Leviticus 2; Psalm 38:1-10, 18-22; I Corinthians 11:23-34; John 6:48-55,
Throughout the world, there are two basic raw foods which have fed people since ancient times. Grain and grapes, turned into bread and wine. Today we’ll take a look at why bread and wine are used in Holy Communion – and we’ll try to understand more deeply the meaning of Communion.
Grain – the seed of grass, many different types of grass – is the basic food used in almost every human society. Wheat is a form of grass, barley is a form of grass, maize corn is a form of grass, even rice is a form of grass. Millet, sorgum, buckwheat – all of these are forms of grass, and around the world, we find people who plant those grass seeds, harvest the seeds, and eat the seeds. And in most places, these seeds are ground into flour and turned into a form of bread. In fact, worldwide, we find that almost every culture with the exception of a very few, eat bread of one form or another. Flatbread, white bread, pizza, biscuits, French bread, pita bread, pancakes, Naan from India, or buchemgay from Korea, the basic food is grain flour mixed with some other ingredients and baked or fried.
There’s several reasons for this. First, some form of grain can grow almost anywhere. And people everywhere except the rainiest rain forests and the coldest Arctic areas live off the grains that can grow nearby. Second, grain grows without the constant attention that many other foods require. In many places, you can plant the grain in one season and harvest it six months later. And third, when you remove the moisture from the grain, when it gets good and dry, if you keep it dry, it can last for years and be ready to eat just by adding some moisture back to it. Grain can be kept around where other foods rot and spoil quickly. But flour or bread to which yeast has been added will spoil quickly unless it is thoroughly baked – something which was difficult to control in ancient times. So yeast was considered an impurity.
The other common food in much of the world is the grape and the wine that is made from it. The grape grows wild throughout much of the world. Just in North America, there are wild grapes that grow in Canada, wild grapes that grow around here, and even those wonderful muscadine and scupperdong grapes that grow in the Deep South. And in climates that have regular droughts, the grapevine’s deep, deep roots mean that established grapevines can live while everything around them is dying of thirst. And those grapes are ready to give their owners a nice sugary drink just when the water is least likely to be found – in August or September.
People can eat the grape or they can mash it into grape juice. And then, wonder of wonders, the grape juice, if left to itself for a few weeks, will turn into wine. And besides the well-known effects of wine on people – in modest quantities – positive – relaxation and peace – in higher quantities, drunkenness – the alcohol in the wine kills dangerous germs that would cause diarrhea and death. And so, in many parts of the world, wine was added to water – or water to wine, simply to purify the water. And there was one more benefit – a benefit in the days when starvation was far more common that obesity and diabetes and the dangers of them both. When the grape juice turned into wine, the calories were still there. The human liver, when not overwhelmed with too much wine, could turn the alcohol back into sugar, and live off those calories. And of course, wine could be kept for months or years, feeding people during the winter when there were no other foods except dried grain and bread.
And so, in much of the world before modern canning and refrigeration were developed, bread and wine – often diluted with water – bread and wine were the two basic foods of the 99% of the population who were poor farmers.
A third basic food was meat, whether sheep, goats, cattle, or pigs, these animals were grown and butchered. But what did the animals eat? Much the same as the people, the animals ate grain or the grass that brought forth the grain. And so people began to understand that in a very real way, the grain was what our bodies were made of.
Around the world, most of the ancient pagan cultures recognized that some years there were good harvests and some years there were poor harvests, and so they began to worship harvest gods. Greece, for example, had Demeter, the goddess of grain, and Dionysius, the god of grapes, while Rome had Ceres, the goddess of cereals, and Bacchus, the god of wine who brought joy. In ancient Israel, part of the Law of Moses laid down regulations for grain offerings.
Ever since the Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish nation observed the Passover Meal. And in that Passover meal, there were special foods – unrisen bread, bitter herbs, eggs, a sweet mixture, four glasses of red wine, and, of course, the sacrificial lamb. The Jews remembered that the blood of the Passover lamb had been spread over the doorways of the obedient homes, and the Angel of Death “passed over” those who had the blood on their doorways. They were saved by the blood of the lamb.
And then Jesus came along.
After three years of ministry, Jesus went to Jerusalem, where He was greeted by the crowd as the savior of Israel. He taught in the Temple courtyard that week to crowds and then on Thursday evening Jesus and His disciples retired to an upper room where they shared the traditional Passover meal. Jesus shocked them several times during this meal. At the beginning, he insisted upon washing everyone’s feet. At a time when people wore open sandals and walked on the same road as much livestock, by the end of the day, a person’s feet were dusty, dirty, and covered with the evidence of that livestock. Usually, the lowest slave was assigned the task of washing people’s feet, but this evening, Jesus stripped off his outer garment, got down on his knees and insisted upon washing each of His disciple’s feet. His point? The one who leads must be the servant of all. Disciples are to serve others, not lord over others. We would do well to remember this.
Then, during the meal, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for the bread to God the Father, broke the bread, and said, “This is my body which is broken for you. As often as you eat it, remember me.”
And then when the third cup of wine came around, he took the deep red wine and said, “This wine is my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink it, remember me.”
It was only later on that they understood the meaning. Indeed, even today, we are still attempting to understand the full meaning of the ceremony we call Holy Communion. Let’s see what we know.
There are essentially three views on Holy Communion. Let’s look at them.
Followers of Jean Calvin – which means many Baptists, members of Reformed churches, and Presbyterians – look at Holy Communion as an ordinance, which means we do it because Jesus commanded it to be done. There is no mystical meaning. In the view of Calvinists, Communion is a time to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – nothing more, nothing less. It is a time of sober reflection and remembering, a time to focus upon our guilt which led to Christ’s sacrifice. Excess bread is simply excess bread, to be handled as you would handle any other bread. In many Baptist churches, anyone can preside over the ceremony, since in this view, Communion is just a ceremony.
The Roman Catholic Church gives Holy Communion a much more important role. The ceremony is referred to as a sacrament, a special sacred ceremony in which God is directly involved and something spiritual occurs. Catholics believe that when the priest blesses the elements, the bread and the wine are turned into the actual body and blood of Christ. Therefore, because this Body is present, a Catholic Mass is usually somber, similar in tone to a funeral. The wafers and the wine, being the actual body and blood of Christ, are treated very carefully, with extra wine being poured upon consecrated ground which has been consecrated as one prepares a cemetery. Extra wafers are reserved until the next Mass, often kept in a special container with a red light near the altar. Only a properly ordained priest may preside over Holy Communion, what is often called the Eucharest.
John Wesley’s view of the sacrament of Holy Communion is derived from the Church of England’s view, and then other Methodist theologians over the years have expanded upon this view. It is a middle view in some ways, but leads us to a totally different tone during our celebration.
First of all, we believe that in some way, Jesus was telling us the truth when He said, “This is my body”. This is more than a reminder and yet we know that this bread has not turned into human flesh, and the grape juice has not turned into human blood. This is apparent to our eyes, our nose, and our tongue. So what does this mean?
After much debate, we have come to the conclusion that the spiritual presence of Jesus is here when the elements are blessed. John Wesley referred to Communion as a “means of grace”, a manner in which God gives us good things we don’t deserve. It is indeed a sacrament; God is directly involved. If you will, open up your heart to the idea that Jesus is standing there, that the Holy Spirit is moving around and within the elements, that a spiritual blessing is in the bread and the grape juice ready to be taken into your body if you choose.
Because of this, there are certain distinct parts to our ceremony. First, anyone who is reverently seeking God may join us at the table. Who are we, sinful creatures that we are, to deny another the grace of God? And balancing this is Paul’s comment in the I Corinthians passage:
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
This passage has been read incorrectly by some groups who maintain that you must be worthy to receive Communion and if so, then we are all in trouble because NO ONE is worthy to receive Communion. Yet thankfully, verse 27 clearly talks about eating in an unworthy manner. Are you being flippant? Are you approaching the table without even thinking about Christ? Are you actively making fun of the ceremony? Are you pushing and shoving others? Those might be unworthy ways. Instead, while you are in line, ask yourself how you might, with God’s help, improve in holiness.
How about discerning the body of Christ? Does this mean we need to see Jesus? No. Instead, are your emotions stirred either with joy or with deep emotion? Do you understand that Christ is present here? Do you see the connection between Jesus and the elements? That is what is needed – you do not have to see Jesus or look at the bread and see His flesh.
As part of our examination, we have a prayer. In this prayer, we admit our sinfulness and ask for forgiveness. There is nothing magical about this particular wording – any prayer of forgiveness is acceptable, particularly if you admit your greatest sins and ask forgiveness for them. It is normal for this part of the ceremony to find ourselves filled with guilt, sadness, and sorrow. We take time for you to pray silently about the private things in your life.
But then, the presider announces your forgiveness! He or she reminds you that Jesus promised to forgive us of all sins when we truly were sorry and asked forgiveness. And…joy of joys, we are forgiven! And so, the rest of the ceremony proceeds in a much more joyful tone.
We offer peace to each other. If we have someone we are fighting with, someone we have a bone to pick with, then we offer them forgiveness by sharing the Peace of Christ. And now we are at peace with God and at peace with the rest of the Body of Christ, which is the church.
Now, the presider leads us into a great prayer to the Almighty Father, as the great events of God and Jesus are recounted and remembered. Eventually, the elements are blessed by one who has been given authority by a bishop – which in the case of this church means myself or an ordained elder. This is to ensure that the ceremony is performed correctly. (Did you know that our bishop was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone who etc, etc, clear back to John Wesley and beyond that clear back to the Apostle Peter who was put in leadership by Jesus Himself? In the Wesleyan tradition, you cannot simply announce one day that you will preach and become a preacher. The pastor, the church, a group of other pastors, and the bishop must all agree. )
After the elements have been blessed, the prayer concludes. And then we share the elements with the congregation.
Some have asked: Why don’t we pass trays with pellets and little cups on them? There is nothing which prohibits us from doing so, but when we do so, we tend to forget another aspect of Holy Communion, which is COMMUNity. We share a common loaf; we share a common cup. In this way, we announce to everyone present that we inherently trust each other, and that we are part of one body, instead of a bunch of individuals having individual pieces in our individual seats.
Plus, for those who are able, there is something about coming forward to receive the elements that shows our willingness to work for Christ. It is easier to sit in our pew and have the elements passed. But is Christianity a spectator sport, a chance to be served? Or is it an active religion, where we get involved and do work for ourselves and others?
As you approach the elements, there is nothing wrong with positively greeting other people who are sitting or who are in line. This is a joyful, family meal, after all! We are all receiving blessing from God today! While many churches require you to put on your funeral face, our Wesleyan understanding is this: You have been forgiven by God, you have been forgiven by your fellow church members, God is going to give you food and drink, why shouldn’t you be happy and joyful?
Yet as we reach the front of the line, we would do well to remember one thing. Jesus is offering His body and blood to us – we are not taking it from Him. And so, holding your hands in a receptive position, allowing the bread to be placed into your hands rather than reaching out and taking the bread is proper. Receive Communion – don’t “take” Communion.
After dipping the bread in the grape juice, you may wish to pray at the altar, either by kneeling or standing. You may wish to thank God for the gifts you’ve been given, or pray for help in some area of your life or another’s life. Take your time.
By the way, you know that we use grape juice. This began in the 1830’s when Mr Welch developed a way of preserving grape juice without alcohol for communion because he had noticed several of his fellow church members had a problem not drinking alcoholic beverages. As the decades passed, the Methodists moved to the forefront of the Temperance movement, and so the tradition became for us to only use sweet grape juice in our ceremonies. A few years ago, however, the prohibition against using real wine was lifted in the United Methodist Church, recognizing that wine-drinking was not prohibited in the Bible – but habitually getting drunk is frowned upon and is a disqualification for leaders in the church. But sweet grape juice is still our custom here in this church, and so we stick with it, particularly because we recognize the damage that alcohol addiction has caused in our community.
And what about the leftovers? As all the miracles of Jesus were to give healing and life to people, we are to take the leftover bread and ideally consume it, or give it to the poor. Leftovers may be taken outside and fed to the birds, the remaining grape juice poured onto the soil where it can fertilize more life. We also have kits that allow you to take Communion to homebound people – see me if you’d like to be trained how to use the kits.
The ancients were right to recognize that there is something joyful about new life, about the ability of grain and grapes to feed people and to given them life. In many ways, Jesus is the embodiment of healing and life-giving power. His miracles were never destructive – fire did not flash from His fingertips as He fried His enemies, a laser beam did not slash His enemies in two. His strongest weapons were the very words He said which He reserved for those who blocked people from coming to God our Father.
Yet when He said that evening “this is my body” and “this is my blood”, and told us “as often as you do this, remember me”, He put a most powerful spiritual weapon in the hands of the church. Some churches deny Communion to people on the basis of their sin, their disobedience, the unbaptized state, their state of dress.
But the United Methodist Church opens Communion to all people.
As many of you know, Saundra and I spent a few years having a ministry to international students at Marietta College, mostly students from China. For months and years, some of them joined us on Sunday mornings as we brought up to two van-loads of students from the College to our church.
One morning, a particular girl who was and is very dear to us had joined us in Sunday school, and then we went upstairs to the main service which ended with Holy Communion being served. I had spent less time than usual with her that morning, as I explained on the way up the stairs, because I had to work with the younger students, and she was a “Big Girl”, now.
As I’d seen happen several times before, I saw her and her friends stand in the Communion line. Some did not stand in line, but simply watched, for they were not sure about what this would mean to them and their lives. This particular girl went through the line, head down, deep in thought, then took the elements. Afterwards, she was very quiet.
On the way home, after the other students had been let out at their dorms, she told Saundra and I that she had decided in that line that she WAS seeking God, and that she wanted to become a Christian. A couple of weeks later, she was baptized.
This strange ceremony we call Holy Communion is more than just a ceremony. It is a time when the fabric that separates us from Heaven is stretched thin and some of Heaven leaks through into those elements. Depending upon how you approach the table – in boredom and impatience, in fear and trembling, or with joy and expectation – God may choose to give you a snack of bread and grape juice, a sprinkle of grace, removing some of your fear, or an entire flood of blessings, as a Niagara of grace pours down from Heaven upon you because you have decided to let God do as God wills to you and through you.
You have heard that it is necessary to have a personal relationship with Jesus to truly become a follower of Him? What more could Jesus do for you than feed you? A mother feeds her child first through the umbilical cord, and then through her breast milk. Her child received life through what her body manufactures. And thus a close bond is formed.
Jesus has gone even further. He says that the bread is His body, the juice is His blood. He asks you to understand this whenever you eat and drink, not just in this particular ceremony, but at every meal. Do you eat grain – bread, pasta, buns, pancakes, waffles, biscuits? Do you drink juice or wine? If so, remember that Jesus is with you and has given you this.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, we hear these words:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the beginning, the Word existed. And the Word of God was made flesh and became Jesus the Christ. And so, when He told us that this bread was His body and this wine was His blood, we should remember that “Through him all things were made; with him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
How is life sustained? Jesus told us: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And Jesus was the Word of God who flows through the bread that you will have on your table today for lunch, if you discern Him to be there, if you see with your heart that He is there, and has given this to you.
Jesus Himself said this:
53 … “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
If you would have eternal life, you must eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. For that is where life comes from…it flows through the bread, it flows in the lifeblood of animals or in the wine, but the life that lasts, the eternal life flows from the Word of God, who is Jesus the Christ, who sits by the right hand of God the Father – and who is present at this table every time we share Holy Communion. Is it any wonder that John Wesley urged his followers to receive Communion as often as possible?
