May 5, 2013 6th Sunday of Easter

John 14:23-29

23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
    25" All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
    28 "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.


 “To Love And Obey”

Saying goodbye is often difficult.  This is the setting or our text - Jesus saying goodbye.
The disciples don’t get it; so he tells them again.   They hear the words but still do not really understand, for it has not happened yet.  Only when it happens will they know.

So Jesus leaves them with a word they can hang on to - love.

Love is the most important word in the Bible and in our lives.
It is enough to say, “God is love.”
And to repeat over and over and over again, as the Psalmist does, that “his steadfast love endures forever.”

It is enough to know that I am loved.
Then I can make it through even the roughest of days!

We are to be amateurs about love.
That is, “those who do something because they love doing it.”
We are to obey Jesus words because we love doing it.
We love doing it because we have first been loved into doing it.
To obey out of love is to love obeying!

April 28, 2013 5th Sunday of Easter

John 13:31-35

   31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him,[a] God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
    33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
    34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this (everyone) will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

“Love One Another”

Some times it takes a few words to say a lot.
“There is no free lunch.”
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
“Actions speak louder then words.”
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
To love one another is to model God’s love for all.  What we do in private becomes a strong influence on who we are in public.

These are private, intimate words spoken by Jesus to his disciples, and to us.
They cut through all the pretense and get to the heart of the matter - what really counts - love!
Love bears and endures all things.  It can live with and respect differences.  Love listens even when we don’t like what we are hearing.  Love hangs in there when there is little to be received in return.  Love endures all things!
.
Love has the unquenchable capacity to believe the best in the midst of the worst.

We are being encouraged to hate rather then love; even in the church.
Yes, hate, and fear, and stay clear of those who are different from us.
All of which is contrary to one of the clearest commandments our Lord gave us.

We are to model Jesus love by how we treat each other in all aspects of life.
To love is not to demand ‘sameness’ but to affirm ‘differentness’, and to live together in harmony.

 “A New Commandment - Love”

The distinguishing mark of the OT is obedience to the law of God.
This developed formalism or rituals - keeping the law became an end in it self.

Jesus changed all this:  The summary of the law is love.
The command is to be obeyed within the context of love.

The distinguishing feature of faith in NT is love.
The old commandment is swallowed up by the new.

Love cannot be commanded unless it is first given.
Love cannot be commanded but love is commanding.  When we are loved, the one who loves us has commanding power in our lives.  We respond to love with obedient love.

Once loved, I have to love.  “The love of Christ controls us” and leads us into service in His name.

The code of Jesus is : love as we have been loved - by HIM!
Unconditionally, sacrificially, forgivingly.
The word above all other words which Christianity holds up to the world is LOVE!

“Love implies forgiveness.  It is hard for us to realize, but actually the only requirement the loving Father places on us, ...is that we forgive as we have been forgiven.”  Morton Kelsey

Movie “ - “Gandhi” - A Hindu has killed a Moslem boy because his boy has been killed.  Asks Gandhi what he should do.  He feels terrible about what he has done.  Gandhi tells him to adopt a Moslem son and raise him as a Moslem.That’s loving as we have been loved!

April 21, 2013 4th Sunday of Easter

John10:22-30

 22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

   25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”


“The Plain Truth”

Paul Scherer, one of the great preachers of the 20th Century, writes:

“Before the Word of God can get itself lived, it needs to get itself believed - and what is believed is not always lived.  But before it cannot itself believed, it has to get itself heard - and what is heard is not always believed.  Farther back than that, however...before the Word of God cannot itself heard, it must get itself said - and what is said is not always heard.”     The Word God Sent p. 3

There are two reasons why what is said is not always heard.
Because of the way it is said; and because of the way it is heard.

Jesus had trouble being heard because of the way he was heard.
They did not want to hear what he was saying, so they did everything they could to not hear.  They would not listen!

Is this the root of all unbelief?  The refusal to listen and give truth a chance in our lives.

The request  “tell us plainly” sounds legitimate, fair, reasonable, even honest.  But it isn’t.
It is loaded, bias, suspicious, deceptive.  A trap to catch Jesus and prove his blasphemy.

