Hey everyone, welcome to another week of the podcast here.
And I'm here not with Grant, but I'm here with Allison.
We don't know what to call you something like we were like,
you're not Pastor Allison, you were Pastor Allison.
You are currently not Pastor Allison, but it feels weird to
not, I don't know, because you were preaching and you were
filling that role. And so even though you are no
longer on staff with us, you're like, you're still a part of our
team. Thank.
You. Yeah, that you come up with a
fun title for me. And perhaps not Pastor Allison
is not the title. That's probably not the one she
we should go. With I think that could lead to
some confusion. So that's the other hard part.
Is certainly not capital P. Anyway, we were grateful to have
you with us yesterday. And as always, it's awesome to,
to get you back up there, at least for, for me as the, as the
listener and the one who just gets to receive from, from the
wealth of wisdom. And, and for those who don't
know you, because, I mean, we've had a lot of new faces around
the church and people tuning in. There's a lot of people that
that may or may not be familiar with you And, and you know, you
were on staff for what, seven years and before that, like you
have a long history with, you know, inductive Bible study and
through university and, and, and so like you are someone who
really takes the Scriptures seriously.
That's what I've always thought about you.
And so in light of that, we threw you just a real fun
passage. That was a treat.
It was definitely, you know, I often say like I'll work with
anything, like give you anything.
That one challenged me. Certainly, yes, but it's it's
good like let's you know, as we've said, that's why we like
the style that we're doing. We're working our way all the
way through Luke and we're we're intentionally not skipping
anything. We're trying to go in, go there
and try to understand why did Luke include this?
And so we want to read, read every word and see what God
might have for us in that. And, and, and trusting that God
has something for us and that they're, you know, as we go
through some of the challenging bits feels like there's, there's
always something for us on the other side.
For sure. And in, you know, in inductive
study, when we do that, like honestly, the most fruitful
moments are when I think we have real genuine questions, right?
Like it's the passages that we think we get and we understand
we probably miss the most, but the passages that force us to
ask some of those really tough questions or be like, we, I
don't understand, like what is this about that often those
genuine questions lead to some of the best fruit.
It it helps us to do that. This passage was about the
Kingdom. So for, for those who didn't
listen or were not present for worship this past Sunday, it's
Luke 17 versus 20 through to the very end, which is 37.
And actually I noticed as I was like making your slides for you,
there's like 36, but there's actually no verse 36, which I
thought was like, oh, we, I don't know.
I just, I just noticed that just a little like verse 36 is
absent. It just skips to 37.
And there's a little note that says some manuscripts include
here words similar to Matthew. So there must be like a parallel
that's some manuscripts don't include so.
Thank you. I just noticed it yesterday as
we were as I was making the slides I was like.
You know, I like when I'm doing my perfect actually pull it out
in what we call manuscript style, where you pull out all
the divisions and chapters and verses.
So definitely didn't notice. That so at its core, this is
this is a passage about the Kingdom, which, you know, has
been a pervasive theme all throughout the book of Luke, But
mixed in with this passage is some tricky metaphors and and
out like just the language of Jesus uses is not always easy
here. And so, you know, he, he talks
first with the Pharisees and then he talks with the
disciples, um, and, and kind of uses the example of Noah and the
flood, uses the example of of Lot and, and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Like, not pleasant, not pleasant
imagery. Corpses and vultures.
Corpses and vultures, which, like, I love, I love the, you
know, Happy Mother's Day right after that.
Like, it's like so happy, yeah. You know, not to take away from
the seriousness of it, but I think it's also OK to, I think,
I think what I was trying to do in that is just acknowledge this
is intense. And sometimes humor helps us
acknowledge this is intense and there's a lot to this.
So not to make light of that or overlook it, but also to sort of
be able to collectively take a deep breath and go, there's a
lot this is hard here. So we've got those difficult
images and then we've got sort of this, this interesting
picture of, you know, those Jesus says whoever tries to keep
his life will lose it. Whoever loses their life will
preserve it. And then he uses this example of
people just like disappearing. You know, I tell you on, on that
night, two people will be in bed, one will be taking the
other left. Two women will be grinding grain
together, one will be taken and the other left.
And it's like, what does that mean?
