The Obedience of Ananias

Acts 9: 1-20
Revelation 5: 11-14

The passage in Acts begins rather ominously with talk of this man named Saul who is breathing out murderous threats against the people who were practicing Christianity. In this passage we come upon Saul as he is on his way to do more harm to these Christians in the name of God and his laws. Then a light appears on the road to Damascus and he hears a loud sound probably not unlike the thunder we had a couple nights ago. A voice comes down from heaven and speaks to Saul about Saul’s desire to persecute Jesus and his followers, and I can only imagine the terror that Saul felt, especially when he opened his eyes to find himself blinded.

Paul’s conversion is dramatic and forceful, and even a bit frightening, as well as awe-inspiring.  What I find interesting is it is not just Paul that is converted and changed during this experience. Too often we gloss over Ananias and his part in all of this. Ananias was a relatively new Christian whose belief in Jesus was strong and true, and he had heard about this man named Saul who had made it his mission to persecute Christians.

Everyone was afraid of Saul and his men. They were scared of what would happen if he caught them, but it didn’t stop them from believing in Jesus. It didn’t stop them from going to services to listen to the apostle’s messages to them. It didn’t stop them from spreading the good news to their neighbors and friends so that everyone could know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

It may not have stopped them, but it didn’t mean they weren’t scared. It didn’t mean they weren’t well aware of what could happen if they were caught spreading Christianity to their friends and neighbors. They understood the danger they faced and they were smart. They didn’t hide who they were, but they didn’t walk around boldly proclaiming it to all and sundry either. They left that to the apostles to do.

So here is Ananias, warmed and emboldened by his new found faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He hears a voice speaking to him and recognizes it as Jesus’ voice. He answers Jesus immediately and the words he hears from Jesus had to have chilled his very blood. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

I’ve never heard the Lord speak directly to me as if we were having a conversation. I can only imagine my euphoria and excitement if I ever do. However, I think I would also be secretly terrified because not only is my God and Savior speaking to little ole me, but I know from reading the bible that this usually means he’s about to ask me to do something I really do NOT want to do; something that may endanger my very life and cause me a lot of grief. When we put ourselves in Ananias’ place I think we can feel his mixture of emotions in that moment, especially when he hears the very thing he must not want to hear.

Ananias would have longed to fulfill what Jesus wanted him to do, but at the same time he must have dreaded the very idea of it. And so he protests, like that would do him any good at all – this is Jesus after all who is constantly telling us to face our fears and to remove the doubts from our hearts. “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” Ananias exclaims.

These are legitimate concerns! Ananias has good reason to be scared! But Jesus has a job for him to do and he tells him to “Go! For this man is my chosen instrument to spread my message among the Gentiles. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”Ananias then goes and prays over Saul and restores his sight to him. From there, Saul is baptized and takes on the name Paul and begins to immediately proclaim Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior.

There are several things we need to pay attention to in this text. First of all, without Ananias, Paul would not have been converted. God called on Ananias and it was that man’s choice to listen or not. God is calling us to do things in His name all the time, we are the ones that decide whether to listen or disobey. How many times have we turned away from the Lord when he calls our name? What goes undone because we do not listen?

Paul ends up writing much of the New Testament as he starts churches and sends them letters. If Ananias would have disobeyed Jesus’ commands, would Paul have still been converted? Would we be here today? We’ll never know for sure, but I would think we wouldn’t be because Paul has influenced many, many people over the last two thousand years. Through Ananias’ obedience to what God had called him to do, Paul is able to move from “breathing murder and destruction” upon a people to bringing life and grace to all those he meets in his life.

Where are we on the road of destruction? What many people forget is that Saul was not actually a bad man. He was considered a hero by the Pharisees and Sadducees. He was doing what was right in many people’s eyes. However, he was on a road to destruction. Therefore, this text calls us to ask ourselves where WE are on that road. Where have we been lead astray from Jesus’ purpose in our lives?

 For example, what about the hard driving businesswoman who is so determined to get a promotion that she loses her marriage. Then there is the teenager, angry and hurt, who cannot forgive a parent’s mistakes. The man who is so locked up in his emotions that he cannot express his love for his spouse. The ever-pleasing wife who is so accommodating that she allows her husband’s alcoholism to destroy their children. The revengeful lover who would rather do harm than seek reconciliation. The employer whose cultural values prevent him from promoting women equally. The political leader who is incapable of compromise. The sports enthusiast who is incapable of sporting behavior. The hard, demanding parent who cannot give their child a break.

