JR. Forasteros - September 14, 2014
Love is the Hardest Path
If we choose to be in circles with those who're different from us, we run into a problem: how do we react when those explosive issues arise? Whether it's abortion, gay marriage, alcohol, gun control or something else, many issues can potentially divide the Church. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he advises them on a similarly divisive issue: when faced with division, choose love, not judgment. According to Paul, knowledge puffs us up, but love builds us up.
From Series: "Branches"
No matter how much we enjoy the weekend worship experience, sooner or later, we stop growing. That's because we need more than great music and an engaging message. We need to connect with other people who are on the same journey as us. Learning we're not alone as we try to follow Jesus changes everything, and that's what Branches is all about. In a Branches group, you'll find people who've been where you are, who know the joys and pains of building relationships, work and figuring out your calling, raising a family, leaving a lasting legacy. They're people you can join with in figuring out exactly how the new life Jesus offers us changes our whole world. If that sounds too good to be true, it's not. Becoming part of a small group is the single best way to pursue a thriving, life-changing relationship with God. This is Branches. And big things happen in small groups.
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When I was in fifth grade, I got to do a book report with my crush, Becky (it was a big deal). We chose to do a book I had found on Ancient Egypt – specifically mummification. I had long been fascinated with mummies, and we went all-out for our book report. We gathered foods that vaguely resembled the various organs the Egyptians removed during the mummification process and actually acted out the process for the class. (We got an A+++ if you must know.)
Mummification is a process by which a human body is dried out and preserved, along with vital organs. Egyptians were mummified because of their views of the afterlife – they believed they would get to live forever with everything buried with them. It’s why the Pharaohs built elaborate tombs and were buried with fabulous wealth, their families, servants, and even horses and cats.
Of course, we know today that didn’t happen.
Instead, the Pharaohs’ tombs were robbed century after century to the point that archaeologists today have found only a small fraction of the fabulous wealth they were buried with.
The Egyptians’ beliefs about the end of the world shaped how they lived. Because they believed they could take their possessions with them, they developed a culture where the very powerful took advantage of those below them, all to get more wealth, more status, more power – and then it was all locked in a tomb with them. Their picture of the afterlife created injustice.
We’re going to talk about afterlife – specifically, what the Bible says about the end of all things and what’s in store for US and how that shapes how we live today.
Take a poll of Jesus people and you’ll not be surprised that there’s a pretty common picture of afterlife that emerges: Once we die, if we’re good, we go to Heaven. We live in Heaven (which is up there somewhere), and at some point, God is going to come and get everyone else who’s still down here and take us all away to live up in Heaven forever.
This picture of the End isn’t at all what the Bible says will happen. Quite the opposite, in fact. Let’s talk about resurrection – not only Jesus’, but our own resurrection at the end of time. Let’s talk about our bodies and the earth and the God who will not give up even an inch of ground to sin and death.
