Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 39 – October 1998

 

Living Together

 

Sermon by Rev. B. Vaatstra on Psalm 133

Scripture Readings: Ephesians 4:1-16

Suggested Hymns: BoW: 22a; 133a; 428; 481; Rejoysing: 23; 333

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction:

One of AESOP'S FABLES goes something like this:

There was once a father who had five sons who were constantly quarrelling.  One day, tired and weary from their bickering he asked them to bring him a bundle of sticks.  Handing the bundle to the oldest, he said, "break it!"  The son tried to break it over his knee, but all he got was a sore leg.

One by one the brothers were told to do the same.  None of them could break the bundle of sticks.  Finally, the father opened the bundle and handed each son a single stick and told them to break them.  The task was done with little effort.

Then he said, "My sons, if you remain together and help one another you will have the strength of this bundle.  But if you are divided among yourselves you will be broken as easily as these sticks."

HUGH MACKAY, in his book, Re-inventing Australia, has this to say about community:

The story of Australia in the past 20 years has been a story of declining emphasis on personal relationships; a declining importance attached to being part of a family, a neighbourhood, a community; a declining awareness of shared culture...!

And he goes on to talk about the peoples' desire for a sense of community.

All three, Aesop's fable, the Hugh Mackay comment, and Psalm 133, highlight, in different ways, the importance of community.  Psalm 133 is one of the most important Psalms for us today.  We need to hear this psalm... to learn its lesson well, because it's about a simple and powerful truth.

If you haven't experienced what Psalm 133 is talking about, you haven't lived... you don't know anything about living in community.  The truth of this Psalm is simply this: there is great benefits in being part of the church.

Now maybe some of you are thinking, "It's not all that great to be part of the church.  Look at the disunity we've had over the years.  What about the times I've been hurt by other people?  The times I needed a friend and no one came?"  And so, some people even say, "Why should I join the church?  I love Jesus, but I hate the church!"

Well, Psalm 133 challenges this sort of thinking head on.  It speaks from experience... not just theory.  And it speaks with excitement, and joy, about the community of saints.

This is a pilgrim psalm, sung by the pilgrims when they travelled to the temple.  They remember the times of community, the times of worship, the times they came together to celebrate God's goodness.  This is when they experienced their greatest sense of togetherness.  This is when they had real unity.  And it was good... and it was pleasant!

Why was it so good for the pilgrims?  Why isn't our community always so good?

You see, the thing is, just because people believe in Jesus, doesn't mean they stop sinning all of a sudden.  They aren't suddenly transformed into nice people.  Some are still cranky, some are still dull, some are still prickly.

So the real question for us is, "How can we live together in the church community so we can have these great benefits Psalm 133 talks about?"

I want to draw your attention to three things this Psalm teaches us:

1.  the basics of community;

2.  the barriers to community;

3.  the blessings of community.

1.  The Basics of Community

The psalmist says, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity."  Community is a given here.  God wants us to live together.  It is not an optional item; it's essential.  The Bible never talks about the Christian as a hermit; the person who lives alone, practices faith on his own.  God deals with his people in community, in a church community.  He created us to be in relationship with others.  Community is a given, it is part of our Christian life.

JESUS worked with twelve disciples.  He also instituted the church.  The SPIRIT brings people into community.  That's who we are... God's family, not individuals of God, but the people of God.  Our faith is not a private affair.  God says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind."  But immediately He adds, "and love your neighbour as yourself."

You see, community is God's design for people.  And, furthermore, He urges us not to neglect it.  In Hebrews 10:25 we read, "Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, all the more as you see the Day approaching."  Today, many Christians, if they don't like a church community, they just leave it, break fellowship or church hop, until they find something they like.  But usually they only settle until something else irks them, and off they go again.  It's happened in our church, too, at times.

These people say, "I'm loyal to Jesus, that's what's important.  I don't need to be tied to a local church."  It's true, having a relationship with Jesus is the most important thing.  But you can't be loyal to Jesus and at the same time ignore the body of believers.

Dear people, this is not God's way.  God is faithful.  God is loyal.  The Old Testament word for God's Covenant love is 'Hesed', which also has the idea of loyalty and faithfulness.  We serve a Covenant God.  He sticks with us even when we hurt and grieve Him with our sin.  Where would we be if He didn't?

If God is faithful, utterly loyal to His covenant people, shouldn't we be faithful to each other, in all our relationships and in our church community?  The psalmist says, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity."

You see, for God, community is essential, and loyalty to that community is very important.  These are the basics of community; firstly, community is a given, it's essential, not optional; and secondly, God wants us to be loyal and faithful to the church, the community of saints.

2.  The Barriers to Community

But now you say the church is full of people.  Some are wonderful... others are not so wonderful.  Living together is difficult.  Well, the psalm is absolutely realistic about this.  It talks about brothers living together in community.

I remember well my younger days, growing up with a brother one year older and another brother one year younger.  We often had good times.  But, boy, could we fight!  And it happened quite often, because, "two's company... and... three's a crowd."  We even came to blows at times!  The truth is that brothers, and sisters too, do often fight.

