Sermon Cloud

Core Commitments- 3.4.07

Welcome-  Dustin

Psalm 133-

All right- a lot to cover today, so forgive me for talking fast. Today and for the next couple of weeks we’re going to do some different things in terms of our Sunday morning discussion- generally, we move through whole books of the Bible trying to get a sense of what God was saying in the original context to the original hearers and readers, and also to us in our context as we read these texts…

But for the next few weeks, we’re going to do some community work- discussing a little bit about who we are as a community, what form the distinctives of evergreen, what our hopes and dreams for the future look like…

Today, specifically, we want to talk a bit about community- what it means to be in, what we mean when we say we’re committed to a community of people and to this community specifically…

To do that we’re going to center our time on a couple of passages- one from the OT and one from the NT.

To kind of set the stage, let’s read together one of the shorter and weirder Psalms in the Bible- Psalm 133.

VS 1-3- All right- good job J

VS 1                

It’s difficult to miss in Scripture; you really have to try, but some manage at times in spite of how clear it is, to miss the fact that God created us for community. We are designed to be with, and alongside of and for other people.

For those of you familiar with the account in Genesis, creation was not complete until what act- what was God’s final act of creation?

Yes- it wasn’t good for the only person He had created to be alone. So God made another person- someone to be in relationship with- a community.

Why does God seem focused on community?

Yes- Because it’s an expression of who He is. He Himself is community- Father, Son, Holy Spirit- from eternity past one God existing as three persons in community. And everything that flows out of the creative dance of community within God Himself is oriented towards and constantly pulled back to relationship… community.

We like to think God’s focus is me, the individual, but it’s not. God’s loves me, but His love for me is expressed by calling me into community, because that’s what I’m designed for. God works with communities- groups of people- nations like Israel in the OT, the Church in the NT and today.

Jesus taught, healed, lived in community with His disciples. He modeled for us a lifestyle where the exception was getting off alone by oneself and the norm was living and worshiping and exploring what God was doing together- in community. Which is exactly the opposite of what we tend to do- gathering with others tends to be the exception for us in our very private, me-focused spiritualities.

And so David here says- How cool is it when people live together in harmony- when they walk side-by side through life together?

He says

VS 2

Harmony is not only wonderful and pleasant, but it’s precious… and precious is another word for rare.

Yes- creation was completed when community came into the picture, but the very first story of two brothers living and worshiping together ends how?

With one of them, Cain, killing the other, his brother Abel- kind of a template for a lot of Baptist churches I know…

And so David says- harmony is as precious, as rare, as expensive as the special  oil they would use to anoint the high priest- it costs us something. But here’s the beautiful thing- it’s also refreshing

VS 3

The heavy dew that comes in the morning high up on the mountains would have been very meaningful for people who lived in the dry, dusty, desert climate of Israel. It came to represent refreshing- like water that satisfies your thirst and washes away the dust and the dirt. That’s what community is like when it works right…

And I love this- and THERE the Lord has pronounced His blessing, and life everlasting.- where? The mountains of Zion? Well, yes- physically… but I think there’s more here. Where is God’s blessing found? In the harmony of God-focused community. Where is life found? In the refreshment of Christ-centered community.

Before we move on with our morning, let’s thank God for community, and let’s beg Him for harmony before we move onto discussing what it might look like to be committed to this community

Pray

Song

We’re going to frame the rest of our time today around a passage in Ephesians- for time’s sake, we won’t get real deep into it- But I think it gives us some good thoughts on what community looks like when it runs well- harmoniously.

Eph 4:1-5

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First and foremost- we recognize that God puts a church community together- that we are not here by accident. God calls us- to Himself, and to each other. Some of you are at different places in hearing that call- maybe just trying to discern whether it’s really God you’ve been feeling tug on your soul, or whether it’s something else. Some of you are trying to figure out if it’s this community God is putting you in- I certainly hope so- because we need you. But if not, that’s okay- there might be another group of people trying to live life in the way of Jesus who need you more- but wherever you land, Paul tells us the overriding thing is that we live in harmony with the message, the Gospel, the calling God has given us. In other words, we can’t preach a Gospel of sacrifice if none of us are willing to sacrifice, right? We can’t talk about serving God and serving others if we are unwilling to serve, right?

It’s easy to talk about Jesus saying “Let the little children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to ones just like them.” What a beautiful, precious moments scene.

It’s a little harder to actually do something about it and sign up to help out with the kids once or twice a year, right? Or maybe it’s not that hard at all…

He focuses the picture a bit more…

VS 2

Be humble- you are not the most important person in the room. I really want all of us (including me) to remember that. The most important person in the room is Jesus. He gets top billing in the community. And it’s the job of the rest of us to remember that and to constantly strive to put Him first and everyone else ahead of ourselves.

