Father of Heaven and all beyond. Lord today we humbly thank you for of your blessing and gifts of grace! Father we humbly ask your forgiveness of our missing the mark in our faithwalk with you, and pray that you grow us in your ways of faith. Amen!
Blessings, Grief, and Living the Margin!
I am so happy to be with you all today, and to have been afforded the honor of sharing the Gospel, God’s Word, and its application available to anyone within the sound of my voice and beyond. Yes, my beloved family in God, we have been honored by our Lord, for He has called us to be the emissaries of hope, salvation, and transformation, to all the willing. Which is the foundation of free will and free choice.
And then we are called again to; love, hope for, pray for, and care for all those who do not take the invitation. Because real care, God’s kindness, the Lord’s good will, was given to us freely (in spite of us), and is given by us to all the willing; without strings, deadlines, or any quid-pro-quo. And that is why I love being in your family!
Today’s message; Blessings, Grief, and Living the Margin, is all about that free will and choice available to everyone in this room. And so today we will explore some of the blessings, and yes grief, that comes our way with freedom to choose, and what living in the margin itself might mean to each of us. One thing is for sure, it will be unique to each and every one of us, because we are!
Cut to the chase, God wants to be in a real relationship with you. A relationship where we learn to share the good and the bad with the Lord, because He is there regardless. He is that feeling when you know that you are doing right, and that pang when we realized that we hurt someone else. The deeper the relationship the more sensitive you become to the promptings of His Holy Spirit. And your choosing Him, brings God Joy!
For a reference, compare how sensitive you are to the nuances of your spouse, best friend, or family member. For some of you, you know the buttons to push to make the other crazy, and can almost push them by thinking. Well, a relationship that has matured over time with your Lord results in you being in that same kind of sensation of understanding, and also the frustrations of sometimes not understanding. When that happens, I think you are on the verge of a real relationship, with the creator of all.
We know that God also wants us to be aware of the things that He is concerned about. Scripture is full of things that God wants us to be aware of, things that are important to Him that we need to either do, or stay away from. And I can almost hear my old self saying; hey, I have free choice, no one is going to boss me around.
Let me answer my own old self by saying, no one is. If you choose to use your free will, you get to account for it, just like everyone else, and that is real freedom. What God teaches us over and again is that yes most everything is available under the sun, but not everything is good for you. Remembering from our reading a Sunday or so ago from, 1 Corinthians 10:23-24;
23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
But what does that mean? Am I supposed to follow the law of Moses or something like that? Here’s my thought, and that’s just what it is. You are tasked with the real work of thinking for yourself, by educating your Brain and Sole. My thought, is that when you have really started to build on your relationship in and with your Lord, you will now have a whole different focus on the Law of God.
Before, when I was just fulfilling the rules, my heart was only about compliance, and not really living my faith. Just being lawful, and legalistic. You know, following the Ten Commandments, that we all fail at because, when we violate one aspect of the Law, we violate all of it
Making everyone in this room, murderers, thieves, and con-men. I would say Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, but I think Cher still has the copyrights to the song and that’s a disservice to Gypsies… A disservice also to God and also yourself… When I am really living my faith and in a relationship with the Lord, I am now holding His teaching in my heart. I am following what Jesus Himself instructs us what is important in this life. Reading from Matthew 22:35-40, you’ve heard it before, and will from me again;
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Love God with all you have, and love other people as you love yourself. If I do, I have already anticipated all of the Law of the Bible, Ten Commandments and society. I have already anticipated the laws of my community, because now I am not just trying to follow the letter of the law, I am putting God and other people ahead of my selfishness, ego, and fears.
No one need tell me about tithes, because I am all in on God’s and my Family’s mission to help other people. I am now not worrying about murdering other people, because I am now focused on how to love nurture and care for others in a healthy way, which means I end all that hate, hurt, and anger I have been carrying around.
