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In the message this past Sunday, we received a reminder that “I” am not the focus of what God is doing.  That’s a simple, but powerful message that we must be chewing on more often than we do. 

Our church family is spending the next couple months at least, focusing specifically on Jesus being the focus/center.  Looking at the characteristics and attributes of this Center, and His Father/Spirit.  Especially in times of such a consumerist mindset in the Church, and found even in beautiful moments of salvation – we NEED this sort of re-orienting revival.

The moment where many of us “accepted Jesus in our hearts” may be a good place to start.  Foundational to so much that has gone wrong in our pursuit of Jesus, is why and how this pursuit began.  Churches and Pastors who held strongly to the motto of “get ’em to sign this paper”, or “get ’em to come back next week”…assuming the rest would simply work itself out….has led us to churches filled with people completely willing to be a part of what God is doing – but who assume God simply wants to save them and others from hell. 

Check please.

Because that was never, isn’t, and won’t ever be the primary goal of what God is up to.  Why was the blind man given sight again?  So that he could SEE.  Why was the lame man healed?  So that he could WALK.  Why was Lazarus raised from the grave?  So that he could LIVE.  Why was the early Church given the Spirit of God?  So that they could BE HIS ACTIVE PRESENCE.

God’s goal is not simply to make sure we don’t end up apart from Him.  God has brought you freedom from sins, offers redemption of what’s happened in your past, NEW LIFE for you today, HIS SPIRIT to empower your living, and has begun making ALL THINGS NEW….

..SO THAT….(may our lives fill in this blank)

And may we be inviting others into such living.  As we do this together, we are the Church.  The bride of Christ.  The disorientingly beautiful and infinitely loving force in a world being transformed as the Kingdom of God comes.  May we be found there…

Rev 6:12-17 “When he opened the sixth seal…”

Unfortunately there are many who read these verses, and begin to watch for earthquakes. Their eyes are trained to the skies, looking for evidence of the sun becoming black, the moon appearing blood-red, and stars falling from the sky. They watch the world news, and hear of natural disasters with drool hanging off their lips, hoping everything comes crashing down as a sign of Jesus’ returning.

Thankfully, these verses contain much more hope and transformational New Life than that. What we read here are words symbolizing a cosmic “upheaval”. John is writing to a community by the sea, well aware of how travelers know where they are and where they are going. Navigators use the sun, the moon, the stars, and islands/mountains as landmarks.

John had just finished talking about the faithful who have passed from this fallen world in verses 9-11. Now he moves his focus to those who find themselves living apart from God in a world He is breaking into. And the “breaking into” being discussed here? The presence of God embodied in the Church.

When the Church is faithfully living as the presence of the resurrected Jesus in a broken world, the impact on the world is as noticeable as such cosmic upheavals. From the highest leaders to the lowliest servants, anyone living according to their own natures will continue to lose footing as God’s Kingdom becomes realized here and now.

He ends this section with those people crying out to be hidden from the “wrath of God”. This is hard for some people to swallow, noting that so much of scripture speaks of God as a “God of Love”. To quote Dr.Mulholland, “if we began to walk off the roof of this building, you wouldn’t accuse gravity of being retributive or vengeful, but you would surely experience its’ wrath.”

God’s nature is Love, and His Kingdom is one of infinite sacrificial Love. To those who have built up an entire existence against this Love, the Church moves in the world as an extremely disorienting and radical force. Not as a weapon, but as Truth revealing, New Life bringing, Kingdom establishing presence of God.

May we live a bit less self-stabilized this week…