What Do You Want Me to do for You?

Transcript: 

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas. All the things this morning. I don't know if you caught it or not, but when the kids were answering questions, one of the answers was it was either a bear, a Wolf or Jesus. So I don't know what is going on there, but that is something we are glad that you are here today. Today is in fact the seventh day of Christmas. It is a fallacy in our culture that we only celebrate Christmas one day a year. It is in fact 12 days, which is where the 12 days of Christmas song comes from. We found a couple of years ago, a very great rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. It's by a band named Reliant KI don't know if they still make music, I don't even know. I can't even tell you any other songs that they sing, but they do a 12 days of Christmas song and part of their chorus that they added to the song, they say, what's a partridge? 

What's a pear tree? I don't know. So please don't ask me. But I can bet those are terrible gifts to give. So that's a song that we like to sing in our house. But today, on the seventh day of Christmas, I believe you should have got seven swans of swimming. So if you did not get those yet, you could go find them at the arboretum. You can find them. In fact, I think this is the last day in which you could go and see their snow globes of all the 12 days of Christmas. It's always a fun time if you can get tickets to that. So that's why we sing Christmas songs still and have decorate Christmas decorations is because in fact, this is still the Christmas season. And then next Saturday, January 6th is the day of Epiphany, which marks the end of the Christmas season. 

It's the day in which the church recognizes the Magi offering gifts to the Christ child. So if you haven't already put up your tree and decorations, you might consider keeping them out for a little while longer, just to keep reminding you that it is still Christmas. And the beautiful thing about Christmas is that the truth of Christmas is always true. Jesus is here. Jesus is with us always, which is the significance of Christmas, and it's the truth that is true no matter what day it is on the calendar. Today we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to do some reflection and prayer during our sermon time. But before we do that, I wanted to kind of give a little bit of a recap of where we've been journeying. If you can remember back to our advent series, we asked a question, and the question is a question that was asked of Jesus by a religious leader who asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? It's found in Luke 10, and we're not going to read it this morning, but I wanted to give you a little bit of reasoning as to why we chose to focus on that question. During the season of Advent. 

We wanted to have a conversation during the season of Advent surrounding an opportunity that is before us for 2024, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in the next few weeks. But it was interesting in this conversation that we were having with an organization called World Relief about a partnership for us to be able to help welcome people who were being resettled here in the Dallas area, perhaps here even in our neighborhood of Dallas. And it was striking to me as we were having those conversations about the similarities of Jesus's story and what people who find themselves being resettled in a foreign land, in a foreign country might experience. And so as we prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas and did the waiting time of Advent, we wanted to capture that part of Jesus's story. Jesus was born into this world to a travel weary family, and then he would eventually have his own refugee story. 

This image that I think will come up here on the screen is one that I saw maybe a couple of years ago and it really captured my attention. This is by an artist who sort of makes modern day icons. They use modern imagery to sort of capture the significance of the story of Jesus and the scriptures. And this is one that really gripped me. We don't often think about Jesus's family this way, but if you remember a part of his story, he had to flee where his homeland and go into the strange land strange to him of Egypt. And while they were in Egypt, there were people there who embodied for Jesus's family, hope, peace, joy, and love. Those people became Jesus's neighbors. So it makes sense then that this would be something that Jesus would be fond of being neighbors and actively embodying hope, peace, joy, and love to others. 

When people made Joseph Mary and their baby boy Jesus, their neighbor, when they found themselves in Egypt, those people most likely had no idea of the impact that they were having on this family. And when we too talk about being good neighbors, we could never know the full impact of what being a good neighbor might do for someone. But there's a passage of scripture in Hebrews that I think is always good to remember and it captures this very thing of people being neighborly to Jesus and his family in Hebrews 13 instructs us, it says this, keep on loving one another. As brothers and sisters do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing so, people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it 

As we considered what does it mean to be neighbors and how do we make one our neighbor? We reiterated the teaching of Jesus, that loving God and loving neighbor are the foundational commandments of the kingdom of God according to Jesus's teaching. If you love God, you will also love your neighbor. And as we say here at journey, often what is good for Jesus is good for me. So if Jesus tells us to do it, then we are going to lean into it as best we can. So as I mentioned, we'll hear some more in the coming weeks of 2024 about the particular partnership and the good neighbor team. But what I wanted to do this morning was encourage you. In the meantime, before we have the particulars and the details all lined out, I want to encourage you to specifically pray that God will give us wisdom and the courage to say yes to being good neighbors as the Spirit leads us. 

