One of the great losses in western civilisation over the past 30 years has been the loss of community. It's interesting, isn't it, that one of the enduring myths of Australian culture, the enduring self-image that we have, is the idea of mateship, and yet what we actually find is the opposite. People in general are self-absorbed; more interested in their own welfare than that of their mates. Gone are the days when everyone knew the people who lived in their street. These days we're lucky if we even know the names of the people next door or across the street. And even in the church this can be a problem. People are much more loath to just call in on fellow church members. They feel like they need to be invited first. Yet the church was set up to be a community - a close knit family that reflected God's desire for all people.
	In today's reading from Luke 6 we find Jesus choosing 12 of his disciples to be apostles. That is, those who are sent out to proclaim the message of Jesus. These were to be the leaders of the new community of God's people. But while this was a new community, the idea itself wasn't new. You see, when God first created the world, when he first put men and women on the earth, he made them to be in community. Way back in Genesis 1 we're told God placed the man and woman in the garden and told them to be fruitful and multiply. They were meant to fill the earth. They were made as social creatures, to form a community of people in close relationship to one another and with God. In Gen 2 we discover that it wasn't good for the man to be on his own. He needed the companionship of Eve. But it didn't last. It was spoilt almost as soon as it began. Adam and Eve chose to do things their way and those relationships were broken down. Their companionship was turned into conquest and recrimination. And then what happened? The very first men recorded as being born into the world became a murderer and his victim.
	As we read on in the story of the Bible, the centuries pass, and people become more and more self-centred, until God decides to act again. First by wiping out a large number of the population who have rejected him, but then by choosing a faithful servant to form a new family. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob's 12 sons become the founders of a great nation which will show the world how God wants a community to live. This is the archetypal close-knit family. God even gives them guidelines for how they're to live. That is, laws that will set them apart from the nations around them. So many of the laws of Moses are designed to ensure that this community, above all others, acts justly and lovingly, as God's people should. Yet we know don't we that by the time Jesus came, this community had failed the same way that Adam and Eve failed. They hadn't done what God wanted. Their closeness as a community had degenerated into an insular, unloving, tribal exclusivism. They were as affected by greed and pride and selfishness as any nation. This people that were to be a light to the nations was as darkened as those nations were. That's why Jesus says to them "The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it." (Mt 21:43)
	That's why in this passage before us today he sets up a new people of God, under the leadership of twelve of his followers, a number chosen, not because it's the ideal number for a small group, but to remind us of the 12 tribes of Israel that are being replaced. This new people of God is to be a third attempt to show the world how being in right relationship with God brings us into right relationship with one another. The family of Adam failed. The family of Abraham failed. Now it's up to the church of Jesus Christ to show how people ought to live in community. (John 13:35 NRSV) "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
	In fact if you look at v13, you even see something of a hint of what this new community is like. There we find the larger group of disciples, their leaders, the 12, and their Lord, Jesus.
	Notice that the membership of this band is fairly ill-defined. The disciples were all those people who followed on behind Jesus. As is still the case, there were varying degrees of understanding and commitment among Jesus' followers. The accounts in the New Testament show that even among the baptised believers were some whose real membership of God's kingdom was doubtful. [Ananias & Sapphira, Simon Magus the magician.] Most of the New Testament was written because of members of the Church who had left behind the teachings of Jesus. Even in the early days there was no such thing as a pure church.
	Yet as we read on into the rest of the chapter the one thing that becomes clear is that this new community was to be distinctive. They're meant to be clearly different from the world around them. This is true on a number of levels. First they're set up under the leadership of the apostles. So the teaching of the apostles becomes the yardstick for Christian belief and behaviour. One of the things you discover as you read the New Testament is that entry into the church was without barrier, totally free, but once in the community, it was expected that you would conform to the teaching of the apostles. This is the thing that the New testament writers appeal to time and time again when they're arguing against heresy: the authority the apostles have as Christ's appointed leaders of the community.
	Behind all this of course is the fact that the Church exists only because Jesus brought it into being. He is it's Lord and the centre of its life. He is the one who chooses the 12 and he's the one who sends them out. He's the one around whom our life revolves. As Colossians 1 tells us: (Col 1:17-18 NRSV) "He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything."
	But having said all that, the other thing that sets the church apart, is the way it lives.
	Let's think about the way those in Christ's Church should live, that sets us apart from the rest of the world. First of all we need to see the way God sees. Think about worldly goods. It doesn't matter whether we're rich or poor. Those who are poor, or hungry, who weep, or are hated and persecuted because of Christ's name, can rejoice, because they're experiencing the same sorts of things that the prophets experienced. God knows what's happening. He won't let them down. Theirs will be a great reward in heaven. By contrast those who take comfort in their prosperity, who think that God is blessing them because of their hard work or their righteousness, who laugh at the misfortunes of others, will go hungry, will mourn and weep. They've already received their reward. Similarly, those who take pleasure in the way people speak well of them mustn't be too sure of themselves, because the same thing happened to the false prophets.
