to overcome evil with good rather than being overcome by it. This is what we see in the lives of those Christian saints, like Keller and so many others, who have imitated the way of Jesus well.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited (Romans 12:16).

We continue with our reflections of the horizontal plain, the relationship we have with each other -- the love Christians are called to have for one another. Before we get to our text, it is worth pointing out that this horizontal is never independent of the vertical. Love in the Christian fellowship is grounded in the mercy we have first received from God. "In view of God's mercy," this chapter begins, we are "to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." Any act of love to a fellow Christian is at the same time an offering to God, an act of thanksgiving for his mercy.

As Paul continues this short meditation on love, he writes, 'live in harmony with each other'. The words are almost identical with Paul's appeal to the Philippians to be 'like-minded' and 'one in spirit and purpose'. Again, it is not that we need to be in full agreement with each other on everything. However, our minds need to be trained to move towards each other, not away from each other. We agree on the essentials and allow latitude wherever possible.

This becomes clear with the next phrase, 'do not be proud'. Here is a renewed call towards humility which seeks to understand before being understood. Humility prefers to communicate rather than do battle with words. We seek to speak with not against. We do not learn to do this well in our debate orientated society. Further, few of us make friends with those who think differently than we do. "Steel sharpens steel", says Proverbs (27:17), but we prefer not to be sharpened, preferring our friends to echo our own ideas.

Humility regards the thoughts of others with high regard. "Do not be conceited" counsels against thinking of oneself as highborn, high ranking, high class, high minded, or highly educated. With such distinctions we expect to be treated according to our status, expecting others to defer to us because of our high position.

In his letter to the Philippian believers, Paul reminded them of how Jesus climbed down from His heavenly place to suffer the humiliating death of a criminal for us. "Associate with people of low position" means, literally, "Allow yourself to be carried away by people of low rank." In secular Greek and Roman culture, to be seen with people of much lower rank could be fatal to one's ambitions. Not only were they socially undesirable, but they were also thought to corrupt the morals of upright citizens.

To the contrary, Paul taught that humility seeks out people on the fringes and risks embracing them. Now there is a danger here. The fringes are often sought out as projects, as folks the in-crowd should be helping. Such an attitude still smacks of pride. Instead, we ought to embrace each other as equal in status and value. Humility means that we develop relationships of mutuality, in which everyone has something to contribute to the community.

In Luke 7, we find Jesus leading us towards such things. He is invited to the house of a Pharisee for dinner (36). The Jewish leadership, which included the Pharisees, were already out to get him (6:11), so it might have been wise for Jesus to decline the invitation. But he went for dinner, reclining at the table. Dinner took a long time, for while he was there, a woman 'who lived a sinful life', heard about it and joined the party to anoint Jesus' feet with oil and tears. Instead of recoiling, Jesus used the occasion to teach the Pharisee a thing or two about God's love. He wanted the Pharisee to learn about grace from one who lived a sinful life.

If all of this sounds like too much to expect, then listen again to these words:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. (Romans 12:9-13)

The first week of this new "Together, in Faith" series, we talked about what it meant to be a "waiting community," that is, a church community that firstly waits on the Lord to work and act. Last week, we began to talk about how that vertical dimension of God's work, life, and love intersects and motivates our work on the horizontal plane with one another. And now this week, we take a deeper dive into the horizontal plane where our relationships with one another and with the world are worked out. Romans 12 will be our guide.

You'll notice that here again—the emphasis falls firstly on love: sincere, devoted love. It is a love of the good, a love of one another. But it is also a love that translates very naturally into a string of practices and postures. Love keeps up our passion for serving the Lord who first loved us. Love is a building block upon which other virtues are built and spiritual fruits may grow, like joy, hope, patience, and faithfulness in prayer.

But where we'd like to focus today is particularly on the last two lines: the invitation to share with those in need and to practice hospitality.

As modern people of the 21st century, it is difficult for us to understand just how critically important and universally assumed a culture of personally offering hospitality was to the Old Testament Jews and the New Testament Christians.

