This question was posed by someone recently upon receiving a Flat Jesus.  They were contemplating how in their day to day life they were bringing Jesus into their community.  How did they share the Gospel with co-workers, neighbors, family?  How did they embody the love of God in their words and actions?

Carrying a small plastic Flat Jesus in one’s pocket or purse is a tangible reminder that we carry Jesus with us wherever we go.  When we go to the coffee shop, we bring Jesus with us.  When we are outside exercising, we bring Jesus with us. As we are running errands, we bring Jesus with us.

In each of these moments we have opportunities to serve our community.  The words we say reflect the love of God to another. The actions we take display God reaching out to others.

This same question is before each of us. How do we go out into our community to serve?

Showing up to serve is found in the small moments.  It is seen in listening to one another and learning about other’s life experiences. It is asking one another, “How can I help?” and serving those real needs. In these moments, we metaphorically take Jesus from our pockets or purses and share Him.

So, as you go about your day today ask yourself, “How am I serving in my community?”  Watch for the moments you can share Jesus with someone else.

Let us go into the 168 hours of the week serving in our community in word and action.  May Flat Jesus help to remind us that wherever we go, we bring Jesus with us. We are disciples of Jesus sent out into the world to serve with love and share the Gospel. This is how the Church grows.

~Pastor Vicki Epper

Saying and doing are two different things. We can say we love someone but if our actions do not reflect that love we contradict ourselves. For example, God could have said He loved the world and left it at that. Instead God sent Jesus Christ, His Son to be a sacrifice for the whole world. It is in God’s action and Jesus’ life, death & resurrection that we see God’s love for the world.

It is in our daily actions that we communicate what or who we truly love. How we spend our time and what we put on the calendar, demonstrates what we value.

We show love to others when we show up for them. The time a friend calls needing an ear. Do we listen? The neighbor who needs assistance with yard work. Do we show up with a rake asking, “How can I help?” The person we encounter on the street facing systemic racism. Do we speak up for him/her?

The Apostle John wrote in his first letter that the world will know God by how we love one another. Within the faith community this is seen in how we treat and accept each other. It is also seen in how we love non-believers. Do we judge a non-believer? Or do we build a friendship with them, listen to learn from them, hear about their life experiences and serve them humbly?

Let us live like that. Let us love freely embodying God’s love for the whole world. Let us love when no one else will show up. Let us give it all we have. Let us live so that as people pass, they see the evidence that we’ve been changed by the Gospel.

This life of love is a daily walk. Each morning we get up and choose to love unconditionally, without judgment. When we live like that, we point the world around us back to God alone and the world will come to know God.

 “Live Like That” by Sidewalk Prophets:

~Pastor Vicki Epper

Loving one another seems easier when it is loving the people that we have much in common with in life. The playground we share feels expansive, like we have all the space to play together in. The difficulties that arise in friendships do not seem so hard when we relate to the other person’s life situation.

Loving someone who is a stranger can seem more difficult. We do not know one another & have to risk vulnerability in order to do so. What if we have different experiences, different perspectives? It can feel awkward getting to know one another.

The passage above follows immediately after Paul, the writer of this letter to the Romans, talks about the different gifts each of us has & yet we, the followers of Jesus, form one body. Each person has something to give to the community. No person or gift is greater. In our passage we see how we love one another with sincerity. We care for all people with zeal & spiritual fervor. We practice hospitality by becoming friends with the stranger.

In our community today people are standing up to be heard. They are speaking up sharing their voices with the whole community. The death of George Floyd has brought people from various races & ethnicities all over the world together to show kindness to one another, to stop being strangers and to become friends.

Fellow disciples of Jesus, here at Discover Church being ethnically diverse & reaching out to our community are key parts of our congregation’s values. It is how we express loving and befriending the stranger.  It is at the core of how this faith community practices hospitality.

As society continues to discuss racial reconciliation may we each listen and learn from a posture of humility. May devotion to one another in love be how the Holy Spirit guides this faith community. May that devotion to one another be honoring, not judgmental. May we have love for all that steps away from privilege and steps towards reconciliation.

By the Holy Spirit we remain joyful in hope & faithful in prayer. By this the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples, by how we love the stranger, by becoming friends.

