Salad Bar with Sonja Knutson

Well, good morning Central.

Who's already cried this morning?

I have like, seriously, the All Saints videos and you're right, buddy, I know why you were crying too, and I speak the name of Jesus and the blessing song.

It's just going to be one of those days, I can tell you.

But who got to enjoy the extra hour of sleep?

Woo-hoo, that was awesome.

Until 4.30 tonight and it's dark and they're like whatever.

Dan Ryan, my friend right back there I was just saying he's struggling with winter already.

I'm like it's November 4th or 5th, but I get it Say.

We are about three quarters way through our sermon series called Discipleship in a Dischanted World and we hope that you have been taking from these sermon's ideas of how you can grow deeper as a disciple and how you can disciple to this world, and that's specifically hard when we are living in a world that may or may not agree with who Jesus is and how he is a part of our world.

Ryan and Ben and a guy named Rob Morris, founder of Love 146, a nonprofit that rescues children from trafficking, have been doing a great job of sharing what it means to be a disciple and how, as a disciple, it looks to be a disciple and respond to this world.

I loved Ryan's first sermon in this series that talked about the dust of the rabbi.

Do you remember that?

He said what it means to be a disciple is to be so close to Jesus that you're like living and walking in the dust of the rabbi the dust of Jesus.

Ryan has also talked to us about what it means to be in practice and rhythms of discipleship and how to dig deeper into the word of God and how we can be a Eucharist out in this world.

Then Ben spoke to us, maybe like three or four weeks ago, about what it means to hold others accountable and then to have somebody in your life that will hold you accountable, to be a disciple.

And then Rob Morris challenged us to do something that matters every day.

I loved how he presented it in this way of like.

Often we are impacted by the things that are just in our backyard, but we need to have our eyes and our hearts wide open to things that are across the street and across the city and across the state and the nation and the world so we really can disciple to this world around us.

Today we're gonna be talking about discipleship and community, and I love as this falls into the mission here at Central.

Our mission is to follow Jesus together, to be a community where you belong and to love your neighbor across the street and around the world.

In other words, we are to follow, we are to belong and we are to love.

So when we start talking about that, sarah, can you move to my next slide?

When we are talking about that, I think it's best to start in prayer and to ask ourselves oh, not that one, I'm so sorry, nevermind, go back to the other one.

We're gonna start together and pray.

We're gonna pray over this message for sure.

Will you pray with me?

God?

We thank you for this opportunity to talk deeper about discipleship and today, as we talk about what it looks like in community, I'm gonna ask that you would use my words this morning and this idea of discipling in community and place it on the hearts and the mindset of those who maybe need to hear it, maybe who live in individual worlds and are more focused on themself rather than beyond the doors of their home or their lives.

God, I ask that you would speak peace into us today on All Saints' Day.

I know that many in this room are grieving, I know it's fresh for some, and perhaps we've been grieving in the past year or the many years to come.

And so speak your love into us this morning and speak community into the idea of grieving In your name.

We pray amen.

See, I told you it's gonna be a tearful morning, angie.

Ha ha ha.

Well, how do we disciple in a world that is disenchanted or disappointed or cynical, and perhaps no longer believing that Christianity is worthwhile?

That is a great question, especially when, in America today, we are a nation of individuals where we focus on ourself, which is perhaps why Mother Teresa referred to America as the most socially impoverished country in the world, with no visible community.

Wow, that's a gut punch a little bit, thanks, mother Teresa, but it's true.

So how do we speak to discipleship?

Living together, knowing each other's struggles and stories and being willing to speak the gospel into each other's lives in this egocentric world where the individual is the most important?

Well, it's simple, but really not so simple.

We live in community.

We are in community together, a group of people believing and living out the same common interest, in this case Jesus, and coming together to speak the truth of Christianity to those who may not know or may not seek Him.

Now, there's nothing wrong with, fundamentally, with individualism or self-focus, but, like all worldviews, individualism impacts our relationships with others and with God in good and in bad ways.

We, as followers, understand the importance of a personal relationship with God.

