Beit Simcha
(“House of Joy”) Newsletter
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Our next coffeehouse, January 13, starting at
Beit Simcha celebrates Tu B’Shvat,
the traditional New Year of Trees, on Shabbat February 3. Our uproarious Purim “spiel” (play) and
carnival is March 3 at Wellspring
(see the web site for directions). Come (and bring your friends) and boo Haman
and eat hamantaschen and other goodies. See Steve and Tracy Abush if you would
like to help.
Koinonia
Koinonia means intimate
fellowship with God and with each other, in faithful, covenant love. It is
more than oneg and hugs, though oneg
and hugs can give us a taste of fellowship. Koinonia goes deeper, into the nature of God and the desire of his heart for
his relationship with us. Koinonia invites us to
participate in the echad (oneness) of God, the intimate
fellowship that the Father has with the Son. God the Father and Yeshua his Son call us
into this intimate fellowship. 1Cor 1:9 says: “God is faithful: it was he who called you
into fellowship (koinonia)
with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.”
As God is faithful, so he calls us to be faithful, to our fellowship
with Him and each other.
Koinonia fellowship was the
secret that provided the spiritual benefits that the early Jewish believers all
shared, in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Their fellowship of
faith and unity released the power of the Spirit for signs and wonders. Their koinonia also drew many
others into the community of Messiah’s love. So in John 17:21, Yeshua prayed, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they
also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” How will
the world believe that the Father has sent Yeshua into the world? Through our
love for one another, through our fellowship and faithfulness to each other.
Restoring koinonia is the vision of Beit Simcha as well
as the Tikkun network of congregations. It is the theme of Keith (Asher)
Intrater’s book, Covenant
Relationships. In this sermon,
I develop ideas from the second chapter of this book:
“The Need for Covenant.”
In the beginning, in Gan
Eden, humanity enjoyed intimate fellowship with God and each other. Genesis 3:8
records, “the man and his wife heard the sound of
HaShem God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the evening.” What wonderful closeness Adam and Chava enjoyed with
HaShem!
God still
desires us to walk closely with him, in His presence. Galatians
Romans 1:31, in a litany of sins, Paul
describes fallen humanity as “without understanding, covenant-breakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” Covenant-breaking is
especially vile in the sight of HaShem. Such is the sin of a renegade who would
father children and leave without providing for them. He has broken the trust
of his wife and children, turning away from his covenant responsibility.
Covenant breaking is a heinous crime in God’s sight. That’s why Judas’s
betrayal of Yeshua landed him in the lowest circle of Dante’s Inferno,
down in the jaws of Lucifer! Judas had been
welcomed in the intimate circle of Yeshua’s friends. He was even trusted with accounting for the offerings given
to Yeshua to provide for them. His betrayal broke a covenant friendship. A
thousand years earlier, David prophesied this betrayal in Psalm 41:9, “Even my
close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel
against me.” Again in Psalm 55:13-14, “But it
is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as
we walked with the throng at the house of God.” Do you hear the heart of
Yeshua? How he had enjoyed sweet
fellowship with Judas with the rest of his disciples, who became his close
friends as they walked together throughout the land and with the festival
throng at the house of God. And yet, there was also darkness in the heart of
Judas—fellowship with darkness leading to unfaithfulness and betrayal. How
many of you have experienced unfaithfulness and betrayal? It is a deep wound, isn’t it?
Even as HaShem banished Adam and Chava for
their unfaithfulness, He also set in motion His plan for restoration. The plan,
the way to renew and restore intimate fellowship, is through covenant
relationships. In the covenant of the rainbow, God declared his eternal
trustworthiness. In the covenant of circumcision, God called Abraham’s natural
descendants into faithfulness. In the covenant at Sinai, God offered renewed
intimacy between Himself and a holy nation. In the New Covenant of Messiah, God
offers forgiveness of our sins and intimate fellowship with Him through the
Holy Spirit.