These are all paths that when we first begin them, we think we are doing what is right and good. We think we are surely following where God would have us to go. However, we have forgotten Jesus in all of these situations. If we want to be right with God, if we want to make sure we are answering Jesus’ call to us, then we need to keep Jesus’ words close to our hearts. We need to be willing to hear what Jesus is telling us even when it is something we do not want to hear.

If Ananias had ignored Jesus’ call to him, if he had tried to convince himself that there was no way he had heard Jesus correctly, then we would not be here today. It took a man willing to risk his life, to endanger his family to pray over a man that had sworn to persecute every single Christian he came across for us to be here today.

What is Jesus calling you to do? Make no mistake – Jesus is calling your name as well. Jesus has a job for you to do. None of us are too young or too old to be used by the Lord. That is the beautiful thing about being a Christian. God sees us all as useful. God has a purpose for each of us in our lives. Our job is to listen for his voice and to obey it. Even when it goes against our natural instinct of self-preservation. Even when it’s hard. We are called to follow Jesus wherever he may lead us.

Will you be like Ananias and obey Jesus’ instructions or will you pretend that you never heard Jesus calling your name?

Amen.

Living the Word

Acts 5: 27-32
Revelation 1: 4-8

What is the truth about why we are here today? There are less of us than there were the week before and part of that is because the family that has come to visit you for the holidays has left, but it is also because on Christmas and Easter, people we do not see for most of the year are suddenly walking through the church doors.

Why is that and why is it a week after Christmas and Easter those same people are nowhere to be found?

Now we all have theories about it, but the truth of the matter is we can never know the full reasoning behind it until we have experienced it ourselves. Each one of us has probably had a time in our lives when coming to church has taken a backseat to whatever else was going on in our lives. When we leave for college; when we have our first child who keeps us up at night with feedings and diaper changes every two hours; when we pray for a loved one not to die and they still do; when we lose our job or when something else traumatic happens; when we find that church no longer gives us peace and comfort.

You see, there’s a reason you’re here in this sanctuary today. The truth is that some of you want to be here and others are here out of obligation and still others would rather be sleeping in or eating brunch than be here. I know, because there are days when I wake up and think, “God, does today have to be Sunday because I need more sleep!?”

It is very easy to judge the people that only come once or twice a year if you come almost every Sunday. It is very easy to say there is something wrong with those people and nothing wrong with us. It is very easy to say if our pastor visited more, or if our committees offered more programs or if our greeters were more welcoming then this church would be packed. These are excuses that hold no water to the church we see depicted in the Book of Acts and of Revelation.

In these two passages we read today we are given a strong idea of what the growing church focused on in their work to bring people through the doors. They concentrated on Jesus. Jesus who is firstborn of the dead, Jesus who is God’s Son and was crucified for our sakes but did not stay dead. There are some that come on Easter to here the great, glorious news that Jesus Christ is Risen because we need to remember those promises, but then the church forgets to remember that Jesus is risen for the rest of the year too.

During Holy Week I was speaking to the other two pastors and I made the joking comment, “I need to go write the Easter sermon and make sure that Christ is raised!” and one of the pastors looked at me and said, “Remember, Jesus is risen already and your job is to make sure everyone knows it” which if you remember last week’s sermon you know directly influenced the message proclaimed.

What I’m trying to say is that if people are not coming to church every Sunday they have reasons, whether they are good or bad, but they are reasons. Some of those reasons have to do with what is going on in their own lives and some of those reasons are because the church, OUR church forgets too quickly the miraculous news that Jesus Christ is Risen and what that means for us. We move too quickly from Alleluias to “What time will we have summer service?” “Who will be at Grange Fair this year?” “What vacations do you plan on taking when the kids get out of school this year?”

Sometimes we just need to revel in the moment. We need to embrace the beauty and grace of the Lord; our God who loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. That is the Good News we too quickly brush aside for those “more important” matters. And yet, there is nothing more important than that we are forgiven because the blood of Christ has washed us clean. There is nothing more important than that because Jesus died and is Risen that we too will escape the punishment of death and know eternal life with God the Father, with Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more important than those things.

