Southpoint News July 6, 2017

campfire

A Sent Life
When we are encountered by the presence of the Risen Christ, we come to realize that Jesus is not just a historical figure, but a living presence. The Risen Christ is the Life that holds all life. This Life provokes, challenges, and dismantles our false selves. This Life forgives, restores, reconciles, and renews our true selves. We die. We rise again. The Risen Christ breathes life into us, filling us with the Spirit. Our flesh becomes the holy of holies, the tabernacle where God’s glory dwells. Then, we are SENT OUT. Where are we being sent? We are being sent into a world that belongs to God, a tabernacle where God’s glory dwells. But we are being sent into a world that is also damaged, reeling, heavy with the knowledge of Good and Evil. This world of beauty and ugliness, love and hate, sorrow and joy, wholeness and fragmentation, is not just around us. It is within us. What is God’s intention in sending us? We are sent to discover the presence of Christ waiting for us in the world. We are sent to bear the presence of the Risen Christ to a waiting world. We breathe in the goodness and delight of the Risen Christ hidden in the heart of all things. We breathe out the goodness and delight of Christ hungered-for in the heart of all things. We are sent out to give and to receive.
When are we being sent? Every time you wake up in the morning, called back from sleep into wakefulness, you are experiencing your “sentness”. Each time you turn on your computer, walk out the door, speak to friend or stranger, enter into prayer, go to the grocery store, pick your kids up at school, lead a meeting, make a sale, go camping, you are being sent. Your life is your “sentness”. How are we to go out into the world? We go with listening ears: “Jesus, show me today where my feet can go; show me today what my hands can do. On this day, may what I do and who I am increase goodness and allow life to thrive.” We go with open minds: “Jesus, your goodness awaits me. I cannot limit where I might find you, or who might bear your heart. Protect me from religious smugness that hems in the holy and denies your presence in people and places strange to me.” We go with humble hearts; “Jesus, may your character infuse my character. And when it doesn’t, give me the grace to admit that I am wrong. When my life becomes turned in upon myself, may your Spirit redirect me, moving me upwards towards you, and outwards towards others.” We go with gratitude” “Jesus, thank you for your grace. You forgive my sins. You lift me up when I fail. You bless me in my brokenness. You accompany me in my darkness. You meet me in my wandering. You bring me home. Because you are enough, I am enough. What would your answers be to the questions I posed today? What would you add? What would you take away? What does it mean to you to live a “Sent Out” Life? What characters, real or fictional, model such a life for you?

Pastor Anne Smith

Gleaners in Oliver, BC
Sunday 27 –  Thursday 31, August. There are almost twenty people planning to attend – we have room for a handful more. Would you like to come, too? It’s service-oriented in the morning followed by relaxing and connecting in the afternoon & evening. Contact office@southpoint.ca.

Summer Services
Invited, Empowered, and Sent:  Sharing our Stories

July 9 Jarret & Jessie Wall: Athletes in Action

July 23 ALL OUT – Meet in Gathering Groups

August 27 ALL OUT – Meet in Gathering Groups

 

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