What happens when human beings become fearful and forgetful?
Showing posts with label 42Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 42Jesus. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Set Free — Set Free from Judgment, Set Free for Life
What would a life without judgment be like?
“There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Genesis
25:19–34 • Psalm 119:105–112 • Romans 8:1–11 • Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23
Come,
Holy Spirit,
and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take
our hearts and see through them.
Take
our souls and set them on fire. Amen.
“SO WOULD I!”
Earlier this week I was talking to Rebekah, and she asked
me, “What are you going to be preaching on this Sunday?” I said, “Well, I think
I am going to focus on Romans 8 and what it means to ‘live according to the
Spirit.’” And she said, “Oh, I would love to know how to do that.” And I said,
“So would I… So would I.”
So what does it mean to live according to the
Spirit, to walk according to the Spirit, to set our minds on the things of the
Spirit?
The Exercise Bike
Let me begin with a story that I hope relates. On Monday,
we sold my exercise bike on Craig’s list. We were asking $25, but we received
$26, because the man who bought the bike paid us with 13 two-dollar bills. Well,
that’s not really relevant to the story, it’s just a bit interesting. Anyway,
on Monday, we sold my exercise bike which ended a brief, uneventful chapter in my
life.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Jesus Is Lord!: Pledging All of Our Allegiance to Jesus
Jesus said, “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore...”
RCL • Year A • Trinity Sunday • June 15th, a.d. 2004
Genesis 1:1–2:4a • Psalm 8 • 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 • Matthew 28:16–20
Come, Holy Spirit, and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and see through them.
Take our souls and set them on fire. Amen.
Worshipping Jesus — Extraordinary
It happened on Easter morning. In the wee dawn hours, Mary
Magdalene and another Mary make their way to the tomb where the body of their
crucified Lord had been placed two days before. But when they arrive, they find
the tomb empty. An angel tells them that Jesus has been raised from the dead,
and as they are heading back to share this extraordinary news with the other
disciples, Jesus suddenly appears and greets them. Immediately, the two Marys
fall down and worship him. Jesus then tells them, “Don’t be afraid; go and tell
my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Today’s gospel reading
presents the rest of the story.
The scene opens on a mountain in Galilee where the
remaining eleven disciples have assembled in anticipation of seeing Jesus
again. When Jesus joins them on the mountain, some doubt that it is really him.
Others, however, worship him just as the two Marys had done earlier. This is
extraordinary. You might expect such behavior from the ancient Greeks and
Romans, with all of their gods and goddesses, with all their divine heroes and
Caesars, but not monotheistic Jews. Jews don’t worship human beings, even
extraordinary human beings, because worship is reserved for God alone.
Nevertheless, they worship Jesus with no sense that they have abandoned their
monotheistic faith. Clearly, they have come to understand that Jesus, though
clearly a human being, belongs to the unique identity of the one true God. He
is not just the Messiah, the anointed son of David; he is, in fact, the Son of
living God.
All Authority — Extraordinary
Equally extraordinary are the words that Jesus speaks. Listen to all of the alls. “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” (28:18).
All authority, all nations, all
commandments.
What a massive, sweeping, all-encompassing claim.
Jesus doesn’t just possess some authority; he possesses all authority, without remainder. Moreover, this authority is not
just heavenly authority, it is earthly authority as well. In other words,
Jesus’ authority encompasses all spheres of human life, not only the spiritual,
but the political, the economic, and the social spheres as well.
Yet, we live in a world that has learned to
separate the church from the state, the religious from the secular, faith from
knowledge. Consequently, Jesus is only granted influence over a part of life,
not the whole of it. He is relegated to the realm of personal opinion and
private devotion, and barred from the public square.
For example, notice that when Jesus appears in Time magazine, he appears in the
religion section, not the section on world affairs. That’s where Jesus
supposedly belongs in our increasingly global and pluralistic world. Jesus
belongs in the religion textbooks, next to the other great leaders of the
world’s religions, alongside the likes of Moses and Mohammad, Buddha and
Confucius. Our world is comfortable with that sort of Jesus; that sort of Jesus
is safe. Unfortunately, more and more Christians have also become increasingly
comfortable with that sort of Jesus.
