Christ Restoring All

The New Revised Standard Version The Rest That God Promised

12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Internal Family Systems Theory and the dividing of parts

Many of you know that as a part of my Doctoral work, I’m doing a lot of reading on leadership and the self. This month, I’ve been studying Internal Family Systems theory, a model of understanding the Self. Within our Self, we are a system of parts, some strong, some quiet, all active and engaging with each other in order to show up in the world. We say that there’s a part of us that feels happy or sad. I have a part of me that can stand up front and lead worship and preach. And I have a part of me that will hold my exhausted body this afternoon, inviting me to rest.

Our parts are important, though, only inasmuch as they help us nurture and strengthen a healthy core self. Parts protect the vulnerable self, the self that has been wounded or abandoned. They step up to be strong when needed, protecting the self from harm.

I’d love to talk more about this model with any of you, as I see it at play in communal life together, as well. But for now, I highlight this because I believe that is what this passage illustrates for us: that God’s word cuts through the parts we put up around our self. God’s word sees through our facades, our stiff upper lip, to that tender, true self in us. God’s word divides soul and spirit, the deepest constructed parts of us, to get at the image of God, the Self at the core of us. The essential self, the one who is known by God. That’s what the Word does.

We’ll see in a moment that the parts of our body, the constituent members that we are, also are knit together with a deeper Self, a collective self that is the Body of Christ as we manifest it, that then we are charged to live into and serve from.

The Rest of God

Preceding passage is all about the people of God receiving the rest God has apportioned for them. And it is also encouraging all people to receive that rest…do not harden your hearts, come and receive. Nothing is hidden from God, so put down your notions of individualism and separation and come, be at rest in the restorative community of God.

What we are hearing is that the rest of God is set aside for all who enter into the Word. Let us do our best to enter God’s sabbath rest.

The Living, Active Word of God

How do we do this? How do we hear the invitation to restoration? How do we separate out the parts and get at our essential, shared self that is charged with restoration in the world?

We listen for the Word of God, spoken, living, and active.

The passage opens with describing how the word of God is living and active and that it divides our parts, opening up space between even the deepest parts of us, bones and joints, soul and spirit. Things that seem indivisible are opened up and cut through by the powerful word of God. So what does that even mean?

First a little bit of the Greek language behind this. The word for divide is not meant to be destructive, but in a sense a paring, a separating into parts. Like a surgeon who has to cut into tissue to help fix a problem with an organ or a muscle, the Word of God divides us and gets at the deepest parts of who we are. And this surgical, dividing process, is intended for good, for restoration and healing.

Then, there’s the greek word for judge. The text says that the word which divides is able to “judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Judge, in this case, is not about doling our justice. Rather, it’s about discerning, considering, seeking understanding of the parts it divides. Think about when you dismantle a part of your car or bicycle to clean or fix something. The intention is to make it whole again, not to divide to destroy. And so the judging that also plays in here is to pull things apart to see what’s really going on. Dismantle to repair, judge and discern to seek the best course of reparative action.

This is what the word of God does in our lives. It cuts to the core of who we are, cuts through our parts, and works on the core of us, our self, to restore and make whole. God’s word reads us, some may say, it reads us, knows us, speaks the truth we need to hear.

This passage is one of the distinct scriptures I remember being tasked to memorize as a kid. I remember practicing this verse in Mr. Husby’s 6th grade class at Kings Elementary School in Shoreline, WA. Memorizing verses was a big part of my private school education and I’m so grateful for it. Because this passage has been rolling around in my head for some 25 years, it has done that work of dividing and paring and judging and discerning the parts of me. I used to think this passage was literally about the read Word of God in the Scriptures. That when we read the Scriptures, God speaks through them to divide and restore us. It is! But it is also so much more than this!

The word of God is living and active in how God’s people live and act it out in the world too! As nothing is hidden from God, so no actions, no words, no thoughts, no deeds are hidden or separate from the active, living work of the Word. How we live out our lives, the things we say and do and prioritize and devote ourselves to — these are all outpourings of the living, active word of God!

In a moment, I’m going to get really practical with us as we turn to highlight a part of what God is doing here in our church. But for a moment, just sit with that…God’s Word is living and active and calling you to restoration. You, me, us, the body of Christ, we are the carriers of this word, the active representatives of this word in the world.

As the passage closes, because we know this powerful, dividing and restoring word of God, THEREFORE, let us approach God’s throne of grace, the throne where all things are made new, with boldness and expect to find mercy and grace to carry us through all that we do. Amen, this is good!

