1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,520 So this morning we're beginning a new sermon series called One 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:05,960 Another. And so it's a series about God's 3 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,280 invitation to community and what it means to be a people marked 4 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,200 by love. So today's scripture reading is 5 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:17,080 Romans 12/4 through 5. For just as each of us has one 6 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:20,440 body with many members, and these members do not all have 7 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:25,640 the same function, so in Christ we though many form one body and 8 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,880 each member belongs to all the others. 9 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:30,410 This is the word of the Lord. Thanks Peter Guy. 10 00:00:37,550 --> 00:00:40,630 Morning everybody. How we doing this morning? 11 00:00:41,790 --> 00:00:43,750 Good. Good to see all of your lovely 12 00:00:43,750 --> 00:00:50,470 faces glistening out there. That was intended to be a joke. 13 00:00:51,630 --> 00:00:57,030 Sorry the IT is a hot one today. Appreciate you. 14 00:00:57,430 --> 00:01:00,950 Ali and I just got back last night from a wedding which was 15 00:01:00,950 --> 00:01:05,450 outdoor We. Made a poor decision to rent an 16 00:01:05,450 --> 00:01:08,090 Airbnb without checking to make sure it had air conditioning. 17 00:01:08,090 --> 00:01:09,810 So we're just acclimating at this point. 18 00:01:09,850 --> 00:01:12,650 We're acclimating. Hey, if I haven't met you, my 19 00:01:12,650 --> 00:01:14,770 name is Josh. I have the honor of being one of 20 00:01:14,770 --> 00:01:18,930 the pastors here at Reality and it's great. 21 00:01:18,970 --> 00:01:20,610 Again, I just want to say welcome. 22 00:01:20,690 --> 00:01:22,650 We're so glad that you're with us today, whether you've been 23 00:01:22,650 --> 00:01:25,410 here for a long time or today is just your very first time. 24 00:01:26,250 --> 00:01:29,570 But as Nicole said, we are diving into a new series this 25 00:01:29,570 --> 00:01:32,730 morning on the one another passages of scripture. 26 00:01:32,730 --> 00:01:36,210 Some of you know about this. There is a Greek word that shows 27 00:01:36,210 --> 00:01:40,010 up around 100 times throughout the text of Scripture. 28 00:01:40,010 --> 00:01:43,450 The Greek word is a lay alone, which usually gets translated 29 00:01:43,450 --> 00:01:47,090 something like one another. And when we when we zoom out 30 00:01:47,090 --> 00:01:50,130 from all of these individual texts, we begin to get really 31 00:01:50,130 --> 00:01:54,530 kind of a composite of what it looks like for us as the family 32 00:01:54,530 --> 00:01:56,720 of Jesus. To live together. 33 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,560 And so that's what we're going to be exploring over the course 34 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,800 of this series. Looking at God's vision for 35 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,200 community as we are in a season in our in our church family this 36 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,320 summer of connecting, meeting some new people, getting to know 37 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,920 one another. Community is a a big value for 38 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:16,280 us here at Reality. I think it's one of the things 39 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,000 that our church does a pretty good job at. 40 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,640 Although like any value is sometimes there are places where 41 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:26,560 we miss it where we. Need to grow and want to to go 42 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:28,280 further in it. So we hope that this series will 43 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,200 be a time to to build on our strengths in that way. 44 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,480 Also want to say if you're not connected here, if you want to 45 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,400 be, if you're trying to figure out what the next set looks like 46 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,160 for you or just if we haven't met, come come grab me. 47 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,760 After the gathering I'd love to chat with you and help you find 48 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:48,320 a way to to plug in. Well this past week like many of 49 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,160 you, my family celebrated the 4th of July. 50 00:02:51,930 --> 00:02:55,130 We went down, got out of the city, was raining at the time, 51 00:02:55,130 --> 00:02:59,130 as as you may remember, and so my inlaws have a house that's a 52 00:02:59,130 --> 00:03:02,370 little bit larger and we we grilled out, we hung out, We 53 00:03:02,370 --> 00:03:05,770 went down to there a large basement and established an 54 00:03:05,770 --> 00:03:08,450 improvised pickleball court and tried to play. 55 00:03:08,450 --> 00:03:10,450 It was definitely not large enough for that, but we had a 56 00:03:10,450 --> 00:03:13,610 good time and avoided injuries. Only only a few things were 57 00:03:13,610 --> 00:03:20,010 broken but but this tradition of celebrating the 4th really goes 58 00:03:20,010 --> 00:03:23,020 back to. Kind of America's origin story, 59 00:03:23,020 --> 00:03:25,340 if you will. And of course America's origin 60 00:03:25,340 --> 00:03:27,220 story is something that's contested right now. 61 00:03:28,220 --> 00:03:34,260 But the story goes, as you know, back in 1776, these British 62 00:03:34,260 --> 00:03:37,860 colonists who are tired of of feeling like they didn't have a 63 00:03:37,860 --> 00:03:41,100 say, didn't have voice, had already thrown some tea in the 64 00:03:41,100 --> 00:03:42,820 harbor. Maybe you've participated in 65 00:03:42,820 --> 00:03:45,700 that at some point, but got together and they said, you know 66 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:49,390 what, We we don't think. That that others should be able 67 00:03:49,390 --> 00:03:53,110 to to to infringe on on these rights that we have. 68 00:03:53,110 --> 00:03:55,270 In fact we have these rights that are self-evident they're 69 00:03:55,270 --> 00:03:58,830 inviolable they're given by God himself and and since the 70 00:03:58,830 --> 00:04:01,230 government over in Britain isn't supporting these we're going to 71 00:04:01,230 --> 00:04:03,950 set up our own. And that history of course 72 00:04:03,950 --> 00:04:07,430 launched the American Revolution some of which was fought right 73 00:04:07,430 --> 00:04:10,670 here in Boston but the reason I bring it up and and this whole 74 00:04:10,670 --> 00:04:14,150 history around the 4th is it's so interesting I I think that. 75 00:04:15,180 --> 00:04:17,899 In some ways our holidays shape our imagination. 