And you know, we have a, a particular modern lens, you
know, particular brand of theology will say that that
automatically reads in that that is about OK, I'll just say it
that that is about rapture. And, and I think maybe we'll get
into that a little bit, but I, I want to actually have like a, a
higher level conversation to start of like when we approach
passages like this, whether you are a professional Christian or
whether you are a layperson, just like reading through the
Bible with us, or maybe you're on your own kind of reading
schedule. Like how do we approach passages
like this? Like there, there are so many
different ways to like that poor ways that we can deal with it.
You know, we can just glaze over it.
We could just skip over it makes me feel uncomfortable, so I'm
going to skip. Or we can be like left with this
feeling of like overwhelm and that we just sort of like block
it from our memory and move on to something fluffier.
Like. And so yeah, like there's a
difference between, you know, like when you and Grant and I
sit down like we're, we're digging into all of these
things, asking these hard questions.
We're, but we're, we're taking a solid like hour, hour and a half
to do that, right? So like, I think there's a
conversation to be had there. But like, how do, how can we
encourage everyone who's, who's listening and everyone who's
reading the scripture? How do we encourage them to do
that? They're not maybe going to have
an hour and a half, but like, how do we read these difficult
passages? How do we approach them?
What's the Yeah, what's the what's the vision there?
I think the answer, as it often is, is community.
So that can take us a few forms. First of all, it's why studying
scripture together in community is so rich because we can bring
different insights and contributions that are hard for
any one of us to have alone when we're just reading it by
ourselves that together we can hopefully glean a more accurate
picture. So whenever possible to do this
with other people who are also trying to trying to dig into
what Jesus, what the author would have for us in that I
think is always a gift. Now I get we're not always in a
Bible study when we look at this.
So I think community can also be in a couple other forms.
So one is, it might sound a little bit funny, but I think
there can be somewhat of a leaning on community by looking
at commentaries, looking at scholars who have poured their
lives into understanding the context, understanding the
original languages, that can really help us.
And so that's always part of our prep when we're preaching.
But I don't think that needs to be limited to preachers having a
good trusted commentary or two to say like, well, what did?
What did these people who inherently know more than I do?
What do they say about it? Now?
I want to be careful. I don't like rushing to a
commentary right away. I actually think it's really
important for us to wrestle with it somewhat on our own, to have
our genuine questions bubble up so that we can acknowledge those
and not just read it like, oh, let's go look for the answers.
I also don't want to use commentaries as the definitive
answers on those things. I think seeing them as a voice,
as a friend at the table who's contributing a line of thinking
and a thought. And so we don't take it as the
answer book, but we take it as someone else's thoughts and
contributions. Why it's good to often read a
few of them and get a variety of those.
So it's a little bit of a different way, but I think
that's another way of leaning on community, leaning on the wisdom
of those that have gone before us and what they've come to
think about those things. Um, and then I think finally,
you know, maybe you are reading this of a hard passage in your
own quiet time, in your own personal study and you come up
against this, say phone a friend.
I mean, maybe literally, or maybe it's a roommate or a
spouse or a trusted friend or mentor.
Be like, hey, I was reading this this morning or whatever and I
found this really challenging and I don't really understand
it. Have you read this?
Do you have thoughts about it? Like it can be just sort of in
the natural course of our day, but leaning into knowing that it
is very hard for us in 2026 English speakers to to grasp all
that is contained within these pages.
It's impossible. And it's we are not going to get
there in community either, but we're going to get a little bit
closer. And so I think that's a key way
that we can approach these is with humility to know.
I'm not going to be able to know, I'm not going to be able
to figure it all out. How can I lean on others,
whether in books, whether hopefully also real life people
in front of us to go further? And there's something so there's
two things that come to mind as you're talking about that.
The first being in I think it's Timothy Keller's book on
preaching. He always says, like, read the
passage multiple times, potentially multiple
translations. Write down your thoughts, you
know, like, get it, get it all. So like from a pastoral level,
that's like just a responsible thing to do to write out your
thoughts, like, like, and because God is speaking through
these words, right? And, and sometimes the more we
read the, the, the different angles we can approach it from,
we get to glean bits of wisdom. Like there been times when I
know that like the three of us have been sitting in in the room
and be like, Oh, we've never noticed that before, just
because we've been reading this and talking about it and we're
seeing this connection that and, and, and sometimes maybe the
connection is nothing. Other times it gets confirmed
when we, you know, eventually read a, you know, commentary
like, oh, that person agrees with me.
I think we're in good company you.
Know, and that's often how we use it, right?
