Take Care of Each Other

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 5:6 ESV

“ ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy 5:20–21 ESV

“ ‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “ ‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

Luke 18:18–30 ESV

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Trouble in the old Text: False Witness & Covetous lives

Take Care of One Another

The commandment about bearing false witness is another one of those that is often simplified for children. “you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” is usually pared down to “Don’t lie.” Which is a pretty good takeaway. Honesty matters. Sure, there are times when it’s a gray area. If your spouse asks you if they look fat in something, tread lightly and rely on the grace of Jesus Christ.

The problem with simplifying scripture for children comes when we never go deeper or complicate it for ourselves as we get older. Jesus is endlessly making things more complicated and stirring the pot. It’s woven into who we are as a faith. If it seems too simple, it probably is.

Remember, these commandments are not a check list of steps to get into heaven. They are a description of what a faithful community under the grace and protection of God looks like. Community is complicated. But there are still some general guiding principles we can go by. And these last two commandments are about guarding the reputation and the livelihood of others.

“Don’t bear false witness” don’t spread or allow the spread of rumors or lie about what another person has done. This isn’t just about lies, it’s about the reputation of another person. Anyone who has ever had a rumor spread about them or been lied about in court or lost a job because of a false accusation knows the damage that can do to a person. This commandments is talking about a specific type of lie - one that is about another person.

When we look at coveting, think about what is at the root of jealousy or covetousness:

I want that think.

I deserve that thing.

I deserve that thing at least as much as that person does.

We begin to see ourselves at more worthy and the other person as less worthy.

Grace in the old Text: Guarding one anothers’ reputations

Grace in the old Text: Guarding one anothers’ reputations

I’m going to risk being a little political and talk about something a president of the United States did. I hesitate to bring up politicians in sermons, especially in this current political climate, but I think that this is a great example of what I’m talking about today when we talk about truth and lies and coveting and guarding other peoples’ reputations and livelihoods.

So I will apologize in advance if we have any staunch Grover Cleveland advocates or opposers here today because I’m going to share a story about him. Please bear with me.

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6944 Returning that Egg

It is said that when Grover Cleveland was a boy he insisted upon returning the egg that a neighbor’s hen daily laid on the Cleveland side of the fence. Thus he early began to give proof of the honesty that marked him as a man and a future President of the United States. Faithfulness to high principles in such little things leads to honesty in matters of greater importance.

The book I got this story from does certainly have a flare for the dramatic. I like to look at old sermon illustration books because sometimes they are downright hilarious products of a time gone by. But sometimes, you find little gems like this one.

It’s just an egg.

But what he did with the egg spoke volumes about the way he viewed his literal neighbor. Chickens are not bright animals - I’ve lived with chickens and they are quite dumb. So they have no concept of fences or property or territory or anything like that. My neighbors were frequently shooing our chickens back over to our house. And had one of my hens ever laid an egg in the neighbor’s yard, I wouldn’t have been too worried about it if they’d had that egg for breakfast. It’s just one egg. The hen will lay another one tomorrow.

But, Cleveland saw an egg that was laid by someone else’s dumb chicken and took it to them because it was theirs. He didn’t care for their chickens. It wasn’t his egg. There was no “finders keepers losers weepers”. His neighbor and his neighbor’s property was so important that he even took back an egg.

That’s how important the reputations and livelihoods of the people around us are. Even the smallest interaction speaks volumes about the ways we see the people around us.

Trouble in the newer text: This guy ain’t getting to heaven because he checked the good behavior boxes

Look at how Jesus poo-poos the ruler in our Luke text. First of all, like a good Presbyterian, Jesus says, “Please. Nobody’s good. Everyone’s a disaster.” Then he goes on to tell this ruler exactly where he’s a disaster. This guy has technically followed all the commandments pretty well for his entire life. He cares about going to heaven. This matters to him.

But Jesus calls him out. Getting himself into heaven mattered so much for this guy that he ignored the people around him.

He was technically following the rules, but he was living a selfish life - failing to care for those around him. The way we treat others matters. They was we view others and talk about others matters.

Grace in the newer text: Freedom from a list of dos and donts

And it’s harder, Jesus tells this rich ruler, for those who have much because there is more to lose, more to give up, in order to care for others.

