Last one today in our series on being SENT, where we are SENT to / what we are SENT from / what we bring with us as SENT people of God – that’s who we are, who we get to be, what a privilege and what an opportunity this is!
If you remember last week we had a bit on the ‘needs of our local community’ – what are they, how do we know what they are, how do we meet those needs / support people in need / reach out to & connect with people around us…
Big, important questions for us, for all churches > how this happens, as part of our core purpose of being, which is NOT to simply look after ourselves but to seek out those around us and share the love of God with them.
And last week we also brought in some themes from the kids movie Moana, to help us think about this > what happens if we only look after ourselves, we only look and serve and even think inwardly, without considering what’s around us, who’s around us, where we’re located and how we’re called to move into what God is already doing… what happens is the future becomes quite limited if we are not even considering how we’re going to meet it…
There was a key line at pastors conference and synod few weeks ago, thinking about the ‘posture’ or approach we have in terms of how God works in the world and how we can be part of it:
NOT expecting people to come to us, but instead going to them, to join in with what God is already doing. Really important shift in perspective for us there.
Today we come to a really powerful passage in Isaiah that we can focus in on, 55 verses 8-11:
God says, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’
We’ll come back to that, but first we’ve got something else to consider >>>
Challenges of serving a local community…
If we think about the needs of any local community, there are going to be challenges – otherwise there wouldn’t be any needs!
So for our local community – again we might have different ideas of what that is, who that is, where that it is and what our role in that is – for our local community what are the challenges with finding and serving its needs…
Here are some examples:
We might not know where to start…
Like I said what our local community actually is, who that is, where that is and what our role in it even is. More to dig into there but this is a key challenge for churches, we might want to be of service to our local community but we might not know where to start.
We might not know what we’re supposed to do…
We might not think we can actually be any help to the people around us, we might not have things in common or ways to reach out and connect with people that don’t feel forced or awkward or uncomfortable.
We might have done a lot of work in this space in the past, but the fruits of it don’t seem to be growing when we look around today…
Really hard one there, when we’ve stepped out in faith many times and we’ve served people in need through the journey, but we don’t see the next generation coming to church, we don’t see young people learning about who Jesus is, we see churches around us more likely to be closing down than experiencing positive growth into the future.
Those are just some challenges, many more we could add.
We might hear all that and think we should just avoid those challenges, we should stay away from things like reaching out into our local community because we don’t know where to start, we don’t know what to do, they’re not listening to us anyway… I wonder how you take all that as you hear it.
That is a valid perspective to have – doubts creeping in are part of our human experience, we all have doubts.
But this is not only doubting ourselves, it’s actually doubting God.
There is NO SHRED OF DOUBT in the words we just heard from Isaiah today > ‘my purposes WILL be accomplished’ says the Lord, not ‘maybe,’ not ‘sometimes’ – WILL be God says!
Who are we to say ‘I’m not sure about that God, I don’t think so God??’
God’s purposes being accomplished are not dependent on how we see it but what he’s going to do, what he’s already done and what he’s already doing.
So how does God help us in this, how does God help us if we don’t know where to start?
Even if we don’t know where to start, GOD DOES.
He is THE starter, the one who creates life and sustains life with his good and gracious provisions.
Trust in the Lord, take our concerns to him, ask him for help! If we pray ‘Lord where do I start?’ he’s going to give us a few ideas.
Practical examples:
Read your bible, spend some time in the word!
Pray, talk to the God who listens to you.
Receive God’s gifts, live in your baptism as his beloved child.
That’s always where we start, and then >
How does God help us if we don’t know what to do?
Love people, show kindness to people.
Ask them how they are, and listen to the answer.
Let someone else go first, hold a door open, thank them for their work or their kindness to you, take an interest in other people and what’s happening around you, just a few steps of ‘how to build relationships’ there, just a few ways we already know where we can start and what to do.
And the last one >
How does God help us if we’re disappointed, if we feel like we’ve failed, if we feel like we’ve tried all this before without success?
Tell him about it. We can unload these difficult things on our God, as the prophets do, as the writers of the psalms do – God can handle our stuff, and he can speak right back to us in those things if we have ears to listen > that takes us back to the start doesn’t it, spending time with God and his word.
But we also need to remember where our value lies, what our value is to God despite what we do/haven’t done, what we feel disappointed by and what we don’t see around us that we would love to see.
We can see what our value is to God in what Isaiah says next, the verses after our reading today:
So we’ve heard this part, about how God’s word will not return to him empty >
God says, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’
And then God also says this (12, 13):
‘You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands [what an image!].
[And this bit’s for the gardeners among us] Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.’
God has JOY and PEACE for us, he values us enough to give us his joy and peace, we go out [to serve our local community, carrying the good gifts God has first given us] in JOY and led forth in PEACE >
Now we might not be seeing ‘mountains bursting into song’ and ‘trees clapping their hands,’ but we know this is an illustration of the ultimate JOY and PEACE God has in store for his people.
What we might be lucky enough to get a glimpse of in this life, is what God grows > what God has grown, does grow and can yet grow in us, through us and around us, whatever age or life stage we’re in. Amazing to see God at work in those moments, I hope there are some that come to mind for you! There are more and more of these the more we look, good thing to reflect on!
And we know here and now we have a Saviour who could love us, who could give his life for us, who would love us even when we’re struggling to love him or love others.
Even if we feel like we don’t have JOY, we don’t have PEACE, he’s got it – he has it for us and he continues to give it to us.
So we are SENT, to give freely as we have first received.
We are SENT to find life in Jesus and join in with God’s life-changing work in the world around us,
and we are SENT knowing and being known by our God, having confidence in him when he says what he sends out will not return empty – that goes for his word and for his people!
What God sends out will not return empty. Let’s pray.
Lord we thank you for choosing us, and for sending us. Lead us to give freely, remind us we have life in you and you go with us in all we do. Help us to trust in your word that tells us you have joy and peace for us, and your good purposes will be accomplished. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Tom Kitson 