Reconciliation and Love

I was blessed to provide this message this past weekend at Community of Hope in Sidney.

If?I speak in the tongues?of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.?If I have the gift of prophecy?and can fathom all mysteries?and all knowledge,?and if I have a faith?that can move mountains,?but do not have love, I am nothing.?If I give all I possess to the poor?and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

I Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV

This is the Word of our Lord

Thanks be to God

Good morning, Community of Hope. I fear that what I am going to cover today may be challenging, painful, and even upsetting for some of us. But God laid today’s lesson on my heart last Sunday through our brother Carl when he referenced some Scripture to me. I’d never really paid much attention to this scripture before. It’s buried in the middle of a whole bunch of other “red letters” – Jesus’s words – in the Bible and those other words include some that many of us know by heart.?

Now, of course,?some of the Scriptures are here to comfort us, to assure us of God’s love for us.??To assure us of His plan for our lives and His plan for our salvation. But?other Scriptures, often the ones we notice the most once we’re on a journey of being a Christ-follower,??are here to grow and mature us. To guide us in our journey. Those words aren’t here for our comfort. They are here to challenge us. To make us better.

And that’s the case with the Scripture I want to dig into today.??It’s just two verses but they are powerful.??And these are verses which Jesus spoke in one of his most quoted and powerful talks during His ministry. In fact, I’d say that this is likely the most quoted speech ever given by anyone – eclipsing even?Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg.??And that is Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus gave this talk pretty early on in His ministry, not long after He was baptized by John the Baptist. And also not long after He had started to assemble His ragtag band of disciples. The 12 Apostles we talk about would have been present for the Sermon on the Mount.??It would have been sort of a training session for them, much like the training we might go through when we start a new job. And, much like those training sessions we may experience, Jesus packed a lot into the Sermon on the Mount. While we may think of a “sermon” as being 20 minutes with three points and a nice little bow tied around it, the Sermon on the Mount was more like the?Woodstock??rock concert than a church service. (Carl, were you at Woodstock? Jane? I bet Richard was, too bad we never asked him.) The Sermon on the Mount wasn’t a 20-minute sermon when everyone went home at the end. No, it probably lasted for several days, with breaks, and meals, and rest time. Now I have given you quite the image with the Sermon on the Mount being sort of like the Woodstock Rock concert in the summer of 1969, haven’t I? Chances are the people at the Sermon on the Mount were better behaved but there undoubtedly were similarities.

Jesus had been traveling around and preaching in the Sea of Galilee area and we are told that, along with the 12 Apostles, there were multitudes – throngs -- of people following Him. Some scholars estimate the total number of people present for the Sermon on the Mount may have been into the thousands. So that He could be heard by all those people, Jesus climbed up on a hillside and looked out over the crowds. We are told that He sat down to talk because that was the position that rabbis took when teaching. For the 12 Apostles and the many others there, this was Jesus really teaching about what would be different in what we call New Covenant living.??How life and our relationship with God would be different from the Old Testament-influenced Jewish world that they all had grown up in and been taught.

Again, much of what Jesus says during this talk has been repeated countless times.??The Sermon on the Mount includes what we call the Beatitudes.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

????for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

????for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

????for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

????for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

????for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

????for they will see God.”

And so on.??That all sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it?

This is told in the 5th?chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. And then about midway through the chapter are these two verses that I want to focus on -- the two verses that Carl called my attention to last week. Let me read them, and then we will spend some time unpacking them.??These are verses 23 and 24.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you??leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

That is from the NIV version of the Bible.??To help us understand things a bit more clearly, let’s also look at this from The Message.

“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

The Jews would bring sacrifices to the temple as offerings to God to make good for their sins -- not only their sins against God but against their fellow man.??The differences they had with family members and others were atoned for through these sacrifices.?

But these words of Jesus changed that. And really I think we can jump a bit and say that Jesus is talking about differences they might have with anyone. Not just with a relative but perhaps with a neighbor, an old friend, anyone. And He is saying that?if we have a difference with someone, we do not correct that difference by bringing a sacrifice to God but by going to that person and making things right.??Talking to them and, in one way or another, granting them forgiveness, and asking for forgiveness. Jesus, you see, wants us to be in good relationship with one another.

Now keep in mind, in this scripture, Jesus is telling us just how important this is.??He is saying that we can’t be right with God until we’ve made the effort to be right with those in our lives. Jesus is saying that?actually BEING good – making sure our relationships with one another are in order – is more important than just the “show” of being good such as bringing a sacrifice to the temple.

And, when Jesus said these words, He was asking a great deal of people.??He was talking to people along the Sea of Galilee.??In order for them to offer their sacrifices at the temple, they would have had to have traveled 70 miles – probably on foot – to Jerusalem. And Jesus is saying to leave their sacrifices there, return home that 70 miles,??make things right with the person, and then come back the 70 miles to the temple in Jerusalem to be made right with God.?

