Uncomfortable Truth

We are not in competition with the World we are on a Mission for the World.

Chess is one of the most misunderstood games in History.

I can remember the first time I ever tried to play it. The rules seemed complicated, the moves hard to remember, and ultimately I would find myself frustrated that no matter what I did I could never beat those I was playing…I became so frustrated that I just quit playing.

I convinced myself that only intellectuals wasted their time with this game. I thought it was elitist on only people who wanted to make things harder than they were would be good at the game…I’ll stick to checkers…strait forward, easy to understand and if I am lucky I can get a quadruple jump.

I still have not played but lately there has been a resurgence in popular interest in the game of Chess due to a show on Netflix…as I watched the show and began to see articles written on Chess I began to rethink my ideas about chess. Chess is not a game for intellectuals or elitist it is a game for anyone who wishes to learn.

I have learned that:

The Goal in Chess in not to win but to learn

The game originated in India, around the 6th century AD., and its purpose was believed to help develop the mind for battle strategies.

They used Chess to help improve mental abilities such as problem solving, critical thinking, pattern recognition, planning ahead, spiritual awareness, focus and concentration. The Goal was never to win the game but develop the mind.

Once people understand this about chess it becomes less intimidating and less frustrating.

I think that the same could be said about living as a follower of Jesus. For about 20 years it seems that the goal of the being a follower of Jesus has been to win…

That means if we give our lives and hearts to Jesus we win eternal life, we win earthly treasure, we keep out health and so on…When things do not work out this way it is easy to give up a worst or at best seek another Church that will help us win.

The Church does not exist to Fight a secularism. The Church exist to speak to the reality of the Kingdom of God.

When we see the Church as a weapon against secularism or a practical tool for living we lose the real mission of the Church.

The Goal of Christianity is not to win anything…What has been won was won by Jesus not us. The Goal is to learn how to live in that victory.

If this is true then the Church should focus less on how to change the habits of those who are of the world…and spend most of its time focused on allowing God to develop our minds, hearts, bodies and souls to develop strategies to live closer to God…and others.

This is what Jesus was doing in this passage…Jesus was engaged in learning and teaching not arguing and dominating…Jesus was not trying to win…He had already won just by showing up.

Let us Stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Luke 2: 41-52 NLT

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. 43 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, 44 because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.

45 When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. 46 Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. 47 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

48 His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”

49 “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they didn’t understand what he meant.

51 Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. 52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

This is The Word of God for the People of God

Respond: Thanks Be To God!

I love to preach on this text…Whenever I read it the passage captures my imagination. Can you just imagine the scene…not the scene of Jesus having a typical conversation with His mom (Mary) about not being where he was supposed to be (I have Preached on that a lot)…but the picture of a 12 year old sitting among elders of the Church discussing the finer points of God’s story and the men being amazed at Jesus understanding at such a young age.

There was no argument, there was no pointing out how these men got it wrong or how Jesus was simply too young to engage in such deep conversation. There was only the pursuit of God.

Not the pursuit of power or their own agenda’s that would come much later but the pursuit of God.

“Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

The passage says Mary did not understand what Jesus was talking about but she stored this moment in her heart just as she did when the shepherds came to worship Jesus at Jesus birth. She did not understand but she knew what was happening was sacred.

She knew that Jesus was not an ordinary human being…Jesus was destined to save humanity…So her response was not to force what she believed Jesus should do on him…but to allow Jesus to teach her by tucking away in her heart the words she did not understand until she reached a point where should did understand.

This is the ultimate mission of every Christian…it is not to build mega Churches nor is to fight governments or worldly philosophies…Our mission is learning and obeying Jesus even when we do not understand what Jesus is doing.

It is the sacredness of who Jesus is and what Jesus was born to do that deserves our attention and our curiosity above all else.

Albert Eistein is reported to have once said that if he had only one hour to solve a problem in which his life depended on the solution, he wold spend 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask. He claimed that if he knew the right question to ask, he could solve the problem in less than 5 min.

I only share this becuase I want to propose that part of the reason people do not have a vibrant relationship with their local church is not becuase the church is in error but maybe that they are not asking the right questions.

Questions like: How do I worship? How do I live in a Faith community? Who is Jesus really? How do I draw closer to Jesus? What does it look like for me to live a Holy life? How do I invite others into a relationship with Jesus?

The questions I hear most often are actually: How do I receive blessing? How can I be healed? How can I prosper in this life? How can I eliminate my suffering? How do I get God’s blessing? Or even how is the message of Jesus relevant or useful to my life right now?

These questions are easier to tackle but less likely to be transformative. I would suggest that part of the reason we do not see many Churches changing the world is they have traded sacred for the popular.

Jesus way of changing the world did not start with telling the religious leaders all the ways they got it wrong…it did not start with giving platitudes and easy answers to those seeking good things in life...it stated with learning what He could....and sharing what He must in order to get people to think differently.

When we begin to think differently as Christians we begin to act differently…when we act differently people notice, when people notice they ask questions…when they accept the answers they begin to act differently…when they begin to act differently our world and the rest of the world begins to change.

So if our mission is to Connect people to God and others by creating a space where everyone can belong...It has to start with OUR connection and commitment to God and others being shaped by finding and asking the right questions.

In the weeks to come we will explore how we find the right questions. We will explore how we can truly draw closer to God in the days and months to come and in so doing accomplish our Mission to Connect people to God and others by creating a space where everyone can belong…by becoming a multiplying community developing deep, growing relationships with God, our world, and one another.

Finding the right questions start with accepting the fact that God is not interested in helping us win the culture war.

God wants more…God has already won the culture war…God wants every man women and Child to grow in understanding of who God really is and how we can bring God’s kingdom to the rest of the world.

This week prepare your mind and heart to be shaped by God’s questions instead of the questions you have allowed to direct you this past year.

In order to do this we must be willing to confess and repent from our tendency to ask the wrong questions.

Let us start by confession as we prepare to come to the Lords Table for the First time this year

Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.

Silence may be kept.

The Officiant and People then say

Almighty God and Father, we confess to you,

to one another, and to the whole company of heaven,

that we have sinned, through our own fault,

in thought, and word, and deed, and in what we have left undone.

For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ,

have mercy upon us, forgive us our sins,

and by the power of your Holy Spirit,

raise us up to serve you in newness of life,

to the glory of your Name.

Amen.

Communion