Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed
This morning we come to last in our series of Friday posts exploring our Vision here at CBC. Next week we'll begin to think about our seven Core Values. If you've missed any posts along the way use the links above to look at specific posts or the 'Vision' label at the bottom of the page to view the whole series.
When you read through the gospels - the accounts of Jesus' life - you can't help but notice how people's lives were transformed. In the most drastic cases people were brought back from the dead - a transformation for them, but also for their dependant relatives.
At other times individuals with illnesses that excluded them from the religious and social aspects of Israel's life were healed and restored.
Lifestyles were turned upside down. People experienced love, forgiveness, hope, joy, peace... in place of loneliness, bitterness, despair, sorrow, anxiety...
Jesus told the disciples that he had come that people may have life - but not just a hanging on in there by the skin of your teeth kind of life - but life to the full. The word that Jesus uses here talks about going beyond, abundant, exceeding, much more, over much ...
Paul talks about the follower of Jesus being a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come.
The symbolism of baptism speaks of this transformed life - no longer being defined by the past, dying to the old way of life, being re-born into a new life, a fresh start.
Jesus and his first followers were in the business of changing lives - or in the case of the disciples, seeing God transform lives through them. Within a few years of Jesus' death and resurrection his disciples had turned the world upside down.
There are many ways in which we can help to bring transformation in people's lives. But true transformation is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.
One of the most interesting stories in the New Testament sees a paralysed man lowered through a roof in front of Jesus. He is lowered by his friends who want to see him healed - who want to see him walk and run and jump again. But Jesus' first instinct is to forgive him his sin. He only later heals the man physically as evidence that he has the authority to also forgive sins. You can read this story in Luke 5:17-26. I wonder what was going through the man's mind as this story unfolds around him - what was he thinking as Jesus forgave his sin, but left him paralysed on his mat? What were the friends who had carried him and then made a hole in this roof thinking?
As I place myself in this story what do my thoughts and questions reveal about my priorities and the things that I think are important?
As a church it is right that we expect to make a difference in our community.
Timothy Keller asks the question:
If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? And if the community did even notice would they say 'we are really glad they are gone', or 'we are really going to miss them'?Archbishop William Temple said about the church:
The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.But what kind of difference should we expect to make?
I believe that as we increasingly become an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God and alongside each other we will see lives transformed. As we are changed - becoming more like Jesus - God will change others through us - because that's what happened when Jesus was around.
And we need to be confident and unashamed of the fact that when we talk about lives being transformed we're ultimately talking about people deciding to follow Jesus. Not everyone who met Jesus in the New Testament decided to follow, many walked away. But for those who followed their lives were never the same again.
Picture Credit: LumoProject.com
