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“From Solitude to Community to Ministry”
Luke 6:12-26 Yourchurch Covenant,
(* This message is based on Henry Nouwen’s essay in 1995 titled, “Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry.”)
Mari Ikeda
Today I’d like to leave my series on John’s Gospel, to talk about the membership of this church. In this church, members are not members forever once they become members. Rather, we ask everyone including pastors to decide annually. To be specific, we ask people to make a covenant to keep three promises. Three promises are, first to love God, second to love each other in the church, and third to go out from the church and love people of the world. I personally feel that the second promise, “love each other in the church,” has become difficult and weak due to the past three years under the Covid crisis. Perhaps you all are more or less feeling the same way.
What I’m going to speak today is heavily dependent on the short essay written by Henri Nouwen in 1995, which I encountered last week and thought very helpful. It is titled, “Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry.” (LEADERSHIP magazine, Spring 1995)
I hope it will be helpful to all of you, whether or not you are a member of this church.
Now following Nouwen, I’d like to read chapter 6 of Luke’s Gospel. Let’s read the whole text of v.12-19.
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
Here we can find the order of activities, how Jesus did and how we should do. In the night He prayed in solitude. In the morning He gathered His people. During the day He went out to heal people. Now let’s start with pray in solitude.
A. Solitude
1. To hear the voice, “You are my beloved”
Each of us can do nothing without praying to God in solitude. It’s said that even Jesus went out to a place where He could be alone and spent a night there to pray. Why is it important to pray to God in solitude? “It’s … because it’s the place in which (we) can listen to the voice of the One who calls (us) the beloved.” To pray is to confess our troubles and desires, but it means more that we listen to God’s voice. It is to make sure of ourselves that God’s love remains the same and He loves us as His own children, in whatever situation and in whatever state we are.
However, while Jesus was able to listen to God directly, we cannot. Instead, we can confirm God’s love for us by remembering the fact that Jesus died for us on the cross. Even in the situation which we feel there is no god, the fact that Jesus sacrificed his life for us never changes. Therefore, to know God loves us is for each of us to test and confirm consciously and repeatedly that it is true, and to make one’s decision to believe. It’s important for us to face God by oneself and judge whether it is really the fact or not, rather than we believe blindly just because someone else says so.
2. To answer the question, “Do you love me?”
Moreover, there is another voice of God that we need to listen to in solitude. It is the voice asking, “Do you love me?”
Jesus, after He rose again from His death of the cross, asked Peter: “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you really love me?” He repeated three times. He asks us the same question. It feels a little strange, but it means Jesus wants us to love Him. His question sounds very human, weak and anxious, unlike god. However, that is the true meaning that God became a baby in a manger and that He was hung on the cross. He became weak for us, because He wanted to share in our weakness and live with us. To answer Jesus’ question, “Do you love me?” will guide us to the way we should go and become our source of power to live.
Now, let’s move to the next topic, gather our people and be in community.
B. Community
1. To reflect God’s love
Why do you think we need to be with those who share the same faith? Can we not just believe God by oneself? In other words, why do we need to belong to a church? While some people don’t think they need, in this church we consider it important to belong to a church. Because we are weak. We are not strong enough to keep trusting in God by oneself. We easily lose sight of Him in our troubles and worries. That’s very natural because we are human beings. That’s why we all need other people to remind us through their words and actions that we are God’s beloved and that His love for us has never changed in whatever situation we may face. By doing so, we need to become mirrors to reflect God’s love for each other.
However, it is important to remember here that none of us can be a perfect mirror, and that no one can replace God. If we expect other people to give us something that only God can give, we will be always betrayed and hurt.
2. To forgive each other
In the episode in Luke that we read earlier, Jesus chose the twelve apostles. Among them was “Judas …, who became a traitor.” But in fact it was not just Judas, who betrayed Jesus. All the other eleven men also abandoned Jesus and fled. Jesus knew their weakness from the beginning. He knew, but still chose them, because he had forgiven them from the beginning.
For us to reflect God’s love to each other means to follow this example of Jesus and to forgive and accept imperfectness and weakness of each other. To borrow Nouwen’s words, it means “to allow the other person not to be God.” It means to tell those who love us, “I know you love me, but you don’t have to love me unconditionally, because no human being can do that.” At the same time, it means to “keep asking others (whom we want to give our love) for forgiveness because [we] can give only a little love.” Although “[it] hurts to say to [our loved ones] that [we] cannot give them all that [we] would like to give,” that is our limit.
However, it is precisely when we fogive each other for such a limit that a true community of people living together will be formed. It is not just about church, but it applies to any human relationship such as husband and wife, parent and child, and friends. Furthermore, accepting one another for being weak and forgiving one another for having a little love will lead us to celebrate each other.