But that is not the Jesus we meet in today’s
gospel, the Jesus that claims all authority in heaven and on earth. Nor is it
the Jesus early Christians proclaimed. When the first Christians traveled
throughout the Roman Empire enduring much hardship, they were not proclaiming a
new religion or a new private spiritual experience. Had this been all that they
were up to, they might have been belittled, but they would never have been
persecuted. After all the Greco-Roman world was a consumer of religions and
spiritualities, and they had room for more. Instead, the early Christians were
proclaiming that Jesus is Lord of all. And you know what that means. If Jesus
is Lord, then Zeus isn’t. If Jesus is Lord, then Isis isn’t. And if Jesus is
Lord, then Caesar isn’t. In short, if Jesus is Lord, then all other lords—be
they religious, ideological, or political—are not. If Jesus is Lord, then we
owe our whole allegiance to him.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Another Advocate: Getting Ready for the Holy Spirit
How do we participate with the Holy Spirit in our transformation?
Come, Holy Spirit, and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and see through them.
Take our souls and set them on fire. Amen.
It’s the Sixth Sunday of Easter, and I have finally gotten our Christ is Risen
response in the bulletin. So if you will turn to the beginning of the
announcements, let us proclaim together the good news of Easter.
Χριστός Ανέστη! Αληθώς
Ανέστη! (3 times)
Christos
aneste! Alethos aneste!
What was Jesus Doing for Those Forty Days?
Jesus was arrested on a Thursday night, executed on Friday
afternoon, and resurrected early on Sunday morning. And then, for the next
forty days, he appeared to his followers. And that’s where we are today. We are
still in that forty-day period between Easter morning and the Ascension, when the
resurrected Jesus is taken up into heaven and his resurrection appearances
cease. Today is day thirty-six of Easter, which means that this coming Thursday
is day forty, and we will celebrate Jesus ascending into heaven and being
seated at the right hand of God.
So what exactly was Jesus doing during those forty
days between his Resurrection and his Ascension. According to Acts, Jesus was
“presenting himself alive to [his disciples] by many convincing proofs” (1:3). In other words, Jesus
was offering evidence to counter the rumors that his body had been stolen from
the tomb. His resurrection appearances were also proof that he was not a ghost,
not a disembodied spirit, but that he had, in fact, been raised from the dead,
flesh and blood, body and all.
Jesus also spent those forty days talking about
the kingdom of God and preparing his disciples for his final departure. And
that’s what he is doing in today’s gospel as well. Today’s reading from the
Gospel of John is a continuation of last week’s gospel lesson. It takes place
during Jesus’ final meal with his disciples. Last week, Jesus told his
disciples that he was going away, that he was returning to his Father’s house
in order to prepare a place for them. One day he would come back and get them
so that they might be with him and his Father forever. But in the meantime,
they needed to carry on. Instead of being overcome by loneliness, despair, and
fear, they were to put their trust in God and also in Jesus. They were to
continue the work that Jesus had begun. And, if they did this, if they stepped
out in faith, they would find themselves performing the same works that Jesus
did. They would proclaim the gospel; they would welcome sinners; they would
cast out demons and heal the sick. In fact, Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell
you, the one who believes in me… will do greater works than these, because I am
going to the Father” (John 14:12).
But how is that possible? How could Jesus’
followers do greater works than the Son of God—than he who walked on water and
turned water into wine, he who fed thousands with just a few loaves and fish,
he who laid down his life for the sins of the whole world. And more to the
point, what does Jesus mean when he says that his disciples would do greater
works than he did precisely because
he is going away?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Resurrection 101: The Resurrection of Jesus in its First-Century Context
What do we mean when we proclaim, “Christ is risen!”
The Sermon
Christ is
risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
Let’s try
that again.
I will
say, “Christ is risen!”
and
you will say, “The Lord is risen indeed!”
Christ is
risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
Christ
is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
Now, if
you were here on Easter Sunday, you probably know what’s coming next.
I will
say, “Christos aneste!” and
you will say, “Alethos aneste!”
And in
good liturgical fashion, we will do this three times in a row.
Christos
aneste! Alethos aneste!
Christos aneste! Alethos aneste!
Christos
aneste! Alethos aneste!
Amen!