The sensitivity of intimacy carries with it
the possibility of hurting the other person. Intimacy always bears with it
vulnerability. When we were vulnerable, many of us have been wounded. Yet
vulnerable intimacy is a part of holiness. To experience intimacy with God, you
must trust him. This is why HaShem commands us to remember and observe the
Shabbat by keeping it holy. It is to be a day when we enjoy our intimate
fellowship with HaShem and His people.
To protect that vulnerability, there must be
commitment to go along with intimacy. Without commitment, how can there be
trust? Without trust, how can there be intimacy?
Covenant faithfulness
protects intimate fellowship. This is why God describes himself as jealous.
Introducing the Ten Commandments,
HaShem says: “I am a jealous God.” How can God be jealous?
In Exodus 34:14, HaShem
explains: “you are not to bow down to any other god;
since ADONAI—whose very name is Jealous—is a jealous God.” When He gives
the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and when He gives instructions for building
the mishkan or tabernacle in Exodus
34, HaShem is establishing covenant with
Selfish jealousy is possessiveness that
actually squashes love and intimacy. But godly jealousy for covenant
faithfulness is a high form of respect for the other partner. Godly jealousy means is a fiery concern to
protect the precious intimacy of the covenant.
Godly jealousy demands loyalty.
The purpose of covenant is to ensure
faithfulness and commitment in our precious fellowship. We live in a world
where people talk about love in sensual and insincere ways. That’s what MTV and
VH1 are all about; that’s what most of
Introducing the concept
of covenant faithfulness is counter-cultural. Covenant faithfulness is
necessary to back up the claims of genuine, lasting love. Proverbs 20:6 asks: “Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful
man who can find?” Faithful love requires persevering integrity to hold
up a covenant when it’s tested.
In Luke 18:8,
Yeshua asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on the earth?” When Messiah
returns, he will be looking for more than a confession of faith. He will be
looking for emunah—the Hebrew word for faith which also means
faithfulness. He will be looking for people who reflect His own faithfulness
and loyalty and perseverance. He will be looking for people who reflect His own
character and integrity.
Had
it not been for our chronic unbelief and disobedience, faith in God would be
simple. The death and resurrection of Yeshua as God’s beloved Son is ample
demonstration of God’s desire to restore humanity to a trusting relationship
with himself. What more do we need?
Yet
many of us continue to struggle to trust and abide in our intimate fellowship
with HaShem and each other. God wants to rescue us out of our strongholds of
distrust and into a stronghold of salvation. Strongholds are thought
patterns—the Spirit of God wants to break down the strongholds of woundedness
and unbelief that estrange us from God and from each other.
Yeshua wants to bind up our
wounds and heal us. He wants us to be
secure in the stronghold of enduring faith in His covenant love. So Psalm 27
proclaims, “The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”
In times of trouble, you can run into the stronghold of your trusting
fellowship with HaShem. So Psalm 37:30 tell us, “The salvation of the righteous
comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.” Our thought
patterns are to be renewed in covenant trust. Theophostics, marriage
counseling, Gary Smalley videos, havurah groups, bible studies, spiritual
growth though membership classes, hugs and oneg—all these and more we offer you
on behalf of Messiah, so that you might be renewed in covenant trust.
Hebrew
6:9 says: “We have this hope as an
anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” It is through the New Covenant
guaranteed by the blood of Messiah Yeshua that we have a hope which should be
an anchor for souls. Hebrews 6:9
continues, “It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Yeshua, who
went before us, has entered on our behalf.” It is through covenant trust that
our souls emerge out of unbelief into intimacy with God. It is through covenant
trust that our souls follow Messiah into the inner sanctuary. “In your presence, that’s where I belong,
seeking your face, touching your grace…” God has gone to such great lengths to
restore us to His intimate presence! Let us therefore trust Him who is
trustworthy—He keeps his covenant promises. And let us also be trustworthy, as
He is trustworthy—let us keep our covenant promises.