Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ –
“They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while [Jesus] was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’” Luke 24:32
The Gospel readings for May follow along two themes. For the first two weeks, we are given accounts of post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: to the disciples (including the followup appearance to Thomas) and to the two disciples on the Emmaus road. For the last two weeks, we are given portions of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples at the Last Supper. Sandwiched in the middle, on May 15, is a reading about Jesus’ self-description as the Good Shepherd.
It is perhaps this image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that unites the seemingly disjointed series of readings for May. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd. During his last Passover meal with his disciples (which we call the Last Supper), Jesus told the disciples that, even though they would be scattered in days ahead, it was Jesus’ will that they would again be gathered together to be united as apostles of Christ. And after the resurrection, Jesus the Good Shepherd is gathering his flock which had been scattered by the events of Holy Week.
Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard wrote that “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” At the time of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion, the disciples, “living forwards”, thought that all their hopes and dreams as disciples of Christ had come to an end. It was only after Easter, when the disciples looked back over the events of Holy Week from the perspective of the resurrection, that they understood that Jesus had not abandoned them; that God had been with them the whole time.
Our experience may be similar. While we’re “living forwards” - mourning a loss, coping with a personal or national tragedy, or slogging our way through the muck and mire of daily life - it may feel like God is nowhere to be found. We may feel abandoned, may feel that God has left the building, so to speak. It is often only in “understanding backwards” after the passage of time that we may see where God had been present all along. In the weeks ahead, may our hearts be, in Methodist founder John Wesley’s words, “strangely warmed” by unexpected encounters with God’s grace.
See you in church!
Pastor Dave
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Surprised by Joy! (An Easter Sermon)
(Scriptures: Acts 10:34-43 , Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10)
*Note: Sermon title is the title of a book by Christian writer C. S. Lewis*
Of course it was the women who were faithful to the end. Judas had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied he ever knew the guy, and the other disciples practically burnt the bottoms off their sandals running away from him after the arrest. But the women stood by Jesus as he was crucified, though off at a distance. It was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph who watched as Jesus was crucified, and it was the two Marys who watched as Joseph of Arimithea buried Jesus in his own tomb. We’re told that after Joseph had rolled a stone in front of the tomb and gone away, the two Marys stayed there, sitting opposite the tomb.
And on the first day of the week, it was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who went once again to the tomb. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us why they went, but Mark’s Gospel tells us that the women went to anoint the body, and despaired of how they were going to move the stone.
However, after both Joseph of Arimathea and the two Mary’s had left the tomb the day before, some other folks went to the tomb as well. They weren’t there to mourn, or even to pay their respects to Jesus…but rather, to pay disrespect to Jesus from the Temple leadership. Matthew tells us, you see, that the Pharisees and chief priests were afraid Jesus’ disciples would stage a hoax by stealing the body and claiming he’d been raised. So they were given a detachment of guards to stand watch over the tomb.
So Matthew sets the stage: the women had watched as Jesus was put in the tomb, and then went home; then guards came to standing watch at the tomb, and now the women are going back to the tomb. But suddenly another party is heard from: God, in the form of an earthquake, and an angel who rolled away the stone and sat on it.
Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. Matthew gives us their contrasting reactions: the guards, tough men who’d seen it all, shook and became like dead men. The angels had nothing to say to them. But to the grieving women, the angel said, “Do not be afraid! Jesus has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “he has been raised from the dead, and is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee….” Then the women remembered. At his last Passover meal with the disciples, Jesus had said that the disciples would all desert him. But then Jesus made this odd statement: “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” At the time, the disciples probably just shrugged; Jesus was saying a lot of things that at the time didn’t make sense. But now the angel was saying the same thing to the women: go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus was going ahead to meet them. They quickly made their way from the tomb, with fear and great joy….when they ran into Jesus himself. Matthew tells us that they grabbed his feet….perhaps to assure themselves that he wasn’t just a disembodied spirit, wasn’t a ghost…and worshipped him. And then Jesus repeated the message – go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.
Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. The guards, who had no allegiance to Jesus but were just there to do the job they’d been ordered to do, were so scared they fainted. But the women, while terrified by all that happened – the earthquake, the angel – were also surprised by joy! In a place where they had hoped to mourn the dead, they encountered an empty tomb, and resurrection life. Life, not death, had the last word for Jesus.