It's like we actually kind of work out our own hypothesis
first. Confirmation bias kind of way,
like it's, it's more so like like, hey, like we've gleaned
this. Let's see if others agree.
And but I want to stress the value of doing the wrestling
first, because when you've had to work at it, and I've seen
this again and again in Bible study, when you've actually had
to work at trying to understand something, it just goes in a lot
deeper than when you just read the quote UN quote answer.
Again, it's not the answer, but when you just quickly go to it,
it's there's a surface level of processing that's different than
the processing that has to happen when you're like, I
genuinely don't understand what that is.
What could that mean? How can we piece these things
together? What do you think?
There's just a depth of understanding that you can't
trade for jumping quickly to reading some of those.
Things and that was the second thought I had was like, what a
gift of something like community Bible study.
When we've done that, where, you know, you're at a group, you're
at a table of people who you're before you are given any like
hints about some of like the context or the, the history or
the, you know, some of the, the Greek words or whatever.
Like before we do any of that, which invariably does happen,
right? You know, where, where one of
the teachers will get up there and they will say, like, Hey,
this word actually means this. And this is probably what Jesus
was getting at here. You know, like we do that work
inductively. We do that work just by reading
and studying and parsing and, and like in a way that is more,
you know, it's different than, you know, say we're reading a, a
novel in English class in high school and having to like write
an essay based topic. Like that's not what the work
we're doing here that we are trying to truly understand and
internalize, right? Like it's, it's a deeper work
than just like. How can I analyze this text?
And that's exactly why like the very first thing we do at
Community Bible Study is our own personal study, right?
Like is we take some time to try to absorb it and to try to go,
what questions are coming up for me as I look at this?
Before, like you said, before, we've got more of the history,
historical context before we have the Greek, before we have
other things. Like how can I try to see this?
Even if it's a passage I've read 100 times, How can I try to see
this with fresh eyes and notice and pay attention to what's
happening here? And that just lays such a solid
foundation for the rest of the work that we do, which is really
important and really valuable. But there is something about
having that. Let me try to wrestle a bit with
this before we go into those other stages.
Family member texting me just like last week being like, hey,
I'm confused about some stuff. Can we grab coffee?
Yeah, you know, like I, I love that like, like a like I'm just
working through like I have some questions about like this, that
or the other thing. And, and so like trying to find
a time just to connect, like, and, and just to be able to
like, hey, I admit when we're struggling with understanding
something in Scripture and like, you know, the difficult
theology, things like that, like, and just being able to be
honest and say like, hey, I want to try to figure this out.
I need a bit of help. Yeah.
And not that I'm the expert, but it's like I can help point them
to the right location hopefully. Yeah, yeah.
No, that's exactly what we're talking about, right?
And it's some of the beauty and freedom of what we get to do
with Grant is like, it's OK to not know.
It's OK for us to be stumped. And like I said, that actually
often leads to the most fruitful questions and work.
But you have to have those places where and people that you
can go to to be like, I don't get this.
And then even because I don't want to like leave us with the
impression that like, you know, we can just once we've once
we've rocked our brain enough and we haven't figured it out to
them, and then we go to commentaries or maybe just one
commentary or whatever. That doesn't mean, and this is
where it does get tricky. That doesn't mean that that is
the definitive answer, right? Like you, if, if you read, you
know, like I have access, I think between grants
commentaries and my commentaries and like Logos Bible software, I
have access to like probably like two dozen commentaries on
any given book of the Bible, right?
Do you think they all agree? You know?
Definitely not. Absolutely not, right?
And that's where that's where it does admittedly get potentially
overwhelming, right that like, hey, they've been studying this
for their entire stinking lives and I still and they still don't
necessarily agree or come to the same conclusion.
There might be overlap, there might be connection.
And that's where like, I think the beauty of, of you not
letting us get too down the rabbit hole of like what?
OK, let's let's dive deeply into like the, the, the flood and
Sodom and Gomorrah and the supposed rapture stuff
happening, right? Because it, it can distract from
the main points, right? And same with commentaries,
right? I feel like commentaries can can
do the same thing where where we can read them all and then still
not have actually internalized the thing that we need to
internalize. Yeah.
And I think sometimes it's important to take that step back
and use posture of humility, posture of being a learner.
It's actually our right posture of depending on God.
