Same Foundation
Notes
Transcript
Anyone ever get in a fight with your neighbor like that?
Hopefully not that bad right?! But you know if you have ever gotten into it with a neighbor or maybe a friend family member,
Chances are it was not just some huge issue that blew everything up, but it was one small thing, that led to the next small thing, that led to the next thing.
you placed the bird feeders a little to close to their house, you started to feed peanuts to the squirrels in their yard, they threw a party and the neighbors parked on my yard and left the tire marks.
but you know, the anger, resentment, and division just began to grow, until you got to the place where you said I cannot stand that person.
But you know with all seriousness its easy for conflict to build and build and we kind of get to where these two neighbors are and we say “you know I think peace is not really an option at this point”
Because they hurt me
That person betrayed me
They ruined this opportunity I had
And the truth is we see this in our personal lives, but we see it on the world stage as well.
We see it with polotics, wars that are just heartbreaking, conflict around the world.
and maybe this is a little bit of a pessimistic view but it can start to feel like Peace in our world and lives are more of a fairy tale than something that can really happen.
But heres the thing on this second Sunday of Advent (leading to Christmas) the focus is on peace. We lit the peace candle today didn’t we?
And its an inward peace but throughout history the church has emphasized an element of peace in our world and with our neighbor.
And so today we are going to be looking at a Passage Romans 15:4-13 and my hope is although peace may seem unreachable at times, we have a God who can use us to make peace even where division is strong
But before we even dive into this passage let me set the context of this passage
Because Paul is writing to a church that was very divided over theological issues.
Because this church was made up of Jews and of Gentiles
And the Gentiles were eating meat that was sacrificed to false idols
But heres the issue for the Jewish people they would say there is no way we would eat meat sacrificed to idols, because that is unclean,
but for the Gentiles they are just going its meat! Its good.
And so this actually created a ton of division and tension in this church.
And where Paul lands before this is He says look if eating meat sacrificed to idols is making other people stumble in their walk with God then place that persons preference above yourself.
Its almost like if we were going out to eat and you just told me you started a diet, and I said okay I appreciate you letting me know, we are going to Mcdonalds!
And you try to buy a snack wrap and I say no get this guy a Bigmac and supersize it! (I dont know if thats a thing…)
Thats kind of mess up isn’t it?
And thats really the place that Paul is starting this letter
I love how Samantha Chumbo who actually wrote the devotional books we have puts it. She says:
“Living in community at times means putting aside our own desires in order to build up the community. This doesn’t mean everyone agrees. There was clearly a lot of disagreement…
To live in community means looking out for the well-being of others.”
And so I know theres already a lot here, but lets look at the first part of this passage Romans 15:4-13 because Paul starts the passage by telling us we have differences, but ultimately we have the same foundation.
its says this in the first few verses:
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:7–9 (NIV)
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”
You know I think a lot of times we can look at differences that we have with others and go wow there are a lot of differences here,
I mean if we looked around at our church there are a ton of differences between the people around us.
Some of us have kids, others do not, some of us like a certain music, others of us definitly do not, some of us like bad NFL teams, some of us have different political views
but Paul is saying you know the differences we have are actually pretty small when you consider the similarity we have.
Meaning there should be unity.
A lot of you know this but I am from Maryland, And you can ask Arika about this, but people from Maryland are very proud to be from Maryland.
We love eating crabs, last olympics if Maryland was its own country we would have placed 6th out of every country in the world, we have have our flags everywhere,
But now that I live in the Midwest when I run into someone from Maryland, we have this unity that surpasses all our differences.
I may have grew up in a more rural area and they grew up in Downtown Baltimore, but there is this unity.
And Paul is saying as a Christ follower you have this unity where there can be differences but the thing that unites you is greater
And its that Christ is in you.
And to be honest even if someone is not a Christian that is another person created in the image of God and there may be some big differences in what you believe but that person is ultimately a person that has the image of God in them.
And let me tell you it is a lot harder to look at someone as the enemy when you say that person was created in the image of God.
so the first point was our foundation is stronger then the differences, but I want to point out what this passage is not saying,
Because the passage is not saying the foundation is all that matters and if to keep peace ignore all the other issues.
