It’s a moment’s picture I’d like to freeze in time. The sun is weakening as it is sliding lower in its southwest journey. In an hour it will be down but each day its journey lengthens. The sun brightened areas of fresh snow and the looming expanding shadows alternate as I gaze down from my office windows into the ravine below toward the creek. Certainly no sprigs of green anywhere in sight today but in sixty days, we can hope, and that will be just the beginning of the evidence of the annual renewal. And it has occurred spring after spring since creation with no help from anyone. So effortless, and seldom do I even take time to notice.
This has been a strange afternoon for me as I sat listening to Brian’s funeral and enjoying the nature outside my windows. Earlier after lunch, Loretta sent me a link to the funeral including the pics from the viewing. The wonders of technology. A few of the pics struck my heart strings from the startup days for Kingsway.
Brian is a legend in his generation. Just like Brian, we all possess seeds of spiritual greatness in our genetic code. Brian from early on invested his seeds particularly well, first into his own spiritual foundation, and then into the lives of all those around him, and ultimately spilling over into projects that just kept multiplying fruit and influence. The preponderance of evidence is invigorating to all of us. None of us would claim Brian was specially endowed. Indeed, we are all uniquely gifted and depending on how we integrate our “gifting” in to our life choices and experiences, will have everything to do with the “fruits”our efforts produce here. Indeed, some fruits are more visible than others but that is not the point. Blooming where we are planted with the “gifting” we’ve been given, all done in worship to our Creator God and Savior, is the sum reality of our spiritual existence.
Today Carl preached from I Peter 5:1-5 entitling his sermon “Shepherd the Flock” expounding on five points: Relationships, Roles, Responsibilities, Righteousness, and Rewards. I plan to address only the first three components and suggest we examine the additional scripture Carl took from Ephesians 4:12 as it addresses these first three “R’s” rather well. I suggest we read it from the Message for a different twist. “He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist,and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.”
I highlighted “until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other” because I am so attracted to the word “rhythmically” for what it implies; a seamless unity pervading the entire organization on all levels so all of its energies are laser focused for example, on “Living and Building the Kingdom of God.” The remainder of the verse reads “efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults ….. fully alive like Christ.” Perhaps this is best accomplished as a result of purposefully investing our spiritual seeds of greatness under the direction of the Holy Spirit amidst the multitude our daily life choices and experiences.
Perhaps we need to contrast the above investment model over and against the typical daily default mode of our culture; rise, rush, tolerate work, “selfish crash time,” media time, sleep, and do it again tomorrow, and never mind all the relational stressors people are carrying around emotionally from prior poor relationships and financial losses! Gruesome indeed compared to grace and peace! Not that this is what we do, but perhaps we need to consider exactly what most people we meet every day are up against without the Hope of Christ. New Year’s Suggestions provide little success and neither do the self-help gurus.
Let’s recap quick. Nature performs flawlessly and will until the end of time. Man is flawed because of sin but the seeds of greatness are within his being as is his innate desire to worship, and the determining question is simply this: “Who or what will he worship?” That will ultimately determine his final destiny. His intellect and/or toys, or God? I maintain Brian understood this tension and he first chose God at nine years of age. Perhaps also, congregations that choose God over self, and worship Him in spirit and truth, will tend to be “moving rhythmically and easily with each other,” naturally, just like the arrival of spring each year, and our lives and congregations will exhibit an abundance of fruit and great joy! Certainly worth our consideration and prayer. Blessings as You Go Forth>>>>