Think on these three words:
Connection-Inclusion-Fellowship
Someone, sometime ago put together a list of government rules for riding a dead horse. They were written to show the absurdity of continuing to do things that don’t work. These tongue-in-cheek rules were devised long before the internet was the ubiquitous form for such distribution, but we are blessed that the list survived, and these golden nuggets are available online. Here is:
Beating a Dead Horse
Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
However, government bureaucracies often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
4. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
5. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
6. Appointing a committee to study the dead horse.
7. Waiting for the horse's condition to improve from this temporary downturn.
8. Providing additional training to increase riding ability.
9. Passing legislation declaring "This horse is not dead."
10. Blaming the horse's parents.
11. Acquiring additional dead horses for increased speed.
12. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
13. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
14. Commissioning a study to see if private contractors can ride it cheaper.
15. Removing all obstacles in the dead horse's path.
16. Taking bids for a state-of-the-art dead horse.
17. Declaring the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Revising the performance requirements for horses.
19. Saying the horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
20. Raising taxes (any excuse will do).
And if all else fails:
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position
If you have ever worked with federal regulations and standards, some of these might have brought back bad memories that you had suppressed until today.
You might be thinking, this goes beyond the subtle, dry humor that I normally sneak into the week’s message. You would be right, but the point is valid. Look at it this way.
God has put on your heart that you are to give most of your garden space this year to tomatoes. You like tomatoes, but you are sure that squash would do better this year. So you make a token effort with a couple tomato plants and use every other square foot for squash—some yellow and some zucchini. You can almost taste them before they even sprout.
You water and fertilize and weed and do all the good gardening stuff that you know to do. You even pray to God to bless your crop.
The garden grows and then one day you notice that your squash doesn’t look so good. You notice that there are squash bugs all over your plants. You wanted to go all organic and so you bought some lady bugs, but the squash bugs came anyway.
So, you resort to chemical warfare and spray and kill the squash bugs. Then one morning you walk out to the garden to see most every squash plant eaten by grasshoppers. Many of the grasshoppers are dead from the poison residue, but the second and third wave wiped out your squash crop completely.
You look to the heavens and ask, “God, why did you do this? I asked you to bless my crops.”
Then you glace at the two tomato plants that you stuck in the ground several weeks ago and then pretty much forgot about. They are blooming and producing fruit. In fact, there are some tomatoes that are ready to eat right off the vine tomatoes that might not make it back to the house.
Of course, there are only 2 tomato plants. Your garden consists of two thriving tomato plants and a bunch of dead squash plants.
“God, why would you do this to me?”
Then you remember that small voice that spoke to you several weeks ago that said, plant tomatoes.
The proverbs are full of reminders that there is God’s way and there is everything else. Blessed are those who seek after and receive God’s wisdom. They say do it God’s way.
We are blessed when we do things God’s way. Life is not a series of trick questions, well, at least if you are living it God’s way. So, what is God’s way in this post-modern world?
Family—it’s not a new concept. Family is God’s design. We have our nuclear, biological families and we are blessed to keep them together. We are blessed to be bonded by our blood.
We also have a family of faith. These are blood relatives as well, but we are related by the blood of Jesus. We are blessed to be bonded by his blood as well.
We are all connected. God the Father is in Jesus the Son. Jesus is in his Father. We are in Jesus and he is in us. The Spirit dwells within us and walks beside us. We are connected to God in every form and he is connected to us.
We are included in his family. In fact, we are brothers and sisters to Christ Jesus. This family comes with an eternal inheritance, so it goes into the cool beans category.
We are also included into a family called the Body of Christ. We are connected and included in this family. It is the way we are to live.
Because we are connected with God and with each other and included in this divine family, we enjoy this thing called fellowship—communion—koinonia.
That’s the way that we are to live. Vine and branches are a good metaphor. No branch is out doing it’s own thing apart from the vine. When we are cut off, we wither and dry. When we live the way that we are designed to live, we produce fruit.
Sometimes, we want to live the way that we think is best. Yes, recite Proverbs 3:5-6 in your mind. Maybe, we think that God hasn’t been keeping up with current trends, that he has overlooked us—he does have a lot going on—and we need to take care of ourselves, or sometimes we just want to do our own thing.
God has designed the family for us so when we stray from that divine model and ask God to bless us, we get squash bugs and grasshoppers. When we keep doing things our way instead of God’s way, it is called beating a dead horse.
We do a good job of connecting with people. We meet them where they are. We do that, but sometimes we fall short of inclusion. Connection is a first step. Inclusion is the next.
But, not everyone wants to be included. We are inviting people who don’t want to come and be a part of this wonderful family. They want independence when God has prescribed family. They want squash when God has prescribed tomatoes.
So what are we who live in the family to do? Well, let’s just throw in the towel and take care of ourselves. We will have more room to sit at fellowship meals.