The people that come a couple times of year have not heard this enough. Not from me and not from you. And it is not said just with words, but with the things we do in our lives. How we act and speak and treat others tells them everything they need to know about what it means to be a Christian. What we should be proclaiming with our actions is the joy we should surely be living with when we have such reassurances; the happiness that should shine out of our souls; the peace that should reflect in our eyes even in the greatest of trials; the love that should radiate out of us because we know we are loved and forgiven even though we are not perfect, and therefore we know how to love others in the same way.

Perhaps if we did those things a little more, perhaps if we acted more like the Christians we proclaim ourselves to be the people around us would be asking, “How do I get the peace you have when your life is so hard? How do I forgive people as easily as you seem to do? Why is it I never find you gossiping about people?” People SHOULD be asking us those things. They asked them about Jesus. The very same Jesus who as he lay gasping on the cross, bloody and in pain, found enough breath to breathe out a prayer asking God to forgive us for we have no idea what we are doing.

This year let us remember and proclaim the good news of the Gospel not just on Easter Sunday, but every day of our lives. Let us live the life of a Christian who knows that no matter what happens to this flesh and bone body, that our soul is saved because of Christ Jesus – the first born of the dead, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come – our Salvation, Our Redeemer and Our Peace. Let us remember we are saved and live life like we are saved.

If we make this our goal for the year, I can promise new people in these pews come next Easter – ones that will stay because they are hearing what they need to hear. They will stay because they are seeing people live a saved life. They will come because they are witnessing the miracle that Jesus Christ is to a person’s life. YOU will bring them in by the life you live. When we start proclaiming the Gospel every day of our lives, the world will sit up and take notice. It happened when the church first began and it can happen now – 2000 years later.

Amen.

Sharing the Good News

Acts 10: 34-43
1 Cor 15:19-26

A few years ago, upon the recommendation of several friends I read the story Lamb by Christopher Moore which is the story of Jesus Christ told by his best friend Bif which is fib backwards. Now Christopher Moore is a funny guy and so I knew that this story would have a lot of irreverent humor in it and perhaps even seem blasphemous in some ways - which it definitely lives up to. It portrays Jesus as a human in ways that a pastor never would or could. While some parts of the book certainly shocked me in how far Chris Moore went to make the reader laugh, I also found myself captivated at the idea of being best friends with Jesus and knowing that his destiny was so much greater than Bif’s ever could have been.

Bif loved Jesus so much. We all know how the friendship had to end, with Jesus dead on the cross and Bif was devastated. In fact, he was so torn apart that he never lived to hear the Good News. And that’s what struck me the most. Bif was Jesus’ best friend and he died without ever hearing what we take for granted each Sunday. That Jesus Christ is NOT dead. That he did not STAY dead in that tomb. That death could NOT hold him. Jesus is alive. Jesus is here with us today. Jesus promises to be with us for all eternity. Bif never got to hear that good news.

How many other people have not heard the Good News that we proclaim today? How many people do we assume know the Good News of the Gospel, but don’t? Or if they know Jesus is Risen – do they know what that MEANS for us; what it means for ALL of humanity?! I was talking to several teachers and some of my students not too long ago and I was shocked at how each of them had a story to tell of a young person that did not know the story of Jesus Christ. In this tiny town and valley where there are tons of churches involved in the community – there are young children, there are young men and women that have grown up having no idea of what we take for granted that everyone must know.

Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby to take on the world’s sins and die a horrific death on the cross, not because he was sinful but because WE are sinful. He took our punishment for himself so that when God the Father looks upon our upturned faces, that God would feel mercy and love for us despite our tendency to be sinful. We proclaim today that because Jesus was no mere man, but was also God’s Son - that death could not hold him. He was raised from the dead and he appears to the disciples and Mary before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father. THAT is the good news we sing ALLELUIAS for today. That is the good news that Bif never gets to hear and so he dies mourning Jesus. That is the beautiful, miraculous news that some people, even our neighbors in this very town have NEVER HEARD.

We need to get the word out. We need to do a better job of proclaiming our beliefs.

A few weeks ago I preached during the Wednesday night services about the belief we proclaim in the Apostle’s Creed about the Resurrection from the dead. In Jesus Christ we are giving a miraculous gift. We are given the ability to be forgiven for every wrong we have committed in our lives so that we may come before God when we die with a clean heart. We will be unburdened with the wrongs we have committed because Jesus willingly took those sins upon himself. But that isn’t all he did.

