We asked yesterday if you could list of what comes to mind when you hear the word “church”. Our lists probably included buildings, events and services. It may have included organ and choir music, stained glass windows, dusty books, bake sales and more. It may evoke good experiences, or bad ones.
But not how the Bible usually sees “church”. Church is described in several cases as a family. This is why our vision is to become a church made up of many groups who are “like family” with one another.
But you might immediately think this means something strange and cultish, usually because our ideas of family today is pretty narrow. We think of family as the nuclear, immediate family in isolation.
But in Jesus’ culture, in some cultures today, and not so long ago in Western culture, the family was the word used more naturally to describe an extended network of relations, often living in the same area.
That was the context for family in Jesus’ day, and Jesus had plans to develop a new kind of extended family. Here’s a striking moment when he described his plans to create an alternate family:
Matthew 12:46-50 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
On the one hand, it seems Jesus just put down his mother. I just saw “Guilt Trip” where Barbra Streisand plays Seth Rogen’s overbearing mother. She calls several times a day, tries to get him to drink water constantly, and so on. In the middle of their road trip, he finally snaps, and tells her off.
It seems like that might be what Jesus is doing to his mother here. Is he putting her down, in his plans to join another family? Look at it another way. Jesus is actually elevating his disciples to family status. His followers, fellow practitioners of his kingdom, are his family.
She’s not excluded. Later in the story of Jesus’ life and death, we see Mary his mother appearing as a devoted member of this extended family, and Jesus even assigns one of the disciples to look after her after his death, saying he’s her new son, and vice versa.
Jesus isn’t narrowing his definition of family to exclude blood relatives. He’s broadening it, to include his extended family of followers as if they are blood relatives.
Question: Imagine your immediate family suddenly adopting a dozen new members. How would it change your way of life? What would be the pros and cons?
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Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan, your host for the daily challenges, and today is Thursday so it's the day we try to put into action what we've been learning all week. In continuation of our series called "Reset," we've been seeing how Jesus resets our views of compassion from something that we do for personal gain, whatever it might be - political gain or giving volunteer hours or just because it feels like something we're supposed to do - to something that we do because of Jesus, because Jesus has shown compassion to us and because Jesus loves others and wants compassion to be shown to them, as well, and through His followers here on earth. We saw yesterday how we are sent to engage with those who are hurting and harassed and helpless in our world and show compassion in Jesus' name.
So what are some practical ways we can do this? Well, there are many and I'm going to challenge you at the end of the day to try something for the next few weeks. We're in a time that the church has traditionally called Lent, the forty days before Easter, minus some Sundays, and that's been a time that Christians have traditionally tried to refocus their efforts of following Jesus, tried to give something up in order to focus more on God. What I would encourage you to do is not to just give something up but to pick up something new - compassionate service to others. That's going to look different in each context. I'm going to suggest a few things that Redeem the Commute is involved in but you're going to find ways that you can personally show compassionate service to others in your own context as well.
Some of the ways you can get involved right now in Redeem the Commute's efforts to show compassion to others include an even that we're sponsoring in May. It's called Running for Home and another new church starting in Whitby sponsors this race every year and we're one of their church sponsors who help them put on the event and it's a run that raises money for Habitat for Humanity. Maybe you're familiar with them; they build homes for those who might not be able to have a home any other way. You can obviously show compassionate service by getting involved in Habitat, helping build a home or by raising money by being part of the Running for Home race or you could volunteer with Redeem the Commute in helping make the event happen.
Now, Redeem the Commute also offers some direct compassionate service to people in our community. We run a few major events and the formula we seem to have at all our events is that we do something fun and family related, that we make sure we are showing generosity and care to others like we've collected food bank donations and toy drive donations, and also that we always include the reason we do it - the Gospel. We're going to be using that again in planning an Easter event soon. If you'd like to be part of planning that event, and showing compassionate service to others through it, get in touch with me. I'd love to have you as part of our team as we bring together what looks to be a really fun event this Easter. We also have opportunities to get involved at the event. If you'd like to come and just enjoy the event you'll have an opportunity to give and serve others through that, just like our other events.
Now, these events cost money and so one way you can show compassionate service to people in our community is by supporting Redeem the Commute. Our mobile ap and website directly help people's marriages and parenting skills when they're under a lot of stress from the busy lifestyle of commuters. Or, you can support us in order to support some of these events that we put on. At our Christmas event, we calculated it cost about ten dollars a family to host and so you can find ways to support us in putting on our Easter event, as well. Watch for information coming out soon on how much it costs per family and how you can sponsor a family in enjoying our event.
I mentioned food banks earlier that we've supported in the past and a food bank is a great way to show compassionate service to others. If you live in Whitby, there's the Deacon's Cupboard at All Saint's church. If you live in Ajax, there's the Salvation Army Hope Community Church and if you live in Pickering, there's the St. Paul's on the Hill Pickering Food Bank. All these are great ways to directly give compassionate service to others in our community who might be hungry.
And, finally, you're probably aware personally of those you meet every day, who might seem risky, but who you're called, by Jesus, to serve with compassionate care. Find a way bless them in some way; bring them some food, bring them some baking. Ask if you can help them shovel their driveway or clean up from the ice storm. Whatever it is you're probably aware of something they're struggling with and a way you can help as a follower of Jesus even if they never know it's coming from you.
Challenge: So your challenge for this week is to intentionally commit, during the next few weeks leading up to Easter, to show some kind of weekly or daily rhythm of compassionate service. Find something you can do each week, or something you can do each day, that will bless and serve others simply because Jesus loves them like He loves you.
Have a great one. Or discuss maybe with your group how your going to put this challenge into practice and don't forget we're reading the Bible in sync as a community so check our website now to see what today's reading is. Bye for now.
When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again?
The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate.
What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives:
Reset: Goals
Reset: Time
Reset: Money
Reset: Work
Reset: Body & Food
Reset: Sex & Marriage
Reset: Family
Reset: Compassion
Reset: Nature
Reset: Society
Reset: Death
Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.
