Hope for Today…The CHURCH

Come on out to the SV Green on Sunday, September 7 to see the beauty of God’s church in the open air. Green Chapel gathers at 10:00 a.m. on Market Street Green in Southern Village. Come as you are, but don’t forget your lawn chair. This week we will hear words of hope from guest preacher, Matt LeRoy, a recent graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary who has a heart for loving Chapel Hill. Join us!

Hope for the Hopeless

Preached on Sunday, August 31 by Greg Arthur, Associate Pastor
Luke 12:22-34

Introduction: What does it take to make someone hopeless?

As we focus on hope for the next several weeks it is important to consider what are the enemies of hope? What keeps us from being a hopeful people? Lately there seems to me to be more pessimism than hope with people. Why is that?

Here are some things that will make people pessimistic. A war without a clear goal or end in site, an economic slump that affects housing values which are usually the biggest investment people make, less jobs, and famine and hunger (these may not be an issue here but read about the rest of the world there are huge famines taking place) all of these issues are making us pessimistic and hurting our ability to hope? Why? We struggle to hope when we are worried. It is just part of human nature to struggle with being hopeful when we are worried. The more worried or threatened we feel the less hopeful we often are. That is a huge problem for us, because hope plays such a vital role in our lives.

Illustration: What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.
—Emil Brunner, Swiss theologian (1889–1966)

So if we are to people of hope, if we are to overcome the hopelessness that limits us and affects our lives, especially now in such troubled times, we must learn to deal with our worry. Thankfully and hopefully that is something that we can do.

In Matthew 12 Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body what you will wear.” That sounds like such an empty statement doesn’t it? It sounds like some little nice thought you would find painted on a shell at a Hallmark store. I mean it was a catchy yet artificially sweet Bobby McFarren song in the 80’s. Don’t worry be happy was the message pop culture gave us. And it is a nice idea that lasts about as long as the 3 minutes of that song.

Why in the world would we believe or respond to a call not to worry. Doesn’t Jesus get it? Doesn’t Jesus get that our lives are in turmoil, we are stressed, the future is uncertain, and hope is hard to come by these days? Yes, Jesus certainly does understand all of these things about our lives, but he also understands some things that we do not.

Jesus reminds us about the provision of God. It is not as if God hasn’t worked, from the very act of creation on through every day of existence, to provide what we need to live. God provides for our physical needs, just as he does with the flowers of field and the birds of the air. But hope goes beyond that. We are called to live our lives with a focus not on the things of this world, but on the Kingdom of God, the fullness of possibilities that exist in this world because of God’s redemptive work through and around us.

We can be freed from worry because what we see and what we are capable of is not all that there is. God is at work all around us and he is working to redeem all of creation, to fix the brokenness of this world, to bring about peace and to fill this world with his unconditional and transforming love. So we don’t have to worry about eating and work and housing because God has far bigger things to occupy our minds. Part of God’s work to redeem this world is to reshape our minds so that hope replaces worry because in a world where the people of God spend their time hoping instead of worrying, when those who are hopeless find hope, anything is possible.

Jesus is trying to point us to the infinite possibilities of God that should dominate and define our lives instead of the pessimistic and limited realities that we try to convince ourselves are the full view of this world. That is all and good, but why should we believe a word this Jesus says? Why would he telling us to be not worry mean anything more to us than a silly 80’s song? Very simple answer to that one: the resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus did many things for us. But, as all four gospels make very clear, the resurrection first and foremost served to vindicate Jesus and his teachings about the coming of the kingdom of God and inaugurate its entrance into the world. The resurrection of Jesus allows us and commands us to be hopeful. We can read everything Jesus said differently because of the resurrection. Everything he taught is made relevant and valuable and powerful by his resurrection. It gives us the power to hope. And if we can believe in the resurrection of Christ and accept his message of hope, than we can truly begin to change the way our minds work and we can exchange the worries of this world and their accompanying hopelessness for the hope of those who are discovering the kingdom of God at work all around them.

