Common Ground

At Oakland City Church we regularly repeat our mission statement – ‘people who don’t belong together gathered around Jesus for the sake of people who don’t belong.’ We’re passionate about a few things – Jesus, and building a community of people who don’t belong together. These things are deeply connected – it’s only when we gather around Jesus that we can build a new community. In essence, the core idea of our church is that trust in Jesus and his grace forms the foundation of a new community. More than that, the grace of Jesus is the only true foundation for community that lasts.

We hold on to this vision of community for two reasons. Firstly – it’s what the God commands. The message of the New Testament is clear on this (although often ignored). The book of Acts, the history of the early church, the driving controversy is not whether Jesus is Lord, or whether he was fully man, fully God, or anything theological. The central question was ‘who gets to belong?’ In Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, the underlying crisis is the separation of Jews and Gentiles.

Secondly, this vision for community is what Oakland needs. In a city like Oakland, the divisions of humanity seem all too clear. Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. However, as many have noted, diversity is not the same as integration. The diversity we each experience in our everyday lives is lacking in most church worship services. Instead of embracing our city’s identity as an expression of God’s desire to bring all things together, our churches have too often settled for separation. While there is some call and occasion for ethnic-specific church missions, our desire should ultimately be to see ethnic barriers overcome. Instead of calling people out of diverse neighborhoods, friendships and workplaces into homogeneous places of worship, we should be planting churches that reflect these diverse realities. Our faith community should help us to be better at cross-cultural relationships in the places where we live.

However, many would argue that religion, specifically Christianity, seems to divide us further. Segregation. Christian vs. non-Christian, religious vs. irreligious, protestant vs. catholic, liberal vs. conservative. We don’t want to be naïve. Unity and community must be founded on truth. C.S. Lewis in ‘The Great Divorce’ his meditation on heaven and hell, writes this:

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good. I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.”

We can’t simply form common ground by ignoring our differences, ignoring truth or building upon our good intentions. Human efforts to force community are either oppressive (See the tower of Babel in Genesis 11) or shallow.

The pressing question for our world and our city is whether there is a possibility of true, deep and lasting common ground. This sermon series will answer that question thoroughly through the lens of the gospel. Our only possible common ground is the grace found in Jesus. Only in the good news do we find sufficient humility and confidence to build a future together. This sermon series will show us that the great doctrines of the faith are practical building blocks for a common life together. Far from being points of contention, if we embrace the great truths of Scripture, we will find the power, reason and joy of life together.

Understanding the gospel

• keeps us from falling into self-righteous, exclusive legalism (an ‘us vs. them’ attitude)
• calls us to obedience and sacrificial love, rather than mere tolerance
• helps us to hold on to what matters to God and let go of traditions that only matter to us. The gospel makes us more adaptive to others
• gives us the only identity strong enough to challenge the worldly culture of materialism, despair and anxiety.

The gospel is not simply a propositional statement about Jesus dying for our sins. It can be summarized as Christ crucified, but in that summary we find that the gospel is the full story of God and His sacrificial love for His world.

What does the gospel say about us as humans?

1. All are made in the image of God

No matter whether we are great or small in the eyes of the world, we are all made in the imago dei, the divine image. We can never look down on others as less than us. This vision of human life is incredibly important. Is the basis for which we can find dignity and humility in all situations. Moreover, the image of God is the image of the Trinity – the divine fellowship of God from before the ages. We are made in and for life together.

2. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There is no basis for pride in the fallen human condition. All of us are sinners – which is bad news, obviously, but like any accurate diagnosis, the only basis for hearing good news. Sin is not simply ‘out there’ in the community, or ‘over there’ in other communities. Sin is always most definitively ‘in here’ in our hearts. So, we are not surprised at sin in others, and we do not despair at it in ourselves. We are tempted to make much of sins that are not ours, and make little of the sins that we struggle with. So conservatives highlight sexual sins, laziness and family brokenness. Liberals highlight sins of injustice, lack of compassion to the stranger and environmental irresponsibility. Culturally we can see that some sins are more tolerated in some groups than others. The good news of the doctrine of sin is that we do not need to be divided by who has the worst sins. We are all sinners in need of grace.

3. We are all loved by God – whether we receive that love or not

On the cross Jesus is lifted up to show the world the glory, judgment and love of God. God has continually communicated his love to us, if only we would hear it. The whole purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to come for salvation and hope, rather than judgment. Even if people do not receive the love of God, we must be clear on the fact that God is pursuing his creation with great love.

4. We are all continually dependent on God – whether we know it or not.

God did not simply create the world, but sustains it in every moment. We are never imagine ourselves far from God or not relying on him. For religious people, this means that we should always be acknowledging that we depend on God, not He on our efforts. For irreligious people, this means that we should be The most helpful and true prayer that we can pray at any moment is ‘thank you’. Gratitude should be a great unifying feature of our church.

5. We are all looking to the same future – submission to the gracious rule of Christ.

There is a some debate right now about whether all people will eventually be reconciled to God’s love. Scripture is clear that it will be possible to resist the rule of Christ. However, we can always say with confidence that all things will be reconciled to Christ, either in grateful submission or in grudging acknowledgement. Our hope is in the truth that whether we trust him or not, all things will be unified back to God in Christ.