June 12.2022
Before we even knew that this place we call 415 Westlake would be our Union home and a 3rd place for the neighborhood –the Union community was meeting on Capitol Hill and praying about the neighborhood of South Lake Union.
This was before Amazon, Google, or Facebook had wandered into this neighborhood. There were still gas stations, Firestone Tires, and even a Denny’s… This was a place of slow transition and conflicted history in our city. A place where the Duwamish dwelled and fished… a place impacted by broken treaties and native people forced out. A place of sawmills and light industry. A place of biomedical research. And, a place that continued to be home to a wide cross section of people at the heart of our city.
In 2007, we were feeling nudged by the Spirit to “come and see” what it would mean to be God’s people of faith in SLU; to sink down roots here as we asked with the Spirit how we could live our faith outwardly, seeking the welfare of the city.
About this time, while worshiping on Capitol Hill and walking the streets of SLU, James B and I met with a group of pastors of our city to connect and pray. We introduced ourselves and said, we are a part of new faith community and we are praying about locating in South Lake Union.
Immediately a woman across the table from us, leaned forward, reached out her hand and said, “welcome! I am Susan Burchfield, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran in the Cascade/South Lake Union neighborhood. Let me know how I can support you to feel a part of the community.’ And she invited us to visit her.
Susan embodied God’s Spirit of welcome.
An invitation makes all the difference.
Suddenly, we were looking at SLU with relational eyes and open hearts as she shared all that she had learned and discovered; as she shared stories of hope and heartache. And of God’s faithfulness.
Out of her invitation we began a partnership with Immanuel and their non-profit, Immanuel Community Services, that support the surrounding community through a Food Bank, a Recovery Program and a Hygiene Center.
Yesterday some folks from Union made burritos for the people who will come to the ICS food bank and Hygiene center and last Thursday another group of people from Union sat down over a meal with guys in the ICS recovery program.
Susan’s invitation began a journey of paying attention together. For Together we are two churches invited by God to “come and see” what God has for us in how we “seek the welfare of our city” as followers of Jesus who are paying attention to the Spirit’s nudging.
What does it mean in your life to see God as one who invites?
Psalm 8 affirms that God is a God who invites us into relationship with God’s self and one another for goodness and purpose.
Psalm 8 asks a daunting question of identity:
God of majesty,
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is humankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
The Message translation is blunter:
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
This brief Psalm centers us upon all that we’ve been discovering in our Known and Knowing series as we’ve explored what it means to trust that since the beginning of creation and time the God of the universe has communicated with us and desires us to know who we are by knowing who God is.
This Psalm centers our identity within the context of who GOD is!
Our God who is the giver of abundant life, who is before all time and yet intimately engaged with us in our time; our God searches our hearts and knows us. our God is there with us in the void and cares for our whole person.
This God of glory and majesty, seems to have created humanity with intention and with deep regard.
Stunning! But, this is not a moment to become egotistical. The structure of the Psalm brilliantly prevents us from moving into any self-glorification.
Our glory and honor as humans (yes, that is the language) is dependent upon our connectedness to God within the context of the creation in which God has placed us.
God created humans with dignity and worth so that we would treat one another and all of creation the same.
In light of recent events, we can easily say – ah, but we know who humanity is!
We are flawed. We are selfish. We consume too much and we do not treat one another equitably. We are finicky and self-centered.
And, yet, what we’ve continue to discover as we’ve delved into the Word of God and each week learned afresh of God’s commitment to us, God chooses to see us differently.
Verse 2 affirms that perhaps infants and children are our teachers – we are created to praise! It is our praise that silences our enemy who is opposed to our God who created Humans for good and not for exploitation and destruction.
The Psalmist audaciously tells us that the God whose own identity is known through creation and whose name is majestic -awesome – in all the earth,
God considers us – you and me.
But not just you and me. All of humanity.
The God who is known, does not give up on us.
This God is ‘mindful’ of us
To be mindful – is to remember; to not forget nor forsake.
God who knows our worst and becomes human flesh to meet us in our worst so that we might be delivered from our fears of death, our isolation, our bad decisions, our evil tendencies, delivers us to a new life, renewed to our true identity and invited to a meaningful purpose
This God who takes on death for our sake is true to God’s word, echoed in Exodus 2, “I have heard the cries of my people and not forgotten. I remember my covenant with Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac….
The God who invites is a God who remembers God’s promises.
As Romans 8 says – nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Spirit reminds us of this commitment.
YET… We can feel overwhelmed by what has gone array –
Because of the bad choices we humans have made over centuries of seeking to be in control and out of sync with our true identity as God’s beloved stewards,
The word “dominion” that we find in Psalm 8:6 may leave a sour taste in our mouth.
As one writer says: “to put human dominion at the center of things without the context of God’s sovereignty is positively dangerous.” Unbounded dominion is disaster.
Humble stewardship is the dignified invitation for which God has created us.
Our God on high gave us the agency to make a difference for good in our world.
It begins by invitation.
1. You are invited to be connected to our God who knows you fully and loves you unconditionally
Yes, the God who knows you and desires to be known, invites you into an ongoing, daily relationship with the trinity – Father, Son, and Spirit – Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. You are invited to participate with God’s relational being.
To take time to know God, to read God’s word to you, to listen to God’s Spirit,
From this relational reality
You are invited to participate. Your gifts, personalities, perspective are central to God’s kin-dom work…. Of restoring relationships.
When you show up – it matters. Psalm 8 tells you that in God’s economy… you matter.
It is when we do not believe it that we seek control … or become too isolated.
2. You are invited to participate!
Co-create, c-reconcile, co-imagine. To be humble stewards together – guided by the Spirit
Sadly our current culture has reduced God to a transactional God – who seems demanding, distant, and irrelevant. –
Look again. Come and see.
God is radical, engaged, powerful and inclusive, present, meets us in the void, attentive to our suffering.
God remembers you (is mindful you)
And desires to work through your uniqueness for good in our world – not just in heaven.
This may involve speaking up for truth in your academic world, it may be advocating for legislation that makes this world safer for children, this may mean saying yes to a new job – or staying in a job, it may mean taking time to talk to a neighbor or reach out to a friend.
It may mean re-thinking our spending patterns, our eating habits, and our engagement with people we do not know by name.
What does it mean in your life to see God as one who invites?
Where is the Spirit nudging you?
What does it mean for you to trust today that God is actually mindful of you and needs your gifts to bring restoration?