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Pastor Kaileen Hogan-Brink |
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ... Go Out!
There are two great commands (some say this is 3). Love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). And the other command is to: “Go out” and make disciples and share the good news (Mt 28:19). We are not told to keep the good news to ourselves or to focus inward. The focus is on loving God by loving one another, helping one another, reaching out to the outcast and every single person who is rejected by others. Those we help or do not help come to us in Jesus name (Mt 25:35-45). Some people who need help come to our door, but more of them are in the community. What are we called to do for and in the community? We need to gather together to support one another, to learn and to share, to laugh and to cry and to help each other. But we help each other to do what? We need to be cheerleaders and get excited about this wondrous Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. We are to gather and do what we can to help one another go out with such joy and love that there is always more than enough. Jesus does not ask us to be someone we are not. He asks us to care for one another and share his love wherever our lives take us. At home, school, work, the grocery store or in the street – we are to be so filled with the Good News of God’s love that it just spills out. Sharing the good news is a joy not an imposition. Even shy people can share the Good News just as they would share the news of a new child, or a new home, or an accomplishment of a child or spouse. We bubble up with joy when something wonderful happens; gardens bloom, a funny event, or seeing double rainbows. The wonder of the Good News should excite us more than anything else we get excited about. Not-so-outgoing people can share in ways that are just as powerful as outgoing people. Let us help one another find ways to go out and share the good news with our gifts. What do we need to get excited about our faith and about God in the world and in our lives? How can we help each other get excited about sharing what we know to be true? We were made to be communal people. And we increase our feeling of belonging and our excitement when we work together to care for others, to love others as Jesus loves us. We fulfill our soul and increase our joy when we share his love with anyone hungry for hope, and grace, and peace—which we find in Jesus Christ…. and overflow (Rom 15:13).
Blessings,
Pastor Kaileen
