So,
When things are going well and everything is just coming up roses, we are usually pretty confident that God is with us and is blessing us.
We believe that God is smiling down and that is why everything is so good.
But what about when things aren’t so good?
I think the reality is for many of us, then aren’t quite as sure.
If things are bad for just a moment, then the feeling is often fleeting and easily dismissed. But what do we do with our understanding of our relationship with God when we are suffering?
This is really important stuff, because for some of us, we are only one tragedy away from really questioning our faith, and maybe losing it entirely.
Why?
Well part of the reason is because we have come to assume that God doesn’t want us to suffer, and that if we were God’s chosen, then we wouldn’t, even though the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that is not the case.
Suffering, struggling, persecution, difficulties, illness, financial disasters, and relationship problems are all part of the life of a follower of Jesus.
Jesus even reminds his followers in a passage I’ll be preaching about in two weeks, that “blessed are” those who are struggle, in what is called the beatitudes in Luke and in Matthew.
Because in weakness, God’s power is revealed!
Like in these two stories of resurrection power told in Luke 5 about a man with leprosy and about another man with really cool friends who was paralyzed!
In the first Jesus is busy traveling early in his ministry, preaching the good news, and folks had begun to realize that Jesus was an amazing speaker and that he was really something much more.
Entering a town Jesus is recognized by a man with leprosy.
Leprosy is a disease that causes nerves in the extremities to stop working. Because of that, people with untreated leprosy often cause injury to themselves without knowing it, which then results in infections, the death of parts of the body, and then disfigurement.
Leprosy was also a bit of a broad category in biblical times for any skin disease that could cause the skin to go bad and so in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, there were rules about how to treat people with the disease.
One of the requirements was that people considered to have leprosy were to live outside the villages, stay away from everyone, announce their own presence by shouting “unclean”, and only go to the priest to be declared “clean” if the skin disease left them.
But this man, somehow realizing who Jesus is, approaches, doesn’t shout “unclean” falls on his knees and tells Jesus, “Lord, you have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”
While being safe, and healthy, and financially well off can make us complacent, sometimes suffering can propel us into the presence of God.
Because in weakness, God’s power is revealed!
And then we see resurrection power at work, as Jesus declares, “I want to” and touches the leper, healing him, and sending him off to the priest to be declared clean.
Suffering is always an opportunity to see the power of God at work. It is also an opportunity for the people of God to bring resurrection power to bear on the needs of suffering people.
I know you have heard that our Deacons fed 163 people through our food pantry last month. That number is going to go up, and our Deacons could use your support. Go to Tithe.ly and make a donation to the Deacons. Write a check and send it in. Do your part to put resurrection power to work.
Together, we can do this.
It is not something we can do alone. It’s not something Jesus did alone, empowered by prayer, and by a community of disciples all learning how to apply resurrection power.
The second story isn’t about a man who recognized Jesus and asked to be healed, but rather about a man whose friends recognized Jesus and wanted the paralyzed man to see Jesus.
Oh my, isn’t that the gospel in a package tied up with a bow! Individuals and communities so desiring the healing of friends, and family, and the community and the world that they are literally willing to do anything to get them into the presence of Jesus!
While Jesus was debating with the Pharisees their understanding of the law and how holy people need to be to come into God’s presence (they thought they were holy enough, but the paralyzed man was not), the man’s friends climbed onto the roof of the house, cut a hole and lowered their friend down.
Wow! When was the last time you tried that hard to get someone you know and love or perhaps someone you don’t much like at all into Jesus presence?
And since Jesus knew that the Pharisees thought the man was paralyzed because he was a sinner and therefore unacceptable to God, Jesus forgave the man’s sins just like that, just like God does, so now he could hang out there all day with Jesus, God incarnate!
Suffering, struggles, pain, sadness are the very places God is, always. In those times we are in God’s presence. We are not suffering because God has abandoned us! God has chosen to join us in our suffering through Christ.
But, just in case some were unclear about it all, Jesus told the paralyzed man to get up and walk.