76 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:20,860 They shape our values, the stories that we tell. 77 00:04:21,700 --> 00:04:24,260 And and on this value, we literally celebrate 78 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:27,180 independence, right? Independence Day. 79 00:04:27,980 --> 00:04:31,460 And this value for independence is something that really marks 80 00:04:31,460 --> 00:04:35,180 us as Americans, somewhat actually, in contrast to others. 81 00:04:35,220 --> 00:04:39,300 I was over in France a couple of years ago and I was really 82 00:04:39,300 --> 00:04:42,720 struck by the fact. That you know, they they 83 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,200 Liberty, equity, Fraternity is their revolutionary slogan that 84 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:48,880 you see up all over the place, right? 85 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,640 It's much more communal when we think of the values of America 86 00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:58,280 like freedom, liberty, independence are things that 87 00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:02,810 come up again and again. And whether we're aware of it or 88 00:05:02,810 --> 00:05:05,290 not, some of us obviously here are not even Americans. 89 00:05:05,290 --> 00:05:09,250 But but these things shape our culture and our identity as 90 00:05:09,250 --> 00:05:13,290 people who live here in this community in one way or another. 91 00:05:14,610 --> 00:05:18,410 And and it's interesting because while I think independence is, 92 00:05:18,450 --> 00:05:21,810 is a beautiful thing. I mean who wants to be pushed 93 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:24,570 around, told what to do, exploited. 94 00:05:24,770 --> 00:05:28,850 Probably none of us, right? Agency is a really valuable and 95 00:05:28,850 --> 00:05:33,810 important thing. That are kind of extreme focus 96 00:05:33,810 --> 00:05:37,730 on this in some ways ends up having some shadow sides that we 97 00:05:37,730 --> 00:05:41,370 bump up against particularly as followers of Jesus. 98 00:05:41,370 --> 00:05:45,010 When we get to this question of what it looks like to do 99 00:05:45,010 --> 00:05:50,130 community, there's a word for a society shaped by a value for 100 00:05:50,130 --> 00:05:52,450 independence that that word is individualism. 101 00:05:53,050 --> 00:05:55,890 As the dictionary defines it. Individualism is the principle 102 00:05:56,170 --> 00:05:58,810 of being independent and self reliant. 103 00:06:00,300 --> 00:06:03,820 And here we find, I think, a paradox that I want to explore 104 00:06:03,820 --> 00:06:06,540 together this morning. And the paradox is very simply 105 00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:08,180 this. We have this value that I think 106 00:06:08,180 --> 00:06:10,500 most of us would say independence seems better than 107 00:06:10,500 --> 00:06:12,220 the alternative. I would like to have 108 00:06:12,820 --> 00:06:15,580 independence, autonomy, self determination, good things. 109 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:17,820 And I also want to be in community. 110 00:06:18,460 --> 00:06:21,860 I want to belong to others. I want to be connected, right? 111 00:06:21,860 --> 00:06:25,980 And there is there is a tension that starts to creep in between 112 00:06:25,980 --> 00:06:29,540 these two things, good things that all of us want. 113 00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:33,350 I don't know. Maybe a way to practically 114 00:06:33,350 --> 00:06:37,790 illustrate this is, have any of you ever tried to settle on a 115 00:06:37,790 --> 00:06:40,830 place to go for lunch with like 15 different people? 116 00:06:41,830 --> 00:06:43,710 Right. Particularly if like, no one is 117 00:06:43,710 --> 00:06:46,910 in charge, If it's unclear, like who is, who is making the 118 00:06:46,910 --> 00:06:50,030 decision, right, Because there's that one person who's like, oh, 119 00:06:50,190 --> 00:06:52,310 I want to eat at this place because it's like close to my 120 00:06:52,310 --> 00:06:55,380 house or the tea. And then this other person is 121 00:06:55,380 --> 00:06:57,980 like, yeah, but that place doesn't have gluten free options 122 00:06:57,980 --> 00:07:00,860 and like, I need gluten free. The other person over here is 123 00:07:00,860 --> 00:07:03,900 like super into seafood and this person hates seafood, right? 124 00:07:04,220 --> 00:07:07,260 And before you know it, like you have people going to four 125 00:07:07,260 --> 00:07:09,340 different directions. This person wants to go to 126 00:07:09,340 --> 00:07:11,380 somewhere that's locally owned. This person wants to go to 127 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:13,140 Cheesecake Factory because of all the options. 128 00:07:13,140 --> 00:07:15,500 Like it just becomes chaos, right? 129 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,560 And sometimes we end up in this this space where we feel this 130 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,120 tension between how we would prefer to express ourselves, how 131 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:27,480 we would prefer to do things if we were in charge, if we were 132 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,840 autonomously making decisions, and the question of like, but we 133 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,960 also want to be together. So how do we navigate this 134 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,800 paradox? I think the book of Romans 135 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:40,160 points us to some helpful information here. 136 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:43,660 Regarding this, in the book of Romans, we found a church that 137 00:07:43,660 --> 00:07:47,580 is struggling to live in community across quite a lot of 138 00:07:47,580 --> 00:07:50,620 difference. The church in Rome of course was 139 00:07:50,660 --> 00:07:53,140 in the center of the world at the time. 140 00:07:53,740 --> 00:07:57,260 Like Rome was it that all roads, as they said, led there. 