Illustration: Yellow is not my favorite color. But now that I know the story of Vincent van Gogh, I have come to value yellow differently. This famous Dutch painter, sadly, tossed away the truth imparted him in his Christian home and sank into depression and destruction. By the grace of God, as he later began to embrace the truth again, his life took on hope, and he gave that hope color.
The best-kept secret of van Gogh’s life is that the truth he was discovering is seen in the gradual increase of the presence of the color yellow in his paintings. Yellow evoked (for him) the hope and warmth of the truth of God’s love. In one of his depressive periods, seen in his famous The Starry Night, one finds a yellow sun and yellow swirling stars, because van Gogh thought truth was present only in nature. Tragically, the church, which stands tall in this painting and should be the house of truth, is about the only item in the painting showing no traces of yellow. But by the time he painted The Raising of Lazarus, his life was on the mend as he began to face the truth about himself. The entire picture is (blindingly) bathed in yellow. In fact, van Gogh put his own face on Lazarus to express his own hope in the Resurrection.
Yellow tells the whole story: life can begin all over again because of the truth of God’s love. Each of us, whether with actual yellows or metaphorical yellows, can begin to paint our lives with the fresh hope of a new beginning.

Hope for the Hopeless

What better way to spend labor day weekend Sunday than in the company of friends and neighbors? Come to GREEN CHAPEL. Join us as we explore “Aspects of Hope” and grow in the ways of the Lord our God. Bring a lawn chair and a cup of coffee.

GREEN CHAPEL
Sunday at 10:00 AM
Market Street Green in Southern Village
An outreach ministry of Christ Church

Wondering what to expect? Last weekend close to 100 people gathered. The kids are allowed to blow bubbles during the sermon. A dog or two may share in the fun. The sky is glorious. You’ll sing two songs accompanied by an acoustic guitar. An offering will be collected. People of all ages will hopefully bring glory to God.

People of Hope

Preached Sunday, August 24 by Maggie Mraz, Intern Pastor
Luke 24:13-35

So, here’s some good news: Tonight is a school night! Well, maybe it’s not good news for everybody, but for lots of us it’s really good news. The beginning of the school year is very promising, isn’t it? UNC classes began last week. I know that Scroggs, Culbreth and Carrboro all begin tomorrow because I have a child going to each school! Even if you are not wild about academics there are cool things about starting school. You get new supplies, new shoes, haircuts and you see friends again. The pace of life changes and everything is just very new. The homework hasn’t piled up yet, sports haven’t really gotten underway. Right now…today…things are really full of hope.

Green Chapel will continue for another 7 weeks as we begin our second series called, “Aspects of Hope.” We may expect some beautiful Sunday mornings of worship out here on the Green maybe with hot cider and powdered donuts (if someone would be inspired to bring them). We may expect to hear several voices over the next few weeks sharing their perspective on hope including:
Greg Arthur, associate pastor from CUMC; Matt LeRoy, recent graduate of Asbury Seminary who has recently moved to Chapel Hill to plant a church; Shay Hall, youth pastor from CUMC; Kaytee Flowers, a youth and SV neighbor; Loren Miller, who leads us in song each week and me. If you don’t know me, I am Maggie Mraz, intern pastor from Christ Church, wife, mother of 3, SV neighbor and most of all a disciple of Jesus.

The series promises to be very great. I expect it to be. We all have expectations for the upcoming days. Some will be met and surely there will be surprises along the way because sometimes the outcome doesn’t meet our expectations.

We are coming to the end of the pool season. We always have great hopes for the summer at the pool. They begin to rise up in the late winter/early spring year after year as pool season creeps up and catalogs for summer swim wear begin to show up in mailboxes. All the bathing suits look really great on the people who model them, right? These pages offer hope for the potential to look fabulous at the neighborhood pool all summer long. You pick out a couple suits, hop on the web and order away. It’s all very promising.

