Sunday Conversation: Because of This Love, Finale: Will We Stretch Out Our Hands to Heal or to Hurt?.

Ross Stackhouse:

Lord, illuminate our minds. We ask, help us to see your heart, to know your heart, and to be changed by it. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Jesus has this line where he talks about how the goodness that comes sort of that we demonstrate on the outside comes from a treasury of goodness on the inside. So what we do out here with our hands, our words, our feet, what we do with our lives on the outside comes from a treasury of goodness on the inside. So I have a question for you. Can you think of a time where somebody gave you something that showed you what their heart was really about? For now, we'll focus on the positive stuff.

Ross Stackhouse:

I'm sure you have examples where somebody gave you, like, yeah, they gave me betrayal, and it showed me that they're a monster. I get that. For now, let's focus on when somebody gave you something and it showed you something about their heart, their character. Okay, fine. I'll start. I went down to. You've heard this story before, but I would like to tell this story probably about 40 times a year until I'm dead, because it's that good. We went down for fall break.

Ross Stackhouse:

My family's from French Lick. My aunt and my cousin work in the hotel. And I've never even. I've been to French Lick. Like, I don't even know how many times. I've never even stepped foot in that hotel. And so we decided to stay there in the hotel. But right next by is a West Baden.

Ross Stackhouse:

A church that was founded in: 1897

Ross Stackhouse:

That's it. So there's a little boy. Everybody knew his story. Mom got pregnant when she was 14. Dad ran off. So this little boy was raised by his grandparents. Thelbert. That's a wonderful name, isn't it? You're like, man, I should have named my kid that.

Ross Stackhouse:

Thalbert and Iva, this little boy was raised by those two. And Iva didn't feel she had good enough clothes to go to church. So she would get the little boy ready and drop him off at West Baden United Methodist Church. And you know what's? In a people's heart based on their hospitality. Not only do they how do they welcome people and not only do they include people, but do they involve people? Do they elevate people? That's how you know what's going on in the heart of somebody. Because, man, they came around this little boy every Sunday. They, they put him to work passing the offering plate, ringing the bell that Tim Draving brings every Sunday to this day. And he was raised in that church.

Ross Stackhouse:

They came around him like he was one of their own. They welcomed him, they included him. They involved him and they elevated him. That's what they are stretching out their hands to do. That's what they're extending themselves to do. And so because of them, my dad has faith and I have faith because he extended his hand the way they extended it to him. And they extended their hand to him because of how Jesus extended his hand to them. So my question for you today as we end this series because of this Love, what are you doing to extend your hand to others? What are you stretching out to give to others? And what does it reveal of your heart or going to end at this question? These questions today.

Ross Stackhouse:

Look at the light that's just started shining through the windows. Praise God. We've been talking about. We're in a series called because of this Love. It's inspired by First Peter 4. 8. It says above all things. Can you say above all things one more time, Christy? What does above all things mean at the top? Okay.

Ross Stackhouse:

All right. We're following. We're on the same page. I thought so, too. Above everything, keep this intense love among you, because this love covers practically everything. It's an adjective used in 1st Peter4.8 that gets used nowhere else in the New Testament. We learned some Koine Greek the first week of this series. You remember it, right? Of course you do.

Ross Stackhouse:

And I showed you that while it's the only instance, the only instance of that adjective, there's a verb in the original language that sounds a lot like it. The adjective is ektene. The verb is ekteno. Ekteno means like to stretch out your hand to extend your hand. And I read you these references. Remember Matthew 8. Three, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing be made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Ross Stackhouse:

Then Jesus said, Matthew: 12:13

Ross Stackhouse:

Matthew: 26:51

Ross Stackhouse:

We'll walk through this first. And I want to show you this. I want to show you, like, how what humans are choosing to do with what Jesus has given them and extended to them. There's a contrast between what humans choose and what Jesus has chosen and keeps choosing to extend to them. Well, obviously, we got to start with our guy Judas, right? Tragic story. While Jesus was still speaking. So Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane having a moment with his disciples, speaking. Judas, one of the twelve, came.