141 00:07:57,500 --> 00:07:59,740 And there were not only Romans who were from there, but there 142 00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:02,300 were immigrants. There were people from all over 143 00:08:02,300 --> 00:08:05,740 the world who had come to Rome for for fame and fortune. 144 00:08:06,020 --> 00:08:08,740 And it wasn't just diverse in terms of languages and 145 00:08:08,740 --> 00:08:11,980 ethnicities, but it was, it was crazy diverse in terms of class. 146 00:08:11,980 --> 00:08:16,540 It was full of of slaves, but also of merchants and and former 147 00:08:16,540 --> 00:08:19,060 slaves and then folks who'd been commissioned by somebody else to 148 00:08:19,060 --> 00:08:22,300 go and do business and and then there were the political class, 149 00:08:22,300 --> 00:08:25,940 like whatever you could. Think of was in Rome and as we 150 00:08:25,940 --> 00:08:29,580 get to this book of Romans we find that actually the church 151 00:08:29,580 --> 00:08:33,020 looked a lot like that. The church in Rome was super 152 00:08:33,020 --> 00:08:38,460 diverse, not only across race and class, but but also in terms 153 00:08:38,460 --> 00:08:41,100 of previous faith and experience. 154 00:08:41,700 --> 00:08:44,740 See, when the the church in Rome started out, it was primarily 155 00:08:44,820 --> 00:08:47,780 within the synagogue, it was within the Jewish community. 156 00:08:48,890 --> 00:08:50,970 But you Fast forward a little bit. 157 00:08:50,970 --> 00:08:53,770 We're not sure exactly when, but somewhere along the line 158 00:08:53,770 --> 00:08:57,130 probably around 8049, the Emperor Claudius who was ruling 159 00:08:57,130 --> 00:09:00,210 at the time got irritated with all the Jews for some reason. 160 00:09:00,210 --> 00:09:03,370 And he just said get out emperors can do that apparently. 161 00:09:03,770 --> 00:09:07,490 So he just said go like you're gone you have to leave the city. 162 00:09:07,530 --> 00:09:10,370 And and there was this massive exodus the the Jewish folks who 163 00:09:10,370 --> 00:09:12,810 had founded the church there all of a sudden were gone and and 164 00:09:12,810 --> 00:09:14,290 the only people left in the church. 165 00:09:14,850 --> 00:09:19,010 Were the Romans the the the non Jewish folks who who had come to 166 00:09:19,010 --> 00:09:21,250 faith and participated in that church community. 167 00:09:22,170 --> 00:09:26,330 And as you might imagine this was a big cultural shift right? 168 00:09:26,330 --> 00:09:28,930 The the the Jewish folk and the non Jewish folk had different 169 00:09:28,930 --> 00:09:30,530 backgrounds. They had different cultures. 170 00:09:30,530 --> 00:09:34,130 They had different relationships to the law of Moses and all the 171 00:09:34,130 --> 00:09:37,570 rituals and rules around that. So so the non Jews started to 172 00:09:37,570 --> 00:09:39,330 like contextualize. They're like you know we're 173 00:09:39,330 --> 00:09:41,850 going to get some of that music up in here right. 174 00:09:41,850 --> 00:09:42,730 We're going to we're going to like. 175 00:09:43,190 --> 00:09:44,990 We're gonna change the service times around a little bit. 176 00:09:44,990 --> 00:09:46,950 We're gonna do some things, and they did some things. 177 00:09:46,950 --> 00:09:50,310 We don't know what those things were, but we do know that then 178 00:09:50,430 --> 00:09:54,070 eventually Claudius dies and many of these Jews who've been 179 00:09:54,070 --> 00:09:57,430 forced out of Rome come back right? 180 00:09:57,430 --> 00:10:00,430 They all of a sudden show back up at their place. 181 00:10:00,430 --> 00:10:03,470 This was their church, and it's not the same. 182 00:10:04,370 --> 00:10:06,690 Like, it's been totally, it's been totally changed. 183 00:10:06,810 --> 00:10:09,370 It's it's evolved. If you have visited reality in 184 00:10:09,370 --> 00:10:11,650 the past and then you got here today, like who is this guy 185 00:10:11,650 --> 00:10:13,930 who's up here? You know, like the reality has 186 00:10:13,930 --> 00:10:16,610 been through a lot of changes. And sometimes over time a place 187 00:10:16,610 --> 00:10:18,370 just becomes it. It's like, oh, this is a 188 00:10:18,370 --> 00:10:22,170 different thing. And then these people who who 189 00:10:22,170 --> 00:10:25,970 had previously been crucial members, really it helped to get 190 00:10:25,970 --> 00:10:28,610 this thing off the ground, are then trying to find their place 191 00:10:28,610 --> 00:10:30,970 in this new expression. Like, what does this mean? 192 00:10:30,970 --> 00:10:32,610 How did, how do we live together? 193 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:36,720 Across these differences, what does it mean to find rhythms 194 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:41,920 that work for for all of us? And so Paul writes this letter 195 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:46,160 to a diverse and in some ways a divided community that's 196 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:49,480 navigating A merger, something that I don't know. 197 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:51,360 We got a lot of divisions going on, but some things that are 198 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,240 relevant for us for sure. And he offers them, as Scott 199 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,600 McKnight talks about it, a lived theology. 200 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,520 But how to navigate really, Romans is mostly about how to 201 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:04,290 navigate privilege and power. On how to be at peace with 202 00:11:04,290 --> 00:11:09,330 others who are different from us, and specifically this 203 00:11:09,330 --> 00:11:12,250 morning we're in chapter 12, verses four and five, where Paul 204 00:11:12,250 --> 00:11:15,450 introduces this key metaphor which really grounds the 205 00:11:15,450 --> 00:11:17,770 community. Read with me here. 206 00:11:17,770 --> 00:11:21,090 Picking up in verse 4, Paul writes that just as each of us 207 00:11:21,090 --> 00:11:24,850 has one body with many members, and these members don't all have 208 00:11:24,850 --> 00:11:29,490 the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body. 209 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,640 And each members belongs to all the others. 