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
The Pentecost Drama - The Birth of the Christian Church
Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:24-35; Romans 8:14-17; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17,
In ancient times, the story was told that was passed down to Moses about the arrogance of people in the far ancient times. It seems that after the Great Flood, some of the descendents of Noah moved south and east from Mt Ararat and began to live in the land of Shinar, the land we call today Iraq. And they decided that it was necessary for them to become known to all the other people, they were trying to “make a name for themselves”, and so they decided to build a great tower which would extend upward to heaven. And so this group of people began to work very hard at building this great tower, a tower that was unnecessary because there was plenty of room in the world for people, yet they wanted to become famous, and so they began to build that tower.
God looked down upon them and saw what they were doing. God said to another member of the Trinity – “Because they are working together at this, there is nothing that they will not be able to accomplish.” And God gave them all different languages and so they could not understand each other and scattered over the land.
The Tower of Babel is a difficult story for us. Was God simply being petty, like a human boy who kicks over an anthill because it has become too tall? Is our God trying to keep us down under control, afraid that we will challenge God in heaven one day?
No, the problem with the Tower of Babel was two-fold. First, the people were working at a vain task, a task with no more real need than this church choosing to put a 150 foot cross in front of the church – it is a waste of resources, simply a padding of the ego, nothing that actually accomplishes anything worthwhile. It is sin, in just the same way that buying a Ferrari or a Rolls-Royce or a Rolex watch is simply a way of saying to other people, “I’m important!” The people wanted to be like God and live in heaven, looking over the rest of the earth, looking down at the rest of the earth.
And the second reason God intervened at the Tower of Babel? It was because God knew that after this project there would be another project and another and another and the most important thing in the Universe for people to do – to try to get close to God – would be ignored in the rush to build great monuments.
And so God made it difficult for people to work together. And for centuries, people did not work well together, because now they spoke different languages, and that meant they had different customs, and different interests, and they also had different spirits.
Thousands of years later, when Jesus chose to die on the cross, He had a Passover meal with His disciples in an upper room – a second or third story room just above the street level. In that upper room, He gave a long talk. The disciple Philip interrupted Jesus and asked Him to just show them the Father. "Just let us see God and that will be enough!" But the disciples had seen God. They just didn’t get it, they just didn’t understand, their life in this world kept them from understanding the God-man who was standing right in front of them.
Our reading from the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus reminded His disciples that He and the Father were One and the same. Jesus said:
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."
Once more, Jesus had to tell them that He was God in the flesh, come to earth, that He was not just a smart and wise teacher, that He really was God talking to them. They had been with Him three years, they had eaten with Him, followed Him, talked with Him and they thought they knew Him, but they still didn’t know Him for who He was, and that was another reason Jesus had to die and come back to life – because it was obvious by their actions when He was arrested that these disciples were not blind religious fanatics following a man they knew to be God because they denied Jesus, they kept their distance, they hid themselves, they made plans to leave town. Down deep, the disciples did not believe that Jesus was God because the Gospels don’t record the fanatical actions of men who knew they were following the God of the Universe, they don’t even record people doing special things, all they record are people who act as though their leader and friend and son has been arrested and executed.
That night, Jesus had told them they potentially had great power to change the world:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Yet, the disciples forgot these words that night and treated Jesus and his arrest as though it was the arrest of any other political criminal. And they hid.
That night, Jesus even told that He was sending them a replacement, the Spirit of truth, who would live in them and be in them. But those words just went over their heads – they were so upset, they were depressed, they knew that Jesus was brilliant and wise, but they also knew that when a man are arrested and executed, He is gone, even if He is the man who called Lazarus back from the dead...
Yet a few days later, Jesus was back from the dead, and things changed. The disciples began to remember what Jesus had said, and why not? He was the God-man who had come back from the dead, and that return from death finally convinced them.
They ate and talked with Him for a month. He taught them scriptures, He showed them where the Old Testament talked about Him, and He breathed upon them, transferring to the Eleven the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit that would stay behind and guide them. And now, they believed – even Thomas, who missed the first night when Jesus returned, but Thomas believed when He saw Jesus a week later.
And then, Jesus went home to His Father, sitting at His right hand in the place of honor, awaiting the events of the end of time when He will return again.
Peter and James the brother of Jesus took charge. Peter urged the disciples to replace Judas the traitor with another witness, a man who had been with them from the first miracle at Cana when Jesus changed water into wine, a man who had seen the healings, the curing, the raising from the dead of Lazarus and a man who had witness the risen Christ. Nominating two men, the disciples left the final decision up to God by drawing lots and Mathias became the replacement disciple. And they prayed daily and read scripture daily as they waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them as Jesus had promised on the day He returned to Heaven.
And they waited…
And they waited…
For ten days they waited...
It was the morning of the festival of first fruits, the day of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, the morning when the early harvest would be celebrated, the spring wheat harvest, the barley harvest, the day that tradition said God had made the rainbow promise and covenant with Noah, the same day that Moses had come down from God’s mountain with the Law, the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. This day was the day when the first fruits harvested were brought to the temple and sacrificed to God. It was the beginning of the harvest season, when all sorts of produce was brought into the Temple, God’s Temple, and God received what was God’s portion, and today, God would receive the first fruits of a different harvest.
The Twelve and another 120 or so disciples were together that Sunday morning in prayer in an upper room. Downstairs, the cooking fires were going, breakfast was being prepared. All was hushed, all was quiet as the disciples quietly read scripture, perhaps discussing it back and forth, looking for signs of Jesus in the Old Testament scrolls, when suddenly it happened:
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
Remember that in the ancient languages of the Bible, the same word means breath, wind, and spirit. That morning a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven – it was the breath of God, the wind from heaven, the Spirit of God coming to each of them in power and force! The noise was loud, the noise woke up any who were falling asleep, the noise was powerful!
And then, settling down upon each one of them came tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. The Fire of God, the Fire of the Spirit of God, and they must have remembered that when the Israelites left Egypt they followed a pillar of fire by night which was God as they were led from slavery to the freedom of life with God.
And the disciples began to speak. “God is Great!” one said. Another said, “Dios es Grande”. Still another said, “Bog velik!” Another said, “Asvate mets e” “O Theós eínai megálos” said another, and another said, “Deus magnus est”. In dozens of languages, each person began to praise God, saying God is Great, Praise God, and a host of other phrases – and what was amazing was that they were speaking languages they did not know, but which other people knew, they were attracting a crowd, the noise and the shouting was pulling people in from the neighborhood, people wanted to see what God had done that was so great and someone shouted: “They’re DRUNK!” and there was some laughter.
And it was at this point that a big, rough, brawny fishing boat captain stood up and with his mighty voice stopped the noise.
Peter had endured terrible things over the last few weeks. He had promised his leader Jesus that he would always stick by him, no matter what, and then later on that night, when his leader and friend was arrested, Peter had slunk into the shadows, denying that he even knew Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times Peter denied knowing Jesus. Peter wept bitterly that night at his failure.
Peter had seen Jesus come back from the dead, realized that Jesus was indeed God, and Peter had realized that he had turned his back on God Himself, and Peter knew that he had done wrong, that he had been a deserter, and that he deserved terrible punishment. For weeks, Peter had lived with the awful gnawing pain in his stomach, the pain that you get when you know you’ve done wrong and it is just a matter of time before your shameful act comes out in public and you are embarrassed, humiliated, and punished terribly. For weeks, Peter had been terrified of God and Jesus and how they would treat his guilty desertion at the time Jesus had most needed a friend. Peter had been a wreck.
But Jesus had met Peter on the shore of Galilee and forgiven Peter, not once, not twice, but three times, and He had put Peter into leadership, just as He forgives everyone who repents and asks for forgiveness and now on this morning, when someone thought the disciples had had too much to drink, a restored and confidant Peter stood up with the other Eleven Apostles at his back and roared back:
“People of Jerusalem! They can’t be drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning. But I’ll tell you what this is!.
This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Peter roared at the crowd for many minutes more and the Eleven men behind him supported his every word. He told the crowd of Jesus of Nazareth and His miracles, He bluntly told them that the crowd had killed him. that Jesus had died and come back to life. He told them that the Twelve Men standing there had witnessed this Resurrection. And He told the people that Jesus was now Lord and Messiah and they had missed Him and God had promised to make footstools out of the Messiah’s enemies. And at that point someone realized Peter was talking to everyone there, including that someone, that the enemies of the Messiah would be made into footstools by God, and that someone asked, “What are we to do?” What do you do when you’ve killed God and He has come back to life and you’ve realized what you’ve done?
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
That was the day when people as a group began to do the will of God. That day, as the Holy Spirit came into each of those three thousand people at their baptism, they experienced peace and joy. That day, the church was born and people were no longer alone in this world without God.
Now, people could listen to the Holy Spirit and hear God’s direction, God’s leading, God’s will about their lives. Now, two or three or dozens of people could be directed by God directly to do great things. Now, the work of changing the world for the better began.
The great and awesome works that God had stopped at the Tower of Babel were able now to be done, because now people were doing great things because they knew God’s direction, they had God’s powerful Spirit flowing through them, and they once again spoke a common language, the language of loving people, which is a language which brings people together because God is involved.
The Holy Spirit enables Christians to do all good things, for Christ flows through the Holy Spirit and gives power and direction to Christians who listen to that Spirit. And we received that Spirit at baptism, as the three thousand did that wonderful day of Pentecost. That Holy Spirit is still here today, guiding the church and each Christian who chooses to listen to the Spirit. The powerful drama of Pentecost can happen again and again, even today, just as the Holy Spirit has swept through Mingo and Logan counties in southern West Virginia in the last few weeks. Indeed, the Holy Spirit can sweep through here also.
But there are questions we need to answer.
How much do we want the Holy Spirit to lead us?
Are you willing to give up your plans for your life and follow God’s plan for your life? Are you willing to do something crazy, strange, and out of the ordinary to receive the extraordinary blessings of God?
Have you received the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit still a mystery to you? Do you want the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s gifts of joy, peace, and the chance to be transformed by God? Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you this morning? Is the Spirit telling you to let go, to trust in God, to stop worrying and cast everything upon your trust in God?
People fall into three categories:
First, there are the unbaptized people who are without the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They may do good and they may do bad, but they are not in God’s will, they are still in rebellion to God. Come forward to arrange for you to be baptized or for your children to be baptized. Just wave me over.
Second, there are those who have been baptized who have chosen to ignore the Holy Spirit, or who cannot hear the Spirit. Tonight, at our Pentecost Gospel Sing celebration we will talk more about the Holy Spirit. Our Wednesday evening class has focused upon hearing and understanding the Holy Spirit. We will have one more session this week. I urge you to attend at 6:15 this Wednesday.
Third, there are those joyous people who listen to the Holy Spirit and have more or less learned to let the Spirit guide their lives. To speak directly with God, to know you are talking with God, to understand how to be in God’s presence is a great gift of God. I urge you – do what the Spirit is asking you to do. If the Spirit says Speak, then SPEAK! If the Spirit says do, then DO!
Let us all stand, join hands, and form a giant loop, everyone connected.
And now I ask you to join me in this prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit. Do Your will.
Come, Holy Spirit, Grow Your church.
Come, Holy Spirit, Transform my life.
Speak to us, speak to me, speak your words.
Tell us what we shall do.
Tell me who I am.
Tell us of the One we serve.
Guide us to all truth.
Guide us to all joy,
Guide me in my life.
This I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen
In ancient times, the story was told that was passed down to Moses about the arrogance of people in the far ancient times. It seems that after the Great Flood, some of the descendents of Noah moved south and east from Mt Ararat and began to live in the land of Shinar, the land we call today Iraq. And they decided that it was necessary for them to become known to all the other people, they were trying to “make a name for themselves”, and so they decided to build a great tower which would extend upward to heaven. And so this group of people began to work very hard at building this great tower, a tower that was unnecessary because there was plenty of room in the world for people, yet they wanted to become famous, and so they began to build that tower.
God looked down upon them and saw what they were doing. God said to another member of the Trinity – “Because they are working together at this, there is nothing that they will not be able to accomplish.” And God gave them all different languages and so they could not understand each other and scattered over the land.
The Tower of Babel is a difficult story for us. Was God simply being petty, like a human boy who kicks over an anthill because it has become too tall? Is our God trying to keep us down under control, afraid that we will challenge God in heaven one day?
No, the problem with the Tower of Babel was two-fold. First, the people were working at a vain task, a task with no more real need than this church choosing to put a 150 foot cross in front of the church – it is a waste of resources, simply a padding of the ego, nothing that actually accomplishes anything worthwhile. It is sin, in just the same way that buying a Ferrari or a Rolls-Royce or a Rolex watch is simply a way of saying to other people, “I’m important!” The people wanted to be like God and live in heaven, looking over the rest of the earth, looking down at the rest of the earth.
And the second reason God intervened at the Tower of Babel? It was because God knew that after this project there would be another project and another and another and the most important thing in the Universe for people to do – to try to get close to God – would be ignored in the rush to build great monuments.
And so God made it difficult for people to work together. And for centuries, people did not work well together, because now they spoke different languages, and that meant they had different customs, and different interests, and they also had different spirits.
Thousands of years later, when Jesus chose to die on the cross, He had a Passover meal with His disciples in an upper room – a second or third story room just above the street level. In that upper room, He gave a long talk. The disciple Philip interrupted Jesus and asked Him to just show them the Father. "Just let us see God and that will be enough!" But the disciples had seen God. They just didn’t get it, they just didn’t understand, their life in this world kept them from understanding the God-man who was standing right in front of them.
Our reading from the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus reminded His disciples that He and the Father were One and the same. Jesus said:
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."
Once more, Jesus had to tell them that He was God in the flesh, come to earth, that He was not just a smart and wise teacher, that He really was God talking to them. They had been with Him three years, they had eaten with Him, followed Him, talked with Him and they thought they knew Him, but they still didn’t know Him for who He was, and that was another reason Jesus had to die and come back to life – because it was obvious by their actions when He was arrested that these disciples were not blind religious fanatics following a man they knew to be God because they denied Jesus, they kept their distance, they hid themselves, they made plans to leave town. Down deep, the disciples did not believe that Jesus was God because the Gospels don’t record the fanatical actions of men who knew they were following the God of the Universe, they don’t even record people doing special things, all they record are people who act as though their leader and friend and son has been arrested and executed.
That night, Jesus had told them they potentially had great power to change the world:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Yet, the disciples forgot these words that night and treated Jesus and his arrest as though it was the arrest of any other political criminal. And they hid.
That night, Jesus even told that He was sending them a replacement, the Spirit of truth, who would live in them and be in them. But those words just went over their heads – they were so upset, they were depressed, they knew that Jesus was brilliant and wise, but they also knew that when a man are arrested and executed, He is gone, even if He is the man who called Lazarus back from the dead...
Yet a few days later, Jesus was back from the dead, and things changed. The disciples began to remember what Jesus had said, and why not? He was the God-man who had come back from the dead, and that return from death finally convinced them.
They ate and talked with Him for a month. He taught them scriptures, He showed them where the Old Testament talked about Him, and He breathed upon them, transferring to the Eleven the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit that would stay behind and guide them. And now, they believed – even Thomas, who missed the first night when Jesus returned, but Thomas believed when He saw Jesus a week later.
And then, Jesus went home to His Father, sitting at His right hand in the place of honor, awaiting the events of the end of time when He will return again.
Peter and James the brother of Jesus took charge. Peter urged the disciples to replace Judas the traitor with another witness, a man who had been with them from the first miracle at Cana when Jesus changed water into wine, a man who had seen the healings, the curing, the raising from the dead of Lazarus and a man who had witness the risen Christ. Nominating two men, the disciples left the final decision up to God by drawing lots and Mathias became the replacement disciple. And they prayed daily and read scripture daily as they waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them as Jesus had promised on the day He returned to Heaven.
And they waited…
And they waited…
For ten days they waited...