Ross Stackhouse:

With him was a large crowd carrying swords and clubs. Now, why that's significant. Say large crowd for me. Oh, let's learn some Greek. Say, aklos, you are ready for Jeopardy. You're just getting better and better. Every time there's another time that Aklos shows up. Anybody want to guess? In this gospel, it's about six chapters ago, there's a big, big crowd who brings something to Jesus.

Ross Stackhouse:

He comes into town riding a donkey, and people are going, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, like, this is the dude we've been waiting for. The adjective is like a big, huge, great crowd. And they lay down their clothes on the ground as a sign of their, like, acknowledgement of who he is. This big, large crowd gathers to acknowledge Jesus. Six chapters later, some of those same people. With Judas was a what? With Judas was a what? What are they carrying this time? Are they going hosanna in the highest.

Ross Stackhouse:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. No, they're saying, get that guy. So first Judas makes a decision. Jesus has extended kindness upon kindness upon kindness to him. In the Last Supper, Jesus knows what's going on in his mind. He knows that Judas mind is set on betrayal. He's already hatched a plot, gotten 30 pieces of silver to help these authorities arrest Jesus in secret because they don't want to do it publicly. Because if they do it publicly, they'll be some, some drawback, some pushback.

Ross Stackhouse:

They got to do it secretly. So Judas helps them. And Judas gathers a crowd. This crowd. Jesus extended kindness to many of these people. And they choose to extend their hands with what? Clubs, Swords? So we already got Judas, we got this crowd. And now they had been sent by the. They had been sent by who? I just can't believe that there are religious leaders that would want power and control for themselves.

Ross Stackhouse:

Can you believe that? They're the brains behind this operation. But like some of the most evil that's ever been done in our world, they want the blood to be spilled. Not only do they not want the blood on their hands, they don't want the blood to be traced back to them. They want this dirty, wicked deed to be done in the dark. And they want to be able to say like, wow, man, I can't believe that happened to him. Look at this. His betrayer had given them a sign. Arrest the man I kissed.

Ross Stackhouse:

That's low. That's low. Just then. This is so tragic. Just breaks my heart because we know afterwards that Judas regretted it. And I just wish he would have gone back to Jesus to find out what Jesus would have extended to him yet. Hello, Rabbi. Then he kissed him.

Ross Stackhouse:

Oh, what does Jesus call him? Good God. But Jesus said to him, what does he call him? Do what you came to do. There are two other times Jesus uses that word, friend. Like that. They're in parables. One parable is when Jesus is. He tells a story about workers wages. You heard it.

Ross Stackhouse:

He tells a story of a guy who's hiring people throughout the day. He hires people first thing in the morning, six o', clock, hey, do you want to come work for me? I'll pay you a denarius by the end of the day. They're like, deal. Sounds good. He hires people different periods of time. He hires people at the end of the day. And you know what he pays the people at the end of the day? The exact same thing he paid the person he hired in the morning. And the person in the morning is doing what? Humaning.

Ross Stackhouse:

This is unfair. Why are you giving that person what you said you were going to give us? And the person hiring said, didn't we agree first thing in the morning, what you'd get. He calls that person friend, by the way. Friend. Friend. Didn't we agree on what you would get Also, in case you failed to notice, don't I get to choose what I do with what belongs to me? Ooh, friend. The second time he uses it is Matthew 22. He tells the parable of a wedding feast.

Ross Stackhouse:

Jesus does. Sends out all these invitations to high and mighty people. Nobody shows up. Eventually, the host of the wedding is like, I'm gonna have a party with lots of people at it. So go to the edges of the streets, go to the alle, Find the people who are downcast, get them here. And then somebody. This is a hard parable, to be honest with you, shows up not dressed for the event. And the host says, friend, why you dress like that? And then says a harsh thing afterwards.

