Together We

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 05/06/2012

a recording of the entire celebration, including the sermon is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

Together we

follow the way of Jesus and

create breathing room

for the disfavored to find favor

for the discounted to count

& for the disconnected to connect.

Starting here.

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus. He’s called each of us to himself, and placed us in community with one another, and said, “Here’s what I’ve brought us together to do.

Some of us will be raising kids

and some of us will be feeding the hungry

and some of us will be making music

and some of us will be working with computers

and some of us will going to Costa Rica or Russia

and some of us will be fixing air conditioning units

and some of us will be mowing lawns and some of us will be working hard in order to be extravagantly generous

and some of us will be throwing parties

and some of us will be teaching and some will be cleaning toilets

and some of us will be healing the sick

and some of us will be interceding

and some of us will be making coffee

and some of us will be shopping

and some of us will be changing diapers

and some of us will be putting out parking signs every week

and some of us will be driving teenagers from here to kingdom come.

But all of us, together, in all of it, we are following my way – which is simultaneously the hardest and the most beautiful path in the world - and creating breathing room for the disfavored (whom I love to no end, and so will you) to find favor,

and for the discounted (whom I see as treasures beyond measure, and so will you) to count,

and for the disconnected (whom I have gone to the ends of the world rescue, and so will you) to connect.

And as we do, we are going to do something great here. I’m going to make something great out of you. I’m going to change your life, and the lives of your family members, and your friends, and even your enemies. I’m going to make something great out of this corner of the world. I’m going to change its prospects, its future, its reputation. People are going to grow up here, and recognize that this is a blessed place, a place teeming with life and hope and beauty. I’m going to be easy to find in you, and in this place, and people are going to come to here, and to you, looking for me.

You may not feel prepared, you might have a lot of apprehensions, but I’ve got everything you need and you’ve got nothing to be afraid of, so let’s start now. Let’s start here. Let’s go!”

[conversation with Fred…]

So we’re going to spend the next several weeks unpacking this assignment Jesus has given us, exploring this vision.

Today, just those first two words.

Together we. [invite people to say it together…]

Together.

We.

Together we follow.

Together we create breathing room.

Without the together we, following the way of Jesus and creating breathing room are both impossible and lifeless. Discipleship and mission are twin callings central to the Christian life, and both are meant to be done in community.

Consider this:

The way of Jesus is a way traveled in company. Even Jesus’ first adventure, his testing in the wilderness, which we often imagine as a lonely trial, wasn’t undertaken alone.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

Matthew 4:1-2

Consider this:

The great commission, too, is given not to individuals, but to a community.

⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (y’all). And surely I am with you (y’all) always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Consider this:

Jesus told his disciples that they will be known as his students because of their love for one another. And this kind of love is only possible when people are together in community and mission.

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

Consider this:

One of the defining images of the church in the scriptures is the image of a body made up of many parts:

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

A body without a “together we” animated by the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a lifeless statue, and a body without many parts that pretends to contain the presence of God is nothing more than an idol.

Finally, consider this:

God himself is a “together we” God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 3 persons, 1 God. God himself a loving community of harmonious oneness. Father loving Son, Son loving Father, the love between them so powerfully personal as to be a person, the Holy Spirit.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:16

[Harmony illustration…Sweet in the mornin’…]

Our mission to create breathing room is all about making space for people to come into an awareness of the triune God’s embrace of them, his welcome of them into himself, into his loving community of harmonious oneness. Out of the fractured human race, shattered by sin and trapped in suffocating isolation, God is making a new family. A family in which people are freely themselves in the truest senses of freely and of themselves.

The way of Jesus leads us into the heart of this loving community of harmonious oneness. It is the point of forgiveness. Of perseverance. Of holiness. Of salvation and redemption. It is the point of humility and surrender and generosity. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, the point of love.

[Pentatonic Scale illustration…]

Together we.

Together.

We.

Everything we do as a church starts here. With together we. We might do everything else just right, but if we don’t do it together – which is where love is born – it is worth nothing to Jesus and the forward movement of his kingdom.

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If 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. ³If 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.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Properly understood, we could substitute “but have no together we” for “but do not have love” and the passage would retain its truth. Together we, and then all the rest can follow in its proper place.

We worship, together.

We pray, together.

We serve, together.

We announce the good news of Jesus, together.

We give generously, together.

We celebrate, together.

We grieve, together.

We endure, together.

We grow, together.

We love, together.

So, let me draw out one significant implication for us, and then close with a couple of practical tips.

For us, together we means that the image of the Prodigal Father’s embrace is our disciplined posture towards one another and towards others.

We embrace one another as brothers and sisters on the way of Jesus. And we embrace every stranger as one whom God desires to welcome into his family.

Not all of us will experience every one of the others of us as brothers and sisters in our personal lives or our homes, etc. – certainly not at first - but we must begin by embracing one another as brothers and sisters on the way of Jesus. Fellow family members taking our next steps towards Jesus.

And all that we do together with one another as a community of faith will give us opportunity to extend that embrace in more specific ways, as Jesus leads us together.

Perhaps as fellow worshippers, inviting strangers in.

Or eating companions at a meal, inviting strangers in.

Or teammates on a ministry team or outreach event, inviting strangers in.

Or surrogate family members in a small group, inviting strangers in.

Or in the richest of friendships as God opens our hearts to one another, inviting strangers in.

Together we.

Together.

We.

Practical Tips:

1. Invite 1 for 1, 1 time, once a month. Commit to inviting one person to do one thing you do in ministry or life with you one time once a month. One person with whom you don’t normally do that thing. Note: “with” you has a flexible continuum of meanings.

2. Tune in and stay tuned. We are going to give energy and effort to getting better at communicating this year, so that “together we” can increase in our life as a church. [video streaming, web, newsletter, etc.]