210 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,320 There you got it. Everybody catch that one another 211 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,920 series all the others, it's the same word. 212 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:44,520 Alay alone is showing up there and and Paul says that that 213 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:48,320 this, this one, another is actually something that we are. 214 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,680 It's not just something that we do, it's something that we are 215 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:55,440 as members of a body who belong to one another. 216 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:59,920 And I love, honestly, this is a pretty radical image that Paul 217 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:03,960 gives, but it's also, I think, such an important image for us. 218 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,600 It's really an image that we're going to return to throughout 219 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,040 this series as we look at what it means to to live in community 220 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,080 with one another. Because a body is, you know, a 221 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:19,200 body is not uniform, right? We are made of the same stuff, 222 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,110 but. And your nose. 223 00:12:22,110 --> 00:12:24,590 And your big toe. Right, your elbow. 224 00:12:24,590 --> 00:12:26,390 Your shoulder. These are not the same, right? 225 00:12:26,390 --> 00:12:30,110 They're very, very different. They function differently. 226 00:12:30,110 --> 00:12:34,350 Your kidney is not the same as your knee or your eye. 227 00:12:34,790 --> 00:12:36,830 The church in in Rome was not uniform. 228 00:12:36,830 --> 00:12:39,190 And Paul's message was not that the the church needed to be 229 00:12:39,190 --> 00:12:41,870 uniform. But he was saying that despite 230 00:12:41,870 --> 00:12:44,150 all of this difference in diversity, that somehow we've 231 00:12:44,150 --> 00:12:49,750 got to find a way to function together as a body. 232 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:55,240 And in order to to invite them into a fresh imagination, he 233 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:59,440 says that that we form one body where each member belongs to all 234 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,680 the others. Man belong is such an 235 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:04,360 interesting word to show up here, right? 236 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:07,800 I don't know about you, but like, I want to belong. 237 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,840 Like, I like feeling included. You know, when Robert has a 238 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,160 party at his house and makes delicious food, I want to get 239 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:15,680 invited. It's like a good thing. 240 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:17,160 Manny and I were talking about that this week. 241 00:13:18,110 --> 00:13:19,070 It's Okay Robert. I'm not offended. 242 00:13:20,470 --> 00:13:22,990 The he's gonna invite me. I'm confident. 243 00:13:22,990 --> 00:13:24,470 Especially after this. Now he has to. 244 00:13:24,470 --> 00:13:29,670 So belonging is great, right? You go to your local coffee shop 245 00:13:29,670 --> 00:13:32,270 and people know your name. I live in a neighborhood where I 246 00:13:32,270 --> 00:13:35,350 walk down the street and always people are like, hey, what's up 247 00:13:35,350 --> 00:13:36,230 Josh? Good to see you. 248 00:13:36,230 --> 00:13:37,190 What's going on? Right. 249 00:13:37,710 --> 00:13:41,310 Belonging is fantastic. We all want to belong. 250 00:13:42,190 --> 00:13:44,900 Brené Brown says that. That a deep sense of love and 251 00:13:44,900 --> 00:13:48,740 belonging is an irreducible need of all people. 252 00:13:48,740 --> 00:13:51,700 We're biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually 253 00:13:51,700 --> 00:13:55,420 wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. 254 00:13:55,420 --> 00:13:59,460 We all want it. But while belonging sounds 255 00:13:59,540 --> 00:14:02,860 great, there's kind of a flip side. 256 00:14:02,860 --> 00:14:08,020 Because who wants to, like, belong to someone else like 257 00:14:08,020 --> 00:14:08,980 that? Almost it. 258 00:14:09,380 --> 00:14:15,350 It implies ownership, right? It implies responsibilities and 259 00:14:15,350 --> 00:14:17,990 duties. It implies commitment. 260 00:14:17,990 --> 00:14:22,470 Whether you are part of a family, a church, A-Team, a 261 00:14:22,470 --> 00:14:26,270 civic organization, if you belong to that group, whatever 262 00:14:26,270 --> 00:14:28,830 that group is, there are some things that are expected of you. 263 00:14:29,980 --> 00:14:32,740 There's some there's some ways in which you're expected to show 264 00:14:32,740 --> 00:14:34,140 up. There's some things that that 265 00:14:34,140 --> 00:14:36,620 you have that go along with that, right? 266 00:14:36,620 --> 00:14:39,740 There are commitments and duties and and who wants that? 267 00:14:39,740 --> 00:14:42,780 Cuz like I want to be free. I want to I want to wait until 268 00:14:42,780 --> 00:14:47,500 like after church to see how I'm feeling to decide whether or not 269 00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:49,940 Anna's thing makes sense to RSVP too right? 270 00:14:50,140 --> 00:14:52,180 Is like, I'm gonna like cuz it could go either way. 271 00:14:52,180 --> 00:14:53,740 What if a better opportunity comes up? 272 00:14:53,740 --> 00:14:57,460 Maybe maybe like keep my options open until the last second. 273 00:14:58,950 --> 00:15:03,190 And I think for so many of us we feel this like particularly we 274 00:15:03,190 --> 00:15:07,910 feel this if we have been in a space, which I have and I 275 00:15:07,910 --> 00:15:11,150 imagine many of you have where you've experienced some 276 00:15:11,150 --> 00:15:14,630 authority that was abusive or controlling, right. 277 00:15:14,630 --> 00:15:18,270 Were you were you've experienced somebody who was who was really 278 00:15:18,750 --> 00:15:22,190 kind of like trying to hedge you in not in allowing you to to see 279 00:15:22,190 --> 00:15:25,350 your own needs met or your own desires express and it felt 280 00:15:25,350 --> 00:15:27,380 like. I'm part of this thing, and it's 281 00:15:27,380 --> 00:15:30,140 cramping my style. It's it's forcing me into a box 282 00:15:30,140 --> 00:15:31,780 that I'm not comfortable with, right? 