It was the morning of the festival of first fruits, the day of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, the morning when the early harvest would be celebrated, the spring wheat harvest, the barley harvest, the day that tradition said God had made the rainbow promise and covenant with Noah, the same day that Moses had come down from God’s mountain with the Law, the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. This day was the day when the first fruits harvested were brought to the temple and sacrificed to God. It was the beginning of the harvest season, when all sorts of produce was brought into the Temple, God’s Temple, and God received what was God’s portion, and today, God would receive the first fruits of a different harvest.
The Twelve and another 120 or so disciples were together that Sunday morning in prayer in an upper room. Downstairs, the cooking fires were going, breakfast was being prepared. All was hushed, all was quiet as the disciples quietly read scripture, perhaps discussing it back and forth, looking for signs of Jesus in the Old Testament scrolls, when suddenly it happened:
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
Remember that in the ancient languages of the Bible, the same word means breath, wind, and spirit. That morning a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven – it was the breath of God, the wind from heaven, the Spirit of God coming to each of them in power and force! The noise was loud, the noise woke up any who were falling asleep, the noise was powerful!
And then, settling down upon each one of them came tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. The Fire of God, the Fire of the Spirit of God, and they must have remembered that when the Israelites left Egypt they followed a pillar of fire by night which was God as they were led from slavery to the freedom of life with God.
And the disciples began to speak. “God is Great!” one said. Another said, “Dios es Grande”. Still another said, “Bog velik!” Another said, “Asvate mets e” “O Theós eínai megálos” said another, and another said, “Deus magnus est”. In dozens of languages, each person began to praise God, saying God is Great, Praise God, and a host of other phrases – and what was amazing was that they were speaking languages they did not know, but which other people knew, they were attracting a crowd, the noise and the shouting was pulling people in from the neighborhood, people wanted to see what God had done that was so great and someone shouted: “They’re DRUNK!” and there was some laughter.
And it was at this point that a big, rough, brawny fishing boat captain stood up and with his mighty voice stopped the noise.
Peter had endured terrible things over the last few weeks. He had promised his leader Jesus that he would always stick by him, no matter what, and then later on that night, when his leader and friend was arrested, Peter had slunk into the shadows, denying that he even knew Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times Peter denied knowing Jesus. Peter wept bitterly that night at his failure.
Peter had seen Jesus come back from the dead, realized that Jesus was indeed God, and Peter had realized that he had turned his back on God Himself, and Peter knew that he had done wrong, that he had been a deserter, and that he deserved terrible punishment. For weeks, Peter had lived with the awful gnawing pain in his stomach, the pain that you get when you know you’ve done wrong and it is just a matter of time before your shameful act comes out in public and you are embarrassed, humiliated, and punished terribly. For weeks, Peter had been terrified of God and Jesus and how they would treat his guilty desertion at the time Jesus had most needed a friend. Peter had been a wreck.
But Jesus had met Peter on the shore of Galilee and forgiven Peter, not once, not twice, but three times, and He had put Peter into leadership, just as He forgives everyone who repents and asks for forgiveness and now on this morning, when someone thought the disciples had had too much to drink, a restored and confidant Peter stood up with the other Eleven Apostles at his back and roared back:
“People of Jerusalem! They can’t be drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning. But I’ll tell you what this is!.
This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Peter roared at the crowd for many minutes more and the Eleven men behind him supported his every word. He told the crowd of Jesus of Nazareth and His miracles, He bluntly told them that the crowd had killed him. that Jesus had died and come back to life. He told them that the Twelve Men standing there had witnessed this Resurrection. And He told the people that Jesus was now Lord and Messiah and they had missed Him and God had promised to make footstools out of the Messiah’s enemies. And at that point someone realized Peter was talking to everyone there, including that someone, that the enemies of the Messiah would be made into footstools by God, and that someone asked, “What are we to do?” What do you do when you’ve killed God and He has come back to life and you’ve realized what you’ve done?
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
That was the day when people as a group began to do the will of God. That day, as the Holy Spirit came into each of those three thousand people at their baptism, they experienced peace and joy. That day, the church was born and people were no longer alone in this world without God.
Now, people could listen to the Holy Spirit and hear God’s direction, God’s leading, God’s will about their lives. Now, two or three or dozens of people could be directed by God directly to do great things. Now, the work of changing the world for the better began.
The great and awesome works that God had stopped at the Tower of Babel were able now to be done, because now people were doing great things because they knew God’s direction, they had God’s powerful Spirit flowing through them, and they once again spoke a common language, the language of loving people, which is a language which brings people together because God is involved.
The Holy Spirit enables Christians to do all good things, for Christ flows through the Holy Spirit and gives power and direction to Christians who listen to that Spirit. And we received that Spirit at baptism, as the three thousand did that wonderful day of Pentecost. That Holy Spirit is still here today, guiding the church and each Christian who chooses to listen to the Spirit. The powerful drama of Pentecost can happen again and again, even today, just as the Holy Spirit has swept through Mingo and Logan counties in southern West Virginia in the last few weeks. Indeed, the Holy Spirit can sweep through here also.
But there are questions we need to answer.
How much do we want the Holy Spirit to lead us?
Are you willing to give up your plans for your life and follow God’s plan for your life? Are you willing to do something crazy, strange, and out of the ordinary to receive the extraordinary blessings of God?
Have you received the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit still a mystery to you? Do you want the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s gifts of joy, peace, and the chance to be transformed by God? Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you this morning? Is the Spirit telling you to let go, to trust in God, to stop worrying and cast everything upon your trust in God?
People fall into three categories:
First, there are the unbaptized people who are without the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They may do good and they may do bad, but they are not in God’s will, they are still in rebellion to God. Come forward to arrange for you to be baptized or for your children to be baptized. Just wave me over.
Second, there are those who have been baptized who have chosen to ignore the Holy Spirit, or who cannot hear the Spirit. Tonight, at our Pentecost Gospel Sing celebration we will talk more about the Holy Spirit. Our Wednesday evening class has focused upon hearing and understanding the Holy Spirit. We will have one more session this week. I urge you to attend at 6:15 this Wednesday.
Third, there are those joyous people who listen to the Holy Spirit and have more or less learned to let the Spirit guide their lives. To speak directly with God, to know you are talking with God, to understand how to be in God’s presence is a great gift of God. I urge you – do what the Spirit is asking you to do. If the Spirit says Speak, then SPEAK! If the Spirit says do, then DO!
Let us all stand, join hands, and form a giant loop, everyone connected.
And now I ask you to join me in this prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit. Do Your will.
Come, Holy Spirit, Grow Your church.
Come, Holy Spirit, Transform my life.
Speak to us, speak to me, speak your words.
Tell us what we shall do.
Tell me who I am.
Tell us of the One we serve.
Guide us to all truth.
Guide us to all joy,
Guide me in my life.
This I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Going Home - The Meaning of the Ascension of Jesus Christ to Heaven
Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
I’m glad to see that many of you have come home today to be with your mothers and grandmothers. I’m glad you are here on Mother’s day. It is a special time when you come home. There is something about home that is special – and it will be special to you simply because it is home.
As many of you know, my home town is St. Marys, WV. My parents moved into their new home a month before I was born, and they still live there. Many things have changed since I was a young child – the big maple had to be cut before it fell on the house, the forsythia bush I played under is gone, replaced by a deck, the pine trees that were planted when I was young grew up and were cut down and made into lumber that became the sun porch, the gravel driveway is now blacktopped, the barbed wire fence I rode my bike into the first day I had learned to ride it, the fence that tore at my chin and caused Dr West to give me three stitches – that fence is long gone. Even the volunteer peach tree that gave us peaches my sister and I ate off the tree when we came home from school is gone. But the big fence that separates the property from the Wilson farm is still there, the hardwood floors are still there under the carpet, and my room, looking much neater, is still in the basement.
When I walk around that property and that home, I feel more in control. I have a certain freedom there I don’t have anywhere else. If I were to dig a hole, my father might ask why, but no one would be upset. If I wanted to cut a dead limb off a tree, it’s my choice. If I choose to lie in my old room and take a nap, no one disturbs me. I have a certain power and a certain freedom when I’m back home that I don’t have anywhere else. It is like the soil and the weather and the air are just right and I am recharged with energy. It is where I was first planted, like a tree planted in the right soil, and everything is right there. It is where I feel comfortable and at peace.
And it’s more than just the property. When I visit St Marys, I run into people I knew years ago. There are my friends from my class in school, and they mostly remember me because we only graduated 105 people. I even run into my old teachers, some of whom are now in their 90’s.
I’m sure you have such a place. It may be where you grew up, or it may be where you live now. It may just be your bedroom. It is a place where you have a certain freedom, a certain power to do things your way, a place where the soil is right and you can thrive.
In our readings, we have two readings that were written by the same man. The first reading from the Book of Acts, was written by Luke, as well as the Gospel reading, also written by Luke. Both readings describe a day about 40 days after the Resurrection, when Jesus chose to leave us here on earth and return home to His Father, to His home.
Jesus had spent much of this time teaching His disciples. One day, He was eating with his disciples – have you noticed how important eating together is in the Gospel stories? That was because in those days you did not eat with people you didn’t trust and love. Even today, we see that some people don’t feel comfortable eating around other people. But this was even stronger then, in a time when the cost of food was more than half your income, you needed to trust the people you were eating with, for you were sharing food, you were sharing your wealth, and those other people might eat all your precious food. It’s like my little dog Brownie, who won’t ever share food, she growls, she might even bite if you tried to pick up that piece of bread that fell on the floor in front of her. I’m sure your dog is equally friendly to other dogs when food is concerned.
Well, one day Jesus was eating with His disciples and “he gave them this command:“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
This woke up the disciples. They became excited. “Are you ready to restore Israel’s kingdom?” The disciples wanted to know if Jesus was ready to become king, to drive out the Romans, to remove Herod the outsider from power and restore Israel to her former glory that she had when David and Solomon ruled her! The disciples still did not understand what Jesus was doing!
By their question, it is clear that they thought in terms of political and military power. “If we just had control of the government, everything would be great!” they thought, and they had the ideal candidate to run the government. Jesus would make the perfect warrior king – and they were right about this. But Jesus had a longer term plan for His kingdom, He wanted to change the hearts and minds and souls of people, He wanted to change the entire moral basis of government, He wanted to completely change the entire world, and if He became a normal king in 33 AD, the only things that would happen would be the suffering and death and destruction of men and women and children and cities and homes.
And so Jesus says back to the disciples: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Only God the Father knows when the kingdom will be restored on earth. But you will receive the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit brings power, the power to change the world, the power to bring justice and righteousness to the world, the power to bring hurting and suffering and dying souls into a relationship with God and Jesus, and find healing and hope and life.
And disciples? You will be the witnesses of what Jesus has taught and said and done, including his sacrificial death and his resurrection. First, they are to go to their local surroundings – the city of Jerusalem and tell what they have seen. Next, they are to go to the county-sized area of Judea. Third, they are to go to the people nearby who disgusted the disciples, the Samarians. And finally, they are to go to the ends of the earth.
This is a lesson for us. We are to spread the Gospel close to home, in Quiet Dell, in Bridgeport, in Romine’s Mills. Then we are to move throughout Harrison and Barbour Counties. Next, we are to make sure we share the Gospel with people we don’t like or understand very well. And then, we are to go to the ends of the earth.
And then, Jesus went home. He went back to be with God the Father. As Paul told us in the Ephesians reading, Jesus went back to where God the Father “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under Jesus’ feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Jesus went to where His true power could be used. He returned to His home.
When Jesus came to earth, He had voluntarily given up almost all of His divine power, choosing to come to earth as a weak human infant. We see that as He grew, He rarely exercised His God-powers, choosing only to heal in various ways – curing blindness, chasing demons out of people, healing lepers, raising dead people to life. In each case, Jesus demonstrated His life-giving powers. He did not blast people with flames of fire from His hands. He did not destroy cities with lightning bolts. He did not kill people with rays from his eyes.
He healed and brought life to people. He helped them to grow again, to be restored to health, to come to life. His touch was like fertilizer for the body and the soul. He helped dying people to come to life and thrive.
And as the disciples learned to listen to the Holy Spirit, they also began to thrive. In a few short days, the Holy Spirit was poured upon all the disciples, both the Twelve and the greater group of 120 disciples, both men and women. Pentecost arrived and 3000 people were baptized. Now called apostles, the Twelve and the seven Deacons spoke to people in Jerusalem and more people came to know the life-giving touch of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The Deacons and then the Apostles went throughout Judea, spreading the Good News, then some actually went to Samaria and they brought the Good News and the Holy Spirit to the Samarians whom they detested. And soon after that, even hated Romans and a foreigner from Ethiopia received the Holy Spirit and were baptized. More people became apostles, proclaimers of the Good News and the Holy Spirit and the story of Jesus spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, to Europe, to India, to China, to Ireland, and eventually to the Americas and deep into Africa.
And how about you?
Have you heard the Good News of Jesus Christ? Have you heard that Jesus Christ taught an entirely new way of living, a way of life, a way that values all people just as much as the wealthy and the powerful? Have you heard that Jesus Christ claimed many times to be God Himself walking on this earth? Have you heard that Jesus died to pay all the penalties for all the crimes against God and other people you have committed, both the crimes the world recognizes and the crimes that only you and God know about? Have you heard that Jesus rose from the dead after His death upon the cross to prove that He was God Himself and He holds the power over life and death itself?
Your life may be a struggle today. This world and our culture do things to us which drive us to despair because we have mixed up what is good and what is evil, what is important and what is trivial, what is wonderful and what is destructive. In our attempts to live, we slowly kill ourselves because we do not have the power to defeat death, and just like a fish caught on a fishing line, the more we try to fight our death enemy, the quicker we exhaust ourselves and the quicker we die, hopeless, gasping for clean water as we are hauled out of the life-giving water and dry out in the hot sun by the enemy’s boots.
But everything that Jesus brought to us and taught us and showed us was how to live a more abundant life, an eternal life, a life filled with wonder. The more we learn about Jesus’ teachings, both His words and His example, the more we find that His path is the way to life, not despair, not imprisonment, not trouble.
But we are often like the bunny that my wife Saundra once saw, a bunny that had lived his entire life in a 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot cage, and when he was released onto an open floor and could run for his life, he chose to hop 2 ft, turn, then he hopped 2 ft, turned, then hopped 2 ft in a tight little square and then he sat there, because all of his life, just like ours, he had lived in that tight cage. Our cages are of our own making, they are made of steel called sin and despair which are supplied by Satan, and Jesus is ready to remove your cage. Will you run for the open pasture, as a freed bunny should? Will you thrive in the freedom from sin, in the open air of God’s forgiveness, in the sunlight of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offers? Or will you stay in your cage, hopping around in your 2 ft square life?
When you become a Christian, we baptize you with the water of life. That water comes along with the Holy Spirit, and fertilizes your life – if you choose to let the Holy Spirit and the Living Water of Christ into your life. If you listen to the Holy Spirit, if you read the Word of God, your life will change.
Where you had almost died, your leaves will turn green and you will grow, you will spring up, you will thrive as though you were once again at home in the perfect soil of your home, in the place where you are free to live and experiment, when you are able to be filled with the energy of home because, you see, you are once again back in the good soil of humanities home, you are walking with God once more in the cool of the evening, just as Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden, because, you see, the Garden of Eden was fruitful and wonderful and beautiful not because of anything it naturally had – but it was fruitful and wonderful and beautiful because it was the place where God walked in the cool of the evening, and when you read the Word of God, Holy Scripture, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, when you listen to God the Holy Spirit, when you talk to God the Father through prayer, then you are walking with God in the cool of the evening and God is walking with you and you are home, you have come to your true home, the place where peace and beauty await you, the place where you can thrive.