This of course, is the time of year where many people decide to make New Year's resolutions. If you were to pick up a book of anyone who is a credible spiritual teacher, somebody teaching about how does one live in sync with the way of Jesus, they would tell you that this process of examine and prayer and contemplation and even making resolutions should be a normal part of your life, a regular discipline, not just something that you do once a year, but regardless of if resolutions are part of your new year or not. I wanted to take a few moments this morning and have a bit of a time for us to dream together and to pray together and to invite God to lead us into this new year. 

In this room there are some who life is moving along very well. Sure, there might be a few things that need some attention or some tweaks along the way, but all in all life is peachy and everything is good. There are some in this room who are dealing with serious trials, difficult circumstances, the situations of life are piling up and feel like a weight to carry or a mountain to climb. And then in this room, there are some who are somewhere in between. So as best we can as a community, I want us to take a moment to reflect on a question that Jesus asked and asked several times. You'll see some of the references here on the screen, but the question is, what do you want me to do for you? To be honest, this is a question that makes me a little bit uncomfortable, makes me sort of feel like Jesus is offering himself up as a genie in a bottle and you have three wishes. What do you want? But of course we know that's not what Jesus is suggesting here. But on the same token, we know that what Jesus says is true. And Jesus specifically asked people, what do you want me to do for you? 

Wonder how we might respond today if we were in the audience of Jesus and he asked this question to us. 

As I said, we're going to take a moment to spend time in reflection somewhere near you. You should have a card that looks like this. If you can't find, if you don't have one, there's one on some the seats maybe around you or near you. And if you can't find one, you can just slip up your hand and we'll have somebody bring them to you. But find one of these cards and maybe find a pen. If you don't have a pen with you, there's a box at the end of some of the rows there that you can find a pin in. But on this card are two simple questions. What do I need Jesus to do in my life? What do we need Jesus to do in our church? 

I'm going to take a few minutes and read through a passage of scripture in Luke 12. This is a passage that I read often and when I read this passage every time, it reminds me that I am not alone and that God loves me and that that is the most important reality no matter what is going on in the world around me. And I want to read through this passage slowly and as I do, I want you to prayerfully either listen or contemplate the answers to these questions and take some time to write those down. Now, for some of you, maybe what you need Jesus to do in your life is pretty quick and easy, and you can write it down and move on to the second question, what do we need Jesus to do in our church? But for some of you, the realities of life right now are very heavy. 

And so I want you to know that it is perfectly fine to just stop at that first question, what do I need Jesus to do in my life? And here are the promises that Jesus has for you in this passage. So I'm going to read in Luke 12, and as I do prayerfully, consider the response to these questions. Make this a moment to be responsive to the Spirit. And before I do that, let's take a minute and just pray together. Maybe take a few deep breaths, invite the Holy Spirit to capture your attention in this moment. Gracious God, every step of 2023, you were with us the steps that we wanted to take, the steps that we dreaded you were with us in it all. You promised Jesus also that you will continue to be with us. So God, for those of us in this room, I pray that you would make this moment a time of connection with you, a time of connection as a community, and that you would remind us now in this moment that you indeed are here and with us in whatever we need. Then Jesus said to his disciples, 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your own life, what you'll eat or about your body, what you'll wear. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no store room or barn yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds who have you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon and all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the grass on the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, how much more will he clothe you? You of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink, and do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well. 

Hear this promise from Jesus. Luke 1232. Do not be afraid. Little flock. Your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out a treasure in heaven that will never fail. Where no thief comes near wear, no moss destroys where your treasure is there. Your heart will be also.