Carrying Burdens and Boasting in New Creation

True community, authentic relationships, embraces all of life. The good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the awkward and the easy. Proverbs 29, 18 says, without vision, we perish. So we do need those sort of positive conversations that point us in a better direction. But also, Proverbs says, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, and whoever hates correction is stupid. That's what it says in the NIV. Very straightforward. So we need both, right? We need both. We need words of vision and encouragement, but we also need words of correction and redirection. [00:06:51] (46 seconds)  #BalanceCorrectionAndEncouragement

Jesus' kingdom is bigger than ethnicity and gender and social status. It is for everyone, everywhere, whosoever will may come. Well, that sounds really cool. That sounds really nice. The practical outworking of integrating people who had been separated, who had even been considered enemies, integrating people who had been divided for so long, required overcoming some very real barriers and is, in fact, very hard work. It's a lot of hard conversations, a lot of awkward conversations, a lot of loving correction, practicing forgiveness and seeking reconciliation. [00:09:21] (45 seconds)  #KingdomBeyondBarriers

A very simple, calm, direct. I've noticed this. You know, it hurts me when I see you engage in this behavior. That goes a lot farther than a harsh word. Once again, the Proverbs are helpful here. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So yes, we need to have tough, sometimes awkward conversations. We need to be able to correct one another, but we must do it gently. [00:12:30] (34 seconds)  #CalmDirectCommunication

Healthy church families do this regularly and do this well, right? We should, after a while in a church family, find ourselves on both sides of this. There will be times where we are carrying and then other times where we are the ones being carried. Hard conversations, awkward conversations, gently confronting sin with the goal of restoration is a critical aspect of carrying one another's burdens. This is the real work. This is the messy work of actually being a community. Not a fake pretend community, but a real community of real people in real relationships with each other. [00:15:12] (51 seconds)  #RealCommunityRealRelationships

So how do we humbly walk in the Spirit? By following Jesus to the cross and the empty tomb. By following Jesus through death and into life, from old creation to new creation, the cross is at the center of everything. It is at the center of our lives. It is at the center of our community. It is at the center of our celebrations. And it is also at the center of our confrontations. The cross is at the center in all things at all times. [00:19:25] (38 seconds)  #CrossAtTheCenter

We see here a church community trying to figure out how to overcome the divisions and factions of the world, something that is still a significant issue today. The ways that we are pitted against each other, there is, Paul says, neither male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. There is something new happening. There is new creation. The only thing that counts is new creation. [00:21:19] (31 seconds)  #NewCreationNow

It's very easy to be overwhelmed by the weight of the world, the burden of our failures, the confusion and the muddledness that pervades our lives. And so we need these signs. We need these sacraments to point us to what is most true and real, to remind us new creation is happening. New creation is bursting forth right in the midst of this one. This is what counts. [00:22:09] (30 seconds)  #SignsOfNewCreation