Join in this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jNJ59o4QgE
I’m glad to see that many of you have come home today to be with your mothers and grandmothers. I’m glad you are here on Mother’s day. It is a special time when you come home. There is something about home that is special – and it will be special to you simply because it is home.
As many of you know, my home town is St. Marys, WV. My parents moved into their new home a month before I was born, and they still live there. Many things have changed since I was a young child – the big maple had to be cut before it fell on the house, the forsythia bush I played under is gone, replaced by a deck, the pine trees that were planted when I was young grew up and were cut down and made into lumber that became the sun porch, the gravel driveway is now blacktopped, the barbed wire fence I rode my bike into the first day I had learned to ride it, the fence that tore at my chin and caused Dr West to give me three stitches – that fence is long gone. Even the volunteer peach tree that gave us peaches my sister and I ate off the tree when we came home from school is gone. But the big fence that separates the property from the Wilson farm is still there, the hardwood floors are still there under the carpet, and my room, looking much neater, is still in the basement.
When I walk around that property and that home, I feel more in control. I have a certain freedom there I don’t have anywhere else. If I were to dig a hole, my father might ask why, but no one would be upset. If I wanted to cut a dead limb off a tree, it’s my choice. If I choose to lie in my old room and take a nap, no one disturbs me. I have a certain power and a certain freedom when I’m back home that I don’t have anywhere else. It is like the soil and the weather and the air are just right and I am recharged with energy. It is where I was first planted, like a tree planted in the right soil, and everything is right there. It is where I feel comfortable and at peace.
And it’s more than just the property. When I visit St Marys, I run into people I knew years ago. There are my friends from my class in school, and they mostly remember me because we only graduated 105 people. I even run into my old teachers, some of whom are now in their 90’s.
I’m sure you have such a place. It may be where you grew up, or it may be where you live now. It may just be your bedroom. It is a place where you have a certain freedom, a certain power to do things your way, a place where the soil is right and you can thrive.
In our readings, we have two readings that were written by the same man. The first reading from the Book of Acts, was written by Luke, as well as the Gospel reading, also written by Luke. Both readings describe a day about 40 days after the Resurrection, when Jesus chose to leave us here on earth and return home to His Father, to His home.
Jesus had spent much of this time teaching His disciples. One day, He was eating with his disciples – have you noticed how important eating together is in the Gospel stories? That was because in those days you did not eat with people you didn’t trust and love. Even today, we see that some people don’t feel comfortable eating around other people. But this was even stronger then, in a time when the cost of food was more than half your income, you needed to trust the people you were eating with, for you were sharing food, you were sharing your wealth, and those other people might eat all your precious food. It’s like my little dog Brownie, who won’t ever share food, she growls, she might even bite if you tried to pick up that piece of bread that fell on the floor in front of her. I’m sure your dog is equally friendly to other dogs when food is concerned.
Well, one day Jesus was eating with His disciples and “he gave them this command:“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
This woke up the disciples. They became excited. “Are you ready to restore Israel’s kingdom?” The disciples wanted to know if Jesus was ready to become king, to drive out the Romans, to remove Herod the outsider from power and restore Israel to her former glory that she had when David and Solomon ruled her! The disciples still did not understand what Jesus was doing!
By their question, it is clear that they thought in terms of political and military power. “If we just had control of the government, everything would be great!” they thought, and they had the ideal candidate to run the government. Jesus would make the perfect warrior king – and they were right about this. But Jesus had a longer term plan for His kingdom, He wanted to change the hearts and minds and souls of people, He wanted to change the entire moral basis of government, He wanted to completely change the entire world, and if He became a normal king in 33 AD, the only things that would happen would be the suffering and death and destruction of men and women and children and cities and homes.
And so Jesus says back to the disciples: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Only God the Father knows when the kingdom will be restored on earth. But you will receive the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit brings power, the power to change the world, the power to bring justice and righteousness to the world, the power to bring hurting and suffering and dying souls into a relationship with God and Jesus, and find healing and hope and life.
And disciples? You will be the witnesses of what Jesus has taught and said and done, including his sacrificial death and his resurrection. First, they are to go to their local surroundings – the city of Jerusalem and tell what they have seen. Next, they are to go to the county-sized area of Judea. Third, they are to go to the people nearby who disgusted the disciples, the Samarians. And finally, they are to go to the ends of the earth.
This is a lesson for us. We are to spread the Gospel close to home, in Quiet Dell, in Bridgeport, in Romine’s Mills. Then we are to move throughout Harrison and Barbour Counties. Next, we are to make sure we share the Gospel with people we don’t like or understand very well. And then, we are to go to the ends of the earth.
And then, Jesus went home. He went back to be with God the Father. As Paul told us in the Ephesians reading, Jesus went back to where God the Father “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under Jesus’ feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Jesus went to where His true power could be used. He returned to His home.
When Jesus came to earth, He had voluntarily given up almost all of His divine power, choosing to come to earth as a weak human infant. We see that as He grew, He rarely exercised His God-powers, choosing only to heal in various ways – curing blindness, chasing demons out of people, healing lepers, raising dead people to life. In each case, Jesus demonstrated His life-giving powers. He did not blast people with flames of fire from His hands. He did not destroy cities with lightning bolts. He did not kill people with rays from his eyes.
He healed and brought life to people. He helped them to grow again, to be restored to health, to come to life. His touch was like fertilizer for the body and the soul. He helped dying people to come to life and thrive.
And as the disciples learned to listen to the Holy Spirit, they also began to thrive. In a few short days, the Holy Spirit was poured upon all the disciples, both the Twelve and the greater group of 120 disciples, both men and women. Pentecost arrived and 3000 people were baptized. Now called apostles, the Twelve and the seven Deacons spoke to people in Jerusalem and more people came to know the life-giving touch of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The Deacons and then the Apostles went throughout Judea, spreading the Good News, then some actually went to Samaria and they brought the Good News and the Holy Spirit to the Samarians whom they detested. And soon after that, even hated Romans and a foreigner from Ethiopia received the Holy Spirit and were baptized. More people became apostles, proclaimers of the Good News and the Holy Spirit and the story of Jesus spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, to Europe, to India, to China, to Ireland, and eventually to the Americas and deep into Africa.
And how about you?
Have you heard the Good News of Jesus Christ? Have you heard that Jesus Christ taught an entirely new way of living, a way of life, a way that values all people just as much as the wealthy and the powerful? Have you heard that Jesus Christ claimed many times to be God Himself walking on this earth? Have you heard that Jesus died to pay all the penalties for all the crimes against God and other people you have committed, both the crimes the world recognizes and the crimes that only you and God know about? Have you heard that Jesus rose from the dead after His death upon the cross to prove that He was God Himself and He holds the power over life and death itself?
Your life may be a struggle today. This world and our culture do things to us which drive us to despair because we have mixed up what is good and what is evil, what is important and what is trivial, what is wonderful and what is destructive. In our attempts to live, we slowly kill ourselves because we do not have the power to defeat death, and just like a fish caught on a fishing line, the more we try to fight our death enemy, the quicker we exhaust ourselves and the quicker we die, hopeless, gasping for clean water as we are hauled out of the life-giving water and dry out in the hot sun by the enemy’s boots.
But everything that Jesus brought to us and taught us and showed us was how to live a more abundant life, an eternal life, a life filled with wonder. The more we learn about Jesus’ teachings, both His words and His example, the more we find that His path is the way to life, not despair, not imprisonment, not trouble.
But we are often like the bunny that my wife Saundra once saw, a bunny that had lived his entire life in a 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot cage, and when he was released onto an open floor and could run for his life, he chose to hop 2 ft, turn, then he hopped 2 ft, turned, then hopped 2 ft in a tight little square and then he sat there, because all of his life, just like ours, he had lived in that tight cage. Our cages are of our own making, they are made of steel called sin and despair which are supplied by Satan, and Jesus is ready to remove your cage. Will you run for the open pasture, as a freed bunny should? Will you thrive in the freedom from sin, in the open air of God’s forgiveness, in the sunlight of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offers? Or will you stay in your cage, hopping around in your 2 ft square life?
When you become a Christian, we baptize you with the water of life. That water comes along with the Holy Spirit, and fertilizes your life – if you choose to let the Holy Spirit and the Living Water of Christ into your life. If you listen to the Holy Spirit, if you read the Word of God, your life will change.
Where you had almost died, your leaves will turn green and you will grow, you will spring up, you will thrive as though you were once again at home in the perfect soil of your home, in the place where you are free to live and experiment, when you are able to be filled with the energy of home because, you see, you are once again back in the good soil of humanities home, you are walking with God once more in the cool of the evening, just as Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden, because, you see, the Garden of Eden was fruitful and wonderful and beautiful not because of anything it naturally had – but it was fruitful and wonderful and beautiful because it was the place where God walked in the cool of the evening, and when you read the Word of God, Holy Scripture, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, when you listen to God the Holy Spirit, when you talk to God the Father through prayer, then you are walking with God in the cool of the evening and God is walking with you and you are home, you have come to your true home, the place where peace and beauty await you, the place where you can thrive.
Join in this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jNJ59o4QgE
Monday, May 2, 2016
Stay with Me! - Having God and Christ Live in Your Home
Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5; John 14:23-29
As many of you know, I am a nerd, and I love Star Trek – all of the various Star Trek series. I’ve seen every Star Trek movie and every Star Trek episode, even including the animated series.
One of the features of the later Star Trek series was a device called a holodeck. On the holodeck, a three-dimensional story would happen – and you’d become one of the characters in the story. You and your friend could be Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigating a mystery, or perhaps Jane Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, living in an old English manor house and waiting on Mr Darcy. You could be Alice in Wonderland, ready to dive down a rabbit hole and meet the Mad Hatter. Or you could be Dorothy Gale, walking around the Emerald City.And the holodeck would make the other characters become real around you. Inspector Lestrade, Doctor Moriarty, Mycroft Holmes would all join you in your adventure as the characters became real. Mr Darcy would meet you at his house. The Cheshire Cat would look down at you from a tree as you walked by. The Cowardly Lion might meet you in the woods.
I read the other day where Facebook is working very hard to develop similar technology, called virtual reality, where you could look around you and actually feel like you are walking in nineteenth century London, or feel like you are actually on the side of Mount Everest, or perhaps you are taking a boat ride on the Amazon River. The characters of the holodeck are still far in the future, but we can hope, we can hope. Perhaps we could have a chance to meet some of the people the Apostles met, far back in time, and get to know them a bit better.
Of course, when you follow a television show or reread a book over and over, you fall in love with the characters. How many people here have a good idea who Archie Bunker from All in the Family would support in this year’s presidential election and who Michael Stivick, his son-in-law would support? How many people could tell me whether Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory would prefer to play a video game or go deer hunting? How many people could tell me if Daryl from the Walking Dead would prefer a crossbow or a pistol? Who could tell me if Iron Man would rather drive a pick up truck or a fancy sports car? Who could tell me if Aslan the Lion would ever tell a lie?
As we come to know and love a character, the character becomes alive. We know how they will act, we know what they’ll say, we know what they like and we know what they hate. And so it is with the characters – the very real people we find in the pages of the Bible.
About 15 years or so after the Resurrection, the Apostle Paul traveled with his friend and fellow missionary Silas from Antioch, which is located in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. They walked west across what is today central Turkey, picking up a young man named Timothy about half-way across the country. Paul’s idea was to visit the churches that he and Barnabas had established over five years before, and see if he could strengthen them, and to start new churches where he could. Eventually, the three of them arrived in the town of Troas – Troy – at the far northwest corner of Turkey, where the narrow waterways flow between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. That night, Paul had a vision, a dream sent by God.
In the dream, there was a man from Macedonia standing and begging him to come to Macedonia and help “us”. Paul, who trusted God completely and knew how to listen to the Holy Spirit, told his friends the next morning, and immediately they made plans to cross the narrow waterway and go to Macedonia to spread the Gospel. And they had picked up a new friend – It is at this point that the author, Luke, changes from talking about “Paul and his companions” to “We made plans to leave”. Luke had just joined the expedition.
So Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke and perhaps others got on a ship which sailed across the Aegean to Samothrace, then Neapolis, then Philippi, which was a Roman colony, founded by retired Roman soldiers. There, they went outside the city, down by the river to a place where the Jews prayed. And they spoke to the women who were gathered there. One of the women was a special lady, a woman name Lydia. Lydia was rather wealthy – she sold purple cloth, very expensive and rare cloth. By today’s standards, she owned the best clothing store in town.
Lydia already worshipped God, but today, God opened her heart to the message that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that He had died for her sins as a sacrifice, and that He had risen from the dead to prove that He was the Son of God, God Himself walking upon the earth. And so she was baptized, along with members of her household, probably children and servants. And so, Lydia wanted to find out more about Jesus. What better way than to invite these wise visitors to the town to spend time at her home? Lydia invited the four men to stay with her at her large house, which the missionaries did until they were driven out of town a while later.
Can you imagine sitting in on the discussions? Every morning at breakfast, every evening at dinner and afterwards, Paul explained his understanding of Christ to Lydia and her household and to you. Every morning and every evening, the Scriptures are discussed and the prophecies about Christ are opened up. And every morning and every evening, the Holy Spirit flows through Lydia’s house – and heart - and through your heart. Is it any wonder that the people of Philippi learned enough about Christ, that they learned about Jesus, that they learned about God enough that Paul would later write them a letter – the Letter to the Philippians – a letter which is still included in our Bibles today?
Years earlier, on the night that He was arrested, Jesus had His Last Supper with the Disciples. During and after that supper, Jesus spoke to the disciples in a long talk that John recorded in his Gospel, beginning in the Gospel of John, Chapter 13. It is a fantastic talk – theologians call it the Upper Room Discourse – and it is filled with deep ideas.
In Chapter 14, beginning in verse 23, 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone 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.
This is fascinating. If you love Jesus, you will obey His teaching. Do you love Jesus? Do you really, really love Jesus, or is Jesus just a nice idea to you, sort of like a good luck charm, a rabbit’s foot, a ritual where you pray when you are worried or sitting down to eat? Or is Jesus as real person to you? Have you read enough about Jesus that He has become real like a character in Star Trek’s holodeck? Is Jesus as real to you as the characters in your favorite television show?
If Jesus is not real to you, is it because you have not read enough about Him to know what He’d say or do? Perhaps you need more than just a Sunday morning sermon to understand Him. Perhaps you need to take the Gospels from the beginning of the New Testament – the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and sit down and read those key stories until you know and understand Jesus as well as you understand Archie Bunker, Sheldon Cooper, Daryl, or Iron Man.
So if you love Jesus, you will obey His teaching. What are his teachings? They’re also in the Gospel books.
And what happens when you love Jesus and obey Jesus’ teaching? God the Father loves you and will come and make Their home with you. God and Jesus will move into your home, they will move into your life, they will be with you. And what does that mean? We know how much Lydia learned when Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke spent time at her house – we each have the opportunity for Jesus and God the Father to live with us! Talk about welcome house guests!
Have you ever known someone who is mature and good to move into a household and not help out? Good people, good adults carry their share of the load. And if God the Father and Jesus Christ are living with you, they will protect you, they will help out, they will do great things for you. Wonderful things will happen. Can you imagine coming home and Jesus says, “Hey! We decided to help out a bit around the house.” Can you imagine what God might do?
I knew a woman who’s daughter needed long-term treatment in Morgantown and she lived half the state away. She was renting, and she had found a new place in Morgantown, but it was just her and her daughter, and the daughter was unable to help. But this woman was involved with a local church. She loved Jesus, so Jesus lived with her, and God lived with her, and one Saturday morning about 30 people from the church showed up, packed up her house, cleaned it from top to bottom, drove her and her stuff to Morgantown, unloaded everything, set up her furniture and beds, and unpacked half of everything else. That’s what Jesus can do when He lives with you.