Ask the Holy Spirit what not just for accurate understanding,
but like, what do you have for me in this moment of my life and
time? Like what are you seeing to me
from this passage? And that's also why we can read
it 100 times and have something different because that's why I
think it's often called the living word is because when the
Holy Spirit inhabits it and inhabits our understanding, it
can mean, I don't mean different like contradictory.
I just mean, um, different aspects of like different
fuller. Picture Yeah, exactly.
And and that when and that's one of the reasons why it's so good
and so important to have multiple different voices.
You are going to see things in a way that I don't just because
partly because of who you are. Like we've known each other long
enough that we know like we we're similar in some ways,
right. But also like look at us.
We're, we're, we're different for you as a woman, you have,
you have a different perspective.
I remember this is just one silly example, but it was Good
Friday, our service. We did kind of a reflective,
contemplative kind of service and, and we had a, a bunch of
the way we were approaching was that we had these different
aspects of the, the passion narrative and the different
people in that narrative outside of Jesus.
So you had, you know, Simon of Cyrene and the Joe Joseph was
the, the guy who carries the cross, Joseph Avermedia.
Sorry, no, that's Simon, the guy who pays for the, the burial.
So all these different examples, the, the other men on the cross,
all that kind of stuff. And I'm giving this example,
these examples to someone who's going to be setting up different
stations for us. Such a gift to have that.
And then they responded, they're like, but wait a minute, there's
like a bunch of women there as well that are doing things as
well. And I'm like, you're 100% right.
And actually I was just, you know, remiss in in including
those in my examples. But it it says something that I
had didn't include them because I'm sometimes a dumb headed guy.
Well, and we all have these blind spots, right?
And so that's again, some of the beauty of hopefully being in
community and and being in community, not just with people
that look like us. Yeah, right.
Like the people that come from more, the more different from us
background, whether that's like ethnically, gender,
socioeconomic, whatever, they're going to bring a different
experience that is going to be different than what I can see.
And so the richness of having those relationships where you
can lean on each other and help each other to see things from a
different angle is, I think, is a beautiful part of the Kingdom.
Like how much like the Beatitudes is one example.
Like, like it's gonna hit different.
You know, I, you know, grew up mostly just like kind of middle
class, you know, Canada, right? For someone who's grown up in,
in a place where there's been persecution and poverty and, and
a real like disparity within their, you know, where they grew
up, like that's going to hit very differently.
That's right. And how much richer probably
their understanding is, and how much I can learn from from a
different perspective. So, yeah, and the other thing
maybe just before we move off of this is like we may, and I think
you kind of alluded to this, like we may walk away with more
questions. Absolutely, right.
And that like sometimes the point of not the point of a
passage, but like sometimes the thing that that we are going to
need to learn to be OK with is that we may just have questions
and they may never fully resolve.
And, and this is a, a lifelong journey, a lifelong almost
battle with scripture in some ways, you know, like that, like,
hey, I, I, the, the things I struggled with 20 years ago in
my faith are very different, but there's still things I struggle
with, right? And, and I'm going to come and
hit these passages and read them and be like, OK, I didn't
struggle with that in my younger years, but now I'm reading this
and be like, oh, that's, that's challenging, you know, in a
different way, right? And, and so like, that's
another, that's another piece of like, there's, there's an
element of like mystery. There's an element of needing to
be OK with, like, not having all of our questions answered.
Yeah. And the the the certainty that
some spheres of Christianity want.
Yeah, and I would almost, I think I, I think I mean this, I
would almost be wary of either a sermon or Bible study that feels
like everything wraps up nice and neat with a bow on top.
Now, my wiring is I like that. I like a nice, neat story with a
clear ending and a boat. Like I want that.
And I wrestle with being OK with living in the tension.
But I think that's probably actually a more accurate and
true place to live. Now, at the same time, I want to
say that doesn't mean we can't know anything, right?
Like absolutely, there are solid truths that we can plant our
feet on. And I think that's that's some
of what I was noticing as I was working through this passage is
like, wow, there's a lot of things that lead to a lot of
questions that I don't understand.
And as I said, I don't think are the point, but what can we say?
What can I plant my feet firmly on?
And I think there are very clear things that we can plant our
feet firmly on in the passage. And so learning to plant our
feet where we can and know what we can know and hold open handed
to the questions and the tensions and the things that we
go, I'm not sure we can know that.
And I think there's two things that I think stuck out for me as
we were as we were going through this passage the first time and
the second time and then also during your.
