Tawa Baptist

Nurture

Scripture: Luke 10:25-42

Title: Nurture

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Eternal life – vv. 25-28
  • The Samaritan – vv. 29-37
  • The benefits of nurture
  • Conclusion – Mary & Martha – vv. 38-42

Introduction:

A number of the images the Bible gives us of God are images of nurture, care and protection – God is referred to as a Father, a Gardner, a Shepherd and even as a Mother Hen

Today we continue our series on well-being and care of the soul, using the acronym: HEALING.

–         Each letter represents a word which, when properly applied, is life giving to the human soul…

–         Hope Energy Appreciation Lament Inter-dependence Nurture & Giving

–         Over the last couple of weeks we have looked at inter-dependence

–         This morning our focus is nurture

Nurture is about caring for & protecting others, in contrast to abuse & neglect

–         Nurture facilitates inter-dependence and the growth of healthy relationships – without nurture we wouldn’t have inter-dependence

–         Last week I compared inter-dependence to a net – open and flexible

–         Well, if inter-dependence is a net, then nurture is tying the nots that hold the net together – nurture is mending the net

In Biblical terms nurture is about loving God and loving your neighbour

–         In Luke 10 Jesus tells a parable which illustrates what it means to love God and your neighbour – from verse 25 we read…

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think acted like a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

Eternal Life:

Our reading this morning begins with a question about eternal life

–         How do we inherit or receive eternal life?

–         Before we talk about that though we first need to have some idea of what eternal life is

To the First Century Jewish lawyer who asked this question eternal life was a future age or epoch in which God’s Kingdom would come in its fullness (as symbolised by the green upward arrow) – in contrast to this life now (as symbolised by the red downward curve)

–         Eternal life goes on forever whereas this life is finite – it ends in death

–         This diagram doesn’t tell the full story though

 

For Christians, eternal life is more than simply everlasting time into the future

–         For Christians – eternal life is the very life that God has

–         It is God’s own kind of life, divine life. [1]

 

In John 17 Jesus says in prayer, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

–         This tells us that eternal life is essentially a relationship with God

–         To receive eternal life then is to know God, not just in our head, but intimately, in our experience, and to have him know us personally too

–         A better image of eternal life might be the closeness between a mother and child, or the intimacy between two lovers or the bond between the dearest of friends

–         But even the closest and most functional of human relationships are only approximations – no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him  [2]

–         The point is: eternal life isn’t just about living forever, it is about enjoying a certain quality of life in relationship with God – abundant life, life with peace & joy and wholeness – Life which finds deep satisfaction & meaning through a close, loving connection with the Lord

–         We receive eternal life (we know intimacy with God) through Jesus

 

The lawyer asked Jesus about eternal life to test Jesus, maybe even trip him up

–         Jesus senses this and gets the lawyer to answer his own question

–         We inherit eternal life by loving God with our all and loving our neighbour as our self

–         Love God, love your neighbour – seems straight forward enough, except no one but Jesus has been able to do this perfectly

–         Asking us to sustain whole hearted love of God and our neighbour over a lifetime is like asking us to fly to the moon by flapping our arms

–         Without the transport Jesus offers we won’t even get off the ground

 

The Samaritan:

The lawyer is astute enough to realise that he can’t love everyone all the time but he still thinks he can love some people enough of the time – so he seeks clarification as to who his neighbour is

–         In other words, who do I need to love and who do I not need to worry about?

–         He probably expected Jesus to say, your neighbour is a fellow Jew who keeps the law and possibly even the resident alien who worships the Lord

–         Anyone who doesn’t fall into either of those categories you can ignore

 

Jesus doesn’t answer as expected though – he tells a parable which undermines the lawyer’s categories…

 

A man is walking down the hill from Jerusalem to Jericho – a notoriously dangerous 20 miles of road, with rocky outcroppings and sudden turns which provide ideal ambush spots for bandits [3]

–         Not surprisingly this man is stopped by robbers, stripped, beaten and left unconscious on the side of the road