When Jesus rose from the dead he defeated death. Death is a cold, silent place that scares many humans, but Jesus’ resurrection from the dead reminds us that death is not permanent. We do not stay dead! The reason we know that we are forgiven is that because Jesus died for us, he made us equals in God’s eyes. We are now children of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Think about that for a moment. The blood Jesus shed on that cross not only wiped away our sins, but made us equals with him so that we too could be God’s children.

And all the parents out there know that no matter how much our children screw up, no matter how often they get on our nerves, we will always love them. We cannot help but love our children because they are part of us. That is what Jesus did. He made us a part of God forever. Now when God sees us, he sees his beautiful Son and he loves us very much, faults and all. Jesus tells us in the gospels that all the miracles he performs, all the amazing things he does we can do as well. We are all equal in God’s eyes. Jesus made us God’s children. Therefore, when Jesus was raised from the dead, we are given the promise that we too will be raised from the dead.

We will be given new bodies and dwell on this earth and in heaven with them. These are amazing things! These are miraculous gifts we are given! These are things that some people around us DO NOT KNOW, and this needs to change.

Jesus’ last words to the disciples were to spread the Gospel to all four corners of the world. They did their part admirably. It’s our turn now. We are called to spread the good news. Invite those friends and neighbors to church! Don’t be ashamed to state your views on God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But don’t just say the words; words are empty without actions to back them up. Proclaim them with all the things that you do. When you tell a person you are a Christian, the best thing they can respond with is, “I can tell because of the way you treat me”.

We are Jesus’ disciples now. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us when we don’t know what to say or do. We have been given this church and all the people around us to help us figure out the problems we all face. Life is not easy. Life is dang hard, but we do not do this alone. Jesus is with us and the fact that some people out there do not know that is a shame. It’s our shame.

Today the whole world should be rejoicing that our Lord and Savior is raised from the dead and because he is, we too will be raised from the dead. The whole world needs to know that death is not the end, but it is a beginning to our journey with God. It’s the beginning. Proclaim this message to everyone. Not everyone is willing to listen, but you’ll never know until you take a moment and try. Take that moment and feel your own faith grow and change when you help another discover the blessing of God’s love in their life.

It’s life changing. It’s life changing to know there is such grace and forgiveness. It gives people hope, and we are a world that desperately needs hope. There has been enough judgment and hate. There has been enough despair and unkindness. Today we proclaim the greatest truth, the greatest blessing that is for every person. Jesus Christ is Risen! Jesus Christ has saved us all!

Praise be to God – Father, Son, and Spirit! Amen.

The Road to Jerusalem

Once there was a little boy named Johnny who was five years old. When it was Palm Sunday, he couldn't wait to go to church to find out what Palm Sunday was. But sadly, Johnny came down with the chickenpox. His parents hired a baby-sitter to take care of Johnny while they went to church. When they came home holding palm leaves, Johnny asked, "What are the palm tree leaves for Mom?" She replied, "When Jesus walked through the town, people waved palm leaves at him as he walked by.” Johnny looked upset and said, "Wouldn't ya know? The one Sunday I'm not in church, and he shows up!"

On Palm Sunday it is traditional to speak about the journey Jesus took from the Mount of Olives down into Jerusalem. We’re veering slightly from the traditional today. Instead, let us look not just at a familiar story, but let us go behind the scenes and understand what it is Jesus was thinking as he walked down that mountain, hosannas ringing in his ears, toward his own death.

We read these passages in the Bible every year and after awhile they seem to lose their ability to shock us. We expect Jesus to give up his life because that is the type of person he is – Jesus is always giving up his peace of mind and his food and even his friends as he goes about preaching God’s message. Jesus is a natural born martyr and we like that about him. We expect this of him. If he did anything else, we would be disappointed.

From the Mount of Olives you can see most of Jerusalem. The temple and courts are visible, the olive vineyards and the many homes and stores are all visible from the top. The path down is winding, made of limestone and there are limestone walls on either side of the path. It’s pretty steep in some places and you find yourself staring down at your feet, watching for loose stones or a brick that is uneven. Halfway down you think that you must be close to the bottom, but when you get around the bend and can see Jerusalem you realize there is a lot more to go.

Jesus rode this path on a donkey, his disciples shouting and singing praises in his ears. This was their Messiah! This was their King! Let every person hear, let every person know that the Lord has come!