And has the last word for us. Amid all that is death-dealing in our lives – the passing of loved ones, physical illness, broken relationships, lost jobs, all that weighs us down – Jesus points us to see beyond all that. Illness, estrangement, unemployment – even death itself – does not have the last word. To borrow a verse from our first hymn, ours is indeed the cross – all the struggles of this life, all the struggles that are a part of being a disciple – and ours is the grave – but ours is also the skies. Christ is raised from the dead, and our lives are hidden in Christ, become part of the life of the risen Christ.
And Jesus promises, not only life and hope, but his abiding love. Remember that Jesus told the women: Go and tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee. After Peter denied him and the rest deserted him, Jesus could still claim them as – his brothers. And when we have failed, when we have failed God, when we have failed ourselves, when we have let God or others or even ourselves down, betrayed them, denied them, deserted them, Christ still claims us as brothers and sisters. He still promises to go ahead and meet us, even when in our guilt and fear we’re not quite ready to meet him.
We at Emanuel Church know a few things about tombs. We worship God in a sanctuary surrounded on two sides by a cemetery, the upkeep of which is an ongoing project of our congregation. We know what to expect when we walk through our cemetery – the familiar headstones of our departed loved ones and of those others who founded this church. We’ll find grass and trees, palm crosses and floral arrangements or other mementos left at graveside by loved ones. What’s out there in the cemetery - our headstones and our mementos, and all the effort that goes into maintaining the cemetery, is a testimony to this congregation’s love for our forebears in the faith. But what goes on inside here, in this sanctuary, in this space, our hymns and our prayers and our celebration of communion, the community we create with one another when we meet, is our testimony that the grave is not the end, that what’s outside our window is not the end, that while the mortal remains of our loved ones lie outside our window – because Christ was risen, our loved ones are with Christ, in God’s presence where tears and pain and illness are no more.
Jesus told the women that he was going ahead to Galilee, to meet the disciples there. So, in a sense, Matthew’s Gospel ends where it began, in Galilee, where Jesus had grown up, where Jesus had begun his ministry; indeed, where Jesus had originally chosen and commissioned his disciples. And where Jesus will meet with them again, on the mountain, to commission them to go out into all the world, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are back home in Galilee. Everything has come full circle, but nothing will ever be the same again. And it can be like that for us, as well, as we meet Jesus in familiar surroundings, and are surprised by joy as all that is familiar is transformed by his presence.
In a few moments we will celebrate Holy Communion. As we break the bread and share the cup, we are assured that we are truly members of the mystical body of Christ, and heirs through hope of God’s everlasting kingdom. Having come and seen, we too are told to go and tell, to go and tell of the mighty things that Christ has done for us. Amen.
**********
Come and be surprised by joy at Emanuel United Church of Christ. We worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org
Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10)
*Note: Sermon title is the title of a book by Christian writer C. S. Lewis*
Of course it was the women who were faithful to the end. Judas had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied he ever knew the guy, and the other disciples practically burnt the bottoms off their sandals running away from him after the arrest. But the women stood by Jesus as he was crucified, though off at a distance. It was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph who watched as Jesus was crucified, and it was the two Marys who watched as Joseph of Arimithea buried Jesus in his own tomb. We’re told that after Joseph had rolled a stone in front of the tomb and gone away, the two Marys stayed there, sitting opposite the tomb.
And on the first day of the week, it was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who went once again to the tomb. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us why they went, but Mark’s Gospel tells us that the women went to anoint the body, and despaired of how they were going to move the stone.
However, after both Joseph of Arimathea and the two Mary’s had left the tomb the day before, some other folks went to the tomb as well. They weren’t there to mourn, or even to pay their respects to Jesus…but rather, to pay disrespect to Jesus from the Temple leadership. Matthew tells us, you see, that the Pharisees and chief priests were afraid Jesus’ disciples would stage a hoax by stealing the body and claiming he’d been raised. So they were given a detachment of guards to stand watch over the tomb.
So Matthew sets the stage: the women had watched as Jesus was put in the tomb, and then went home; then guards came to standing watch at the tomb, and now the women are going back to the tomb. But suddenly another party is heard from: God, in the form of an earthquake, and an angel who rolled away the stone and sat on it.
Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. Matthew gives us their contrasting reactions: the guards, tough men who’d seen it all, shook and became like dead men. The angels had nothing to say to them. But to the grieving women, the angel said, “Do not be afraid! Jesus has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “he has been raised from the dead, and is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee….” Then the women remembered. At his last Passover meal with the disciples, Jesus had said that the disciples would all desert him. But then Jesus made this odd statement: “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” At the time, the disciples probably just shrugged; Jesus was saying a lot of things that at the time didn’t make sense. But now the angel was saying the same thing to the women: go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus was going ahead to meet them. They quickly made their way from the tomb, with fear and great joy….when they ran into Jesus himself. Matthew tells us that they grabbed his feet….perhaps to assure themselves that he wasn’t just a disembodied spirit, wasn’t a ghost…and worshipped him. And then Jesus repeated the message – go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.
Both the guards and the women encountered the angel. The guards, who had no allegiance to Jesus but were just there to do the job they’d been ordered to do, were so scared they fainted. But the women, while terrified by all that happened – the earthquake, the angel – were also surprised by joy! In a place where they had hoped to mourn the dead, they encountered an empty tomb, and resurrection life. Life, not death, had the last word for Jesus.
And has the last word for us. Amid all that is death-dealing in our lives – the passing of loved ones, physical illness, broken relationships, lost jobs, all that weighs us down – Jesus points us to see beyond all that. Illness, estrangement, unemployment – even death itself – does not have the last word. To borrow a verse from our first hymn, ours is indeed the cross – all the struggles of this life, all the struggles that are a part of being a disciple – and ours is the grave – but ours is also the skies. Christ is raised from the dead, and our lives are hidden in Christ, become part of the life of the risen Christ.
And Jesus promises, not only life and hope, but his abiding love. Remember that Jesus told the women: Go and tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee. After Peter denied him and the rest deserted him, Jesus could still claim them as – his brothers. And when we have failed, when we have failed God, when we have failed ourselves, when we have let God or others or even ourselves down, betrayed them, denied them, deserted them, Christ still claims us as brothers and sisters. He still promises to go ahead and meet us, even when in our guilt and fear we’re not quite ready to meet him.
We at Emanuel Church know a few things about tombs. We worship God in a sanctuary surrounded on two sides by a cemetery, the upkeep of which is an ongoing project of our congregation. We know what to expect when we walk through our cemetery – the familiar headstones of our departed loved ones and of those others who founded this church. We’ll find grass and trees, palm crosses and floral arrangements or other mementos left at graveside by loved ones. What’s out there in the cemetery - our headstones and our mementos, and all the effort that goes into maintaining the cemetery, is a testimony to this congregation’s love for our forebears in the faith. But what goes on inside here, in this sanctuary, in this space, our hymns and our prayers and our celebration of communion, the community we create with one another when we meet, is our testimony that the grave is not the end, that what’s outside our window is not the end, that while the mortal remains of our loved ones lie outside our window – because Christ was risen, our loved ones are with Christ, in God’s presence where tears and pain and illness are no more.
Jesus told the women that he was going ahead to Galilee, to meet the disciples there. So, in a sense, Matthew’s Gospel ends where it began, in Galilee, where Jesus had grown up, where Jesus had begun his ministry; indeed, where Jesus had originally chosen and commissioned his disciples. And where Jesus will meet with them again, on the mountain, to commission them to go out into all the world, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are back home in Galilee. Everything has come full circle, but nothing will ever be the same again. And it can be like that for us, as well, as we meet Jesus in familiar surroundings, and are surprised by joy as all that is familiar is transformed by his presence.
In a few moments we will celebrate Holy Communion. As we break the bread and share the cup, we are assured that we are truly members of the mystical body of Christ, and heirs through hope of God’s everlasting kingdom. Having come and seen, we too are told to go and tell, to go and tell of the mighty things that Christ has done for us. Amen.
**********
Come and be surprised by joy at Emanuel United Church of Christ. We worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org
What A Week! (A Sermon for Palm Sunday)
(Scriptures: Zechariah 9:9-12 Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 21:1-11)
This morning we begin the holiest week of the Christian calendar. During these past 37 days, we have stood with Jesus as he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, witnessed his evening meeting with Nicodemus – mentally I use the phrase “Nick at night” to remember the timing of Jesus’ initial meeting with Nicodemus - and his daytime meeting with the nameless woman at the well, marveled at his healing of the man born blind and his raising of Lazarus from the dead. Now we stand among the crowds shouting Hosanna as Jesus enters Jerusalem, slowly lurching along as he rides on a donkey that has never before been written.
