Mission of God - Community
Notes
Transcript
Did you know that the song “We are family” was written for Sister Sledge by Nile Rogers and Bernaed Edwards back in 1978?
The President of Atlantic records at the time, Jerry Greenberg, asked Rogers and Edwards to write and produce songs for his other acts.
The lyrics came from a meeting, during which Greenberg described the four sisters in their absence.
Rodgers and Edwards returned to the studio, rearranged their notes into lyrics and ‘bobs your uncle’ - they went on to produce a song that would go Gold in 1979. A song that even in 2017 was voted into 20th place in the top 100 Greatest Girl Group songs of all time.
Make of that what you will…but it got me wondering - what would the lyrics of a song written about us, as the community of St Andrew’s, include?
[Pause]
On my recent trip to the Lake District, myself and others on the Leadership course I attended there, were asked to think about a couple of questions:
What do you think people say about you when you’re not in the room?
What would you want them to say about you?
It was a useful exercise, part of a process in thinking about our identity...but it was only ‘part’ of the process.
Because, as Christians, who we are and how we conduct ourselves operates within a bigger perspective...
Our identity as individuals is wrapped up in our identity as a community, called, commissioned and empowered by the Creator of the Universe.
And as much as we all want people to see and respect who we are, our hopes, our dreams, our strengths…what God thinks of us becomes the primary factor in who we are and what we do.
What about Sister Sledge? - well, if the lyrics written for them are anything to go by, the way they are together causes people to question how they can be so close.
Their goals were, at least at the time of writing the song, to live life to the full and share in the world’s delights.
Their golden rule -did you notice? To have faith in You and the things You do - if you get that right, You won’t go wrong.
Now at one level, I guess we could see how this was a great philosophy - but like many people walking around in our local community - their goals, their identity, their hopes and their future come from within themselves.
What about you? Me? Us? as we gather here today?
As we consider our last in a series about the Mission of God - how might God speak into that? How does community fit into God’s Mission in our world?
Well, I don’t know how many times you may have considered Exodus 12 verses 1-28, but I was really struck by the different perspective I had on this passage, as I looked at it with the Community lens.
For many of us familiar with the Israelites escape from Egypt we will have often considered what the Passover meal and freedom from bondage points to, but have you every thought about what this passage points to in regards to God’s plans and purposes for Community?
We won’t be looking at too much detail around the passover meal as such, but I hope we will be encouraged to see God’s Plan A for mission.
And in doing so, hopefully we will get a renewed sense of how our community can participate in God’s Mission today.
Are you ready?
Let’s go.
God’s Plan A for Mission is
through His gathered Community.
Exodus 12 marks a significant development in God’s covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s descendents.
Prior to Exodus 12: 3
Exodus 12:3 (NIV - Anglicised)
3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
There seems no evidence that God’s people had any power to structure their society in the way they wanted to, prior to this event.
They would have been aware they were children of the covenant between God and Abraham. But there seems no evidence that this meant anything to them on a day by day level either.
Until now.
For the first time, God intentionally forms them into the community of Israel and gives them a few tasks that will cement this into their psyche. Not just for the journey ahead, but into the future that God has planned for them.
You see, the nation of Israel didn’t happen by chance, the day they all managed to get out of Egypt and regroup at Sinai - this was part of God’s plan all along.
Four times the word community sits at the heart of the Passover meal preparations and also in setting the boundaries for anyone who fails to obey the commands God gives Moses and Aaron.
Exodus 12:6 (NIV - Anglicised)
Exodus 12:6 (NIV - Anglicised)
6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
God is forming a shared experience.
Exodus 12:19 (NIV - Anglicised)
Exodus 12:19 (NIV - Anglicised)
19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.
They are all in this together - there’s no room to out manoeuvre or thwart God’s plans - to act independently from the rest of the group.
Exodus 12:47 (NIV - Anglicised)
Exodus 12:47 (NIV - Anglicised)
47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
And just outside the passage that forms our focus today, God reiterates that the community participates and celebrates together.
At the risk of stretching things - did you notice the communal approach to preparation in
4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
Nothing wasted - no one left with the sole responsibility of adhering to the commands - a loving provision that recognises that each family is different - same rule for all - but provision to ensure that everyone is supported and helped to do what the Lord had asked them to do.
