Bodies and Spirits

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah! Happy Easter!

Sunday evening, after all the services, after visiting my mother for dinner, Saundra and I came back to the parsonage and sat down and binged on a favorite television show. After a week of continuous services, we were just tired and zoned out for a bit. And then we slept for almost ten hours. And when we awoke, it was still Easter. 

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Yes, it is still Easter, for Easter is not just a day, but an entire season for the church. Easter continues until the Day of Pentecost, which is June 9th this year. Easter celebrates the time between the Resurrection and the return of Jesus to Heaven 40 days later, known as the Ascension. Easter is a time for understanding the Resurrection. It is a time to understand why the Resurrection happened, what Resurrection means for us, and what the Resurrection should lead to in our lives. 

Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18  (Audio Gospel)

On Good Friday we talked of the death of Jesus. Nicodemus, the man who came to talk to Him one night about being born again, brought many pounds of spices and linen, while Joseph of Arimethea donated his own tomb for Jesus’ burial. And Jesus was laid to rest and the tomb sealed.

Last week, we talked about the women going to the tomb, supposedly to remove the temporary linen wraps that had been placed on Jesus’ body in haste Friday afternoon. The women planned to remove the wraps, wash and clean His body, and then re-wrap the body with new linen soaked in spices such as myrrh. Nicodemus had used between 75 and a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes Friday afternoon – which was about a hundred times the amount commonly used, which was a pound or so. Even the highly respected Rabbi Gamaliel, the famous teacher of Saul/Paul, was buried using only about 40 pounds of the very expensive spices, according to the Jewish historian Josephus. But the women brought more on Sunday morning. Such was their respect and Nicodemus' respect for Jesus.

As we know, they found the tomb open and empty. Mary ran and got Peter and John, and they all three ran to the tomb. Peter and John looked in and saw just the linen lying there and went home. Mary hung around, weeping, and finally looked inside to find two angels who asked her why she was crying. “They’ve taken his body!” Turning around, she had a similar exchange with the cemetery gardener, who turned out to be Jesus, healthy, whole, and happy. He gave her a message for the disciples and she ran and told them that she "had seen the Lord! "

In I Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul repeats a very early Christian formula that speaks of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Paul tells us that after the women, Jesus then appeared to Peter, but we have no details of this appearance. We know from Luke that two disciples walked to the village of Emmaus with Jesus that afternoon. He was strong, healthy, and walked about 6 miles with them. And they didn’t recognize Him until he blessed and broke bread with them towards evening.

John 20:1-18  (Audio Gospel)

The disciples gathered together that Sunday evening, most likely in the upper room of the same house they had met for the Passover Supper on Thursday evening. John tells us that they had locked the doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.

Then Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

It is not clear how Jesus came into the room. Did He just appear? Did He come through the closed door? Was He in the house before the doors were locked? We don’t know. But we need to notice that Jesus is not a ghost – He speaks to them. And He shows them His hands with the nail holes and His side where the spear had pierced Him.

Luke adds some more detail about this visit to the disciples in Chapter 24 of Luke's Gospel account.

But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. “Why are you troubled?” He asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet. But while they still were amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate in their presence.

It is clear that Jesus was in a physical body – He was not a ghost or spirit. And this has been the conclusion of all of the great church councils of ancient times and more modern respected church theologians such as Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. Jesus’ resurrected body was the same body, repaired and healed – but having the holes from the nails and spear. He wanted them to know that He was real and substantial, with a newly repaired body - what we call a "glorified" body. That’s why he asked for fish – spirits and ghosts don’t get hungry!

John continues with his version of events:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

And here we get the first sense of our mission as followers of Jesus, a mission that will be more fully explained over the next forty days.

After saying this, He breathed on them and said,

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Remember that the original Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which is the root of our word pneumonia. Pneuma also means breath and wind. So Jesus says to them to “Receive the Holy Breath” when He breathes upon them. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Breath are one and the same. And the disciples have new life from this point onward, for God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and gave Him life back in Genesis. The disciples also now have new life – and the power and guidance that comes from the Holy Spirit. 

Additionally, Jesus tells them they have been delegated the power to forgive sins, crimes that have been committed against God. They have the ability to give grace to people on earth on behalf of God. We have the ability to give grace to people on earth on behalf of God.

Folks, this is an awesome power. Christ gave His disciples – and therefore us, who follow in the disciples’ footsteps, the ability to forgive people of sin, the ability to speak on behalf of God and keep people from hellfire. You and I both have that power if you are a baptized believer. Consider what that means - we have been entrusted by Christ the power to make people right with God, to rescue them from the fire, to grant them the eternal life which is given by Christ.

You will notice that during Holy Communion, the first step in Communion is that we confess our sins before God in a group prayer. And then, I forgive you of your sins in the name of Jesus – and then you forgive me in the name of Jesus. And then we both give glory to God because we have been forgiven. Every time we have Communion, we forgive each other of our sins, we are made right with God once again.

Notice that Jesus also tells the disciples that “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That is also an awesome power, not to be misused. For in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to “forgive our trespasses as we forgive others.” God wants us to forgive others that all may be saved.

Such tremendous power conferred to people in just a couple of minutes! The ability to help people get right with God. WE have that power! Is it any wonder that the people of the early church were excited about what God and Christ had done?

