PRAY IT!!! B|Neighbors

When I was in junior high, I was stubbornly engaged in a lawn mowing battle with our next door neighbor (who was, indeed, a middle-aged man).  We had a mutual alley in between our houses that was quite grassy.  I mowed half of it, leaving the other half for him.  It seemed like the common sense action.  Later, I saw that he had mowed EXACTLY two lawn-mower widths worth of grass.  No more, no less.  Even though I had clearly mowed half, he would not take the additional sweep with the mower and remove this last lingering strip of grass (because it exceeded the boundaries of his two-passes-only plan).  Irritated, I too, refused to mow it.  We didn’t talk about it.  It rained.  It grew.  We mowed (but not that strip).  We didn’t talk about it.  It rained.  It grew.  There’s now an Illinois conservation/preservation area in between those two houses where birds and other wildlife take refuge.  (Just kidding).

This week we have been continuing on in our B|Neighbors sermon series, praying to have our lives intersect with people while we stay tight with Jesus.  Last week’s charge was to B|Encouragers… this week, it is to B|Admonishers.  Gulp!  Admonish?!  Isn’t that a dirty word?!

I don’t like confrontation.  It makes me uncomfortable.  I don't want to mow someone over.  And, with the culture that we live in, I’m tempted to think that it is more loving to avoid admonishment (it’s a word!) altogether and let whatever grass may grow, grow.  That’s the loving response, right?  The kind-hearted response, right? 

The loving response has been, is right now, and forever will be Jesus.  And sometimes, He is going to call us to admonish and to engage in the tough conversation.  "The grass is not cute.  The grass stopped being a statement 3 feet ago.  Mow it down already!"

As we have been studying, we look to Galatians 2 as one example, where Paul admonishes Peter.  Here it is, from The Message version, for your viewing pleasure:

^11-13 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?”

We need to pray this week for courage and obedience.  We need to stay tight with Jesus.  We need to truly love people (hence, we need to stay tight with Jesus!)  Jesus-prompted and Jesus-led admonishment is the goal, never to simply mow someone over for fun.

Dear Jesus,

Please help me remain tight with You.  Please guide and direct me, as well as strengthen and encourage me to obey when You prompt me to have tough conversations.  Please provide continued discernment.  Please also help me humbly receive admonishment and to remember to see this as the wise decision.

Amen.

Join us tonight, for PoC|Coverage at 6pm.  Let’s get our pray on together!

Pastor Celia