Ross Stackhouse:

Every time this word friend gets used like this, I wonder if I wrote this down for you. Let's find out. Yeah, right there. In each case, you have a person who returns an extraordinary act of generosity or justice with an extraordinary act of disrespect. When Jesus uses that word, friend, Jesus has extended his hand, stretched out, to do something extraordinarily generous or extraordinary, to do justice, to make something wrong right, or to give an example of doing justice. And when he extends his hand, people bring it back with an extraordinary act of disrespect. So right here at the end, you get highlighted in the Gospel, like Jesus, what Jesus chooses to do, what he chooses to do with. With the love he has, and what humans decide to do in response.

Ross Stackhouse:

those with Jesus, we made it: 26:51

Ross Stackhouse:

Christianity struggled for 300 years. It was illegal. They were getting killed. They were getting eaten by lions in the coliseum, refusing to spill the blood of others, but willing to shed their own, to bear witness to this power and love of Jesus. And the movement exploded from 25,000 to 100,000 to millions by the year 300. Until there was this fella named Constantine. Have you heard of him? He started screwing it up. He had a vision in a battle of the cross, and he thought to himself, something like, by this symbol, I will conquer.

Ross Stackhouse:

And then there was a little thing in the middle Ages. Is Jesus non violent or okay with violence? This one's. Hey, this is not a trick question. This one's an easy one. Sometimes I'm like asking you a trick question. Which was he for? Is he? Is he for non violence or. Or violence is okay sometimes if you got to use it. Which is he? Say it again.

Ross Stackhouse:

Does he spill the blood of others or spill his own? Put the sword back into its place. All those who use the sword will die by it. We do not unite ourselves with powerful evil empires. We do not pull the sword out to do violence. We have one empire to which we belong. It is the kingdom of the heavens. And in that kingdom we love reigns. And in that kingdom, non violent love is the way that we do business always and all the time.

Ross Stackhouse:

Clear? What will you extend your hand to support to be about? What will you do with the love he has reached out to extend to you? Jesus says, this is where I'm like, yeah bro, do it. Do you not think that I'm able to ask my Father and he will send to me more than 12 battle groups of angels right away? I'm like, that sounds great. Let's go, Jesus. What did I Jesus. Does Jesus do things by force? No, by demonstration and invitation. Over and over and over and over, he will demonstrate his love for you. He will invite you to receive this love, be changed by extend it to others. He will not force you to choose it.

Ross Stackhouse:

Because that wouldn't be a relationship, now would it? Is force involved in a relationship? A healthy relationship? No. But if I did that, how would the scriptures be fulfilled? That say this has to happen. He's asking them straight up, you guys are coming with swords and clubs to arrest me like a thief. Day after day I sat in the temple teaching. I was out in the open in the light of day. Why is it you're coming in the dark to do this? Wonder what that says about you. If you got to hide what you're doing, what's that say about what you're doing? And what's it say about the heart from which what you're doing arose? But all this happened so that what the prophet said in the scriptures might be fulfilled. Can you read the last sentence? Then? I thought it was just Judas who left him for dead.

Ross Stackhouse:

No, each of them. What about you? Would you have stuck by him? I wouldn't have like, you know, let me slip away real quick. I got something in the oven. I'll be right back. Look at what humans choose to do. Have we gotten better? We're making Progress. Aren't we? No. No.

Ross Stackhouse:

What does Jesus choose to keep extending to us? Here's the good news. This gospel, all this stuff is wrapped in an idea. Let me show you. Can I show you? Let's have Christmas time in October. Okay. And we'll end here and then have communion. Here's how the gospel starts. Look.

Ross Stackhouse:

A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son. And they will call him Emmanuel, means God with us. Except when you decide to betray him and then he smites you. No. After they deny him, doubt him, leave him for dead, what does he choose to do? It's the very last verse of the Gospel. I myself will be with you every day until the end of the age. I will keep being with you. I will keep stretching out to extend this intense love to you.

