Eat This Book: Enjoying the Company | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning, Awakening Church.

My name is Felicia Larson, and I'm one of the pastors here on staff.

And it is my joy to get to be with you this morning to close out our series, Eat This Book.

Today, I just want to say first and foremost, happy Black History Month.

As I've been planning for this message, Black History Month has been just in the back of my mind as I've thought about communally eating this book together.

What does that look like?

What does that sound like?

And just what is that gonna look like for us today?

So I want to start by saying, number one, have you noticed that there's nobody quite like black folks that do a potluck or cookout or the family reunion?

There are even TV shows and movies that focus on this aspect of black culture, like soul food and queen sugar.

And then there's even a Netflix original entitled Family Reunion.

At the family reunion, folks got their matchin' t-shirts on.

So you know who's part of which family, which cousin belongs to Uncle and Aunt So-and-so.

And what I love most about the family reunion, though, is that everybody brings their best dish.

You know they're ready to show off their grandma's mac and cheese, their friends down the street.

They're gonna bring the most beautiful peach cobbler.

Not in this little bitty tin, but in the deep dish Pyrex 9 by 13.

And then there's the uncle's brisket that's been smoked all night, and you got the best flavors coming from it.

And then there's the banana pudding.

Oh my goodness.

And just in case you're wondering, I'm known for my sweet potato salad.

Little, you know, oh, none of that sweet relish, pickle relish, and some mustard base.

So good.

Now, while I've got you sufficiently hungry and probably thinking about your Super Bowl snacks, come back with me.

Stay with me.

What does this have to do with studying the Bible in community?

Well, I'll tell you, what people tend to do at a cookout and what we do in communal Bible study is everyone brings their own special flavor to what we're studying, what we're eating, what we're bringing together.

People are representing who they are, putting their own signature on something that we may have had before.

It's like same dish, new experience.

Because when you're in contact with different people, they have their personal background, their family history, and their cultural context that they bring to the table.

Here's how Scott McKnight says it in his book, The Blue Parakeet.

No matter who you are, when we open the Bible, we read it through what we already believe.

Yes, what we believe can be challenged by the Bible and lead us to do shifts, but we can't deny this important starting point.

We start where we are, and where we are is what we already believe.

Okay, so let's go back to the food for a second, and this what we are is what we believe.

Mac and cheese, most of us have some sort of frame of reference for it.

You know, the blue box mac and cheese.

When you think about it, you're like, yeah, I've had it before.

But if that's your only frame of reference, your mind will be blown when you peel back the foil at the family reunion to reveal this luscious, yellow, bubbly, gooey goodness that could never come from a box, friends.

And that's why, studying the Bible and community, you bring all of who you are, and so does everyone else, to reveal something different and amazing and beautiful about God's word.

Let's take a look in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47.

Acts 2:42–47

Now, I'm not gonna do a deep dive about the context of this verse because come back next week.

We're starting a new series upcoming called Future Church.

But Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47 put in context for us and illustrate for us something beautiful about fellowship.

Acts 2:42–47

It says this they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple, and they broke bread in their homes, and they ate together and with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying favor of all people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Here we see the combination of studying together, the apostles' teaching.

We see breaking bread, we see meeting in each other's homes and eating together.

Here is this combination of bringing family favorites and their family backgrounds together.

So let's consider this in the early church and connect it to how we study scripture together today.

As people come to the table to study the Word of God together, each person comes with their personal and family history, their experiences, their faith traditions, denominational backgrounds they may have interacted with from the past, and their own cultural expressions.

And because of this, the different things that they hold to and hold meaning for them in the scriptures will be different from mine.

They will be asking different questions than I will ask, and others will see things that I can't or don't see.

See, that's the beauty of studying with other people, because the things that hold meaning for them as I get to know them will influence how I then see passages of scripture.

They will ask different questions, which will help me to understand why they ask those questions and begin to ask those questions myself of the text.

Okay, let's let's be more practical about this.

Okay, someone who's adopted in scripture, when they hear the words orphan or adoption, they're going to process those verses very personally.

A widow will read scriptures very differently than a single person or a married person when we look at relationships and marriage in the Bible.

A foreigner or an immigrant will hear passages about their specific group differently than a native-born person.

