The Story in Song Parts 11 and 12 | Raise the Banner and Small Rebellions

For a quick review, here are links to the previous posts in "The Story in Song" series.

Part 1 | The Love of God
Part 2 | Warrior
Part 3 | Nicodemus
Part 4 | The City
Part 5 | Walk with Me 
Part 6 | How Long

Part 7 | Anchor

Part 8 | Boasting

Part 9 | Run in the Night 

Part 10 | Found

According to Jesus, what should we be doing with the identity, security, and freedom He gives us? If we hold faithfully to God and His promises, what should our lives be characterized by to those around us? 

When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.  – Jesus (Matthew 5:44-48)

If this is Jesus' call to action for us, how should we (11) Raise the Banner in our neighborhoods and workplaces He has sent us to? Because His banner, His generosity and graciousness, is not meant to be something we keep for ourselves or use to separate ourselves from others. Jesus is our banner for us to invite others into our lives and share with them His saving grace and shelter.

For your children, for your neighbors, for your communities, / Follow the banner. / Everybody, unashamed, lock your arms, plant your feet, look around, they need you, / Follow the banner. / Better husbands, better fathers, / More servants, more diligence; / No excuses, they are useless. / You can do this; follow the banner. / It takes discipline to be dead to sin. / Can’t do it alone, you need your kin. / Just keep the pace, understand the race. / You ain’t got to be fast. Just don’t run out of gas. / No honorable mentions, leave no leftovers. / Lick the plate of life clean and give thanks to Elohim. / No ponzi schemes, just excellence, / Just reverence; He is our banner.

Our lives are meant to be (12) Small Rebellions against the selfishness, individualism, and consumerism that plague so many in our city, our churches, our homes, and too often festers in our own hearts. By His Spirit, we can buck against our pride and fight to be identified with Jesus’ sacrificial love and service to take care of the hurting and broken rather than continuing to feed our self-designed culture, entrapments, and entitlements.

God of the warn and tattered, / All of Your people matter. / Give us more than words to speak / ’Cause we are hearts and arms that reach / And love climbs up and down the human ladder. / Give us days to be filled with small rebellions, / Senseless, brutal acts of kindness from us all. / If we stand between the fear and firm foundation, / Push against the current and the fall, / The current and the fall.

When people who follow Jesus resolve to posture themselves like Jesus in the words and deeds of the gospel for others in Worcester, we will begin to see something Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples, described would happen.

Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when He arrives.  – Peter (1 Peter 2:11-12)

True love for God and love for others transform us to live this way. Because this is what Jesus told us to do, Peter continues to reveal Jesus' heart behind these words:

This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came His way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

He never did one thing wrong,

Not once said anything amiss.

They called Him every name in the book and He said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used His servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls. – Peter (1 Peter 2:21-25)

Jesus changes us as individuals and as a community when He captures our hearts and we begin to obey His commands in word and deed. He turns our hearts inside out for those around us. We begin to live out of the great grace we have been given by sharing it with those we never thought we could love before. We choose to love rather than waiting to be comfortable with people different from us.

To see what God can do with us and through us for our communities when we understand and act on who we have been called to be in Jesus, check back later this week for Parts 13 and 14 | The City No Longer Forsaken and Love Shines.

 – Sully

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