Be gentle- treat each other with care. Be patient- we are all in process, a work in progress. Make allowance for that fact.

And do something else…

VS 3

“Make every effort....” Are any of us under the illusion that community comes easy? That you walk into a place that has “community” as a core value and it will happen for you instantaneously? If you are, I hate t break it to you, but you are in for yet another disappointment. There are people who move from church to church to church looking for the illusive “community” and wonder all along why they can’t find it. And the simple answer to that is that community is not something you find. It is, however, something you create, something you work at, something you make every effort at.

But even that isn’t enough- once you make it, you have to maintain it- you have to nurture it, and care for it, and protect it.

“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

I love that phrase “binding yourselves together with peace.” Binding yourselves…

Some people allow church to fill the same space in their emotions or minds that Starbucks does- I go, and I receive a service there. I owe them only for what I tangibly get right at that moment. It’s very transactional- and capitalistic. Should someone else offer a better deal or should I be dissatisfied with something, I can leave. I go down the street to Peet’s or Stumptown. Easy.

The phrase “binding yourselves together” points us to something very, very different. It points us away from church as a provider of religious goods and services and towards church as covenant community. A group of people bound together by a shared search for God, a shared commitment to life in the way of Jesus… a peace that comes from commitment to one another and to God.

Let me preface the rest of our time with this- we have made a couple of things part of the ethos here- and we will not compromise those.

One of them is the idea of allowing people to take community at their own pace and define their relationship to the community- that means if you want to take things slow, you can take them slow. There’s no prescribed way or time table for being a part of this thing. I hope we’ll constantly be inviting everyone closer and closer, but if you want to dip your toes, and then your foot, and then a bit more and a bit more as you decide whether or not to just jump in, that’s okay.

Secondly, we are committed to giving people a place to belong before they believe- that means that though this is a Christian community, one doesn’t have to reach a certain level of belief or faith in Jesus to participate in it. We want to be the kind of community where people can find God and encounter Jesus- not where they have to flash the secret handshake before they are allowed in.

So- all that being said, some months back, we began to discern that though having no official membership had a lot of advantages, among the disadvantages were that whenever someone said “I’m in” in relationship to this community, no one else really knows what that means.

So, what does committing to this community look like? Realizing that it’s going to be different from person to person, we still want to have some broad stroke ideas that we can point people towards as they consider whether this is their community. When a lot of different people are saying “I’m in,” it really helps to have a shared understanding of what “in” means…  As we were kind of processing all of these things, I started feeling the need for something beyond just our core values of mission, justice, community, hope and history. A set of core commitments that would serve not as test of entry- commit to these things and you can be “in,” but more of a picture of what the” covenant” in “covenant community” was. The core commitments were something we developed and opened up to comment and change by you all, to help draw that picture for us…

They’ve been posted on the forum for sometime…and we’ve had some good discussion around them… I wanted us to just briefly walk through them this morning, and hopefully the discussion can continue on the forum…

VS: Core Commitment 1

on Life in the Way of Jesus- Evergreen is a distinctly Christian community, and though one does not need to be committed to Christ to participate in it, this community as a whole is committed to seeking God through the person of Jesus.

What that means is that though you don’t have to be a Christian to participate here, we are distinctly Christian in our spirituality- we worship Jesus. You don’t have to, but that’s a bedrock principle of this community. If you are anti-Jesus, you probably won’t like evergreen. But if you don’t know about Jesus or aren’t sure- that’s a different story. I think this can be a great community for you.

For those who are following Jesus, this means commitment to living life in the way of Jesus, and to introducing others whenever possible through word and deed to the person of Jesus.

Our goal as a community is not only that we would live life in the way of Jesus but that more and more people would be introduced to life in the way of Jesus as well- that more and more people would find relationship with God through this community… And that happens when We commit to time spent listening to God individually and as a community and to living out life in the way of Jesus for the glory of God, and the good of the city of Portland.

Let’s read number two-

VS: Core Commitment 2

on Presence- part of being a part of a community is being present. We commit to being present physically, emotionally and spiritually at community events whenever possible, and present to others in the community, giving them the gift of our attention, our wisdom and our friendship as well as our prayers. We commit to time spent with each other, formally and informally, whether in Sunday gatherings, home groups, or in each others homes and over meals, and seeking a balance in our relationships between those within the community and those who are not.

You can’t build community if you aren’t present. I recognize that we all lead busy lives and we need to find balance between family and work and play and friendships… and that’s a lot to balance. That being said, committing to being present to one another is a necessary prerequisite of community.

Along with that…

VS: Core Commitment 3

on Giving Yourself- Evergreen is committed to organic, non-programmatic ministry.

We aren’t looking to simply create programs and hope that attracts people. This community will be what you make it.