Jesus was probably praying more than he was paying attention to the crowd of rejoicing people around him. He alone knew what was to come, but he rode down that long, winding path anyway. What does this teach us?

Paul tells us in Philippians to have the “same mindset as Christ”. The mindset of a man who continually humbled himself. The mind of a man who gave everything he had to give the world, even his life, in the most loving of ways. Jesus knew that all the parables and all the healings were important, but this final act was the true test of faith for him and for the disciples surrounding him.

Today we sing songs and wave our palm branches. We rejoice in our Lord and Savior, but there is a somber feeling at the end of every Palm Sunday. We know what is coming, just as Jesus knew what was next. We Christians are called to follow Christ, to have a Christ like mind. Such a thing means we are called to humble ourselves. We are asked to give everything we have, to empty ourselves of all ego and desire. We are called to replace our ego and desires with the will and love of Christ.

To be like the one who was without sin, but died for sinners. How might we be more like Jesus in our lives? What holds us back from giving all we have to God and to the world?

Each of us carries a stone around our necks, a personal albatross that weighs us down, and prevents us from fulfilling our Christian duty to its fullest. What is it that you cannot seem to let go of? What prevents your mind from being filled with the love of Jesus Christ?

Today we walk the same path Jesus did two thousand years ago. We wave our palms, we sing our songs, and we pray. We pray that God will help us to let go of these things that prevent us from being Christians in mind, heart, and soul. We take a hard look at who we are and who God wants us to be, and it is time to make the two sides match up.

As Jesus rode the donkey down to the bottom of the Mount of Olives, he had to let go of every desire and every wish that he might have had as a human being. There would be no wife or child. There would be no business with his name and his sons’ names on it. There would be no grandchildren or long vacations during retirement. Everything we are given was denied to Jesus. He willingly gave up those things to save us all. He rode to his death with people screaming his name in joy.

Today, we can do no differently than Jesus. We shall take the journey with Christ and let go of what has held us back for so long. Let go of the guilt. Let go of the pain. Let go of the worry. Let go of your fears. These things have no power compared to the Lord. Let your old self die, so that you may be made a new creation – God’s child forevermore.

Amen.

LAF

Psalm 126
Philippians 3: 4b-14

Paul had a past. We all do. Paul’s past is one that most of us would envy because he could claim with absolute truth that according to all the laws in the Old Testament – he was a righteous man. The law often condemns us as sinful people, but Paul could claim to be righteous and good. He had been raised to follow the laws of God religiously and was an educated man who stood by his beliefs when they told him that these people who call themselves Christians were an abomination.

They considered this man Jesus to be God’s Son and for such an atrocity they must be put to death. Paul was within his rights as a Pharisee to condemn every Christian to death. He persecuted them and he slept at night the sleep of the holy and righteous. He knew he was right and they were wrong. He knew that he upheld God’s laws while they mocked them, and tried to change them to suit their own views. They deserved to be punished and he would make sure they were condemned for their attempts to change what had been sacred for thousands of years.

There is a lesson here for every generation of Christians that came after Paul. Paul, who knew he was right because he was following exactly what the Bible said. Christians were the evil ones who were corrupting what was holy and pure by calling this Jesus person God’s Messiah. Now we know what happens to Paul, once called Saul on the road to Damascus. He had a come to Jesus awakening. He was shown that sometimes we can follow the bible exactly, we can follow the laws of the land to a T, and we can be wrong.

Paul’s past is a cautionary tale reminding us that sometimes when we think we are most right, we are completely lost. As your pastor, I’m supposed to stand up here and reassure you I have all the answers. I’m supposed to tell you that I’ve read the whole bible and I follow it exactly. I can’t tell you that. I don’t have all the answers and I haven’t read the whole bible yet, and there are some parts I don’t follow. None of us do.

I believe the bible is a guide for us. I think it is here to instruct us and help us find Jesus, and keep us as close to him as we can be as we go through life. However, it is not the only source we have to find God in our lives, and we all know it doesn’t have every answer we need in life. The bible was written before global warming. The bible was written before we had illegal aliens. The bible was written before guns and gun laws. When I come across a problem that I know the bible doesn’t have an exact answer on, I look to Jesus. What did Jesus concentrate on in his life and his teachings? What does he constantly tell us to do when we are in doubt or scared or hurting?