–         Jesus doesn’t tell us the identity of the man – we don’t know if he is a Jew or a Gentile, a worshipper of Yahweh or a pagan – and the passers-by don’t know either

–         In that culture you could tell where someone was from by the clothes they wore and by their accent, but this man had been stripped naked and he couldn’t talk because he was half dead, so no way to identify him

 

A priest is walking down that road, sees the man and passes by

–         Jewish priests at that time normally served for about two weeks a year in the temple

–         Most likely this priest has just finished his duty and is on his way home, because he is headed down the hill, away from the temple in Jerusalem

–         Although the wounded stranger’s identity is ambiguous the priest has decided this man does not qualify as his neighbour

 

Next a Levite comes along, sees the man and passes by

–         Levites were assistants to the priests – they helped in the temple but had less status than the priests

–         The Levite also decides the wounded stranger does not qualify as his neighbour

 

Lastly a Samaritan comes along

–         Now, we need to remember that Samaritans and Jews hated each other

–         They were enemies – there was no nurture happening between them

–         To the Jews there was no such thing as a ‘good’ Samaritan

 

Last summer I read a novel by Anthony Doerr, called All the Light We Cannot See. It took a bit of getting into but in the end was a satisfying read

–         Set in Europe during World War 2 it tells the story of a blind girl living in Paris during the German occupation and also the story of a German orphan boy conscripted into Hitler Youth and eventually the SS

–         As the title of the book suggests there was good & bad behaviour on both sides – not all the Germans were terrible & not all the French were saints

–         There is light in everyone, only sometimes we can’t see it due to our prejudice

 

Jesus’ largely Jewish audience couldn’t see any light in the Samaritans, even though there was light there, and so what comes next in this parable is a complete shock to them – like hearing of a blind French girl receiving care and protection from an SS soldier in 1944

 

When the Samaritan sees the wounded man he has compassion on him

–         Compassion is the feeling or motivation that accompanies nurture

–         Compassion moves us to care for and protect others

 

At some risk and inconvenience to himself the Samaritan gives the wounded stranger first aid – pouring wine & olive oil on wounds was common medical practice at that time

–         Apparently the Samaritan is not concerned with abstract debates about who his neighbour is – he sees a need and responds with care

–         Stopping to help the man is risky in that the bandits may still be lurking close by and could attack him also – but the Samaritan’s love is greater than his fear

 

Then the Samaritan puts the wounded man on his donkey while he walks beside

–         In that culture the one who rides the donkey is in the place of the master, while the one who walks alongside is in the place of the servant

–         So we have here a picture of the Samaritan taking the role of a servant – sort of like Jesus took the role of a servant to save us

 

The Samaritan takes the injured man to an inn and looks after him for the night – they didn’t have hospitals in those days

–         The next morning before leaving he pays the inn keeper two denarii to look after the man

–         Two denarii would have allowed the recuperating man to stay for a number of weeks – plenty of time to get better

–         But in case it’s not enough the Samaritan guarantees to reimburse any extra costs next time he passes that way

–         If the inn keeper was unscrupulous he could easily take advantage of the Samaritan’s kindness

 

We may wonder why the Samaritan doesn’t stay longer to care for the man

–         Well, he was getting the wider community involved

–         The Samaritan doesn’t try to do everything himself, he operates in an inter-dependent way

 

I expect also the Samaritan wanted to avoid any conflict

–         There is a scene in the 1990 movie Dances with Wolves, where Kevin Costner finds a woman alone in the wilderness, bleeding

–         He uses his flag to bind her wounds and then carries her on his horse to find help

–         He comes across a tribe of Indians, the same tribe to which she belongs

–         There he is, dressed in his army uniform (looking like the enemy) carrying a badly injured member of their tribe

–         Some of the younger Indians misunderstand and attack him because it appears he caused the injuries

–         He didn’t of course – it was a case of all the light we cannot see

–         In that scene Kevin Costner is a Samaritan to the Indians

 

By taking the wounded man to an inn and staying the night the Samaritan took a risk – a bit like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves

–         As a Samaritan in close proximity to Jerusalem he is in enemy territory and that makes him a target

