SoulShift: Me to We
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How many of you have a fence in your yard?
What is the purpose of fences?
Keep people out
Keep animals out
Keep animals in
Keep people from “looking in”
Every culture has sin. Although, sometimes the people in that culture do not see it.
How many of you know the song “Amazing Grace?”
How many of you love that song?
How man of you just appreciate how lyrically awesome that song is and how it must have been written from someone with such an amazing heart for God?
John Newton, who wrote the song didn’t always have a heart for God, however.
Newton was a slave trafficker in his early life.
It is believe that he wrote the song in 1772. However, just 20 years prior he was a slave trafficker. In fact, between 1750-1754, he captain 3 slave trade voyages.
Newton had his conversion experience during a sever storm on the sea in 1748. So, for another 6 years he was still trafficking slaves even having been saved.
The question I have is how? How can a made have a miraculous conversions and still take part in what he was?
To be fair, some sources say that after his conversion he was kinder to the slaves and treated them a bit more humanly, but he still was trading them....
I think the answer is quite simple, yet, scary:
Sins of Culture
Sins of Culture
Slavery was something that was accepted as normal in the 1700’s.
When you grow up with a culture says something is normal or even right, it is difficult to go against the grain.
Newton knew to some level that slavery was wrong, but it was still a challenge for to embrace the idea fully when that was so heaving engrained in who he was.
The story does get a bit better. After he could no longer traffic slaves in 1754, he became one of the leading voices against slavery.
He would go on to write “Thought Upon the Africa Slave Trade” supporting the abolitionist movement. In his writings he would describe the inhumane conditions that slaves would under go.
He would fight for the freedom of slaves. He would pen “Amazing Grace” and several other works.
You see, Newton was confused by the sin of his culture until God would reveal His truth to Him that all men, really are, created equally.
This leads us to the question of the sins of our society...
What sins do we have in our culture that are against the will of God?
Well, there are probable many: including abortion.
But, there is one sin that is often overlooked and ignored...
The authors of the book argue that the most ignored sin of our culture is:
Individualism
Individualism
We grew up in a country that fought for individual freedom and individual rights.
It’s so entrenched in our upbringing.
We want things to be the way that we want them.
The way that most benefits us.
We like to be able to order our hamburger the way that we want it.
The authors write “At a writers’ conference, Leonard Sweet referenced the Nintendo motion sensor video game, pointing out that we are so individualistic that we now use two I’s to spell we (as in “Wii”). - Steve DeNeff and David Drury
This individualism spills over into the church as well.
We like for our worship to be the way that we want. We pray by ourselves and read scripture by ourselves.
Now, those of us here this morning are a little closer to the goal of community by being here this morning.
But, we still have some issues. We often leave church thinking about whether or not we “got something out of the service” before we consider whether it was beneficial to the church as a whole or not.
We want it to be the way that we want it to be.
But this is not simply the problem with the church, its a reflection of our culture as a whole.
It is how we have grown up.
According to research presented in the book: “In 1974, nearly one-fourth of Americans visited their neighbor several times a week. By 1994, that figure had dropped to 16 percent, and there was shocking increase in the number of people who had “never spent and evening with their neighbor” - from one in 5 to nearly one in three, a 41 percent increase.”
Another story i the book is about a Lady named Adele. Adele was a 73 year old lady who had lots of help with things.
She had someone mow her yard for her and collect her mail for her.
She had seemingly great neighbors who cared about her.
Only problem is they never checked on her.
In fact, she died and no one even knew it.
It wasn’t until the police forced their way into her home that they discovered that she had been dead for four years and no one knew.
You see, we are a culture that looks out for ourselves. We are individualistic.
If you look at older houses you will notice that many of them have large front porches and not much behind the house.
If you look at newer houses you will notice that many of them have small front porches and larger back porches.
And, many are surrounded by privacy fences.
I have listened to people who are a bit older than myself who talk about Sundays as they were growing up. They talk about how after church they would always go to someone’s house to share a meal.
What has happened, even in the church?
We have become individualistic.
We are not alone, however. As we read in the scripture this morning, the disciples were in the same boat.
As Jesus was explaining what was going to happen to Him, a couple of the disciples were more worried about sitting next to Jesus.
They were concerned with themselves and their own position.
Jesus takes what they were arguing about and turns it on its head.
in:
34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
and Jesus says to them
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
He takes their selfish concerns and turns it to something more.
He takes what they view as a position of status and compares it to that of a servant.
Those who want to be first, must be a servant.
It’s not about their position anymore than it is about their focus.
He is teaching them that it’s not all about them.
It’s about others. You want to be the greatest? Good, then serve other people.
You are the most important....Good! Then serve others!
Shift from yourself to others.
They had to learn to shift from:
Me to We
Me to We
From my own status to serving others.
