| We need vision from Hashem to help provide direction and guidance.Our current vision statement is:“Jews and Gentiles, worshipping one God, learning, and loving one another." I propose making it a bit longer, but I hope a bit clearer about who we are: “We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel, learning, and loving one another.”
As I announced in email a couple of days ago, the theme of my message will be the original and ongoing vision of the congregation.
About a month ago, I attended a George Barna seminar on "The Power of Vision." Barna argues that a clear vision statement can help a congregation and visitors understand what it is about, motivate and give direction and help provide guidance for important decisions. Is this something we want? Today, we may make an important decision concerning a new place for our Shabbat services. We need vision from Hashem to help provide direction and guidance. Amen?
Our current vision statement is: “ Jews and Gentiles, worshipping one God, learning, and loving one another." I propose making it a bit longer, but I hope a bit clearer about who we are: “We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel, learning, and loving one another.”
Let me share what this vision means to me, personally. (I hope you like a bit of autobiography.) “We are a community…” I came to sure faith, born again of the Spirit, through an outreach ministry of the Word of God community in Brussels, Belgium. Thanks be to God for Ed Conlin, who befriended me in a French class that met at the youth hostel, and who invited me to attend a Life in the Spirit seminar. The seminar was hosted in a house where six men lived together as community. A couple of months later, I visited their home covenant community, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There the Holy Spirit birthed in me the vision of covenant community. For one week I stayed with one household of men, and for a second week with another household. In the second house, the men all slept in the attic, so that the rest of the house could be available for a ministry of hospitality. But I slept upstairs with the men. I know it sounds slightly monastic, but to me, well, it made a lasting impression. What can I say, it was the end of the 70's…. It appealed to my idealism….
Yeshua the Messiah also had this idealism: “ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35. That was a pretty idealistic vision Yeshua had, wasn't it? People are usually prone to selfishness, their own needs, their own agendas. The only way this is going to happen if a lot of us die to self. Amen?
Matthew 16:24-25 says: “Then Yeshua said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. "” because they done this, the disciples were almost ready to obey Yeshua's command. But I don't think even they would have lasted long without the help of the Ruach Hakodesh. Thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit did come in power on that community, as in Acts 2:42 -45: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.”
We do not yet achieve this level of devotion and power in the Spirit. It's an ideal, a vision. But as we press on toward the goal, we hear the testimonies of many visitors who say they sense the love of God here. Some of the people who have said this have stayed, and they are here. How many of you remember saying something like this? Baruch Hashem!
I carried this idealism with me to Madison , where I lived in a Christian co-op by the shores of Lake Mendota called the Mansion, and there I met Pamela, my love. Then I carried this idealism to the Lehigh Valley. But there was no covenant community here. So when I had the opportunity to present a paper at a conference in Minneapolis, I visited a covenant community called People of Praise. A couple of years later, one of the elders of that community, who was also a civil engineer, visited me, while he did some testing of bridge structures at Lehigh. The second time he stayed at our house, he prayed with me, and he prophesied that God would start a community through me. I was a bit awe-struck. How would He ever do that? For some time, nothing happened. I cried out, O God, you've given me this burden for community, but there is no community here! Nor will you let the vision die, but you go and send a prophet to stir it up in me! He said to me: “I am your community.” What can you say to that? So I surrendered, and I waited. For this vision to become reality is worth waiting for.
“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:13-14. “We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles…”
Then we built a dusty rose house on Falcon Drive and in January 1992 we opened our home to a fellowship of Messianic believers. It was just supposed to be a monthly gathering. I had no idea that we were starting a Messianic congregation, but Hashem had a bigger plan. I wondered, why would God choose me to lead a Messianic congregation? Like Moses at the burning bush, I gave Him all these reasons why I wasn't qualified. He wasn't impressed. Then at a gathering of Messianic Rabbis, I heard Rabbi Bob Solomon proclaim, “God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.” Amen.
And I came to realize that a major reason why God had called me to lead a congregation is because he had buried this seed of a vision in me, years before, and it was time for it come out of the ground. In those days, we fellowshipped at Bethlehem Baptist, because the pastor and many of the people there supported and prayed for our vision for a Messianic Jewish congregation. Barbara Sitler was one of the people there, who love the vision, and began praying for us. Mark and Ranjiena moved to Bethlehem in 1994, and when they called me, I laughed—maybe like Abraham and Sarah each did when God told him they would have a son—because the Shulmans had also moved onto Falcon Drive , half a block down from us!