–         Leaving, before his presence brought trouble, was a wise & prudent move – the Samaritan was loving his neighbour, without neglecting himself

 

Looking at the parable as a whole, the unidentified man in Jesus’ parable experiences abuse from the thieves, neglect from the clergy and generous nurture from the Samaritan

–         And he does this without any expectation of repayment – the wounded man has lost everything, he has nothing to offer in return

–         Despite their pedigree the priest and the Levite performed poorly, whereas the Samaritan had no pedigree but performed well

 

The benefits of nurture:

Now at this point you might be thinking – okay I can see how the Samaritan gives us a good example of nurture. He clearly shows practical love, care and support for the injured man

–         But while the Samaritan’s nurture was good for the man who had been beaten up, it’s difficult to see how it was good for the Samaritan himself

–         After all, the main point of this sermon series is care of our own soul

–         How does nurturing someone else, especially at great risk and expense to oneself, help the nurturer?

 

Well, nurturing others helps us in a number of ways…

–         Firstly, it makes us feel good inside – when we take care of others we feel more connected and less alone in the world.

 

Sometimes when we are hurting or in pain we can become quite self-absorbed and our perspective gets smaller & smaller until we find ourselves locked in self-destructive thought patterns – the temptation in grief is to self-pity

–         Nurturing others, looking to the well-being of others, actually enlarges our perspective and frees our mind, lifting our thought patterns out of the rut we sometimes get ourselves into

–         Self-pity leads us to neglect our soul. Nurture, of others, saves us from self-pity

 

Nurture also sets us free from slavery to an overbearing ego

–         By ‘ego’ I mean our sense of self importance

–         Someone with an over inflated ego thinks they are more important than they are – so they might, for example, worry too much about what other people think of them when in fact no one is giving them a second thought

–         Or perhaps they jump the queue or think the speed limit doesn’t apply to them because their time matters more than other people’s time or safety

–         Perhaps the priest and the Levite thought their needs were more important than the needs of the unconscious man on the side of the road?

–         Or perhaps they were overly worried about what others might think of them?

 

Now, having given examples of an over inflated ego it needs to be said, the ego isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself – we need an ego (in this life at least) to protect ourselves [4]

–         If we had no ego (no sense of self-worth or importance) we wouldn’t value ourselves and would let others walk all over us

–         The ego acts as a kind of hedge – it protects us

–         Without an ego we are vulnerable to abuse & neglect – we would get hurt

–         But if the hedge of our ego grows too large it cuts us off from right relationship with other people

–         Nurturing other people trims the hedge – it helps to keep our ego under control so we don’t become disconnected from the people around us

 

The second greatest commandment is to, ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’

–         Notice that’s it’s not, ‘love your neighbour as you neglect yourself’

–         Nor is it, ‘love your neighbour half as much as you love yourself’

–         It’s, ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’

–         In other words, you are just as important as your neighbour – no more, no less, so treat others the way you would like to be treated

–         Nurture of others regulates our ego and keeps us connected in an inter-dependent way

 

Another benefit to nurturing others is it brings us closer to God

–         As I said at the beginning of this message, God is a nurturer

–         Father, Gardener, Shepherd, Mother Hen – they are all images of nurture

–         While we can’t earn eternal life by doing good works, we can (at times) find ourselves close to God when performing practical acts of love

–         The Samaritan in Jesus’ parable actually entered into the life of God when he helped the wounded man on the side of the road

–         Caring for others is what God does – in fact some people see in the Samaritan a picture of Christ himself

–         So when we provide nurture for others we are sharing in God’s work and therefore in his eternal life

–         The good we do, in love, never dies, it is eternal – the knowledge of that should feed our soul with everlasting meaning and purpose

 

Conclusion:

The other thing to say about nurture – and this is very important – is that we can’t care for others without first taking care of our relationship with God

–         Love of God goes hand in hand with love of neighbour

–         Caring for others apart from God is like trying to water the garden with only your spit – not very effective or sustainable

–         To water the garden (or to care for others) generously and properly we must be connected to the water mains