The same thing Paul tells us in this passage of Philippians. We need to look to God, we need to pray for our answers, we need to have faith that God will deliver us not because of our faith, but because of the faith of Jesus Christ who died for us all. Paul is trying to remind us that despite our past, despite our lack of knowledge or understanding, that we are not alone. We are not here without resources or left without power. Paul reminds us we will not get to heaven through our own goodness. We will get there because of Jesus Christ; because God wants every person to be saved.

It’s too easy to condemn. We condemn ourselves, we condemn those around us, and we condemn the people that are different from us. We look at people with sin in our eyes instead of love. We look at ourselves the same way. We forget that Jesus wanted peace and justice more than he wanted anything else. He preached love and forgiveness, not only for others but for each of us.

Lent is meant to clear out the cobwebs and the dust bunnies in our souls. We need to take the junk out of our hearts and minds and put it on the curb to be thrown away forever. Junk like thinking its okay to hate someone because of something they did. Cobwebs like old memories that keep you from forgiving someone in your life. The dust bunnies that are half baked ideas on what God wants from us and expects from us.

You know what God wants from you? Love. It is absolutely that simple. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. If we could take out all of our insecurities and misinformation, all of our doubts and anger that accumulates as we live our lives, we would be children again. Children who only know how to love. Children don’t learn hate and fear and anger until we teach it to them. That’s a sobering thought. We teach our children how to put up stumbling blocks that keep them from God.

Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to unlearn it by pointing to the Bible and Jesus. Paul’s past reminds us that we can only be certain of one thing - Jesus. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. IN Jesus Christ, we know God’s love and acceptance. In Jesus Christ we have eternal life.

That’s all we can say for certainty. Where in the bible does it say that we have to put up purple altar cloths during Lent and to wear white at a wedding? Where does it say that Lent should be forty days and has to be before or during Spring? Where does it say that we must sprinkle water on babies or dip adults in streams for baptisms? Where does it say that we should not allow women to be pastors or that children cannot take communion to the people in the pews? Where does it say that we should hate Muslims because of what someone else did or where does it say we should deny equal rights to gay people?

The Bible is a great guide for us. It’s going to show us the way a lot of the time and help us to sort out our hearts when things get tough and crazy. But according to the Old Testament, Paul once called Saul was a righteous man who was allowed to persecute Christians. The Bible is not God. It points toward God. When we find ourselves condemning people. When we find ourselves hating each other and even our self, we need to remember Jesus and what he constantly taught us. Love. Acceptance. Forgiveness.

Those three words make the acronym LAF. Laughter is given to those who are happy. Happy people are the ones that have learned to love, learned to accept differences, and learned to forgive others and themselves for not being perfect. If you do not remember anything else from this Lenten season, remember to LAF. Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness.

Amen. 

Resurrection of the Body

The resurrection of the body is something we say in the Apostle’s Creed but how many of us truly understand what it is we are professing to believe? It seems an impossible proclamation and indeed, there were some even in Jesus’ time that did not believe we would be raised from the dead. There are people in modern times that joke that the resurrection of our bodies means we will all be zombies, and we all know zombies are not real; therefore the resurrection of the body cannot be real.

Many of you probably think the resurrection of the human body began as a belief because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That is true, but that is not the whole story. To understand why the resurrection is such an important and vital part of our faith as Christians, we must start at the beginning of the story. It began with a man named Adam who was given the blessing of being the first human created by God. When Adam disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, his sin condemned all of humanity to death. He broke the covenant God had made with humanity.

The Old Testament is full of covenantal stories between humanity and God with the same results. Humans fail to keep up their end of the covenant and they put their salvation in jeopardy.  God did not give up on us though. We are his beloved creation and God was continually trying to save us despite our best efforts to destroy ourselves through sin. Finally, God sent his Son to form a covenant that could not be broken because it was forged in the blood of Jesus Christ. It was forged in the blood of the Son of God. Through Jesus’ sacrifice we are freed from death.

This covenant will always exist. Does that mean everyone will be raised from the dead? I cannot answer that, what I can tell you is that every person has the potential to be raised from the dead to live in harmony with God because of what Jesus Christ did for us.

