Call to Connect

Pastor Robarge’s Sermon
Sunday, January 29, 2012

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Wouldn’t it be nice to create your own community? A place where you never have to really share any of your feelings, a place where you never really have to get anywhere deep, a place where you never have to experience anything that’s harmful or painful? Wouldn’t it be nice to create that own community, to create those little groups of concealment? Wouldn’t it be nice? I don’t think so.

We spent the last couple of weeks looking at moving forward in faith. Pastor Burcham looked at a lot of these issues of moving towards a mission, the mission of Jesus Christ that He gave to us. As we have listened to Jesus, we’ve seen His call, we’ve heard as Pastor Phillips talked about a call to care, to care for the ones around us, care for those outside, today we talk about a call to connect.

If we hear the voice of Jesus, we know that God Himself is a relational being. We see it not just in Jesus Christ as He walks amongst the people, but it’s in the very beginning of time that we see God as a relational being. Look at creation. Creation. God spoke and things occurred. He could have sat back and watched as Adam and Eve created themselves. But God is a relational being. What does He do? He steps in and He creates them. He molds them from the dirt. He gets His hands dirty and He creates and molds man in His own image.

All throughout the Old Testament, we see God in His relational being. He’s there in the midst of people. He’s constantly talking with them so they understand He’s never far from them. It’s not something that’s new to understand God in this relational way. He went to a further extent when He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world, as He broke through space and time. He said, “This is how much I love you. This is how much I want you to know who I am.” And Jesus walked amongst us. He was there living and breathing, preaching, healing, all kinds of things that He was showing His relationship because He says, “This is important.”

You heard from the John 15 text. Let me take you back there once again. John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him is that who bears much fruit; for apart from me, you can do nothing.” There’s the healthy relationship that Jesus is identifying. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The branch itself doesn’t get nutrients from the ground. The branch itself gets nutrients from the vine. Apart from that, there is nothing.

The fear is that sometimes the branch says, “You know what? I don’t really want to be a branch today. I’d rather be the vine. Can’t I be the vine?” And we cut ourselves off from the very nutrients that God Himself has provided. It’s the healthy relationship that Jesus looks at in connection with us being a part of the vine. When the branch is there, when it’s connected, it’s healthy. It’s growing. And then what did Jesus say? It also “bears much fruit.” It blossoms. It’s a part of something that’s healthy.

He follows up with something that’s on the contrast. He follows up with what is unhealthy. So He follows up and He says in Verse 6, “If anyone doesn’t abide, who isn’t a part of the vine, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and those branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” Look at that. He’s contrasting here the relationship, a healthy relationship, one in which you’re connected to the vine and everything is well. But He says, “What happens when you separate yourself?” What happens when you go your own direction? All of a sudden, there is an unhealthy relationship.

We have a people today who long to be connected. Our culture and society today long for connection. Just how do we find it? How do we look for it? In this digital age, some people try to find connections in non-stated verbal, non-face-to-face communication. They look for it in other ways, in social media, in Facebook and Twitter and Google Plus and all these other avenues that are out there that are able for people to find connections, not just here in their own cities but around the world.

I’m afraid the connections sometimes don’t last, aren’t meaningful. There are a lot of people who have a disconnected relationship with the vine. They believe their connections to other places are going to get them further in life than it is if they’re connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. They start to question that. They say, “How can one person do actually what He says that He did?” They look at it as a conspiracy instead of actually trying to look at the vine, trying to look at Jesus Christ and the evidence that He puts out there.

In our connections, we miss it. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in me. You’ll bear much fruit.” It’s a healthy relationship. Don’t separate yourselves from the vine. Don’t be cut off because that’s where there are all different voices. That’s where people are telling you all kinds of different things and that’s what’s going to take you away from God’s Word, from the nutrients that you need to live.

We see a healthy and an unhealthy relationship. If we continue to listen to what Jesus says, there are important things He puts out there for people to know, to trust Him, to put their faith in Him. One man came up to Jesus and said, “What are the two greatest commandments?” Jesus said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.” And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There are two connections. Two connections that seem pretty easy. We love our Lord. We love our God with all of our heart, soul and strength and we love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s only two commandments. How hard can it be? And yet, we all know that it’s pretty difficult.

Maybe we’re good on one and we’re lacking on the other. Maybe we’re balanced somewhat in one area, but we seem to be falling short in the other area. When Jesus says be connected to the vine, He’s also looking at, as a branch, you have other branches that are around you. Don’t fail to look at the other branches. Don’t fail to look at the body that you are a part of.

It’s the same body that Paul looks at as we read that earlier in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 12, Jesus is referencing the body, the same body that we know we’re a part of when we’re connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. And if we’re looking to be healthy, Paul’s looking at that healthy relationship because the Church in Corinth had some issues. The Church in Corinth was looking at the body differently. It said, “Well, there are some really important parts of the body over here, and there are some really unimportant parts over here.” And Paul is saying, “Listen to yourselves here. Look at what you’re really saying about the body itself.” That’s when he goes into the whole dialog. He says, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body.’ That would not make it any less part of the body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weak are indispensable.” What he’s looking at are these pieces of the body, and he’s saying, “Look hat’s happening within the body of the Church in Corinth.” He’s saying, “You’re looking at certain pieces and you’re elevating it and you’re failing to look at the other pieces here. What kind of body is that? It’s no body at all.”