Ross Stackhouse:

I will do it no matter what you do. Will you be with me? Will you receive this love and let it transform you from the inside out? Is it a one time thing? Is it. Is it just like a daily thing yet this afternoon I will have to. I'll have to deal with some junk going on in my. My psyche and my spirit. What will I choose to do? Well, I choose Jesus's way or I will. I choose my strategies. I've got good strategies.

Ross Stackhouse:

Let me tell you about them. If the political party that you love chooses their agenda and their strategies and you get this like little feeling in your spirit, like let's not exist exactly aligned with the way of Jesus. But what will you choose? At the end of the day, folks, our allegiance is to one. We have no other allegiance. And this one to whom we have allegiance, he has shown us what the way is. And so God help me to choose it. Help me to be about it. I've been talking the whole time today and I haven't spoken to you at all.

Ross Stackhouse:

What's this stirring in you? I turned my back right after I asked that. What an idiot. What's this making you think? Yeah, I think one of the hardest things for all of us is the way of Jesus has been greatly distorted. I'd agree with you by evangelical Christianity, so to speak. I also hung out with a lot of progressive Christians in my time at school and stuff. They're not doing a great job either, honestly, like. But I see what you're saying. I saw a hand over here.

Ross Stackhouse:

I thought, yeah, Joanna brought up the kind of. The struggle with kind of people pleasing perhaps and kind of the approval of others people's. I know nobody here struggles with worrying about what people's approval rating of you is. I know you're well past that. One thing I'll say about that is this love grows from the inside out. You can't graft that fruit onto your tree like, because then it'll come across as, like that, that kind of fake, inauthentic Christianity that also hasn't been so good. There's a reason Jesus says, abide in me, I'm divine. The Father will prune you so that new light breaks in and this fruit grows from the inside out.

Ross Stackhouse:

There is. You have no chance to love your enemies unless the grace of Jesus transforms you from the inside out to do so. This turn cable. What else? Ralph. Ralph just spoke very wisely to, like, part of doing this work, this stretching out our hands to give is like the parable of the sower who just generously scatters seed, gives up control, gives up kind of the need to know, like, I gotta see this fruit happen. But part of it is spreading seed, trusting that the seed will take root as it needs to and that it will grow where it needs to grow. Anything else, Ashley? Sure. Ashley practiced self examination.

Ross Stackhouse:

Thank you. We all have to do that. Feels like she's been recoiling in times when she's called to stretch out instead of pulling back to stretch out. Yeah. Talked about greed and the question, what's in it for me? Like Kevin Costner at the end of Field of Dreams, what's in it for me? If you don't know that movie, you have an assignment. Watch it today. He does all this stuff. What's in it for me? If we're going to fully receive this love and stretch out and give it, well, we need to break up with greed and break up with that question, what's in it for me? And seamless transition too.

Ross Stackhouse:

We have to. We have to receive it from Jesus first and always. So that's why we're coming to the table today and ending this series with the Last Supper. Because in our. In the tradition from which I hail, the United Methodist tradition, not just ours, but many traditions believe that that's a sign that Jesus has entered the room. So that's a good thing. Jesus's grace is with us in a powerful and extraordinary way at this table. And so, like all we're doing today is we're practicing the last meal that Jesus ate before he died.

Ross Stackhouse:

We will. You'll receive a piece of bread that is unleavened like Jesus ate. I made it last night in my kitchen. And there's a holiness to that, to thinking about the simple ingredients that Jesus gives us, but can change us so well, you'll get a piece of bread, you'll get a cup of juice to be reminded of how Jesus gave his life for you, spilled his blood for us to restore the world. This is a space for you to receive again, or perhaps the first time, this intense love that God has for you in Jesus. So let's pray together. And then I'll have Amanda and Joey come up and help me serve. Lord, we cannot possibly be whole, be healed, be restored, be willing to extend ourselves to love others, especially our enemies, unless you first give us this saving love.

Ross Stackhouse:

So help us to receive that at this table with you. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us, that this bread and this juice might be for us the body and blood of Jesus, his presence with us. Amen.