O, dear Pharisees, thinking your holiness is so amazing that you could walk right into God’s presence (and in this case not even recognize God) and that another man’s struggles are evidence of his sin, look again!
He is rolling up his mat and going home. His friends are rejoicing. They all believe in a God of joy, of miracles, and healing, and resurrection power.
They see right here God’s presence. How about you?
Do you see God’s presence in the trials and tribulations?
Do you see Jesus in your suffering?
Do you understand that our calling as followers of Christ is to find every person laid low and bring them to the master, the one who walked out of the tomb?
Are you ready to stand up, roll up your mat, and follow him?
Can you see in the troubles that surround you, the incredible presence of Him who is risen, risen indeed?
Come, grab a corner of the blanket, and we will take our friends, our family, our world to see him who knows our troubles and loves us, and forgives us, and promises us eternal life.
Because in weakness, God’s power is revealed! Amen.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Living Resurrection April 19 2020
So,
Now that Easter has come and gone, even though, “Every Sunday is Easter Sunday from Now On”, what do we do with the knowledge that he is risen.
It would be easy I think to go back to just dealing with life the same way as we always have without any noticeable change. But it seems to me that doing that would in some ways fail to acknowledge the power and wonder of the resurrection.
It’s funny, one of the lines in this Presbytery’s mission statement says something about “living resurrection every day”. It’s an odd thing to hear, I think, put that way, because for most of us, we just don’t think of resurrection that way.
We think, like most of those who have decided to follow Jesus, that he died on Good Friday at Calvary, and then he rose on Easter Sunday, and that’s it.
Well that, and the notion that someday we will rise too.
(By-the-way, the “we will too” is really a big deal, but we’ll deal with that another day. Today, we are wondering about today!)
So, in our heads, resurrection was then, it happened, and it’s over and done.
And our resurrection, well, that is way in the future, so it really doesn’t impact today.
Resurrection, for all practical matters is a faraway thing, back then and up ahead, but not now. It’s just not a today thing.
Unless you say something goofy like, “We are living resurrection every day!”
What are we to do with that?
The statement seems to suggest that the resurrection should change our day to day thinking, our day to day behavior, our choices, and the results.
But how?
And that kind of brings us to today’s scripture story, the one about Jesus teaching on the shore, and Peter done fishing for the night, and then Jesus getting all, “let’s go fishing” in Peter’s face.
For us to live resurrection every day, we would need to see resurrection every day, its power and its purpose in real day-to-day lives.
And it seems to me, that’s exactly what Jesus did, he introduced Peter and the others to living resurrection power, in their everyday world!
The story as you heard it, is about Jesus teaching down by the shores of Lake Galilee.
Folks gathered in around him pretty tight, trying to get a spot where they could see and hear. So, in order to talk to the whole crowd, Jesus commandeered an unused fishing boat to put out a way into the water.
He even got one of the fishermen, Peter, to row it out a way. It probably was not a small boat, and Peter let it then sit at anchor just far enough off the shore so folks could see and hear. And then Jesus did some fine preaching.
But it’s what happened after the fine preaching that mattered.
Did you hear that!
Kind of just like Sunday morning. It isn’t the preaching that transforms the world, it’s the people of God living resurrection power, that transforms the world. It’s what happens after the fine preaching, and I mean fine preaching!
So, after that preaching, resurrection power is revealed, when Jesus invites Peter to go back fishing so that he and the other fishermen could see for themselves what resurrection power was all about.
A boat so full of fish the boats were sinking. Think about that! Not a few fish. Not a “good” catch. Every fish in Galilee in their nets, almost like God was in charge or something.
Jesus didn’t ask these fishermen to scale a mountain. He didn’t suggest they go and preach to a land far away. He didn’t ask them to fix the Coronavirus, or fix the economy, or even confront those wily politicians in Jerusalem.
No, Jesus just asks for them to go and do what they always do: fish! Something they knew well. Something they all did for a living. Something that they knew better than anyone. And then Jesus introduced them to resurrection power in everyday life.
And note, Jesus doesn’t tell Peter how to fish, where to fish, about his mystery techniques for “amazing fishing results”.