Perhaps during Communion you have uttered the words like, “Christ is died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again” and your pastor will say that is the mystery of our faith. It is indeed an amazing mystery that we proclaim in our creeds. Resurrection from the dead. Life after death. Look around this room for a moment and look at all the different people in here. Some are young, some are old. Some are fit and some are not as fit. Some of us have gray hair, some of us don’t have gray hair yet, and some of us cover up our gray hair. The mystery of our faith is that because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and his victory over death, we are given the assurance of life after death. The form we are given is what we call a resurrected or glorified body.

What will these glorified bodies of ours look like? We know they won’t be exactly like the body we have on the day we die. It won’t be completely different, but we know they will be changed.  I’d like to put in for a 5’10 frame and the ability to run long distances without getting winded – but I know that isn’t realistic. We know our body will change in some way because every person that first sees Jesus after he is Risen does not recognize him right away. When he encounters Mary she thinks he is the gardener until he says her name. When he encounters the two men on the road it is not until he breaks bread with them that they see it is Jesus with them.

So something will be different. I think we all hope for a body that will not give out on us and one that will be healthy and fit. We know we won’t be completely different because Jesus still had the marks on his body from his death. Thomas put his hands in Jesus’ side and touched the wounds on his hands. We won’t be unrecognizable, but we will be changed.

Why is it so important to believe in the Resurrection of the body? Paul tells us exactly why in 1 Corinthians. He tells us that without Jesus being raised from the dead, there is no hope for us. There is no life after death without a resurrected Jesus. Jesus promises to us that everything he has done, everything he has been given as the Son of God has also been given to us – which is why we can call ourselves children of God.

That means that if Jesus has been raised from the dead, then we too shall be raised from the dead. They go hand in hand and the moment we try to say no to one, we say no to life after death. We take away our hope. The resurrection of Jesus and us is a reassurance that death, entombment, and conflict are not the end of all things, and that life has meaning over and above our individual lives and attachments.

The reality of life on earth is pain. Pain and incompleteness are human conditions that we can never overcome on our own. In Jesus’ resurrection and in stating our belief in our own resurrected bodies, we are acknowledging that healing, fullness of life and perfection are only achieved through the divine. In Jesus we have both the human and the divine. Jesus brings us together; Jesus takes the painful human existence and defeats our hopelessness by rising from the dead, and promising us that we too will be raised. Death does not defeat us; there is life still to be lived. IN OUR BODIES there is life to be lived. We will be perfected, we will be made whole and we will be given glorified bodies to live in.

Paul reminds us that without this belief we are left hopeless with no promise of eternal life. Salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins in the form of a resurrected body. We are told what Jesus has we too will be given. What Jesus has is a resurrected body.

Amen.

Jesus and the Government

Isaiah 55: 1-9
Luke 13: 1-9

Impatience. The world appears to be afflicted with the worst case of impatience. Sometimes it is easy for us to think that this is a new phenomenon because of how much the world has changed. It has become a world of immediacy. A world where what we want can be found at the click of a few buttons or a phone call to make an appointment or a quick trip into town. When we want fresh bread there is no more waking up at 4am to begin the yeast and the waiting for the bread to rise, punch it down and wait for it to rise again before baking it. When we want clean clothes or a particular shirt for the day, a quick wash and dry has us in our favorite outfit within the hour instead of it being an all day event of washing and hanging it to dry. Didn’t plan dinner? Make a call and order takeout or reach into the freezer and quickly defrost that hamburger for meatloaf.

Perhaps there is a new urgency to our impatience, but it has always existed. Look at Jesus and the Galileans. The Galileans were upset at what the Roman authorities had once again done to make them inferior citizens. While offering sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem, Pilot had some of the people cut down. Their blood mixed with that of the sacrifices being offered which made all the sacrifices unclean and unacceptable. There was a threefold insult to the Jewish people done by the Romans.

First, violence was committed in the holy temple. Second, it was violence against their countrymen who had journeyed up to offer sacrifices. They were on pilgrimage and doing holy acts when they were unjustly cut down. Third, because of the violence and blood spilled every person in the temple was traumatized and their sacrifices made unclean.

The Galileans wanted Jesus to be as upset and righteously angry as they. They were looking for the one who would fight for them; the one who would raise his voice and rally the people to revolt against the Roman authority. They were tired of the persecution. They were tired of the unjust acts and violence constantly committed against them. They were tired of being little more than pawns in a political game.

