Blessing Our Community: The Greatest Hero

It’s always interesting and sometimes amusing to me to see God at work. As we have recently
begun the Autumn season, I think of the lessons nature can teach us. There are rhythms to the
annual seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. There are also rhythms to the seasons of our life:
infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood. We can fight the rhythms, or we can flow with them.
There have been many seasons of my life where God uses a variety of mediums to teach me
something. I read an idea or concept and then suddenly it’s as if I see or hear something related
to it all over from completely different sources: social media, authors I follow or the radio. It’s as
if I take notice of something, and God says, “She needs to hear that umpteen times to really get
the idea.” I think of it as him weaving different colors of threads from different places to make a
solid picture.

Currently, the idea God is weaving threads of is to examine what the world considers heroic vs.
ordinary. I studied this idea first in the book Holiness in a Restless World by Joshua R. Sweeden
and Nell M. Becker Sweeden. The Sweedens speak of how the idea of heroism has negatively
affected how we think about living a holy life. “In contrast to the heroic impulse, it is time for
Christians to recover what it means to be placed in the commonwealth of God – to locate
ourselves faithfully in the daily interactions and transactions of life with God’s creation.” (p. 12)
Secular heroes often have no real home or family connections to help guide them. In contrast,
Christians are to find their home among God and his people. Christians are not to isolate
themselves but rather be part of their communities.

So, imagine my surprise, when just a few weeks after reading about heroism in that way, I see
Pastor Todd’s title for September 29 – “Blessing Our Community: The Greatest Hero of All.”
Jesus is a hero. But not in the sense the people of his day wanted him to be. He never called
himself great. He often tried to avoid public attention.
Jesus said whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Jesus said that he came to serve.
Consider that a moment. Jesus, God’s Son, King of Kings, one who could command us to bow at
his feet…came to serve?!

Yes, Jesus was a hero. Just not in the way we were expecting. He was a hero because he engaged
and blessed those who needed him. Jesus spoke with and touched the lowest members of society,
the “untouchables”, and spoke harshly to those with wealth or standing who ignored the needs of
others.

If we are to be heroes in a positive way, we must follow Jesus’ example to bless and care for
those around us. Often that means caring for someone’s physical needs before we address their
spiritual needs. It’s difficult to ponder God’s love for you with an empty stomach.
If our hearts are really broken for lost people who need Jesus, we will befriend them. We’ll listen
to them with curiosity instead of condemnation. You never know where a conversation that starts
with kindness might lead! Author L.M. Montgomery said, “All things great are wound up with
all things little.”

I think that relates to another quote from the Sweedens. “Holiness is an encounter that occurs in
the improvisation of daily life. Scripture testifies to a God made known most commonly and
consistently in simple and ordinary ways. God comes to us in our humanity.” (Holiness p. 13)

I pray we will heroically bless our community in simple, ordinary ways!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy