PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD: BE HOLY

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Imagine that as you read your bulletin this morning you see an announcement for a class that will resolve many of the serious problems in your life. It will teach you how to genuinely bless someone who spits on you every time you see them. It will show you how to shed problems that you have been having with addiction to pornography or tobacco or alcohol or shopping or food. It will show you how to forgive that person who has so angered you that you are unable to even look at them without feeling anger and hatred bubbling up. It will teach you to let go of that critical spirit that makes you condemn others around you. And best of all, the class comes with a guarantee. It promises that if you actually show up and then do the prescribed studies and exercises, you will be able to let go of all those negative things in your life—guaranteed.

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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, a season of preparation. A season in which we are called to prepare ourselves for the coming of the King. Are you ready? Is anyone ever really ready?

Life in Christ is intended to be about transformation—we are transformed from ordinary, sinful people into followers of Christ. Transformed—not just informed. If all that happens is information, we have missed the point. Because having a big fat Bible brain has never, by itself, transformed anyone. We need the information to move from our brain to our heart so that we can become all that God has planned for us to be.

And so, toward this end, we will be begin to look at the first letter that was written by the apostle Peter during this Advent season. Our purpose will be two-fold. Peter’s letter lays out beautifully the Christian life. The recipients of this letter found themselves in the confusing and painful position of living in the Roman Empire while simultaneously trying to live as faithful members of Christ’s body, the Church—two radically different entities in terms of outlook and allegiance. And a situation not unlike the one in which we find ourselves.

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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some weeks ago, I spoke to you about dealing with conflict. I told you that we had no specific conflicts to deal with that I was aware of—and now suddenly we seem to have several conflicting situations occurring at once. I know of at least two specific issues that we are having problems with. I don’t think that either one of them are huge at this time. But it often doesn’t take much for small problems to become big problems. One little piece of gossip, “Did you hear what she said?” One little buried injury, “I can’t believe that they don’t care about this!” One little angry email.

One is not big. One is not going to destroy the church or destroy a person, but conflict is like having piranhas in our congregational midst. Each little bit of conflict takes a bite here and a bite there, and before you know it, all the love is gone. All the energy is gone. Before you know it, we are asking ourselves why we are here. Before you know it, many people aren’t here.

Conflict is a big deal. It’s part of life, part of our church, part of our families, part of our jobs. If you grow and change, you are going to have conflict. If you put people from different backgrounds and with different ideas together, you are going to have conflict. In fact, any time you put two people together, you will eventually come to a point of conflict—just ask any couple that has been married for any length of time. (more…)

GOD’S GLORY IN CONFLICT

Last week we talked about the steps that Jesus laid out for us to use when dealing with conflict between members of the church. This morning I want to talk to you about a church filled with division. A church where powerful leaders are vying for control, each with his own band of loyal followers. Where believers are suing one another in civil court over all kinds of issues, where there is widespread disagreement about the roles of men and women in the church. Everyone knows that members of the church are visiting prostitutes; one of them is even having an affair with his stepmother–instead of disciplining him, many of his followers are boasting of his freedom in Christ to behave in this way. There is disagreement about doctrine among the members—some of them don’t even believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ!

You think things are bad in the church today? This is the church that Paul was addressing in his first letter to the Corinthians. Written around 55AD, about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to a church swarming with conflict. If there was anything to fight about, the Corinthian church fought about it. Last week, we talked about how we are to deal with conflict between individuals in the church. In his letter to the Corinthians, it’s important to remember that Paul is addressing the church, not individual Christians. Paul understands that the Christian life is meant to be lived out as part of the Body and he makes it clear that the church should never be simply a collection of individuals, but that its entire integrity lies in the quality of its community. The behavior of the individual does affect the entire Body. Paul is not so much criticizing individual behavior in this letter as he is attempting to lead the whole church community to act in ways that reveal how the gospel transforms human relationships.

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