Excerpt from Last Week's Sermon

The fact that women were the first to receive the announcement of the resurrection is significant when you think about the prevailing attitude toward women in that day. It was a male dominated society. Women really did not have a voice. As a matter of fact, in a court of law, the testimony of a woman was invalid. What they had to say did not matter. 

But, the angel (at the tomb of Jesus) tells Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome: “Go tell the others” what you have seen and what you have heard. You are the witnesses to what God has done. 

This is amazing to me. It reveals something about God’s character and nature. He gives the responsibility of communicating the most important and most shocking news in the world to those whom society overlooked. And it was their testimony that shocked the world in that day and ignited a movement that became an unstoppable force. This testimony, backed by the Holy Spirit, has spread from nation to nation and from generation to generation like ripples across the water… and it has reached us here in our day.

The content of their testimony is the very reason that we have gathered here.

Mark 16

 

Resurrection

The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must no be addressed with the news that healing, justice and love have won...

If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense - then it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life. But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world - news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn't just about warming hearts. 

Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things-and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all. 

Take away Easter and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring problems of the material world. Take it away and Freud was probably right to say Christianity is wish-fulfillment. Take it away and Nietzsche probably was right to say it was for wimps. 

N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (Harper 2006), p. 110.

God is Faithful

As I journey through this Holy Week, I think about the people who followed and believed in Jesus during his ministry and what they might have thought when they saw him nailed to the cross and dying right before their eyes. 

Besides feeling deep sorrow and grief at seeing a loved one dying a tortuous death, they must have been filled with profound confusion. They must have been asking, "How can this be happening? What about the promises about the kingdom? Where did we go wrong?" 

They were so certain that Jesus was the Messiah. They trusted him. They dedicated their lives to him. But in that moment, their Messiah had been defeated. It looked as if it was all over. 

When Jesus was on the cross, the crowds saw defeat. They saw weakness. They saw pain. They saw ugliness. It looked as if the oppressors won again. 

Do you ever feel defeated? Maybe there are circumstances that challenge your perception of God. Maybe you see only pain or weakness. You look in the mirror and see ugliness. Maybe "things" just don't seem to be working out. You ask questions like, "How can this be happening? What about God's promises? Where is God in all of this?" 

Through the cross, God personally entered into our personal experience. He was identifying with the pain and heartache that comes from living in this fallen world. He chose to identify with the weak and the oppressed. Through the cross, Jesus not only suffered for us but suffers with us. 

John Stott writes, "I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? 

Take heart. Even when things are at their darkest, remember, God has not changed. He is faithful. Even though it may look as if everything is falling apart and hope seems to be vanishing away. God has not changed. He is faithful. 

He never promised a life without of pain or disappointment. As a matter of fact, he told us to count on it. But he did promise that he would never leave us alone. He will give strength. He will continue to be faithful even when things get a little confusing.

Seeing the Real Jesus

From the Lenten Devotional, Sacred Space.

Jesus excited curiosity so that people like Zacchaeus and Greek visitors to the festival wanted to see him, to know what he looked like.

But Jesus had other ideas, confronting and revolutionary ideas. To "see" him was to enter totally into his way of thinking, to understand why he had to suffer and die and rise again. Like the grain of wheat, Jesus has to let go of everything, including his own life, in order to bring life. This is the "emptying", the kenosis, that the Letter to the Philippians speaks about. In the process, Jesus and we will be transformed, just as the grain of wheat, apparently annihilated, becomes something altogether greater and enriching for others.

Are we ready for that? Are we afraid to let everything go? Is Jesus asking too much? Lead us to see and accept this as the core of Jesus' life, so that we really see him.

The Sense of God's Love

This week's Lenten thought from Sacred Space.

"Then he came to his senses." This deceptively simple statement about the prodigal son poses a profound challenge to us all. None of us can claim to be without sin. "We all fall short of the glory of God." Lent can be that moment in which we come to our senses, face facts about ourselves, and make the appropriate adjustments.

After a brief romantic affair with threatened to destroy his marriage and alienate his family and friends, John came to his senses. Before matters got worse, he had the courage to face his fault, admit his sin, and turn back. He was fortunate to receive his wife's understanding, love and forgiveness.

During Lent we turn back to God and entrust ourselves once again to his immense mercy. We allow the Father to embrace us in our sinfulness and sorrow. In being forgiven much, we discover the depths of God's love.

The Lord's Prayer

Our church is really focusing on the meaning of Lent. Its a time to evaluate our lives and be reminded of our dependence on God for everything.

This past Sunday I preached a sermon about what is commonly known as, The Lord's Prayer. I guess it could also be known as The Disciple's Prayer because it was a prayer that Jesus used to instruct his followers to pray. One of the things that I wanted to stress is that this prayer wasn't given as a formula just to recite over and over, but it was given to influence the content of prayer.

During the latter part of my preaching of this sermon I led the congregation in praying through this prayer. As I was doing this I began to be gripped by the power of what I was praying and I became very emotional. It was very hard to contain myself and I am sure I was quite the spectacle, but it didn't matter to me. In that moment I just wanted the congregation to sense how great our Heavenly Father is and how transformational his love and forgiveness can be in our lives.

Knowing him impacts everything. It impacts our values and decisions. It impacts the way we receive from him and the way we relate to others. I will never read or pray this prayer the same way again.

You can listen if you wanna. Go to PRAYER.

Prayer for Essentials RED

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

Prayer, for me, is wonderfully frustrating. There are times when it seems easy and I feel connected to God while at other times I feel like I am wading through peanut butter. I have been a Christian for a while, so you would think that I have a handle on prayer, right? More than that, I am a pastor, a professional. This should be easy. Wrong. Sometimes prayer is hard work. At least it is for me.

One of the things that I have learned about myself is that I need some sort of structure. Some time ago I looked at how our early church fathers and mothers handled prayer. It seems as if they needed some structure, too. They scheduled prayer into their days. So, I have done this myself. As I schedule my days, I try to schedule a time for prayer. I use a devotional book, The Little Book of Hours, from the Benedictine monks. It has helped me immensely by helping me to become focused. My mind tends to wander.

I am very grateful for this structure. I try not to just go through the motions. I try to keep my focus on God’s presence in my life and envision him listening and watching me. I am seeking his face.

This has got be to thinking about prayer as it relates to our worshiping community. In our services, we are relying a little more on written prayers that we pray out loud together. I love this because it reminds me that I not only have a “personal” prayer life, but I also have a communal pray life, too.

Also related to prayer and our church community, I am tinkering around with the idea of a midweek prayer time during the lunch hour. It would be short (30 min) where some of us could meet up and be led through some readings and prayer. Just a thought. Haven’t talked to anyone, yet. We’ll see.

Below is one of my favorite “written prayers” by St. Patrick. I love it.

“Christ beside me, Christ before me;
Christ behind me, Christ within me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me;
Christ to right of me, Christ to left of me;
Christ in my lying, my sitting, my rising;
Christ in heart of all who know me,
Christ on tongue of all who meet me,
Christ in eye of all who see me,
Christ in ear of all who hear me.

For to the Lord belongs salvation,
And to the Lord belongs salvation
And to Christ belongs Salvation.

May your salvation, Lord, be with us always.