Growth comes through personal study, through prayer and worship, but our individualism can blind us to the importance of a community, leaving us lonely and disconnected from one another, and we see this every day around us.

Right?

The family has broken down.

Neighbors see each other only when they take out the garbage or they pass one another on the road, and they do that steering-wheel wave.

You know what I'm talking about.

Kids only play during play dates scheduled by grown-ups or during organized sports.

And as technology continues to devour our daily lives, we become more and more isolated and more and more self-focused.

We think we have community through technology, right, I have a thousand friends on Facebook, so I have community.

I have 2,000 followers on Instagram, I have Snapchat and I have X, and don't even get me started on the text messages that I receive all day.

But technology has left us more detached than any other time in history.

Instead of visiting someone in person, we call them on our cell phones while we're driving somewhere, right?

Hey, I'm leaving destination A and I'm going to destination B and I've got five minutes to talk to you.

Or, instead of writing letters, we send these things like instant messages or text messages or emails, or we send a quick Snapchat with a one-word caption.

We are more accessible but less interconnected than ever before and, as a result, we live in a world of many connections but very few deep relationships.

In fact, sherry Turkle, who is a professor and expert in technology and author of a book called Alone Together, shares our digital connection offers the illusion of intimacy without the demand of friendship.

Now, I'm an introvert at heart.

I'm actually a very shy person and I love the quiet, individual community of social media.

It allows me to be connected and yet disconnected, to be the star of my own life, my own show, without conversation or conflict or anxiety.

And if someone doesn't like me in my stardom, I can just simply swipe them away.

Right, I can block them, I can unfollow them, I can unfriend them.

Now I know that that mindset with technology profoundly impacts my well-being, so I try to limit the use of technology in life.

I know that I need people, I know that we need people, we know that we need people right and we are designed to be in communities, starting with the very nature of God the Trinity, god the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

God is community.

He is three in one, interconnected and yet interdependent.

And he created us in His image to do life with others.

Community is all over the Bible, starting with the story of humanity's creation with Moses that he shared in Genesis.

Let us make men in our image after a likeness.

Did you notice that?

Let us make men in our image.

That us he is referring to is the Trinity, god, the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And in Genesis 2 it reads it is not good for man to be alone.

People were created by God and by His community, and the Old Testament and the nation of Israel models this as well.

The people worshiped together, they celebrated holy days together, they lived together and they prayed the price of sin together.

God structured Israel's entire society with this idea of interconnectedness.

And then the New Testament expands the concept even more when Jesus demonstrates the value of community with His disciples.

Seldom do we hear of Him spending time with just one disciple, but rather he spent time with the multitudes, with the twelve, with three, or even when he was praying by Himself.

He was praying with His Father, and this was the pattern of connection that the disciples brought to the early church in Acts 2, where we read they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching and to fellowship and to breaking of bread and to prayer, and was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All of the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who was in need.

Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes and ate together, with glad and sincere hearts.

They were living in community.

They were teaching and breaking bread together and meeting and sharing life together, and they let God leak through them and rub off on one another.

They understood that disciple making isn't cognitive.

It is an active God leaking out and on to others.

If we, as Christ followers, want to change the hearts of this disenchanted world, we need to be leaking more of Jesus into this community so others can see Him in and through us.

Amen.

But community takes work right, because we are messy as humans.

We all have quirks and personalities that can push others over the edge.

But the point of establishing community isn't just to acquire friends or neighbors who look like us and act like us and someone you can borrow sugar from, but rather it is to bring His kingdom here to earth, even with our quirks, to change the trajectory of the world.

And that's why around here at Central we love house churches and journey groups so much.

This large group setting this is great and we need this too, but true discipleship comes from small, concrete social interactions journey groups and house churches that allow you to share vulnerability and safety, that encourage listening and holding one another accountable, as Ben talked about.

That nurture suffering and offer grace and mercy and forgiveness, and that draw us nearer to God through encouragement for one another, which is described in our reading today that Kelsey read.