You know this path, right ladies? Guys? Come on! So last summer I picked out a suit on sale, trying to be conscious of what I’m doing, right, and I place the order and am feeling really good about myself. I wait. Then the day arrives when FedEx drops a package on my front porch and the hour of revelation has come. I put it on. It looked so cute in the picture…on the model…a halter top, fun bright green color. I am so going to look good. Then the moment of truth arrives. I step in front of the mirror. Hmmmm. I’m not so sure about this one, but wait a minute maybe it’s just the mirror. It can’t really look as bad as I think it does. I mosey down the hall to my teenage daughter’s room to get her opinion. We both agree. I look like a green inch worm. Horrifying! This is not what I expected. That suit is now hidden in the depths of one of my dresser drawers never to see the North Carolina sunlight.

Now that’s some deep theological insight on hope for you. But we do this kind of stuff all the time, don’t we? We put our hope in silly stuff like the perfect bathing suit. I am sure that each one of you could all tell a similar story.

It’s true though, isn’t it? Lots of times the outcome of a situation does not meet our expectations.

Today’s gospel story tells of a journey where we find people with hope that has been stomped on and crushed and then they meet Jesus and everything changes. This story from Luke tells us about two disciples walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus as they discuss the recent chaotic events of life when suddenly Jesus shows up. He does that. All throughout Luke’s gospel we find him showing up in the lives of people and then leaving with renewed hope. After encountering Jesus they are never the same again. This story really does a beautiful job of showing us the hope we have as people who believe in Jesus.

We find this story in the last chapter of Luke. It’s the evening of Easter…the first one. We hear clearly that the outcome of the situation of the day does not meet the expectations of the people. Here’s what has happened:

Jesus was crucified. He died. He was buried. He rose from the dead and a few women are claiming to be witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. People are confused. It is difficult to understand what has happened. The events of the last few days have left them with lots to talk about. People’s expectations and the situation of the day don’t match up. Many are in dismay. They thought Jesus was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but now everything is all messed up.
Jesus shows up. The two don’t recognize him. They speak with him. He let’s them fill him in on what’s happened (TO HIM). And then he sets things right and they don’t even realize it is him while they walk together. It’s so mysterious! Not until he reveals himself to them are they no longer concerned with the sorrows of the day, but they quickly return to Jerusalem to tell others that their hope is alive.

On Wednesday mornings a few of us meet for prayer in the church library. Please come and join us if you like. We meet at 9:30 each week. Anyway, I read this passage this week before we prayed. It is such a great story. When I got to verse 31 I had to pause. Read Luke 24:25-31. The room was silent and we just shook our heads. It is so maddening. These two people have walked along with Jesus, listened to him explain everything they need to know about him and they don’t recognize him. Not until they have been together for quite a while do they see him and then…HE VANISHED from their sight. Amazing!

What a perfect image of our Christian faith. We walk along through life. God is at work all over the place and we don’t always see it. But it’s hopeful, isn’t it? God works in mysterious ways and we can count on him to show up in our lives. We need to watch out with hope of catching a glimpse of God at work. Like the people we read about in the gospels who encounter Jesus and are changed from being in his presence we too live in the same hope.

I shared out here earlier in the summer that I went on a retreat a few years ago that profoundly impacted my life. I went with little or no expectations and returned home never to be the same person again. During the time away I had the opportunity to do something I had never done before; make a public confession. My fellow participants and I gathered with the retreat leaders for a chapel service. We were offered words of encouragement by the spiritual director and then instructed to take a turn coming up in the front of the chapel to stand before the cross and make a confession to God. I had never done anything like that before…not in public. I honestly hadn’t confessed anything even in a private prayer in years…lots of years. I remember this moment like it was yesterday (and it was a little over 3 years ago).

