CAPTIVATED BY GOD’S PASSION FOR PLACEMAKING

Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-11

The first time we encounter the word ‘placemaking’ is in 1562, when the second edition of the Geneva Bible (aka “The Placemakers’ Bible”) was printed. In it, the gospel of Matthew, chapter five verse nine reads: “Blessed are the placemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Oops! I do think God loves placemaking, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus actually meant in the Beatitudes.

In any case, the terms’ current usage can be traced back to the 1970s when architects and planners used the word ‘placemaking’ to describe the act of designing spaces that were pleasurable or interesting. Forty years later, the term is now understood more as a transformative communal process that seeks to build resilient and dynamic neighbourhoods and public spaces.

This morning, as we continue in the series “Captivated by God’s Passion”, we consider Jeremiah 29: 4-11 which gives us a vivid picture of what it might look like to care passionately about where you live and, together with others, to make it a safer, friendlier, better place.
(Kim Pierrot)

Good Seed Sunday

Today is Good Seed Sunday at Cap. We believe that the earth is the Lord’s and everything and everyone who lives on the planet belongs to him. Because we believe this, self-care; care of one another in community and care of creation are important values for us. We want to love and tend to the earth and all of God’s creatures [including us!]. We’ve invited our own Luke Wilson who works with the Christian conservation ministry A Rocha to remind us of the great gift God has given us to tend and what it means in our day to lovingly tend the earth and not abuse it.

Did you know that A Rocha is fighting poverty through conservation? They even have a work in Uganda. A Rocha is working with slum dwellers on the edge of Kampala protect the wetland on which they depend for water, food and building materials so that they and the wildlife can thrive together. This is includes providing clean drinking water and finding new ways to dispose of sewage and rubbish. Doing conservation here is bringing health and dignity to people as the pollution of the swamp is being reduced. Sounds like kingdom work to me.

(Mike Nichols)

How to Live in Community with People You Don’t Like

Community. Yep we call ourselves—Cap Community because we believe there is much to learn from relationships. Community at its best is an experience, according to Henri Nouwen not only of, “I am beloved; you are beloved; together we can create space for God and others but also an uncomfortable place because it is often the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. Community is not some idealized place where everyone is comfortable, always loved and always gets along. Community is real. If you expect some sort of perfection you will have no end of disillusionment. Church is a great place until you invite people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together says that when God’s grace comes to a faith community their ideals of how they expect to be treated will crumble to such an extent that the only way they can continue to live together is by forgiveness. In other words a community of faith must learn to “do the gospel” with each other if they are to be God’s people in their time. Today in Romans 14:1-15:6 we talk about how to live with those you least want to be with in community.

(Mike Nichols)

Sermon was not recorded this week but transcript is available at the link below. Go to bottom of this introduction for link to the pdf file.

COVENANT SUNDAY

Today is Covenant Sunday at Cap. We are going to ask you to freely and voluntarily participate in making covenant with us. Our Capchurch covenant is value laden. The values behind the covenant express our common experience of being called by God; the content of our faith—what we believe about the triune God from the Bible; who we are as a community; our sense of purpose, mission; And our unique history with God.

Behind our covenant are other values—values that define who we are as a community of faith and how we will treat one another; values that the shape and character of church life. All of our ministries and programs; and our pastoral posture when we meet with you for coffee arise out of these values. By affirming these values we as leaders are writing Cap’s history in advance. Covenant is the highest form of relational commitment. It writes the future in advance by choosing to do good to someone despite what may come. When you define your relationships by covenant, they are defined by commitment, love, and acceptance and not by performance. Let’s make covenant!

Find the written transcript of the sermon
here

DON’T DO IT ALONE
Ephesians 2:11-22

Eugene Peterson writes, “As long as individualism has free reign in our lives, we will not be capable of embracing church. Individualism severely handicaps us in growing up to the measure of the full stature of Christ. If unchecked it can be fatal, fating us to lifelong immaturity.”

Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection

Last week we talked about God‟s will and community. I said, “You will not find meaning in your spiritual life by being a consumer . . . and you will actually inhibit the community from maturing. The thing about maturing is that you can‟t do it by yourself and you will never achieve maturity if you pursue it directly. Romans 12 makes it clear that spiritual maturity is a by-product of commitment to a community of faith and doing the hard, uncomfortable and relational stuff that happens when you are involved deeply with people.”
As a community hold onto what is good . . . Help one another with faith burn-out; and encourage one another to refuel with the Spirit as needed. Stand with one another in hard times and you who are not suffering don’t give up on prayer for those who don’t have the strength to pray. Your turn will come when they can stand with you.
[Romans 12:9ff]

What comes to mind when someone says “Let‘s celebrate?” Food? Party? How about if we add “let‘s celebrate Christ?” Most of us probably think celebrating Christ is worship and you‘d be right. Yet what the Bible thinks of as worship is different from what we think of as a worship service. There are many words in the Bible for celebrate–two show different aspects of celebration. Prospiptó from which we get prostrate is used in Luke 5:8 where Peter falls before Jesus in awe of the miraculous catch of fish. Part of celebrating Christ is to receive his overwhelming grace and respond with humility and awe.

Latreuó is found in Romans 12:1, Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Celebrating Christ according to the Bible is primarily about your lifestyle. Check the context for more specifics on a lifestyle that celebrates Christ. How you love, hate, handle affliction, have people for dinner, give are all acts of worship—or not. Today we examine the 2nd of Cap‘s three C‘s—called to celebrate Christ.