There was as we know a Hui held last Saturday here at the hall. This was a time of interaction, a time of looking at how others answered questions that were asked and answered by all present.
One thing that came out of the day was that The Salvation Army in Dunedin is still in the practise of engaging in mission, and another thing is that over the years there have been a good number of perceptions that people had and don’t think I’m stretching the point to say perceptions that all those present had regarding some part or other of The Salvation Army and possibly others attending the Hui that were not correct. That up until the Hui these perceptions had been peoples understanding of what was true but in reality their perceptions were not the truth. However we found out on the day that this is not an insurmountable thing, this was easy to overcome as we opened up to one another and shared our understandings. But how did these perceptions that were not quite accurate develop?
The point is, that it is possible for us to believe with all our heart that something is true but it is not: Here’s a case in point from history. Until about four hundred years ago, to declare that the earth was round or travelled around the sun as a dangerous thing to do, “Galileo [was tried] in 1633 [for proposing that the planets travelled around the sun and that the moon effected the earths tides] and found… "gravely suspect of heresy", [he was sentenced] to indefinite imprisonment. Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair).
Strangely enough that was the church of the time, a time when the Church had huge powers, who found him guilty. I make the point to show how at times perceptions of truth can result in barriers to THE TRUTH. What is your perception of this slide?
Our divisional commander summed up the Hui by discussing 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (Read).
As you will see this passage is focusing on the point that Paul makes that the body, the Church is made up of many parts, back in the day, the early church comprised of Jews and Greeks as well as other gentiles, slaves and free men and women and the kicker here is that that all these people were given the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit was with them all. This is not to say that they were the perfect church, but that they had come together to be the body of Christ on earth. That as the Spirit of Christ was with them; and because of his being active in them they became more like Christ. An important thing to remember here is that many in the early church were enemies before they encountered Christ, before they were indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. As well until Christ women and men held much different statuses in society, and it is Christ who in the early church brought spiritual freedom to slaves, if you are interested in this last point read Paul's letter to Philemon. Where ever people encountered Christians life change and social change occurred.
As you will have heard from what I’ve just read in first Corinthians, about the body, of Christ, the church these parts can’t wander off from one another. In fact if the body loses any part it is not whole and is disabled in some way. Paul points out that the parts of the body that are not so presentable get special treatment, that they are given greater honour. It’s an important to remember that God has brought the body parts together into a whole, into harmony.
An interesting thing that I’d like to point out here is that The Salvation Army here in Dunedin, that the rest of the church here is not yet complete, that while we might be aiming at harmony; parts of the body that can bring that harmony are out there
somewhere in the world waiting to be introduced to God the Father, to become members of this Body. This is one of the reasons that the world we live in is not a harmonious place. The world will be more harmonious when people become part of the body of Christ. Another thought just maybe and I’ll ask you to consider this thought, ‘maybe some of us parts have chosen to be out of harmony with other parts’. I find it hard to believe but there are some out there who get a bit of a kick out of conflict.
So after what was Major Ivan’s directive going forward? Well it had to do with that last sentence in the chapter “And now I will show you the most excellent way” That way is what the way of love. This week sometime would you read 1 Corinthians 13 all of it.
Love eh, the most excellent way, how do we sum this up. What is the main point I’d like to make about love? Well it’s this, “Love is the pursuit of relationships.” (Repeat)
Well what would that look like?
Let me tell you about a couple of young men who were born in the same town back early in the last century. These two boys Joe and Bill, had both grown up in a good area of town but they had both had abusive fathers. Life for both of them was painful right from the start. After putting up with abuse for a number of years as kids their fathers deserted their mothers, their families, just up and shot through.
Well these young boys and that’s all they were at the time resolved to be different to their fathers. But they did it in different ways, they both decided to never hurt another person they were going to go about life in completely different to the example they had been set.
Joe went about living the best he could, when people would get close to him he would cool the relationship down knowing that he didn’t want to be like his father. He had some friends but never close friends. There were a couple of girls over the years who had tried really hard to catch his eye, for Joe was a handsome young bloke, a good sports man, a bloke who held down a job in the local bakery, qualified as a pastry chef. Here was what looked like a good potential husband and father. But Joe has resolved he was never going to go there, he didn’t want to be like his father, no way.