The very first story in the Bible of brothers living together is the story of Cain and Abel, and it's a murder story.  Just a few pages on in the Bible, we read the story of Joseph, how his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt for a few bucks.  Even Jesus had trouble with his brothers.  They thought he was mad, and tried to drag him away from his Messianic work.

Left to our own devices we would never have unity.  Brothers and sisters naturally fight.  Our self-life (the flesh) is a barrier to community.

But this is a psalm of the spirit, not of the flesh.  Why is it that we fight in the church community?  Because we want our own way; our agenda; our victory; rather than the Lord's way; the Lord's agenda; the Lord's victory.

If Jesus is our master, then we live by the Spirit.  Then we live by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  And when we work for these things, in our lives, in our marriages and in our church community, then our unity will be good and pleasant.

But there's another barrier to community.  When we make the church into an institution; when our church organisation becomes more important than people.  When that happens we see people for what they can do or how much they can pay or contribute, rather than who they are: image bearers of God... saved by the blood of Jesus.

That's the danger of setting goals, having plans, establishing structures and building programmes.  In this regime people can sometimes be less important and relationships are not developed.  We need to build deep, personal relationships with each other, and the larger the church, the harder it is to do.  That's why we encourage people to join 'small groups.'

How can we, in practical ways, build close relationships... community?  Well, one way is by practising moments of love.  What is a moment of love?  It's love of Christ expressed in a little thing done for someone else.  Sending a card of encouragement.  Giving someone a bunch of flowers, a meal, or a Mars Bar.  Saying a kind word, or simply, "I love you" to someone.  Patting someone on the back, or giving them a hug.  Doing it all in the name of Christ.

Dear people, if everyone of us, young and old, did one little thing every week for someone else in our church, someone you don't often mix with, our unity will be good and pleasant...  our community would be stronger.  God forbid that we would ever let our plans and our programmes become barriers to real Christian community.  Let's keep our community strong, by practising lots of moments of love in Christ.

So far we've seen some basics of community: community is essential, not optional, and God wants us to be loyal to our church just as He is loyal to us.  We've also seen some barriers to community: the barrier of self, our selfish attitudes, and the barrier of making plans more important than people.

3.

The Blessings of Community

But now we come to the heart of this Psalm: the blessings of community.  David uses two interesting metaphors to describe this.  It is like precious oil poured on the head running down the beard, running down Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling down on Mount Zion.

(a) The first metaphor is of oil running down Aaron's beard.

Now Aaron was a priest in the Old Testament, and when a priest was ordained, they used to pour anointing oil over his head.  This oil symbolised the Holy Spirit, God's presence among His people.

In the New Testament, we are all priests.  We have all been anointed with the Spirit.  In a true community we all minister to one another.  It's something we need to do more of as a church simply ministering to one another.

How do we minister to one another?  Well, by listening to one another, by speaking God's Word to one another, by praying with and for one another, by bearing one another's burdens in practical ways.  All this builds closer relationships, it builds community.

When we do this, we will know more of the presence of God, in our church, in our community, in our small groups.

(b) The second metaphor is of the dew of Hermon falling on Mount Zion.

Now Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Palestine.  And high in the alpine regions of the mountain, the dew is extremely heavy.  Now imagine what such a heavy dew would do on the dry slopes of Mount Zion in Israel.  It would bring freshness, vitality and new growth.

Isn't that what we want for our church community?  Freshness, vitality and growth in our faith, love and hope?  It would help each of us to grow in Christ.  It will make us attractive to outsiders.

When we have a desire for community, when we work for unity in our church, when we live for Jesus and live by the Spirit of God, we will receive the blessing of oil and dew.  The oil of warm caring relationships, and the dew of fresh vitality in our community.  These are the blessings of a the true Christ-centred community.

Conclusion

Do we really want God to bless us as a church?  Do you know where he gives His blessing?  The psalmist says, He gives it when we live together in community.

Have a look at the last sentence in this Psalm, "For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore."  God blesses communities that strive for unity.  In fact, if you want a taste of heaven... life forevermore... then God says, work hard to really love one another.  Heaven is where relationships are warm and loving, where every interaction with someone else is fresh and stimulating, where we delight in sharing experiences, and when we do it all in fellowship with Jesus... in his name.  This is what Jesus wants of our church.  This is what he wants us to strive for.

A small child had wandered off in the tall grass near an African village.  The little one could not be found anywhere, even though people searched all day.  The next day the whole village turned out to hold hands with each other, and walk through the grass together in a line.  Soon the child was found, but he was dead.  The cold night had been too much for him.  In her anguish and through her tears the mother cried out, "If only we could have held hands sooner."

Dear people of God, we may be enjoying a time of closeness and unity in our church, and it is good and pleasant, and we are enjoying the Lord's blessing, and we should thank Him for it often but, it hasn't always been this way, has it?  And it can still be a lot better.  And let's guard against it slipping away.

We want the Lord's blessing on our community, don't we?  Let's work hard at being a true community of saints, a great community of saints, to God's glory.  Let's do it in the name of Jesus.  Let's love each other deeply for Christ's sake.  Let's hold hands with one another.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

Amen.