–         It is out of the reservoir of God’s love that we find the resources to nurture others

 

Immediately after the parable of the Samaritan, we read the account of Jesus at Mary & Martha’s house

–         You know the one – Martha becomes frustrated with Mary and with the Lord because Mary sits at Jesus’ feet listening to his teaching, while Martha is run off her feet providing care and hospitality for a house full of disciples

–         But Jesus defends Mary saying, “Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her

–         Martha may have been providing nurture for everyone else but it was in her own strength, apart from Jesus

 

On the face things it would appear that Martha’s ego was too big – my work of doing the cooking & cleaning is more important than listening to Jesus

–         But when we dig a little deeper I wonder if in fact Martha’s ego wasn’t too big, but rather too small

–         Perhaps Martha didn’t think she was important enough to sit at Jesus’ feet and receive his teaching, like Mary and the men

–         Perhaps Martha ‘loved her neighbour as she neglected herself’ and this left her feeling resentful

–         The point is: before we can nurture others we need to spend time in Jesus’ presence, nurturing our relationship with the Lord

 

I imagine the Samaritan was ministering to the wounded man out of his own experience of God’s love for him

–         It was because the Samaritan appreciated God’s generous care for himself that he was able to be so generous in his care of someone he didn’t know

–         And it was because he was doing it for God that he didn’t need a reward

 

Personally I find Jesus’ parable of the Samaritan very challenging – it sets the bar high indeed

–         Even with an appreciation of God’s grace for us we may be forced at times to pick and choose who we help and who we walk past

–         I don’t think Jesus wants us to harbour feelings of misplaced guilt – it is not always in our power to do everything the Samaritan did

–         Sometimes we are the one naked and bleeding on the side of the road – sometimes we might be the ones in need of help

–         Other times we don’t have the wine or the bandages or the mule or the money to help

–         At those times we simply do what we can with what we have and we don’t feel bad about what we can’t do – grand gestures are not always called for

I like what Mother Teresa says…

–         Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

2.)    What is nurture?

–         How does nurture support/facilitate inter-dependence?

–         What images of God as a nurturer do we find in the Bible?

3.)    What is eternal life?

–         How might eternal life be different from this life now (finite life)?

4.)    What would have been surprising to Jesus’ original audience about the parable he told in Luke 10:30-35?

–         Who do you identify with most in this parable?

–         Do you have a Samaritan story (of unexpected kindness)? Share it.

5.)    What stops us from seeing the light in others?

–         What helps us to see the light in others?

6.)    What is compassion?

–         What moves you to compassionate action for others?

7.)    What was risky and costly about the Samaritan’s care for the wounded man?

–         What was wise and prudent about the Samaritan’s care?

8.)    How does nurturing others benefit our own soul and well-being?

–         How is the balance between loving your neighbour and taking care of yourself going for you personally at the moment?

9.)    What does the story of Mary & Martha (in Luke 10:38-42) teach us about nurture?

 

 

[1] M.M. Thompson, Gospel of John, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, page 381.

[2] 1st Corinthians 2:9

[3] William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Luke’, page 141.

[4] The inspiration for this train of thought came from reading Johann Hari’s book “Lost Connections”, page 238.

Tawa Baptist

Healing

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

Title: Healing

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Hope vs. condemnation
  • Energy vs. exhaustion
  • Appreciation vs. entitlement
  • Lament vs. denial
  • Inter-dependence vs. independence
  • Nurture vs. neglect
  • Giving vs. greed
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

It’s been a difficult week for many in our congregation

–         I had originally planned to preach about the Trinity but it didn’t seem to fit for the week we’ve had – so this morning we are going to draw from the well of Jesus’ wisdom in caring for the soul

In Matthew 11, Jesus says…

–         Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus was a carpenter by trade and as a carpenter he made wooden yokes to go across the shoulders of oxen

–         The purpose of a yoke is to make it easier to carry something

–         A yoke for a team of oxen wasn’t a one size fits all, it was custom made to fit the individual animals

–         The ‘yoke’ Jesus speaks of is his wisdom or his teaching

–         When we take on the yoke of Jesus’ wisdom we find that it fits who we are and makes the burdens we carry in this life a bit easier to bear

–         Jesus’ wisdom brings healing, well-being and growth to our soul

 

A few weeks ago now, as Robyn & I were walking around Lake Taupo, I gave some thought to some future sermon series ideas and came up with this acronym:

–         HEALING.