From my own wants and needs to the wants and needs of the body.
We see this idea towards the end of our reading.
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us.
The concern of the John (and presumably) the other disciples, hence the word “we,” was that people who were not with them were driving out demons.
This mindset is called the “sectarian spirit.” It is this idea of sects....my sect is more important than others.
These other people were doing things in the name of Jesus, but they were not “of them.”
The problem with the sectarian spirit is that it assumes that one’s own sect is greater than another’s.
It wants to be of highest position.
The problem is is can “only lead down, never up.”
We see this several times with the disciples.
Unfortunately, we often times do the same thing.
We can be following Jesus for year, but still put out own selves above others.
We put our agenda ahead of the community’s.
“We can be fiercely loyal to Jesus without being loyal to each other.” - Steve DeNeff and David Drury
Our churches can often times be full of people who love Jesus more than they love others.
This sounds right, however, Jesus says the exact opposite.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
17 This is my command: Love each other.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We often times look at the greatest commandment and put more emphasis on it than the second commandment.
We are good about the loving God part, but we often forget about the loving our neighbor as ourself part.
As John points out, if we do not love others, we do not love God.
Sometimes we lose focus on the “body” aspect of the Church.
We forget that we are to work together, love each other, submit to each others, and consider others better than ourselves.
We often think that we are super holy on our own, but maybe we are only as healthy as the church as a whole is.
It is difficult for us to be holy on our own.
“If being holy is being like Jesus and Jesus is part of a triune community, then maybe we are only as holy as our community.” - Steve DeNeff and David Drury
From the beginning of time, God’s plan was for us to be with people.
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
God knew from the beginning that Adam, and us, would need to be with people.
As we read through all of the old testament, we read about God’s people!
Then we get to the new Testament and we read about Jesus and His disciples.
The vast majority of the time, Jesus was with His disciples.
In fact, in the most stressful time in Jesus’ life, He leaned on His disciples to be with Him, and praying for Him!
Then we read in acts how the early church was always together.
The next portion of scripture is 13 letter to church. Then a few letters to individuals. Now, the letters to the the individuals were not just for individuals, but for others in the Church.
Timothy was a pastor in Ephesus
Titus was organizing churches.
Philemon is the only letter written to a sole individual.
Of all the books in the Bible, 1 is written to an individual with the benefit only for that individual.
Then we have Revelation, which is about the church in the end times.
God’s purpose from the beginning was for His church, His people.
And we need to shift our focus from ourselves to the community!
What does this look like?
1. We have a heart for others!
1. We have a heart for others!
We soften our stance towards other people.
As with the disciples, we serve other people!
2. We get involved in the Church!
2. We get involved in the Church!
We join or start a small group where we can connect with others
We attend worship services and other events
We find a way to serve in the church
3. We disciple others!
3. We disciple others!
We pray that God will give us someone who will disciple us and someone that we can pour into!
And finally, we begin:
4. Moving Fences!
4. Moving Fences!
Michael Yaconelli articulates this powerful story in his book, Messy Spirituality—God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People.
“During an intense battle, one of the American soldiers was killed. His comrades did not want to leave his body on the battlefield and decided to give him a Christian burial. They remembered a church a few miles behind the front lines whose grounds included a small cemetery surrounded by a white fence. After receiving permission to take their friend’s body to the cemetery, they set out for the church arriving just before sunset.
“A priest, his bent-over back and frail body betraying his many years, responded to their knocking. His face, deeply wrinkled and tan, was the home to fierce eyes that flashed wisdom and passion. Our friend was killed in battle,’ they blurted out, ‘and we wanted to give him a church burial.’
“Apparently the priest understood what they were asking, although he spoke in very broken English. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but we can only bury those of the same faith here.’ Weary after many months of war, the soldiers simply turned to walk away. ‘But,’ the old priest called after them, ‘you can bury him outside the fence.’
“Cynical and exhausted, the soldiers dug a grave and buried their friend just outside the white fence. They finished after nightfall. They next morning, the entire unit was ordered to move on, and the group raced back to the little church for one final good-bye to their friend. When they arrived, they couldn’t find the gravesite. Tired and confused, they knocked on the door of the church. They asked the old priest if he knew where they had buried their friend. ‘It was dark last night and we were exhausted. We must have been disoriented.’
“A smile flashed across the old priest’s face. ‘After you left last night, I could not sleep, so I went outside early this morning and I moved the fence.’”
Worship Team/Deacons
As we wrap up this morning, I encourage you to consider the following questions:
Who is a part of your community?
Do you need to move some fences?
What community are you a part of?
Do you view yourself as more important than the larger community?
How can you connect with and serve your community?
As we wrap up this morning, we get to take communion.
This is one great thing that we get to do as a community.
When we do this, we echo and remember the words of Jesus “do this in remembrance of me”