To look for the "plain truth" may well be a way to not have to face the truth.
For our answers can keep us from hearing the truth.  When we know the answers (the plain truth},  we want to hear only what fits our answers.  We are not open to the truth which is beyond what we believe.  This is self-righteousness in full form!

And what is the truth?
God loves you and me and everyone - “red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight.”
God is like a shepherd who knows his sheep and cares for them.
God is a God of grace who will "never let us down; never let us go; never let is off"; and who is more ready to forgive then we are to confess.

And of this truth it must be said, “The plain truth cannot be known in isolation, it is known (discovered and believed) in relationship.”  It is discovered in the context of our loving and passed on in the context of our living.

April 14, 2013 3rd Sunday of Easter

John 21:1-19

1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias.[a] It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
    4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
    5 He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
      "No," they answered.
    6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
    7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[b] 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
    10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."
    11 Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
      "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
      Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
    16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
      He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
      Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
    17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
      Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
    Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. 18 I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"

“They Knew It Was The Lord”

There is a knowing which is too deep for words; a knowing within which defies logic.

Such knowing comes from living with and discovering in the experiences of life that which is too deep for words.  Which comes out of life’s experiences.

Of such is faith, a knowing which comes out of experiencing the richness of God’s grace and the depth of God’s love.


 “Do You Love Me?

Jesus question was the first step in Peters forgiveness.  It was Jesus way to tell Peter he still wanted him; he still loved him;  he had forgiven him.

Forgiveness often begins with our loving enough to want to forgive.
When we want justice more than forgiveness that is just what we will get - our pound of flesh but no future to build on.

Forgiveness is risky business.  It can be abused.  Yet we are called to want to forgive and not give up until we do!
To love Jesus is to be open to forgiveness, both coming and going.


 “I’m Going Fishing”

Going fishing is a way to get away; yet we never get away from what has happened to make us who we are and to believe what we believe.

God’s Word has touched us in Jesus.  We cannot run away from that!  We cannot live as if there is no resurrection, no baptism, no church, no sacrament, no grace to live by.  We cannot live as if it never happened.

We live as resurrection people!  Even when we go fishing!

This means we have to struggle to forgive when we don’t feel like forgiving.
We have to associate with those we don’t always like to be around, seeking to be inclusive not exclusive.
We have to be gracious when we don’t feel like being gracious and would rather be judgmental.  And we have to give something of our material possessions, even when we don’t have much to give.

April 7, 2013 2nd Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
    21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
      But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
    26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
    28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
    29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
    30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Two themes come on loud and strong in this text.  Doubting Thomas and
forgiveness.

We don’t get very far into the Easter season before we run into Thomas -doubting Thomas.

He is the one who grounds the resurrection in the physical appearance of Jesus.
He is, as one person put it, “...a pioneer of the faith through whose persistency we are given a message of grace and joy.”
He is also the one who reminds us that doubt is a part of faith.  It is often on the growing edge of faith.

As Luther said, “There is more faith in honest doubt then in all the creeds of Christendom.”

What we say we doubt may well be what we most want to believe.
What we say we believe may be the very thing which keeps us from seeing the greatest glory of God.
It is no sin to doubt.  Our doubts not only keep us honest and humble, they also are openings for God’s spirit to touch our lives.

Our doubts open us to believe what is too good to be true, and confess with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”


We also don’t get very far into this text before running into forgiveness.

The goal of faith is forgiveness - always!

“It is hard for us to realize, but actually the only requirement the loving Father places on us, is that we forgive as we have been forgiven. “  p. 68, The Other Side Of Silence, Kelsey

Forgiveness was at the heart of all that Jesus said and did.  Our sin is not that we forgive too much.  Our sin is that we don’t forgive enough!

Christianity is the only major religion that places such a high value on forgiveness.
We are not to settle for letting people rot in their sins; we are to work towards the liberation of forgiveness which makes them and us alive again in a new and different way.


“Believing Is Seeing”

Doubting Thomas is with us as one of us.
It is hard to believe what I cannot ‘see’.
It is hard to accept as true what I cannot prove.

Even our beliefs keep us from seeing - seeing what we don’t want to see or believe.
Yet our beliefs are meant to open life up.  To do this they must be beyond our control.
The truth is, we see what we believe.