No, Jesus just said, according to Luke, just, “go out to deep water and let down your nets”.
Resurrection power is not about doing amazing stuff for God. It’s about doing what God has already called us to do and seeing resurrection power at work in it.
Peter was tired, Peter was ready to be done, but he listened to Jesus and let down the nets one more time and saw resurrection power in all of its overwhelming abundance.
And they all saw what God could do with their gifts and with their willingness.
And, that’s all God is asking of you. To do what God has always asked you to do, and let resurrection power change the results.
Living resurrection every day is seeing and believing that though we think the sea in front of us hasn’t another fish to offer us, God has plans we do not yet understand.
That God can use us.
That God can bless us.
And that God can use us as a blessing for others!
For He is Risen! Hallelujah and Amen.
Now that Easter has come and gone, even though, “Every Sunday is Easter Sunday from Now On”, what do we do with the knowledge that he is risen.
It would be easy I think to go back to just dealing with life the same way as we always have without any noticeable change. But it seems to me that doing that would in some ways fail to acknowledge the power and wonder of the resurrection.
It’s funny, one of the lines in this Presbytery’s mission statement says something about “living resurrection every day”. It’s an odd thing to hear, I think, put that way, because for most of us, we just don’t think of resurrection that way.
We think, like most of those who have decided to follow Jesus, that he died on Good Friday at Calvary, and then he rose on Easter Sunday, and that’s it.
Well that, and the notion that someday we will rise too.
(By-the-way, the “we will too” is really a big deal, but we’ll deal with that another day. Today, we are wondering about today!)
So, in our heads, resurrection was then, it happened, and it’s over and done.
And our resurrection, well, that is way in the future, so it really doesn’t impact today.
Resurrection, for all practical matters is a faraway thing, back then and up ahead, but not now. It’s just not a today thing.
Unless you say something goofy like, “We are living resurrection every day!”
What are we to do with that?
The statement seems to suggest that the resurrection should change our day to day thinking, our day to day behavior, our choices, and the results.
But how?
And that kind of brings us to today’s scripture story, the one about Jesus teaching on the shore, and Peter done fishing for the night, and then Jesus getting all, “let’s go fishing” in Peter’s face.
For us to live resurrection every day, we would need to see resurrection every day, its power and its purpose in real day-to-day lives.
And it seems to me, that’s exactly what Jesus did, he introduced Peter and the others to living resurrection power, in their everyday world!
The story as you heard it, is about Jesus teaching down by the shores of Lake Galilee.
Folks gathered in around him pretty tight, trying to get a spot where they could see and hear. So, in order to talk to the whole crowd, Jesus commandeered an unused fishing boat to put out a way into the water.
He even got one of the fishermen, Peter, to row it out a way. It probably was not a small boat, and Peter let it then sit at anchor just far enough off the shore so folks could see and hear. And then Jesus did some fine preaching.
But it’s what happened after the fine preaching that mattered.
Did you hear that!
Kind of just like Sunday morning. It isn’t the preaching that transforms the world, it’s the people of God living resurrection power, that transforms the world. It’s what happens after the fine preaching, and I mean fine preaching!
So, after that preaching, resurrection power is revealed, when Jesus invites Peter to go back fishing so that he and the other fishermen could see for themselves what resurrection power was all about.
A boat so full of fish the boats were sinking. Think about that! Not a few fish. Not a “good” catch. Every fish in Galilee in their nets, almost like God was in charge or something.
Jesus didn’t ask these fishermen to scale a mountain. He didn’t suggest they go and preach to a land far away. He didn’t ask them to fix the Coronavirus, or fix the economy, or even confront those wily politicians in Jerusalem.
No, Jesus just asks for them to go and do what they always do: fish! Something they knew well. Something they all did for a living. Something that they knew better than anyone. And then Jesus introduced them to resurrection power in everyday life.
And note, Jesus doesn’t tell Peter how to fish, where to fish, about his mystery techniques for “amazing fishing results”.
No, Jesus just said, according to Luke, just, “go out to deep water and let down your nets”.
