This month we have set out to explore the unique features of the church community. We are doing so by asking questions, which we have done a lot of this summer. Questions like: What is different about this community from other communities we are a part of? And: How is what we do here different than what we do with other communities?

Now this is not an attempt to lift ourselves up and above other communities but rather to get a better understanding of what it really is that we do here and maybe even, why we keep doing it!

Last week in response to the question, “Why do we need to be here?” Pastor Joel offered this response - "because there is a peace in this community, the peace of this community” acknowledging that there are lots of ways and places where we can find peacefulness and there are lots of communities that have peace and are peaceful, but in this community we share in the experience of the peace of God… a peace which passes all understanding.

This week we are going to explore another unique feature of the congregation, the community of people that make up a church, which is that is it called beyond itself. The church, she doesn’t exist solely for herself, and we don’t come here, only for ourselves, but for the transformation of the world - the reconciling of all of creation and this is quite unique.

But if we are called beyond the community, why be here at all? Why? Because what we do together in this community, as this community, informs how we participate beyond it. Because what we do together as this community, is what we carry with us out into the world.

Before we get to our scripture for the day, please pray with me…

Holy God, in this time grant us clear minds to hear you, steady hearts to receive you, and a bold imagination to meet you in our text, in this place, and out in the world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture today come from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, Chapter 5:16-20.  Paul writes…

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Godself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Godself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making God's appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.

The word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

In this portion of Paul’s letter, he is reminding the followers of Jesus in Corinth what God has done through Christ. And he is reminding them what that means for them, both as individuals and as a community. The implications of this give us a deeper understanding of not just who or whose we are, but how we are to live.

Paul argues that in Christ, there is a new creation. Paul is saying here to his readers and to us, “You have been given a new way to view the world.” This new creation that Paul speaks of is not simply that they/we are made new - but that because of this new perspective, our entire understanding of the world, of creation, changes. And because of this change we can no longer see our daily lives as separate from God’s presence and work in the world.

As we know, God has been at work from the very beginning. This is not news to this community - it is a reminder about communal life - about the who and the how of being a congregation of believers.

What makes the church community - our community - unique is that we trust that God is already active in the world, reconciling or altering the world toward the way of love, justice, and peace - and that causes us to live differently. As we hone in on our new vision, we begin to see all the children of the world as God's children. We become more attuned to the places where God is already at work. And we begin to recognize opportunities to join in on the transformation of the kin-dom. This is what it means to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

And like ambassadors we don’t leave and forget where we come from. We carry it with us. Because as much as we are called beyond the community - we need this community first.

Because maintaining that “new perspective” can be really hard - and it was never something we were meant to do in isolation. We forget. We lose perspective. We become shaped by outside voices around us. We need one another to remember who we are and how we are called to see. Because this community is where we continually recover the vision that allows us to live differently outside it.

Which is why what we do here together on Sunday morning and throughout the week from coffee and lunch dates, to texts and phone calls, to volunteering together is so important.

When we gather on Sunday,

we allow ourselves to be seen.

We confess and allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

We share peace and encourage one another.

We study and affirm our faith, strengthening our communal life.

We offer our gifts and practice gratitude.

We accept our charge and are blessed to go out and be a blessing beyond the community.

When we care for one another, we remember ourselves and remind each other that we are not alone; giving each other the courage to see the world through Christ’s eyes, to open our doors each morning to the new creation where God is present and working, eager to meet us out in the field, even when all the talking heads and media around us try to convince us that God is MIA.

And when we serve together - whether it is handing out hand-packed lunches or stained glass crosses, serving at The Mission House or The Parish House - we give others a view of that new creation. We become witnesses to the love, peace, and hope that we believe are already present in the world because God is present—even when it is hard to see them.

We do all of this (worshipping, caring for one another, serving together) as community, in community, fully embracing that new perspective of God at work in the world in, not just for ourselves, but in preparation to be called beyond the community, every single day.

Jackie's YAV year is one very visible example of what it means to be called beyond this community. Most of us won't spend a year as YAVs. But all of us will walk out these doors today and enter places where the way we see, speak, listen; the way we forgive, disagree, welcome, and love can participate in God's work of reconciliation. Because we have put our trust in the way of Christ, we are able to see other people and the world itself differently. We are able to see God at work in all areas of our lives, calling us to join in.

The question on the front of our bulletin this morning is a prompt to help us see where we just might or already be joining in. It asks “Where in your life does the way you live make the biggest difference?” In your families? With your neighbors? At school or work? On the golf course? In your book club?

Do we view those places or people apart from who and how we believe God to be, allowing the seductive voices of contemporary culture to shape the way we see those in front of us? Or can we learn to see them as people and places where God is already present?

So again, why even be part of a church community if we are constantly being called beyond it? Because what we practice as this congregation is meant to change how we participate in every other community we're part of. We are bringing these questions into our worship this month, because the people we are every day of the week shouldn’t be different from the people we are on Sunday. Bringing just a little bit more of who and how we are out there in here & vice versa, because truly being the church requires it. Because the transformation of the world requires it.

So beloved community, remember… The new creation isn't somewhere else, but right here and right now. It is our present world as God sees it and is working to make it: from the birds and the bees, the oceans and the trees, to you and me—all of creation is being drawn back toward wholeness, toward reconciliation, toward God.

And we get to be a part of it. Because this community exists not only for ourselves, but to be a part of what God is doing in the world. And that is pretty special.