That night at the Last Supper, Jesus continued to speak. He said:
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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.
Perhaps there are times you are frightened. Can you imagine the peace that would come onto you if Jesus and God the Father were living in your house? Nobody will mess with you.
Some friends of ours are missionaries. They told us the story of some friends, a couple who were posted with their children in the 1970's to Papua New Guinea. They were the first people to make contact with a particular tribe, a group of people who were known to be hostile to outsiders. They were known to burn down homes. One night, a group of men came to the missionaries home with lit torches. Amazingly enough, the men arrived outside, but stayed at a distance the entire night. The next morning they were gone, and the village became very friendly. A few months later, after making some good friends, the missionaries brought up the frightening night and the lit torches. The new friends replied, “Yes, the plan was to burn your house down that night so you would leave, but we could not do it.” “Why not?” the missionaries asked. “It was because of the strong men who stayed on your rooftop all night.” And then the missionary couple remembered that they had asked for angels of protection that long scary night. When Jesus and God the Father live in your household, you never need to be afraid.
The next time you are frightened of anything, it is my prayer that you will hear the Holy Spirit which Jesus has sent to you saying, “Remember, remember what Jesus said. Do not be afraid. Be at peace. Jesus and God the Father are living with you.”
Do you want peace? Read about Jesus, let Him become real to you, learn to love Him, and obey His teachings, and then God the Father and Jesus will make their home with you, they will abide with you in your house. And the Holy Spirit will come to you, and you will have peace.
As many of you know, I am a nerd, and I love Star Trek – all of the various Star Trek series. I’ve seen every Star Trek movie and every Star Trek episode, even including the animated series.
One of the features of the later Star Trek series was a device called a holodeck. On the holodeck, a three-dimensional story would happen – and you’d become one of the characters in the story. You and your friend could be Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigating a mystery, or perhaps Jane Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, living in an old English manor house and waiting on Mr Darcy. You could be Alice in Wonderland, ready to dive down a rabbit hole and meet the Mad Hatter. Or you could be Dorothy Gale, walking around the Emerald City.And the holodeck would make the other characters become real around you. Inspector Lestrade, Doctor Moriarty, Mycroft Holmes would all join you in your adventure as the characters became real. Mr Darcy would meet you at his house. The Cheshire Cat would look down at you from a tree as you walked by. The Cowardly Lion might meet you in the woods.
I read the other day where Facebook is working very hard to develop similar technology, called virtual reality, where you could look around you and actually feel like you are walking in nineteenth century London, or feel like you are actually on the side of Mount Everest, or perhaps you are taking a boat ride on the Amazon River. The characters of the holodeck are still far in the future, but we can hope, we can hope. Perhaps we could have a chance to meet some of the people the Apostles met, far back in time, and get to know them a bit better.
Of course, when you follow a television show or reread a book over and over, you fall in love with the characters. How many people here have a good idea who Archie Bunker from All in the Family would support in this year’s presidential election and who Michael Stivick, his son-in-law would support? How many people could tell me whether Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory would prefer to play a video game or go deer hunting? How many people could tell me if Daryl from the Walking Dead would prefer a crossbow or a pistol? Who could tell me if Iron Man would rather drive a pick up truck or a fancy sports car? Who could tell me if Aslan the Lion would ever tell a lie?
As we come to know and love a character, the character becomes alive. We know how they will act, we know what they’ll say, we know what they like and we know what they hate. And so it is with the characters – the very real people we find in the pages of the Bible.
About 15 years or so after the Resurrection, the Apostle Paul traveled with his friend and fellow missionary Silas from Antioch, which is located in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. They walked west across what is today central Turkey, picking up a young man named Timothy about half-way across the country. Paul’s idea was to visit the churches that he and Barnabas had established over five years before, and see if he could strengthen them, and to start new churches where he could. Eventually, the three of them arrived in the town of Troas – Troy – at the far northwest corner of Turkey, where the narrow waterways flow between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. That night, Paul had a vision, a dream sent by God.
In the dream, there was a man from Macedonia standing and begging him to come to Macedonia and help “us”. Paul, who trusted God completely and knew how to listen to the Holy Spirit, told his friends the next morning, and immediately they made plans to cross the narrow waterway and go to Macedonia to spread the Gospel. And they had picked up a new friend – It is at this point that the author, Luke, changes from talking about “Paul and his companions” to “We made plans to leave”. Luke had just joined the expedition.
So Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke and perhaps others got on a ship which sailed across the Aegean to Samothrace, then Neapolis, then Philippi, which was a Roman colony, founded by retired Roman soldiers. There, they went outside the city, down by the river to a place where the Jews prayed. And they spoke to the women who were gathered there. One of the women was a special lady, a woman name Lydia. Lydia was rather wealthy – she sold purple cloth, very expensive and rare cloth. By today’s standards, she owned the best clothing store in town.
Lydia already worshipped God, but today, God opened her heart to the message that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that He had died for her sins as a sacrifice, and that He had risen from the dead to prove that He was the Son of God, God Himself walking upon the earth. And so she was baptized, along with members of her household, probably children and servants. And so, Lydia wanted to find out more about Jesus. What better way than to invite these wise visitors to the town to spend time at her home? Lydia invited the four men to stay with her at her large house, which the missionaries did until they were driven out of town a while later.
Can you imagine sitting in on the discussions? Every morning at breakfast, every evening at dinner and afterwards, Paul explained his understanding of Christ to Lydia and her household and to you. Every morning and every evening, the Scriptures are discussed and the prophecies about Christ are opened up. And every morning and every evening, the Holy Spirit flows through Lydia’s house – and heart - and through your heart. Is it any wonder that the people of Philippi learned enough about Christ, that they learned about Jesus, that they learned about God enough that Paul would later write them a letter – the Letter to the Philippians – a letter which is still included in our Bibles today?
Years earlier, on the night that He was arrested, Jesus had His Last Supper with the Disciples. During and after that supper, Jesus spoke to the disciples in a long talk that John recorded in his Gospel, beginning in the Gospel of John, Chapter 13. It is a fantastic talk – theologians call it the Upper Room Discourse – and it is filled with deep ideas.
In Chapter 14, beginning in verse 23, 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone 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.
This is fascinating. If you love Jesus, you will obey His teaching. Do you love Jesus? Do you really, really love Jesus, or is Jesus just a nice idea to you, sort of like a good luck charm, a rabbit’s foot, a ritual where you pray when you are worried or sitting down to eat? Or is Jesus as real person to you? Have you read enough about Jesus that He has become real like a character in Star Trek’s holodeck? Is Jesus as real to you as the characters in your favorite television show?
If Jesus is not real to you, is it because you have not read enough about Him to know what He’d say or do? Perhaps you need more than just a Sunday morning sermon to understand Him. Perhaps you need to take the Gospels from the beginning of the New Testament – the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and sit down and read those key stories until you know and understand Jesus as well as you understand Archie Bunker, Sheldon Cooper, Daryl, or Iron Man.
So if you love Jesus, you will obey His teaching. What are his teachings? They’re also in the Gospel books.
And what happens when you love Jesus and obey Jesus’ teaching? God the Father loves you and will come and make Their home with you. God and Jesus will move into your home, they will move into your life, they will be with you. And what does that mean? We know how much Lydia learned when Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke spent time at her house – we each have the opportunity for Jesus and God the Father to live with us! Talk about welcome house guests!
Have you ever known someone who is mature and good to move into a household and not help out? Good people, good adults carry their share of the load. And if God the Father and Jesus Christ are living with you, they will protect you, they will help out, they will do great things for you. Wonderful things will happen. Can you imagine coming home and Jesus says, “Hey! We decided to help out a bit around the house.” Can you imagine what God might do?
I knew a woman who’s daughter needed long-term treatment in Morgantown and she lived half the state away. She was renting, and she had found a new place in Morgantown, but it was just her and her daughter, and the daughter was unable to help. But this woman was involved with a local church. She loved Jesus, so Jesus lived with her, and God lived with her, and one Saturday morning about 30 people from the church showed up, packed up her house, cleaned it from top to bottom, drove her and her stuff to Morgantown, unloaded everything, set up her furniture and beds, and unpacked half of everything else. That’s what Jesus can do when He lives with you.
That night at the Last Supper, Jesus continued to speak. He said:
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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.
Perhaps there are times you are frightened. Can you imagine the peace that would come onto you if Jesus and God the Father were living in your house? Nobody will mess with you.
Some friends of ours are missionaries. They told us the story of some friends, a couple who were posted with their children in the 1970's to Papua New Guinea. They were the first people to make contact with a particular tribe, a group of people who were known to be hostile to outsiders. They were known to burn down homes. One night, a group of men came to the missionaries home with lit torches. Amazingly enough, the men arrived outside, but stayed at a distance the entire night. The next morning they were gone, and the village became very friendly. A few months later, after making some good friends, the missionaries brought up the frightening night and the lit torches. The new friends replied, “Yes, the plan was to burn your house down that night so you would leave, but we could not do it.” “Why not?” the missionaries asked. “It was because of the strong men who stayed on your rooftop all night.” And then the missionary couple remembered that they had asked for angels of protection that long scary night. When Jesus and God the Father live in your household, you never need to be afraid.
The next time you are frightened of anything, it is my prayer that you will hear the Holy Spirit which Jesus has sent to you saying, “Remember, remember what Jesus said. Do not be afraid. Be at peace. Jesus and God the Father are living with you.”
Do you want peace? Read about Jesus, let Him become real to you, learn to love Him, and obey His teachings, and then God the Father and Jesus will make their home with you, they will abide with you in your house. And the Holy Spirit will come to you, and you will have peace.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Let’s Go Fishing! - What Redemption by Jesus Means for Us.
Sorry for missing a couple of weeks - a bit of pneumonia hit me the week before Easter, and I'm just now getting back on my feet. God is good!
Acts 9:1-8; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-23
As we finally get to springtime, the thoughts of many young men and women turn to …fishing. For many people, there is nothing more relaxing than taking a fishing pole, sitting beside a riverbank or a creek, tossing the line in the water, and waiting for the fish to strike the bait.
Fishing is a good time to think about life, about God, about what is important in life. Time itself seems to flow at a different speed. Fishing, for most Americans, is the exact opposite of hard work.
You see, when you fish, you cast the line out in the water. Plop! It hits the water and then you let it sink for a minute. A dragonfly buzzes near the line. The water sparkles as the tiny waves move away from the line. You begin to reel in the line slowly, slowly, just enough to entice that bass to hit the bait. Isn’t it pleasant how the water moves past those rocks over there? Whoa! Did you see that fish jump ten feet from your line? Let’s try throwing over there! Let me sit up a bit higher in my chair. Let me grab a drink and then cast my line again.
But fishing isn’t that way in much of the world. There is a tremendous difference between the world of the recreational fisherman and the world of the commercial fisherman. For you see, the commercial fisherman isn’t looking to catch a fish or two today. He is looking to catch dozens and hundreds of fish, because he will sell those fish and from the profits he will keep his boat operating, feed himself, and feed his family. A good night’s catch is the difference between living well for a month and going hungry.
Simon Peter – his name was originally Simon, but Jesus renamed him “Cephas”, an Aramaic word that meant “rock”, and so when the Gospels were written in Greek, Cephas was now named Petros (rock), or Peter. Simon Peter was a commercial fishing boat captain on the Sea of Galilee, what was sometimes known as the Sea of Tiberius, a large freshwater lake about 700 feet below sea level in Northern Israel. Galilee is fed by the snows and rains on the Golan Heights and it sends its water into the Jordan River, where the water falls another 700 feet down to the Dead Sea.
In ancient times, the Sea of Galilee was home to a group of Jewish fishermen, about 230 boats in all. Men like Peter They practiced net fishing for tilapia. They’d drop the net into the water, let it settle for a while and then, using their muscles, they’d pull the net out of the water, hopefully catching some fish in the net. Their goal was never to waste time on the water; their goal was to catch fish, lots of fish, for that was how they lived.
They mostly fished at night, because at night they could use the light from their oil lanterns to attract groups of fish to the boats. Plus, the cooler night temperatures made the hard work of lifting the nets easier.
After Peter and the other disciples, including Thomas, had seen Jesus a couple of times, they traveled back to Galilee. They’d been gone from Galilee for several months, and the lake and the boats were calling to Peter. It was time – about this time of year – it was time to get on the boats and spend a night out on the water, talking quietly about what they had seen, what Jesus had done, how their entire world was now different because Jesus had died and come back alive after claiming to be God Himself walking upon the earth. After Easter, it’s time to think about what Easter means to us in our lives. What does Christ’s Resurrection mean to you?
And so that evening in Galilee, Simon Peter said, “I’m going out to fish” and James and John, the sons of Zebedee said they’d go too. Of course, they were fishermen just like Simon Peter. Nathaniel of Cana, the studious one, decided to go along, a couple of other disciples – probably one of them was Andrew, Peter’s brother – and Thomas, Doubting Thomas went along.
Each of them went for different reasons. Thomas had learned his lesson – He was not going to go his own way again and miss a blessing. James and John, the two brothers, they were probably missing the wind and spray in their faces, as was Andrew, since they had grown up as lake fishermen.
Nathaniel of Cana had finally found that there was a man from Nazareth who had no deceit – he had long ago questioned whether or not anything good could come from Nazareth and he had found the answer in the person of Jesus Christ. And so each of these seven disciples decided to go on the lake together that evening, perhaps looking for Jesus to come walking to them again across the water like He had a couple of years before. And it was fitting that there were seven of them, for seven is the complete and good number in Hebrew thought, just as six and thirteen are evil numbers.
They loaded up the boat, manned the oars for a couple of minutes, and then the breeze took them out as a beautiful orange-red sun set behind them and they headed east. It was a quiet night – they were mostly alone with their thoughts, the stars overhead, and the full moon, for it had been a couple of weeks since the Passover and the day of Jesus’ death. They were quiet that night, for the fish were not swimming near the boat, they were swimming somewhere else, so they repeatedly put the nets in the water and pulled them up, but there were no fish found in the nets.
Dawn approached. In the grey light of dawn through the light mist that rose from the lake they saw a man on the shore about a hundred yards away. The world is very quiet at that time before the birds wake up, and this was centuries before the noise of automobile traffic was ever heard. No lights moved in the sky, for there were no airplanes. No satellites twinkled in orbit. No contrails ran overhead. No guns fired in the grey dawn, for gunpowder had not yet been invented. And since the Sea of Galilee is a small lake, an oval only about 13 miles by 8 miles, the waves are small, especially when it has been a quiet night and this was a quiet night, with no storms.
And so, when the man on shore shouted at them “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” they heard him distinctly and yelled back at him: “No. We haven’t caught any.”
Maybe it was the angle as he looked at the water, maybe the light was hitting the surface just right, maybe it was some power much deeper involving the life-giving ability of the man, but the lone man on shore shouted back to the tired, exhausted men in the boat: “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”
It had been a long night. It was a warm night, and the work made them sweat, so they took off their robes and worked in their underwear. At least twenty times they had dropped the heavy nets and pulled them up empty. At least twenty times they had been disappointed with a net filled with nothing but algae and driftwood. At least twenty times they had tiredly lowered their arms and net and hoped for a few fish that they could share for breakfast, maybe one for each of them, six or seven, was that too much to ask? Or fourteen, so they would have some food for another meal that afternoon. Fourteen fish for a night’s work? Was that too much to ask?