Resurrection power is not about doing amazing stuff for God. It’s about doing what God has already called us to do and seeing resurrection power at work in it.
Peter was tired, Peter was ready to be done, but he listened to Jesus and let down the nets one more time and saw resurrection power in all of its overwhelming abundance.
And they all saw what God could do with their gifts and with their willingness.
And, that’s all God is asking of you. To do what God has always asked you to do, and let resurrection power change the results.
Living resurrection every day is seeing and believing that though we think the sea in front of us hasn’t another fish to offer us, God has plans we do not yet understand.
That God can use us.
That God can bless us.
And that God can use us as a blessing for others!
For He is Risen! Hallelujah and Amen.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Easter Sunday April 2020
“Up from the grave he arose,
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!
He arose a victory from the dark domain,
and he lives forever with his saints to reign!
He arose!
He arose!
Hallelujah, Christ Arose!
So, for you, what is the best thing about Easter?
What is your best memory?
For me it has always been the Easter worship experience, people gathering to sing great hymns about Jesus’ resurrection. I know, it sounds awfully churchy, but it’s true! I grew up in a church with a big pipe organ and big singing and we sang our hearts out on Easter!
How about for you?
Is Easter about the Easter baskets with the jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies and peeps? No complaints here, I will pay for peeps!
Or is it the gathering of family and friends to sit around a dinner table laden down with all kinds of traditional dishes? Ham perhaps?
Or perhaps it’s the Easter Egg hunt in the backyard, with real hardboiled and colored eggs, or with those plastic eggs filled with Easter treats.
Growing up in Buffalo, Easter egg hunts were always a bit dicey since on any given Easter there could be a lot of eggs trying their level best to stay hidden glowing out with their lovely dye jobs on a bed of white snow. Really easy to find most of them.
None-the-less, what is it that moves you on Easter?
Seeing the kid’s excitement and joy?
Or perhaps, what moves you is found at a deeper level, touched more by what Easter and the resurrection it commemorates means, than the celebration of spring and renewal that we often associate with it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the joyous delighted squeals of the kids too!
I love it when Brian and Rachel and Katie and Mary are all running around the house searching for their Easter baskets crying out in delight at all the treats they’ve found!
Oh, yeah, and grandson Noah too, although he still has no idea why he’s getting treats AGAIN!
But for me, like many of you, the real joy is deeper, and…
And this is huge, because it is perfectly matched with this year’s Easter, when the power and joy of the resurrection really out shines all other reasons for joy…
It is deeper an stronger because lots of the other reasons to feel joy are fenced off behind the safety of social distancing, and budgets that can’t handle a whole lot of loot, and in some cases, families that are dealing with the fear of what will happen to loved ones who have tested positive.
Unlike the jelly beans, resurrection is felt deep in the heart. It is the joy of seeing Jesus, the crucified one alive! It is the assurance, that no matter what, we will rise as well!
Resurrection is the delight of seeing the risen Jesus more alive than he has ever been, now in a resurrected body that is beyond death, beyond decay, beyond COVID-19!
It is the delight of knowing that no matter what is ahead for us or those we love, we like him will live again, and be fit and ready for an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth!
It is the assurance of something unseen, but very real, a future state for all of God’s faithful people, as they follow Jesus into those many mansions he has gone on ahead to prepare, just as he said.
You and I outfitted with the kind of body that will finally allow us to be fully who we were meant to be: healthy, strong, creative, energized!
Finally, full of the spirit, ready to be like the daughters and sons of God we were meant to be at creation, living fully as the adopted children of the king of kings!
The other night, at the Wednesday night Zoom Bible Study we looked at 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, where the Apostle Paul talks about the resurrection and resurrection bodies,
One of the questions was, “It is fun to fantasize about our resurrection bodies. If you could have the body you’ve always wanted, what would it be like?”
Lots of interesting answers! Charles Atlas, perhaps! A real blast from the past there! (For you babies, he was a famous body builder! Sigh!)
For my part, I said tall and thin, and perhaps with some hair.