That’s why he continues and says, “But God so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, so that there will be no division within the body. The members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.” Do you see the piece when it’s connected to the body, the body is a healthy relationship? It’s when it suffers and it rejoices together. There’s no disconnect. There’s no one part loving and one part hating. It’s when the body together is working. It’s when the body together is healthy.

As we look at the Church in Corinth, we look at the body of Christ. The body of Christ is all who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are part of that body, the body that we don’t always get to see with our visible eyes and yet, God tells us those who place their trust in Jesus are part of that body.

Part of the body that we do see is right here at Gloria Dei. Right here at Gloria Dei, we see a body and we see a body that can be healthy and maybe even display some unhealthy. We look at the relationship of which Paul talks about the body of Christ and the way we can start to look at it is looking at our own context. The body of Christ is not about an evangelism sermon. We do spend a lot of time talking about evangelism because it’s important to be able to bring that message of salvation to a people who need it, a people who are withering and dying. This message is not about that. This message is about the body. How do we become a healthy body? How do we become that body that is glorifying to our God so when Jesus Christ returns on the last day to see His bride that is beautiful?

I believe there are some signs of a healthy body, signs to look at and be able to understand, “How do we know that we have a healthy body?” When we look towards God’s Word, that’s the only place where it can be answered. Hebrews 10 talks about a healthy body, and I believe we can learn from this healthy body to be able to put these things into use right here in this body in our context, in this place. So the writer of Hebrews 10:23-24 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”

A healthy church body stirs one another up to love and good works. As we know, we are but a sinful bunch, every single one of us. We come before a holy God confessing our sin every week. Sometimes, we are lacking in love, where others in this body will be able to pick others up in that same love. It’s the love that we looked at last week. It’s a love that God calls us to and He says, “Love just as I have loved you.” How did Christ love us? He died for us. He sacrificed Himself for us. How are we to love each other? Self sacrificing, to be able to say, “I’m putting my self interests, my concerns on the backburner and I’m concerned about you. I want to spur you onto that same kind of love, the same kind of love that Jesus Christ showed on the cross that He calls each of us to.” It’s that love that He calls to spur one another on in a healthy community. That spurring continues.

What is also the second piece, we find love and also good works. I know here in the Lutheran Church, we’re always scared a little bit of good works but we also know James says, “Faith without works is dead.” We know that good works are not attached to salvation. We know that what has been given to us is done by God and God alone. There’s nothing we can do to earn it. But good works are a part of the salvation that we’ve been given. It’s not the part for salvation but it’s a part of a response. And as this healthy body of Christ, we spur one another on to those good works. It goes back to the same attitude. It can’t be one of, “Hey, look at me. I’m much better than you. Why don’t you join me?” That’s not a spurring on. That’s selfish. It’s coming at an angle to put down instead of build up. When we spur one another on towards good works, we say, “I’m here to be able to help. Would you like to join me?” “I have this great project that I’d like you to join me in.” There’s the spurring on of good works that are not meant to put down but to build up.

God wants us to be a part of that, that healthy body but He follows it up in Verse 25 of Chapter 10 in Hebrews, “Don’t neglect to meet together as a habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.” A healthy community continues to meet together. A healthy community continues to encourage one another. How much more difficult is it to be out in the world to have to suffer through some of the things that we suffer through? Pain and distress. We have to go through some situations that are difficult. How much more easier is it that we know we have a people we can come back to, to be able to lift us up, to encourage us, to build us up for the week ahead? How much more of an encouragement to know this is a place of encouragement? It’s not a place where you have to fear to come to be able to say, “Ah, what’s going to happen this week?” It should be a place of encouragement where we hear from God’s Word, we share in the sacrament together and be able to say this is an encouraging place where we can go out proclaiming the same work, having the same vision.

It’s a part of that healthy body, a healthy body when we’re connected to Jesus Christ, the true vine. There are nutrients being built up into this body so we can look and have Gloria Dei be a place that’s healthy, but how does it start? It has to start small, and I’m not talking about small groups. I’m talking about just on a small level. I’m talking about one individual going up to somebody else and saying, “I’d really like to get to know you. I’ve been here for 15 years and I know you’ve been here a long time but I’ve never really gotten to know you. What about now?”

It’s the family who goes to another family and says the same thing. “I’d like to get to know you because we’re a part of the same body. I want to be able to love and encourage you but I don’t really know you.” We have services on Saturday and Sunday all day. It’s difficult to be able to look at and be able to understand how we can be that healthy body when we are so spread out. But it has to start small.

It goes back to that place where we can encourage one another. When we build those connections, it’s the place where you know when somebody’s missing. You haven’t seen them for awhile. And it makes it so much easier to be able to say, “I can reach out to you because I know that you’ve been missing.” You can reach out to them, not out of selfish ambition, not out of being able to put them down but being able to build them up, encourage them to come back to the body because the church itself is a divine reality here. If one person, a part of the body, suffers, then we all suffer. If one rejoices, then we all rejoice. When we’re part of it, we’re supposed to care about the members who are not here.

Sometimes, I feel like we don’t. It’s an opportunity to be able to reach out, be able to be that healthy church body here in this place. That’s what God has called us to. God has called us to be healthy. We know that we’re sinners in this place and we’re in need of God’s salvation and yet, how will we start? We start with a connection to the vine. There, we receive nutrients and nourishment so we can look at the other branches around us and say, “We are part of the same body. Let’s rejoice.” Amen.