Everyone: Life-Giving
Free Community Church
Prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, God, Earth-maker, Pain-Bearer, Life-Giver who breathed your breath of life into us, making us living beings filled with your Spirit. Amen.
We began this preaching series immediately after our 20th anniversary service by asking these 3 questions:
Who are we?
What kind of community are we?
What kind of community is God calling us to be?
I kicked off this series by sharing about gratitude, and how we should experience it both as an emotion and an ethic. And over the past few weeks, our various preachers explored topics such as Giving of Ourselves, Peacemaking, and Decentering. And I asked myself what else…what else do I sense God calling us to be as a community? What is vital to our identity as a people of God?
In the past when people asked me what guidelines I used in order to make difficult or challenging choices and decisions, I told them there are 2 questions I always ask myself in most situations:
Is it loving?
Is it life-giving?
So in a sense, it was a no-brainer that when I asked myself what is vital to our identity as a people of God, the word “life-giving” flashed through my mind. And this is not just an arbitrary thought. In fact, Jesus told his followers very clearly in:
John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Jesus is saying this was his purpose and reason for coming – so that we may have life and have it abundantly. So this
Question 1 (Word Cloud)
What does it mean to have life and live it abundantly?
Some people understand this verse as meaning “eternal life,” and while I agree it includes the meaning of eternal life, I believe it means so much more. Abundant life also means wholeness and well-being in this life on earth.
I say this because Jesus was telling the people that he came to give them life in the midst of them living under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire.
In the Roman world at that time, 70-80 percent of the population lived in poverty, and although the Roman emperors liked to present themselves as “good shepherds” promising security and abundance for the empire’s subjects, what most of its subjects actually experienced was sickness, poverty and oppression.
That’s why Jesus’ claim of being the ultimate good shepherd who offers abundant life was such a refreshing change that brought hope to the people. And his words were not just empty words. They were supported by his actions of healing, raising to life, changing water into wine, and the miraculous feeding of the five thousand.
When Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” he was offering to bring wholeness and well-being to individuals, society, and the world.
And that continues to be Jesus’ promise to us: “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” We want to be a faith community that understands and lives out what it means to be life-giving – to help bring wholeness and well-being to individuals, society, and the world.
But first, it begins with us. Do we live what Jesus calls the abundant life? Do you know what is life-giving for you?
What is life-giving for you? By this, I mean what helps you experience a sense of wholeness and well-being in your life?
Question 2 (Word Cloud)
What is life-giving for you?
How do you live in a way that is life-giving, both for yourself and for others?
There is a passage of Scripture that might be helpful to us as we try to figure this out.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV)
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
In this passage Jesus acknowledges the heavy burdens we are carrying in our lives – our worries about our health, our families, our jobs, our relationships, our future, and he invites us to take his yoke upon us, learn from him, and find a rest for our souls that we can only experience through him.
What is a yoke?
A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals so that they can pull a cart or a plow, and Jesus is using the yoke as a metaphor. The Jews were “yoked” to the Mosaic Law, and the problem was that the religious leaders added thousands of man-made laws to these God-given laws.
At the same time, the Roman empire also placed heavy tax burdens on the people. So the people were weighed down with a heavy, burdensome yoke.
It was in this context that Jesus was inviting the people to take up his yoke because his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. It’s not that different today, right? Perhaps the circumstances are different but many of us are weary and burdened. We are weighed down by all the demands and expectations that we carry. And Jesus is inviting us to put down our heavy yokes. But he doesn’t just stop there.
He says, “Take my yoke upon you”
It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t say just throw off your heavy yokes and go live your life in whatever way you want. Instead, he invites us to put down our heavy yokes, and then take his yoke upon us because it is easy and the burden is light.
Jesus is clear, there are expectations to following him. We still have responsibilities and things won’t always be easy. But Jesus is gentle, and he promises to do it with us. Even in the difficult seasons, we can find rest and peace because we are yoked to him. We are not doing this alone.
It’s almost contradictory to talk about light burdens and easy yokes. How can a burden be light and a yoke easy? Well, it’s possible if it resonates with your soul. Jesus’ yoke can be easy and the burden light if it is what you are meant to do, and you know it deep within.
One of the things that is truly and consistently life-giving for me is having a sense of purpose and meaning in my work, a sense of being plugged into something bigger than me.