Bill on the other hand, this other young bloke was a little smaller than Joe, a reasonable sort of half back and he worked with one of the local bush gangs doing felling native timber and doing planting and thinning work. He had decided that there was a girl in town he quite fancied, now this girl Diane was a couple of years older than him, she worked in the grocers shop and for a start was quite intent on giving Bill the brush off. But there was something about this young bloke, he just didn’t give up. There were chocolates left on the handle bars of her bike, with the note “I’ll send you the bill later.” With Bill underlined just in case she might think they were from someone else. There were cards and flowers, eventually she fell for Bill. Now Bill had pursued her for some time and he was determined he was not going to be like his father, he told his story to her and told her to put him right if he ever behaved in a way that worried her.
Diane and Bill married; Bill continued working in the bush gang. They tried for a family but with no results, the Doctor told them that it just wasn't going to happen. Well Diane and Bill were determined to have kids so they choose to adopt. In the end they had managed to acquire a couple of girls from a distant cousin of Diane’s whose husband had been killed in an accident and just couldn't
support them, the local orphanage had a couple of kids they could not place a young boy of mixed Chinese and Maori parentage with a cleft pallet and a little girl whose father was thought to be a Japanese sailor. Bill and Joan decided to love their kids and bring them up as their own.
Many times they encountered conflict but mainly as Bill supported his family against people who were narrow minded people who could not love beyond what they understood. The family did well, the kids grew and had their own families, one of the girls and their son worked with Bill who by this time had developed his own logging company. Diane was involved in school committees and got elected to the local council and their other two daughters both did well in accounting before starting their own families. All in all Bill and Diane had eleven grandchildren and three great grandchildren before their lives were over. Joe lived and died alone, but neither Joe or Bill turned out to be like their fathers.
The thing is that loves being the pursuit of relationship comes at a price, but the result of those relationships can be gain. Sometimes we don’t see this in the immediate. However not loving, not pursuing relationships also comes at a cost, there is never gain. Sometimes we don’t see this in the immediate either.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians tells the church how he prays for them to be ‘that out of God’s glorious riches Christ may through the Holy Spirit Christ may dwell in their hearts, and as a result they may be anchored like a tree with its roots going deep into the love that comes from God, that they may be established, firm in the way they love’. Why does he pray this for them?
Because Paul wants these people to know just how vast the love of Christ is, Paul wants them to understand the gravity of, the vastness of, the complex wonder that is involved in loving others in the way Jesus loves. Paul expresses this by saying “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”. These descriptive words are not about width, length, height or depth they are about the vastness of the love of Christ.
• This love is the pursuit of relationships in a wide way, a wide spread way, we have a congregation, city, a country, a planet full of people who require loving relationships, all people require the love of Christ so that they may become all they can be, that they may become part of this body the church, that the world might encounter harmony
• These relationships for the kingdom are long, they are long term, there are no short term kingdom relationships, these are relationships that last, that those entering into abide in through thick and thin
• These relationships reach new heights, Jesus said it “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” I see that there is an ‘if’ in that quote. Jesus is right, everyone will know if we do, if we love one another…I would state that we are only living as saved Christians not saving Christians if we don’t, one of the main drivers of all Salvationist’s is to lead others to Christ. If our love for one another is not clear it’s like we are consumers of God’s love and not carriers and passers on of his love. If we do pursue relationships of love for one another our witness is complete to the point we become redeeming Christians. Others get saved when we live in relationships of love. The kingdom of God grows as we love one another. How many people are coming into the kingdom around us, if it’s not many there is a question that we can be asking ourselves, am I showing my love for others?
• The love of Christ is deep, it goes to depths that cost, it cost Jesus and many who have followed him every earthly thing. The pursuit of loving relationships is at a cost, but the results are gains in respects to people knowing real love, the results are kingdom gains. They are gains of life in the Spirit where previously there was decay and death in the world, new people introduced to lives with hope and a future. The results are gain where previously there was loss. As we love, as we pursue relationships amazing things happen for the kingdom of God, amazing things occur in our lives as we engage with one another for the kingdom’s and not our own sake.
Now I could blather on about this until the cows come home. But I’m not going to.
Love is the pursuit of relationships. As you go from here today my desire is that you might be challenged to be like Christ, encountering one another and others in such a way that your lives are of examples of love, a love that does not always come comfortably, a love that carries real meaning. A love that is so great you will never fully understand it. Love that is truly Christ like.
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