I was sitting in the second row of the chapel and waited my turn as the women before me offered their prayers of confession. I remember very clearly that as the other women spoke I sat in judgment. I heard things like, “I’m not very nice to my mother and I don’t get along with my sister.” Stuff like that. Well I thought they were the lamest confessions I had ever heard in my life (as if I had ever heard any). I was sure that when my turn came I was going to make my confession count. I was basically the biggest jerk in the room.

My turn comes and I make my way up there and stand before the cross with my back to the people. Suddenly the one who had so many opinions about everybody else couldn’t speak. I just stood there for what seemed like a really long time. I was standing in front of the cross and I couldn’t seem to get anything to come out of my mouth. I finally managed to say, “You know how hard this is for me.” This was a prayer. I wasn’t talking to the people. I confessed that I believed in God, but I didn’t want anybody to know it. I hid my faith. I was sorry.

When the words came out of my mouth a rush of heat seemed to come out of nowhere that blew into my chest. It was like a furnace inside me was turned on; an inferno erupted within me. I ended up in a big heap of tears. When I went home from that weekend I found that quite to my surprise Jesus was there with me. I was compelled to read the bible and to pray. I was overwhelmed, confused and stunned in a wonderful way. Suddenly I realized that God was walking with me. Life was never the same again.

In Luke’s gospel we hear Jesus telling people that the kingdom of God is near. There is reason to hope. God is walking near to us…even if we don’t see it. May we all live in hope and have our eyes opened to see God working in our midst. Have hope. Jesus is alive and He is near. Let’s have expectations and know that there will be surprises…beautiful surprises along the way. Amen.

End with a prayer.

Aspects of Hope

Come join us on the Southern Village Green on Market Street on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Bring a seat, a cup of coffee and an expectant heart.

Come hear our next homily series: “Aspects of Hope”:

• August 24 – A People of Hope (Maggie Mraz)
• August 31 – Hope for the Hopeless (Greg Arthur)
• September 7 – Hope Today (Matt LeRoy)
• September 14 –Jesus, our Hope (Shay Hall & Kaytee Flowers)
• September 21 – Hope for the Holy Spirit (Maggie Mraz)
• September 28 – Future Hope (Shay Hall)
• October 5 – Hope for all people (Loren Miller)

Love One Another

OT: Psalm 116: 13-19
NT: John 13: 31b-35
Preacher: Maggie Mraz, Intern Pastor
Sunday, August 17, 2008

Our Green Chapel summer series has looked at “Aspects of Love”. Today we wrap it up and next week move on to “Aspects of Hope” which will continue for another seven weeks. While planning our first series we thought it was important to include along with our service of worship on Sunday morning a service project that would encourage extending ourselves in love to the broader community. A simple food drive to collect non-perishable food was scheduled and announced in the church bulletin and on the Green Chapel blog site. We collected over 140 pounds of food with very little effort and delivered it to the NC food bank in Durham.

The church received a thank you note earlier this week from the food bank. The note expressed their gratitude and explained that our generosity provided 117 meals for various people in need including families, seniors and children at risk of hunger. It feels good to get a letter of thanks. It’s certainly not why we organized the drive, but it is nice to receive gratitude. I felt good for a few minutes after reading the letter and then I began to think about today’s reading and our call to love one another as Jesus loved us.

No doubt we have done a wonderful thing by collecting and sharing food with others, but we could do more. We could grow in the ways of love. Imagine how much unopened non-perishable food is being held in the pantries of this neighborhood alone. What would it cost us to empty our pantries, box it all up as if it were moving day and transporting it all to the food bank as an expression of love?

Today’s gospel reading is a repeat of last week. We find Jesus gathered with his disciples sharing a meal and giving them a new command: Love one another. We talked last week about how this command to love was not really new. The Jewish law commanded the people to love their neighbor as them self. The newness was wrapped up in the motivation to love born out being part of the new thing that Jesus was doing. He was building a community and demonstrated love in ways that were radical.

(Point to the cross.)

