Expanding Your Circle

(Message given at Wayside Friends Church on April 30, 2023)

Steve Sherwood likes to draw attention/tease me about how much I enjoyed high school as a Clackamas Cavalier.

And it’s true, I did; and it’s true, it’s not normal, and definitely is worthy of being teased for. It’s probably not normal that one of my passwords right now is “Cavs4ever,” but here we are.

One of the things I liked was that it felt like we had a group of diverse friends who avoided the stereotype cliques that seems to make up high school. In fact, I took pride in the fact that I intentionally tried to cross boundaries, you know, sat at different lunch tables, etc., and did my best to be a friend to all.

And then a funny thing happened at my 20th high school reunion. There was this picture from the yearbook of our class. I took a look at this picture. There I am. And the circle is about the extent of people that I remember knowing.

Even with my intentionality to try and expand my circles, I still had my people, my circle, my group, my “crowd” that I think of when I think of Clackamas High School.

I couldn’t even get my whole class in my circle. And I certainly wouldn’t have allowed our rival Rex Putnam’s class to be in my circle. I never thought about Arcadia High School in California, or Bramwell High School in West Virginia…let alone St. Joseph’s school in India.

Getting outside our circle is hard. Even when you’re a grown up.

Our daughter Natalie was a good runner in high school and college, and I loved taking pictures and cheering at meets. 

By the way, when I texted her asking permission to share this story, I was like “This is a classic Dad sermon, a story from my high school and one from you running. Just throw in Miroslav Volf and a Lord of the Rings reference and call it good!”

Anyway that’s Natalie in the yellow jersey, right behind the villain…well, one of them: E_____ P______, from Forest Grove High School. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I do still remember her name more than a decade later, I’m just letting her have her privacy on the internet.)

Most of the time Natalie beat her, but they were always close, and there were times like in this picture where E_____ would somehow pull out a win. She became the villain in this dad’s eyes, and I admit it, I loved to see her lose. 

Fast forward a couple of years, and I’m leading a small group with some George Fox students, and one of them is from Forest Grove High School. I mention E_____, and this student goes, “Oh yeah! I know her! She’s really nice!” 

NOOOOOOOO. I don’t want to hear that! Don’t you DARE humanize the villain.

This is me with my tongue firmly embedded in my cheek, but making a very real point. 

We have our people. We have our circles. We have our “us.” And I am absolutely convinced that although that is natural, and finding community and being in a group is essential and good…I’m convinced that Jesus is consistently, insistently drawing our attention to the boundaries we create and showing us something better outside of them. 

The heart of our faith is that Jesus is alive! God is bringing all things in heaven and earth together, forming the new, corporate body of Christ. WE are the body of Christ, and there isn’t a single person ever created whom God doesn’t want to love into this community. 

Today, I want to try and reshape our idea of what it means to be Christ’s “witnesses” in this world.

Rather than proclaiming and proselytizing, I want us to see it as looking for and bearing witness to the life of God bubbling up all through humanity. Rather than a command to bring something we have to those who have nothing, I want us to see all that we can learn when we expand our circles and look for Jesus in every person we meet.

Let’s start at the end of Jesus’ life on earth, right before he returns to heaven, and look at the book of Acts where Jesus uses the “witnesses” language.

He’s seen his followers many times over the 40 days since he came back to life, and they are wondering if maybe he’s gonna become the big star player for their team, their circle.

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

Acts 1:6, New Living Translation

Are you going to come through for our circle, our team, our people? We gave all that up when you were on the cross, but now? Now are you going to come through? Simon the Zealot is there. The zealots were for armed revolt against Rome, the villains. He’s probably salivating and ready!

He [Jesus] replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

Acts 1:7-9, New Living Translation

Jesus refuses to endorse the Israel circle, he gently deflects their question, and then stretches their boundaries.

Not just this circle. Not even just the local enemies. You’re going to tell about me everywhere on the planet, because I want it to be one big circle.

Now, I’ve spent my entire life in churches, and this passage has always been the big push, the big “go into all the world,” the guilt and expectation. Go be a witness. Go proclaim Jesus. 

But as I said, I want to reshape this picture. 

And I want to show how I got there.

Reading these last words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven made me think a new thought: I should study ALL the words Jesus spoke after his resurrection. Before, I’ve studied all the words Jesus said on the cross, but I’ve never heard or thought about what Jesus said post-resurrection, what was most important to say and pass on to us after he came back to life. 

So I gathered all those spoken words in one place. Well, at least the record of his words that we have in Luke and Acts, which were both written by the same person. There are more in Matthew, Mark, and John that I’ll have to study another time.

I took everything Jesus said in Luke and Acts after the resurrection.

First, I bolded the important phrases that stood out to me. Then, I looked for themes. The first thing I noticed was Jesus had several times where he really emphasized it was his same body that came back to life. I color coded those green. Things like, “Look at my hands; touch me, I’m not a ghost. Do you have something to eat?”

Then I noticed he spent lots of time connecting his death and resurrection with the Jewish Scriptures. I made those red. 

The next thing I noticed was how Jesus could be a bit of a teaser.

