I don't know about you, but during the past week with all these ideas in my head of walking across rooms and entering Zones of the Unknown, I found myself to be keenly aware of people, all sorts of people, and I'd look at them and think to myself, "Okay God, am I supposed to be feeling something right now? Do You want me to do something here?" I want you to know that we're in this together and that my hope would be that all of us would become more aware of the people around us because we really believe that God wants all of us to become "Walk-Across-the-Room" kind of people.
Last week, if you recall, we left off with the exhortation to "Just Walk!" We said that if we wanted to get on with the task of giving folks around us "The Single Greatest Gift" that we can give them, that is, an opportunity to get closer to the God who created them and loves them, then we would be willing to enter "The Zone of the Unknown" by voluntarily stepping out of our "Circles of Comfort" and opening ourselves to engage someone who might need a touch from God. We said that we would listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit and choose to rely on the Spirit's guidance rather than our own, and then we would just walk remembering that Jesus took a long walk for us. Remember?
Today I want to talk about what happens right after you decide to walk. What should you be thinking about and praying about and talking about in that "Zone of the Unknown" once you move into it because most of us would agree that to walk is one thing, but knowing what to do once you've reached the destination is quite another. After you make a decision to walk across the room, what do you think about, what do you pray about, what do you say?
Our topic this week is "Living in 3-D". It's a very simple framework for operating successfully in "The Zone of the Unknown." It's made up of three D's as you've probably already figured out.
"Walk-Across-the-Room" people are those who live life in 3-D first by constantly looking for ways to develop friendships. We've talked about it as building relationships, getting connected; it's one of the Marks of Discipleship. If we're going to reflect God's heart as individuals and as a church, then we must be continually looking for the opportunity to develop friendships.
Many of you are here at King of Glory because you have friends here and one of the things you have in common with those friends is a love of the church and a love of the Lord. But after you've been a part of the church for so long, and I don't know really what the time frame is, but after you've been a part of the church for so long and developed such meaningful and deep friendships here, one of the dangers, one of the pitfalls, is that you loose your desire and your enthusiasm for sharing Jesus with people outside the faith. You become no longer interested in helping unconvinced friends discover a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This happens primarily because you don't have any unconvinced friends in your warm, safe "Circle of Comfort." And so it plays out like this: You may find it strange, but it's true. The closer some people get to Christ the more confident they become of their own faith relationship with God, the less concerned they become about people who don't know Him. You would think it would be just the opposite... and it should be!
This is what makes "The Circle of Comfort" so comfortable-we only have friendships with those who believe the way we believe.
In our Gospel for today, Jesus is seen in a marketplace having conversations with irreligious people-people who were really far from His Father, people who had made a lot of mistakes, people who painted outside the line, people who used terrible language, drank too much, slept in the wrong bed... the list goes on and on.
And He's interacting with them. He's talking, listening, just enjoying the fellowship and the scribes and the Pharisees, religious leaders of the day, had a real problem with this. They thought the whole thing was scandalous, because these people were outside their circle and it's not long before Jesus hears them grumbling about it. He sees their hearts and He knows their minds and He tells these stories one right after another. The first about a lost sheep, the second about a lost coin, and then if you read on in the Gospel, He tells a third story about a lost son. I'm sure that at least one of these persons who heard those stories that day understood what Jesus was saying: "Lost people matter to God." Every human being matters to God, and for us developing friendships means acting on that basic conviction that if God is open to thse people, then we must be open to them too! And that's where it all begins. Here at King of Glory we have a lot of people who are growing in their knowledge, growing in their worship patterns, growing in their ability to serve, and to give, but we must also be growing in our ability to radically accept whoever is standing on the other side of the room.
Developing friendships-that's where living in 3-D must begin. Once you take that first step in developing a new God-honoring friendship, you'll find some pretty interesting doors open. One of the things that will happen is that you will have the unprecedented opportunity to discover people's stories.