The word “ambivalence” can be defined as the presence of two opposing ideas, attitudes, or emotions at the same time. Palm Sunday is a day in which our feelings may be ambivalent. This ambivalence is captured in the lectionary’s choices of readings for the day. One of these sets of readings – the texts from Psalms and Matthew that we heard earlier today – is focused on the triumphant entry. There is another set of texts – our reading from Philippians is one of them, along with an Isaiah text that we did not read this morning – which are focused on the events, not of Sunday, but of Thursday and Friday, the betrayal, the arrest in the garden, the trial and crucifixion. And so an increasing number of churches refer to today as “Palm/Passion Sunday”. It’s a day in which we hear the crowds cheering – but we’re not sure they know what they’re cheering for – as, at the end of our Matthew text, they refer to “the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee” – which is true, as far as it goes, but not a complete picture. Likewise, Jerusalem, the holy city, where God is thought to dwell within the Temple, built by Solomon, rebuilt by Zerubbabel on the return from Babylonian exile, greatly expanded and decorated by Herod….is also, in Jesus’ words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” As the crowds cheer Jesus as a prophet, in the background we hear the Temple religious leaders muttering threats among themselves, and we know that Jesus will likewise suffer the fate faced by all prophets sent to Jerusalem. Matthew captures this sense of ambivalence, this sense of duality: two disciples are sent to get two animals, a donkey and a colt, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem, both the holy city and the city that murders the prophets, to the cheers of crowds that both do and don’t know who Jesus is. Perhaps in that last bit of duality, Matthew wants us to remember Jesus’ dual nature – fully human, fully divine. And perhaps this is the most important dualism of all. As one both fully human and fully divine, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, sentenced, and crucified…and resurrected on the third day. As German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “If Christ is not fully human, how can he save us? If Christ is not fully divine, how can he save us?” Only one who is at the same time fully human – one who knows fully, in every cell and to the marrow of his bones, the full gamut of the human experience, the best and the worst life as a human has to offer, along with everything in-between, yet without sin – and one who is fully divine, of one being and of one essence with God the father – only that one can save us.
Everything Jesus has said and done has led him to this point, and in the days ahead he will go from the high of the triumphal entry to Jerusalem, to controversy and opposition from the religious establishment, to the anointing of his head by a nameless woman at Bethany, to a final Passover meal with his inner circle, the twelve, who promise to stand with him but within hours desert him, to betrayal by one of the twelve, arrest, trials before religious and civil authorities, and the painful, shameful, humiliating, literally god-awful death of the cross.. What a week Jesus has ahead of him! But we Christians know what radio commentator Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story” – an empty tomb, the announcement of the angel, the appearance of the risen Christ to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary,” the instructions for his disciples to go to Galilee, where the Risen Christ will meet them. And Jesus’ final commission to his disciples to tell others this “rest of the story” – Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” What a week! What a horrible week! What a glorious week! What a week!
The reformer Martin Luther coined the phrase “the theology of the cross” to remind his followers – and even though we at Emanuel are not Lutherans, we are among those who in a broader sense are informed by his theology – Luther coined the phrase “the theology of the cross” to remind us that, ultimately, the only way to truly understand Jesus – and to understand ourselves as disciples of Jesus – is through the cross. Luther used this phrase, “the theology of the cross” in contrast to what Luther called “the theology of glory” which wants to dwell on human wisdom and human achievement, which wants to minimize the importance of the crucifixion. But to ignore or even to minimize the crucifixion is more than a little like saying, “Well, aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” There is no Easter without Good Friday. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, God chose the foolish things in the world to shame the wise; chose the weak things in the world to shame the strong. In Jesus, the foolishness and weakness of God entered Jerusalem, lurched along into Jerusalem on a never-before-ridden donkey, his feet barely a few inches off the ground, and man’s strength and wisdom, man’s best efforts, as represented by the Temple hierarchy and the Roman empire, nailed Jesus to the cross.
Because we know “the rest of story” of the crucified and risen Christ, ultimately we know the outcome of our own. We are saved from aimlessness and sin, granted abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come, not by our own efforts, but because we know the rest of the story – saved by grace through faith in the crucified and Risen Christ.