In John 13:34 Jesus commanded his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The community of Jesus is to be uniquely identified by the love the people who follow him show. The expression of their love for each other is to be one that speaks volumes and everyone will know that they belong to Jesus. Now honestly, it is nice to contemplate a community where everyone loves each other in a self giving manner that naturally shows everyone, “Wow! They must be disciples of Jesus.” I wonder what we would learn if we hit the streets and began to survey “everyone” about what they know of the expression of love that exists within their nearest community of Christian disciples. No doubt we would hear some wonderful things, but I’m pretty sure that we would also see that we can do more. We may grow in the ways of love.

So how do we do it? How do we grow in the ways of love so that we may obey the command of Jesus? It almost seems silly sometimes that we are commanded to love. Doesn’t it? It seems rather impossible, I mean, really how can we love another…some people are just really hard to even like.
I am reminded of one of the first books that I read when I began to get on board with this whole church thing a few years ago. I got my hands on a copy of Rick Warren’s book A Purpose Driven Life. I committed myself to plowing through it for 40 days with the hope that I would get a better sense of my purpose. The thing that stuck with me from reading that book was learning that there are people out there that the author identified as EGRs. These are the ones that cause us to have to dig really deep. They are the people that you live with that wear the label: Extra Grace Required. You can think of those people right? I could have come up with a whole list.

Well, one of the best things about my progression within the community of disciples is that the one I didn’t identify as an EGR for the longest while was….ME! With great thanks, I can direct you to several committed disciples; people who persistently loved me through rather challenging times during my spiritual formation. They would no doubt tell you that loving me required them to dig deep, extra grace was required and God provided all that was needed to love.

Sometimes people are just difficult. I can still hear the words of my own father when he was frustrated with one of us kids. With exasperation in his voice he would say, “God love ya!” Those are the words you hear when you know that you are a total pain and that no one on earth could possibly love you…only God.

God does and God empowers us to love one another.

This command of Jesus is one that implies community. When these words were spoken many years ago Jesus was in the company of his followers and instructing them and preparing them for the days ahead. He was going to be leaving them. They must have been freaking out! Chapter 14 goes on to tell how Jesus was going on ahead to prepare a place for those who followed him; a place in his Father’s house. Jesus comforts the disciples and assures them that he is the Way. He goes to explain that after he leaves them he will send another, an advocate to help them, the Holy Spirit so that they, the disciples, may be united with the Father and the Son. This community of Jesus is united by God the Three in One…the Holy Trinity…enabling us disciples to obey the command to love one another.

There is seminary word I have come to learn, actually a Greek word that describes the nature of the community of the Trinity: Perichoresis. It conveys the idea of mutual indwelling and conjures up images of giving to and receiving from one another and drawing life from and pouring life into one another as a fellowship of love. This is the community of God; perfect love.

The amazing thing is that we are invited to join in and when we do we are enabled to love like God. The circle of the Trinity is not closed. We are invited to join in this perfect fellowship of love. It’s what it means to be a Christian. This community causes us to be able to grow in the ways of love so that we may truly love one another as Jesus loved us.
Here is some insight worth sharing about what it means to grow in love through the holy community of God, the Three in One…

Seamands, Stephen, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service. Page 146.

“To be a Christian is to grow up into Christ in all things: it is to have that divine seed which was planted in our innermost spirit blossom out into a growing conformity to His perfect life. To be a Christian is to have Christ the life of our minds, our hearts, our will, so that it is Christ thinking through us, living through us, willing through us. It is increasingly to have no life but the life of Christ within us filling us with ever increasing measure.”

We are about to enter into the celebration of the Eucharist…Holy Communion. This is an opportunity to respond with thanks and receive the love of God as we remember the sacrafice made that we may be at peace and enabled to truly love one another. Amen.