Can we not relate? Here in America we profess ourselves to be free and yet we too are used like pawns. We too are victims to a government of people that while it states in our Constitution is “by the people and for the people” it is no longer made up of regular people like us, and rarely works for the good of the citizens. We turn on the television and we see another impasse, another sequester, another potential economic collapse and we are WEARY. I no longer listen. I hear enough to know what is going on and then I turn it off because I have had it. I am tired of all the parties and their agendas. I am tired of all the posturing and stand offs.

This is not a government that works. This is a government in gridlock that pretends they are working. We are their pawns and everyone is grumbling and impatient. If we came to Jesus with our righteous anger and impatience, what would he say to us? Let us look at what he says to the righteous anger and impatience of the Galileans.

Jesus turns and looks at the people coming to him and he does not tell them that their anger is wrong. He does not tell them to ignore the injustices and the wrongs committed by those in power. Instead, he turns his attention to the only thing that really concerns him - the state of our souls. Jesus does not want us to be defined by our enemies or those who would work against the greater good of humanity. Instead of joining in on the anger and judgment and contempt the Galileans were feeling toward their government, Jesus asked them to look inside of themselves.

He asks, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” It is very easy for us to sit in judgment of others, especially others who are perceived to have more power than we do.

It is easy to feel contempt and belittle the efforts of those in the government. Jesus reminds us that we are not here to judge or belittle. Our hearts are to be concerned with making the world a better place. Our minds should be on God’s Word which is always concerned with forgiveness and love. Our spirits should be turned toward the Holy Spirit which sweeps through the world as a refreshing breeze bringing relief and new thoughts to a weary world.

Jesus reminds us that when it comes to judging the sins of others it is best to keep our minds centered on our own sinfulness. Could we do any better? In our anger and impatience do we condemn every senator and representative when there are some that are working to change the way the government deals with these issues? What good does our contempt and impatience do? I know what it does do.

It creates division. It creates chaos. It creates separation from friends and family and neighbors. Half of my family is republican and the other half is democrat. When we get together for family gatherings there is always someone that has to mention the state of the government. It starts out friendly enough, but soon people are arguing passionately and upset with each other. On Facebook people put up things that are constantly political so eventually someone says something and that escalates into an internet war of who’s right and who’s wrong. In the office there are the people that blame the democrats for the job layoffs while the democrats blame the republicans for creating the mess in the first place.

What’s the point of it all? All this blame does one thing – it causes people to get upset and be hurt. Is this what Jesus would want of us all? No. Jesus is telling us, “Look inside yourself when you feel like judging someone. You have enough sins to keep you busy for years rather than worrying and fighting with others.” But Jesus does not leave it there. Not only does he make us self-reflect with his questions, but then he tells us a story that reminds us why this is all so wrong and petty.

Jesus tells us the story of the fig tree that does not bear fruit and the gardener that begs the owner not to cut it down, but let the gardener keep trying for another year to help the tree bear fruit. Only then, the gardener argues, should the owner cut it down. WE are the fig tree! Jesus is the gardener and the owner is God the Father.

Jesus reminds us that we are not as fruitful as we think. We are not as grateful and good as we presume. There are areas of our lives where we fall short of the glory of God and we do not bear the fruit of the Spirit. We are not patient, kind, gentle, loving, or sincere all of the time. He gently reminds us that instead of concentrating on what can only divide us and makes us less fruitful, we need to remember that as the gardener, he is always petitioning for us. Jesus is our advocator, he is the one that goes before the Father and asks for more time to help us become better people. Without Jesus’ intervention we would be doomed to hell.

Jesus tells us that there is nothing good to be found in anger and impatience whether it is justly deserved or not. Jesus tells us that instead we should concentrate on helping ourselves to be more productive Christians and the rest will fall into place. It took 300 years of Christians preaching “look inside yourself and let the rest be up to God” for those seeds to be fruitful. 300 years and Christianity swept through the known world and no longer was the people oppressed and hated.

God has a plan that is millennia in the making. There will be justice and mercy and peace in this world. It begins with US. It begins with each of us taking a look inside of ourselves and making who we are align with who Jesus is as our Savior. If every person did the same thing, Jesus is letting us know that the world WOULD be peaceful and just. Our government would not be corrupt or failing in any way. We COULD trust the representatives and senators to be, “for the people” once more.

Do not grumble about what you cannot fix. Instead, look inside yourself and fix what is broken so that your example may become the change this world needs.

Amen.