Holy Community

One of the most beautiful things about being the community of the church is that if you stick around long enough you get to watch people become the people that God is calling them to be.

One of the more frustrating things about being the community of the church is that you’ve sometimes got to wait a long time to see that all unfold. And sometimes you’ve got to go through some tough times with people before they decide it’s easier to just trust and follow Jesus than not.

And sometimes, you’ve got to wait a whole lot of years, because the person you are watching is just a child, sometimes just an infant.

But it’s a beautiful thing. There’s a young lady who is in charge of missions for the entire Florida Annual Conference, who was the first elected lay delegate to our General conference. She used to sit right here under the old pulpit and play with her siblings.

From that same old pulpit, a pastor in the South Carolina Annual Conference preached her very first sermon.

A lot of you were there. You could have never known who these girls would grow up to be, how God was calling them to serve. But you knew that it was the role of this church to nurture, care for, and pray for them as they grew in the strength and knowledge of Jesus their Lord.

One of the most foundational and important roles of the church is to mediate the grace of God in the lives of those who are yet unable to see how important they are to God. The church is called to prepare the way for those who will come to lead her in the future. This is one of the most important ways that God’s prevenient grace — grace that goes before us — is active in our world.

We’re in the middle of a series called “Prepare the Way” where we are looking at how God goes before us to prepare us for ministry to our world. We’re beginning a journey through the book of Luke, which coincides with our daily reading plan for the year.

So that’s a cool thing that I invite you to engage with. Each sunday we will explore part of a chapter that you read over the previous week. And if you know me, you already know I’ll probably pick the weirdest passage in the chapter quite frequently.

Today is no different. So last week we looked at the birth and calling of John the Baptist — he was to be a prophet who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus. He announced to the people of Israel that God was preparing a way for them to finally break free from the religious and social deadlock that Israel experienced under the thumb of empire.

So what happens after the birth of John the Baptist is something really important. The Birth of Jesus of Nazareth in the town of Bethlehem is probably the most widely known story in the Bible. The first 20 verses of Luke 2 are read at nearly every Christmas eve service everywhere. And honestly I had originally planned on using them today, but then I did what most of the world never does. I read the REST of Luke 2 and I was like oh no this is way better. So we’ll revisit the Christmas story in 6 months.

Today we will read the brief account of Jesus’s early life, beginning at Luke 2:21

Luke 2:21–40 NRSV

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

In this text and part of Jesus’s story, Luke is trying to communicate a few really important things to us about Jesus. The first of them is that Jesus was raised by a good Torah observant Jewish family. From his birth, Jesus was a human who followed the customs of the people of Israel. And this is really important to know when we get into the later parts of Jesus’s story — because he was often accused of being a heretic and a blasphemer against those very customs.

But before Jesus could make any decisions about observing the Torah or living out his destiny as the Son of God, Jesus was brought into a faith community through the customs and religious practices of that community by some people who loved him and who clearly loved God.

And within that community that was at the temple that day, Jesus’s identity and calling were announced and confirmed by two seemingly random persons of that community. An elderly devout and righteous man, and a Prophet named Anna (hold that one in your back pocket for if someone ever asks you where in the Bible it says that women can preach and communicate the word of God).

Both of these people see in a month old baby the possibility of what he will become, of what that means for their people Israel, and also for the whole world. In the public temple courts of the temple they begin to nurture the calling of Jesus and prepare the way for his ministry in the years to come.

Every year after that Mary and Joseph would take Jesus to Jerusalem to the temple for the Passover Festival. On the 12th year they began to return home and realized they had lost Jesus. So they went frantically looking for him.

Luke 2:45–47 NRSV

When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Imagine what it would mean for our community if when kids in Ft. Pierce went radio silent for an hour or two, parents knew they would find them here sitting and asking Pastor Greg questions about God. If they were in any of the hundreds of churches here in Fort Pierce, searching for the answers that they seek?

And not just children but all of those who are seeking to understand God and who they are called to be in this world that just seems to be putting up a heck of a fight to keep them lost and hurting and far from God. What if they found a place to sit and ask and be loved in a place like this.

I don’t think that I’d be a follower of Jesus, let alone a pastor if it wasn’t for the church and the pastor of my childhood. They knew how to love a kid well. So well that I never forgot that love, even when I was walking a path away from God. It was a love that was so good, so pure, so real that the moment I walked into a Methodist church again I recognized it. And I held onto that love and I’ve never let go. I devoted my life to it.

All because when I was in 4th grade a Pastor hugged me and a family embraced me and made me unrelentingly aware that I belonged and that God had a plan for my life. That’s grace. That’s a way that was prepared for me. Just like a way was prepared for those two girls who took to that old pulpit. Just like a community rallied around Jesus, long before he was a radical rogue rabbi who preached the scandalous gospel of salvation.

It’s not an easy task, but I think we all get the point here right? The church is meant to continue to be a place that nurtures and prepares a way for those that will come to lead us into the future. There’s probably someone that you know needs the church’s love, and encouragement. They’re right on the forefront of your mind right now. Someone young, someone older, someone who used to be here but left at some point.

Why don’t you reach out to them and bring them the olive branch of grace and love. Then let God do what God does best.