A woman will read passages referring to women with a gut-level understanding of how that application will impact her.

And the Bible is set in an agrarian context, agriculture and farming.

And while that context for us is very different, even an American farmer and a rancher will understand that better than a city dweller like me.

It's our careers and our jobs that even inform how we approach the text.

So as we come together around the table, my friends who are engineers may be more methodical in their approach to the text and see details that I don't.

An artist may see and color and may hear the melody of the Psalms in a different way than I do, may feel the cadence in the way that something is laid out in scripture.

And the hidden pieces of the story may come alive in the way that they help me to understand by what they hear and see.

A medical professional may be drawn to the healings of Jesus differently than I am.

Now then there's the English teacher who's looking at the grammar and composition of God's word and pulls out the verbs and nouns and adjectives in a way that makes the text come alive.

What I love to do is study scripture with people who are younger than me, and I get this opportunity every week with our protege cohort and leading my small group.

And the thing I love about it is that there are questions that I feel like I've settled a long time ago.

But when a young person brings their frame of reference to a particular scripture or things that I've accepted long ago, and then they ask a question in a different way, it makes me wrestle with the text differently than I have before.

It's such a joy to do Bible study with young people.

And then it's our elders that bring their lived experience and their different experiences of walking with Jesus over a long period of time that inform how we see things.

He is famed for liberation in black theology, and he was trying to understand why his parents could believe in a Jesus that others who oppressed them also believed in.

He was explaining through his study of theology and his search that trying to hold on to why his parents held on to this Jesus, why his parents would be informed by a Jesus that was believed by people who hated them.

The thing I love about James Cohn and his telling, giving that accolade to his parents is that we benefit in community by the elders' faith, by understanding that what has kept them going, what they've seen and been through, things that I haven't been through, but has helped them to persist in their faith.

Being in community with the elders lets us know that there are dark valleys that we can go through and our faith can be tested, and we remain faithful.

That can only happen though, oftentimes, with people who have lived experience longer than we have.

But this is why it's also easy to say that the Christian life is not just difficult to do alone.

It's impossible to do alone.

You see, we need each other so that we hear God's word differently, that we see it differently, that we feel it differently, that we walk it out differently than we would have if our lives were not informed by others we are in community with.

As we are informed by and questioned by and challenged by the faith of another person's journey, it shapes who we are.

Okay, so you might be thinking to yourself, Felicia, that all sounds great, but being in community is not all fellowship, food, and fun.

And you're right, you got me.

I'm hyping up all the great parts of it because there is some balance and some encouragement and support that we need from being in community.

And yet I am not so naive to think that things don't happen.

But here's what I will tell you first and foremost: that being in community leads to spiritual formation.

And from your pastor of spiritual formation, you're welcome.

Here's what the shorthand of that means.

That's just a nice way of saying spiritual formation, that your imperfections will be exposed.

And you can either choose to run or stay and grow.

That is the gift of community is the highlighting of our imperfections in a space for people who love us.

And then we choose whether we're gonna run or stay and grow.

Community refines our character, highlighting ways that we are potentially becoming more like Jesus, I hope, but sometimes not.

Here's what I mean.

We can think that we are so good when we're on our own until something gets tested.

So I could think I'm patient and I'm kind and I'm loving and I'm forgiving until somebody tries my patience.

And then I have to be kind and forgiving because they've been rude to me.

That is sometimes what happens in community.

It isn't all fun, fellowship, and food.

Let me share with you an illustration from the late Dr.

Steve Korch, my beloved professor from Western Seminary.

He shared this in one of his classes.

He compared the Christian community to putting various stones into a rock polisher, or also called a tumbler, that you'll see here.

The space is tight, the rocks are shoved in there, and what you're seeing is the pretty ending, but let me explain to you how they look going in.

See, the rocks are rough and they're covered in debris, and when this door is closed on them, the sound is loud and screechy and tumbly, and it's just so loud at the start.

Because what's happening is the debris is being pushed up against each other, and the rocks are bumping up against one another, and what happens is that something starts to take shape and the appearance starts to change.

And while the tumbler never gets fully quiet, it does achieve a smoother and more rhythmic sound.

And this is the end product shiny, beautiful rocks.

