Humanity of Community

If you weren’t here last week, I’ll give you a recap. We talked about the humanity of Jesus and there were landmines all over the place but we did the best we could with the subject.

This week we are talking about the humanity of humans.

What should we do with people? Aren’t they the worst sometimes?

When Hannah and I got married I told her two things that turned out to be very untrue. The first was that I would never work at a church again. False. The second was that I hated people. That also turned out to be false, but I believed it at the time.

I always felt like people made everything messy and if I could just get away from people, I could get away from all the messiness of life.

I spent time responding to someone on the comments section that criticized a theological point and I don’t have any issue with that because I like the dialogue but his username was poop. How do you stay respectful to Mr. Poop while debating on the internet?

The Series graphic really illustrates the heart of what I want to talk about throughout this series. It is beautiful and slightly messy and artfully crafted which is how we are. We are beautiful but pretty messy if we are honest.

Yet we need community. Ever seen the people who live out in the middle of nowhere and have no community? They can get a little weird! Humans have always been communal and have always been at their best when they work together.

Yet today the world seems to be more and more polarized.

So we need community but we aren’t sure how to deal with those who disagree with us or speak against us and so we become more and more fractured.

Build Community

What is the fastest way to build community?

Not the best way, the fastest way?

The fastest way to build community is through negativity.

Watch what happens in line at the grocery store when the line is taking too long.

Try saying Hey you like frozen pizzas, I do too and see how strong that builds a bond.

But if you say hey what’s taking so long everyone in line will join in on your hatred.

Challenge yourself to be in close community with people you don’t agree with.

Don’t lose community over temporal matters but instead have a bond of the heart and connect through positivity.

Jesus preached a gospel of love and harmony, and many people chose to follow him, but mobs formed when people began to hate him.

The people who followed Jesus had to change the way they lived but the people who were against him only had to speak out the voice of hate and many joined them.

Luke 23:14 (ESV)

and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

Luke 23:15 (ESV)

Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

Luke 23:16 (ESV)

I will therefore punish and release him.”

Luke 23:20 (ESV)

Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus,

Luke 23:21 (ESV)

but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”

Luke 23:22 (ESV)

A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.”

Luke 23:23 (ESV)

But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.

Luke 23:24 (ESV)

So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.

Luke 23:25 (ESV)

He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.

Jesus was not killed because he was overthrowing the government or breaking the law.

Jesus was killed because people in their anger, gathered for hours to scream “crucify him” until they got their way.

It was so damaging that even his closest community was scattered. The mob mentality of hate that causes us to yell on social media “crucify him” for hours and hours instead of seeing the image of God right in front of us is what disjoints us and takes away our community.

That is why the early Christians were so effective in winning people to the gospel. They acted outside of the way others were behaving all around them. Different than the way the broken parts of our humanity calls us to act.

They recognized the image of God and they fed people who didn’t deserve to be fed and they clothed people who they had no relation to and no connection to.

They loved humanity instead of hating it and they offered grace to those within their reach.

Acts 2:42 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 2:43 (ESV)

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Acts 2:44 (ESV)

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

Acts 2:45 (ESV)

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Acts 2:46 (ESV)

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

Acts 2:47 (ESV)

praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Tell Better Stories

Show Heider Video

Story about someone who bumped into the communion table

Humans have a tendency to tell ourselves stories and they can be damaging to our outlook on others.

Everywhere that I have seen a snake before, I always think I will see one again.

This is a protection mechanism built into us but one we must use wisely.

Talk to people instead of talking to yourself. It will resolve so many things

Curiosity is the cure for disagreement

Proverbs 18:2 (ESV)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 18:13 (ESV)

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

Proverbs 18:14 (ESV)

A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

Proverbs 18:15 (ESV)

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

Commandment number 9 is do not give false testimony about your neighbor.

This commandment is about the public portrayal of reality, lest we convict an innocent person

When we attempt to mind read, we ruin reputations.

We hold the power of other peoples reputation in the words we say about them.

Story about a nurse that was really rude and then finding out what trauma she had been through and missing the opportunity to be a witness to her.

In every relational breakdown, this is at the heart of the issue.

James 4:12 (ESV)

There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

We are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

We are not to be the judge over others.

There is only one that gives the law and only one that judges.

We often look at our own mistakes and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt because of our intentions but as soon as someone else makes a mistake we assign it to malevolence and we believe their intentions were wrong.

When I am late for the meeting it is because I had traffic and all these other things going on but when someone else is late, it is because they are lazy and don’t value my time and they intended to do this to me.

Tell better stories about the people you are in community with.

Choose Reconciliation

Kids Questions for God:

Dear God, If Cain had had his own room do you think he might not have murdered his brother?

Reconciliation means to restore or recover a relationship. To neutralize the distance causing separation. To become well disposed toward or benevolently inclined.

In Greek, the word Reconciliation that is used here in this instance is Katallasso and it is a verb. Said in this way, it means to reconcile the things that are pressing against us. The way we would say it is “in your face”. Something that is important and pressing and needs our attention and care to reconcile it.

Why can’t we all just get along?

We can’t. We hold so dear to our ideologies and our beliefs. We begin to hate the ones who disagree with us or don’t look like us. There is only one way we can actually all get along.

Each day we should wake up with a plan to destroy our enemies and when we go to bed that night, nothing has been done to them. Some will ask, how did you destroy them? I destroyed the power they had over me by choosing to love them instead of hate them.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:18 (ESV)

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Corinthians 5:19 (ESV)

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

I heard that Martin D. Niemöller would tell of his incarceration at Dachau. His cell was in plain view of the gallows. Day after day he watched men and women go to their deaths. He could hear their cries, curses, and prayers. He declared that the gallows became his best teacher. Through that horrible experience he was haunted by two questions: “What will happen on the day they lead you there and put you to the test? When they put that rope around your neck, what will be your last words? Will they be, ‘Father, forgive them’ or will they be ‘Criminals! Scum?’ ”

Niemöller said that if Jesus had cried out in vengeance, there would have been no New Testament, no church, and no Christian history.

One of the greatest tests of the degree of a person’s transformation into the likeness of Christ is his reaction to the one who does evil to him.

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