The twenty-first time they untangled the net. The twenty-first time they tossed the net overboard. For the twenty-first time they waited. And then for the twenty-first time, they began to haui in the net. And a fish jumped up. A few more fish broke the surface. In fact, the net was downright heavy, the men were straining, they were struggling, the weight of the fish was pulling the boat over to the side, they all grabbed the net and pulled the fish into the boat and there were too many fish, so they had to grab fish and pull them in because they could not lift the net, it was so heavy, so full of fish, it was the greatest catch they had ever had and then a light came on in John’s brain and he turned to Peter and said, “It is the LORD!” and Peter grabbed his robe and dove into the water and began swimming in his robe toward the shore as fast as he could, leaving behind the greatest catch of fish he’d ever seen behind him, he left fish, food, and friends behind because in front of him was the Greatest Man He’d ever met, God Himself was standing in front of Peter, God Himself was laughing as Peter swam in strong but rough strokes toward the shore, God in the person of Peter’s friend, His Master, His teacher Jesus of Nazareth was standing there as Peter came in through the light surf and stumbled wet and out of breath onto the shore. And they smiled at each other.
The other disciples were right behind, with the net closed up behind them, towing it because they could not lift it into the boat, and they let the morning breeze blow them the hundred yards toward shore and when they grounded the boat they saw that there was a fire already burning with hot red coals and laying on those coals were some fish already roasting and some bread and they remembered the time he had fed 5000 people with about the same amount of fish and bread, and they also remembered that last night they were all together when He said broke a loaf of bread and said, “This is my body. As often as you eat it, remember me.”
And Jesus, standing on shore beside the fire, said, “Bring some of the fish you have caught”, so Peter went back into the water and dragged the net up onto the beach. They counted the fish – there were 153 fish in the net, each of them large enough they couldn’t slip out through the holes in the net, and the net was still in great shape, it wasn’t torn, it wasn’t damaged, and that was another miracle, for those nets weren’t made of anything tougher than plant fibers twisted together, natural ropes that could and did rot, yet the net was fine, it was full of large fish, everything was wonderful, and they took some of the fish and brought them to the fire.
And Jesus said, “Come and have breakfast.” And although He looked different, although He spoke a bit differently, none of the disciples asked Him “Who are you?” because they knew that this man, this man who looked and sounded a bit different was the same Jesus who had died and been resurrected and whom they had seen twice before since His resurrection.
And Jesus took the bread and split it among them once again, just like He had that evening in the upper room before His arrest. And then He took the fish and did the same. And they shared a meal of bread and fish that morning with God, sitting on the beach of the Sea of Galilee, and for them, the world was right that morning.
As far as those men were concerned, everything was right in the world, and they were at peace, the seven of them complete, for that is what happens when you are with God, that is what happens when you see God take care of you, that is what happens when you know that God will always be there to take care of you…your fears are gone, your worries are gone, you can sit beside the fire He has given you and be warm and fed. And their common Spirit that He had shared with them was joined with their common fire, just as that Holy Spirit that we still share with those men still blazes from time to time in a common flame.
After breakfast, Jesus spoke to Simon Peter, Peter, the man who had originally declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Peter, the man who had declared that he would never deny knowing Jesus. Peter, the man who had let his fears overcome his mind and who had denied knowing Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times that awful night when Jesus was arrested. Jesus spoke to Peter, the man who had denied knowing Jesus when the tough times came.
Pointing to the fish, Jesus said, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” And Jesus used the word agapas when he said love, meaning “do you have a self-sacrificing love for me more than these?”
And Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.” Peter couldn’t quite bring himself to commit that far to Jesus as a self-sacrificing love, but he certainly had brotherly affection for Jesus. So Peter used the word philo, meaning "brotherly affection". Jesus said,” Feed my lambs.”
A second time, Jesus said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have a self-sacrificing love for me?”
And Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.” Peter still would not commit. He had learned his limits that awful night when he promised to never deny Jesus, yet denied him three times, and now he did not want to promise more than he could deliver.
Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”
And a third time, Jesus said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?” Jesus now said phileis, "brotherly affection". The God-man Jesus took pity on Simon Peter, no longer pushing him further than he could go at this point, but accepting the big fisherman just as he was – a weak man who wanted to follow Jesus, to do what Jesus asked, but who just simply could not fully commit on that morning at the beach. But Jesus knew the future, and Peter’s affection would be enough for now.
And Peter the Rock began to lose it. The big fisherman who had denied Jesus three times was struck to the heart with grief, because the third time Jesus asked, “Do you have affection for me?” and he understood now that Jesus truly loved him.
And so Peter said back, “You know all things. You know that I have affection for you.”
And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”
Very few of us would truly want to know our destiny, even if it could be told to us. The world’s literature is filled with stories of the deaths of fortune tellers and prophets who were dangerous not because they were fakes, but because they could be counted upon to tell the truth. And that day, Jesus told Peter how Peter would die.
Jesus Continued: 18 Very truly I tell you, 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!”
Despite his death which was coming in the far future, Peter was confirmed that day as the leader of Jesus’ people, His chief follower, the shepherd for Jesus’ flock.
John, the disciple who always felt that Jesus truly loved him, was following a few steps behind the two of them. Peter turned around and saw John. The burly fisherman then said to Jesus, “What about him?”
Jesus said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Peter realized that Jesus had just told him that our concern is about our relationship with God, not what God chooses to do with other people who also have a close relationship with God. And from that day onward Peter focused upon his relationship with God, with Jesus His Lord, with the Holy Spirit that now dwelt within him and Peter truly did follow Jesus.
Peter took on the responsibility that had been given him to lead the large group of disciples. In a few weeks, Peter the fishing boat captain would stand up in the middle of the group of 120 or so Jesus followers and insist that Judas Iscariot, the traitor, be replaced with a new disciple, one who had also seen everything that the others had witnessed from the wedding at Cana to the Resurrection. A week or so after that, Peter the uneducated fisherman was the man who understood first what was happening when the great wind of Pentecost struck the disciples, when the tongues of fire danced on their heads, and when they began to praise God in dozens of different languages. Peter the rough fisherman was the man who stood up that day in front of the people of Jerusalem and preached a sermon so strong, so convicting, so LOUD that over 3000 people were baptized that day and joined the newborn church. And soon after that, Peter the fisherman from the country lake, arrested by the big city authorities, continued to preach to the crowds and his judges that Jesus was the Messiah, that he had been executed, but had come back alive, proving that God was with Jesus.
Over the coming decades, Peter paid careful attention to the Old Testament Scriptures. He learned their meaning, he listened to the Holy Spirit, and Peter led the church through many difficult days, eventually making his way to both Babylon and Rome, where he was arrested and executed by crucifixion. Legend has it that he asked to be crucified upside down, because he never felt worthy to die in exactly the same manner his Lord had.
Through all his travels, through his beatings and imprisonments, through the days he had to stand in front of rulers and proclaim the Risen Christ, Peter never forgot that he himself had denied Jesus three times, but that Jesus had reinstated him to his leadership of the church three times. History does not record Peter ever pulling fish out of the lake again after that night – but Peter became a wonderful fisher of men, eventually becoming the founding bishop of Rome, the first of the line of men who would be known as Il Papa’s – the Popes. Even today, the Popes wear the fisherman’s ring as their badge of office. And legend has it that the last Pope will also be named Peter.
And what about you and I?
As we stand on the beach, basking in the warm glow of Christ’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s fire, what does He ask of each of us? Peter had one mission – to lead the infant church, to act as the first shepherd of the flock of Christian believers. John had a different mission – his was the task of becoming the leader of the new churches in Western Turkey, many of which were founded by Paul, but John took those infant churches and established them as strong, vibrant churches which lasted a thousand years until they were overrun by the Moslem Turks around the year 1000. And John also took care of Jesus’ mother Mary until she died in Ephesus, the principle city of Western Turkey – what was called Asia – still cared for by John. And John, alone of the disciples, died of a peaceful old age.
Each of the other disciples had a different mission. Thomas traveled to southern India, where he baptized several people, founding a group of Christians which is still present and rapidly growing today. There, on a mountain outside present-day Chennai – the city once known as Madras – Thomas was martyred while proclaiming the Risen Christ.
Nathaniel, also known as Bartholomew, is said to have journeyed to Babylon, then the mountains of eastern Turkey, and to have converted the king of Armenia, resulting in the first Christian country. And it was there that Nathaniel was rewarded by the Armenians with death.
Similar things happened to the other disciples. They traveled to various places, founded churches, converted key people, and died martyr’s deaths. They were burnt, strangled, crucified, put in sack and thrown in the river, killed by the sword, or beheaded. Each one of them was ordered to retract their testimony about the Resurrection of Jesus – in return they were given a chance to live. But each of them had seen the Lord alive, and they knew that He holds the keys to life and He has conquered death, it is not the man who would kill the body, and so the disciples continued to preach until they were killed, knowing that only the body was killed, and that they would be resurrected one day by their leader, their king, their friend, Jesus Christ, the God who loves them more than His own life.
And what shall we each do?
Jesus asks each of us to be fruitful. He asks us to consider the grain of wheat, which when planted grows up and gives back a hundred or more grains of wheat, wheat that can become the bread of life that may be shared by friends. Are we fruitful?
Acts 9:1-8; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-23
As we finally get to springtime, the thoughts of many young men and women turn to …fishing. For many people, there is nothing more relaxing than taking a fishing pole, sitting beside a riverbank or a creek, tossing the line in the water, and waiting for the fish to strike the bait.
Fishing is a good time to think about life, about God, about what is important in life. Time itself seems to flow at a different speed. Fishing, for most Americans, is the exact opposite of hard work.
You see, when you fish, you cast the line out in the water. Plop! It hits the water and then you let it sink for a minute. A dragonfly buzzes near the line. The water sparkles as the tiny waves move away from the line. You begin to reel in the line slowly, slowly, just enough to entice that bass to hit the bait. Isn’t it pleasant how the water moves past those rocks over there? Whoa! Did you see that fish jump ten feet from your line? Let’s try throwing over there! Let me sit up a bit higher in my chair. Let me grab a drink and then cast my line again.
But fishing isn’t that way in much of the world. There is a tremendous difference between the world of the recreational fisherman and the world of the commercial fisherman. For you see, the commercial fisherman isn’t looking to catch a fish or two today. He is looking to catch dozens and hundreds of fish, because he will sell those fish and from the profits he will keep his boat operating, feed himself, and feed his family. A good night’s catch is the difference between living well for a month and going hungry.
Simon Peter – his name was originally Simon, but Jesus renamed him “Cephas”, an Aramaic word that meant “rock”, and so when the Gospels were written in Greek, Cephas was now named Petros (rock), or Peter. Simon Peter was a commercial fishing boat captain on the Sea of Galilee, what was sometimes known as the Sea of Tiberius, a large freshwater lake about 700 feet below sea level in Northern Israel. Galilee is fed by the snows and rains on the Golan Heights and it sends its water into the Jordan River, where the water falls another 700 feet down to the Dead Sea.
In ancient times, the Sea of Galilee was home to a group of Jewish fishermen, about 230 boats in all. Men like Peter They practiced net fishing for tilapia. They’d drop the net into the water, let it settle for a while and then, using their muscles, they’d pull the net out of the water, hopefully catching some fish in the net. Their goal was never to waste time on the water; their goal was to catch fish, lots of fish, for that was how they lived.
They mostly fished at night, because at night they could use the light from their oil lanterns to attract groups of fish to the boats. Plus, the cooler night temperatures made the hard work of lifting the nets easier.
After Peter and the other disciples, including Thomas, had seen Jesus a couple of times, they traveled back to Galilee. They’d been gone from Galilee for several months, and the lake and the boats were calling to Peter. It was time – about this time of year – it was time to get on the boats and spend a night out on the water, talking quietly about what they had seen, what Jesus had done, how their entire world was now different because Jesus had died and come back alive after claiming to be God Himself walking upon the earth. After Easter, it’s time to think about what Easter means to us in our lives. What does Christ’s Resurrection mean to you?
And so that evening in Galilee, Simon Peter said, “I’m going out to fish” and James and John, the sons of Zebedee said they’d go too. Of course, they were fishermen just like Simon Peter. Nathaniel of Cana, the studious one, decided to go along, a couple of other disciples – probably one of them was Andrew, Peter’s brother – and Thomas, Doubting Thomas went along.
Each of them went for different reasons. Thomas had learned his lesson – He was not going to go his own way again and miss a blessing. James and John, the two brothers, they were probably missing the wind and spray in their faces, as was Andrew, since they had grown up as lake fishermen.
Nathaniel of Cana had finally found that there was a man from Nazareth who had no deceit – he had long ago questioned whether or not anything good could come from Nazareth and he had found the answer in the person of Jesus Christ. And so each of these seven disciples decided to go on the lake together that evening, perhaps looking for Jesus to come walking to them again across the water like He had a couple of years before. And it was fitting that there were seven of them, for seven is the complete and good number in Hebrew thought, just as six and thirteen are evil numbers.
They loaded up the boat, manned the oars for a couple of minutes, and then the breeze took them out as a beautiful orange-red sun set behind them and they headed east. It was a quiet night – they were mostly alone with their thoughts, the stars overhead, and the full moon, for it had been a couple of weeks since the Passover and the day of Jesus’ death. They were quiet that night, for the fish were not swimming near the boat, they were swimming somewhere else, so they repeatedly put the nets in the water and pulled them up, but there were no fish found in the nets.
Dawn approached. In the grey light of dawn through the light mist that rose from the lake they saw a man on the shore about a hundred yards away. The world is very quiet at that time before the birds wake up, and this was centuries before the noise of automobile traffic was ever heard. No lights moved in the sky, for there were no airplanes. No satellites twinkled in orbit. No contrails ran overhead. No guns fired in the grey dawn, for gunpowder had not yet been invented. And since the Sea of Galilee is a small lake, an oval only about 13 miles by 8 miles, the waves are small, especially when it has been a quiet night and this was a quiet night, with no storms.
And so, when the man on shore shouted at them “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” they heard him distinctly and yelled back at him: “No. We haven’t caught any.”
Maybe it was the angle as he looked at the water, maybe the light was hitting the surface just right, maybe it was some power much deeper involving the life-giving ability of the man, but the lone man on shore shouted back to the tired, exhausted men in the boat: “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”
It had been a long night. It was a warm night, and the work made them sweat, so they took off their robes and worked in their underwear. At least twenty times they had dropped the heavy nets and pulled them up empty. At least twenty times they had been disappointed with a net filled with nothing but algae and driftwood. At least twenty times they had tiredly lowered their arms and net and hoped for a few fish that they could share for breakfast, maybe one for each of them, six or seven, was that too much to ask? Or fourteen, so they would have some food for another meal that afternoon. Fourteen fish for a night’s work? Was that too much to ask?
The twenty-first time they untangled the net. The twenty-first time they tossed the net overboard. For the twenty-first time they waited. And then for the twenty-first time, they began to haui in the net. And a fish jumped up. A few more fish broke the surface. In fact, the net was downright heavy, the men were straining, they were struggling, the weight of the fish was pulling the boat over to the side, they all grabbed the net and pulled the fish into the boat and there were too many fish, so they had to grab fish and pull them in because they could not lift the net, it was so heavy, so full of fish, it was the greatest catch they had ever had and then a light came on in John’s brain and he turned to Peter and said, “It is the LORD!” and Peter grabbed his robe and dove into the water and began swimming in his robe toward the shore as fast as he could, leaving behind the greatest catch of fish he’d ever seen behind him, he left fish, food, and friends behind because in front of him was the Greatest Man He’d ever met, God Himself was standing in front of Peter, God Himself was laughing as Peter swam in strong but rough strokes toward the shore, God in the person of Peter’s friend, His Master, His teacher Jesus of Nazareth was standing there as Peter came in through the light surf and stumbled wet and out of breath onto the shore. And they smiled at each other.
The other disciples were right behind, with the net closed up behind them, towing it because they could not lift it into the boat, and they let the morning breeze blow them the hundred yards toward shore and when they grounded the boat they saw that there was a fire already burning with hot red coals and laying on those coals were some fish already roasting and some bread and they remembered the time he had fed 5000 people with about the same amount of fish and bread, and they also remembered that last night they were all together when He said broke a loaf of bread and said, “This is my body. As often as you eat it, remember me.”
