Flexibility is the Key

We are in week 5 of our series The Infinite Church. Just as a reminder the Infinite Church is an Infinite (Never Ending) Expression of the Love of God in a Finite (Very Temporal) thinking world.

The last 4 weeks we have been looking in scripture at the Characteristics of what that type of church (Infinite) looks like.

Today we are going to focus on how flexibility for the cause of Christ is essential to the Infinite Mission of God.

Matthew 19:16–22 NLT

16 Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 “Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” the man asked. And Jesus replied: “ ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. 19 Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 20 “I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?” 21 Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Portrait of Walt Disney

In 1952 everyone close to Walt Disney thought that he had lost his mind. He had liquidated his assets, sold property, borrowed against his rather large life insurance policy and even licensed the right to his own name to do something that everyone thought would be the eventual ruin of Disney and his legacy.

However That didn’t bother him... WD was accustom to taking risks and doing new things…we don’t think of some of what we see from him as ground breaking but much of what we see as normal in the entertainment industry was a result of WD’s willingness to be an innovator.

For instance…WD was one of the first to make short films in which real actors would interact with cartoon characters. In 1928 he was the first to make cartoons with synchronized sound. Then in 1937 He released the first ever feature length animated film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.

While Steamboat Willy and Snow White May not seem cutting edge today it was the beginning of WD building an entertainment empire.

Even more it was a way for WD to advance his Just Cause

Which was to invite audiences to leave the stresses and strains of life behind and enter into a more idyllic world of his creation.

His ability to accomplish this mission turned out to be quite profitable and if that was his only goal then he could have done what many others have done and just cruised miking every dollar that he could until the ride finally ended.

This is exactly what a lot of people wanted him to do…Including his brother who convinced WD to take Walt Disney Productions public.

WD did fought this idea knowing that if Walt Disney Productions went public it may be very hard to have the freedom he was used to... to innovate. Yet he relented and going public did add to the profitability of WDP.

However this move did exactly what WD feared. It forced the company to shift focus from Inviting audiences to leave the stresses and strains of life behind and enter a more Idyllic world of WD creation to making sure all the stock holders made money.

This is when Walt Disney decided to leave Walt Disney Productions even though it was making money and gaining in influence in the entertainment industry and form a new Company called WED and set out on what many thought was an insane direction. He was going to get into the theme park business which was seen as cheap, dirty and actually in some settings immoral.

He was going to it better in achieve his Just cause. He was planing to build Disney Land…

He wanted to build the Happiest palce on earth. (Disney land pict slide after this statement)

Disneyland picture

He wanted to invite people to a place where they could forget the outside pressures of the world even if it were only for a few hours.

Everyone thought this was unnecessary and reckless given the success of his current creation…yet he did it anyway....And today not only do we see Walt Disney parks all over the world…but even after WD’s death we see his Just Cause continuing. Have you ever been to WD parks?.....

He was playing and Infinite game and willing to risk everything even though he did not have to.

Jesus was asking the young man to risk everything even though he did not have to…and the man chose to keep what he had instead of receive what Jesus had to offer…treasures in heaven.

Jesus was offering this man a way to be an active part of His Just Cause…The New Jerusalem....but he just could not let go of finite (Temporary) rewards of this world.

This leads to one of the most depressing and unnecessary sentences of the Bible....

“He went away sad becuase he had many possessions.”

The inability of the rich young man to be flexible caused his great sadness.

Much of the sadness and frustration that many people of Faith and Non believers have stem from the same type of inflexibility.

Flexibility is the key for God’s Infinite Church accomplishing God’s Infinite Mission.

When an Infinite minded Christ follower with a clear sense of mission looks to the future and sees that the path they are on will significantly restrict their ability to advance God’s just cause of salvation for the world they are easily able to change course.

This type of Flexibility is important…this type of Flexibility does not mean that we compromise the claims of the gospel. It does not mean that we give up the sacred for the secular.

It means that we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to find as many ways as we can to eliminate unnecessary hindrances to people finding the life giving salvation of Jesus…The Church was never supposed to be a members only club…it was supposed to be a welcoming and life giving place of connection.

Growing up in the Holiness Tradition in different parts of the country I have seen the days when we used to confuse salvation with behaviour modification.

The focus of many Churches was Don’t Dance, Don’t Drink, Don’t go to Movies, Don’t…Fill in the Blank. Many got the cart before the horse so to speak and unintentionally made Church a hostile environment instead of a healing environment.

These are not the ways that one knows if we are Holy or Filled with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22–23 NLT

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I have quit a few friends that have been so hurt by this way of thinking that their very soul is at risk....and while its their choice there is some shared responsibility…This can be and should be changed.

Far too many people live defeated lives trying to live or force other to live something different that what scripture invites us into…

What if God is calling you to enjoy your walk with Him? What if God is calling you and I to invite others to enjoy their walk with Him?

It is hard flex or change course when we have a perception that things are going well or if we are irrationally holding on to things even if we know deep in our hearts God is Calling us to Change course for the Just Cause of salvation to the world.

Yet…I believe that is what God is inviting all of us into....both believers (LONG PAUSE) and those yet to believe.

It does require a radical change in our lives…but not on the outside…Change starts on the inside.

God is calling us to move from a place of fear of the world and what we could lose to a place of passion for the Joy we gain by engaging in God’s Infinite Mission through God’s Infinite Church.

The reasons we are not seeing the explosive growth that we all know God wants to bring both personally and corporately is that many are not willing to be flexible in the lesser things.

It has more to do with our hesitancy to allow the Holy Spirit to initiate a disruption to our lives and our thinking about what it means to be a fully engaged follower of Jesus.

Empty Tomb Picture

When we look at the empty tomb and think about the sacrament of Holy Communion we see that Jesus initiated an extreme disruption to His life in order to more effectively advance God’s Just Cause of Salvation the world…and He calls us to the same thing.

Today lets allow the Holy Spirit to initiated an extreme disruption to our life in order to more effectively advance God’s Just Cause of Salvation the world.

Prayer/Communion/Benediction