CTK | Austin
Weekly sermon reflection
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Sermon Reflection - The flourishing life
Psalm 1 gives us a theology of human flourishing. What is it? Where is it found? What does it look like through changing seasons of life? And where does it ultimately lead? In short, human flourishing is becoming fully what God created human beings to be. The Hebrew language calls that shalom, wholeness, rightness with God, with neighbor, with yourself, and with creation. There is not a sphere of your life that is out of line with how God designed you to live.
Every single person on this planet is looking to be whole, whatever that means. No one in their right mind wakes up, puts their feet on the floor, and says, "I can't wait to make a mess of things." Every decision we make is made on the belief, conscious or not, that it will lead us to flourish. And it is that last impulse that captures the spirit of every age: I want to become the person that I think I ought to be, not the person that God has created me to be. The more dangerous counsel is rarely obviously evil. It is frequently a plausible account of human flourishing with God simply taken out.
The psalmist shows us how formation works. We listen, we live, and we locate. You walk according to some counsel, then you stand in a way, then eventually you sit in the seat. What you repeatedly listen to eventually shapes how you live, and how you repeatedly live eventually shapes who you become. You cannot avoid formation. You simply become more of where your focus is already oriented. So what is forming you? We are formed by what we delight in, and what you delight in reveals what you believe will make you flourish.
The blessed one is like a tree planted by streams of water. The environment around the tree can change. The source of the tree does not. Psalm 1 does not promise you a seasonless life. Job had everything, then sat in the ashes with nothing, and he flourished in plenty and he flourished in suffering. Your season doesn't determine whether you're flourishing. Your source does. And remember, trees don't eat their own fruit. The blessing is yours, but the flourishing is for others.
Who gets to stand in that congregation of the righteous? Not one of us qualifies. But there actually is a Psalm 1 man. Jesus never walked in the counsel of the wicked, never stood in the way of sinners though he stood among them, never sat in the seat of scoffers though scoffers surrounded his cross. He is the truly flourishing man. So stay planted. Be faithful in the season God has given you. There's only one truly flourishing road, and the Lord knows the way.
Every single person on this planet is looking to be whole, whatever that means. No one in their right mind wakes up, puts their feet on the floor, and says, "I can't wait to make a mess of things." Every decision we make is made on the belief, conscious or not, that it will lead us to flourish. And it is that last impulse that captures the spirit of every age: I want to become the person that I think I ought to be, not the person that God has created me to be. The more dangerous counsel is rarely obviously evil. It is frequently a plausible account of human flourishing with God simply taken out.
The psalmist shows us how formation works. We listen, we live, and we locate. You walk according to some counsel, then you stand in a way, then eventually you sit in the seat. What you repeatedly listen to eventually shapes how you live, and how you repeatedly live eventually shapes who you become. You cannot avoid formation. You simply become more of where your focus is already oriented. So what is forming you? We are formed by what we delight in, and what you delight in reveals what you believe will make you flourish.
The blessed one is like a tree planted by streams of water. The environment around the tree can change. The source of the tree does not. Psalm 1 does not promise you a seasonless life. Job had everything, then sat in the ashes with nothing, and he flourished in plenty and he flourished in suffering. Your season doesn't determine whether you're flourishing. Your source does. And remember, trees don't eat their own fruit. The blessing is yours, but the flourishing is for others.
Who gets to stand in that congregation of the righteous? Not one of us qualifies. But there actually is a Psalm 1 man. Jesus never walked in the counsel of the wicked, never stood in the way of sinners though he stood among them, never sat in the seat of scoffers though scoffers surrounded his cross. He is the truly flourishing man. So stay planted. Be faithful in the season God has given you. There's only one truly flourishing road, and the Lord knows the way.
Meditations for this week
Name What is Forming You
You cannot avoid formation. You simply become more of where your focus is already oriented. Ask honestly this week: what voice am I repeatedly listening to, and what vision of human flourishing am I most drawn to? Where have I believed that I know better than God what will make me whole?
Delight, Not Just Duty
Someone can dutifully read Scripture daily while fundamentally believing that flourishing is found in wealth, in sexual fulfillment, or in political power. Biblical meditation means chewing, murmuring, turning God's word over and over until it shapes how you see reality. Take one passage this week and rehearse it until it becomes the way you see the world. Has God's vision of human life become beautiful to you?
Bear Fruit for Others
Trees don't eat their own fruit. If flourishing is becoming fully what God created us to be, it can never be about my flourishing for my benefit, my comfort, my nicer things. Sometimes the fruit looks like generosity, sometimes endurance, sometimes courage, sometimes repentance, sometimes hospitality. Ask which tree God has made you to be, and give that fruit away this week to a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a church.
You cannot avoid formation. You simply become more of where your focus is already oriented. Ask honestly this week: what voice am I repeatedly listening to, and what vision of human flourishing am I most drawn to? Where have I believed that I know better than God what will make me whole?
Delight, Not Just Duty
Someone can dutifully read Scripture daily while fundamentally believing that flourishing is found in wealth, in sexual fulfillment, or in political power. Biblical meditation means chewing, murmuring, turning God's word over and over until it shapes how you see reality. Take one passage this week and rehearse it until it becomes the way you see the world. Has God's vision of human life become beautiful to you?
Bear Fruit for Others
Trees don't eat their own fruit. If flourishing is becoming fully what God created us to be, it can never be about my flourishing for my benefit, my comfort, my nicer things. Sometimes the fruit looks like generosity, sometimes endurance, sometimes courage, sometimes repentance, sometimes hospitality. Ask which tree God has made you to be, and give that fruit away this week to a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a church.