The book of Hebrews was written masterfully to the Jewish Christians who were evaluating Jesus and struggling with this new faith and who were experiencing fierce persecution, socially and physically.

It is here where the author is using the salad bar approach to teach and preach how they and how we are to do life together.

Now I know you're asking yourself the salad bar approach.

I don't know what that is, but this reading is filled with.

Let us, let us do this, let us do that.

I know cheesy and very Ryan, but impactful.

The next time you go by ahead of lettuce, you're going to be like oh yeah, community, I'm supposed to be living in community with people.

This text is all about God's call in our lives and with others.

Let's read it again.

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, since we have a great priest over the house, let us what's that say?

Let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, our heart sprinkled clean from an evil, conscious of our bodies washed in pure water.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope, without wavering, for he has promised is faithful.

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all of the more.

You see, the day is approaching.

This reading reminds us of the value of community.

Let us not let me, not let you do life alone, but let us do life together, speaking into one another, as the author is instructing us to do.

If you look at verses 22 and 23 a little bit closer, it says when we come to Jesus, we need to come with a clean, authentic heart and to be real with him.

He doesn't want the fake you.

He doesn't want the fake me.

He already knows me and he knows all of my gunk.

He wants the real me and he wants me to come with community, to follow him together.

Let us come with a clean heart.

It's easy to hide in our sins, isn't it?

But as we gather more with people, they start to see through our facade and can guide us to Jesus.

Because in true, authentic faith, especially in community, it's like living in your favorite chair.

You know what I'm talking about.

That favorite chair that you eat midnight snacks in and all of the snacks get pushed into the cushions.

That favorite chair that sees you in your ratty sweatpants, in your pajamas, no makeup, no designer clothes.

That favorite chair that here's you swear at football games.

The favorite chair that watches those movies you probably shouldn't be watching, right?

That's the favorite chair.

That's the true you.

Jesus seeks Authentic community, helps you get to a place and reminds you to be real with Jesus.

They pull their favorite chair up next to you and they say I'm struggling too.

I'm struggling with life, I'm struggling with my face.

I'm not sure that what I believe is true.

I don't know how to suffer alone.

Let's do this together.

But if we are being honest with each other, let's work together to get to a place where we can live in our trust with him together, and when we do that, we then can hold tight to what we believe is true.

Verse 24 reads Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.

I read out of the NIV a lot and I love that version.

It says let's hold tight to the confession of what is true.

Let's hold fast, let's hold tight.

This is where community plays well.

No matter what your community or your village is and we all have them it's a place where you feel safe and you can hold tight and you can hold fast to the core of who you are, and when you do that, you belong to something that is greater than you Makes sense.

We are all in communities.

They may look different from one another, but nonetheless we all live in some type of community.

For example, we are all Americans.

Maybe, I mean maybe, there's someone that's not.

But as an American, we hold fast and we hold tight and we hold true to like the Constitution of America.

We hold tight to the ideas that it offers the separation of church and state.

We hold tight and we hold fast to the rights that we have the right to pursuit happiness, the right to have a peaceful protest, the right to freedom and speech.

That is the core that we hold tight to in the community as Americans.

Now think of your family.

Your family is a community and you hold tight and you hold fast to your foundation of who you are and your roots.

It might be your heritage or your ethnic group or your religion.

It might be the love that you have for one another.

There are non-negotiables in your family.

That is your core right that you hold fast and you hold tight to.

When you introduce someone new into your family, what do you do?

You introduce them to the core right, to the foundation, and if it's a great fit, you're like come on in, marry my son, marry my daughter, be a part of this.

But if not, that person might get pushed out of your family, not in a negative way, just doesn't make a good fit for you as your core.

That's what you hold tight.

To Think about your communities where you feel like you really belong, the places where you are known and seen by others.

I would guess when you are there you have a core connection to them for whatever reason.

Right, I have a hiking community that I love the men and women because we love to do the same thing.

We love finding God out in nature, we love exercising, we love doing all these things.

To invite someone into that it's not to say that we wouldn't, but if they're not ready for the same experience, it's probably not going to be the best fit.