This one required. But I think there's two, there's
two, there's two particular things that Jesus says that I
think are like worth like hanging, you know, hanging on to
#1 what he says to the Pharisees, Kingdom of God is in.
Your midst. Don't miss it.
Don't miss it #2 toward the very end, and I said this earlier,
whoever tries to keep their life will lose it.
Whoever loses their life will preserve it.
Like those, those two feel like those are and they're.
That doesn't make them any more easy.
But if you, if you hear nothing else, I think, yeah, I think
those if everything else sifts away, you will do well to hang
on to what is being taught in both of those phrases, both to
the Pharisees and to the disciples.
And there's even something like when Jesus, whoever tries to
keep their life will will lose it.
Like I also even think about like my my propensity and I
think our like capital O our like tendency to want to just
like hold on to everything in a neat little way.
And when it comes to the scriptures, when it comes to
faith and and like the Kingdom is is, can't be.
Bigger than that. It's bigger than that.
It can't be boxed in in that way.
It actually would be unfortunate, yeah, if it could
be neat and tidy and contained within our understanding, right?
It is just going to constantly blow out-of-the-box as we try to
put it. So I think to that end, like
that's actually like a great segue into kind of like landing
the this passage a little bit wanted to talk a little bit
about the Kingdom. And, and it's not a new topic.
It's not a novel thing to talk about, but like, I think it's
just worth bringing up on a regular basis, especially since
you're not Grant you and I grant and I have talked about this in
the in the podcast, but since you're a fresher face, you've
only done this like a couple Times Now with us.
Like I want to talk a little bit about like what the Kingdom in
our midst is looking like for us, right?
For, for you, for me, for us as a church, for, for, for things
like that. And so I don't know if you wanna
go with that, but just like I think that there's a a good
conversation to be had there about like just reminding us
like, yes, there's the meta sort of like, OK, this is Paula
passage is challenging, but also like, let's bring it to the
ground. Let's like, talk about like the
work of the Kingdom that is in our midst that's happening.
Yeah, Well, we talked a little bit about the Kingdom being this
writing this, turning right side up of what was turned upside
down. So we talked about how the way
that God intended the world in terms of peace, which is this
word Shalom in Hebrew, which is much more than the absence of
conflict, but it's actually everything it was.
It was meant to be wholeness, right?
Relatedness, yeah, just the fullness of life.
And so that's what was intended. That got inverted, turned upside
down. We are very aware of all the
ways that that is broken and the dysfunction around us.
And so I think we can see the Kingdom wherever we see those
things being righted and put in their proper order.
And so I think one of the the joys for us that would consider
ourselves followers of Jesus is to join in the work of the
Kingdom, which is the work of writing those things that have
been turned upside down. And so whenever we see, you
know, justice for oppressed, hungry, being fed, you know,
even health to sit like whenever we can see and work for those
things, I think those are working to bring the fullness of
the Kingdom. And and I think that that can be
can be the joy. That's not something we have to
wait until, you know, like it talks about in this passage,
till the Son of Man is revealed, is how it talks about it.
Until that day where the Kingdom is fully restored.
We actually get to be part of that happening right now.
And there's like, you know, just thinking across our church
community like because there, there is, you know, this
multifaceted, holistic way of understanding the, the Kingdom,
which is both our, our spiritual selves as well as our, you know,
that there is a, a component where, hey, yeah, right.
When people are being fed, when, when things are being right,
when justice is happening, all of that is the Kingdom.
And also when people come to repentance, that is the Kingdom
and, and, and like what's been really cool over the past little
while is just to see the way that the gospel in the Kingdom
is, is doing something for, for, for unexpected people and
unexpected situations that I mean, I, I don't want to get
into other people's stories because they're not my story,
but just like seeing people changed, seeing someone, seeing
Jesus do something in someone's life that I'm like, Oh, I didn't
expect. Yeah, yeah, you know, didn't,
didn't see that coming. Like, and like, that's just what
Jesus is doing. And like they goes perfectly
with what he says about, you know, like, hey, this is
happening in your midst. It's happening all around you.
You you can't observe it, but it's.