And because we worship a Savior who has been through the worst that this life has to offer, whose path to Easter came through the pain and horror of Good Friday, we have the privilege of coming in prayer before a Savior who knows our pain, our sorrow, our anger, our frustration, to the depth of his being. As the letter to the Hebrews 4:15-16 states, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
All too often, we live in a Good Friday world, where money talks and might makes right, and faith, hope, and love are crushed to the ground. All too often, it is our hopes and dreams that are crushed to the ground, and it’s understandable to give into despair. But we know the rest of the story. In the words of a famous sermon by Tony Campolo…”It’s Friday…………but Sunday’s comin’. Amen.
********************
Christ the Lord is risen! Join the celebration at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org
This morning we begin the holiest week of the Christian calendar. During these past 37 days, we have stood with Jesus as he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, witnessed his evening meeting with Nicodemus – mentally I use the phrase “Nick at night” to remember the timing of Jesus’ initial meeting with Nicodemus - and his daytime meeting with the nameless woman at the well, marveled at his healing of the man born blind and his raising of Lazarus from the dead. Now we stand among the crowds shouting Hosanna as Jesus enters Jerusalem, slowly lurching along as he rides on a donkey that has never before been written.
The word “ambivalence” can be defined as the presence of two opposing ideas, attitudes, or emotions at the same time. Palm Sunday is a day in which our feelings may be ambivalent. This ambivalence is captured in the lectionary’s choices of readings for the day. One of these sets of readings – the texts from Psalms and Matthew that we heard earlier today – is focused on the triumphant entry. There is another set of texts – our reading from Philippians is one of them, along with an Isaiah text that we did not read this morning – which are focused on the events, not of Sunday, but of Thursday and Friday, the betrayal, the arrest in the garden, the trial and crucifixion. And so an increasing number of churches refer to today as “Palm/Passion Sunday”. It’s a day in which we hear the crowds cheering – but we’re not sure they know what they’re cheering for – as, at the end of our Matthew text, they refer to “the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee” – which is true, as far as it goes, but not a complete picture. Likewise, Jerusalem, the holy city, where God is thought to dwell within the Temple, built by Solomon, rebuilt by Zerubbabel on the return from Babylonian exile, greatly expanded and decorated by Herod….is also, in Jesus’ words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” As the crowds cheer Jesus as a prophet, in the background we hear the Temple religious leaders muttering threats among themselves, and we know that Jesus will likewise suffer the fate faced by all prophets sent to Jerusalem. Matthew captures this sense of ambivalence, this sense of duality: two disciples are sent to get two animals, a donkey and a colt, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem, both the holy city and the city that murders the prophets, to the cheers of crowds that both do and don’t know who Jesus is. Perhaps in that last bit of duality, Matthew wants us to remember Jesus’ dual nature – fully human, fully divine. And perhaps this is the most important dualism of all. As one both fully human and fully divine, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, sentenced, and crucified…and resurrected on the third day. As German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “If Christ is not fully human, how can he save us? If Christ is not fully divine, how can he save us?” Only one who is at the same time fully human – one who knows fully, in every cell and to the marrow of his bones, the full gamut of the human experience, the best and the worst life as a human has to offer, along with everything in-between, yet without sin – and one who is fully divine, of one being and of one essence with God the father – only that one can save us.
Everything Jesus has said and done has led him to this point, and in the days ahead he will go from the high of the triumphal entry to Jerusalem, to controversy and opposition from the religious establishment, to the anointing of his head by a nameless woman at Bethany, to a final Passover meal with his inner circle, the twelve, who promise to stand with him but within hours desert him, to betrayal by one of the twelve, arrest, trials before religious and civil authorities, and the painful, shameful, humiliating, literally god-awful death of the cross.. What a week Jesus has ahead of him! But we Christians know what radio commentator Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story” – an empty tomb, the announcement of the angel, the appearance of the risen Christ to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary,” the instructions for his disciples to go to Galilee, where the Risen Christ will meet them. And Jesus’ final commission to his disciples to tell others this “rest of the story” – Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” What a week! What a horrible week! What a glorious week! What a week!