The shift away from a culture of hospitality occurred early in church history. Eccentric Christian historian, Ivan Illich, tells the story of the early years of Christianity when "it was customary in a Christian household to have an extra mattress, a bit of a candle, and some dry bread in case the Lord Jesus should knock at the door in the form of a stranger without a roof—a form of behaviour that was utterly foreign to any of the cultures of the Roman Empire."

However, once Christianity was recognized by Constantine and became part of the empire, "bishops created special houses, financed by the community, that were charged with taking care of people without a home… It was against this idea that the great Church Father John Chrysostom railed… in one of his sermons, he warned against creating this xenodocheia, literally 'houses for foreigners.' By assigning the duty to behave in this way to an institution, he said, Christians would lose the habit of reserving a bed and having a piece of bread ready in every home, and their households would cease to be Christian homes."

Chrysostom thought a ready and willing hospitality was one of the central, indispensable marks of a Christian home. But when we list off the central Christian practices today—we only list Bible reading, prayer, and worship.

While not giving up the support of institutions on the one hand--what might it mean to also take up the Romans 12 challenge of Paul and Chrysostom to have groceries and a bed at the ready with the full expectation of opening our door to someone? It doesn't right away have to be a stranger from the street--perhaps just someone from the church. Whatever you do: take it up as a challenge—see if you can find a way to invite people into your home once a month, or once a week. There's no better way to be Together, in Faith, than by getting together!

So try it! Practice hospitality.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is James 4:13-17 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In!

1. Romans 8:28 is used as a key to understand this chapter. How does Saul act? How does David act?
2. The second key is Saul's descent into anger and fear. Reflect on ways in which you have seen this. In the life of others? In your own life?
3. Has Romans 8:28 helped you avoid anger and fear? How can it in the future?

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15).

I recall reading a storybook to my young children in which a child tags along with a fire truck and gets very dirty at the scene of a fire. So dirty, her dad does not even recognize her when she returns home. When dad finally allows her into the house, she is subjected to taking a five-day bath.

The natural response to dirt is to wash it off. We wash until surfaces sparkle. This principle is often incorporated into our spirituality. Misbehaviour is confronted from the outside. We attempt to change our behaviour, scrubbing words out of our vocabulary and hurtful actions out of our relationships. Some moderate success encourages us onward. But most of us discover along the way that behavioural change is very difficult to come by.

But we Christians know change is necessary. Our faith naturally results in changed living. Today's text tells us that we are called to peace. But it also addresses how it begins: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Becoming holy does not begin on the outside, but on the inside. To use our recent words, to live peacefully on the horizontal, we must begin with the vertical. When the peace of Christ reigns in our hearts we can live in peace with others. To live "Together in Faith", the peace of Christ is required.

Paul has already mentioned several things that break down peace in a community: evil desires, greed, anger, slander, envy. The dictionary says that the opposite of peace is war, conflict, strife. Our desire for things often brings us into conflict and strife with others, breaking down peace. Our wants become more important to us than our brothers and sisters in Christ. Somehow, they become enemies. Matthew Henry once wrote: "By their speech and actions some Christians show they'd rather lose a brother than an argument."

So how does the peace of Christ rule in our hearts? The first answer is: by faith. We believe that we are forgiven sinners; that we are children of God. We confess that our only comfort is that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. We may not always act or look like his children, but that does not change the reality.

As children of God, the Spirit leads us into the life of Christ through death and resurrection. Our old selves drown in the baptism tank. Our new lives are raised up. Envy is killed and gratitude is born. Resentment is cast away to be replaced with forgiveness. Arrogance is drowned so that humility can live.

Some of us think these things are still our natural bent. We make excuses for ourselves. "This is just the way I am." We also excuse others. He has an anger problem. Or she likes her drink; he's just power hunger; she's a gossip. We ought not to make excuses for non-Christian behaviour. Those who belong to Jesus are naturally patient, content, sober, and control their tongues.

The problem is that our old nature likes to assert itself and make an illegitimate claim to be our natural self. But it's not. It was. But not any longer. Our old self is hard to kill. We may think that it is dead, at the bottom of the Red Sea with Pharaoh and all his hosts, but it's a good swimmer, it keeps bobbing up again. We must tell it to get lost. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you," says James. In the same way, "resist the old self and it will flee."