283 00:15:33,340 --> 00:15:35,980 We we have this just almost. For some of us, it's like an 284 00:15:35,980 --> 00:15:39,620 allergic reaction to feeling controlled in some way. 285 00:15:40,220 --> 00:15:44,300 It's feeling like somebody you know owns us or puts demands on 286 00:15:44,300 --> 00:15:50,380 us or puts pressure on us. And this is the paradox of 287 00:15:50,380 --> 00:15:51,580 independence and belonging, right? 288 00:15:51,580 --> 00:15:53,460 I want to be held, but not too tight. 289 00:15:53,460 --> 00:15:55,900 Don't crush me. I want to be in control, but I 290 00:15:55,900 --> 00:15:57,100 also want to be part of the group. 291 00:15:57,820 --> 00:16:00,140 I want to eat at my favorite restaurant because I like 292 00:16:00,140 --> 00:16:01,820 seafood. But like, I also want you to 293 00:16:01,820 --> 00:16:03,740 come. Like everybody should go to 294 00:16:03,740 --> 00:16:06,940 where I want to go, right? Tim Keller wants quipped that 295 00:16:06,940 --> 00:16:09,140 everyone says they want community and friendship, but 296 00:16:09,140 --> 00:16:11,580 mention accountability or commitment to people and they 297 00:16:11,580 --> 00:16:17,900 run the other way. My experience sometimes that's 298 00:16:17,900 --> 00:16:19,620 true. Like not not just true of like 299 00:16:19,780 --> 00:16:21,500 us generally. Sometimes it's true of me, 300 00:16:22,660 --> 00:16:25,450 right? We want to be independent. 301 00:16:25,450 --> 00:16:27,330 Not so independent. We feel isolated and lonely, but 302 00:16:27,330 --> 00:16:30,130 independent enough where we never have to do anything that 303 00:16:30,130 --> 00:16:33,050 we don't prefer. And here's a paradox. 304 00:16:34,450 --> 00:16:38,050 So Romans in, or Paul rather in the book of Romans here says we 305 00:16:38,050 --> 00:16:42,450 who are many form one body. I think a body is an interesting 306 00:16:42,450 --> 00:16:44,970 metaphor because it's a, it's a functional metaphor, you know, 307 00:16:46,690 --> 00:16:52,170 like all your different body parts have to work together in 308 00:16:52,170 --> 00:16:55,120 order for like. Basically anything in your life 309 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,440 to happen, right? Who out here is athletic? 310 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:01,760 OK? Got like 2 hands. 311 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:03,800 I appreciate you bold people. Everybody else here. 312 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:05,839 There are more athletic people out there than that. 313 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:07,319 I know. I know some of you, right? 314 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:08,839 But. But we don't, you know. 315 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:11,839 All right. I'm not athletic. 316 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,520 I enjoy sports. I enjoy moving my body. 317 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,240 I'm not an athletic person. I'm not very coordinated. 318 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,369 Sometimes I'm like walking and. I forgot to tell my shoulder 319 00:17:20,369 --> 00:17:22,369 that we're passing through a door frame and there's just this 320 00:17:22,369 --> 00:17:25,530 like moment, you know, or like stubbing the toe on something. 321 00:17:26,010 --> 00:17:28,730 My my body isn't the most coordinated, but still it 322 00:17:28,730 --> 00:17:31,930 generally works together, generally does the things that I 323 00:17:31,930 --> 00:17:35,090 want to do. But but not all bodies. 324 00:17:36,050 --> 00:17:37,770 There's like, actually this is super crazy. 325 00:17:37,770 --> 00:17:41,290 Almost a century ago as researchers, researchers were 326 00:17:41,290 --> 00:17:45,810 trying to cure really extreme forms of epilepsy. 327 00:17:46,850 --> 00:17:50,080 There was some doctors. Particularly A1 doctor William 328 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:55,600 Van Wagonen in upstate New York around 1939, who went on some, 329 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:57,480 like crazy experimental surgery stuff. 330 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,440 Dr. Van Wagonen between February and May of that year opened up 331 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:08,920 10 patients skulls and cut through the corpus callosum, 332 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:12,920 which is the part of the brain connecting the left hemisphere 333 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,720 to the right. OK, he severed the connection 334 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,490 between. The two different hemispheres of 335 00:18:19,490 --> 00:18:22,530 your brain in these patients who were experiencing severe 336 00:18:22,530 --> 00:18:25,450 epilepsy. And it kind of worked, right. 337 00:18:25,450 --> 00:18:28,450 It like it had some positive like in most of the cases 338 00:18:29,050 --> 00:18:31,410 whatever was going on that was generating these epileptic 339 00:18:31,410 --> 00:18:35,610 seizures, it it fix it. But it also had some weird side 340 00:18:35,610 --> 00:18:38,530 effects. OK A lot of what we know about 341 00:18:38,530 --> 00:18:41,690 in neuroscience today is because of these weird things where like 342 00:18:41,730 --> 00:18:46,170 it's like let's disconnect the halves of the brain and and. 343 00:18:46,890 --> 00:18:48,970 I I've just learned this, maybe maybe some of you already know 344 00:18:48,970 --> 00:18:51,570 this, but you basically your right brain controls the left 345 00:18:51,570 --> 00:18:53,290 side of your body. Your left brain controls the 346 00:18:53,290 --> 00:18:56,770 right side of your body, right. And typically they work together 347 00:18:56,770 --> 00:19:03,050 as as you would imagine. But in some cases after severing 348 00:19:03,050 --> 00:19:06,410 this connection, people would essentially have two brain 349 00:19:06,410 --> 00:19:10,370 systems that were not working together which generated 350 00:19:10,370 --> 00:19:14,170 something called alien hand syndrome in which. 351 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:16,920 There was like the dominant part of your brain that was like 352 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:18,160 aware of stuff and controlling stuff. 353 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:20,920 Typically on the left side was like, you're going through life 354 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:22,480 and doing something. And then all of a sudden it's 355 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:27,760 like, hey, that hand grabbed something and it won't let go. 356 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,960 And the person is sitting there telling you, like, go hand and 357 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:33,840 the hand is like, Nope, I'm all good. 358 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:35,800 Like I really wanna hold on to this thing. 