How about you?
In the mist of all that we are challenged with, we have an amazing opportunity to think about resurrection! What it would mean for us and for all those we love to know for sure that this earthly experience is just a prelude to our eternity in God amazing presence!
To understand at the deepest level that what we face now does not define us, because we are resurrection people, and we choose to live and think and make a difference because He lives.
For He is Risen! Hallelujah and Amen.
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!
He arose a victory from the dark domain,
and he lives forever with his saints to reign!
He arose!
He arose!
Hallelujah, Christ Arose!
So, for you, what is the best thing about Easter?
What is your best memory?
For me it has always been the Easter worship experience, people gathering to sing great hymns about Jesus’ resurrection. I know, it sounds awfully churchy, but it’s true! I grew up in a church with a big pipe organ and big singing and we sang our hearts out on Easter!
How about for you?
Is Easter about the Easter baskets with the jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies and peeps? No complaints here, I will pay for peeps!
Or is it the gathering of family and friends to sit around a dinner table laden down with all kinds of traditional dishes? Ham perhaps?
Or perhaps it’s the Easter Egg hunt in the backyard, with real hardboiled and colored eggs, or with those plastic eggs filled with Easter treats.
Growing up in Buffalo, Easter egg hunts were always a bit dicey since on any given Easter there could be a lot of eggs trying their level best to stay hidden glowing out with their lovely dye jobs on a bed of white snow. Really easy to find most of them.
None-the-less, what is it that moves you on Easter?
Seeing the kid’s excitement and joy?
Or perhaps, what moves you is found at a deeper level, touched more by what Easter and the resurrection it commemorates means, than the celebration of spring and renewal that we often associate with it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the joyous delighted squeals of the kids too!
I love it when Brian and Rachel and Katie and Mary are all running around the house searching for their Easter baskets crying out in delight at all the treats they’ve found!
Oh, yeah, and grandson Noah too, although he still has no idea why he’s getting treats AGAIN!
But for me, like many of you, the real joy is deeper, and…
And this is huge, because it is perfectly matched with this year’s Easter, when the power and joy of the resurrection really out shines all other reasons for joy…
It is deeper an stronger because lots of the other reasons to feel joy are fenced off behind the safety of social distancing, and budgets that can’t handle a whole lot of loot, and in some cases, families that are dealing with the fear of what will happen to loved ones who have tested positive.
Unlike the jelly beans, resurrection is felt deep in the heart. It is the joy of seeing Jesus, the crucified one alive! It is the assurance, that no matter what, we will rise as well!
Resurrection is the delight of seeing the risen Jesus more alive than he has ever been, now in a resurrected body that is beyond death, beyond decay, beyond COVID-19!
It is the delight of knowing that no matter what is ahead for us or those we love, we like him will live again, and be fit and ready for an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth!
It is the assurance of something unseen, but very real, a future state for all of God’s faithful people, as they follow Jesus into those many mansions he has gone on ahead to prepare, just as he said.
You and I outfitted with the kind of body that will finally allow us to be fully who we were meant to be: healthy, strong, creative, energized!
Finally, full of the spirit, ready to be like the daughters and sons of God we were meant to be at creation, living fully as the adopted children of the king of kings!
The other night, at the Wednesday night Zoom Bible Study we looked at 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, where the Apostle Paul talks about the resurrection and resurrection bodies,
One of the questions was, “It is fun to fantasize about our resurrection bodies. If you could have the body you’ve always wanted, what would it be like?”
Lots of interesting answers! Charles Atlas, perhaps! A real blast from the past there! (For you babies, he was a famous body builder! Sigh!)
For my part, I said tall and thin, and perhaps with some hair.
How about you?
In the mist of all that we are challenged with, we have an amazing opportunity to think about resurrection! What it would mean for us and for all those we love to know for sure that this earthly experience is just a prelude to our eternity in God amazing presence!
To understand at the deepest level that what we face now does not define us, because we are resurrection people, and we choose to live and think and make a difference because He lives.
For He is Risen! Hallelujah and Amen.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)