United in Redemption

I don’t know if you have noticed yet, but we live in a broken world. A broken world full of natural termoil, broken institutions, broken relationships and broken people. Every leader as good as they may appear is fraught with the same kind of brokenness, what makes us think that we or anyone we love would be different. We are all broken. We can easily excuse something we or someone else does saying, “Well, I’m a good person or at least we didn’t do this, or we’re not like them”. This doesn’t make us better then anyone else, this just makes us like the pharisees who Jesus calls white washed tombs. We are death and brokenness on the inside and yet we paint over it and make ourselves look okay.

I wanted to take this moment digging in our mud so that we are all on the same page in recognizing one shared reality, one thing every person has in common. We are all in need of redemption. Yes, the world, society, communities and institutions as a whole need redemption, but each and everyone of us as individuals need redemption. Since no worldly leaders or institutions have been able to fix it, which we have seen again and again throughout history, we know that we can’t achieve our own redemption either. This means that we are all in the same place. We need someone beyond humanity to enter in and redeem us.

We may intuitively know what this redemption means, but before moving on we need to dig into it a little deeper, because it is a word and spiritual reality rich with meaning. Like our reading last week, redemption can be about removing someone’s debt. In our relationship with God that debt is so large that it is incomprehensible that we would ever pay it back. What would it mean to be redeemed of such a debt? Our debt with God is not some made up thing from a tyrannical God. It is the debt of relationship we feel everytime someone mistreats us. It is the debt of justice that we feel everytime that someone doesn’t get what they deserve. It is the debt of generosity, when someone is given something more than they deserve. It is a goodness that we know in our heart of hearts and yet we have refused to live into. Our debt to God is great. That’s not even to mention the debt of love inherent in every worldly relationship.

Redemption is also about restoration, taking something that has become broken and making it whole. Yet, redemption is actually more than just restoration, because redemption is about taking the wrong, the brokenness itself and rather making it for good. A great example is what happened to Joseph at the end of Genesis. His brothers sold him for slavery out of jealousy and yet God used that to eventually make him second in command to Pharoah and the one who would save a generation from famine, starvation and death. One of the biggest ways I have seen this redemption in my life is through my weakness, my limits, my anger. In the moments where I realize that I am not enough, I have learned to turn to God and the amazing thing is that he uses that limit or weakness to show his strength and often do more than I could have ever done on my own.

Redemption also has built into it the restoration of a relationship. The forgiveness of debt, physical, emotional or social already speaks to this restored relationship. So does our brokenness being used for good. Yet, it is more. Redemption is about bringing someone back into another’s life. This redemption is most essential in our relationship with and love for God, because as the two greatest commandments remind us, that relationship and love for God then pours out into the others. It only takes a moment of prayer or a second or two in absolute silence to remind us that our relationship with God is too distant and unknown. We need to be brought to a closer more intimate relationship with our Father in heaven, our incarnate brother Jesus and the breath of life, the Holy Spirit with us. The fullness of life and creation is in that singular relationship and yet we find ourselves far too distant through our own brokenness. We need redemption in our relationship with God

Today we are told something amazing, something that sometimes feels impossible, something beyond our hopes. We have already been redeemed, now we just need to live into it. Jesus Christ has already done the work that was impossible for us.

That great debt that we owed, that was every moment that we didn’t see life as a pure gift from God, that every moment where we have ignored or rejected God’s presence, that every moment, where we have taken something good God has given us and missused it - each of these moments was but a pebble weighing down our ship that was drowning us. Jesus, the fullness and power of God, gave up up his infinite and powerful life to take on that debt that justice and love demanded. It was not just a debt God needed paying, but a debt that we needed to be forgiven or else this world and our lives could never be the places of love, joy and peace that we have always longed for. Our ship could not float with so many burdens weighing us down, so Jesus took them all upon himself and died for them on the cross.

That great restoration was accomplished as God entered into humanity first by being born then by being breathed in anew. Through the direction of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit we as a people have been repurposed with our very first purpose as tenders of the garden, divine helpers and creators, to use the gifts God has given us for a godly purpose. It’s interesting what he says to Simon Peter in our gospel reading, “from now on you will fish for people”. Jesus uses what Peter had already been doing and repurposes it for the purpose he was always meant for. Something that already was a part of those 4 fisherman, suddenly had a godly, kingdom building, heaven realizing purpose here on earth. This is the kind of transformation Jesus has for all of our restoration.

Yet, as I said, redemption is also about making the brokenness into something good. Has it ever felt strange that we call Good Friday good. Here is this utterly horrendous moment where practically all people turned against Jesus in violent, hostile, unjust hatred and Jesus willingly and innocently took it on to the point of the worst suffering and death imaginable. Yet, we truly recognize it as good, because Jesus used all of that evil to restore us, to show us his love, to wash us in his blood, the pay off the debt, to show us the Father, to show us his throne, to create a new people and so much more. It doesn’t make this evil good. What we see instead is that God is more powerful than any evil or brokenness and that through the faithfulness of Jesus any evil or brokenness will end with good. It is an interesting and profound reality, Jesus used death the consequence of sin, the final and utter end, to put to death sin.