~Pastor Vicki Epper

The night Jesus was betrayed, by one of His closest friends, He served all Twelve of them by humbly washing their feet. He gave a visual lesson in how to love another person. He took action with His words of love.

Before they left the Passover Meal, Jesus gave the disciples a new set of directions. He directed them to show love to others as He did.  Jesus served others by doing the humble tasks. He listened to others, even if it went against societal norms. He loved others through His actions.

In our lives today we can also show love through our actions.  Love is seen in delivering groceries to those who are unable to go to the store themselves.  It is seen in connecting on video chats or through phone calls to check in with each other and remind one another we are not alone. It is seen by socially distancing to protect those who are most at risk in our communities.  It is seen by truly listening to someone who is different from us, either ethnically, politically or socio-economically, and learning from them.

Loving one another in action does require some risk on our part.  We may have to step out of our comfort zones to begin to see from someone else’s perspective, to see how daily life is for him/her.

This week let us love someone who is not yet a believer in Jesus. Who is in your day to day life that you can connect with and learn from?

Is there a neighbor you can humbly ask, “How can I help?” A yard you can offer to help clean up? A business that is trying to clean up or get ready to re-open?

Brothers and sisters let us step into the 168 hours of the week with God’s love.  Let us listen in order to learn from everyone.  Let us lift up those voices who have not been heard yet.  Let us show the world we are God’s disciples by loving all people regardless of race, creed, political beliefs or socio-economic backgrounds.

We are all children of God.  We obey Jesus’ new command to love one another as He loved us, through humble service towards everyone.

~Pastor Vicki Epper

As we have looked at the story of the Woman at the Well in John 4 over the last few weeks, we have seen Jesus break social & religious barriers, a woman going immediately to tell others about Jesus and the disciples learning about evangelism.  Through this 4th chapter of John, God is teaching us how to be evangelists today.

The word Evangelist is derived from the Greek word meaning “proclaimer of good news”.  An evangelist is someone who tells the good news of whatever it is s/he has to share.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to tell the good news of what He has done for us.  We are to share with those in our lives how Jesus makes a complete difference in our lives.  We, as the Woman at the Well did, can share about our own experiences with Jesus.  We tell our story and bring another to Jesus, so s/he can have their own story with Him.

Telling the good news is not done only with words.  It is in how we interact with others in all areas of our lives.  Being a follower of Jesus is not just in the one hour a week we go to church.  It is in each of the 168 hours of a week.  

This means that telling the good news is also to be a part of how we converse with those we may disagree with on a particular issue.  Differences do arise because we are all uniquely created in the image of God and have different experiences, but if we only speak from anger and argue with one another we miss the opportunity to learn from each other.  Perhaps as evangelists we ought to take a breath and listen in order to learn from one another and share the good news of Jesus in that interaction.

Brothers and sisters in Christ each of us are evangelists in every hour of the week.  Let us learn from the Woman at the Well how we can go to our immediate community and share our story.  Let us share the good news in our social media posts without judgment, but instead with the open arms of Jesus Christ reaching out to those who have not heard yet.

See from the verse at the beginning of this blog how an entire community came to know Jesus because of one woman’s story.  Now imagine how many people the Holy Spirit can reach through you when you live the Good News in the 168 hours of the week.  What will you do differently in your day to day life with this mindset?  How will your interactions in person or online change when you begin seeing yourself as an evangelist in the 168 hours of the week?

Now imagine how much our local community here in Brooklyn Park and throughout the Twin Cities area can change if and when all of us live the Good News in the 168.  Do you hear people saying they believe now not because of what we have said but rather because they have heard for themselves?

As we begin to re-enter into physical gatherings in our communities let us each come with the mindset that we all are evangelists 168 hours a week.  May we continue to be the Church in all aspects of our lives, including outside of the church building, sharing our stories and inviting all people to discover their full life in Christ for themselves.  

Fellow disciples we are on the verge of a great movement of God.  We are being empowered by the Holy Spirit and sent out by God the Father to be evangelists. As we gather together online and in small groups, we can encourage one another to keep sharing the Good News. We are being sent out now to share and tell our stories.

Go and tell your story. Be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to share.  Remain transparent so that as others look at you, they see Jesus Christ welcoming them home. Share, wherever God the Father leads you, so that His Will is done here on earth.

~Pastor Vicki Epper