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Click here to listen to the sermon. 16mins
Col 1v1-14 v13 Rescued from dominion of darkness into kingdom of his son.
Luke 10v25-37 The Good Samaritan.
A Mission Shaped Church. Or.
A mission church shaped by love!
An expert in the law. (Or today a good old ‘sound’ Evangelical. My own tradition)
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.”
“You have answered correctly,” said Jesus, “Do this and you will live.”
A mission church is a church shaped by the love of God!
A mission person is a person shaped by the love of God!
A person who through experiencing God’s love for them, overflows with love for others. Filled with God’s Spirit that love overflows to others. John 7v38-39
This is what characterised Jesus’s ministry to the people pre-occupied under the burden of the Law. HE forgave, healed and welcomed others through love.
This is what must characterise those who want to follow Jesus.
An expert of the law is someone who is pre-occupied with their version of the correct interpretation of the law and wishes to impose it on others. Matthew 15v1-14. 23.
Having experienced the burden of the law themselves, they seek to burden others with it also.
Even though the law says ‘love thy neighbour’ they can’t help themselves but to insist on the law.
Like a glass window with ‘Love thy neighbour’ etched onto it. Their eyes focus on the window and they see the words.
But for Jesus, his eyes look through the window and focus on the people in the community.
What sort of ‘Christian’, ‘follower of Jesus’ or ‘church’ are we called to be:-
An expert in the Law, or A Good Samaritan?
Within two years, the Holy Spirit, would come upon all the believers. John 7v39. 14v15-17a. Acts 2.
Within 40 years the Temple building in Jerusalem would be destroyed and gone for good. (70ad). And the believers would be scattered to live out their faith within the communities.
This is how God intended the Good News to grow and spread throughout the world.
We are called to be a mission church shaped by love, living out our faith with our neighbours! Like the Good Samaritan!
As we pray and think of mission, we need to find new ways of loving people, out there in the community!
So who is my neighbour?
And do I live out God’s love among them?
Sermon by Antonin Moore
Click here to listen to the sermon. 9mins
The Measure of Mercy.
Amos saw a plumb line. And he was told that the plumb line was to be set in the midst of the people by God. And by God himself. I am struck by this image, because Israel is also known as Jeshurun in the 1st Testament, which means “Upright one” as in standing upright or straight, and not crooked. But Israel is more than on a lean here—and the leadership itself is obviously a key part of the trouble—not providing the right example, and not taking any top-down action to set things right. The pun is intended, by the way!
And J is an acting, prophetic example of that plumb line, in our Luke reading today. And, of course, he is ‘in the midst of the people,’ b’kerev Ami, Yisrael, [“in the midst of my people, Israel”] just as Amos had said.
But how does the measure work? Does God/ or J (in either situation) just point: “This one, and not that one”; “You can go to reside w/Abraham, you can’t!?’ No, I don’t think so.
Unlike the leadership, of his time, J is acting in the midst of the people; not just with the popolo grasso, the Fat-cat, well-off people; but with the gente volgare, the common people, the ordinary & not so well-off people. It is from there that J acts.
And what is the measure of this plumb line for setting Israel straight? It was what the Law Master was finally wrenched into admitting: Mercy. It is the measure of mercy. (And it is literally called that in Hebrew.) Ḥesed, the great word for mercy or the ‘grace’ that is given by God to us. There is just the same quality of it that we can offer as spiritual gift to one another, that we can offer to other people; and especially those in need—as our story clearly shows.
J was asked, later on, in another part of Luke, by some Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God would come. “The K of God does not come with visible signs,” he said, “… Because, you see, the K of God is among you.” But which can also be mean, “…the K of God is within you.” [We can say: ‘in the midst of you’]. It is either Christ acting in the midst of the people showing the measure of mercy; or it is something given within us, to be then used to give to others. As we clearly see in the parable.
And as the story shows us, we should judge w. the measure of mercy as well. The real question for the Law Master was not: ‘Who is my neighbour?’ but, ‘To whom can I be a neighbour?’
When you go out today, remember, there is no limited-liability clause in the love-ethic J has charged us with: we’re not offered the luxury of overcautious judgment; but love-risking grace---which breaks down the walls that divide---for ourselves, for others: and allows God to act.
‘To whom can YOU be a neighbour?’
It is wherever you take yourself & find yourself with others. Out side the comfort zone.
EXPLICIT
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