❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
A Statement of Determination that “I Am Yours.”
(Your Church Member’s Covenant Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-37)
Mari Ikeda
Today I would like to talk about church membership. Christian churches around the world have membership systems, and this church has one as well, but the way the system works differs from church to church. Some churches automatically renew membership semi-permanently once a person becomes a member, while others confirm each person’s commitment every year. At that time, some churches also confirm how much each member plans to contribute each month, and budget accordingly. At Your Church, membership is not automatically renewed, and although we confirm each member’s decision to become a member every year, including the pastor, we do not ask each member how much they plan to give, nor do we make a budget for their contributions. When you make an offering, there is no space for your name, so neither the pastor nor the leaders know who is giving and how much they are giving. I think you can understand why we do things this way if I tell you how we think about being a member of our church.
The name of this church is Your Church. Your Church” means ‘your church,’ and ‘you’ has three meanings. First is God, second is the people who gather in this church, and third is the people we will meet in the future. And to be a member of Your Church means to decide, “I am not mine, but Yours,” which includes all three meanings. It is the way of life of a follower of Jesus, which began when He gave up His divine identity to become a servant and offered His life in order to save us. We know that the happiest way to live is not to live for ourselves, but to live to serve God and to serve others. To renew that conviction in each of us in our relationship with God, each member of Your Church makes a covenant with God once a year. It is a covenant that says, “I walk this year as Yours.”
Jesus teaches the following. Mark 12.
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)
It is said to be the first and second commandments, and this order is very important. As an extension of loving God, loving our neighbor as ourselves naturally follows. Your Church member Covenant divides the second commandment into two, distinguishing between loving one another and loving the world, but both are part of loving our neighbor.
Let us begin. First, let’s start with the determination, “I’m God’s.”
1. I’m God’s.
a. God loves me like no one else.
We can confess, “I am not mine, God, but yours,” because first and foremost, God loves us first.
Perhaps the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible best illustrates how wide and great God’s love is. As the parable says, we are God’s children originally loved by God, but we ran away from God’s house because we found it more attractive to live selfishly than to live obeying God in God’s house. But we return to God’s house penniless, having exhausted all that God has given us and realizing that we can do nothing on our own. When we return, God finds us from afar and runs up to us to welcome us. He dresses us in the finest clothes, and celebrates our return with a huge feast for the whole family. They celebrate our return by saying, “This child was dead, but now he has come back to life. He was lost, but now he has been found, and so we are overjoyed!” It was such joy that it seemed unfair to the children who had been diligently following him at home during that time.
God loves each of us as His children. He wants us to somehow know this for ourselves and live each of our lives with joy. To prove this desire to us, He came into the world as a human being and offered His life on the cross. He did this so that we might remember our Maker and understand why we were born and what this world exists for, and so that each of us may surely live a life that is uniquely his or her own.
b. I love God more than anyone or anything else.
Knowing God’s love, we know that we are no longer our own, but God’s. And we know that it is better for us to have God’s will be done than to have our own wishes come true. So we think about what God is pleased with, both in our daily lives and in the major moments of our lives. We are only small human beings, and no matter how much we think about it, we will never fully understand God’s will. God knows this, and He is more pleased that we take responsibility for our lives and enjoy them despite our troubles than that we do nothing for fear of making mistakes. The important thing is that we always remember that our wishes and God’s will may differ, and trust that what God does is always good, even if it means living a different life than we desire.
An essential part of such a way of life is a time of worship in which we focus all of our minds and bodies on God. You can have a time of worship at church on Sundays, but you can also have a time of worship at home alone or with family and friends during the week. Worship is about coming before God with your heart as it is. We may sing or dance in praise of God, or we may confess our wrongs and kneel to ask for forgiveness. There are times when we don’t even know what to pray for in the midst of great suffering, and we just fall down and cry. When we do this and pour out our whole heart before God without hiding it, the Holy Spirit works on both our reason and our feelings. Then we hear God speaking to us, “You are my beloved child,” and we respond to Him, “You are the Lord whom I love more than anyone else.” Such two-way communication is worship.
And just as essential as worship is for us to love God and live our lives is the presence of friends who worship and live the same God. It is sometimes very difficult to believe that everything God does is good. When we fall behind in our studies or work. When relationships break down. When illness or disaster strikes. It can happen to anyone, but no one can immediately answer why it happens to them or why God allowed it to happen. It can also happen when we are abused by our parents, discriminated against because of our disability, nationality, or race, or when we are exposed to the evil intentions of others from the time we are born. Why did God allow such human evil and put us in a difficult situation? We may never get an answer. What does it mean that God still loves us? Anyone who wants to believe in God’s love must face it. For this reason, we cannot hold faith alone, but always need a companion to believe with us. That is why the second of Your Church’s Covenants is a statement of determination, “I am yours to be with you.”