We have also been redeemed in our relationship with God. Jesus has come to us so that we might see God face to face. Jesus invites us into his relationship with the Father through baptism, prayer and community. Jesus invites us to welcome his presence and become intimate with God through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has written his word on our hearts, in Scripture and through the goodness of creation so that they might lead us to him. There is so much more to this redemption that a lifetime of faith finds joy (mostly) in exploring.

Now, the hard part is learning how to live into this redemption. As we commented on in the beginning, the world and its people and institutions are still broken. This is ultimately because we haven’t realized God’s redemption. There are too many times that we trust more in seeming lack than the bounteous generosity of God. There are too many times that we reject God’s goodness while leaning more on our brokenness. Most of the time we don’t want to live in God’s Kingdom, but rather one of our making. Too often we reject the presence and friendship of God that is ever close and ever present. I could go on

Just because we reject something doesn’t change their reality. It just changes their reality for us. This can feel like subjectivity, but it is really purposeful blindness. Our Chrsitian faith is about coming to terms, both with our blindness, and learning how to live into this new redeemed reality that Jesus Christ has brought about.

This does make us different than others, and in some ways better. We have joy, we have a relationship with God, we have the way, we have bounty and love beyond our understanding - what is there not to brag about in our relationship with God. Yet, we were just as needing of God's redemption as anyone else. We needed God to do the work, just like everyone else. We are still learning, just like everyone else. Christians can choose the right dish on the menu because we know the chef. We did not make the food or serve it - our accomplisment is one of choice and faith through relationship.

So how do we live into this redeemed reality. Its simple, faith. You trust in what Jesus has already done. You have faith that it has already been accomplished and that God’s redemption will catch you as you step out expecting it. You grow in your relationship with God. You watch for how God wants to enter through out brokeness and you make room for him. You discern the godly purpose for your life and gifts. We repent and are thankful for all the ways that God doesn’t just forgives our debts, but graciously gives us more. We step out knowing that God’s redemption has already been accomplished and now it needs to be realized in our world and lives.

If you need further trust, look back on your lives, on history, on others and look for how the world is being redeemed, restored, reconciled often despite the people, instituations and realities we live in. God is accomplishing his Godly purposes - now we have the choice to live into them. AMEN

We are all in need of redemption. Every single one of us. No matter how nice we are, or how much we have done to care for others, we all need redemption. We explored this from the opposite side last week, as we saw that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In fact, we saw that our debt is so substantial that we could never pay it back in 3,000 life times. It is our blindness, folly or pride that convinces us otherwise. It is important to realize this, but we are not then meant to dwell in the mud, we are meant to seek out redemption

What unites us? In this broken world, it seems as if nothing unites us. Or as the wizard in the movie musical Wicked says “Nothing unites people like a common enemy”. It would seem that a lot of the things that unite us are also the things that separate us from others. Through the life of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, God is trying to lead us to a unity that is greater than anything we have ever known or imagined.

Many people have blamed Christianity for creating disunity. This makes some sense. Even Jesus says that a mother will turn against her daughter and son against his father. We are Christians, marked by baptism, by our belief in our beautiful and loving triune God. We are different. We know that something has changed for us when we follow Jesus - and even if we don’t understand it we know that it creates a true and fundamental change.

In my last few weeks at the NICU I have seen this difference. At first, it was faith that helped me as I needed to throw expectations out the window. It was this church that brought common faces as Terese and Uche are there with their son Daniel. About a week ago, I met a sister in Christ and we shared such joy in our faith. Only yesterday, there was another mother who told me the Christian song I was singing to our Eliza was exactly what she needed to hear. Our faith in Jesus Christ makes a difference, that we and the world need.

This Christian difference is actually really important, because it is the difference that Jesus Christ makes. It is the difference of one who powerfully changed people by walking with them. It is the difference of one who calls people out of the mud and darkness into the glorious light. It is the difference of one who gave himself to the point of death, so that we might be reconciled with God. Faith is something we choose, but I hope you can see through this that the difference our faith makes, is not of our making - it is primarily something Jesus has done for us. It’s a little like being served a dish of food. Sure, that dish is now ours. We can be nourished by it, share it and savour it, but that doesn’t mean we made it or earned it.

Last week

One of the greatest things that stands in the way o

What stands in the way of people who are different coming together? What stands in the way of us finding unity? You might be thinking that there are a lot of things. There are institutionalized realities, misinformation, cultural bias, history, opinions, education, experience, and more that create the separation between us and others. Ultimately, as important as these are, what really separates us from others is our choice of how to respond to these things and how to live with them.

We all need redemption

We have been redeemed

Now we need to live into that redemption