Then, gradually, year by year, other Jews and Gentiles joined us… Donna and Jeana, Dan and Pilar, Phyllis, Bennett and Jeaniene, Scott and Kim and Austin…. Each one who came and stayed is a special story to us. Welcoming each of them is so important. Hashem has given us the gift of hospitality. We see it in Ranjiena, opening her home and her kitchen to all of us. We see it in Pat and Annie and others preparing the oneg. We see it in Sue Levy creating the Oneg Shabbat cookbook out of the best of our recipes. We see it in the banners that Linda Clawson created and Jack Clawson dutifully hangs all around our sanctuary.
There, behind me on the ark, do you see it? It's in the logo: “Welcoming Jews and Gentiles….” It's an expression of the unity in our community. Hiney mah tov… Behold how good it is when brethren dwell together in unity. Psalm 133:1. Unity is the bonding together of people who are different, to become something greater. Pamela and I were very different before we became one flesh. We are still different, but now we are more than just two different people. Unity was the theme of our wedding, and now we are the parents of Adam and Abigail. Our family is a little community. Our home is a larger community, welcoming Yitzak and Galya, and Allen Geary, and Heather and Lawrence….
When we first walked through the house on Chew Street , I knew, and Pamela knew, this was the house, because here there would be room for a little community amidst a Jewish community. The idea of intentional community is a very Jewish idea. The Jewish Community Center is across the street.
This week I happened to pick up The Jewish Parents' Almanac and opened it up to a chapter called “The Importance of Community.” Julie Danan writes: “My definition of Jewish community is the Jewish fellowship experience that can be found in a close-knit congregation or havurah devoted to mutual spiritual, emotional, and educational support. Intensive personal involvement and interpersonal support is what makes the difference between membership in an institution and participation in a community.” Does this sound like what we desire to be? That is why coming to havurah or fellowship groups is so crucial to our vision.
As delightful as our Oneg Shabbat is, we also need to be devoted to mutual spiritual support in our prayer havurah groups, emotional support in the Loving Relationships havurah, and educational support in our bible study havurot. If you want this vision to become more and more of a reality, I urge you to commit yourself to at least one havurah group, and participate faithfully and consistently. We are called to be a Jewish community within the Jewish community and a Messianic community within the Christian community, interfacing and connecting with both.
Quoting our by-laws, we are “ to proclaim the good news of Yeshua the Messiah, to the Jew first and also the Gentile…” We are “to be a testimony to the whole body of Messiah of its Jewish roots, trusting that Messiah's death has forever broken down the middle wall of partition separating Jews and Gentiles who trust in him…” We are “to love one another as God loves us, devoted to one another in brotherly love, bearing one another's burdens, sharing with God's people and our neighbors in need, practicing hospitality.”
It is this vision, echoing the ideals of the New Covenant, that inspires us, motivates us, guides us. Amen? How many of you were drawn here by this vision? “We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing…” Every Shabbat, at the end of my opening prayer under the tallit, I proclaim, “We are Beit Simcha, House of Joy! Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!” It is a declaration of victory! How many of you experience the joy of the Lord here? Our unity stands against a spirit of division, which is a principality over the region. Our community stands against a spirit of loneliness, which is a power of darkness in the region. Our joy stands against a spirit of depression and anxiety in the region. How many people we meet who struggle with depression, anxiety, loneliness and isolation?
As Ephesians 6:12 explains, “Your struggle is not against flesh and blood [including your own flesh and blood], you are but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God.” How many of you put on the armor of God every day?
We are a spiritual battle. The battle belongs to the Lord. We do not battle in our own strength, but in the strength of the Messiah Yeshua. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. When we submit to God, and resist the devil, he will flee!
Did you know there are more townships in the Lehigh Valley than in another metropolitan area in the United States? Why is it that even though the airport was renamed Lehigh Valley International over a decade ago and given a new airport code LVI, it soon went back to being called ABE? There is a principality that wants the Lehigh Valley to be weak and divided. I believe there is another Spirit who intends to sweep through this valley and bring unity! We intercede for unity. Beit Simcha is a faith seed of unity, a faith seed of community, a faith seed of joy. Can you see it?
