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This morning we are looking at the work that Christ has done in order for us to be in relationship with Him and importantly with others.
Our lives in Christ not only mean that we are reconciled to Him it means that we are also actively reconciling with others who are different than us.
Because if Christ has done a work in us, He is doing a work in others.
And our role is to recognize that work.
roger kibbe in international airport
God has brought us near to Him and others, removing anything else in the way.
we are called to live a 2 dimensional reconciliation life.
We are called to live a 3 dimensional life.
Because we are deeply loved by God, He has destroyed everything that gets between us and Him and us and others.
so that’s what we want to be looking at today.
How do we see Christ and His work in such a way that it causes us to love others more than our own preferences and culture?
Because stuff often gets in the way.
Our preferences get in the way.
Our culture gets in the way.
Our identity gets in the way.
These things create separation in our lives.
how have you seen separation happen through people’s preferences or identity?
On our own we separate
Our passage this morning begins with a call to remember .
Often in the Scriptures we are called to remember, but when we do so it is to remember God.
But this remember is different.
This remember is a bit different.
This remember is to look at where we were.
Where we used to be.
To remember that we were separated from Christ and alienated from community and strangers to God’s promise.
We were without God and hope.
This is strong language.
Paul is telling us that on our own, we were hostile, alienated, without God and without hope.
Paul is telling us to get into that frame of mind so that we can understand where others are.
We can see from their perspective.
We can understand again what it is like to live apart from good.
Have you ever felt not seen?
Not picked?
Looked over?
That’s the concept we are getting in these first few passages.
What is it like to go through life and not be seen?
On our own we easily grow hostile with others
When we are without hope, when we are alone and alienated, it can be easy to not worry about others.
It is easy to think of others simply as a means that either helps or hinders our own goals.
Hostility is not just anger toward others, it is the idea of treating others as less than human.
It is looking at people as a series of transactions.
When we don’t see the way God sees it becomes easy to see people as goals or barriers to our desires.
this not always perfect or fixed in the church.
But the command remains to love others beyond preference.
How have you seen people become a series of transactions instead of relationships?
On our own our different ideas become the most important part of us
Stanford Prison experiment?
What happens when we borrow the strategies of the world?
We end up acting like it.
When left to ourselves we will find the most meaning in the ideas we have.
But in the end the ideas that we have, while important, are not the most important part of us.
Christ and His Kingdom and our life in Him is.
How do we live lives of reconciliation when everyone has different ideas?
That’s really the idea.
Right now I think the biggest thing separating people in the US is what we think/believe about very specific topics.
And while it is good to think things about very specific topics.
Those same topics are often the same things that Christ came to remove as relational barriers.
So how do we uphold the things that matter in our lives and still love others?
Holiness vs hostility
Up until this point we have looked at the tension.
We have looked at ways that keep us separate.
And you might be thinking, “good, aren’t we called to be separate from?”
Yes.
As a people of holiness.
Defining holiness is that which is separate from.
But if we are using the same strategies that the world is using, anger, bitterness, yelling.
When the church uses the same weapons that the world uses, we have chosen hostility.
TO choose holiness means to act differently with different tools and different relationships.
In Christ we have peace
Christ doesn’t give peace,
He gives Himself as peace.
Our peace is not found in an idea or a strategy, it is found in a person and a relationship.
We don’t have better ideas for peace as Christians, we have better relationships
This is the highlight of the Church.
We don’t always have better ideas but we are always called to have better relationships.
Because it started with Christ and He chose to make peace with us.
We receive that peace and through that are called to offer it to others.
How have you seen the church highlight the need for healthy and good relationships?
How is God calling you to better relationships?
Christ recognizes us in our alienation
The passage begins with “remember” but then it goes into “now”
And the “now” is simply that we who were once far off are now near through Christ.
We were distant and now we are close.
I love a good airport.
I, like many of you, have spent alot of time at airports, either waiting for people or going through them myself.
By far the best thing about airports are the greetings.
It is fun to watch people waiting with signs.
And there are always different kinds of signs.
There are signs from limo drivers waiting for people and then there are big signs from family and friends.
I fly in and out of TF Green every few months and I love when a big sign catches sight of people coming out of the gates.
There is distance but they have made eye contact.
And the sign people are jumping up and down and the people can’t walk fast enough to get there.
There is a great embrace because the travellers have been far away and now they are close.
Christ is a big sign holder.
We were far off and have been brought near.
His embrace is one where we recognize that everything that has kept us distant is now gone.
How did Christ welcome you into His Kingdom as one of His own?
All barriers can only really be broken down at the cross.
And the distance in Christ is gone because of the cross.
It is at the cross that every barrier is broken down.
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