Beloved church,
It feels like the world, and our country, is absolutely falling apart right now. We’re in this awful place of injustice and chaos, of needing to express our anger over racism and our lament over our cities being burned and looted, of wanting to protect and defend every person…all lives…people of color and police officers and those who agree with us and those who disagree with us.
So what can we do?
The first thing we do, as followers of Jesus, is to define which conversation we are having and the conversation we are NOT having.
We are NOT having that old, unhelpful conversation between liberals and conservatives, democrats or republicans, or between those who are right and those who are wrong.
The moment we engage in that conversation…now all of us are covered in feces. Why? Because in that old conversation there is always an ideological side which is wrong, evil, deaf, or blind. In that conversation there is always a winner and a loser. In that conversation we divvy up the truth, with conservatives and liberals each getting to claim where they are right. The examples are too numerous to list. Nothing gets solved. Instead of connection, there is division. Instead of healing, there is more resentment.
In the Kingdom of God, Jesus owns all the truth. A kingdom conversation allows for the diagnosis of a deep hurt or injustice or wound or division…not for the sake of condemnation…but for the sake of healing.
In a kingdom conversation we get to point out all of our sin: the sin of racism, the sin of destruction, the sin of injustice, the sin of shame and blame, the sin of murder, the sin of unforgiveness.
Oh, and by the way, in a kingdom conversation we first point out this sin in ourselves.
A Kingdom conversation starts this way: the problem is me.
A Kingdom conversation starts with confession, not condemnation; repentance, not resentment; listening, not labeling.
When we have a kingdom conversation we get to plan together how to change for the better.
A Kingdom conversation allows us to reject the profiling and racism against minorities and also reject the hatred of all police offers. We can lament what we have lost in the injustice of the oppressed and the injustice of riots.
We see a kingdom conversation In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6. Jesus encounters a man oppressed because of his disability. His hand is shriveled, crippled, not working. He did nothing wrong. Maybe he has cerebral palsy; maybe it was an injury. We don’t know. But everyone blamed this man for his disability with the whispers of “It must be his fault….Why doesn’t he stop sinning?…What did his parents do?…Clearly he deserves this…If he just had more faith…”.
And who is condemning the man? The congregation, or the community, wanted to have that old, unhelpful conversation where someone is wrong, where feces is thrown, where someone is to blame. More specifically, the people in charge were the worst offenders…the religious leaders….you know…me.
Jesus will have none of that. Jesus heals the man. What was the response to this incredible miracle? Fury. Rage. Anger. Violence.
Luke 6:11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Jesus healed the man of his deepest wound knowing full well that it would cost him. It always costs you to bring healing and life and to build something good.
The great deception of ‘that old, unhelpful conversation’ is that you think you’re building something good when you tear someone down. The Kingdom of God is upside down. You create something good when you lay your life down for another.
The staggering good news is our Savior determines to bless us even when it costs him everything. And Jesus will bless you, will provide for you, and will be with you when it costs you to build something beautiful.
So what can we do?
1. Define the conversation. Insist on having a kingdom conversation.
2. Ask questions of yourself each day, for example:
a. Where I might have fallen into "that old" conversation?
Pray: “Jesus, forgive me for my judgements and blindness and resentments . Father, change my hard heart. Holy Spirit, help me to have the kingdom conversation tomorrow, or in this day ahead, to work for what you want, not what I want..”
3. In what relationship might God want to show you were to bring healing? How might you invite Jesus into your conversations with that person(s) to bring healing?
4. Each day, forgive. Each day, reject the movement towards apathy or resentment. Each day, ask the Holy Spirit, “Please help me see with Your eyes today, to love with your heart, to speak with your words."
I love you all. I look forward to having Kingdom conversations with you in these uncertain times. I’m praying for you all.
In Christ, Pastor Andy