Now, let’s talk through this a bit. If you have a difference with someone … if you have what culture today may call a “problem” with someone, where’s a great place to start???Prayer. We really can start by going to God and praying for that person.??Praying for the situation. Philip Yancey has a great quote about what it means when we pray for someone else or we pray for reconciliation in our relationship with someone else.?

“When I pray for another person, I am praying for God to open my eyes so that I can see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person.”

Isn’t that beautiful???We’re struggling with someone in our life, so we go to God and pray for them and the situation. And in so doing, God shows us the love that He has for that other person, so that His love for them may enter our hearts as well.

And as we pray, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to ways to approach that other person. Ways to seek reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, love with that other person.?

Here’s something to think about … pray until you hear God saying “Okay, girlfriend, you’re talking to the hand now when you talk to me. Go, and talk to the person yourself. Use my heart, my eyes, my mercy, and go and reconcile – make things right with them.”

God wants us to have the same type of relationships with others that He wants to have with us. This is big stuff when you think about it.??By setting these priorities, Jesus was telling people that?having the right relationships with others is essential to us having the right relationship with Him. We can’t argue and fight with others and expect God to ignore it.

Hits kind of hard, doesn’t it???Is there anyone in your life with whom you struggle that, if you can fix that relationship, you can really come to know the love and forgiveness that God has for you???If you can fix that relationship, you can put away the anger and bitterness and hurt that may be standing in the way of your relationship with God.

I’m going to share a video with you. And this video is a song by Matthew West but, in the video, he tells a story of the woman who inspired him to write the song.

And here’s what I’m going to invite you to do.??The video is about 8 minutes along.??After the first couple of minutes, you will understand the story that is being told. And I will encourage us all during that time to think of people in our lives whom we need to talk to. With whom we need to have a conversation, seeking forgiveness and granting forgiveness.??Think of those people??whom may be giving us feelings of hurt or anger that are holding us back in our relationship with God. And then I invite you to come up to the altar.??I have placed some stones and some Sharpie markers up here.??Take a stone, and write that person’s first name or maybe just initials on that stone … use this as your commitment to start praying for that person, that relationship and see if God doesn’t lead you to a conversation with them.??I will then encourage you to place that stone at the foot of the cross. Give that relationship over to God and ask Him to help you reconcile and make things right. There are plenty of stones -- if you want to take an extra stone to write the same name or initials on and then keep it, perhaps to hold as you pray, then by all means, do so.?

In a few weeks, I am going to bring these stones back and encourage you to look for the stone you left … and to thank God for where He has brought you in that relationship.

Let’s start the video. Again, after the first couple of minutes, feel free to come up and write a name or initials on the stone and place it by the cross, and then return to your seat.

Matthew West Forgiveness video??https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9J6xOT3Ldw

I do not know who comes to mind for you when you think of righting a bad or soured relationship. But I do know this – the thought of it is probably scary for you. This is tough stuff, I know.?But?it’s also life-changing stuff. And that is what we often pray for – right???That God will change our lives. Now is an opportunity to play your role in that.

Throughout Scripture are so very many references to the importance that we be right with one another.??Of the 10 Commandments, 6 actually have to do with our relationships with each other, not our relationship with the Lord. Have you ever thought about that?

Let’s look at Matthew 5:23-24 again.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you??leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

As you read these words, you see that Jesus doesn’t make the determination whether you’re at fault or the other person is at fault. He doesn’t make the determination whether they live next door or a thousand miles away.

What he does make is the determination that your being right with others is more important to Him at any given moment than your worshipping Him is. He is saying get right with each other, and then come worship me. He would tell us here this morning that we should be reconciling with our loved ones rather than spend time in church.

This is the importance that God places on relationships and on the love we show for each other.

Wouldn’t the world be a very different place if everyone lived like this? If we all let go of anger, bitterness, and hurt. If we let go of fear and impure thoughts … if we loved one another and then worshipped the Lord.

I know,?it isn’t easy stuff. But it is the life-changing stuff that we pray God will bring to us.

Let’s close today with our little chorus we have been working on. A chorus to remind us that when we chose to follow God, we became an Apostle.??We’re to live our lives appropriately as followers of Christ … and do things that will make people talk about us – in good ways – even after we’re gone.

Always hoped I’d be an apostle

Knew that I could make it if I tried

Then when we retire we can write the Gospels

So they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died

Let’s pray.

God bless. Go out this week … change the world … work on those relationships. If you wrote a name on a stone today, pray for that person and listen for God to tell you when it’s time to go have that long put-off conversation of reconciliation and love. Maybe today is even your day to correct a relationship and get that relationship to be where God wants it to be.

I love you all.??See you next Sunday.