What I love about this illustration is that what you'll see with these stones is that they don't come out uniform, but they come out unique, smoother, and with that more rhythmic sound that I talked about, because that is the sound of unity, not uniformity, where people can bring all of themselves into a space, bump up against each other, be shaped and formed, and bring out the glorious riches that God has in them.

That's what community does.

John 17 says that Jesus prayed for unity, and he even said that there was this unity was the way that the world could judge the fruitfulness of his earthly ministry.

John 17, 21 says that.

So, church, this is why unity is important.

Well, people are not rocks, but God throws us into community with each other, and we can choose whether or not we are going to be a safe space for people to work out things, or if we're going to engage in cancel culture.

Trigger warning.

In light of our last year and recent events, what I'm about to say may trigger some stuff for you.

Before you shut down or excuse yourself, I want to ask you to just listen and then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what it is he wants to apply to your life.

Okay.

As I was studying this, one of the things that surprised me was that this safe spaces and cancel culture actually came from the same generation.

They're only about 10 years apart in their introduction into our linguistic system.

Safe spaces, a place that provides a physically and emotionally safe environment for a person or group of people, especially a place where people can freely express themselves without fear of prejudice or negative judgment.

And then there's cancel culture, our newfound favorite.

The phenomenon or practice of publicly rejecting, boycotting, or ending support for particular people or groups because of their socially or morally unacceptable views or actions.

Before I go any further, let me say this.

But what I am saying is that in community, we must make space for people to discover their abusive, toxic, and hateful ways in community.

For those in personal relationships, this is where therapy comes in, where you invite the ears and eyes of another person, and therefore you create a community with which to get more healthy in your relationship.

Let me take a look at scripture with you, because I think we need to see how Jesus dealt with people who were difficult, because we're so quick to cancel people, but Jesus ran with a rough crowd.

So let's take a look at some of the people Jesus contended with.

Matthew 20 shows us James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

What's funny about this passage is these two brothers come with their mother to plead their case for a position of power in the kingdom of God when Jesus returns.

So these two brothers come with their mother, and the mother says, Can one of my sons sit on your right hand in the kingdom when you return?

And Jesus didn't even answer the mother, not because she was a woman, but because he knew that the question didn't come from her.

She was just supposed to be the muscle to make sure that they got what they wanted.

But Jesus turned to the two brothers and said, Do you even know what you're asking for?

Do you realize that that power doesn't belong to me to give that position away?

But besides that, can you drink the cup that I'm about to drink?

Can you suffer what I'm about to suffer?

And the brashness and arrogance and presumptive thinking of these two brothers, they said, Yes, we can.

And Jesus said, And you will.

There was gonna be some persecution.

There were gonna be difficult days for them.

But what Jesus responded to was their arrogance and their presumptive thinking with a question.

Can you do this?

You don't know what you're asking for.

A question and a direct comment rather than cancellation.

Matthew 16 shows us Peter, Mr.

Impulsive Peter, the one who jumps out of the boat without thinking, walking on the water.

Impulsive Peter who says, I will never deny you.

Impulsive Peter who cuts off the ear of the guard in the garden.

Yes, Peter.

But what he does in this instance in Matthew 16 is he pulls Jesus to the side and starts rebuking Jesus for saying that he's going to the cross.

And Jesus turns to him and matter-of-factly says, Get behind me, Satan.

Now many people have questioned throughout the years, what does that mean?

Did Satan like all of a sudden just take over Peter's body?

And I would suggest to you, no.

But think about the thoughts that you have throughout the day.

Not every thought that comes to your mind is from you, is from a healthy, good place.

Some things are just suggested to our minds whether or not we'll hold on to them and speak them out of our mouths.

So when Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, what he was saying was, the thought that you have now taken captive and put out of your mouth came not from you, but from the source beyond you, which was the enemy.

Because who else would not want Jesus to go to the cross other than the enemy of our souls, who know that Jesus going to the cross would free us from sin and death?

So, but Jesus spoke directly to Peter based on this loving relationship that they had, telling him, Your thinking's out of line.

That's what we get to do in community with people, rather than cancel them, talk to them about their thinking being out of line.

And then there's Mark 14, the Passover feast in Bethany, where greed is revealed.

People are sitting around a table, and this young woman comes in with this alabaster jar of this beautiful perfume, and she begins to anoint Jesus' head.