Love Yourself…Truly

OT: Psalm 116: 13-19
NT: John 13: 31b-35
Preacher: Maggie Mraz, Intern Pastor
Sunday, August 10, 2008

I had the pleasure of participating in Vacation Bible School this week and learned a lot meeting with all the kids each day in the Christ Church sanctuary. We prayed together, watched the adventures of a large stuffed chipmunk and talked about what it means to live forever believing in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The greatest lesson I hope the kids took away from this week is the importance of the Bible for understanding what it means to truly live. That is also a hope I have for each one of you.

I have come a long way in learning about what it means to truly live since first helping at VBS during the summer of 2003 (my first one ever). I didn’t grow up with VBS, in fact, when I first heard about it in the neighborhood mom buzz I didn’t know what they were all talking about. I didn’t have a Bible back then, but once I got one a year later and began to spend time reading it prayerfully my life began to change. I have come to know that the Bible shares the way of transformation; the way of life that is full of God’s love. I continue to learn that Scripture (as the kids learned from the chipmunk VBS video this week) truly offers power for life; the way of Jesus. Life with Jesus may begin now as we submit to God and are formed by God’s love and shaped into the image of Christ…for the sake of other people; cooperating with the process of becoming less like ourselves and more like our Lord.

VBS is an obvious expression of spiritual formation for both children and adults. We had close to 300 people engaged in growing in the ways of Jesus this week. Being here for worship this morning is another obvious expression of how we are being formed by God. We are on the path of spiritual formation. We are all being formed…by something. As Christians we are called to the hope of being formed by God through a relationship with Jesus. You realize that you are on the path of spiritual formation, right?

Maybe you think that spiritual formation is reserved for only a few…somebody else, but not for you. My NT professor would remind us all that spiritual formation is really not an option. It is not a discipline for “dedicated disciples” or a pursuit only for the pious. Spiritual formation is not an activity for the deeply committed alone. It is not a spiritual frill for those with extra time on their hands. Spiritual formation is a reality of being human. Every event of our lives is an experience in spiritual formation; every action, response, relationship, thought and emotion influence our being shaped into some way of being.

The question is, “How are we being shaped? Are we being shaped toward the wholeness of the image of God in which we were created or NOT?” “What kind of spiritual formation are we engaged in? Are we being increasingly conformed to the brokenness and disunity of the world around us or are we increasingly being conformed to the wholeness and unity of the image of God?

Spending time communing with God along with a copy of a Bible and a cup of coffee will help the process so we may grow to live more like God…with love of God and love for others. The chipmunk video we watched this week at VBS centered in a man’s quest to find a formula that would make him live forever. His motivations were rather selfish. The kids ID him to be the “bad” guy pretty quickly. Fortunately he had a friend who encouraged him to see that life…forever…isn’t found in a laboratory, but through Jesus and that the Bible would help him to understand.

This morning Suzanna read for us a passage where we find Jesus gathered with his disciples for an evening meal; the one known as the last supper. We find Jesus speaking to the believing community; those who call him Lord. At this time Jesus gives his followers a new command and explains the beautiful outcome from obedience to his words.

Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus calls his disciples to a life of mutual love and tells that that by this love for one another they will be identified as belonging to him. Their love for each other will speak to others. Everyone will know these people belong to Jesus by the love they show to each other. It’s important to note that the command to love was not really a new one. Within the Mosaic Law the Jewish people were commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, but Jesus brings something new to the command to love. He emphasizes the reality of a new community that was being formed by Him. Jesus is telling his disciples to follow in his footsteps with a new motive for love. He calls his disciples to love as he has loved. Love is the distinguishing mark identifying those in the community of Christ’s followers.

Since spending time with this passage I’ve had a song running through my head all week that goes, “We are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord we are one in the spirit we are one in the lord and they’ll know we are Christians by our love by our love and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
Jesus calls the believing community to look to Him so we may understand what it means to love another; valuing another as much as self. We come to know the extent of love through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Love is self giving. The love that marks the community of Jesus shows the world that we belong to Jesus and that we are devoted to learning how to love others like Jesus. Love recognizes the worth of other people and it shows our true identity caught up in Jesus? We are called to be marked by loving in a way that distinguishes us?