Okay, you
can be seated now. You earned it.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
Now I don’t know if you happen to notice, but our first
reading this morning did not come from the Old Testament, but from the Acts of
the Apostles. And so it will be for the entire Easter Season. Today’s reading
from Acts takes place on the fiftieth day following the Resurrection. Peter
stands up and addresses a large crowd of Jews who have traveled to Jerusalem,
from all around the Roman Empire, to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks, also
known as, Pentecost. And in his speech, Peter proclaims the central truth of the Christian faith: God raised Jesus from the
dead. God raised Jesus from the dead.
It is no
exaggeration to say that, had Jesus not risen from the dead, there would
be no Christianity. In fact, without the Resurrection, I doubt that we would
even known the name of Jesus. For without the Resurrection, Jesus would have
been just one among the thousands of Jews who were put down by Rome and whose
names have been lost to history. Without the Resurrection, there would be no
gospels, because gospels aren’t written for false prophets, failed
revolutionaries, and messianic pretenders. Moreover, without the Resurrection,
there would be no forgiveness of sins, no defeat of death, no hope for the
future. For as Paul argues in 1 Corinthians,
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor 15:17–19).[1]
So again, Jesus’ resurrection is the central conviction of the Christian
faith, it is the foundation of the Christian claim to truth. It is worth asking,
then: What do we mean by resurrection? What do we mean when we say that God
raised Jesus from the dead? What are we saying when we proclaim, “Christ is
Risen! The Lord is risen indeed!”?
Friday, April 18, 2014
The Cross of God: God-Forsaken and God-Grieved
We often talk
about what the Cross of Christ means for us.
But what did the Cross mean for God? What did it do
to God?
Isaiah
52:13–53:12 • Psalm 22 • Hebrews 4:14–16, 5:7–9 • John 18:1–19:42
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why
are you so far from helping me,
from
the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and
by night, but find no rest.
—
Psalm 22:1–2
COULD JESUS HAVE COME DOWN FROM THE CROSS?
When I was in seminary in Pasadena, California, I took
most of my core theology courses from Ray Anderson, who not only taught as a
fulltime, graduate-school professor, but who also served as the pastor of a
church. Dr. Anderson was something of a maverick theologian. He would often
begin class with a provocative question. Then, after a bit of discussion, he
would offer his own response, which tended to be even more provocative than the
question itself.
I remember one question in particular. We entered
the class and got ourselves settled, and after leading us in prayer, he posed
this question, “Could Jesus have come down from the cross?” The class became
instantly animated as various people offered their passionate responses, most
of which amounted to, “Yes, Jesus could have come down from the cross, but he
chose not to.”
To my way of thinking, that seemed right. After
all, on the night of Jesus’ arrest, when Peter attempted to rescue him, by
cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus said to Peter
Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:52–53)
So, yes, Jesus
could have come down, but he chose not to.
WE CANNON SEPARATE POWER FROM CHARACTER
After the class discussion died down, Dr. Anderson offered
his own response. He said, “No. Jesus could not have come down from the cross.”
And here was his explanation as best as I can remember it. Jesus could not have
come down because it was his love and that of his Father’s that held him to the
cross. It wasn’t the nails, but God’s love for the world that held him there.
If Jesus had come down from the cross, then there would not have been God’s
love for the world.
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Sand on the Streets: Cultivating the Desert in the City
where there are individuals capable of waiting and hoping instead of hurrying and worrying.
— Alessandro Pronzato
Psalm 46 • Luke 10:38–42
Scroll Down for the Texts of the Scriptures
The Sermon
Come, Holy Spirit, and kindle the fire that is in us.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and see through them.
Take our souls and set them on fire. Amen.
By Way of the
Desert
Good afternoon. It’s good to see you all, and it’s good to
be here today, on loan, as I am, from Pleasant Valley Middle School. I must say
that it is quite a treat to be speaking to a group of adults, most of whom want
to hear what you have to say, which I must say, is rather different from my daily
experience as a middle school teacher.
Well, today is the last of our Lenten Luncheons,
and the question we have been asking these past several Wednesdays is, “How do
we engage people in God’s mission of reconciling the world?” Each of the speakers
have answered this question in their own way, and today, I want to focus on the
how of that question. In this sense.
I don’t want to focus on what we do,
but on how we do, that is, on the manner with which we go about participating in God’s mission of reconciling
all people to himself and to one another. I want to reflect on this by taking
you on a brief trip to the Egyptian desert.
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