To believe in the resurrection is to see beyond human understanding, discovering new horizons and becoming new people.  It leads us where we never wanted to go and opens up truths we never dreamed possible.  It is resurrection living!

Cellar in Cologne Germany after WWII - these words were found on the wall:
“I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
 I believe in Love even when I feel it not.
 I believe in God, even when He is silent.”

March 31 2013 Easter Sunday

Luke 24:1-12

  1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8 Then they remembered his words.
    9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

“Not Among The Dead”

The women going to the tomb were thinking only of death.  “for them the death of Jesus was real, final defeat, the ultimate tragedy...they go to the tomb to tend to the dead.”
Proc. 3, C, p.10

Then something strange and bewildering happened -”awesome in splendor”, too wonderful to understand.  He was gone.  Risen!
Then they remembered - and believed.

We too need to remember so we can believe.
Remember that Jesus lives - death is not the final word, nothing can separate us from God’s love, there is a dazzling grace which never lets us go.

We also need to be reminded that life is full of opportunity for resurrection - that “the most difficult thing we will ever do is not die, but live” - live as those who believe in the resurrection and therefore as those who hope against hope and confront a living Lord in all sorts of places and people which cross our path.
Death is not the final word; and we are to live as those who know this, believe this, dare trust this above all things.

 “Anything Can Happen Now!”

We live in a world where almost anything can happen.  We travel to the moon and beyond.  We transplant kidneys and hearts.  We travel so fast we can arrive before we left.  We control rivers and remove mountains.  We can do most anything, sometimes to our good, sometimes to our detriment  Almost anything can happen.  Little seems to be impossible anymore.

We also live in a world where the impossible has happened. A world where the most incredible, unbelievable, fantastic, breath taking event has taken place which still causes us to gasp with amazement and say, “I don’t believe it.”  For it is in this our world that God chose to dwell and it is in this world that a resurrection happened!

Anything CAN happen now.  The tomb is empty, the future is open!
In this there is hope for our living and our dying.

Because Jesus lives life is an open door, never to close.
Because Jesus lives we are free to drink deeply of life today, as well as trust in life eternal.
Because Jesus lives we are free to forgive over and over again; forgive even ourselves!
Because Jesus lives we are free to try and fail and try again.  To learn, change and grow.
Because Jesus lives we are even free to die - in peace.
Indeed, anything can happen now!

He is Risen!  Alleluia!

 “Working Wonders”

God is in the business of working wonders.

Easter is the greatest wonder God ever pulled off...the wonder of the resurrection.
It stands as a mark of excellence and a place where something too wonderful to believe happened.

As we walk into the 21st century we need to come to grips with the truth that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God is such an exclusive event that it excludes no one!

It is so powerful a truth that even those who do not believe it happened benefit from it.

As the Catholic Dutch theologian Hans Kung has said:

God “not only demands but gives.
does not suppress but raises up
  does not punish but liberates,
(and) makes grace instead of law rule unconditionally.”
p. 115, Eternal Life

“For God so loved the world that he worked the wonder of a resurrection into it, so that all might know that at the heart and center of the universe, love is reigning...and it is for all!

March 24, 2013 Palm/Passion Sunday

Luke 23: 1- 49

1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”
   3 So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
   “You have said so,” Jesus replied.
   4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
   5 But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
   6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
   8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. 9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. 12 That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
   13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.” [17] [a]
   18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
   20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
   22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
   23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

    26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then
   “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” 
   and to the hills, “Cover us!”’[b]
   31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
   32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[c] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
   35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
   36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
   38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
   39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
   40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
   42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[d]”
   43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The Death of Jesus
    44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”[e] When he had said this, he breathed his last.
   47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

The road to Easter goes through Good Friday.
The joy of celebration has its roots deep  within the agony of defeat.
There is no resurrection without a cross.

This is the beginning of the most horrible and the most glorious week in human history.
We hear the words “Crucify him, crucify him!” before we hear “Alleluia, He lives!”

“When the crucified Jesus is called ‘the image of the invisible God’, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this.  God is not greater than he is in this humiliation.  God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness.  God is not more divine that he is in this humanity.”      
“God And Human Suffering”, p 112   Douglas John Hall

This is the way of redeeming love -” love so amazing so divine I demands my life, my soul, my all.”