	But before you start thinking about the size of your bank account - whether it happens to be large or small, look at what the rest of the passage says about how we should live in this new community. Just as we're to see the way God sees, so too, we're to act the way God acts. Notice how he turns the world's attitude upside down here as well.
	Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. That's not what our society tells us is it? No, we're told to look after our own kind. Keep the Asians out of Australia. As though Europeans have some special claim to it. Make sure you get even with your enemies. We saw that very clearly this week with the woman who was executed in Texas. Wasn't there a contrast between those who were calling for mercy and forgiveness and those who were crying out for vengeance? Rather than doing unto others as you would have them do to you, we're told to do unto others before they do it to you.
	The ethics of Christ's new community aren't easy are they? To turn the other cheek, to bless those who curse you, to not demand back what's been stolen from you, is radical stuff. To love those whose cultural background is completely different from yours is hard. Jesus is asking us to do the impossible. He's asking us to change our very nature. But that's what it means to be part of the people of God. We're people whom God is changing. We're people who have been given God's Holy Spirit to enable us to change. And we're people who have been made children of God. That means that we're called to reflect God's character in the way we live and relate to others. This is shown particularly in the way we love. That verse I read earlier from John's gospel needs some expansion doesn't it? It isn't just that we should love one another. If we're to truly reflect God's love, then we have to love even our enemies. Jesus points out that even sinners love their friends. It's easy to love those who love you. But God's love is shown in this, that while we were still sinners, still his enemies, Jesus died for us. So those who are God's sons and daughters are to love their enemies, to do good to them, and to lend to them without expecting to get anything back
	Related to this, we're not to judge or condemn. Otherwise we'll fall under the same sort of judgement that we apply to others. Rather we're to forgive. There's to be a generosity of spirit in the way we relate to others. I wonder if you're like me. I find I fluctuate between being cynical about people, thinking the worst of them, and being generous towards them. That is, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Well, Jesus says, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. So be generous rather than cynical. Give people some leeway. Allow for their failings, because you know that you have failings of your own.
	In fact if you're honest about it, your failings are probably 10 times worse than theirs. So don't be like the blind leading the blind. Don't try to show the other person how to get the speck out of their eye when your own eye has a log in it. It's always easy, isn't it, to see the other person's failings and of course the solution. We love to point out the changes other people need to make to their lives. But we're much more loath to see the failings in our own lives, let alone make the changes we need to make.
	Finally we could sum this up by saying we need to be people of integrity. That is the fruit of our lives should reflect the things we say we believe. It's easy to put on a front we all do it at times. But it's much harder to hide the fruit that comes from deep within our lives. It's easy to say I'm not angry or uptight, but when someone says something to me and I lose my temper, everyone can tell whether I was being honest or not. Or when I find I'm not sleeping it's obvious that I'm stressed about something. You see, your fruit will give you away every time. Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their hearts. It's like getting water out of a bore. Have any of you ever driven across the Nullabor? When you get to the middle, to Eucla, you have to use special soap for washing, because the water's so hard, and you wouldn't drink it if you could avoid it. It's because it's bore water, and the bores are sunk into an underground stream that's been polluted by salt water from the sea. On the other hand if you're one of those people who buys bottled water you're probably drinking bore water all the time. The difference is that that bore is connected to an underground stream that comes from the mountains, so it's fresh clean mountain spring water. In the same way, what we bring out in our lives, reflects what we have deep down in our hearts.
	So this new community that Jesus has established is characterised by its allegiance to Jesus as Lord, by its adherence to the teaching of the apostles, and by the ethics of the kingdom that turn the natural responses of the human heart on their head. It's a community that reflects the way God wants us to live. That is, in close relationship with one another; in love and forgiveness; in integrity and honesty; that is, honesty to ourselves about our own righteousness or otherwise.
	But the question that we're left with, is why isn't the church better at doing all this? Why are we, after 2000 years, still struggling with living as a distinctive community, still struggling to show to those around us that God's love makes a difference to people's lives?
	Well, the answer to that question, I think, lies in the last section of this chapter. That is, because we love to call Jesus Lord, Lord, but we're not quite as quick to do what he says. We all know the parable of the wise and foolish builders, don't we? And we've probably all sat back on hearing it retold and thought to ourselves, "Oh, yes, I'm one of the wise ones. I've built my life on Jesus words." But to what extent is that true? To what extent does the fruit of our lives show that to be true? To what extent have we taken seriously Jesus' words about the new people of God? To what extent do we love even our enemies? To what extent do we forgive those who do us wrong? To what extent do we refrain from judging and condemning others? To what extent does our community here in Wattle Park reflect the ideal community of love and care that God intended for his people. Let's be as honest in answering that as Jesus asks us to be about the log in our own eye. My own feeling is that we do better than most in the area of love for one another, but that we have some way to go still. We pride ourselves in being students of God's word. But as a Church and as individuals there's only one way to stand firm when the storms of life are upon us. That's to not just hear Jesus words but to put them into practice.
	Let's pray that we might be a church that shows forth God's glory to those around us: a church where people are drawn to God by the love they see in his people; a church whose fruit shows that our hearts are purified by God's presence within us.

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