–         Each letter represents a word which, when put into practice, is life giving to the human soul…

–         Hope, Energy, Appreciation, Lament, Inter-dependence, Nurture & Giving – these are all strategies for well-being

–         They help us to carry our burdens without rubbing our backs raw

–         At some point I would like to take seven weeks to explore these words and their application, through a sermon series – but for today I will simply introduce the concepts to help us in taking care of our soul

–         First let’s consider hope

Hope:

Hope is the ability to imagine a good future

–         If life is good in the present then we tend not to think too much about the future

–         But when life is difficult we find the strength to get through that difficulty by imagining something good coming our way in the future

–         Without hope, without the thought that something better awaits us on the horizon, our burdens seem impossible to bear

The Christian hope, the picture of the future we hold in our minds, is heaven

–         Heaven goes by a number of different names including eternal life and the Kingdom of God

–         The best thing about heaven is God’s presence

–         In the book of Revelation chapter 7 we find these verses of hope…

He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence. Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb [that is: Jesus], who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Revelation was written for Christians in the first Century who were suffering persecution – they got through it by placing their hope in Jesus, by imagining a future in the presence of God

–         In the same way we get through the difficulties we face in this life by believing that one day (through Jesus) we will abide in God’s presence forever

Sometimes we understand what something is by its opposite

–         Condemnation is one of the opposites of hope

–         To feel condemned is to feel like there is nothing good for us in the future

–         Jesus (the Son of God) did not come to condemn us – he came to redeem creation, to save the world

–         There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Sometimes we lose our hope – we lose our ability to see a good future and we might feel condemned

–         It’s like the clouds of depression hang low & thick so we can’t see the sun’s rays of hope and everything is grey & gloomy

–         But just because you can’t see the sun behind the clouds doesn’t mean the sun isn’t there

–         Hold on – the clouds will pass and the sun will become visible again

–         Jesus does not promise a life without clouds but he does offer us certain hope of a future enjoying abundant life in God’s presence, when we put our trust in him

 

Energy:

‘E’ stands for Energy

–         The opposite of energy is exhaustion

We have different types of energy – physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy, sexual energy, spiritual energy and so on

–         Two things that help to sustain and support our energy levels are rhythm and balance

–         It’s like riding a bike – to keep the bike upright and moving forward you need to maintain the rhythm of your pedalling and your balance

To put it in more practical terms, we get energy from maintaining regular sleep patterns, eating a healthy balanced diet, as well as taking the right amount of exercise and rest

Our primary source of energy though is the Spirit of God [1]

–         The Holy Spirit is often compared to the wind

–         In fact, the Greek word for spirit (which is pneuma) is the same word used for wind, just as the Hebrew word for spirit (which is ruach) also doubles for wind

Like the wind, the Spirit of God is a powerful energy, untameable and free

–         We can try and do things under our own steam (by rowing or paddling the ship of our soul against the tide of circumstance) but it is far better to trim our sails to catch the wind of God’s Spirit and be carried along by the energy of God

 

Sometimes though we hit the doldrums, where there is no wind

–         We might trim our sails by reading the Bible, spending time in prayer and seeking to listen to God but nothing seems to happen and we sort of drift spiritually

–         We can’t control the Spirit any more than we can tell the wind what to do

–         When we find ourselves in the doldrums we simply have to wait for God

–         Keep up our daily & weekly devotional rhythms & rituals until the wind of God’s Spirit visits us again

 

Appreciation:

‘A’ is for appreciation

–         Appreciation is a word that carries more than one meaning

–         It can mean gratitude or thankfulness but it can also mean enjoying what is in front of you, not rushing past but stopping to smell the roses

A sense of entitlement is poison to appreciation

–         If we think we’re entitled to something because we’ve worked hard & we deserve it then we will lose the simple joy of appreciating what we have

–         The key to appreciation is remembering that life is a gift from God

–         Not a duty to be performed or a goal to be achieved, but a gift to be enjoyed

 

In Luke chapter 10 we find two sisters, Mary & Martha

–         Mary sits still at the feet of Jesus, simply listening and appreciating him

–         While Martha runs around in a flurry of busy-ness and self-righteous contempt for her sister

–         Martha feels her service for the Lord entitles her to tell Jesus what to do:

–         “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me.” But Jesus says to her…

–         “Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken from her.”