It’s easy for Bill Gates to give billions of dollars to charity when he makes $33 million per day. But how much of a sacrifice is that for him? I’m not making a judgement on Bill Gates, for the record, but can you imagine if he sold EVERYTHING? Not just gave a ton of money to great causes, but literally sold everything and went off to physically help the poor in another place? Oprah gives a ton of stuff to people all the time, but Oprah is SUPER RICH. Can you picture the media uproar if she actually sold and gave away everything she has and became a nun or a missionary?

Jesus isn’t saying that giving a little bit of what you have doesn’t matter. Jesus isn’t saying everyone has to be Mother Thersa or Jim Elliot. He’s making the point that the more you have, the harder it is to make the sacrifices necessary to really live into God’s community fully. It’s not easy for anyone. And the more comfortable you are, the harder it is to do.

We have officially looped back to the very beginning of this series. It all boils down to this: community and how we live it out.

We have officially looped back to the very beginning of this series.

Trouble in the World: We’re trying to figure out how to be community in a changing world.

What we have to do as a congregation to continue into the future is to figure out how to be community.

Grace in the World: We have a road map

I found an article this week that talks about four types of churches that are thriving these days. They look very different than the traditional Sunday-centered church, but they are doing the work of the church and they are growing. The thing they all have in common is community.

From https://www.missioalliance.org/churches-are-closing-these-four-models-are-thriving/?fbclid=IwAR0tdK6vg8dcVIbygOeD0ikJlrvOtxcXDVObahAa-o4-PzGKjngpn1_fhw4#.XXLB2Zc87e0.facebook

According to Thom Rainer of Lifeway Research,

Between 6,000 and 10,000 churches in the U.S. are dying each year. That means around 100-200 churches will close this week. The pace will accelerate unless our congregations make some dramatic changes.

It’s tempting to see statistics like this and start looking for a fall guy. Blame politics, or the internet, or Millennials.

But another approach is possible. Instead of focusing on solving the intractable problem of why churches are closing, forward-thinking leaders will try to learn from models that are thriving.. . .

Dinner Church

Literally church around the table for a shared meal ending in communion.

Underground network

“Some of the microchurches that have either originated at the Underground or joined for support and fellowship include

The Well: A group dedicated to creating spaces in which to forge community with the poor. This includes a weekly meal, affordable groceries, community meals, a mobile unit distributing material goods, and a bicycle co-op.

Flourish: A community where nurses and healthcare workers come to be loved, encouraged, empowered, and sent out to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their profession.

Burning Bush: a network of artists and creative professionals serving and helping each other play their part in the body in ushering an era of intentional, missional diversity and creativity within the community.

The Blended Ecology

“. . . be the church within the community . . .The church was originally driven by a “single economy,” revolving primarily around the inherited Sunday liturgical gathering. As they multiplied into various fresh expressions throughout their community, the church became a “mixed economy” with a traditional gathering and satellites. As this approach has matured, both forms, the inherited church and fresh expressions, have grown into a single “blended ecology” where different forms serve and enrich each other.”

Campus and Community ministry

Great in college towns.

Homework

Move your prayer life into the streets. In addition to sharing flyers and information about what is happening here, just go to a prayer walk. If you run into people you don’t know, say hi! Don’t invite strangers to church unless the conversation goes there naturally, but just start getting a feel for who is in your neighborhood and who lives around the church. What do they need or want? What do they think the neighborhood needs? Want a buddy for your walk? Call me. I’ll go out with you on your prayer walk. Call another member of the congregation to go with you. Rebecca and I will be doing this too over the next week or two, so don’t think I’m asking you to do anything I wouldn’t do. The most important thing to be doing on this walk is to be praying for the community.

Let us Pray

Lord God, we pray for guidance for our church leaders as they nurture Your congregation and seek to serve those around them. We pray congregations would welcome neighbors with open arms. We hope for residents to find a place to experience community with the body of Christ as they grow spiritually.

God, we ask for a flourishing community, where neighbors learn to love each other and come to know Jesus. We pray that we can be good stewards of Your love to each one of our neighbors. We ask that You help us to learn from our community, and it may be a place where all are welcomed.

Amen.

(Adapted from: https://www.fcsministries.org/blog/2017/4/4/7-prayers-for-our-neighborhood)