359 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,760 Or or there were even crazier instances of alien hand 360 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:41,160 syndrome. There were instances where 361 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:43,840 people would get a phone call and they, like, go to answer it 362 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,320 with her right hand and their left hand is like batting it out 363 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,000 of the way. Like, I want to get there first. 364 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,640 Some crazy, crazy stuff in one case. 365 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:53,560 In one really extreme case, this lady is like, she's not in 366 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:55,960 public and like, her left hand just starts like unbuttoning her 367 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,360 blouse. It's like, whoa, OK, the the 368 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:02,120 same lady like her left hand at one point started trying to, 369 00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:03,800 like, choke her out in the middle of her sleep. 370 00:20:05,630 --> 00:20:07,550 The body is disconnected, not granted. 371 00:20:07,550 --> 00:20:11,190 This is, this is a really extreme and crazy example. 372 00:20:11,390 --> 00:20:14,510 None of us are like this. None of us ever, you know, 373 00:20:14,710 --> 00:20:16,550 accidentally say things we didn't mean to. 374 00:20:16,550 --> 00:20:19,470 Or, well, some of us might do that, but most I don't. 375 00:20:19,590 --> 00:20:22,110 I don't imagine that anyone here has alien hand syndrome. 376 00:20:22,430 --> 00:20:25,710 But I bring this all up because I think tragically sometimes 377 00:20:25,750 --> 00:20:33,110 this is how we as the Church function like we we we say we're 378 00:20:33,110 --> 00:20:36,440 united and in like. Like a unity cognitive like 379 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,000 we're all of the same stuff, sure. 380 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,200 But then functionally, when it gets to it, we don't necessarily 381 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:49,960 like, operate as one, right? Sometimes that's like we just 382 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:54,680 disagree about stuff. You know, one person thinks the 383 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,600 worship is the most important. Somebody else thinks the 384 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,920 preaching is the most important. One person, you know wants to 385 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:02,040 meet over here, another person wants to meet over there, and 386 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:04,320 you get factions, and people disagree. 387 00:21:05,290 --> 00:21:09,970 But other times it's stuff like, you know, we have needs, right? 388 00:21:09,970 --> 00:21:12,770 There's parts of the body that are injured, right? 389 00:21:12,770 --> 00:21:16,170 They're going through something, but they don't communicate to 390 00:21:16,170 --> 00:21:17,570 anybody else in the body about that. 391 00:21:18,410 --> 00:21:22,650 They're just like handling that by themselves in isolation, 392 00:21:24,050 --> 00:21:26,730 right? Or people just kind of often 393 00:21:26,730 --> 00:21:29,010 like, it's like, well, the same thing as with the restaurant. 394 00:21:29,170 --> 00:21:30,410 It's like, well, this is my idea. 395 00:21:30,890 --> 00:21:33,610 This is what I prefer. Let's go in that direction. 396 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:35,400 And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna fight you. 397 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,040 It's like a nervous system disorder. 398 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:41,520 But here's the thing that's so powerful to me about this 399 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:45,400 passage of scripture is that Paul, in this image of the body, 400 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:47,400 says that we belong to one another. 401 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,760 In other words, it's not me and you, it's it's really us. 402 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:56,640 And and just as it's, like, absolutely ridiculous and 403 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,840 terrifying to think about a limb of your body acting up and just 404 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:05,220 like, going rogue, like. It should be concerning to us 405 00:22:06,340 --> 00:22:11,180 when like members of the body, whether it's me or anybody else 406 00:22:11,180 --> 00:22:15,660 like are kind of going rope doing their own thing in without 407 00:22:15,660 --> 00:22:20,260 coordination, without connection with others and friends. 408 00:22:20,820 --> 00:22:23,900 As I said earlier, this is not a, this is not a guilt trip 409 00:22:24,460 --> 00:22:27,420 conversation that I want to have this morning because like, look, 410 00:22:27,420 --> 00:22:30,620 I get it. Most of us feel like. 411 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,080 Man, we got a lot going on. It is a lot to manage in my 412 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,680 life. Keeping up with my needs is a 413 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:38,800 lot. And then I got family members 414 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,480 who need stuff, right? I got like, my close couple 415 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,440 friends that need stuff. So, like, thinking about like, 416 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,240 Oh my gosh, it's it's so easy to get into this conversation. 417 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,360 And I think a lot of us just trip into this imagination where 418 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:52,680 we think, Oh my gosh, well, somebody else's needs. 419 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,240 Like, what are you, Josh? What are you talking about? 