Paul says, "Get dressed up in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Such things are part of a heart that is at peace. Peace means no more warfare with God, no more warfare with ourselves, and no more warfare with other people. Any suspicions or hostilities within the church are dealt with first, not on the outside, but on the insider. These are my family; I am not at war with them. Christ has reconciled us.

Dying and rising with Christ is a 'daily rhythm' for the Christian because doing it once isn't enough. The Spirit will lead us to die and rise repeatedly until all actions and motives that create strife are washed away; until our hearts are at peace.

We move forward with this confidence:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

The first half of Ephesians 4 is a beautiful passage for understanding how we grow as disciples.

In the opening verses we're told of how we have been united together in the body of faith through God's work. In verse 7, we are told that each of us has received gifts. In verse 11, we're told that Christ has also given leaders and teachers of various sorts to equip us for good works. Finally, we are told that Christ himself remains the head of his Church. All of these are gifts that come to us from God along that vertical axis.

In response to this overflowing stream of gifts from Jesus Christ—we are urged to live worthily in response. We're invited to keep the unity we've been given. We're invited to receive the gifts and put them to use. We're invited to grow and help each other to grow as we build each other up through the use of these gifts we've been given. God is at work, we are at work. We are growing and helping others to grow, even as they help us to grow. It is one big interdependent, organic mess. It's a body. With Christ as its head.

How does this body grow up into all this good work of mutuality and maturity? Love is the way. The body grows and builds itself up in love as it works. And the members of the body speak the truth in love as they grow. Work and communication, all done in the way of love. This is how a body moves and grows.

Of course, there are times when bodies turn against themselves. We often categorize diseases of this sort as autoimmune diseases—where the immune system begins to attack its own body. This happens in the church as well. At no point is the body of Christ in more danger of death than when it attacks and fights within itself. A house divided against itself cannot stand. A body can't either.

Sometimes our conceptions of "truth" drawn from this and other passages that name the word "truth" have fueled such autoimmune diseases in the body. But here in Ephesians 4, as in other places in the scriptures, truth is set against lies and deceit. The 9th commandment regarding false testimony (of the courtroom, eye-witness account variety) is background to this conception of truth. Truth here is not a particular set of correct statements of belief so much as it is an honest description from the redeemed of the Lord as they tell their story (Ps 107:2) of what he has done. When we tell this kind of truth, in love, it builds up.

The way of love always offers a healing way for the body to continue growing. It offers the needed path of humility into things like confession, forgiveness, and a renewed honesty. It offers the context for truth to be told as encouragement for building up. And love offers a context in which we can all do our work, together, in faith—both in our service to one another, but also—as the body of Christ—for the sake of the world.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

What brings you comfort? Sitting in your favourite chair with a good book and a beverage? Watching a movie or TV show that you have seen countless times before? A long, solitary walk in the woods? Hosting best friends for dinner? An afternoon of gardening?

Most of us have things we do which help us relax. Life can cause stress to build up; we need ways to let it go. When stress gets too deep, some of us blow up; others of us turn it inward causing depression or high blood pressure or other forms of illness. When we hurt, we often turn inward, replaying it in our minds, over and over, like a hamster on a wheel. Mining our hurts, we turn them into self pity, bitterness, and other negative attitudes. The ugly becomes uglier. The scars, kept red and raw by repeated scratching, refuse to heal.

The antidote to this endless downward spiral is comfort. Today's text approaches it from an odd angle, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort."

Compassion and comfort descend from God above before being passed on to hurting folks around us. Here, the vertical and horizontal explored in the previous two devotions, are spelled out clearly. Paul praises God because he brings compassion and comfort to this world and uses us to pass it around. It is one of the key themes of this letter, the Greek word showing up 29 times.

But to understand this well, we need to know what the Bible means by comfort. The things that I mentioned above, the things we often turn to for comfort, help us to relax, take our minds off of the stress and pain of life. There is nothing wrong with these things. They can be helpful. But they are not what the 'God of all comfort' offers us.

