horizontal not vertical

our job“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:15-20, NRSV)

Here is the clincher…

Are you sitting down?

Are you ready?

I’m not perfect!

And you aren’t either!

We are all saints and sinners.

We all do good and bad!

And for these verses to be in Matthew means that Jesus knew we weren’t going to be perfect, or that the community Matthew was writing to already had problems and needed help figuring them out.

But you see these verses should give us hope! Because even from the beginning things were messed up in the community of believers. You see we don’t have to have it all together. We don’t have to pretend to be perfect. We can be who God created us to be.

But in doing that we have the hard work of talking to others in the community. We need to call people on the hurts they cause, and restore the relationships.

And these verses I believe are talking about horizontal relationships, not vertical! The vertical is our relationship to God and that was sealed on Calvary by Jesus.

These verses are talking about how we are in relationship with each other, and the community. When some one wrongs us. Sins against you!

Restoration is the key here! We are restored to the relationships that God intended.

We need to talk to the person that has sinned against us, let us down, missed the mark. That is what the word for sinned means in the original Greek. Missed the mark! How many times have we missed the mark,

by not being where we said we would be when we said we would be there

by not being prepared for a meeting we were leading

by not showing up for a job we volunteered for

by ________________________________________!

We have all missed the mark, and here we are told how to fix it. This is what it means to live in community.

So lift the fallen

restore the broken

bring healing to the hurting

restore the relationships in the community.

Jesus has taken care of the vertical, we all can work on the horizontal!

continue in my presence…

I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing. I will study the way that is blameless. When shall I attain it? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is base. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil. One who secretly slanders a neighbor I will destroy. A haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not tolerate. I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so that they may live with me; whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. No one who practices deceit shall remain in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue in my presence. Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of the LORD. (Psalm 101, NRSV)

We all want to be with God.

We all want eternity to be with our creator.

So we try to live a life that will be pleasing to Him…

But have you ever:

Lied?

Been blamed for something?

Fallen away from God?

Slandered a neighbor behind their back?

looked haughtily on someone?

I am not sure any of us can say no to all of those statements and if we are honest with ourselves we can not probably say no to any of them…

We have all fallen short. And for us to stay in God’s presence we must not do any of those things.

But thankfully our God goes with us, even when we fall away!

rejoice in suffering?

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. (1 Peter 4:12-19, NRSV)

Rejoice in our suffering?

Really?

Most people I know go out of their way to avoid suffering. We do what ever we can to not get into situations or things that will cause us pain.

We avoid it at all costs…

But as we all know sometimes it is not possible for us to avoid it…

But suffering we can avoid is not what the author of 1 Peter is talking about…

You see this suffering is suffering for our faith when we stand up with the words of the Holy Spirit and proclaim Christ crucified and those listening do not want to hear it, and the bring the pain upon us…

We can not control how people will react, but we must proclaim the love and mercy we received in the grace given to us in the gift of faith, so everyone can hear!

So yes, rejoice in suffering so that the world may know the mercy and love you received as grace through the gift of faith, so that they may come to hear. And by hearing cause suffering, but because they hear, God can work in them to change them to accepting the love He has for all of us!

press on

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:7-16, NRSV)

Paul tells the Philippians that everything that he could count on or count as something is nothing. It ia all lost because of what he now has in Christ.

And he says this not to boast, as if he has already gotten it, but he reminds them we are all racing…

And if you have ever run a race, you hit that point where you want to give up.

You want to give in.

You can’t go any further…

You have given it all…

And yet if you press on, and just keep going you will get over that.

You will finish the race!

You see we will all finish the race!

Hold fast to the faith and grace you have been given knowing that the goal will be a wonderful thing, not because we earned it, but because He allowed us to attain it. Press on!

measure the costs

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62, NRSV)

Did you ever think of what it costs to follow Jesus?

Sure faith is free and grace is free, but the cost of discipleship is more than most of us would care to invest…

You see Jesus here tells some one that says they will follow where ever He goes, that the road is long and hard and there is no where to rest.

And another He tells to not go back to bury his father, and another that you can’t say goodbye…

We have to look to Jesus if that is who we are following. It is not about our comfort, what we will lose or our loved ones, it is only about Him.

So can you pay the costs?

sit where?

While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.” Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:17-28, NRSV)

Do you think James and John really knew what they were asking for?

I mean for one to be at Jesus’ right hand and one at His left hand in His glory…

Were they asking to be the thieves?

Because we confess every day in worship that Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father… So if Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, who is sitting on Jesus’ left side?

Yes – God the Father… So which of James or John wants to take God the Father’s seat?

We must lose our lives and become a servant of all, seeking not our own glorification but the sharing of God’s grace with everyone!

lose it

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:32-39, NRSV)

Have you ever felt like you lost it all?

Like everyone and everything was against you?

No matter what you did it wasn’t right and life seems to deal you a rotten hand every time….

Or the flip side, did you ever feel like you had it all together and were on top of the world?

Jesus said He did not come to bring peace, but a sword and that He would put father against son and mother against daughter and family would be against those who are supposed to be for us…

We are called to follow Jesus, have the proper placement of our position so we are seeing the back of His head as we go where He leads. And doing this the world will turn against us, even those we love and are supposed to support us…

We will be ridiculed and it will seem like we have lost it all, but that my friends is how we truly find it!

Jesus said when we lose according to the world we win in Him. If we lose our lives and give it up to Him, we will be winners!

Listen!

“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-Life together

How many of us listen to each other? Really listen. We might hear what someone else is saying to us, but do we hear them, or do we think we know what they said?

Most of us will hear 3 – 4 words of someone speaking to us and then start formulating what we are going to say. We will hear where a sentence starts and then begin working on our come back, what we will respond with. In doing this, you are no longer listening, but are paying attention to yourself. This is one of the first things I work on with couples that I am working through premarital counseling with. Communication is the basis for every relationship, and if you are not communicating there is no basis for a relationship. This is why we pray, to communicate with God. Part of this should be silence to listen for what God has to say to us. We need to listen not only to get to know the other person, but we need to listen, because that is what we have to do in order to communicate. In order to know what to really say we have to listen, and hear what is said to us. Then and only then can we respond with a response that is one that will build the relationship. It may not always be what the other person wants to hear, but it will build the relationship if it is spoken in love after listening and hearing what was said. If we listen and hear, then we will get to know more about the person and grow deeper in relation to them.

That is what Bonhoeffer tells us in the quote above. We owe it to others to listen to them. We need to hear them and to love them by being quiet and not formulating a response while they are talking. To hear them as we hear His word.

So the next time you are listening, listen and hear. Grow in relation to others.

proper place

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:21-28, NRSV)

Our plans are not God’s plans!

This reading makes that clear. Peter  did not see the end of the plan and therefore did not understand what had to happen. he had in his mind what was going to happen, and when Jesus deviated from that, Peter asserted that Jesus was wrong and Peter knew how this was going to go…

When we look to our own hearts, wants and desires, we can not see what we need to see. We set our minds on our own desires and can not see the way God has set it out to be.

We need to know our proper place.

The words Jesus first speaks to Peter, He spoke to the other disciples as well. Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 4:

“As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”” (Matthew 4:19-20, NRSV)

Follow me – or get behind me… in the Greek these are the same phrase. You see it is about proper place. It is true that Jesus walks with us, and is our friend, but He is God, and we need to follow Him or be behind Him. If we are looking into His face, we are in the wrong place.

We need to see the back of His head, as we walk behind Him to follow where He is leading.

So set your mind on Godly things, and get in the proper place and follow Jesus through the plan as God has set it to be.