Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Thursday, April 23, 2020
SAME ROAD, DIFFERENT LIFE
In the past few weeks, I have heard a lot of strange
phrases uttered, like “the new age of COVID-19” and learning to “live in the
new normal”. Well okay, the second one I have used my own self to talk to people
about dealing with loss and death. I do it to help them understand that there
is a path that needs to be walked and that they can walk it because they are
not alone. But there is a list of things that we need to be aware of that can
help us to live that new life.
For example, we are to “self-isolate” or to quarantine ourselves
to protect lives – including our own. We need to work out our economic troubles
and worries. Some demand that the Government support their way of living so
that it does not cost them anything. In my own life and ministry, we are
dealing with the pandemic and now we are dealing with a flooded church hall. The
Church has been broken into and there are looks and doors to fix. There are
other important church building issues that need attention but are going to
have to wait until things are back to whatever normal looks like. This is when
I realized that we need to remember that we must not lose sight of the fact
that this is not about us but about God and his Church.
If we consider the words of this week’s Gospel lesson and
the Walk on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) There is a great phrase I heard,
listen to a bunch of videos as I worked away – Mary Lower, a Christian musician and comedian
said, “When the dead sit up, the funeral is over!” The walk to Emmaus then is
about three simple things: (1) get the story in, (2) get the story straight and
lastly (3) we need to get the story out. (Becky Pippert, “Out of the Saltshaker”)
In asking the question, “What things?” Jesus invited the people he was walking with
to share what they knew and saw of the events in Jerusalem. They had taken the
events of Holy Week in and thought that things were at an end. Things had been
really bad on Friday on that hilltop when hope died. In walking with them and talking with them, Jesus
opened up the Scriptures and showed them how Christ had to suffer and die and
rise again – helping them to get the story straight. Then at the table together,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them. This
caused the people who had been with Jesus to get up from the table and run the
seven miles back to the City of Jerusalem and report what they had seen and
heard to get their story out.
In doing so they were sharing with others, including
Peter, who had seen the risen Jesus the same day.
Remember now, when the dead sit up, the funeral is over. And
we have our story to tell. It is not just that Jesus lives, but that because he
is alive, Jesus reigns. We need in this time of plaque (and that is what this
is) to get the story in, get it straight and then get it out into the community
because we have a message that will help people live in hope and with courage.
We can help people to turn to God and to begin build relationships with God and
with those who God is redeeming. But we must become reenchanted with our story –
the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. That he has been crucified and raised from
the dead for you and for me. He lives and he reigns.
Do we have the courage to become re-enchanted with our
message and through the message to rediscover our first love? We cannot afford
to preach a lukewarm, mediocre gospel because if it is true. And because it is true is
life-giving. And if our message is lifegiving, it is the most important message
in the entire world. This message can make and does make all kinds of real difference in the
world and that, beloved, matters to the world who is looking for and in need of
some good news and hope in this age of COVID.
Love people perfectly. Live life totally. Be what people
need you to be in this moment and serve where you are sent. Be ready to be a
help in another person’s trouble and remember, it is Christ himself we serve. In
this way, we will get his story out.
Jason+
Thursday, April 2, 2020
What God is going to do about it.
On Palm Sunday five-year-old
Jason had a very sore throat and had to stay home from church with a sitter.
When his family returned from the Church service, they carried several palm
fronds. Jason asked them what they were for. "People held them over Jesus'
head as he walked by," his father told him. "Wouldn't you know
it," Jason fumed, "the one Sunday I don't go, and He shows up!"
This will for certain be one
of the oddest Palm Sundays of my nearly 30-year ministry. It will be odd because
it will be almost totally silent. Palm Sunday s one of those services where we
let our liturgy out for a walk. Literally. This is the Sunday where we go for a
walk around the Church in procession singing hymns like “Ride on, ride on in
majesty”. There would be tambourines and
noisemakers and lots of voices signing as they strode along. That will be happening this year. This year, there will be silence and I suspect I will be
straining to hear the rest of creation cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
In the Gospel for Palm Sunday,
Jesus rides in on a donkey to the City of Jerusalem. As he and the others go along
a people gather into a crowd calling on Jesus “Son of David have mercy on us!”
and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
People were looking for healing and mercy so that their lives could be better
and they could do better things, do more things and have a better life. They
wanted safety. They wanted to be rescued. They wanted to be blessed. Most of all they
called for God to be merciful.
You know what mercy is? That is
when one person stands between another person and the second person’s disaster,
and first-person calls the second to himself to avoid the disaster. That is why
Jesus and his death on the cross is crucial. He is lifted up so that we can see
him and be drawn to him. God is providing mercy through executing judgment so
that we can have that mercy and that rescue, that salvation. Through the cross, Jesus
takes our judgment and our punishment. We, in turn, receive the mercy, the
grace and the peace of God that passes all our human understanding. We are
healed by the stripes he took for us. The cross teaches us about who we are and
how far we are going to take this to make sure that we are in control. The
cross also points out what God is going to do about it.
We are to follow, even chase
if necessary, Jesus up the hill as he makes his way up the hill at Golgotha. We
are to seek out the opportunities to build and reconcile relationships. We are
to call out for healing and for rescue in the midst of the storm. We are
prevailed upon to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus up the hill. We need to
count the costs of following and not following Jesus. We need to guard our
message and our integrity. We need to be wise in the ways that we walk and act,
including our service of God.
Take time to look for Jesus.
He is here and he has shown up. Cling to him!
Jason+
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