Jesus is saying, “Plug into the mission God has for our world together with me. Come participate in God’s work of shalom – the joy of restoring all things, all relationships to what they are meant to be – to wholeness and well-being.
This is a shared yoke – you and me together – so you’ll never have to do this alone. I’ll be right beside you, co-creating with you, holding you up when things get a little too heavy.”
This yoke is easy and the burden is light because it resonates with your soul.
Elizabeth Johnson says:
“What is the yoke Jesus offers? We might infer that it is his teaching, his way of discipleship, which is not burdensome but life-giving. He invites the weary to learn from him, for he is not a tyrant who lords it over his disciples, but is “gentle and humble in heart.” His yoke is easy (chrestos, better translated “good” or “kind”) and his burden is light. To take his yoke upon oneself is to be yoked to the one in whom God’s kingdom of justice, mercy, and compassion is breaking into this world, and to find the rest for which the soul longs….
It is not that Jesus invites us to a life of ease. Following him will be full of risks and challenges, as he has made abundantly clear. He calls us to a life of humble service, but it is a life of freedom and joy instead of slavery. It is life yoked to Jesus under God’s gracious and merciful reign, free from the burden of sin and the need to prove oneself, free to rest deeply and securely in God’s grace.” -Elizabeth Johnson
I want to let you hear a slightly different version of Matthew 11:28-30. This comes from The Message, which is a more contemporary translation by Eugene Peterson.
Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. That is Jesus’s invitation and gift to us. We don’t have to follow the forced rhythms of the world. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Richard Rohr says:
“If our religion has no deep joy and no inherent contentment about it, then it is not the real thing. If our religion is primarily fear of self, the world, and God; if it is primarily focused on meeting religious duties and obligations, then it is indeed a hard yoke and heavy burden. I’d go so far as to say that it’s hardly worthwhile. I think the promise from Jesus that his burden is easy and light seeks to reassure us that rigid and humorless religion is not his way and certainly not the only way.”
God lives within us and loves through us, so let’s seek joy in God and peace within. We can learn to rest in the good, the true, and the beautiful. We can learn the unforced rhythms of grace as we look to Jesus who walks beside us. As followers of Christ, we are called to live in ways that are life-giving for ourselves and for others.
Question 3 (Open)
What did someone say or do that was life-giving for you?
What about you? Are your words and actions a source of life to others or do they often bring death, violence, and destruction? Do our words and actions tear down or build up?
A few years ago, I read something that moved me deeply called The Sound of the Genuine by Howard Thurman.
The Sound of the Genuine -Howard Thurman
Howard Thurman was a theologian and a civil rights leader, and a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. I want you to just take your time to listen to this as I read it to you. If it helps for you to close your eyes, please feel free to do so. This is what he said:
“There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine … There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again — you are the only one.
If you cannot hear it, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born.
You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its kind in all the existences, and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.
The sound of the genuine is flowing through you. Don’t be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are part even of your dreams and your ambitions when you don’t hear the sound of the genuine in you. Because that is the only true guide you will ever have and if you don’t have that you don’t have a thing … Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.
There is something in everybody that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in other people… I must wait and listen for the sound of the genuine in you. I must wait. For if I cannot hear it, then in my scheme of things, you are not ever present.
So as I live my life then, this is what I am trying to fulfill…that I’m secure because I hear the sound of the genuine in myself, and having learned to listen to that, I can become quiet enough, still enough to hear the sound of the genuine in you.
Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in [my spirit] and come up in [your spirit]. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me.
[Then] the wall that separates and divides will disappear, and we will become one — because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”
Isn’t that beautiful? I think it would be marvellously life-giving if you could hear the sound of the genuine in yourself. And that would be the first step before you can begin to hear the sound of the genuine in others. And as a community, it would be infinitely life-giving if we can wait and listen for the sound of the genuine in one another.
Question 4 (Open)
What is one life-giving thing you’d like to do for yourself/others?
Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly….Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace…Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Then as we learn to live in ways that are life-giving for ourselves and others, let us co-create with Christ to help bring wholeness and well-being to individuals, society, and the world.
Will you join me in prayer?
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that follows the way of Jesus; willing to be vulnerable as we listen to the sound of the genuine in ourselves and each other.
Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. Help the church to be more like Christ – taking his yoke as our own to be as one people, united in your love. Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, Amen.