The reformer Martin Luther coined the phrase “the theology of the cross” to remind his followers – and even though we at Emanuel are not Lutherans, we are among those who in a broader sense are informed by his theology – Luther coined the phrase “the theology of the cross” to remind us that, ultimately, the only way to truly understand Jesus – and to understand ourselves as disciples of Jesus – is through the cross. Luther used this phrase, “the theology of the cross” in contrast to what Luther called “the theology of glory” which wants to dwell on human wisdom and human achievement, which wants to minimize the importance of the crucifixion. But to ignore or even to minimize the crucifixion is more than a little like saying, “Well, aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” There is no Easter without Good Friday. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, God chose the foolish things in the world to shame the wise; chose the weak things in the world to shame the strong. In Jesus, the foolishness and weakness of God entered Jerusalem, lurched along into Jerusalem on a never-before-ridden donkey, his feet barely a few inches off the ground, and man’s strength and wisdom, man’s best efforts, as represented by the Temple hierarchy and the Roman empire, nailed Jesus to the cross.
Because we know “the rest of story” of the crucified and risen Christ, ultimately we know the outcome of our own. We are saved from aimlessness and sin, granted abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come, not by our own efforts, but because we know the rest of the story – saved by grace through faith in the crucified and Risen Christ.
And because we worship a Savior who has been through the worst that this life has to offer, whose path to Easter came through the pain and horror of Good Friday, we have the privilege of coming in prayer before a Savior who knows our pain, our sorrow, our anger, our frustration, to the depth of his being. As the letter to the Hebrews 4:15-16 states, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
All too often, we live in a Good Friday world, where money talks and might makes right, and faith, hope, and love are crushed to the ground. All too often, it is our hopes and dreams that are crushed to the ground, and it’s understandable to give into despair. But we know the rest of the story. In the words of a famous sermon by Tony Campolo…”It’s Friday…………but Sunday’s comin’. Amen.
********************
Christ the Lord is risen! Join the celebration at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org
Sunday, April 3, 2011
It's Friday...But Sunday's Coming!
(Pastor Dave was away this Sunday, getting needed rest. In lieu of a sermon, here's the pastor's message in the April newsletter)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ –
“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" [Martha] said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."’’ John 11:25-26
The Scripture above, from the story of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead (our Scripture for April 10), gives the central affirmation of the Christian faith: that in Christ, everyone who lives and believes in Christ has eternal life. Through the sin of Adam, death entered the world. Through Christ, the power of death is broken. Life, not death, has the last word.
Our Scriptures for April follow Jesus through the final days of his earthly ministry, his triumphal Palm Sunday entry in to Jerusalem, the betrayal and arrest in the garden, the trial, and the crucifixion. But our Scriptures do not leave us there – our Easter scriptures tell of an empty tomb, the angel’s announcement, and the encounter of “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” with the risen Christ!
So often in our daily lives, it seems like Good Friday. Natural disaster, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, war and social unrest, the misconduct of our political and religious leaders, the unexpected illness and death of loved ones, and the struggles of daily life in this difficult economy – all these may leave us feeling surrounded by death. It seems like death has the last word. It may seem that God has abandoned us. But as Christians we know that when the powers of death have done their worst, that is God’s moment to bring about resurrection. In the words of a famous sermon, “It’s Friday……..but Sunday’s coming!”
In the words of the hymn:
“The powers of death have done their worst, but Christ their legions has dispersed:
Let shouts of holy joy outburst. Alleluia!”
See you in church!
Pastor Dave
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ –
“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" [Martha] said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."’’ John 11:25-26
The Scripture above, from the story of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead (our Scripture for April 10), gives the central affirmation of the Christian faith: that in Christ, everyone who lives and believes in Christ has eternal life. Through the sin of Adam, death entered the world. Through Christ, the power of death is broken. Life, not death, has the last word.
Our Scriptures for April follow Jesus through the final days of his earthly ministry, his triumphal Palm Sunday entry in to Jerusalem, the betrayal and arrest in the garden, the trial, and the crucifixion. But our Scriptures do not leave us there – our Easter scriptures tell of an empty tomb, the angel’s announcement, and the encounter of “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” with the risen Christ!
So often in our daily lives, it seems like Good Friday. Natural disaster, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, war and social unrest, the misconduct of our political and religious leaders, the unexpected illness and death of loved ones, and the struggles of daily life in this difficult economy – all these may leave us feeling surrounded by death. It seems like death has the last word. It may seem that God has abandoned us. But as Christians we know that when the powers of death have done their worst, that is God’s moment to bring about resurrection. In the words of a famous sermon, “It’s Friday……..but Sunday’s coming!”
In the words of the hymn:
“The powers of death have done their worst, but Christ their legions has dispersed:
Let shouts of holy joy outburst. Alleluia!”
See you in church!
Pastor Dave
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