And everybody's talking about her and rebuking her and saying how much money they could have gotten for that, and she's wasting it on Jesus.

He's sitting right there, and they say this about him and about what she's doing.

Jesus turns to them and says, Stop, leave her alone.

Do you not realize what she's doing?

She's preparing me for burial.

And wherever the gospel is preached, what she's doing today will be remembered.

And 2,000 years later, here we are, still talking about her.

Jesus pronounced a blessing on her and corrected their bad way of looking at what she was doing and called out their greed in the way that he approached them with what they said about her.

Not cancellation, but honest communication and a blessing pronounced on the person who was doing the right thing.

Lastly, there's Thomas in John 20, who Thomas is called the doubter.

Jesus rebuked him for his lack of faith.

And yet, what Jesus does to Thomas in this moment is beautiful.

So Jesus shows up after resurrection to the disciples in the upper room.

And Thomas wasn't there.

And they said, Well, but he he arose, we saw him, and Thomas said, Until I see him with my own eyes and touch him, I won't believe it.

And rather than just rebuking Thomas and saying, Oh, you have little faith, what Jesus says is, Come close.

Put your hands in my scars, put your hand in my side.

You see, Jesus, rather than canceling people, had different responses for different people based on who they were and the relationship he had with them.

For some, he said, Come close, touch me.

I need you to understand that I am who I say I am.

How does this translate to what we are supposed to be?

Like in community?

Well, Jesus contended with people, which is says to wrestle with them.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love suffers long, but it perseveres.

That's what Jesus calls us to.

Dr.

Vincent Bacon, a professor of theology at Wheaton College, encapsulated this in a very short statement.

The Christian faith is not about cancel culture 101.

It's about living with difficult people, 101.

He unpacks this phrase with a longer quote, and I want you to hear it because it just makes the point so well.

No Christian who is going to love their neighbor as themselves wants people to approach them as someone that's canceled.

They want to be understood for their complexity rather than being dismissed because of a dimension of their complexity.

The quote continues: The easy route is just to cancel people.

The problem is we have to ask ourselves, do I want to be canceled because of my imperfections?

What kind of mercy do we want?

What kind of generosity do we want towards us?

How much of an explainer do we want to be able to give?

Or do we want people to look at us and say, you get no explainer, you're out.

We need to be those who exercise that generosity toward others.

This is a version of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Whew.

Just let that sink in for a second.

This is not cancel culture 101, friends.

This is life with difficult people 101.

And if you think that's just a man's words in the 21st century, you'd be wrong.

Because Paul in Galatians 6, verses 1 through 3, says something very similar.

Galatians 6:1–3

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.

And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

Share each other's burdens and in this same way obey the law of Christ.

If you think you are too important to help someone else, you are fooling yourself.

You are not that important.

What I love about what Paul says here is he starts with relationship, brothers and sisters.

And then he reminds us to do this gently and humbly, being careful because we might fall into the same temptation and need someone to restore us.

And how do we want them to do it?

And then remembering we're not too important to spend time with our brother and sister getting them back on the right path.

Community offers us the opportunity to engage people in their complexity, reflecting to them the good and bad of what they've said, helping them know how to process this information, and then leave room for critical thinking and learning.

Sometimes the thought or idea that someone has, okay, it could be half-baked, I'll give you that.

But if you just pounce on it in the moment and don't give people the chance to breathe and think out loud, how do they learn to critically think and put thoughts together in a way that they can then share with someone else?

We have to leave space for people to think and to grow and to share what I say sometimes are the naive things that are not well informed.

That happens.

We've all been there at some point.

And we've wanted grace.

Okay.

Let me follow this up by saying this because I don't want people to be confused.

Because so those who engage in cancel culture and just want to get rid of people, this will be hard to hear.

For those of you who may have been canceled or feel like you have been, or just feel like everybody's just being mean right now, whether it's social media or your friends, I want you to understand so that you don't get confused when I say canceled.

Because sometimes people need to be corrected, and that's not being canceled.

You may need to be held accountable to the values you say you believe in, but that's not being canceled.

Someone may point out a flaw in your thinking or your attitude towards someone or another group of people, and that is not being canceled.