"Walk-Across-the-Room" people are people who live life in 3-D, constantly watching for ways to develop friendships in order to discover stories. Everyone has a story, and it's when God's story provide the link that intersects our story and their story that His-story is made. Notice that word "History." It stands for "His Story"-His action that takes place through our relationships.
I have a friend who can't figure out why it is but people, for no apparent reason, just pour out their life story, and when that friend lets the Holy Spirit lead, she just stays focused on building trust no matter how long it takes, and somehow, fantastic doors of opportunity open.
Now some of you here know what that is like and it seems to happen all the time to you, too. But others of you have not stepped out of your "Circle of Comfort" for so long that you can't quite get a grip on this. Some of you are wondering, "Well, what's the matter with me? No one ever tells me their story." Here's what's the matter with you. You gotta get off the bench and get in the game. You gotta get a little dirt under your fingernails. Seriously, you need to give it a try. Lay your agenda aside-don't focus on your story-listen to their story and let the Holy Spirit lead. Remember God has given us two ears and only one mouth.
Discovering stories of people who feel that God is very far away and taking a genuine interest in their story, so that you'll know the best way to help them, leads to the third D and final point this week. It's called discern the next steps.
Just this week, a member of the congregation asked me whether the church shouldn't be doing something about the family who suffered the tragic loss of their 16 year old son in an accident on 146th Street. I responded, "You certainly should! You are the church, and the mere fact that you have that thought running around in your heart and mind is an indication that the Holy Spirit is prompting you to act. You don't have to go through a committee or get the approval of the Council. Listen to those promptings and you will discern the next steps as you trust the Spirit leading you to be the presence of God's love and care.
In our small groups this week we're going to talk about divine forks in the road, intersections where you can either listen to a person's story and pray that God will show you what to do next, or you can pretend to listen and then do nothing.
"Walk-Across-the-Room" people are people who live life in 3-D constantly looking for ways to develop friendships, to discover stories, and to discern appropriate next steps.
There's an interesting story in the third chapter of Mark about a man with a withered hand. Jesus was preparing to teach in the temple one day and the Pharisees were still very upset with Him and they were trying to catch Him in the middle of some kind of Sabbath infraction. Remember you weren't supposed to work at all on the Sabbath, and that included healing injured people!
Well, the Pharisees dragged this poor guy with the withered hand into the temple and then they stood back to see if Jesus would take the bait, and Jesus sees these religious leaders standing in front of Him and He just gets irate. He couldn't believe that they were so worried about their "rules" that they wouldn't want Jesus to demonstrated His radical love by healing someone who desperately needed it. Well, essentially Jesus makes no apologies as He asks the man with the withered hand to step up and Jesus healed him.
The thought I want to leave with you today is that you have the profound privilege of reaching people around you with the same kind of radical love and unconditional acceptance that Jesus Himself offered to those that He encountered. Somewhere along the line that radical love and that acceptance was extended to you and you have accepted it.
All of us were withered in one way or another when people around us chose to take an appropriate next step or two and move us a little closer to God.
So here's what I hope you'll take with you today: I want you to remember that each and every day you are surrounded by people who are lost and hurting, people who are withered, people who have withered hearts, withered minds, withered bodies, people with withered dreams, and withered energies and withered hope, and it's very possible that God will use you to help heal a few of those withered people between now and the next time we meet.
In the week ahead we can choose to invest in things that glorify and satisfy you or we can choose to invest in things that glorify and satisfy God. So here's the challenge for us this week: Can we commit to living in 3-D, to become more intentional about developing friendships with all sorts of people, withered in all sorts of ways? Can we commit to discovering stories, remembering to keep the focus on the other person? And, can we commit to discerning what the next steps are, to let the Spirit guide our action?
Who knows where that will lead us, but wherever it taks you, if you choose to be obedient to God's leading, I think you'll look back on the week and say, "This was a week well lived!" Amen.