 

Mary paused to appreciate the Lord – to enjoy the presence of God (in the form of Jesus) who was in front of her. We need to do the same

–         One thing I often do at the end of the day is think of the things that went well in the day: things I appreciated, situations that were redeemed, anything really that had the finger prints of God on it

–         And then I thank God for those things before going to sleep

 

‘H’ is for hope, ‘E’ is for energy, ‘A’ is for appreciation and…

Lament:

‘L’ is for lament

–         Lament is an old word that we don’t hear very often, which is a great shame because it is a practice that is needed more than ever today

Lament is a way of expressing the sad, bitter, angry & painful truth of what we are feeling inside

–         The opposite of lament is denial – pretending everything is okay with us when it isn’t

The psalms are full of laments – people grieving with raw honesty, pouring out their rage, their sadness, their doubt before God

–         Apparently God is big enough to handle it

We might practice lament in a number of ways – perhaps through music & song, maybe by writing a poem or painting a picture or simply with our tears

–         Lament takes a stink feeling, a sucky feeling, and does something creative with it

At the end of Matthew 23 Jesus laments over Jerusalem saying…

–         “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate.”

Jesus could see the coming destruction of the city with the unnecessary suffering of its people – and the waste of life, the futility, grieved him

–         It didn’t have to be this way – it’s not what God wanted

–         God’s instinct is to gather and protect his people but on this occasion, as on so many other occasions, God didn’t get what he wanted

There’s been a lot to grieve about this past week

–         Give your grief to God – tell him honestly & respectfully how you feel

–         Ask him to do something creative with it

 

Inter-dependence:

In the movie Guardians of the Galaxy there is a character called ‘Groot’.

–         Groot is a tree in the shape of a human

–         All through the movie Groot says only one thing: “I am Groot”

–         It doesn’t matter what the question is or what the topic of conversation he always says: “I am Groot”

–         Until the end of the film when he lays his life down to save his friends and says: “We are Groot

‘I’ is for inter-dependence, in contrast to independence

–         Inter-dependence is about being connected to one another in a good way

–         It’s about depending or relying on one another

–         Inter-dependent relationships function on trust

–         In contrast independence is about being isolated or alone

–         Independence is often the result of mistrust

 

Healing, wholeness, growth – these things don’t happen in isolation, they happen in community

–         If you injure your finger the doctors don’t seek to heal the finger by separating it from the hand – no, they keep the finger attached

 

Our body is an inter-dependent unity. As the apostle Paul says…

  •  25 And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another. 26 If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness. 27 All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.

 

The death this past week has affected a lot of people and that’s because we are all connected

–         Whether we like it or not, what happens to one part of the body affects the rest – and that’s true whether you were close to the one who died or not

If you are hurting, don’t do your grieving alone – talk with someone

–         There will be people available to pray with you here, by the water cooler, after the service or you can catch up with Daryl or me

–         It has been really good to see the way many people in the church have come together to lend support to each other – especially the youth & young adults. There is healing in community

‘H’ is for hope, ‘E’ is for energy, ‘A’ is for appreciation, ‘L’ is for lament,

‘I’ is for inter-dependence, and…

 Nurture:

‘N’ is for nurture, as opposed to neglect

–         Nurture is about taking care of someone or something

–         One of the primary images we are given of Jesus is that of a shepherd

–         A shepherd takes care of his sheep

It’s interesting how Jesus restores Peter

–         After Peter had denied him three times, Jesus tells Peter to feed my sheep