420 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,200 Like, do I have to? Then I'm gonna, like, call 421 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:57,840 everybody before I decide on dinner tonight. 422 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,690 Like, what are you saying? I'm not. 423 00:23:01,810 --> 00:23:05,610 I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that I think 424 00:23:05,610 --> 00:23:10,170 some of us have this instinct, this value, this default towards 425 00:23:10,210 --> 00:23:14,890 independence and autonomy, which serves a purpose, right? 426 00:23:16,050 --> 00:23:19,010 Like it's not bad. I'm I'm if you have that. 427 00:23:19,010 --> 00:23:21,210 I'm glad that you have that. If you don't have that at all, 428 00:23:21,810 --> 00:23:24,170 there's a different message on boundaries that we need to have. 429 00:23:24,170 --> 00:23:25,810 Like it's a different conversation. 430 00:23:26,890 --> 00:23:29,290 You should have like some independence and agency. 431 00:23:30,410 --> 00:23:34,330 But when, when, as with any value, if, if we just run on 432 00:23:34,330 --> 00:23:37,570 that value, if we just operate in our defaults, then I think we 433 00:23:37,890 --> 00:23:41,250 we miss something. We miss what's possible. 434 00:23:41,250 --> 00:23:45,170 We miss the flourishing life that Jesus actually designed for 435 00:23:45,170 --> 00:23:47,690 us to have, which is not individual. 436 00:23:47,690 --> 00:23:52,810 It is not individualism. It is a community that is 437 00:23:52,850 --> 00:23:57,250 interdependent with one another and friends. 438 00:23:58,860 --> 00:24:01,260 It's not that we're not doing this at all, but I, I, I just 439 00:24:01,260 --> 00:24:04,180 wonder if there there might be some of us even today who have a 440 00:24:04,180 --> 00:24:08,340 bit of a stunted imagination around what's possible, right? 441 00:24:08,340 --> 00:24:12,740 Because we live in a culture in a society where like everything 442 00:24:12,740 --> 00:24:16,060 is financial and transactional, right? 443 00:24:16,060 --> 00:24:19,060 I don't need community like I can Grubhub that meal that I 444 00:24:19,060 --> 00:24:21,980 need somebody to bring me. I can order an Uber, right? 445 00:24:21,980 --> 00:24:24,900 I can hire movers. I can like, you know, like. 446 00:24:25,410 --> 00:24:27,730 There is an answer for everything that you need in your 447 00:24:27,730 --> 00:24:29,690 life that you might rely on somebody else for. 448 00:24:29,690 --> 00:24:35,050 And so often all of us are are managing everything ourselves. 449 00:24:37,050 --> 00:24:38,290 But what if we're missing something? 450 00:24:38,290 --> 00:24:40,770 What if it's holding us back in some way from the good life, the 451 00:24:40,770 --> 00:24:43,610 flourishing life that God actually wants for us? 452 00:24:44,250 --> 00:24:47,890 I mean, what if we were a community that that showed up 453 00:24:47,890 --> 00:24:53,010 and and filled up the freezer after you went through a loss or 454 00:24:53,210 --> 00:24:55,500 or. Or had a death in the family. 455 00:24:56,620 --> 00:24:59,180 Like what if what if we were a community where we were like, Oh 456 00:24:59,180 --> 00:25:03,380 yeah, like if I've got something going on, I know that I got 457 00:25:03,380 --> 00:25:07,300 people right now who can watch my kids, right? 458 00:25:07,300 --> 00:25:09,940 What if we were the kind of community that would show up for 459 00:25:09,940 --> 00:25:12,380 one another and and say, hey I know you're struggling to make 460 00:25:12,380 --> 00:25:16,460 rent this month like, but we we got you like we can come through 461 00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:19,100 for you to help you out. Like what if we were a community 462 00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:23,190 that that when? A black man was killed by racist 463 00:25:23,190 --> 00:25:25,350 violence. Like, we showed up for the 464 00:25:25,350 --> 00:25:28,630 people who were grieving and stood together in solidarity, 465 00:25:29,070 --> 00:25:31,910 like checked in on folk. You know, what if we were the 466 00:25:31,910 --> 00:25:35,670 kind of community that that rallied around a family that was 467 00:25:36,030 --> 00:25:37,950 bringing a foster kid into their home? 468 00:25:39,230 --> 00:25:41,750 And we said, like, yeah, you are the foster parents, but like, 469 00:25:41,990 --> 00:25:46,110 but like, we got you right friends. 470 00:25:46,110 --> 00:25:50,270 This is, I think just even a small piece of what it means to 471 00:25:50,310 --> 00:25:53,160 to. To be the kind of family that 472 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:57,640 really takes things as as like being a family. 473 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:06,280 You know, last week my daughter Eva got sick and it's sick. 474 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:08,960 It's inconvenient when your toddler gets sick, as some of 475 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,520 you know, because not only are you dealing with a sick kid, but 476 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,960 then in addition to dealing with a sick kid, that means they 477 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,120 can't go to daycare, which means, like, everything in your 478 00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:19,880 life is now different, right? So. 479 00:26:20,510 --> 00:26:21,630 You know, you're working early mornings. 480 00:26:21,630 --> 00:26:23,470 I'm seeing some smiles out there, some knowing, 481 00:26:23,470 --> 00:26:26,550 understanding. Yeah, like because you you got 482 00:26:26,550 --> 00:26:29,310 to like the work still has to get done usually. 483 00:26:29,310 --> 00:26:31,910 So like, you got to do it earlier or later and then you're 484 00:26:31,910 --> 00:26:35,670 trying to run errands with a kid who is also sick and not happy 485 00:26:35,670 --> 00:26:37,550 because they are sick. And it's like it's just 486 00:26:37,870 --> 00:26:41,710 everything gets shifted around and it honestly, it's super 487 00:26:41,710 --> 00:26:45,350 inconvenient. But when my daughter Eva gets 488 00:26:45,350 --> 00:26:52,350 sick, like I just do that stuff. Because she's my daughter and 489 00:26:52,350 --> 00:26:55,630 I'm her dad. And so it's not like her need 490 00:26:55,630 --> 00:26:57,070 that she has to solve for herself. 491 00:26:57,070 --> 00:27:00,110 Like it's it's our, it's our family's problem. 492 00:27:01,030 --> 00:27:02,230 And so we show up for each other. 