And Jesus, standing on shore beside the fire, said, “Bring some of the fish you have caught”, so Peter went back into the water and dragged the net up onto the beach. They counted the fish – there were 153 fish in the net, each of them large enough they couldn’t slip out through the holes in the net, and the net was still in great shape, it wasn’t torn, it wasn’t damaged, and that was another miracle, for those nets weren’t made of anything tougher than plant fibers twisted together, natural ropes that could and did rot, yet the net was fine, it was full of large fish, everything was wonderful, and they took some of the fish and brought them to the fire.
And Jesus said, “Come and have breakfast.” And although He looked different, although He spoke a bit differently, none of the disciples asked Him “Who are you?” because they knew that this man, this man who looked and sounded a bit different was the same Jesus who had died and been resurrected and whom they had seen twice before since His resurrection.
And Jesus took the bread and split it among them once again, just like He had that evening in the upper room before His arrest. And then He took the fish and did the same. And they shared a meal of bread and fish that morning with God, sitting on the beach of the Sea of Galilee, and for them, the world was right that morning.
As far as those men were concerned, everything was right in the world, and they were at peace, the seven of them complete, for that is what happens when you are with God, that is what happens when you see God take care of you, that is what happens when you know that God will always be there to take care of you…your fears are gone, your worries are gone, you can sit beside the fire He has given you and be warm and fed. And their common Spirit that He had shared with them was joined with their common fire, just as that Holy Spirit that we still share with those men still blazes from time to time in a common flame.
After breakfast, Jesus spoke to Simon Peter, Peter, the man who had originally declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Peter, the man who had declared that he would never deny knowing Jesus. Peter, the man who had let his fears overcome his mind and who had denied knowing Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times that awful night when Jesus was arrested. Jesus spoke to Peter, the man who had denied knowing Jesus when the tough times came.
Pointing to the fish, Jesus said, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” And Jesus used the word agapas when he said love, meaning “do you have a self-sacrificing love for me more than these?”
And Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.” Peter couldn’t quite bring himself to commit that far to Jesus as a self-sacrificing love, but he certainly had brotherly affection for Jesus. So Peter used the word philo, meaning "brotherly affection". Jesus said,” Feed my lambs.”
A second time, Jesus said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have a self-sacrificing love for me?”
And Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.” Peter still would not commit. He had learned his limits that awful night when he promised to never deny Jesus, yet denied him three times, and now he did not want to promise more than he could deliver.
Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”
And a third time, Jesus said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?” Jesus now said phileis, "brotherly affection". The God-man Jesus took pity on Simon Peter, no longer pushing him further than he could go at this point, but accepting the big fisherman just as he was – a weak man who wanted to follow Jesus, to do what Jesus asked, but who just simply could not fully commit on that morning at the beach. But Jesus knew the future, and Peter’s affection would be enough for now.
And Peter the Rock began to lose it. The big fisherman who had denied Jesus three times was struck to the heart with grief, because the third time Jesus asked, “Do you have affection for me?” and he understood now that Jesus truly loved him.
And so Peter said back, “You know all things. You know that I have affection for you.”
And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”
Very few of us would truly want to know our destiny, even if it could be told to us. The world’s literature is filled with stories of the deaths of fortune tellers and prophets who were dangerous not because they were fakes, but because they could be counted upon to tell the truth. And that day, Jesus told Peter how Peter would die.
Jesus Continued: 18 Very truly I tell you, 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!”
Despite his death which was coming in the far future, Peter was confirmed that day as the leader of Jesus’ people, His chief follower, the shepherd for Jesus’ flock.
John, the disciple who always felt that Jesus truly loved him, was following a few steps behind the two of them. Peter turned around and saw John. The burly fisherman then said to Jesus, “What about him?”
Jesus said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Peter realized that Jesus had just told him that our concern is about our relationship with God, not what God chooses to do with other people who also have a close relationship with God. And from that day onward Peter focused upon his relationship with God, with Jesus His Lord, with the Holy Spirit that now dwelt within him and Peter truly did follow Jesus.
Peter took on the responsibility that had been given him to lead the large group of disciples. In a few weeks, Peter the fishing boat captain would stand up in the middle of the group of 120 or so Jesus followers and insist that Judas Iscariot, the traitor, be replaced with a new disciple, one who had also seen everything that the others had witnessed from the wedding at Cana to the Resurrection. A week or so after that, Peter the uneducated fisherman was the man who understood first what was happening when the great wind of Pentecost struck the disciples, when the tongues of fire danced on their heads, and when they began to praise God in dozens of different languages. Peter the rough fisherman was the man who stood up that day in front of the people of Jerusalem and preached a sermon so strong, so convicting, so LOUD that over 3000 people were baptized that day and joined the newborn church. And soon after that, Peter the fisherman from the country lake, arrested by the big city authorities, continued to preach to the crowds and his judges that Jesus was the Messiah, that he had been executed, but had come back alive, proving that God was with Jesus.
Over the coming decades, Peter paid careful attention to the Old Testament Scriptures. He learned their meaning, he listened to the Holy Spirit, and Peter led the church through many difficult days, eventually making his way to both Babylon and Rome, where he was arrested and executed by crucifixion. Legend has it that he asked to be crucified upside down, because he never felt worthy to die in exactly the same manner his Lord had.
Through all his travels, through his beatings and imprisonments, through the days he had to stand in front of rulers and proclaim the Risen Christ, Peter never forgot that he himself had denied Jesus three times, but that Jesus had reinstated him to his leadership of the church three times. History does not record Peter ever pulling fish out of the lake again after that night – but Peter became a wonderful fisher of men, eventually becoming the founding bishop of Rome, the first of the line of men who would be known as Il Papa’s – the Popes. Even today, the Popes wear the fisherman’s ring as their badge of office. And legend has it that the last Pope will also be named Peter.
And what about you and I?
As we stand on the beach, basking in the warm glow of Christ’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s fire, what does He ask of each of us? Peter had one mission – to lead the infant church, to act as the first shepherd of the flock of Christian believers. John had a different mission – his was the task of becoming the leader of the new churches in Western Turkey, many of which were founded by Paul, but John took those infant churches and established them as strong, vibrant churches which lasted a thousand years until they were overrun by the Moslem Turks around the year 1000. And John also took care of Jesus’ mother Mary until she died in Ephesus, the principle city of Western Turkey – what was called Asia – still cared for by John. And John, alone of the disciples, died of a peaceful old age.
Each of the other disciples had a different mission. Thomas traveled to southern India, where he baptized several people, founding a group of Christians which is still present and rapidly growing today. There, on a mountain outside present-day Chennai – the city once known as Madras – Thomas was martyred while proclaiming the Risen Christ.
Nathaniel, also known as Bartholomew, is said to have journeyed to Babylon, then the mountains of eastern Turkey, and to have converted the king of Armenia, resulting in the first Christian country. And it was there that Nathaniel was rewarded by the Armenians with death.
Similar things happened to the other disciples. They traveled to various places, founded churches, converted key people, and died martyr’s deaths. They were burnt, strangled, crucified, put in sack and thrown in the river, killed by the sword, or beheaded. Each one of them was ordered to retract their testimony about the Resurrection of Jesus – in return they were given a chance to live. But each of them had seen the Lord alive, and they knew that He holds the keys to life and He has conquered death, it is not the man who would kill the body, and so the disciples continued to preach until they were killed, knowing that only the body was killed, and that they would be resurrected one day by their leader, their king, their friend, Jesus Christ, the God who loves them more than His own life.
And what shall we each do?
Jesus asks each of us to be fruitful. He asks us to consider the grain of wheat, which when planted grows up and gives back a hundred or more grains of wheat, wheat that can become the bread of life that may be shared by friends. Are we fruitful?
Are we willing to throw our nets of love deep in the water of life all night long, in the hopes that eventually the Lord will lead fish into our nets? Are we committed to Jesus in this life? Have we understood just how deep His love is for us and what that means for our lives? Do we realize that He has already met us where we are on the beach, broken, tired, guilty of a sinful past, and restored to us a full fellowship, a fellowship which will grow stronger, but today He’ll accept whatever you can commit right now, even if it is only a bit of affection for your Lord. Today He doesn’t ask for your martyrdom, only your affection, only your choice to follow Him as you learn to trust Him in growing confidence, to listen to His Spirit, to love Him because He is always there for you, putting little presents into your life like your children, your spouse, your friends, the sunlight on the flowers, the birdsong when you awake, the $20 you found in your coat pocket, the song on the radio, a phone call you didn’t expect, a few minutes alone with Him.
When we realize that Jesus is God – and the Resurrection is the proof that Jesus is God – then this lifts the words of Jesus to an entirely different level. When we hear Jesus speak, we are hearing GOD speak. When we read the words of Jesus, we are reading the words of God. When Jesus spoke those words of friendship to Peter, God was speaking to Peter. When Jesus made breakfast for Peter, God was making breakfast for Peter. And when Jesus spoke those words of redemption after breakfast to Peter the broken, tired fisherman, God was accepting the Peter just as he was. And Peter understood this. And so Peter’s entire remaining life was a grateful response to what Jesus, what God, had done for him.
Peter changed that day. As a Jewish fishing boat captain, Peter could read, but Peter relied upon his arms and his back more than his book knowledge. But in his new role as chief shepherd of God’s people, we see that Peter is now always studying Holy Scripture. Eventually, he writes part of the New Testament, not as smoothly as as the more educated John or Luke the physician, but he writes in the rough Greek of a fisherman who has learned a new language, because, you see, with God all things are possible. Peter changed. He got serious about God. He left fishing for fish behind – he spent the rest of his life fishing for men and women.
Jesus has saved you from an eternal death without God. Are you ready to get serious about God? What do you spend time on today that you should leave behind? Is it your hobby, is it your house or property, is it some television, is it sports, is it your day job, is it building up your retirement account? Peter left behind his boats and nets.
But leaving something behind is not the point. Instead, are you ready to run toward Jesus and replace what you have left behind with the serious study of Scripture, of God’s Word, of understanding what the Holy Spirit would have you do? Which sheep will you shepherd? Which sheep will you feed? Which dozen or so people, children and adults, will you lead to become disciples and apostles and followers of Jesus the same way you have been led?
He has asked all of us to fish for men – to find men and women and teach them what He did for us and them. He has asked us to teach them the Good News, the Gospel of God’s love.
Let’s go fishing.
When we realize that Jesus is God – and the Resurrection is the proof that Jesus is God – then this lifts the words of Jesus to an entirely different level. When we hear Jesus speak, we are hearing GOD speak. When we read the words of Jesus, we are reading the words of God. When Jesus spoke those words of friendship to Peter, God was speaking to Peter. When Jesus made breakfast for Peter, God was making breakfast for Peter. And when Jesus spoke those words of redemption after breakfast to Peter the broken, tired fisherman, God was accepting the Peter just as he was. And Peter understood this. And so Peter’s entire remaining life was a grateful response to what Jesus, what God, had done for him.
Peter changed that day. As a Jewish fishing boat captain, Peter could read, but Peter relied upon his arms and his back more than his book knowledge. But in his new role as chief shepherd of God’s people, we see that Peter is now always studying Holy Scripture. Eventually, he writes part of the New Testament, not as smoothly as as the more educated John or Luke the physician, but he writes in the rough Greek of a fisherman who has learned a new language, because, you see, with God all things are possible. Peter changed. He got serious about God. He left fishing for fish behind – he spent the rest of his life fishing for men and women.
Jesus has saved you from an eternal death without God. Are you ready to get serious about God? What do you spend time on today that you should leave behind? Is it your hobby, is it your house or property, is it some television, is it sports, is it your day job, is it building up your retirement account? Peter left behind his boats and nets.
But leaving something behind is not the point. Instead, are you ready to run toward Jesus and replace what you have left behind with the serious study of Scripture, of God’s Word, of understanding what the Holy Spirit would have you do? Which sheep will you shepherd? Which sheep will you feed? Which dozen or so people, children and adults, will you lead to become disciples and apostles and followers of Jesus the same way you have been led?
He has asked all of us to fish for men – to find men and women and teach them what He did for us and them. He has asked us to teach them the Good News, the Gospel of God’s love.
Let’s go fishing.
Monday, April 4, 2016
The Holy Spirit Arrives - How Thomas' Missed Out on the Greatest Blessing
Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31
About ten years ago, my eldest son Ian was involved in the Civil Air Patrol. The Civil Air Patrol is the Air Force equivalent of the Boy Scouts, a organization that teaches teenagers how to fly. In addition, they learn first aid, navigation, and other skills that are important for the CAP’s main mission, which today is finding airplanes that have gone down.
As these things go, you get involved – Saundra found herself as Cadet Commander for the Parkersburg Wing, and we became friends with Ron Harmon, the Wing Commander, and Billie Harmon, his wife.
Ron and Billie were also very involved in the Mid-Ohio Valley Players, Marietta’s local theater company. Billie directed plays, Ron fashioned most of the sets, and then Billie heard me sing. And as one thing led to another, I found myself sitting in an auditorium with about a hundred people, waiting to audition for the Sound of Music for the part of Captain Von Trapp.
Now, I’m not an actor, but I had been persuaded that my singing voice might be just what was needed for the part of the Captain. And so I went to the audition, thinking about how this might become a new chapter in my life’s story – playing the dashing, handsome Captain Von Trapp.
Well, I was asked to sing a song, and of course, that wasn’t a problem. But apparently I didn’t look quite the dashing, handsome part, so the director asked me to read the part of Max, the Captain’s music producer friend, who doesn’t have song in the movie, but does in the play. Max is a much more comedic part – I guess the director thought I looked funny.
But thankfully, there was another guy there who COULD act and was much more funny. So my grand career in the theatre ended that day because, after all, the play wasn’t about my story and what I wanted in my life’s story, but it was about the director and what the director wanted in her version of the story on stage.
We often enter into stories in our lives. We often are focused upon what is happening in our story, with ourselves as the main character in our story, wondering where our story is going.
Like Thomas the Twin. Didymus means Twin
Thomas was a disciple of Jesus. He had been with the group since very early on, he’d been at Cana where the water was turned into wine and he’d seen many of Jesus’ miracles. And Thomas had heard Jesus’ claims. In fact, just that winter Jesus and the disciples had gone to Jerusalem for Hanukkah, when several people asked Jesus to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah or not. Jesus told them that He had told them, but they had not believed. Then in John 10:30 Jesus made a very strong claim: "I and the Father are one!"
The people picked up stones. Jesus asked them why, and they said, “It’s because you are claiming to be God.” Now the people tried to seize Him, but he escaped from their grasp and Jesus and his disciples, including Thomas went back across the Jordan River to the place where John had baptized in the early days.
A couple of months went by and word came from Mary and Martha that Lazarus was sick. Jesus waited around for a couple of days and then told the disciples they were going back toward Jerusalem. The disciples asked, “Didn’t the Jews try to stone you there, and you want to go back?”
“Lazarus is dead and I have to go wake him up.”
And then the disciple John records that Thomas … said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” I think it was around that time that Thomas began to emotionally "check-out" of the Jesus Movement. You see, Thomas had seen what happened to John the Baptist and how he had lost his head. Thomas had seen other religious movements fizzle and die when their leaders were arrested. And Thomas saw a bad end coming to this Jesus thing. And so, he emotionally began to leave the group.
We don’t hear anything else about Thomas for the next few weeks. Eventually, Jesus is arrested, executed, and the disciples scatter. That first Easter evening, Thomas is missing in action – He is no where around to be found when Jesus appears.
