ReDiscovery: A Bigger Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Series Intro
Series Intro
Making a discovery only to realize it’s not actually new.
David - piano teacher mother, had to break the news that his amazing new composition, was actually Jesus Loves Me.
Discovery or ReDiscovery
Similarly, in the Church, it seems that every 500 years or so, there are discoveries made. And often, if we back up a bit, we realize that those discoveries at at least in part, Re-Discoveries. Noticing things that have been neglected. Either by design, or as an accidental consequence of what has been focused on. What you focus on determines what you miss, after all.
About 15 years ago, Phyllis Tickle said it like this:
For western Christianity, the Protestant, or Great Reformation was about five hundred years ago. Five hundred before that you hit the Great Schism, when the church divided between east and west. Five hundred years earlier you have Pope Gregory the Great, who helped bring the church out of the dark ages.
And, so in various parts of the Church right now and in the last while, there are some ReDiscoveries that are taking place, in various traditions, around the world, and it’s getting people talking to new conversation partners as we realize some of what seems to be stirring.
Today and next Sunday - and then for the three Sundays after I get back from Lebanon - we’re going to examine 5 of these ReDiscoveries that seem to be widespread and important. Now, I didn’t come up with these 5. And if you look for them, you’ll find that many people have written about them or addressed some of them in various ways. But you have likely heard me talk about my involvement with a group called the Jesus Collective.
They have worked hard over the past couple of years to articulate the things that keep coming up again and again, and have more resources if you want to do a deeper dive. Things to read, podcasts to listen to, etc. And they have articulated these 5 Shifts of ReDiscoveries along the way. And many of the Jesus Collective partners have been exploring them with their congregations, as we will do this fall!
None of these things is “new” exactly, but a recovery or a re-Discovery of what has been neglected or abandoned.
The five ReDiscoveries are:
A bigger Gospel - saved into a community under Jesus called to live the life of the future now
Reading Scripture through a Jesus lens - God looks like Jesus and so all Scripture is properly read through a Jesus lens.
Our relationship with power - how is evil overcome?
A clarified purpose and empowerment - joining God in the reconciling of all things
A new approach to disagreement - shared centre vs the lines we draw
This week, we begin with the Gospel - the good news of Jesus Christ. And we’ll examine how having a small gospel or a small view of the gospel will impoverish it. We want a big gospel. Because the good news of Jesus Christ is not small or limited in scope. It means the renewal of all things!
Let’s listen to how Paul wrote about the gospel in his letter to the churches in Rome. As Barb comes to read, would you please stand?
Scripture Reading:
Scripture Reading:
Romans 5:1-11
1 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with our God through Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. 7 It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. 8 But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 9 So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life? 11 And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God.
Romans 5:18–21 (CEB)
18 So now the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person, just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person. 19 Many people were made righteous through the obedience of one person, just as many people were made sinners through the disobedience of one person. 20 The Law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more. 21 The result is that grace will rule through God’s righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, just as sin ruled in death.
There are some BIG phrases in that reading.
“made righteous through his faithfulness” (v1)
The faithfulness of Jesus is enough to make us righteous.
“the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (v5)
“the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person” (v18)
“grace will rule through God’s righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (21)
Compare these phrases to what often ends up being a hyper-individualized sense of salvation being accepting “Jesus as my personal Lord & Saviour” …
The gospel can be reduced to a solution to my individual “sin issue” - vs Jesus as Lord of all
The gospel can be reduced to simply wondering whether “I am saved” (or whether you are) vs saved in order to be a blessing to a world God loves and is redeeming (us and them, in and out, I’m okay and who cares about the rest of you)
The gospel can be smooshed into personal privilege - oh, God’s on my side now. So I get special treatment. Reducing the Lord of all creation to my personal genie with unlimited wishes
And then underlying question then is, “How big is the gospel?”
When we have a small view of the gospel, we end up with a very small gospel - and likely one that is highly individualistic.
But is Jesus as Lord of all creation?
Is that bigger than just being my personal saviour?
In this way of thinking, the church is an enclave of other saved people or, at worst, an optional add-on activity or club to which you can belong if you want.
Instead of what the Jesus Collective describes
“belonging to a community under Jesus called to live the life of the future now”
Individualized gospel
Individualized gospel
Is our gospel too small? Has it been impoverished by the emphasis in the last, well 500 years, on the individual. The over-correction of the West.
What is the gospel doesn’t just mean good news for me. But good news for the whole world, and the whole creation?
Let me show you an example of how this sometimes plays out…
In the West, but also in the Global South and elsewhere, there is a tendency to put the individual in the centre of the story.
In the extreme, we can’t see beyond our own benefit. Our own needs or desires. And this results in us reading Scripture through this individual lens.
And so we read John 3:16 not as God’s love for the entire cosmos is like this, that he sent his Son to save the whole thing” but as God so loved ME that Jesus came to die for ME.
We read 1 Cor 3:16 not as we, collectively, are the temple where the Spirit of God dwells, but as “I am a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
Friends, I had to look that one up - because I don’t think I have EVER heard that text quoted properly. 1 Cor 3:16
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
But you see what happens, right? We twist texts that are clearly speaking to a PEOPLE and we take them off into our quiet corner to read them as being “just about me”…
Saved from and for
Saved from and for
Sometimes we focus on what we’re saved FROM. Which matters. There is something that Jesus does to mend us and the world which has been broken by our sin… but it’s not just been broken by my personal sins, there is a bigger brokenness than just my personal mistakes.