Doing that is known as making funeral arrangements for your local church. The church is made for mission. We are always making connections and seeking inclusion.
People say they know God and have received Jesus as their Savior but want to do their own thing. They are not ready to receive Jesus as Lord. They still want to do their own thing. The problem is that God said, “Let’s do family.”
When you do your own thing, you might have salvation, but you miss out on abundance. You produce no fruit. You miss out on so much that God has in store for you. You miss out on what God has designed for you as part of this wonderful family.
You miss out on fellowship. The Greeks called it Koinonia. It’s real communion. It’s family enjoying being family, and, in our case, the family belongs to God.
That’s a diverse family. Yes, I know that we are all made in God’s image, but that’s still a lot of diversity. How can you keep such a family together?
Love. The family not only survives but thrives because of love, especially, the love we have for one another.
Love one another is the binding fiber of God’s family. Too often we see fighting and bickering and quarrels and dissension within the family of faith. If we see those things in people without Christ, we should not batt an eye. They don’t get it.
Does this mean that we never disagree or have disputes? No, but it does mean that we value family over selfish desires and we move to reconciliation with all deliberate speed. Being right is less important that being love and loving one another.
But we do get it, or at least we should. We should get it when it comes to this love one another stuff. We are all connected and included. Why not enjoy the fellowship by doing things God’s way?
Love one another.
I would like to make a special prayer request. It’s a little on the odd side, but appropriate. I pray and hope that you will join me, that God engraves three words on our hearts and minds in exchange for removing three others.
Obviously, love one another are the three words that we want etched on our hard drives. What three do we need removed?
This first word is but and the next two are if only. These three words have disrupted fellowship more than any others I can think of.
Oh, I would share my love with her, but…
I would help them on Saturday, but…
I would go sit with him, but…
I would reconcile with her, but…
If only she was a little nicer, then I would…
If only he would show a little initiative, then I would…
If only the world revolved around me, then I would…
This is my command: Love each other.
I know a little about commands. I have given and received them, and I will tell you with certainty, the words but and if only are not welcome anywhere around a command.
We need to understand something about our family. Jesus is our Lord and Savior and Master; yet he has called us friend.
I have been a man under authority. When I gave orders, I expected then carried out. When I received them, they were executed. Many with whom I gave and received orders were also my friends, but orders—commands if you will—are still orders.
Jesus said: This is my command—love one another.
This command is the glue that binds our connections and inclusion within the family of faith so that we may know fellowship. Living out this command to love one another brings us communion that the world does not and cannot know.
This command to love one another is why we are not an exclusive club but an inclusive family.
It is not enough just to connect and invite. We must have a heart for the disconnected. We must pray for those who do not know what we know.
The world thinks that it’s all about money and stuff. The world has a lot of disciples but does not know the truth.
We know life because we know the truth. We know fellowship because we live in the truth. We long for inclusion of those who fight so hard to stay away because we have been commanded by our Lord and our Friend to love one another.
I am tired of giving out food and forsaking fellowship. I am sick of handing out gospels so long as we remain in the safety of our comfort zone. I am frustrated with a world full of apathy and ambivalence.
Yes, you might think with good cause, “You’ve got issues.”
No! I have been given a command—to love one another. I see so many on the outside of fellowship. I see so many who resist inclusion. I see so many that dodge connection because it might lead to inclusion and to fellowship. That might just destroy the false premises that keep so many away.
So, my prayer for us today is that the Holy Spirit walks before us in the days ahead and softens hearts that need to be fully broken.
My prayer is that we start a conversation, not about going to church, but about knowing life and the one who gives it.
My petition is that God sends us those who are through fellowshipping with the things of this world and that we receive them into the fellowship of believers.
You might nod your head in agreement, but understand that I am praying that we are ready to receive the broken and bitter and hopeless and sometimes helpless who live all around us. It is important that you understand what I am asking God to do—send us broken people.
Our part is to receive them into our family—really it’s God’s family—with love and inclusion.
We practice love when we reach out and connect. We practice love when we invite. We practice love when we help people. But we don’t have fellowship with those who are on our hearts and minds until we receive them into this family where we can love one another.
Until love is the singular currency, we don’t produce much fruit.
We do a good job of loving one another within this family that we know. We do a good job reaching out and connecting. I am praying that we are ready to also love those who have never known true love or fellowship. I am praying that we graduate to inclusion for the heartbroken, destitute, sick, and those who are now blinded by the god of this age.
I am praying that those on the outside of the fellowship come in, not to pick up some food and go. Not to just get help with a bill and disappear. Not to just check out VBS or the Easter Egg Hunt and wait for the next cool thing on the menu, but to become part of the family—to share in the fellowship—to know real communion.
To go from connection to inclusion to fellowship, we must learn to obey one simple command. That’s our part. God’s Spirit will send the lost, the discouraged, and broken-hearted to us. They are coming.
Love one another.
Amen.
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