Now when I read instruction from my God regardless of if its from New or Old Testaments, I am now able to read and understand God’s word with new and vibrant understanding. For instance, today’s Call to Worship reading from the anonymous psalmist author of Psalm 1;
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
*Side Note; I now am looking at my life in terms of following my Lord, which also means I am leaving the judging of others, to Him as well. My job is to live my life openly with God as an example for others, and to show other people in my life the joy I have found, by letting go of all of that junk of the World. On to verse 2;
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
Side Note again; I am now focused on the real law of; loving God and other people and letting the two intertwine in my sole, my life, and my relationships. Vs. 3;
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither-
whatever they do prospers.
Once More; A tree of life watered by the Lord. Those who have a faithwalk and a real relationship in the Lord, are learning about gratitude and they are like a magnate for everyone else. This aint magic, it is living the good life in God’s family, that shares hardship and joy with the willing, in God’s family. Continuing with verse 4;
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
And it is all free choice… In life we are free to fail, and learn from those failures. So that missing the mark, will not result in the ultimate failure, life without God. And why I love you my family so much, is because we get to share God’s Good News freely in this thing called life.
Sometimes, we hear from people who have responded to our invitation with; I’m a good person. My answer is; well, isn’t that special. Cuz, I’m a mess. I go to church with Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (sorry Cher), and we come to church because this Hospital gives each of us the tools to get well. When we tried it alone on our own, we were conned, robbed, and hijacked from God’s plan for our lives under a false allusion that we had chosen wisely in our free will devoid of God’s help and direction.
To Give us some perspective on God’s consistency in scripture, we have today’s Message Reading and instruction from our Lord Himself, from Luke 6:17-26;
17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
*Side Note: When we share the Good News, there will be people who will want to hear the Lord’s word. Do not put all that other heavy stuff on yourself. You are not responsible with performing miracles, exorcisms, mass healings, or even debating scripture with hecklers. No, we are called to care for, love, and lead by example with the joy we have found in this family. Does the person who sees you in the parking lot at Walmart see the same person here on a Sunday morning, and when you fail… Stand up, brush off, say your sorry and try again, joyfully.
Next Jesus provides us some of the Beatitudes, that we normally read from Matthew 5, from the Sermon of the Mount. Beatitude means to be extremely blessed. I remember them as a way of working on and trading my bogus attitude, for a real Beatitude of joy. On to verse 20,
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
My thought is when I know how bankrupt I am, and how much I need Him and you, I’m on my way towards His kingdom.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
When we hunger for God, He will satisfy our need!
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
When we weep and mourn for the state of God’s World, He will provide joy and laughter at the end of the day.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
All of this has taken place before from the Prophets to Jesus being Crucified, to the Martyrs who followed our Lord. Our cost in our beautiful home has been much lower than our brothers and sisters around the earth. We pray for thanks, and intercession for the downtrodden.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
And if our lives are all about instant gratification, and feeding that bottomless pit that houses our selfishness, egos, fears, and addictions to just about everything that exists… Well, our reward has been hollow, and the satisfaction level, lower each time we imbibe. Nothing like that tree by the stream of life, producing good…
I believe what the Lord is teaching each of us, is that when we love God with all we are, and love our neighbor as ourselves, we are engaged in the world, with more than just satisfying our craving. I am now concerned for the person who is in trouble, hungry, cold, alone, and afraid.
One question invariably comes up; how do you love the unlovable? Well, go home, and take a good long look into the mirror. God loves you in spite of you. That makes me want to be there to love, care for, and pray for others. And to learn how to get better at doing that, each time I try. That’s a real Faithwalk!
Not co-dependent, giving things that are harmful to others to feel better in the moment, but really getting to know those I want to help. Help, not do for, but walk with. Kind of like How He is walking with you in this thing called a Faithwalk. And maybe, its that Faithwalk of ours, with its hits and misses, its good days, and bad, its moments of understanding, and those of missing the mark, that make up the; Blessings, Grief, and Living the Margin! My hope for you this week, is that as you grow in your relationship in and with your Lord, that your blessings outweigh the grief, and that your living the margin in life is balanced in our Lord. Amen!