3. To celebrate each other
I myself have been greatly supported by the presence of friends who did not change their attitudes toward me even after they knew my weakness and imperfectness. Though they did not solve the problem I had, they spent time to listen to me, share my trouble together, and prayed with me. Before then, I needed to suppress my feeling in which I thought, “I will just bother them. They may become tired of me and dislike me.” So I also needed to have the courage to confess to them. In fact, unfortunately, there were a few times when I regretted that I confessed. But it can’t be helped to happen between human beings. I had a far more number of times that I was greatly released by confessing. Meanwhile, I believe I made other people regret of having confessed to me many times more than I regret. If I start to focus on that, I feel I should do nothing any more for others. But when I remember the love I received from my friends and God’s love I received through them, I notice my desire to pass it on to others springing up within me.
Do you have anyone who accepts your weakness just the way you are and suffers with you when you are sufffering? As they themselves have their own weakness, they may sometimes not give you the reaction you want, or even sometimes hurt you. Yet, we all need someone whom we can celebrate the presence of each other as God’s gift. That is the way a true community should be, the way we live together. I hope such a relationship of people will increase in this church.
Now let’s move on to our third point, our last one for today.
C. Ministry
1. To trust God
After praying in solitude in the night and forming a community in the morning, Jesus went out to people and healed them. We are expected to do the same. Although we may not have the power to heal sickness and expel evil spirits like Jesus did, He uses us to heal people’s hearts. It doesn’t mean we do a special work totally different from what we have been doing. Remember, what did the apostles do after following Jesus and coming down from the mountain? They did nothing. What happened there was, as it is said, “power was coming from [Jesus] and healing them all.” If there was anything that the apostles could do, it would be only to calm down people who rushed to Jesus and give them a relief by telling them, “Don’t be afraid. Jesus is surely right here.” It’s same for us. What we can do is just to trust Jesus and keep our hope in what He would do.
It doesn’t mean that we don’t have to do anything. Our role is to follow Jesus closely and keep telling people in pains, “Jesus is surely right here.” It means to keep showing through our words and actions that the fact God loves them never changes in whatever situations they may be. It is for us to keep trusting Jesus, trusting that everything has a meaning, keep hopeful, and be with those in pains, even if we cannot heal their sickness and solve their problems.
After healing people, Jesus spoke to them as follows. I’ll read only a part of it.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”
If we believe that these words of Jesus are true and will surely come to realize, and if we keep our hope and take actions, it becomes a strength for other people.
This ministry of healing and empowering people’s heart by our faith in God is never possible, unless we first learn to be in solitude and then to be in community. Because we are forced to realize repeatedly how powerless we are, while we desire to help other people. When we know we cannot offer any concrete help, we need the courage to keep involving ourselves with others. Because we are afraid of facing our powerlessness. However, the voice of the One, who calls us, “You are my beloved,” remains. We also have the presence of those friends who have taught us God’s love even though they themselves were imperfect human beings, which encourages us and guides us. Moreover, we will hear the voice of Jesus in people in suffering, asking, “Do you love me?” In this way, I believe that to trust in God means to keep the three actions, namely, be in solitude, be in community, and minister to heal people, all together.
2. Surprised by how much Jesus knew about him (47-49)
Finally, I would like to close my message by reading Nouwen’s words.
“Our little lives are small, human lives. But in the eyes of the One who calls us beloved, we are great—greater than the years we have. We will bear fruits, fruits that you and I will not see on this earth but in which we can trust.”
(Prayer) Dear God, please speak to each of us’ heart. Show us that you surely exist, love us, and hear our cries. Make this church a place to reveal your love more. May we accept and forgive each other’s weakness and rejoice together for your presence within us. Give us the courage to suffer with those who suffer, because we know you are powerful, even though we are powerless. Let us not grieve for things we cannot do, but rather keep our hope in what you may do. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray in Your name, Amen.
Summary
(* This message is based on Henry Nouwen’s essay in 1995 titled, “Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry.”)
Members of YourChurch make three pledges every year: (1) Love God, (2) love each other, and (3) love the world. This means: (1) being in solitude (know that you are loved by God and decide to love God), (2) being in community (as those who reflect God’s love despite our imperfection, forgiving one another, and celebrating one another), and (3) ministering to one another (understanding our own powerlessness, to trust God’s healing power, and suffering with those who suffer). Will you become a member and grow together in the knowledge of God’s love?
For Discussion
1. Out of the three, which do you feel is lacking in your life? How can you change that?
2. Does YourChurch fulfill point #2 in your life? How do you want to participate in community as described in point #2?