Session 1 of the "Who is My Neighbor? Summit on Immigration, Springfield and the Church" conference
Ruth and Boaz were two incredible models of character that show us how we ought to be as people of God in his kingdom.
To behold is to look deeply, to hold something in view and to be attentive to the depth and detail of what you might not, on the surface, see. Advent is a season for followers of Jesus to spend in a posture of deep attention: our focus is on the coming of Christ, and the coming of Christ’s Kingdom.
Leadership is a team sport. Want to go fast – go alone; want to go far – go together...
Jesus is assuming we are serving, but when we serve, the posture of our heart matters. Instead of us changing our city, we want our city to change us. Doing the deeper work of caring is not about how we change others; it is about how we are being changed when we give or fast or serve.
How to give and keep your word? Jesus’ kingdom was upside down. Where there was more general acceptance of divorce in the surrounding culture, Jesus challenges his disciples to this impossible ideal of keeping your word – even if it causes you pain.
Covenant can be destroyed however, and in those situations, we do believe there is room for divorce in discernment with Christian community, counselors, and pastors.
Caring for someone when they are weak, vulnerable, sick, or dying is a way to demonstrate the sacrificial, humble love of Jesus. Christ gave up his rights and took on the nature of a servant. Caregiving relationships often require us to give up a sense of what we have a ‘right’ to (freedom, etc). They demand that we reconstitute our sense of self, our rights, and that we find communion with Christ, who became a servant and washed the feet of the disciples... as well as communion with the disciples, who washed the body of Jesus before His burial. Caregiving can be both a profound formational experience as well as a deeply exhausting and demanding one.