So, what kind of living, active Word are we speaking?

One of the things that most delights me about the work we get to do together here at St. James is the way we welcome in so many people from our neighborhood and community to use our building space. In a moment, we’ll hear a little more of a highlight about our building and its daily users. Our building is a hub of neighborhood life. AA groups, Interfaith Coalition, tutoring services for students of all ages, a preschool, boy scouts…all kinds of different groups finding a place to meet and carry on their important work of knitting together the lives of our neighbors in loving ways.

We should all be very aware — these last two years have been incredibly difficult for many groups to gather and continue on with their missions. We’ve worked through many of these challenges as an organization. But think about the other groups you belong to, the choirs, the walking groups, the civic organizations…it has been a hard time to keep momentum going.

One of the most exciting things I get to witness each week here at this building is that groups from our community are coming back! They’re filling our halls again. They’re gathering and celebrating recovery and earning merit badges and working hard toward academic success. As far as I know, we are one of the more active church facilities in the city and one of the earliest ones to come back to our building with the right procedures that have allowed our tenants to return with confidence.

What does this have to do with the word of God being living and active? What does this have to do with Christ our high priest?

Well…the way we welcome our neighbors. The way we prioritize the usage of our church space to bless and encourage our community. This is the word, speaking and active. It is a word that simply says, “Welcome.” But it also speaks of hospitality by the way we maintain our facility. It speaks of justice as we make space for groups and people who may have nowhere else to go. The living, active, restoring word of God speaks as we leverage our OWN resources to make space for others.

Many church buildings lay quiet throughout the work week. Our sanctuaries are just this, sanctuaries and places of solitude. But while we’re not actively gathering to worship, our facility speaks the word of hospitality and loving welcome as an active expression of our collective faith in God’s redeeming love, day in and day out.

Do you recognize the power of this? Do you recognize how this is the way Jesus calls us to live, to make our lives and our possessions available to others? To share? Granted, of course, tenants pay rent. But we make even the rent accessible and not burdensome — we want this place to bless others, even beyond what our personal reach might be.

Lest we get big heads about this, let me temper it with a bit of reality: We have to believe in this part of our mission together. Building users are disruptive. Kids can be hard on a facility, parking lots get filled, the hall conversations can be noisy, rooms sometimes get double-booked (except, not with our amazing church admin, Sharon King at the helm). It’s easy to be worn down and annoyed when we open up our selves to strangers and make space for God’s active word to be felt and known by all who enter in here. This isn’t glamorous stuff.

But this is the stuff of God’s kingdom. This is the stuff of being a living expression of God’s word. And so we must collectively commit and recommit to honoring this struggle, as we know the greater reward and outcomes are worthwhile.

How will we continue to live and act out God’s word to our community? Will we step up to contribute to this purpose with our time, talents, finances, and service? Do we see how we are being ambassadors by making space for others? Do you know how much this matters!!?? In a world where the Christian church is so often highjacked by hate and division, will we be a witness to the more excellent, healing, welcoming, restorative way of Jesus and confront the world with love?

Considering Our Purpose

I want to go back to the scripture as it talks about dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow, once more. We understand that this is not a destructive act, but rather that Word helps us separate and discern all the parts of ourselves as members of a collective whole. God’s word divides and pulls apart and helps us examine all that we do, all the hospitality we offer, all the space we make and it helps us see the deeper good going on there.

Nothing about our shared life and service together is hidden from God. Nothing we do can be ignored, nothing we say can be silenced. Not to God. And so the very simple acts of hospitality and loving welcome we offer to our neighbors is on full display to God. We do not boast, we do not think ourselves great. We know that God sees the work of our hands and God’s word pulls it apart to get at our deep motivations, our desires, the why behind what we do and say. God’s word cuts through all our posturing and gets right to the center.

And so, in closing, I encourage us to check our purpose, check our intentions. Do we do good in order to posture and make ourselves look good? Do we serve in order to gain a reward? Or do we give of ourselves in order to participate in the restoring of all creation? Do we make a way for all people to encounter the lovingkindness of God in how we share what we have?

Do we believe in the power of this living, active word to renew and change our lives? Do we believe that by living it out in our compassionate service and loving welcome, we actually can share this renewal with all people? That by making space in our place here, in our lives, we can participate in the restoring work of all things with Christ?

That’s what we’re on about. That’s the glimpse of God’s kingdom that we are getting here. Mercy, grace, and restoration are found in God’s people, Christ’s body, lived out in love to our world.

Amen.