–         Jesus heals Peter by giving him some people to nurture and take care of

–         The wisdom of Jesus seems to be that healing, well-being and growth of our soul doesn’t happen by self-analysis alone – it happens as we look outside ourselves to the nurture and care of others

Sometimes when we are hurting or in pain we can become quite self-absorbed and our perspective gets smaller & smaller until we find ourselves locked in self-destructive thought patterns – the temptation in grief is to self-pity

–         Nurturing others, looking to the well-being of others, actually enlarges our perspective and frees our mind, lifting our thought patterns out of the rut we sometimes get ourselves into

–         Self-pity leads us to neglect our soul. Nurture, of others, saves us from self-pity

Giving:

Related to this idea of nurture is our final letter: ‘G’ for giving

–         Jesus said: It is better to give than receive

–         By giving I don’t think Jesus just meant giving money

–         I think he meant giving in the broader sense of that word – being generous in our attitude toward others, giving time to listen, giving people the benefit of the doubt, forgiving others, giving ourselves

The thing is we can only give what we have received – we can’t give what we don’t have, so giving implies receiving, not earning or taking, but receiving as a gift. God offers us life as a gift, both to enjoy and to share with others

The classic illustration for the benefits of giving is the Dead Sea

–         While the Dead Sea receives water from the Jordan River, it doesn’t have an outlet and consequently the salt & mineral deposits increase to such an extent that nothing can survive in the water there

–         It is similar with our soul – when we don’t give, our soul becomes constipated or bunged up with bitterness

Jesus encouraged generosity, not to make us feel guilty about not meeting some impossible ideal, but in order to set us free from the constipation of greed

 

Conclusion:

There is a lot more we could say about each of these things (and at some point in the future we might explore them further) but that’s enough for now

–         As you process the events of the past week (whether it’s been a good week for you or torrid), which one of these words or areas of well-being do you think you need to focus on, both for your own healing & growth, as well as that of those around you?

 

Let us pray…

Father God, you are just and merciful. You understand us completely because you made us. You are the ground of our being.

Jesus, Son of God, you are our brother and our hope. Because of you we have friendship with God and a future to look forward to.

Holy Spirit, you are the source of our energy, the wind in our sails, the warmth in our heart, the one who connects us to Jesus.

God you are our home – we come from you and we return to you. In you we can be ourselves. We pray for those in NZ and in the world at large who have nowhere to live. Provide each one with affordable accommodation and a caring community to belong to.

God of the easy yoke we pray for those who are weary and heavy laden. Help each of us to take care of the soul you have given us. Save us from the constipation of greed. Keep us from that self-pity which leads to neglect of the soul. Help us to express our grief in creative & satisfying lament. Give us eyes to appreciate the good news all around us. Strengthen our trust in one another that we would do the ups & downs of life together, in an inter-dependent way. When we find ourselves in the doldrums help us to keep our balance and maintain healthy rhythms, while we wait for the wind of your Spirit. And when our mood is overcast and we lose sight of hope, hold on to us and remind us that the clouds of depression will pass. Restore us as we care for and nurture your lambs. Give us wisdom to live generously & well, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

 

Questions for discussion or reflection

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

2.)    Jesus’ metaphor of the easy yoke can be understood in a variety of ways – how do you understand it?

3.)    Where is your hope placed? (What is your picture of the future?)

4.)    How are your energy levels at the moment? Are you rowing against the tide or catching the wind of God’s Spirit?

–         What can we do when we find ourselves in the doldrums?

5.)    What form of lament works best for you? (E.g. music, writing, painting, crying, something else creative?)

6.)    What has God given you to share with others?

7.)    Which of the 7 areas (words) of well-being, mentioned in the sermon, do you need to focus on for the welfare of your soul (and for others)?

8.)    At the end of each day this week, think of three things in the day you appreciated and give thanks to God for them.

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/27-may-2018-healing

 

 

[1] Note to self for future sermon: use the story of an exhausted Elijah being feed by an angel, rested and carried by the Spirit (God restores Elijah’s physical & spiritual energy)