Lost & Found: Conclusion
Notes
Transcript
This is one of the stories Jesus tells (and, of course, this is one of three stories Jesus tells in Luke 15 about lost things… the lost sheep, the lost coin, and then the lost son)…
Who is the audience for these stories Jesus tells?
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
Intro Reading
The good news of Jesus Christ…
… reveals what God is like. (Revelation)
… shows us what God is up to. (Restoration)
…invites us to participate with God. (Invitation)
legal vs restoration
The gospel in chairs
There’s a way of summarizing the gospel that I’d like to show you; it’s been around for a few years, and it’s called ‘The gospel in chairs’.
Here’s what we’d like to do: we’d like to walk through the basics of the gospel. There’s so much we could say, but we just want to walk through the very basics of the gospel... visually... twice.
We’re going to do it two slightly different ways. The first time through, we’ll try and highlight key aspects of the gospel that many of us have heard repeated throughout our lives. And there’s much beauty and much truth in the first way the gospel is presented. But we think there’s also some things that could perhaps be miscommunicated. And maybe we can do a better job – a more biblical job – by addressing some of those issues. So we will walk through it a second time and try to make those adjustments. Are you ready?
Here’s the first version.
…
That was the gospel round one.
Did you recognize much of it?
Those of you who have grown up in the church will certainly have heard it this way. But maybe some things can be improved on.
So let’s try again...
How does that one sound?
Which version sounds more like the story Jesus tells?
(invite feedback?)
The good news of Jesus Christ…
… reveals what God is like. (Revelation)
… shows us what God is up to. (Restoration)
…invites us to participate with God. (Invitation)
Coming to the Table…
The Table is where we practice the reality that we belong.
The Table is where we remember what God is like.
The Table is where we hear the voice that says, “Beloved”
The Table is where we make room for one more. Always room for one more.
One more brother returned from the far country.
One more brother who dared to return from the field and enter the party.
We are welcome here. We are being celebrated here. And we are also invited to celebrate the return of our prodigal sisters & brothers here - whether they have come from far away or nearby.
This is the place where we re-orient. Where we re-member. This is the place where we look back and tell the gospel story - the good news that God, in Jesus, came to find us. Came to be with us.
This is the place we remember that God is always looking for us. Watching for us. Not forcing us, but always inviting. Always welcomes us home.
Always drawing us in to join in on what God is up to - the renewal of all things.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of goodness and mercy, you pursue us without rest. You called to us in the Garden after we chose knowledge rather than you. You brought us through the wilderness when we complained and preferred captivity. You led us with leaders like Deborah and Samuel even though we failed to trust in you. For your faithful and sovereign love, we give you thanks.
Jesus, you stood in solidarity with us in your humanity. You chose to come to us so that we could be reconciled to you. You trusted us with your human frailty in the form of an infant. You chose death so that we could understand life. For your compassion and grace, we give you thanks.
Holy Spirit, you continue to form us into disciples and Christ’s Body, the Church. When we build barriers between one another, you work to tear them down. Through your truth, you remind us that regardless of political party or country, we belong to a Kingdom. You reassure us in our fear and teach us to trust in you despite the uncertainties of this world. For your truth and communion, we give you thanks.
Holy Spirit, we come to this Table looking for the communion with Christ that sustains us and the communion with one another that seems so easily to escape us. We ask that you would once again heal us by making the loaf and cup we share be the communion of the body and blood of Christ. As we eat and drink together, may Christ’s communion be our communion so that we may share it with the world. To you be the glory, forever and ever.
As a sign of our fellowship and communion with Christ and one another, we now join our voices to pray, using the words most familiar to each of us: Our Father…
Invitation
The Sacrament of Communion is the ultimate act of reconciliation. What does God’s act of reconciliation through Christ look like? It looks like sharing in the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus. In our sharing, we proclaim that we stand on level ground with one another with Christ as our head.
Despite our differences, this Table declares our reconciliation in Jesus Christ and reminds us with our communion with one another. It is here that we affirm that we all belong to Christ. We once again turn to the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians (10:16-17):
Because there is one loaf, we, many as we are, are one body; for it is one loaf of which we all partake. When we break the bread, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? When we give thanks over the cup, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?
Before his death, Jesus was anointed with nard. This sweet scent went with him as he completed God’s act of reconciliation by accepting death at the hands of the world and responding with life at the hands of God.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people. —Teresa of Ávila (attributed)
After you receive the elements, you are invited to be anointed as the body, hands, feet, and eyes of Christ in the world.
The Lord’s Table is prepared for all those who desire to be fed by Jesus. Come and be nourished so that you may share in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation.
Prayer After Communion from 2 Corinthians 5:14-19
The love of Christ controls us, because we believe that one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. Jesus, you died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for you, the one who died for us and was raised.
We pray, then that from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards but through your eyes. Because we are in Christ, we are part of the new creation. The old things have gone away: and look, new things have arrived!
We give thanks for this meal we have shared, proclaiming that all of these new things are from you, God, who reconciled us to yourself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. With fear and trembling and trust in you, and the ministry of reconciliation to which we are called. Amen.i