Happening and happening, you know, outside of us and also
within us, right? And that's some of what you're
pointing to. So how do we work for that
outside of us, but also how do we let God do the work of
changing that, of sifting apart those things in us that are
aligned with God and are not and bringing more of the life that
he offers? Just a quick example, recent for
me, we were dealing with a really a bit of a scary and
stressful situation recently. And in the midst of it, I was
finding, I felt like, oh, I think God is offering me peace
because this is scary and it's stressful, but I really feel
this undercurrent of peace. And then I'd have moments to be
spiraling into like, but all the worst case scenarios and I had
to kind of keep coming back to like, he's, I feel like he's
holding it out there for me to actually have peace and I can
choose that. I can choose to live into what I
believe he's offering in me, or I can keep, you know, have those
moments of spiral. And so I think for me, that was
like just a small experience of what I feel like the Kingdom is
about is that he was holding it out there for me.
I could keep choosing to spiral and be stressed, or I could
choose to go, OK, I'm going to try to lean in and trust this
undercurrent apiece that I feel like he's offering me.
That's just one small example of like what that might look like
internally. Well, and the way that that can
change the, you know, the atmosphere in a room and, and
even like the people around you, when you are able to be that
that person and then they come like that agent piece in some
way. That's like, I'm even thinking
about our service yesterday morning where it just felt like
everything was going wrong. Like the screens were reversed.
There was no lyrics on the like all the things.
And I was the point person for the morning.
Grant graciously was able to take the morning off and he was
there, but kind of not there. Like he was there secretly snuck
in, snuck out kind of thing. And like I was, I was so
grateful that he could have that.
And also like it was a lot. It was a lot, a lot, but like I,
I was so grateful and I'm not like this isn't like I pat
myself on the back because I can't attribute this to me in
really any way, shape or form Is like, I was so grateful that
like the the Lord was like, Hey, this is a lot.
But like, you've got this, you know, like and, and, and even if
nothing else works, like we're going to sing the, the Kingdom
is going to be proclaimed, we're going to pray and everything's
going to be OK, you know, like. And I was not that coming into
it. And you were able to gift that
to me. Even though some curveballs were
thrown at you, you were able to lead from that place and offer
that sense of peace both to me to others.
I'm sure you're leading into the congregation as we had some
bumps and. Hiccups now I mean, I can't
speak for like our our tech team who is at the back of the room
and one of them who's like in the room right now with us but
like you know, they they might they might have they might have
gained some Gray hairs yesterday.
I don't know, but I might have as well, But but what was what
was and what was fun, you know, just using this again as an
example is like there was a lot of like laughter and levity that
we were able to do. And like there's something
beautiful when when we can as a community impart that like, Hey,
not everything is like super serious and stress, you know,
stress city, right? Like we can actually just laugh
and be OK. Yeah, and while we strive for
excellence, people relate a lot better to imperfection than to
perfection. For sure.
No, that's good. Um, the other thing I was
thinking about, you know, and this is like, so you know, like,
yes, lives change people, people, you know, being brought
to repentance, justice happening.
There's also other things like I think about where we were
Saturday morning this past this past weekend, we were planting
trees, which is like neighbors with church and neighbors.
And yeah, and our, our. Church family.
And it's like, you know, and if you're listening and you're
thinking, what a bunch of hippies, well, maybe that's
true, but this is, you know, we are in Guelph ON Canada, which
has a lot of those types. Well, and a full picture of the
Kingdom, yeah, includes creation.
Yeah, it includes. It does what is good for the
earth. And I think.
Trees are good. Yeah.
We hopefully where we can all agree that trees are grids.
Well, trees. And not just any trees, but the
idea of trees that will produce fruit that can be a gift and a
blessing to our neighbors, to our church community, and to the
broader golf community. Well, and even like there was
like the local kind of news outlet was there, but also like
are both a are Conservative and Liberal MP's, members of
Parliament were there, which was kind of an interesting dynamic
and of itself that it's like, hey, like this is, yeah, this is
very cool. But there is, yeah, there's
something beautiful about our our neighbors gathering with us
to do this together, to see again, just continuing to to do
that, that call of our vision to become trusted neighbors and to
build those inroads. And I think our food security
garden, our food bank are not the only, but two of the
beautiful expressions that we get to be part of seeing that
Kingdom come, seeing that Kingdom work.
I also think our meal ministry, which is totally hidden and
behind the scenes, but they care so beautifully for people that
for whatever the circumstance could benefit from a good meal.
And, and there's many, many other examples of this, but it's
also fun. Yeah.
Like getting to be part of those things of seeing, seeing people
blessed, part of that Kingdom work is a joy.
It's I think it's good for our souls to be part.
Of 100%, yeah. And there's something, yeah.
There's something again, like going back to what Jesus says to
the Pharisees like that some of this is very at word.
We can see tangible expressions of it, but some of it is like
you can't observe it. Like all of a sudden it's gonna
take like white. The Kingdom has been doing all
of these things all the way. Like there's something very,
very cool, very profound about. That well, think about a couple
of the metaphors that have been used, I believe, already in
Luke. So the Kingdom is like a mustard
seed, right? A seed that's planted in the
ground that grows to bear a giant tree could actually, you
know, give shade for the birds you don't see generally, unless
you maybe have one of those cameras that like is trained on
it and speeds up. You don't see growing happening,
right? Like you can see the seed, you
see the tree, but it's hard to be like, oh, look, watch that
growing or another example that's used as the Kingdom is
like yeast, right? Again, you don't look at your
loaf of bread and be like, wow, that's some nice yeast, right?
The yeast just permeates and is spread throughout.
Like those are some of the images were given for the
Kingdom that I think contribute to what he's saying there with
it can't be observed in the like, it's sometimes I talk
about like it smells like the Kingdom.
Like you can't always like pinpoint exactly what The thing
is, but you just have a sense that like, yeah, this is
something that is aligned with God and that's good.
But it's it's sometimes hard to like yeast to sort of see where
it is. And, and in a church, you know,
here at court, right, where a Church of, you know, most
Sundays around like 200, two, 150 people.
And more than that, when you consider those who would all
call this their church home. Like I think about all of the
different ways that the Kingdom is doing The thing is.
And and the thing that again, unseen ways things, the things
that we don't know, things that like they do people in our
church do that we have no idea about that are like it's such a
thing willing to think. About it would be such a shame
if the Kingdom impact of the church was only the things that
were done by the church like as programs of the church, right?
But hopefully as that community of maybe 400 people, I don't
know are spread throughout golf and beyond, like if we are
working for the Kingdom in all of those little corners of the
city, that is a beautiful expansion and expression of the
if we are loving our neighbors. And yes, I think the definition
of neighbor, you know, is very broad, but also our actual
neighbors. Like even just think about if
those 400 people did an amazing job of loving even just their
like literal either side or down the hall.
Like, that's thousands. Of people like that would be
incredible impact in the city. And that's like, that's actually
the call I believe of the church and what I hope is and would
love to see more of happening. And so, yeah, like I think
that's I think it's a good place to to close out like just
thinking about like the everyday little things, the unseen, the
unobservable ways in which the Kingdom is going forth.
And that the, the ways that the Kingdom will will be in our
midst and will continue to grow in our midst is not going to be
just through these big public acts, but it's going to be
through the ways that all of us are doing our part to, Yeah, to
love our neighbors well, to, to lead them to a greater
understanding and experience of who Jesus is.
And so I hope that, you know, you're able to think about what
that looks like in your life, wherever your context is,
whether it's your work, whether it's your, your home, your
neighbors on your, your house or your, your apartment building.
And so I just hope that you're able to be inspired to think
through the ways in which the Kingdom can be spread, to go out
into our city and then it spills out into the nations, into the
world. And I, yeah, I think I would
just add to that, though, that there can be a temptation in our
culture and in our plate Canadian society, in our, you
know, secular world, to strive for the Kingdom without the
king. That's a phrase that's often
used by Mark Sayers, who I really appreciate and has.
I've learned a lot from both the pastor and cultural commentator.
It's like a philosopher. Feel like, yeah, I don't know,
he doesn't fit in a box, which is which is great.
But I think that's been such a lesson to me is that it's
tempting to be about the things of the Kingdom and to to
separate that from the king, because those are very it's
politically correct maybe to do that.
And So what does it mean for us to be about the work of the
Kingdom while making sure we're, we're still trying to be all in
with the king? And what does it mean for us to
be receiving the friendship that Jesus is offering us?
And also, um, choosing and leaning into that friendship so
that we are about the things of the Kingdom, but that we're
making sure we're about them with the.
King, that's great. Well, that's a great place to
end. So we hope this has been helpful
for you in some way. And we hope that you will
continue to think through the ways in which you are called to,
to bring forth this Kingdom that Jesus calls us to.
So I hope you are able to take that into your week and we'll
see you next time.