My son just graduated with a doctorate.

I'm not just throwing it in to say oh, good job Connor, but good job Connor.

Anyway, when I was out there last weekend in Philadelphia at his graduation, I met his core group of people that have walked the same journey for the last two and a half years.

And what was their core?

It was dedication.

It was the goal to graduate together.

It was perseverance.

In that Maybe your community is set around a struggle, maybe it's addiction.

Whether you're in addiction or you're trying to fight your way out of addiction, the core is still what holds those people together.

We're going to fight together.

We're going to hold tight to what Jesus says in this addiction.

He's bigger than all of that right.

Maybe your community is grieving Today.

You're here because it's all Saint Sunday.

Maybe you were invited because in this past year you've lost someone that you love.

Think about the people that have spoken to your life.

Are they your core community?

Do they bring Jesus into that sadness?

I think of my mom who lost my dad three months ago, the people that have wrapped them around her.

It's unbelievable the faith and the love that they bring her.

I don't get to be with her every day, but she has a core community that is either walked through grief or they've seen somebody who's walked through grief and they know how to love on her because that's what Jesus would do.

What is your community?

In a community of faith, we hold tight to the core of God's word and we lift that to one another so we can say hold on, grasp on to what's this unwavering faithfulness of God's promises that provides hope and reinsurance and in that, discipleship comes naturally.

It's a core that says I see you, I hear you, I'm with you and I hold you up through God's word and through God's promises.

And that's what discipleship and community does it picks us up, it wipes us off and it gets us back on track.

And in a disenchanted world, I can't think of anything that is more desired and needed than a person to be seen, than a person to be heard, than a person to feel like they belong somewhere and is encouraged and powered by love.

And verses 24 and 25, it reads Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as it is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all of the more you see the day approaching.

This author is saying to you and to me empower one another through concentrated thought and use it in and through your tongue to build up, to instill courage and to strengthen those who love you in their walks with Jesus and do it with others.

I can't imagine the Jewish Christians in 70 AD how they felt when they heard this, as they attempted to live a new faith under persecution and they were encouraged to lean into one another, to trust in their faith as they await the return of Jesus, to love and to do it together, because when we don't meet together.

We miss opportunities to rehearse the gospel with each other using phrases like I'll pray for you, I love you, I'm sorry, I forgive you and I challenge you.

I challenge you and this is what Ben talked about a couple weeks ago.

Discipling others allows us to challenge a person where we can say I know you well enough to say I love you, I'm going to put my arm around you, but also I'm going to challenge you, I'm going to nudge you a little bit to be the person that God created you to be.

I have a friend, one of my closest friends, who struggles with another relationship in her life and because we do life together well through Jesus, I can love on her and I can nudge her around a little bit when she's living in her anger and her frustration and her thoughts rather than living out who God calls her to be in her life.

This didn't just happen because we are friendly with one another and we see each other at the mall or at the grocery store.

We grew our relationship by sharing time together, by being vulnerable together with each other.

We trust each other, we pray together, we worship together in small groups and in large groups, and we disciple each other, because in that I can put my arm around her and say I love you, and I can nudge her a little bit to say get your stuff together.

This is not okay and she does it to me.

And that's what discipleship and community is all about.

It's the salad bar, the lettuce approach to doing life together, and it's poured out all over the word of God.

Friends, let us bear one another's burdens, let us rejoice for one another, let us mourn for one another, let us accept one another and let us forgive one another in the name of Jesus.

Friends, discipleship and community is hard, but in faith it is a non-negotiable.

We are called to speak to one another.

We are called to gather as tribes and build community.

We are called to encourage and lift one another up so we are ready to face Jesus when the time comes and when he returns.

And it will take your strengths to cover my weaknesses and my strengths to cover yours.

But if we follow and belong and love the kingdom, work we will do together will surpass the disenchanted worldly thoughts and actions that we live in every day.

So let us do life together, approaching God with a true heart, holding fast to his promises and empowering others to walk with us.

Amen.