Letting God Shine Through Our Relationships

July 8, 2007

Joe Kutter preaching

I’ll confess that I’m not sure that I remember how to do this. Eight straight weeks without preaching a sermon; it’s been 35 years since I did that. The sabbatical has been a wonderful time for renewal and refreshment and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. We had travel time, family time, personal time and especially during my week at Mercer University, I read until my eyes grew weary. My hope is that just as the time away was good for Peggy and me; it will prove to be good for this church that I had an opportunity to renew my commitment as a follower of Jesus Christ within our shared Baptist tradition.  More than ever, I am convinced that Jesus is the hope of the world and more than ever, I believe that we who walk the Baptist way have a contribution to make to the ministries of God’s Kingdom.  THANK YOU.

We spent the few days at the American Baptist Convention in Washington, D.C.  While we were there, I heard Dr. Parush Pareushev, a professor of “Applied Christianity” (ethics) at the Baptist Seminary in Prague. As a part of his presentations, he shared the story of his own journey into the Christian faith. This is the way that I remember it.

He grew up in a home that was committed to creating a world in which nobody was hungry or homeless or lacking the necessities of life. Both of his parents were committed to making this world into the best possible place for all persons and he made that commitment his own. Like both of his parents, Parush was a dedicated communist.

He described communism with words like these. He said that communism is the highest achievement of the secular rational mind. It is a vision of a world in which all persons have all that is required for a good life and that was his commitment in life.

He was born in Bulgaria and he became a scientist and he married a scientist. As a scientist, he attended a meeting in Communist Poland. While on that trip, he encountered the failure of the Communist vision in the worst possible way. Instead of everybody having enough of everything, nobody had enough of anything. All of the shelves in all of the stores were bare.

He expected to see rioting in the street. Violent protests of the shortages. Instead, he saw the Polish Christians marching and lighting candles and praying. Those peaceful protests provoked his curiosity about Christianity.

He returned home and began a 10 year long conversation with his wife. He began to explore the Christian faith. And he said, it wasn’t until he was touched, personally touched, personally befriended and made welcome by a group of Pentecostal and Baptist Christians that he finally saw Christ and his way clearly. His research, his study and thought prepared him but he came to know Christ through relationships with Baptist and Pentecostal Christians in Bulgaria.

It is all about the personal touch. It is about relationships.  Christ shines through relationships.

With all of the changes that we have experienced at First Baptist in recent years, we are sometimes asked about the direction of the church. Where are we going?

This is one part of the answer to that question. As we move toward the September, you will be hearing about another set of small-group offerings. Once again, you will be encouraged to find a place in a small group where you can study or pray or eat together or do service together, a group of a dozen or so people who are doing faith together.

Why, because as those relationships grow and are strengthened, there is a very good chance that you will experience Christ in a new or in a renewed way. Jesus once said that where two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be with them. It seems that Jesus loves to show up in small group encounters.

In a couple of weeks, about 25 of our members will go to Nicaragua on a mission trip. Ask those who have gone before about the experience, what was most meaningful?  While they may not use these words, most will talk about the relationships. They will talk about the relationships that the members of the team form with one another and they will talk about relationships that are formed with Nicaraguan sisters and brothers in Christ. And this is the really hard part to describe but it happens often. There are holy moments in the journey when Jesus himself shows up. As those relationships are formed and nurtured in the process of doing ministry, Jesus appears in the form of a holy experience.  In prayer or in mission or in study, God frequently shines through the relationships.

Let’s try an experiment. If you grew up attending Sunday School, look back to your best memory. Remember something about Sunday School as a child. As your strongest memory, how many remember a lesson?  How many remember a Bible verse?  How many remember a friend or a teacher? Relationships, God shines through relationships.

The bad news is that when we ignore relationships, Like a shade being pulled to keep the light of the sun out, the light of Christ is darkened by bad relationships.

The scripture that we read this morning oozes the beauty of relationships. Let’s review a part of it.

• If someone sins, restore him gently to the faith. Do not beat up on him. Rather, like the child of God that he is, bring him gently home. Relationships.
• Carry one another’s burdens. Last week we were waiting for a shuttle when the woman I was talking with jumped up and ran to the steps to assist an older woman down. She was there before I saw it. Do you remember the old Paul Simon song? When you are down and out, feeling low; when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all…like a bridge over trouble water, I will lay me down. Relationships.
• Carry your own load and do not think too highly of yourself. Take care of your own responsibilities and have respect for the responsibilities of others. Do you feel the tension?  Carry one another’s burdens and carry your own load. Do not take advantage of another but always be willing to help the other. Relationships, good strong loving relationships God shines through.
• Take care of your teacher or instructor. I’ll say it. There are too many pastors working for starvation wages and it is wrong. Take care of those who take care of you. Relationships, God shines through relationships.
• And the pinnacle of this list, the summit, the highest, best point, do not grow weary of doing good.  When you do the good thing, you are the image of God alive and working in this world. Too often it looks like evil will prevail but it will not happen. God is still God and good still the way of God and God will prevail. We are staking our lives on that, giving our lives for that so, do not grow weary of doing good. Relationships, God shines through.

Finally, one relationship that supersedes all of the others; our relationship with Jesus Christ. As you follow him, as you learn from him and integrate that learning into your life, as you absorb him into your being, as you know just how much he loves you and you love him back, the remarkable news is this, God shines through. This is the promise of the gospel; follow Jesus and he will take you to the heart of God. Follow Jesus and he will lead you to become the person that God intended from the very beginning of your life. Follow Jesus and you will discover the salvation that only God can give. Follow him and see God shine through.