So what if salvation is not just being saved FROM something, but also FOR something?
But, what are we saved FOR?
To put it another way, if Jesus is Lord, and if we are made righteous through His faithfulness, as Paul writes to the Romans, then yes, individuals may come to trust in the Jesus the Faithful One one at a time, but they come to trust Jesus and discover they are part of a community of faith.
The community of God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit. That Trinitarian community. The very life of God, into which we are invited because of the action of God, the love of God, the grace of God, and the hospitality of God that is always making room.
And the community of other believers. And this is both a community that spans continents and centuries. And it finds expression in local communities of faith like this one. Sometimes we call this the Universal or Catholic Church and the Local Church.
If you are a Christian, you are part of this community of saints that begins with the folks whose stories we read in the pages of Scripture, and spanning throughout Church history. Saints known and unnamed. Followers of Jesus who got some things gloriously right. And other things spectacularly wrong. And somehow, because God is so good, the Church despite all its mistakes and missteps has continued on. Reforming and settling down, reacting and adjusting, correcting and finding new errors to make. Translating itself into cultures and languages. Experiencing renewal and persecution. Sometimes simultaneously.
And, much like the story we read in the book, we are called to live as a kingdom of priests - people set apart so that they can bless the whole world. And not as a kingdom of individual priests, but as a collective. We carry this identity and this purpose TOGETHER as the worldwide and historic Church. Bearing witness to God who is at work in the world, bringing the restoration and reconciliation of all things. A project that God invites us to join in on. A kingdom of reconcilers.
And so, we don’t merely receive salvation one person at a time. Well, here’s the paradox, right?
Because we also do receive the gospel one at a time.
But the salvation we receive is bigger. The gospel is bigger than that.
Jesus’ faithfulness does more than just make things okay for you and for me.
Jesus’ faithfulness means that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (v5)
Jesus’ faithfulness means that “the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person” (v18)
Jesus’ faithfulness means that “grace will rule through God’s righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (21)
And later in the book of Romans - as well as other places in scripture - we see that salvation is not just something that will “save humans” but that God intends to redeem all of creation.
21 that the creation itself will be set free from slavery to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
The ReDiscovery we’re invited into this week is that the gospel is bigger than me.
The gospel of Jesus Christ invites me into a community - the Divine community that we call the Trinity. And the community of faith that spans centuries and has reached across continents… I belong to that. You belong to that community. And then we participate in a local expression of that community… and in this community, we participate in the global by being rooted in the local.
By joining God in the renewal of all things by paying attention to where God is renewing things here in Kamloops. On our streets and in our city. In our neighbourhoods and around the Thompson-Nicola region. Around the Interior of BC and across the country. You see?
The Rediscovery we’re invited into this week is that the gospel is at least as big as the whole creation…
And it is rooted in a future in which the faithfulness of Jesus means that grace will rule. And so we practice grace ruling now. Here in this place. And wherever we go.
We are part of this community that gets to live in anticipation of the promised future.
Application
Application
What might this look like?
Begin present where we are, trusting that God has placed us where we are, gifted us with our particular people and our particular gifts. Be faithful, here. Where we are.
Think communally. We belong to God and to one another. Our theology, practice and witness must be to and for the wider community and not just about me and mine. Individual witness is less powerful to such a lonely world. How could we model belonging to one another in a way that would invite people into life with God - without them having to come into our building to discover it? How might we use our building and property in ways that demonstrate the gospel?
Listen, really listen to people who are different from you in our church and in the community. When you hear something that you don’t agree with, get curious before you offer correction.
Cultivate empathy. What breaks God’s heart? Does it break ours?
Invest in things locally… PIT Stop - 20 years!
My friend Adam Dyer, pastor of Yeoville Community Church in England says, “The communal God invites us to be in communion with Him and each other, and to partner with Him in bringing good in all situations, to all people and all nations and all creation.”
That’s a big gospel. And one worth rediscovering!
Transition to the Table…
Transition to the Table…
-a place where we come both as individuals AND as a community
The Table is deeply personal and deeply communal.
Our life with God is not lived in isolation.
And our life with God is not about getting God to grant us our wishes (the genie God) but about learning who God is what God is like (Jesus!) and joining in with what God is doing in the world around us (reconciling all things!).
Institution
Institution
The apostle Paul tells us of the institution of the Lord’s Supper:
For I received from the Lord
what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed
took a loaf of bread,
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said,
‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Prayer
Prayer
Loving God,
we praise and thank you
for your love shown to us in Jesus Christ.
We thank you for his life and ministry,
announcing the good news of your kingdom
and demonstrating its power
in the lifting of the downtrodden,
and the healing of the sick,
and the loving of the loveless.
We thank you for his sacrificial death upon the cross for the redemption of the world,
and for your raising him to life again,
as a foretaste of the glory we shall share.
We give you thanks for this bread and wine, symbols of our world
and signs of your transforming love.
Send your Holy Spirit, we pray,
that we may be renewed
into the likeness of Jesus Christ
and formed into his Body.
This we pray in his name and for his sake. Amen.
These are the gifts of God for the people of God.
(servers)
Serving
Serving
[take bread]
Jesus said, ‘This is my body given for you; do this and remember me’.
Take this in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.
[take cup]
In the same way,
he took the cup after supper, and said:
‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it,
do this in remembrance of me.’
Drink this and remember that Christ’s blood was shed for you and be thankful.
After Communion
After Communion
Eric to pray
Song
Benediction