All that to say, if you don't do it, no one else will. Being a part of evergreen means making significant contributions to who we are becoming as a community. We commit to giving our time and our skills and passions as well as our financial support to this community.

That’s right- there’s a point where if you come to this community burned and hurt and broken, we want to ask very little of you other than that you allow people to take care of you, that you spend time in God’s presence and that you heal.

But for most of us, the fact is, the word community comes from the same root as the word “commitment.” And commitment means your time, your skills, your financial support of what we’re doing- so where talking about commitment from everything to just being around regularly to helping out regularly with setup and hanging with the kids, to putting some money in the box, to starting things for the poor, to helping us be more creative, whatever. Don’t let 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Let’s not be that kind of community. But even more than all that…

 We commit to praying for evergreen, for its continued health and service to God and to Portland. We commit to missional living in the city of Portland, serving others for the good of the city and for the sake of others knowing and esteeming the person of Jesus.

Work for the good of your community and pray for the good of your community. Work for the good of Portland and pray for the good of Portland. We need to be an outwardly focused and facing community.

And… and here’s a hard one

VS: Core Commitment 4

on Discipline- A large part of being in community is teaching others, making substantial contributions to their lives, as well as being teachable, being open to learning, changing, and occasionally, being corrected. Very, very rarely, a church community needs to confront someone (as in the case of a spouse who is cheating on a husband or wife). In this instance, every attempt is made to approach the individual in a sensitive and listening way, but at times, when someone refuses to listen, refuses to stop hurtful/sinful behavior, church discipline needs to be enacted on behalf of the entire community through the agency of the elders. We acknowledge the authority of the community in our lives enough to listen and we commit to loving the community enough to speak. When we see someone acting in a way that is hurtful to themselves or to others, we accept the responsiblity to speak to them in a loving manner.

First and foremost, the responsibility for your brothers and sisters in community rests on you. If you see someone hurting themselves or others, it’s up to you to help them- gently, patiently, but still.

As we say- rarely, the elders need to step up and talk to people. Part of community is accepting that process, that place the community has in your life and allowing others to actually speak into your life and occasionally call you out on things. But understand- when that happens, it’s because and only because people are committed to you. Trust me when I say it’s easier to ignore things than to face them head on with people. But real community involves real interpersonal work.

VS: Core Commitment 5

on Leaving Community- When, for some reason, someone decides that he or she no longer wishes to participate in the evergreen community, it is important to let the community know, and to let them know why. Rather than simply disappearing or jumping to another church community, commitment to community means informing someone (whether that be an elder, or someone else with whom you have a relationship at Evergreen) of a decision to withdraw. Part of community life is being open with one another, and the future absence of someone will affect the entire community. The reason we ask you to tell someone is that 1. We value your presence and want to know if you choose to be part of another community. 2. You probably have something to tell us, something that we need to hear.

Whatever you do, don’t just fade away- especially if it’s a matter of feeling like evergreen has hurt you or like there’s some conflict or you want to find a different church. If you want to leave the community, that’s fine- you define your own relationship to it- but say something. Don’t just slip out the back.

VS: Core Commitment 6

on Our Core Values- Our presence as part of the evergreen community signals our commitment to the core values of the community. We commit ourselves to missional living, to justice, to participation in the community, to giving the gift of hope to others and to seeing ourselves as part of the story of the people of God.

I’ve said this before- if you are trying to find a community, and evergreen is something you are checking out- we don’t want you to make a decision base on how cool the music is, or the quality of the messages, or how cool Bob is… We hope you will find resonance with the values around which this community is shaped and formed, and that that will be the key piece of your decision. Do you like what we’re about? Do you feel like this community will help you connect with God and follow Jesus? If so, stay. All the rest is just window dressing…

Back to Ephesians…Within the context of lowercase “c” church, we recognize that something binds those who have decided to become followers of Jesus together- something unique- something even beyond a covenant we make to be in community together…

VS 4-6

For those who have made a decision to follow Jesus, who have been baptized as a public statement of that, all share a membership in the Body of Christ- Paul’s metaphorical way of saying that what Jesus wants to do in the world, He does through us- if you follow Jesus, you are His body- His hands in the world, His feet, His mouth to speak words of healing and hope to a world that needs it.

Community is good- but community simply for the sake of community is something you can find a lot of places. Community that changes the world- that does the work of God in the world- that’s a little different. And it requires something of us that no other community we will ever belong to does.

But that’s okay- I really wouldn’t want to give myself at this level of commitment to something that ultimately didn’t matter, didn’t make a difference in the world. So- it’s important for us to make sure we are not only giving ourselves to it, but are doing what it was created to do- making that difference in the world around us… and most importantly, staying centered on the worship of the God who created us for community, who calls us into community, and uses community to heal us and heal the world.

Let’s pray and let’s worship that God…

Songs

Response: what do you all want to say?