Nor is someone setting boundaries around what they will and will not talk to you about anymore because they don't want to get into a fight and they would rather maintain the friendship or relationship than go down a rabbit trail with you every time they get together.

Setting boundaries is not canceling you.

It may hurt.

You may feel like this person just doesn't get me or they don't love me enough to just let me be me and say what I want to say.

But they wouldn't be your friend if they didn't correct you, if they didn't set boundaries, if they didn't hold you accountable.

That's not cancellation.

That's called love.

That's called true friendship.

And that's what we offer each other in the body of Christ.

That's why at awakening, we find it really important to offer alternatives to what the world has.

We get in groups and in community so that we can practice these things.

We contemplate the word of God, the writings that are informed by God's word and shape our thinking, so that when we are talking with a friend, a family member, or a colleague, we are much better prepared with something life-giving rather than just a shrug of the shoulders or some cliche or slogan.

We have the word of God on our side, friends.

So, this moment we are living in needs a much more significant counsel.

And the word of God is filled with words of wisdom and encouragement.

People don't need our opinions.

They need for us to come alongside them with the nourishment of the word of God.

If we're gonna hold people accountable, if we're gonna correct them, let's do it with humility.

Let's do it with as if our temptation could be the very same.

To that end, awakening offers a variety of ways of engaging during the week in community.

We have midweek groups, school of faith, our core classes, affinity groups to just have fun with each other.

And then we have our new sermon, deep dive, midweek called the takeaway.

These are all opportunities to stay engaged in community, learning and growing and having fun with other believers.

We become like those we spend time with.

Scripture tells us that in Proverbs 13, 20.

Here's how the New Living Translation says it: Walk with the wise and become wise, associate with fools and get in trouble.

There's a consistent diet of the word in community that brings us into a space where we can talk with people and wrestle with the text and try to come to a better understanding of how to apply it to our lives.

Hopefully, we can have open dialogue without being criticized or canceled, simply being given space to hone our thinking in a safe space to hear out loud some of the things that we are wrestling with, and then being offered a variety of ways to see the biblical text and how to apply it to our lives.

Sunday sermons, you don't get the chance to talk back.

It's kind of a monologue right now, right?

But when you are in community with others, you get the opportunity to cement your learning, to be accountable to people for how you're gonna live that out.

That's how people grow by having accountability and by learning with others in community.

Well, the table has been very well set the last few weeks.

The first week we talked about the wisdom that's inherent in the Word of God and how it should necessitate the bulk of our spiritual nourishment.

And then we've been given the practical tools like a knife and fork on how to engage at this table, getting that study Bible, getting an atlas, getting a Bible dictionary, those tools that you may need.

And then this week, the communal aspect of what it's like to dive in at the table, coming together effectively and nourishing each other at the table.

But here's the thing young people say it like this you can talk about it, now you gotta be about it.

Right?

Talk about it, be about it.

We don't just want talk.

We want you to live this out.

Just because the table is set and you've been invited, you now have a choice about whether or not you're going to come.

You see, it makes me think of that old adage of you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I can set a beautiful table, but I can't make you sit down and eat.

It's up to you to pull out the chair and sit down.

Show up.

Because here's the thing these last three weeks, we've served up encouragement for getting into the word on your own and together.

We've given you a Bible reading plan that I hope you've engaged with this last week.

And you can do that day or night at whatever time fits your life.

And then we are rounding out this experience and asking you will you do this in community, in accountability with people who love you?

Yes, they'll challenge you, but it's because they love you.

This is your invitation to the cookout, to the potluck, to the family reunion.

We'll have a seat for you.

Will you join us?

Let's pray.

Jesus, we thank you that you don't cancel people, but you choose to contend with and struggle with us.

Thank you for the community that you spent time with when you were here on earth, showing us what it looks like to spend time in community with people who are different.

Thank you for the gifts of different cultures and backgrounds and family expressions that enliven when we come to Scripture, that it's a new experience because we're with new people, hearing your word from their vantage point.

Father, I pray that you would help us as we decide to get into community, knowing that our imperfections will be exposed, but I pray that they're done in a loving way.

And that, God, that we would be held up and encouraged by getting into community with one another.

Thank you, Father, for creating a family that we can all step into.

And we look so forward to that reunion with you someday.

In Jesus' name, amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash card.