Relationships

Your Church

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4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

Are you thanking God for your church today? The Communion of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is seen there. You are in this life together with them. How have you seen God working among them? Are you waiting on Jesus with them? Are you celebrating Jesus with them?

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9

The Lord of Heaven at Your Feet

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1Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet,but is completely clean. And youare clean, but not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?13You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servantis not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

 

How could the servant’s task become so majestic?

 

Such honour in servanthood was indelibly imprinted on the minds of the disciples only when the Lord of Heaven and Earth disrobed and knelt to serve them.

 

This was more than a “before we eat lets deal with your feet” crisis.

 

This was a crisis of the heart. The disciples’ hearts where still unyielding to each other and to the common needs of their daily lives.

 

Peter would have preferred that Jesus pass over his feet.

 

But Jesus would not. And like Peter, if we refuse the service of Jesus for not only the regeneration of our heart but also the cleansing of souls we will miss out.

 

We will miss love.

 

And we will not love.

 

Love in motion dignifies and refreshes.

Wait in front of Jesus dear Church. Let’s receive Him for He “loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

(Ephesians 5:25-27)

 

He is the Lord of Heaven at your feet.

 

 

 

Because He Cares for You.

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Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:5-7


Anxiety

Our anxiety may be connected to the good gifts God has given us except when its not. Then our anxiety, our sense of unease, in the world and in ourselves may be  connected directly with futile attempts at covering up our sin. Most often though our anxiety has to do with fear that we might lose something God has give us, that we might not perform well, that someone else is going to take from us what we value, or that we might not measure up. At those points the good things are becoming ultimate things.
Opportunity and Humility

Whatever its source, anxiety creates an opportunity for the disciples of Jesus. Anxiety is a call for humility. Humility recognizes the greatness of God for He exists without requirement of our acknowledgment. Humility seeks to enlarge rather than diminish the knowledge of His Presence among us. Anxiety diminishes the reality of God and His care for us. Anxiety taps into pride and seeks to enlarge our own greatness.

 

Without a Christ-informed view of God shaped by the Cross, even the knowledge of God’s greatness can create anxiety. But it is the Cross that affirms this confession, “He cares for you.” Humility enters into the space created by His mighty hand.


Prayer

Casting anxiety upon Jesus is a prayerful process in which we lay our burdens (each item or matter of anxiety) down upon HIm. We recognize Jesus as our greatest gift. We realign our lives with the purposes of God for they are all that will prevail in a broken and fallen world. We lay claim to the promise of His competence, His acceptance, and His grace towards us. We trust Him and receive His peace. We are then empowered by His Spirit, with the assurance of our citizenship in His Kingdom, to lean into this world as it is and love.

 

 

Your body is meant to be a sacred space.

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18So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

John 2:18-22

 

Jesus saw two temples: The temple Israel built with stones. And the temple of His body built by God.

 

Which temple mattered the most?

 

Which holy space is God’s most dear concern?

 

Jesus had just cleared the Court of the Gentiles of the people committed to profiting from His Father’s house and the desire for righteousness. When asked for a sign to show His authority, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and three days I will raise it up.” His audience was confused and incredulous. The Temple in which they stood took 46 years to build.

 

But the temple of which Jesus spoke was His body. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14) Jesus was looking forward to the culmination of His passion in the resurrection of His body. The implications are staggering. 1) Jesus understood that His body was the first arena for experiencing and knowing the Heavenly Father. Your body is meant to be a holy space. 2) Through Jesus’ occupation of flesh, God has solidarity with people. People matter to God. 3) Therefore the buildings we build for His glory must serve God’s greater purpose for the redemption of people.

 

Jesus anticipated His destruction at their hands on the cross. But he also anticipated  the impact of His completed work of forgiveness for sin: The Holy Spirit would be sent by the Father in Jesus’ name to occupy the “temple” of every one His disciples. Later the apostle Paul would write:

 

For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

 

Grace!

 

In the meantime.

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11As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.13Calling ten of his servants,he gave them ten minas,and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’14But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’15When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.   Luke 19:11-15

Faulty expectations.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus stopped in at Zacchaeus’ house. The affect was electrifying. Some people where upset at Jesus for he willingly accepted the hospitality of the chief tax collector. But then the unthinkable happened. Zacchaeus wasn’t just posing; he was really seeking God. Zacchaeus received Jesus. Zacchaeus aligned his life with Jesus and gave away half his wealth. Zacchaeus promised to restore what he had defrauded from others at a rate of four times the offence. Then Jesus addresses Zacchaeus and frames what had just happened: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:9-10

Godly expectations.

The disciples and crowd were surely excited now as Jesus headed to Jerusalem. They were sure that God’s Kingdom had come and that the trip to Jerusalem would end with triumph such that a new era of prosperity and ease would be theirs. The wealth of the rich and the power of the powerful would now be theirs. But Jesus tells a story, a story meant to reframe their expectations and to create urgency as to the allegiance of their own hearts.

Jesus is the nobleman who would be King. His journey to the “far country” was through Jerusalem, through the cross and then to heaven with His Heavenly Father. In the meantime how shall we live?

Giving ourselves to the work.

In the meantime, we will do just what he says, “engage in business until I come.” Each of us must give ourselves to the work the King has given us.

In the meantime Until Jesus comes again as King in all His glory, power, and authority, we give ourselves to Him, to each other, and to the work He gives us.