God’s Plan A for Mission is also
dependent on His Sovereignty.
The structure of Exodus 11 through to 12 is deliberate and shouts one over-riding message:
The Lord God, Yahweh, does exactly as he says.
He is a Sovereign Lord who, having announced His plans - fulfils them.
Who, having made His will known, performs it.
He forgets nothing he has forecast, all happens according to his stated intentions.
It’s clear from this passage, that the Israelites escape from Egypt, was to be an intentional community forming and community shaping event.
Notice also, right from the start, God’s intention is for this event to be memorialised; celebrated as an annual festival.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
It was to be a visible and tangible celebration that united all those who came after the exodus into this significant event in the life of God’s people.
25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshipped.
And we know that on the night Jesus died, in the upper room, the Passover Meal was still being celebrated by God’s people Israel - and then developed into the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate today.
God’s Plan A for Mission
provides us with an opportunity to trust and obey.
Let’s just pause for a moment and think about Moses.
Just prior to God’s instiution of the Passover, Moses has not had a very good time with Pharaoh.
Exodus 11:8 (NIV - Anglicised)
Exodus 11:8 (NIV - Anglicised)
8 ... Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.
Whilst God was still reassuring him, effectively as far as Moses could see, he had failed to convince Pharaoh to change his mind. The slaves were still slaves and freedom seemed as elusive as ever.
All the instructions that came from God to Moses at this stage, do so before the last plague…how would you be feeling?
Was everything now going to suddenly change because they killed a lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts?
What an act of faith it was, then, for Moses to command the passover and for all Israelites to accept and obey his instructions.
Friends, faith is the same as it was then.
It doesn’t start and end with belief - but takes action on the evidence available; Faith is driven forward by our convictions.
Discussions with Pharaoh may not have changed anything this far, but the evidence pointed to nine former acts - the conviction needed was based on the holding fast to believing that the Lord was able to do what he said he would, that his promises would stand.
The essence of our faith is no different to the Israelites who were given the commands to prepare for the passover...
We are called to a trust and obedience that acts even in the face of powerful enemies, despite our own weaknesses and helplessness, ready to pit it all on the command and promises of God.
God’s Plan A for Mission
provides us with an opportunity to make the invisible God visible to the world around us.
Finaly, we need to see that God’s forming the community of Israel had a wider significance - not just for them, but for those around them.
We need to look a bit beyond this particular passage to see this.
Turn with me to
1 In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on the very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai.
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,
6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
What does that even mean?
Well as Moses gives the Israelites the law, the picture becomes clearer.
Deuteronomy 28:9–10 (NIV - Anglicised)
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord...
When God made a covenant with Abraham he said he was to be a father to many nations.
God’s plan A for mission would have His community be a light to those around them.
We know from the rest of the Old Testament God’s people didn’t live up to their side of the deal.
But in Jesus, we see God’s Plan A is still the way God works out His mission in the world today:
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
God is still gathering a people for His name. We are not a group who have collectively decided to tag along with a church...
We are the church, the People of God, the body of Christ, a fellowship of the Spirit.
The bible’s witness points to the church as a Spirit-filled community that presents to the world an alternative society, a glimpse of the age to come when every knee will bow to the Lordship of Christ Jesus.
And for our part, we are called to model what it is to live distinctive lives, whereby our visible behaviour, not only as individuals, but together as brothers and sisters, shines out and shows the world the glory of God.
And we do that in various ways:
Romans 12:10 (NIV - Anglicised)
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly and sisterly love. Honour one another above yourselves.
By affirming and honouring one another.
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Affirming one another’s equal importance in Christ.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Affirming one another through visible affection.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Sharing one another’s space, goods and time.
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
Sharing one another’s needs and burdens.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Sharing one anothers beliefs, thinking and spirituality.
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Being accountable to one another.
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Being reconciled with one another through forgiveness.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.
Serving one another’s interests rather than our own.
I wonder as we move out of lockdown, as we move out of a situation that in many ways has forced us apart - will you recommit with me to what it is to be God’s community here at St Andrew’s.
Not just for our sake - but for the sake of those around us, those who are yet to know God?
They may not know God, but God nonethsless longs to come to Him that they might be drawn into His kingdom.
His Plan A is that we would partner with Him in the fulfilment of His mission to our community here in Kinson and beyond.