{"id":2830,"date":"2019-01-28T10:29:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T23:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=2830"},"modified":"2019-01-28T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T23:29:47","slug":"united-as-one-27-01-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=2830","title":{"rendered":"United as One 27-01-2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

United as One<\/i>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nehemiah 8: 1 \u2013 10; Luke 4: 14 \u2013 21; 1 Corinthians 12: 12 \u2013 31a<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

The grand themes of community and God\u2019s blessing are presented in our texts this Sunday. They remind us of the importance of community and how community works. They contain rich veins of golden truths. I hope you will see these truths afresh today and be blessed. In being blessed we will be a blessing to others.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>We\u2019ll start with Jesus in his home synagogue. Luke tells us that Jesus filled with the power of the Spirit returned home to Nazareth. Jesus must have been on a high. His ministry had started well. People had come to hear him in the synagogue, market place and hillside. Many had been healed. Demons had been cast out. People had been amazed at his authority. Naturally he attended his home synagogue where he read from the Isaiah scroll.\u00a0 <\/span>The Isaiah writings were as important then as now. Jesus chose to read what we know as Isaiah chapter 61.\u00a0 <\/span>Our chapter and verses are a modern invention established about 600 years ago. Whether Jesus chose this text specifically or whether it was set for the day we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 <\/span>The point is that the book of Isaiah is filled with prophetic pictures of God\u2019s future.\u00a0 <\/span>The section Jesus read describes the day of the Lord when the Christ \/ Messiah will bring the Goodnews that God will restore justice and peace to the earth. The people longed for God\u2019s restoration of Israel and the establishment of justice and peace for all.\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus read this text and by his manner and action claimed to be the prophetic Messiah \/ Christ figure by saying that this word was being fulfilled in him.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not going to focus on the theme that God\u2019s time of blessing and restoration includes justice, which emerges in many places in the Bible.\u00a0 <\/span>I am going to focus on what is implied by Jesus attending the synagogue. Jesus\u2019 attendance affirmed the importance of God\u2019s people gathering together.\u00a0 <\/span>We often glide over these references to Jesus in the synagogue without considering the implication. Yes, it would have been practical to go to the synagogue because that is where the people went on the Sabbath, but Jesus also went to worship God. To worship God is our duty. It is our duty to worship God and our duty to be with each other. We come here not for ourselves and hopefully not out of pure habit, but we come to worship God and be here with each other, because God looks forward to our collective praise and worship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turning to the Corinthian reading we read one of Paul\u2019s famous passages on the gifts of the Spirit and also about the importance of the Church as a community. Corinthians chapters 12 \u2013 14 are crucial to understanding the nature of the Church \u2013 God\u2019s community.\u00a0 <\/span>Incidentally I did my masters on these chapters.\u00a0 <\/span>They\u2019re very special to me.\u00a0 <\/span>They are special to all of us\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Sunday you focused on the first few verses of chapter 12 with its emphasis on diversity and the gifts of the Spirit. The diversity we have in the Church then and now is part of God\u2019s creative order. But diversity to be a blessing requires unity. The gifts of the Spirit are given to individuals, but not for the individual\u2019s benefit. The gifts and talents we have are not what we have earned or created \u2013 they are gifts. Our gifts and talents are given for the benefit of others. We aren\u2019t given all the gifts. We each have a few gifts, which are different. For us to truly benefit we need access to all the gifts.\u00a0 <\/span>The only way we can benefit from all gifts God provides is through the fellowship of the Church.\u00a0 <\/span>To put it simply my gifts bless you and yours bless me. Inherent in our humanity is the need for others. We are the person we become because of the contributions of others to us and vice versa<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our reading of Corinthians ends with an enticement of a more excellent way<\/i> [1 Cor 12:31]. Paul goes to explain that love is the most excellent way and all we do should be done in love. We find that in chapter 13. That\u2019s the chapter that every bride and groom thinks was written for them. We call it the \u2018hymn of love\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>Sorry to disillusion you, but it wasn\u2019t written for your wedding; it was written for the Church universal. Our gifts are to be used lovingly for the whole of Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0 <\/span>Paul moves from talking about the community\u2019s diversity, unity and God\u2019s gifts to exercising the gifts in love. This flow of theological thought indicates that Paul didn\u2019t write in chapters and verses. He just wrote a letter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corinthian chapter 12 uses the metaphor of a human body to describe the nature of the Church and its unity. We are one body \u2013 the body of Christ. We are one body and each individual is a part of the one body.