Thomas, apparently, had better things to do that evening. After all, Jesus was dead and there was no point to going to a do-nothing meeting. Thomas had decided weeks ago that this Jesus thing was going to end badly and when Jesus died, Thomas decided he needed to hang around with a different group of friends. He had given up on his community of friends – Things weren’t going well and Thomas wanted to start a new chapter in his life story. After all, nothing more would happen now that Jesus was dead.
But then some of his friends ran into him. “Jesus is alive! We saw Him last Sunday evening.”
John doesn’t record the entire conversation, but he does record that Thomas 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.”
For centuries, Thomas has been known as “Doubting Thomas”. But Thomas doesn't sound like a doubter to me - he sounds very, very certain that Jesus is not alive. And we might want to think a minute why Thomas put forth such a strong response: , “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.”
For three years, you see, Thomas had walked with Jesus.
For three years, Thomas had walked with the other disciples.
For three years, Thomas had eaten with them, he had slept beside them, he had even joked with them.
For three years, Thomas had been a member of a small group of students being taught by the greatest teacher of the day, as almost everyone in the Holy Land recognized even at the time.
But for three years, Thomas had never completely trusted the men in his group.
For three years, Thomas had kept apart in his mind, in his emotion, in his feelings. He had never really felt that he should let go and really, really, REALLY become one of the group of disciples.
He might have trusted Jesus – But Thomas didn’t trust his fellow disciples. He was still living his own story – he was not living the joint story that the other disciples were – and he missed out on that first Easter evening appearance because he had never surrendered to being a member of that disciple group.
Has that ever happened to you?
In every church I’ve ever been in, I’ve seen how some people really trust each other, how some people work together with some friction, and how some people sit aside, never really making the decision to fully let go of their own story and join in the community’s story of being disciples together – not disciples who come together once a week, but disciples who are learning together, who are teaching each other, who are walking with Jesus together in a group.
Our Easter story shows us the women going as a group to the tomb. Our story shows Peter and John racing to the tomb together. Our story shows ten of the eleven disciples joining together Easter evening and suddenly Jesus was there with them! Those ten disciples understood that they had come together because of Jesus, but Thomas was not there, because Thomas did not consider himself to be part of the group, but only as a person who had once followed Jesus.
The ten disciples saw Jesus appear. The ten disciples heard Jesus say, “Peace be with you!” The ten disciples saw His hands and His side.
But Thomas was not there. He was living his own story. He had better things to do, he thought.
The ten disciples heard again: “Peace be with you!
The ten disciples heard: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
And the ten disciples saw Jesus breath upon them and the ten disciples heard him say, “Receive the Holy Spirit. “ and those ten disciples smelt and felt that gentle breath settle into their lungs and hearts.
But Thomas was not there. He was living his own story. He had left behind his friends, because he was not really one of them.
The ten disciples heard from Jesus: If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
And then the ten disciples watched him leave.
But Thomas did not know about this for hours, perhaps several days, because Thomas was on his own, he had never felt part of the disciple group.
And then, he ran into them on the street, and let himself be eventually brought back, reluctantly, it appears, to be with the ten disciples, perhaps one last time before Thomas went back to Galilee and his old life there.
A week later, this time Jesus’ ten disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. I say it that way because I think that’s how Thomas felt – the ten had convinced him to come to the house, but he wasn’t really one of them.
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 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.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If Thomas had not come to the house that second night, would he have ever believed? Or would he have continued to insist that Jesus come to him on his terms, touching scars, putting a finger into the hole a spear put in Jesus’ side? Would there be another footnote to the story of the disciples, like the footnote that describes the loss the suicide of Judas Iscariot, the traitor? Would we also have to look at a second footnote about Thomas, the disciple who was too busy to be blessed?
As we go about our daily work, our daily routines, our daily and weekly rituals on this planet, it seems to me that we should consider if we are individuals who are living alone in this world, perhaps in a family, or are we truly part of the great body of disciples in the world? Do we attend our church – or are we part of our church?
You and I have both heard stories of people who look at the church in almost the same way that we look at a favorite store or restaurant – do they treat me well, what do I get out of it, do THEY take care of my needs, is the restroom clean enough?
But that is not supposed to be the way we look at church, the assembly of disciples. For we are each supposed to become integral and integrated into the organism that is the body of Christ. A church is not simply a crowd of believers who get together once a week or so. Instead, a church is a group of people who depend upon each other, who lift up the parts of the organism who are hurting, who are so interdependent and interlocked and intermingled that the successes of one part lifts the remainder, and the failures of any part pulls the remainder together tightly around the person or persons who are in trouble.
Yet that degree of closeness, that degree of disconnectedness, that degree of intimacy requires that each one of us become vulnerable. We have to open up ourselves to the possibility of being hurt if we are to truly be blessed.
Thomas did not show up that first Easter evening because he had been hurt. His hopes and dreams were tied up with the great "Jesus is Messiah" movement that had hit town a week before on Palm Sunday. And when Jesus died, Thomas’ dreams died, and since they were his dreams, his own story’s future – Thomas missed out on the blessings that the others experienced that first Sunday.
If you wish to become fully blessed, you must accept that there will be meetings that will be sad. If you want to be fully blessed by Christ, you will need to come to the meetings where nothing much is expected to happen, as the ten disciples did that first Easter evening. If you want to experience the ultimate in the blessings, to receive the movement of the Holy Spirit, to see Christ – you will need to come to those meetings you most dearly do not want to come to, for it is at those meetings, when no one expects anything much to happen, that Christ and the Holy Spirit show up and the miraculous happens!
The ten disciples had journeyed with Jesus for three years and seen miracles. So had Thomas. But what brought them back that first night was their understanding that they were all “in it” together, that they weren’t individual disciples of Christ, but that they were His designated legacy, that they were the body of Christ upon earth, that if anything positive was ever going to happen, it would be up to them. And they found out they had not been left alone.
Over the next few weeks, we will have different opportunities for you to become part of the disciple group in a stronger way than you have in the past. Consider joining our Holy Spirit study on Wednesday evenings. Consider just what your story has to do with the story that is developing here, about the continuing actions of Jesus Christ on this earth.
But then again, perhaps what we all really need to do is to forget about our individual stories, to stop spending so much time on our stories, and instead focus upon His story, the story of the Christ who has given you life. After all, isn’t that what His-story is all about?
About ten years ago, my eldest son Ian was involved in the Civil Air Patrol. The Civil Air Patrol is the Air Force equivalent of the Boy Scouts, a organization that teaches teenagers how to fly. In addition, they learn first aid, navigation, and other skills that are important for the CAP’s main mission, which today is finding airplanes that have gone down.
As these things go, you get involved – Saundra found herself as Cadet Commander for the Parkersburg Wing, and we became friends with Ron Harmon, the Wing Commander, and Billie Harmon, his wife.
Ron and Billie were also very involved in the Mid-Ohio Valley Players, Marietta’s local theater company. Billie directed plays, Ron fashioned most of the sets, and then Billie heard me sing. And as one thing led to another, I found myself sitting in an auditorium with about a hundred people, waiting to audition for the Sound of Music for the part of Captain Von Trapp.
Now, I’m not an actor, but I had been persuaded that my singing voice might be just what was needed for the part of the Captain. And so I went to the audition, thinking about how this might become a new chapter in my life’s story – playing the dashing, handsome Captain Von Trapp.
Well, I was asked to sing a song, and of course, that wasn’t a problem. But apparently I didn’t look quite the dashing, handsome part, so the director asked me to read the part of Max, the Captain’s music producer friend, who doesn’t have song in the movie, but does in the play. Max is a much more comedic part – I guess the director thought I looked funny.
But thankfully, there was another guy there who COULD act and was much more funny. So my grand career in the theatre ended that day because, after all, the play wasn’t about my story and what I wanted in my life’s story, but it was about the director and what the director wanted in her version of the story on stage.
We often enter into stories in our lives. We often are focused upon what is happening in our story, with ourselves as the main character in our story, wondering where our story is going.
Like Thomas the Twin. Didymus means Twin
Thomas was a disciple of Jesus. He had been with the group since very early on, he’d been at Cana where the water was turned into wine and he’d seen many of Jesus’ miracles. And Thomas had heard Jesus’ claims. In fact, just that winter Jesus and the disciples had gone to Jerusalem for Hanukkah, when several people asked Jesus to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah or not. Jesus told them that He had told them, but they had not believed. Then in John 10:30 Jesus made a very strong claim: "I and the Father are one!"
The people picked up stones. Jesus asked them why, and they said, “It’s because you are claiming to be God.” Now the people tried to seize Him, but he escaped from their grasp and Jesus and his disciples, including Thomas went back across the Jordan River to the place where John had baptized in the early days.
A couple of months went by and word came from Mary and Martha that Lazarus was sick. Jesus waited around for a couple of days and then told the disciples they were going back toward Jerusalem. The disciples asked, “Didn’t the Jews try to stone you there, and you want to go back?”
“Lazarus is dead and I have to go wake him up.”
And then the disciple John records that Thomas … said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” I think it was around that time that Thomas began to emotionally "check-out" of the Jesus Movement. You see, Thomas had seen what happened to John the Baptist and how he had lost his head. Thomas had seen other religious movements fizzle and die when their leaders were arrested. And Thomas saw a bad end coming to this Jesus thing. And so, he emotionally began to leave the group.
We don’t hear anything else about Thomas for the next few weeks. Eventually, Jesus is arrested, executed, and the disciples scatter. That first Easter evening, Thomas is missing in action – He is no where around to be found when Jesus appears.
Thomas, apparently, had better things to do that evening. After all, Jesus was dead and there was no point to going to a do-nothing meeting. Thomas had decided weeks ago that this Jesus thing was going to end badly and when Jesus died, Thomas decided he needed to hang around with a different group of friends. He had given up on his community of friends – Things weren’t going well and Thomas wanted to start a new chapter in his life story. After all, nothing more would happen now that Jesus was dead.
But then some of his friends ran into him. “Jesus is alive! We saw Him last Sunday evening.”
John doesn’t record the entire conversation, but he does record that Thomas 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.”
For centuries, Thomas has been known as “Doubting Thomas”. But Thomas doesn't sound like a doubter to me - he sounds very, very certain that Jesus is not alive. And we might want to think a minute why Thomas put forth such a strong response: , “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.”
For three years, you see, Thomas had walked with Jesus.
For three years, Thomas had walked with the other disciples.
For three years, Thomas had eaten with them, he had slept beside them, he had even joked with them.
For three years, Thomas had been a member of a small group of students being taught by the greatest teacher of the day, as almost everyone in the Holy Land recognized even at the time.
But for three years, Thomas had never completely trusted the men in his group.
For three years, Thomas had kept apart in his mind, in his emotion, in his feelings. He had never really felt that he should let go and really, really, REALLY become one of the group of disciples.
He might have trusted Jesus – But Thomas didn’t trust his fellow disciples. He was still living his own story – he was not living the joint story that the other disciples were – and he missed out on that first Easter evening appearance because he had never surrendered to being a member of that disciple group.
Has that ever happened to you?
In every church I’ve ever been in, I’ve seen how some people really trust each other, how some people work together with some friction, and how some people sit aside, never really making the decision to fully let go of their own story and join in the community’s story of being disciples together – not disciples who come together once a week, but disciples who are learning together, who are teaching each other, who are walking with Jesus together in a group.
Our Easter story shows us the women going as a group to the tomb. Our story shows Peter and John racing to the tomb together. Our story shows ten of the eleven disciples joining together Easter evening and suddenly Jesus was there with them! Those ten disciples understood that they had come together because of Jesus, but Thomas was not there, because Thomas did not consider himself to be part of the group, but only as a person who had once followed Jesus.
The ten disciples saw Jesus appear. The ten disciples heard Jesus say, “Peace be with you!” The ten disciples saw His hands and His side.
But Thomas was not there. He was living his own story. He had better things to do, he thought.
The ten disciples heard again: “Peace be with you!
The ten disciples heard: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
And the ten disciples saw Jesus breath upon them and the ten disciples heard him say, “Receive the Holy Spirit. “ and those ten disciples smelt and felt that gentle breath settle into their lungs and hearts.
But Thomas was not there. He was living his own story. He had left behind his friends, because he was not really one of them.
The ten disciples heard from Jesus: If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
And then the ten disciples watched him leave.
But Thomas did not know about this for hours, perhaps several days, because Thomas was on his own, he had never felt part of the disciple group.
And then, he ran into them on the street, and let himself be eventually brought back, reluctantly, it appears, to be with the ten disciples, perhaps one last time before Thomas went back to Galilee and his old life there.
A week later, this time Jesus’ ten disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. I say it that way because I think that’s how Thomas felt – the ten had convinced him to come to the house, but he wasn’t really one of them.
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 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.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If Thomas had not come to the house that second night, would he have ever believed? Or would he have continued to insist that Jesus come to him on his terms, touching scars, putting a finger into the hole a spear put in Jesus’ side? Would there be another footnote to the story of the disciples, like the footnote that describes the loss the suicide of Judas Iscariot, the traitor? Would we also have to look at a second footnote about Thomas, the disciple who was too busy to be blessed?
As we go about our daily work, our daily routines, our daily and weekly rituals on this planet, it seems to me that we should consider if we are individuals who are living alone in this world, perhaps in a family, or are we truly part of the great body of disciples in the world? Do we attend our church – or are we part of our church?
You and I have both heard stories of people who look at the church in almost the same way that we look at a favorite store or restaurant – do they treat me well, what do I get out of it, do THEY take care of my needs, is the restroom clean enough?
But that is not supposed to be the way we look at church, the assembly of disciples. For we are each supposed to become integral and integrated into the organism that is the body of Christ. A church is not simply a crowd of believers who get together once a week or so. Instead, a church is a group of people who depend upon each other, who lift up the parts of the organism who are hurting, who are so interdependent and interlocked and intermingled that the successes of one part lifts the remainder, and the failures of any part pulls the remainder together tightly around the person or persons who are in trouble.
Yet that degree of closeness, that degree of disconnectedness, that degree of intimacy requires that each one of us become vulnerable. We have to open up ourselves to the possibility of being hurt if we are to truly be blessed.
Thomas did not show up that first Easter evening because he had been hurt. His hopes and dreams were tied up with the great "Jesus is Messiah" movement that had hit town a week before on Palm Sunday. And when Jesus died, Thomas’ dreams died, and since they were his dreams, his own story’s future – Thomas missed out on the blessings that the others experienced that first Sunday.
If you wish to become fully blessed, you must accept that there will be meetings that will be sad. If you want to be fully blessed by Christ, you will need to come to the meetings where nothing much is expected to happen, as the ten disciples did that first Easter evening. If you want to experience the ultimate in the blessings, to receive the movement of the Holy Spirit, to see Christ – you will need to come to those meetings you most dearly do not want to come to, for it is at those meetings, when no one expects anything much to happen, that Christ and the Holy Spirit show up and the miraculous happens!
The ten disciples had journeyed with Jesus for three years and seen miracles. So had Thomas. But what brought them back that first night was their understanding that they were all “in it” together, that they weren’t individual disciples of Christ, but that they were His designated legacy, that they were the body of Christ upon earth, that if anything positive was ever going to happen, it would be up to them. And they found out they had not been left alone.
Over the next few weeks, we will have different opportunities for you to become part of the disciple group in a stronger way than you have in the past. Consider joining our Holy Spirit study on Wednesday evenings. Consider just what your story has to do with the story that is developing here, about the continuing actions of Jesus Christ on this earth.
But then again, perhaps what we all really need to do is to forget about our individual stories, to stop spending so much time on our stories, and instead focus upon His story, the story of the Christ who has given you life. After all, isn’t that what His-story is all about?
Holy Communion is about the body of Christ coming together, to take Christ into us and to become One body of Christ. As we receive the elements, the body and the blood of Christ, consider how you can become more than just a person who attends church. Consider what it means to be part of the church, the Body of Christ.
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