September 19, 2004

In the Old Testament, SHALOM covers “well-being” in the widest sense of the word; prosperity, bodily health, and in the sense of a contentedness one can experience even upon departure, when going to sleep , and even at death.
And yes... SHALOM does means peace... good relations between human being and nations.
And through the traditional blessing recorded in Numbers, we see a connection between SHALOM and wholeness, for it describes a person who is blessed, guarded (kept by God), and treated graciously by God, a person who is doubly in God’s presence. As one commentator writes, “SHALOM is often indicative ... of a comprehensive kind of fulfillment or completion, indeed of a perfection in life and spirit which quite transcends any success which man alone, even under the best of circumstances, is able to attain.” (J.I. Durham) SHALOM is a gift we can only receive from God.
The Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Colossae:

Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.

Today I wish you what God has called you to.. I wish you SHALOM.... the Shalom of Christ in your heart and in our family of faith, as I share with you a vision for Community Covenant Church.... that we would be a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ.
Those exact words.. a description of Community Covenant Church as “ a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ” came out of our September 11th Council Retreat, but began to take shape months before.
As our Chair, Matt Overholt and I began assessing where we were, as a fellowship of Christians committed to journeying together, it became evident that our six year vision of renewing a once dying congregation was nearly completed. But what was next?

We know of our need for physical space, and am grateful for all the work done to set the stage for adding an education wing to our building. But while a building facilitates ministry, it is not ministry. So what is our vision for ministry... how do we best understand our collective calling from God, as a Body of Christ in the greater Hopkinton area?

Community Covenant Church is a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration
through Jesus Christ.

In mid July Matt suggested that we fast & pray over a period of three days, asking God to bless us with a clear vision of our ministry. We committed ourselves to doing this individually and then connecting through a Thursday afternoon phone call to discover what God had been saying. And it was in that phone call that God’s message of Community Covenant as a place of God’s healing, affirmed for both Matt & I that this is the ministry that God is calling us to and for which He is equipping us.
And this morning, while the concept of “healing” may be narrowly defined in many of our minds, God’s Word describes healing in very broad terms. Physical yes, but also relational, mental and spiritual.
Jesus’ ministry was, without question, a very focused “purpose-driven” ministry. He came to usher in God’s Kingdom and to call together a people of God who would further that kingdom. And as we see that latter dimension played out in Jesus’ relationship with his disciples, in his death & resurrection, and in the growth of Christian community, we also see Jesus’ earthly ministry defined by two main activities; preaching and
healing.
When his ministry began, He defined it as a fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s words: Luke 4:18-19

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else —to the nearby villages —so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of proclaiming God’s’ kingdom through preaching and healing. Can you see Community Covenant Church as a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ?

The reason I began this morning’s message with a word study of SHALOM, is because for me it best describes the “health and healing” God offers to us. For God’s healing is more than the absence of disease, it is the presence of wholeness... completeness... contentedness... fulfillment that effects us physically, relationally, mentally and spiritually. As you heard me remind our children, Jesus came into this world to offer us a LIFE that is more and better than anything we could ever dream of. (Perhaps one our our greatest sins in life is the failure to comprehend the greatness of LIFE offered to us by God, and the healing he offers us through Jesus Christ.)

If God’s “healing” is defined too narrowly, the man named Zacchaeus would not have considered “ill” or “sick”. We would not have seen him as a person in need of healing, and yet he was. Professionally he was a tax collector.. a Jewish man working for Roman occupiers. His work gave him license to become rich by cheating fellow Jews, and he took the opportunity.... even as many do in our own generation.
But one day, God’s salvation, proclaimed through Jesus Christ, literally walked by, and as the familiar story of Zacchaeus reads:

Luke 19:8-10
8 ..... Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

And not only was Zacchaeus’ healed socially in relationship with his peers, and spiritually in relationship with God, but there was also healing when justice replaced the unjust overcharging of taxes. SHALOM was experienced in it’s’ growing richness.
Can you see Community Covenant Church as a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ?

As followers of Jesus, we like his apostles have been empowered to offer Jesus’ healing. Luke 9:1-2

1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

This coming Saturday at 3:15, a group Jesus’ followers will be gathering in Westboro, at Pelletier, to meet again with juvenile offenders.
- They will celebrate the birthdays of girls whose birthdays are rarely celebrated even by their own families.
- They will share one-on-one conversations that offer hope into the lives of girls feeling hopeless.
- These followers of Jesus will preach truth from God’s Word, that each girl is loved by God, and was created by God with a purpose.
And as these followers go out to Pelletier on Saturday, God’s healing will be offered in Jesus’ name.