\u00a0 <\/span>Paul used a Greek word, which we translate as member, which really means \u2018a part of\u2019. We should not confuse this meaning with our common use of member to describe our belonging to a club or organisation. Membership of a club or organisation is something we choose to exercise at our whim and fancy. Membership in the church is about being a part of one Christ\u2019s body. The parts of my body form the whole of me. Each part plays and important part of who I am. When one part malfunctions it affects the whole body. So when one part of the Church is in pain we all suffer \u2013 just like our physical bodies. I don\u2019t know about you but when I stub my little toe it makes an awfully big noise for its insignificant size. Do you pay much attention to your little toe? However that little toe is important to you. Medical science tells us – <\/i>even though the pinkie toe itself has no functional value, removing the metatarsal <\/i>(linked to the little toe) would make running, walking and skipping nearly impossible<\/i>. Therefore, just as all parts of my body are important to my well-being, so too are all parts \/ members of the Church are important to our well-being. So when one member is in pain the whole body feels it. When one member is joyful the whole membership shares in the joy. That\u2019s the reason for sharing our \u2018joys and concerns\u2019. Paul reminds us of two important truths here. Firstly, we are one body. Secondly we have many parts to the Church. There lies a deep spiritual lesson for us.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is our duty to worship God and it is duty to do so together, because we are one and God looks to the one body not the individual part or members of the body of Christ. God wants us to be united as a community. That\u2019s our blessing and strength.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally we turn to our Old Testament story, which is part of the Jewish Scriptures too.\u00a0 <\/span>The people have returned from Babylon where they have been in exile. The returning refugees have recently been given permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and Temple. The great majority of the first returnees to Jerusalem under Nehemiah and Ezra had been born in Babylon.\u00a0 <\/span>Returning to Jerusalem was completely new experience. Their new found freedom in their homeland was not easy. As we would expect the returning exiles didn\u2019t always see eye to eye and they were not all focussed on the same things.\u00a0 <\/span>Their leaders, Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest, knew that they needed to hold the people together. They realised the community could so easily disintegrate with everything in a state of flux. There\u2019s nothing new in that truth. Uncertainty, differences, change all contribute to anxiety and fear.\u00a0 <\/span>Anxiety and fear strain our relationships. Something needed to be done.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nehemiah and Ezra knew the basics. In the seventh month of their arrival they gathered the people. Is that symbolic of the Seventh Day being a day of rest and worship?\u00a0 <\/span>Whatever, they do the following. \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They gather all the returning Jews together.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. They teach and interpret the Law of God.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. They do so with the help of 26 named persons and some Levites \u2013 a sharing of gifts.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. They tell them to celebrate \u2013 have good food and drink.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. They tell them to share their food and drink with those who don\u2019t have enough. (I suspect those still living in the land \u2013 a few had been left behind \u2013 were very poor.)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. The tell them that the joy of the Lord<\/i> is their strength<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Nehemiah and Ezra knew that the people needed to be grounded in the Scriptures, celebrate their community and worship God with praise and thanksgiving. In being a united community of God\u2019s they worshipped.\u00a0 <\/span>There lay their true joy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Scriptures today remind us of the simple steps of our faith in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 <\/span>We are a community that belongs together, to serve each other, to share God\u2019s blessing with those outside our fellowship, and worship in the joy of God. In each of our texts set for today these elements are present. What we have here is a focus on the essence of our Faith, the community, our fellowship, and the joy of our celebrations of God\u2019s blessings. \u00a0 <\/span>In these simple things \u2013 our Faith, our Community and God – are the essence of our well-being.\u00a0 <\/span>In that well-being we serve our families, one another and all we encounter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    *******<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC:\u00a0 <\/span>27\/01\/2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

    pcwhitaker@icloud.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span>\/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    United as One. Nehemiah 8: 1 \u2013 10; Luke 4: 14 \u2013 21; 1 Corinthians 12: 12 \u2013 31a \u00a0 The grand themes of community and God\u2019s blessing are presented in our texts this Sunday. They remind us of the importance of community and how community works. They contain rich veins of golden truths. I hope you will see these truths afresh today and be blessed. In being blessed we will be a blessing to others.\u00a0 \u00a0We\u2019ll start with Jesus in his home synagogue. Luke tells us that Jesus filled with the power of the Spirit returned home to Nazareth. Jesus must have been on a high. His ministry had started well. People had come to hear him in the synagogue, market place and hillside. Many had been healed. Demons had been cast out. People had been amazed at his authority. Naturally he attended his home synagogue where he read from the Isaiah scroll.\u00a0 The Isaiah writings were as important then as now. Jesus chose to read what we know as Isaiah chapter 61.\u00a0 Our chapter and verses are a modern invention established about 600 years ago. Whether Jesus chose this text specifically or whether it was set for the day we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 The point is that the book of Isaiah is filled with prophetic pictures of God\u2019s future.\u00a0 The section Jesus read describes the day of the Lord when the Christ \/ Messiah will bring the Goodnews that God will restore justice and peace to the earth. The people longed for God\u2019s restoration of Israel and the establishment of justice and peace for all.\u00a0 Jesus read this text and by his manner and action claimed to be the prophetic Messiah \/ Christ figure by saying that this word was being fulfilled in him.\u00a0 I am not going to focus on the theme that God\u2019s time of blessing and restoration includes justice, which emerges in many places in the Bible.\u00a0 I am going to focus on what is implied by Jesus attending the synagogue. Jesus\u2019 attendance affirmed the importance of God\u2019s people gathering together.\u00a0 We often glide over these references to Jesus in the synagogue without considering the implication. Yes, it would have been practical to go to the synagogue because that is where the people went on the Sabbath, but Jesus also went to worship God. To worship God is our duty. It is our duty to worship God and our duty to be with each other. We come here not for ourselves and hopefully not out of pure habit, but we come to worship God and be here with each other, because God looks forward to our collective praise and worship. Turning to the Corinthian reading we read one of Paul\u2019s famous passages on the gifts of the Spirit and also about the importance of the Church as a community. Corinthians chapters 12 \u2013 14 are crucial to understanding the nature of the Church \u2013 God\u2019s community.\u00a0 Incidentally I did my masters on these chapters.\u00a0 They\u2019re very special to me.\u00a0 They are special to all of us\u00a0 Last Sunday you focused on the first few verses of chapter 12 with its emphasis on diversity and the gifts of the Spirit. The diversity we have in the Church then and now is part of God\u2019s creative order. But diversity to be a blessing requires unity. The gifts of the Spirit are given to individuals, but not for the individual\u2019s benefit. The gifts and talents we have are not what we have earned or created \u2013 they are gifts. Our gifts and talents are given for the benefit of others. We aren\u2019t given all the gifts. We each have a few gifts, which are different. For us to truly benefit we need access to all the gifts.\u00a0 The only way we can benefit from all gifts God provides is through the fellowship of the Church.\u00a0 To put it simply my gifts bless you and yours bless me. Inherent in our humanity is the need for others. We are the person we become because of the contributions of others to us and vice versa.\u00a0 Our reading of Corinthians ends with an enticement of a more excellent way [1 Cor 12:31]. Paul goes to explain that love is the most excellent way and all we do should be done in love. We find that in chapter 13. That\u2019s the chapter that every bride and groom thinks was written for them. We call it the \u2018hymn of love\u2019.\u00a0 Sorry to disillusion you, but it wasn\u2019t written for your wedding; it was written for the Church universal. Our gifts are to be used lovingly for the whole of Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0 Paul moves from talking about the community\u2019s diversity, unity and God\u2019s gifts to exercising the gifts in love. This flow of theological thought indicates that Paul didn\u2019t write in chapters and verses. He just wrote a letter. Corinthian chapter 12 uses the metaphor of a human body to describe the nature of the Church and its unity. We are one body \u2013 the body of Christ. We are one body and each individual is a part of the one body.\u00a0 Paul used a Greek word, which we translate as member, which really means \u2018a part of\u2019. We should not confuse this meaning with our common use of member to describe our belonging to a club or organisation. Membership of a club or organisation is something we choose to exercise at our whim and fancy. Membership in the church is about being a part of one Christ\u2019s body. The parts of my body form the whole of me. Each part plays and important part of who I am. When one part malfunctions it affects the whole body. So when one part of the Church is in pain we all suffer \u2013 just like our physical bodies. I don\u2019t know about you but when I stub my little toe it makes an awfully big noise for its insignificant size. Do you pay much attention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Leighmoor.Master","author_link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/author\/leighmoor-master"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Sermons<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"United as One. Nehemiah 8: 1 \u2013 10; Luke 4: 14 \u2013 21; 1 Corinthians 12: 12 \u2013 31a \u00a0 The grand themes of community and God\u2019s blessing are presented in our texts this Sunday. They remind us of the importance of community and how community works. They contain rich veins of golden truths. I…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2831,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/2831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}