In the original languages, comfort has the same root as the words for fortress and fortitude. It is not primarily about feeling better or taking away the hurt or stress, even though that may follow. Rather, it offers strength and resilience. When we encounter bad news our knees buckle. That is why we ask people to sit down when they need to receive difficult information. This kind of comfort encourages people to get back up. We stand along side them and hold them up until they are strong enough to continue on their own.

This is why comfort and compassion are a pair. The comforter can easily become impatient. We tell people they have to get over it, get on with life. To comfort means that we will hold people up as long as they need it. The Holy Spirit is both comforter and the source of power for the Christian. Those two belong together.

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will be our comforter. Strangely, the Spirit often used people as his means to comfort others. Real comfort can't be found in a bowl of beef stew or a shot of whiskey or a walk in the woods. When we're hurting, we need someone to come alongside us to provide us with the strength we don't have ourselves. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the church becomes such a community.

This was one of the more difficult issues COVID unleashed on us. How can we comfort one another when we could not be present with each other? But COVID is over. It is time to return vigorously to this essential Christian virtue. It does not require many words. It can begin with a simple question, "What can I do for you?" Or even, "When I was hurting some one came weekly to clean my house. Would it be helpful if we did that for you?"

Comfort -- a key ingredient for walking "Together in Faith"!

We move forward with this confidence:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:10-12)

One of the most foundational gifts that God has given to us is his love embodied in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Just a few verses before this, John goes so far as to say that "God is love."

But again, as Pastor Michael said yesterday—God's love is not given only for our own good. God's love does not make us selfish. It is given so that it might be shared. Here again are those two movements from yesterday—the vertical and the horizontal. We receive God's love vertically, and we share it with others horizontally. Being a community "Together, in Faith" embraces both.

Of course, love is an easy word to say. It is a much harder word to live.

Firstly, we must receive God's love for us in Christ. Many of us have a hard time with this. Many of us hold on to our guilt or an imposter syndrome that continually whispers things into our heart, like: "you don't deserve it," or "if God really knew what you were like, he wouldn't have anything to do with you." Your own inner voice might whisper something different than that—but most of us are likely familiar with the dialogue.

Of course, the offensive thing about our God—is that he does know what we're like. He knows our secrets, our sins, our shortcomings—and yet has loved us anyway. Picture Jesus in his passion: he faces the spitting, the mocking, the slapping, the betrayal, and the beatings and yet still loves and forgives and dies for these very same people who are crucifying him—these ones who stand in for you and me. Jesus knew exactly what was in the human heart. He faced it, received it, and in return offered not judgement, but love. An unconditional, no-strings-attached, opened-handed offering of love.

It is so offensive and embarrassing to be offered such a pure form love as this, that they killed Jesus in order to avoid his love. It was easier to be rid of this confrontation with love's embodiment, than to humbly and thankfully receive it. It is no different today. God's love is offensive.

But in order to step forward together, in faith—receiving the love of Christ that loves you exactly where you are—full of all the sins and failures and broken realities that you are—this is the first step. You must receive his love. God sees you and knows you—all of you, including your darkest shadows—and yet he loves you still—will you receive it?

In truth—it takes practice to receive this love. The way we have been given to practice is by loving one another. How far dare we go in extending God's love to the unlovable person? To the enemy? To the person who leaves us? Disagrees with us? Is different than us? Despises us? Sins against us? Or sins against God? We can only go as far in loving someone else as we have been able to receive God's love for ourselves. If we cannot accept that God loves us despite our faults and failures—we will not be able to love someone else in theirs. If we cannot accept that God loves us even when we sin—again—in that very same spot as we've been stumbling and sinning in for years already—then we'll not be able to love the sinners around us either.

But: to the extent that we receive God's unconditional love for us in Christ, and enact that love of God through our love for others—to just that extent—the love of the invisible God is made visible in us and through our church. Indeed, in our love for one another, God's very life is made visible in us. In just this way—the word still takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us for the sake of the world.

To Gather, in Faith, in just this way is the very heart of God.