Can you see Community Covenant Church as a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ?

It has been my experiencing growing up in Covenant Churches, that we are uniquely equipped for ministries of healing. For we have....
- a reliance upon God’s Word as the truth by which we live,
- a conviction that God’s Word which shapes our thinking must also change our hearts by directing our living, and
- a strong awareness of God’s grace,
and our calling to be gracious in all our interactions....
>> all those factors make us a place where God’s healing.... His SHALOM, is experienced and offered to the world.
I have mentioned Linda before, a friend from Omaha, who discovered God’s healing at First Covenant Church. It was a friend of hers who called us one day, describing a 33 year old young woman, wheelchair bound due to a muscular dystrophy called Fredrick’s Ataxia. This friend described his recent visit to First Covenant, the warm welcome he received, and his sense of our church as a “hospital” for those wounded by life. This friend spoke of recently meeting Linda, a person in need of healing. He asked if I would go and visit her and invite her to church.
I did, and Linda came, and the people of First Covenant offered God’s healings that transcended her physical needs.
Like that church in Omaha, Community Covenant in Hopkinton is a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ. For who here today, has not tasted God’s healing power;
- through the welcoming words of others,
- through heartfelt conversations in times of godly fellowship,
- through learning about God’s’ salvation in Bible Study,
- through preaching designed to remold our mind and direct our hearts,
- through ministry or mission opportunities that confirm our identity as Children of God placed on earth for a purpose, or simply,
- who has not tasted God’s healing power through the singing of songs and hymns of praise... and the oneness we have with God through prayer, and the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion?

Community Covenant Church is a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration
through Jesus Christ.

Perhaps more than a surprising new direction, this vision is for many of us an affirmation of what you too have seen happening over the years, or see happening through your life and gifts in the years ahead. I think of:
- A MOM’s Group recognizing and ministering to families with kids with special needs,
- A Youth Ministry that recognizes the dangers and temptations present in becoming an adult, and offers identity in Christ and true life in Him
- Meals on Wings that offers love and support in times of need,
- Prison ministries seeking to redeem those lost & locked away,
- Prayer ministers who faithfully intercede for the needs of others.
- Health professionals willing to address the questions of parents in the greater Hopkinton area,
- Sunday School and Bible Studies that offer healing to confused minds, and help us to develop a health worldview.

These and other components of Community Covenant, fashioned by God for His purposes, allow us to walk in the ways of Jesus Christ by furthering God’s Kingdom through preaching and healing.
In the weeks ahead I will more fully define how we as a church go about being a growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ.
And as we live out this vision, we offer ourselves to the world... a world that groans for the revelation of the Sons & Daughters of God, yearning to be restored. We reach out to sinners and the sick, to people suffering brokenness in relationships with others and with God and offer healing.
Will God’s healing be accepted in a world
- where many are more comfortable playing the role of “victim”,
- while others fail to see their need for healing,
- and still others define “Life” far short of the LIFE
God offers to all.

Will people accept healing and restoration from God?

In the Old Testament (2 Kings 5:1-15), Naaman, the highly honored and respected commander of the army of the King of Syria had leprosy. But through a Jewish slave girl and the prophet Elisha, this proud man was told to wash in the Jordan River, and he did, and he received God’s healing.
In the New Testament (Mark 10) a man came up to Jesus one day thinking he had it made. He asked Jesus about how one inherits eternal life, assured that he had grown up obeying all of God’s commands. But Jesus’ words to him shattered his confidence by revealing a brokenness in him:

>>> And for this person the answer was “Yes!” ...”I will do what you tell me. I will stand up, take my matt and walk away. “ I will accept your healing, and all the changes it will bring to my life.... because I want wholeness,,, I want LIFE... I want SHALOM.

Will people accept healing and restoration from God?
It up to them. But, as growing family of faith celebrating God’s love, healing and restoration through Jesus Christ, all we can do is offer it and encourage people to dream of a better, healthier, more complete life than they ever though possible.
While they take it?... Will you?

Do you want to get well?

If so, then you are in the right place.

Open up your life and let God’s Healing Spirit offer you His SHALOM today.

AMEN

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (r).
Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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