Another passage of Scripture brings understanding to what it means to love one another. Read 1 John 4:7-16.

The cross of Jesus calls us a life of both self-denial and self-affirmation. Within the community of faith we are called to love as Jesus loved us. The community of Christ is essentially a community that models Christ; a community of self-giving love.

Now you might think, “Wait a minute!” Quite naturally we might ask, “What about me? What about my self?” I can’t spend all my time loving another. I’m supposed to love myself too, right? We may easily be drawn into self love and become self absorbed and gaining all the things we want for ourselves that we miss out on true love. We get caught up in a Narcissus-like existence…gazing at ourselves in the pool. We live in a culture is self absorbed. As followers of Jesus we are called to live differently; in a community empowered by God to live with mutual love for one another…and our love for one another will be so remarkable that people will know that we belong to Christ. I challenge you to consider allowing yourself to be loved by God in such a way that you are caught up in Jesus because the mutual love you will find will be abundant.

We need to only look to the cross of Christ to know how to regard ourselves. Here we find the answer that draws us into the new community seeking to obey the command to love one another. We may love ourselves truly when we see the value of who we are as people seeking to follow Jesus. We believe all people are dearly loved by God. God created humanity in his image. God loves us all. We turn away from God and try to do life our own way. God’s love persists as he makes a way for us to be in community with him so we may know the greatness of God’s love for each of us. The cross teaches us of the greatness of God who loves enough to die for us; we have worth in the eyes of God. The cross also teaches us that are unworthy because of the greatness of our sin in causing him to die so that we might receive the gift of life.

Next Sunday we have a beautiful opportunity to respond to God’s love as we celebrate Holy Communion out here on the Green. Together we will remember the sacrifice God made for us all in the sending of his Son, Jesus who died, rose and ascended into heaven that we may know the love of God. I hope you will come back next week and bring a friend as we continue to be formed by the work of God’s grace and receive Jesus within our beautiful community out here in creation.

Love One Another

Come out to the Southern Village Green on Sunday, August 17th at 10:00. We shall celebrate Holy Communion lead by Southern Village’s own Suzanne Hultmann and share sausages and biscuits after worship thanks to the CUMC Monday night men’s small group. Bring a friend!

Love Yourself…Truly

You’re Invited!

Come gather with us on the Southern Village Green on August 10 at 10 a.m. We will consider what it means to live out God’s love by truly loving yourself. Really!

Make a note in your day planner. Set the alarm on your Blackberry. Leave yourself a voice mail reminder. Do whatever you need to do to remember to come to the Green at 10:00 on Sunday morning.

Love God

Preached by Greg Arthur, Associate Pastor, on August 3, 2008

John 17 – A Reflection for Green Chapel

Introduction: Those who are different

Who are the most content people you know? Each one of us has someone, a person whose life just seems different. They are the kind of person who no matter what challenge they face they are content. It shows in how they feel about themselves. They love themselves and feel good about who they are. Sometimes these people almost surprise us with how good they feel about themselves. It is almost a national pastime to feel bad about who we are.

None of us are thin enough, smart enough, rich enough, successful enough, or famous enough. All of us seem dissatisfied with who we are, but every once in a while you meet someone who is different from the rest of us.

When I was in seminary I met a man I will call Frank. Frank was a good natured guy. He loved being in seminary and worked at it. I wouldn’t call Frank the smartest guy I met or the most gifted, but he was one of the hardest working and good natured people I met in seminary. One day I noticed that there was someone I had never seen before sitting next to Frank. She obviously had some physical ailments, which I later learned were related to muscular dystrophy. Her mouth was twisted, and she walked with a limp. Her eyes were bright and you could tell there was real intelligence there in her mind. I had no idea who she was until Frank introduced her as his wife. I have to tell you I was surprised. In addition to his wife, their child was with them, a young boy, and he was sitting over in the corner coloring. I looked at Frank’s family, and saw how proud he was of them. He loved them and was excited to be introducing them to us. I was just amazed, this wasn’t the picture of Frank’s life that I expected.

As I got to know Frank he talked often of his family. He loved his wife, he adored her in fact. He talked about how people didn’t understand why he loved his wife, or why he was so happy with her. They couldn’t look past her disease and see who she was. Frank didn’t have that problem, but he said that he had to change himself to love her. When Frank holds his wife’s hand, he has to hold his hand a particular way to fit it with hers. When he kisses his wife, he has to reshape his lips to fit his wife’s. When they walk together he has to change his pace to walk beside her. And through it all, Frank joyfully loves his wife and loves himself.

Unity with Jesus

We find a picture of how someone like Frank can exist in a culture that is defined at the same time by self loathing and selfishness, in John chapter 17. All throughout John 17 we find Jesus praying. This is the longest and most extensive prayer of Jesus we have in scripture. It is the night before he will be crucified, and he is in the garden praying to his Father. He prays for himself, he prays for his disciples, and then he prays for you and I. It is true, Jesus prays for his future followers, for those who do not even know him yet. That is you and I.
In this prayer Jesus focuses on two things. First, he focuses on how he has worked to reveal God’s love and God’s power to all people. Jesus came so that all people could see the glory of God. Jesus is the perfect image of God revealed.

But why did God want to reveal himself so much? Why did Jesus come with this task? Jesus came as God in flesh, love in flesh, truth in flesh, so that each of us could know and be connected to God. Jesus prays, “…That all of them may be one, Father, as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus came to reveal God, not just so we could know who God is or what God is like, but so that we could be one with God. We can be in God and be connected to God like Jesus is connected to the Father. Further, through this connection to God, we can be connected to each other.

In other words, faced with his own death, looking back on the work of his ministry, Jesus prayed that all of us would know unity with God and one another. He prayed this because it is only through unity with God that it is possible to love ourselves, to love each other, and to be unified together. In a world where people increasingly value their independence, are self reliant, and lack any sense of connection to their neighbor, this idea of being unified with God is revolutionary.

What if the one thing that defined who you are is your connection to the one who created you? What if more than your education, your job, your family, or your personality, the one thing that gave you an identity is a relationship with God? Jesus came, as God in flesh, so that we could be connected to our creator. Jesus came so that nothing in this life could separate us from God’s love. We are without excuse, because there is no barrier, aside from ourselves, that keeps us from being connected to God.

If we can move past ourselves, get through the hurdles we place in front of ourselves in our pursuit of God, we can experience this unity with God, and thus with each other. We can also learn to love ourselves, because we have such great value. We are loved and pursued by God. We are created by God. We can be connected to God. How?

We are connected to God through Jesus who is the perfect revelation of God’s love. And when we are connected to God it changes who we are.

I think back to my friend Frank and his love for his wife. He changes his body to fit his wife’s so that she can know his love for her. So too did God change himself, taking on the appearance of a man, becoming flesh, so that we could see and feel and know his love for us. We can picture Frank changing his lips to kiss his wife, changing his hands to fit hers, and walking slowly to match her gate, and we can see a picture of God’s love for us.

God is calling each and every one of us to be connected to him, to know his love, and to learn to love. God loves you. So you should love yourself. God loves each of us, so we should learn to love each other. God has removed every hindrance, so we can be united in him. So let us seek this unity with God that we may finally learn to love. Then we can be those people, the ones who are stand out so much from the crowd. We can be those people who know joy no matter the trials. We can be those people who actually like, no love, who they are, because they know they are loved by the one who created them. We can be those people who love each other beyond any sense of reason or expectation and are defined by our connection to one another. So it may be, so let it be.