Because so often we catch ourselves on either one side where we say these differences are to big and we allow division to creep in
or we are on this other side where we create a false peace by ignoring these issues or differences that occur that might be really important.
And hear is the thing and if you do not hear anything else today I want you to hear this:
Because I think the more I grow closer the Christ the more I see that often where Christ is calling me is to live in this place in the middle where we are unified, but we have these discussions that are pushing us closer to God and furthering our understanding of Who God is.
And I think this is a healthy place, and this might be a shocker, but there are times where I get things wrong.
I mean imagine for a second if I believed that Iphone’s were the best phones out there!
I mean if you do not have an Iphone “whatis wrong with you?”
And you come up to me and say well pastor I have this android and I really like it and it can do these things and It has this feature.
I could say NOPE, THIS IS AN IPHONE!!!
or I could listen and go wow maybe you have a point…
But to be honest I really think these are the places where we grow closer to God where we humble ourselves to a place where we can hear from God through the people around us.
Because if someone is created in the image of God (which is every person), I really believe discussing these hard topics in unity can push you and them closer to God
And lets look at this last part of the passage. because it says this:
Romans 15:11–13 (NIV)
11 And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again, Isaiah says,
“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You know I love this last part of the passage because Paul continues and I want to jump to verse 12 because Paul actually tells us one last time where our hope comes from.
And he actually points to this passage in the Old Testament that is telling of the coming of Christ.
Where he says the root of Jesse will spring up.
If you were a Jewish person reading this you would have understood it as Christ is coming as a baby and Paul recognizes that yes what we have talked about is great for peace,
I mean placing our neighbor above ourselves is good, discussing is good, recognizing we are all created in the image of God is great!
but the ultimate peace that we can have is not found in a stradagy but a savior and really its found in Jesus, and He has come into this world.
And if you were with us last week we learned that we live in this place where Christ has come and we get a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven, but we also live in a place where there is a time where Christ will come in His fullness.
And I think this is powerful because if Christ came into the darkness of our world 2000 years ago where if you read the Old Testement things were actually much worse than they were today, I mean wars were brutal, division was terrible
but if Christ came into a world like that, dont you believe that Christ can come into the situations that we look at in our lives and society where division seems strong, where war is tragic.
And dont you believe Christ can bring peace and unity.
And I think this is more than just some sort of hopeful saying, but I think we need to ask ourselves what does it look like to allow the peace of Christ to enter my life this morning.
When our neighbor does that thing that drives us crazy what does it look like to bring peace
When that relationship is strained what would it look like for peace to enter it?
When your hurt happens, what does it look like for peace to enter.
And as we close I want to read one last quote from Samantha Chumbo, because I think she ask us some important questions for what it looks like for us to be a person of peace. She says this:
“Where in our community do we need to be confronted with our judgmentalism, favoritism, or exclusionary practices? Where do we need to be reminded of our foundation and identity in Christ?
When have we ignored conflict for the sake of a false sense of peace, in- stead of doing the hard work of holiness that asks us to examine our own hearts? Where do we need to submit, be selfless, and surrender to the good of the community? Where do we need to look like servant Jesus?
If peace in the community begins with me, where do I need to allow my heart to be transformed, that I might be a person of peace? “
I love that last part “If peace in the community begins wirth me, where do I need to allow my heart to be transformed to be a person of peace”
Its easy to look at that person.
“If they did that or stopped doing that we would be okay!”
but this morning as we close I want us to finish by asking ourselves what does it look like for your life to become a person of peace.
And during this last song we are going to recieve communion as we finish up and this is a reminder that for Christ to create peace with us He laid down His life to be in a relationship with us.
And maybe this morning you can reflect what it would look like to be a person of peace.
And so during this last song I would invite you to come forward when you are ready to receive communion.
And take the elements back to your seat, but maybe God’s just prompting you to send that text or call someone,
I would encourage you to go ahead and maybe its just saying “can we talk” or “I am sorry”
But let me pray for us and then I would invite you to come forward.
Pray