He asked some stupid, obvious questions! He meets disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Why, what’s everybody talking about? What happened in Jerusalem?” Then with the disciples: “Why are you frightened?” WELL BECAUSE YOU WERE DEAD AND YOU JUST APPEARED THROUGH A LOCKED DOOR! Those stupid questions got marked blue.

Then I thought, I want to look for all the things Jesus said to go and do. If Jesus gave a command, that seems really important, right? But there are far fewer than I expected. And they aren’t scary or harsh, but comforting. “Peace be with you,” as Steve spoke about last week. “Wait here until God’s power comes.” Those got marked in orange.

What I found instead of imperatives—instead of “go and dos,” there were a lot of declaratives—a lot of “this IS who you are.”

Those got marked in purple. And lo and behold, the “be my witnesses” thing isn’t a command. It isn’t a “go and do.” It’s a, “this is simply what’s going to happen.”

Well, how?

Because of all that Jesus and God are going to do. Jesus’ post resurrection words are FILLED with promises about what God is going to do. Look at them all, marked in pink. There’s promised forgiveness, the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, promised power. 

God is the big activator, not us.

And that just led to highlighting all kinds of themes. The suffering/death/glory/life theme, highlighted in yellow; the theme of being written, highlighted in blue, which leads to the big breakthrough, highlighted in green.

These green highlights are witnessing—but not witnessing as a guilty to-do list.

Witnessing as in being a witness, witnessing that is rooted in the senses, rooted in seeing and touching for ourselves. Rooted in experience and being, not in go, go, go.

And that leads to the theme of being filled, receiving, receiving power, being baptized. And it’s all over the place, highlighted in silver.

There’s only these two little places that are “proclaim” and “tell.” Here they are highlighted in red. They are never an imperative, but rather always descriptive of what will happen after we are rooted in the experience of the living Jesus, and have received and been filled.

So much more is done for us, than what we are asked to do! 

So much of the trajectory of the church has been misguided!

So much life is found in seeing, touching, experiencing God…directly and in others.

And so much is to be gained by releasing the idea that Jesus commanded us to take “something we have” and give it to others.

This is SUCH a better way to live life! 

This life rooted in seeing and touching and experiencing and looking for God outside our little circles is so hopeful, so curious, so mutual, so open-ended. My job isn’t to go out and convince somebody else to think and believe differently.

Jesus is inviting me to be curious, to stretch outside what’s comfortable, and to discover how much there is to learn about the wonderful diversity of God and God’s people…God’s people that are, truly, the living and breathing body of Christ today.

Quakers have a beautiful insight that captures this. At our best, Quakers have believed God is at work in every person on the planet; the Light or Seed of Christ in everyone. We believe God is already present, so we don’t “bring” anything that isn’t already there. We look for how the Light is active in the other person, and we bear witness to it.

How do we see and touch signs of life in the diverse body of Christ? 

How do we take the bible’s account of the resurrected body of Jesus, and have it help us go out now and see and touch the signs of Jesus’ life in people inside and outside our little circles today? 

How do we go out beyond the boundaries we create, and look for and bear witness to the life of God that is bursting out of people all around us? Some simple thoughts:

• Wounds weren’t erased on Jesus’ body, so they shouldn’t be erased in humans today. The walking, breathing, smiling, talking wounded are signs of Christ’s life! We are witnesses of life when we see and bear witness to each other’s wounds.
• Remember Jesus saying, “Do you have something to eat?” When there are signs of hunger, desire for growth, longing for more…these are signs of life! When we simply continue to live and move and have our being, grow and eat…these are signs of life! We are witnesses of Christ’s life when we hunger and long for more, when we celebrate living our normal lives. 

Living and breathing and eating as one of God’s children is seeing and touching the signs of God’s life in this world!

Without a doubt in my mind, the last several years with our ELP interns, with our young adults, with the people in this church who have been pushed out of other church spaces—without a doubt in my mind, it is all of YOU in whom I have most seen the signs of Jesus’ life in this world!

In almost all of my old, familiar circles, there has been struggle and wounds and belief and boundaries. And in these new circles, with new people, I am seeing living, breathing, growing, celebrating Spirit life! Oh thank you God!

The wounds don’t disappear. I see them on me and in you. But I receive the goodness of God’s love through you. I celebrate signs of Christ’s life in our ever-expanding circle here at Wayside, and I am so very grateful!

The words of Mechthild of Magdeburg, who lived in the 13th century, show how Jesus is present in everyone:

Lord, you are the sun for all eyes;

You are the delight of all ears;

You are the voice of all words;

You are the force behind all piety;

You are the teaching of all wisdom;

You are the life of all that lives;

You are the ordering of all that is.

Mechthild of Magdeburg (ca. 1207-1282)

Let’s go find the delight of ALL eyes, the voice of ALL words…the LIFE of all that lives!

May we receive, touch, see, and BE.

May we listen for Christ gently expanding us from our little circles; not to “change” those outside the boundaries we create…but rather, so we can see new signs of Christ life already moving in others. 

May the power of God live powerfully in us, shining even through our wounds.