493 00:27:03,150 --> 00:27:05,470 Or in this case, really I show up for her, but she's a kid, so 494 00:27:05,470 --> 00:27:09,830 that's why. But friends like how what I'm 495 00:27:09,830 --> 00:27:13,550 trying to ask you is how broad is that circle of family for us? 496 00:27:14,710 --> 00:27:19,300 Like who's in who's? Needs Are you willing to be 497 00:27:19,300 --> 00:27:31,100 inconvenienced by if we are a body members of one another, it 498 00:27:31,100 --> 00:27:34,260 means that whatever you're going through this morning isn't 499 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:35,980 something that you have to go through alone. 500 00:27:37,580 --> 00:27:40,300 It means that there's actually like a theological foundation 501 00:27:40,300 --> 00:27:45,580 for you to to name like, hey, I'm not OK right now, like I 502 00:27:45,580 --> 00:27:49,560 need some help. And for others to say, like, Oh 503 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,280 yeah, we got you. And and and for that kind of 504 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,400 community to exist in any kind of a healthy way, like it can't 505 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,160 be one person who is always doing the helping, right? 506 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,040 There's reciprocity. It's like it's how it is in a 507 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,280 body, right? Like wherever, wherever the 508 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,760 injury is, that's where the blood flow is going to. 509 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,080 And and that would be true for us too, friends, because 510 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,180 sometimes we have a need. And being part of a body means 511 00:28:14,180 --> 00:28:18,180 that we can lean on other people to get that need met, but it 512 00:28:18,180 --> 00:28:21,340 also means that other people's needs, we we're willing to allow 513 00:28:21,340 --> 00:28:27,340 those needs to inconvenience us because that's not them, it's 514 00:28:27,460 --> 00:28:32,940 it's us. We are members one of another 515 00:28:34,140 --> 00:28:37,020 and friends I'm encouraged to say, like I honestly, I think 516 00:28:37,020 --> 00:28:39,540 this is already happening in our community. 517 00:28:40,450 --> 00:28:42,810 Like, there are sparks. There, stories over the rest of 518 00:28:42,810 --> 00:28:44,010 the series. We're going to tell some of 519 00:28:44,010 --> 00:28:47,010 those stories about ways in which this is already 520 00:28:47,010 --> 00:28:53,570 manifesting. And my heart, my prayer for us 521 00:28:53,570 --> 00:28:58,050 is just more right. Which in a culture, in a, in a, 522 00:28:58,050 --> 00:29:01,730 in a city that like, literally is like the birth place of 523 00:29:01,730 --> 00:29:05,610 freedom and all that, you know, like this isn't our default. 524 00:29:07,150 --> 00:29:10,070 It's not our default and some some of us like, don't want to 525 00:29:10,070 --> 00:29:14,150 support and others it's actually like harder to like be supported 526 00:29:15,150 --> 00:29:17,750 because we feel like maybe that means something is wrong with us 527 00:29:17,790 --> 00:29:22,550 in some way. But this is what it means to be 528 00:29:22,550 --> 00:29:26,750 one another, to be part of the family, part of the body. 529 00:29:27,750 --> 00:29:31,990 And over these next weeks, as we continue to dig in, I want to 530 00:29:31,990 --> 00:29:35,150 continue to wrestle with what does that look like for me. 531 00:29:36,290 --> 00:29:39,570 Like where are those places where I'm I'm boundarying off 532 00:29:39,610 --> 00:29:46,050 others not just maybe to look good, to not feel vulnerable, 533 00:29:47,250 --> 00:29:50,010 right? Or or or because I've got it. 534 00:29:50,010 --> 00:29:51,450 As it. Like these are my needs and 535 00:29:51,450 --> 00:29:54,490 those are your needs and so I'm going to meet all of my needs 536 00:29:54,490 --> 00:29:57,730 and then if I have extra stuff then like, maybe I'll help out 537 00:29:57,730 --> 00:30:02,730 with your needs. Whereas an acts like guys, 538 00:30:03,730 --> 00:30:08,180 people sold their houses. To like, give to other people 539 00:30:08,180 --> 00:30:11,460 who like, Can you imagine if we were a community, that there 540 00:30:11,460 --> 00:30:15,100 were people who are like, yo, you know, I'm going to dip into 541 00:30:15,100 --> 00:30:18,980 my IRA in order to help out the situation. 542 00:30:20,300 --> 00:30:22,660 I'm going to sell that second property I have in New Hampshire 543 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:25,140 because somebody's going through it right now and I'm going to 544 00:30:25,140 --> 00:30:29,220 show up for them, right? We're not there. 545 00:30:29,220 --> 00:30:33,180 Maybe we won't ever get there. But friends, this series today 546 00:30:33,180 --> 00:30:35,340 is an invitation for each of us to consider. 547 00:30:36,170 --> 00:30:39,850 What does it look like for us to take the next step towards this 548 00:30:39,850 --> 00:30:43,210 vision of really belonging to one another? 549 00:30:43,210 --> 00:30:47,730 We're going to enter into a time of of musical reflection and 550 00:30:47,730 --> 00:30:50,930 response. And as we do so, we've got some 551 00:30:50,930 --> 00:30:54,890 carpets up here in the front. These carpets are sacred spaces 552 00:30:54,890 --> 00:30:57,130 just for you to be with Jesus. You could you could be with 553 00:30:57,250 --> 00:31:01,770 Jesus in your seat too. That's fine, but if something 554 00:31:01,770 --> 00:31:05,190 sparked for you today. I would invite you to consider, 555 00:31:05,230 --> 00:31:09,230 you know, it's not just an idea. We believe that when we when we 556 00:31:09,230 --> 00:31:12,950 engage the text of scripture and listen with with ears towards 557 00:31:12,950 --> 00:31:14,550 the Holy Spirit that he's speaking. 558 00:31:15,550 --> 00:31:18,230 So I want to invite you as we move into this next phase of our 559 00:31:18,230 --> 00:31:21,270 gathering to really consider like what does that look like? 560 00:31:22,270 --> 00:31:25,710 Where are the ways that I am holding myself back, self 561 00:31:25,710 --> 00:31:30,190 protecting in some way that's limiting the kind of community 562 00:31:30,190 --> 00:31:34,680 that's possible in my life. What might it look like for me 563 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:40,640 to to say yes to others, to really belong to others, so that 564 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,560 we can be the one another kind of family that Jesus and Paul 565 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:44,800 pray?