“We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel …”
What is it that brings the seed that was buried to life? The stirring of the Ruach, when we worship the God of Israel. The way we worship expresses our vision. It's different. We have both traditional Jewish liturgy and charismatic praise and worship. The way we worship celebrates the distinctions within our unity. Turn to 2 Samuel 6:14-16. As David teaches us in the Psalms, we sing, we dance, we play drums and cymbals, stringed instruments (that includes guitar, piano and even accordions), we blow shofars, we clap, we stand up and praise Hashem, and we also get still before the Lord and wait upon Him. 2 Samuel 6:14-16: “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David , Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.” King David, who was anointed and filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, is our model, our ideal.
We may fall short of the ideal, but we are called to press on toward the goal, to follow his example of whole-hearted, full-bodied worship. HaSatan, our accuser hates it. So do the spirits of division, depression and loneliness, because it sets people free. May the Ruach set more and more people free! Amen? Yet when David brought the ark of the LORD into the tabernacle, what kind of worship did he authorize and organize? Liturgy! The ancient liturgy of our people goes all the way back to the Temple. Can the Ruach Hakodesh also fill up our liturgy? Amen!
The way we worship celebrates the distinctions within our unity. That's why, every month, we invite four congregants not only to read from the Torah, but each one to give a drash or interpretation. We celebrate the uniqueness of each person's perspective and meditation on the Word of God. I am not aware of anything like our Torah service anywhere else. It is a unique expression of our vision, where “We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel, learning ….”
Learning in our community is discipleship, for each person who is teachable, in the Spirit. For me, teaching the Word of God is very different from teaching Computer Science. There is an anointing here that I never quite experience when I lecture in Packard Lab! Yet it was a bit awesome teaching Galatians and Romans at Lehigh University last Sunday. But learning happens in many other places besides before the bema. We emphasize our vision learning in our Shabbat school, in our youth ministry, in preparing our children for bar or bat mitzvah, in our bible study havurah, in our all night bible study for Shavuot, in our newsletter and our web site. Do we love learning, too? Amen.
“We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel, learning, and loving one another.” In a sense, we are saying the same thing twice. In our old vision statement, the phrase “loving one another” implied community. But lately I realized that we really should be explicit about this core value of our vision. Then I thought we didn't need the phrase, “loving one another” since it is implied in community. But the rest of the leadership team pointed out that “loving one another” should also be explicit. If we are saying the same thing twice, maybe it bears repeating. For we need to affirm and reaffirm our vision. We need to guard it against spiritual attack.
We especially need to guard against lashon hara , which means bad tongue, or badmouthing. Lev 19:16 teaches: “Do not go about as a talebearer among your people.” James 4:11 repeats this commandment: “Speak not evil one of another.” The basic principle, taught by the Rabbis, forbids saying anything negative about another person, EVEN IF IT IS TRUE, unless the person to whom we are speaking or writing has a legitimate need for this information (such as in a reference for a job application).
In Matthew 12:35-36, Yeshua puts it this way: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Negative attitudes manifesting as speech tears down the unity, community and joy that the Ruach seeks to build among us. So I urge you, if you notice yourself saying something about someone that they probably wouldn't want you to say, then stop. Or if you hear someone starting to say something negative about someone, politely but firmly ask the other person to stop. To paraphrase Smoky the Bear: Help put out people fires! Instead, let us love one another with speech that edifies, builds up and encourages.
Ephesians 4:29-30 instructs us: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Do you see how unwholesome talk tears down community while helpful speech builds it up? Helpful, positive speech brings out the best in others, encourages others. So 1 Thes 5:11 says: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Amen?
Let me close by recommending a Scripture portion for you all to study, to help reinforce our vision. This coming week, please study Romans 12:9-21. It is a little manual of principles for a community of Jews and Gentiles loving one another. E.g., v. 10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Meditate on how you can honor someone else above yourself, each day this week. Similarly, meditate ask the Holy Spirit how you can apply the principles in each sentence of this passage. Again, that's Romans 12:9-21. With the help of the Ruach HaKodesh, we will come closer to his vision for us. Amen?
Now we will come together at the Shulkhan Adonai, the Table of the LORD. I invite the worship team to come forward…. When we come to the table, we come as one body, under one head, Messiah Yeshua. 1 Corinthians 11:28 says that each person “ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” The bread and the cup are the body and blood of the Messiah. We—all who trust in Yeshua as Savior and Lord—are also the body and blood of the Messiah. “Honor one another above yourselves.” I pray that everyone here will recognize his body and blood here.
“We are a community welcoming Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing, worshipping the God of Israel, learning, and loving one another.” |