2. I’m yours to be with.
a. I forgive you and rejoice in your presence.
It is through the presence of someone concrete that God’s love goes from knowledge to experience.
It was through my church family being there for me without disillusionment, even when they knew of my mistakes and weaknesses, that I knew I was loved. I was taught love that asks nothing in return through the willingness of people to whom I was just a stranger to give of their time and effort to help me. Also, when I have tried to encourage someone, I have been encouraged by seeing the person who was not well become well again. I know it is not because of my strength, but because God’s love touched that person.
None of us can replace God. We cannot solve each other’s problems for the other, and we often cannot answer the compelling question, “Why did this happen to me?” No one can love everyone with unreserved love all the time as God does. There are many times when we misunderstand or hurt the other person.
Nevertheless, the community that can look up to God together, accepting and forgiving each other’s weaknesses, is the church family. We love one another not because it brings a gain, but because we are willing and enjoy to be with a person for who he or she is, including what he or she is not able to do.
b. What is mine is yours.
Therefore, the most basic aspect of loving one another is being together. We share each other’s time, talk with each other, get to know each other, and pray for each other. We suffer together in times of pain and rejoice together in times of joy. We help each other to meet specific needs when we are in trouble, and we can do this because we know each other on a regular basis.
I think the key to taking the time to do that for each other and actually helping each other is whether or not you are willing to do so. If you are tired or broken in a relationship, it is natural to find it a hurdle to engage with others. There is no need to force yourself to do so, but please seek first to heal yourself. Then, please connect with people who make you feel safe.
But no matter what state you are in, the path that each of us has lived will always help someone else. You may have already given strength to someone else, even if you do not know it yourself. The work of communicating God’s love to others is not only to consciously love someone, but also to show them how you love God and live your life. It is also about offering ourselves for the sake of others. Therefore, let us aim for a community in which each of us serves one another by spending time together as we are, in the state of mind that each of us is in.
However, this community is always open to the outside world and is influenced and changed by the outside world. Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor,” and what he really meant was, “Be a neighbor to those who need a neighbor.” Let’s read the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, with some omissions.
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)
3. I’m yours yet to meet.
a. I will be a neighbor to those who need a neighbor.
We tend to get along with others who are similar and be content. That is human nature, and I don’t think it is all bad. But in delivering God’s love, that nature gets in the way. It causes us to ignore those who need God’s love or to make excuses that we don’t need to do it. If we are to live in love with God, we need to make a conscious effort to continue to get to know strangers and try to understand those who do not understand us.
As in this parable of the Good Samaritan, to love your neighbor means to bring God’s love to all who need it. It does not matter who they are or how they relate to you or not. If someone needs help or is suffering from human injustice, we do what we can to help them, no matter who they are. In this way, delivering God’s love is also delivering God’s justice and hope to the injustices of human society. It is the work of bringing God’s Kingdom to this world.
b. I change myself to change the world.
We carry this work both as a community, the church, and as individual believers, and in order to carry this work, we need to accept that we ourselves will change.
The Good Samaritan broke with common sense to help the fallen Jew, changing his schedule, using his own resources, and laboring to save the Jew. At the time, it was common practice for Samaritans and Jews not to interact. There were many who ignored those who had suffered misfortune, and it was easier to be one of the many. But this Samaritan was different.
We, as a church community, need to continue to change so that we can meet the needs of those who are new to this church and the needs of society. Each of us, as individuals, need to be transformed so that we can bring God’s love to the people we meet in each place we are placed. In order to bring God’s Kingdom to the world and change the world, we ourselves must change.
Today I spoke about the Covenant of Your Church members. We belong first to God, second to each other, and third to those we will meet, all following the path that Jesus walked.
(Prayer) Dear God, please guide Your Church in the coming new year. Show us what we can do to help each one of us who gathers here to feel more of Your presence with us. And show us what we can do to convey your love and justice in order to realize your Kingdom in this world. Please keep each one of us in our steps. Teach us more of your love so that we may serve one another better. We pray in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Summary
Your Church means “your church,” and this “you” has three meanings. The first is God, the second is the people who are together in the church, and the third is the people we will meet in the future. In accordance with these three meanings, Your Church members pledge to God three promises: to love God, to love one another, and to love this world. Loved by God, forgiven of our sins, and given a new way of life, we know that our lives belong to God, not to ourselves. Therefore, we strive to be a church that can say, “We are yours.”
For Discussion
1. Why is it important to not only have faith, but to be a member of a church?
2. How does “I am not mine but God’s” feel to you? What exactly do you think it means?