John continues:

But one of the Twelve, Thomas (called “Twin”), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”

Poor Thomas. His skepticism has marked him throughout eternity as “doubting Thomas”. But to be fair to him, consider the crowd he’d been with – a group of young men. Could it be possible that these young men had played jokes on each other, had teased each other, had set up each other as young men often do? And if so, wasn’t it awfully easy for Thomas to go with common sense and assume the other disciples were playing him, having a sick prank, pretending that they had all seen Jesus just to have a joke at Thomas’ expense? 

After all, what would you think if your friends told you that a mutual friend that you had seen die and buried had come back to life? Wouldn’t it be easier to think your friends were playing a sick prank than to believe without any other proof? Be careful which jokes you pull on your friends – you may keep them from eternal salvation! Imagine if Thomas had decided not to come back to be with the other disciples a week later because of what he thought was a sick prank! Imagine if your friends decide they cannot trust you!

After eight days His disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace to you!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”

Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed? Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”
And so Thomas got his proof. Jesus was alive – not a ghost, not a prank, not a spirit, but a truly alive man with a real body. In Luke’s gospel, between the morning and the evening appearances, Jesus takes a walk to the nearby village of Emmaus, walking with Cleopus and another disciple – and they don’t recognize Him until they sit down to have dinner with Him and He breaks bread with them and disappears. Clearly, our new body is somehow changed in appearance from our old body – could it be that we are younger, stronger, cleaned up, having that body that we’ve always dreamed of? Or could it be that all the stress had been removed from Jesus that day, that He had showered, washed His hair, put on clean clothes? You've seen how your friends' appearances change when stress is removed. Jesus looked different that day.

I used to think – "Wow! I could have a twenty-year old body again!" Now, I’d be wonderfully happy with a forty year old body.

We know this fact from the Book of Revelation – when Jesus returns, His hair will be white, but he will be in fit and trim condition, riding a horse. So is white hair merely a mark of old age, the gradual deterioration of the body? Or is white hair a marker of great wisdom? It is something to consider.

John concludes:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.

John wrote his gospel so we "might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God." It is interesting that John apparently had already read Mark and Matthew and Luke, but felt it necessary to write his own account of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, an account that is organized differently, an account that almost assumes you have read one of the other three Gospels. But perhaps the key is when John identifies himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”.

It is clear that John felt that he was Jesus’ best friend. And most people think that John’s gospel is the deepest of the four gospels, the most well constructed from a literary standpoint, the most heart felt. Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience, people who already understood the Old Testament. Mark wrote for the Romans – emphasizing action and power. Luke prepared the thoughtful, comprehensive complete account after carefully interviewing disciples and Jesus’ mother Mary - if they had existed in Luke's day, he might have received a Pulitzer Prize. But John wrote as a close friend speaking directly to us, clearly with help from the Holy Spirit, with a strong purpose in mind, “by believing you may have life in His name.”

Jesus’ Resurrection is the pattern for our future resurrections. It shows us how we will have life again. We see that we have a body, we do not turn into angels with harps, we don’t flit about Heaven as spirits. Those are heresies, false teachings that were settled over 1500 years ago by the ancient church councils, but they keep appearing in our movies, in non-Christian writings, in science fiction, in the writings of the Christian Scientists and the Scientologists, the Hindu religion, the Buddhist views. They are not Christian belief – but they make good visuals, good CGI, in movies. Movies made by people who are not yet Christians. Our destiny is much better than becoming a spirit or an angel. For we will not be ghosts, but real people, living in a solid world – but living for eternity.

For the apostle Paul, and John writing again in Revelation makes clear that we are not destined for Heaven where God is today, because the old Heaven and the old earth will pass away. We end up on the new earth that God recreates, living in the wonderful city of New Jerusalem in our new bodies -  like our old bodies but strong, healthy, and “incorruptible”. We don’t wear out, we don’t have weak hearts, bad kidneys, leathery wrinkled skin, bad knees. We have bodies that last forever instead of deteriorating and die. We shall walk in a physical body beside the tree of life, pick from its fruit which grows twelve crops a year, drinking the water of life, getting our light directly from God the Father and the Son who rules directly in New Jerusalem as king of the entire earth.

The Apostle John wrote in Revelation 21 these words:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

“Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:

Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them.
They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.

Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water as a gift to the thirsty from the spring of life. The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.”

I urge you to read the end of the Bible this week, beginning with Revelation Chapter 20.

Where before we believed that stuff was critically important, we now realize that nothing is important, nothing at all, except that we and the people we love come to know and follow Jesus Christ, for in a few hundred years nothing else will matter.
Friends, there are many times in our life here on earth when all seems lost, when the bills stack up, when the doctor’s reports are poor, when relationships fall apart, when people are just plain mean and nasty to us, when it seems like we have nothing left to live for.

But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ tells us that we have hope: 

• Where before we thought that we live a few years and then we die – now we know that we shall live forever. 
• Where before we thought that everything that happens to us on a daily basis is so very important, the traffic jam is so frustrating, the details of what our employer pays us and how he makes us work are so very important, the actions of our Congress and our legislature are so earth shattering important – now we realize that nothing they do will really be important in ten thousand years, and so we can relax. 
• Where before we believed that stuff was critically important, we now realize that nothing is important, nothing at all, except that we and the people we love come to know and follow Jesus Christ, for in a few hundred years nothing else will matter.

You see, when we know we can live forever, nothing that happens this week, this month, this year, even this decade or this century has any lasting importance, except whether or not we have helped ourselves and others find the key to eternal life.

• Does it matter eternally if your child succeeds at baseball or mathematics? No, but it does matter if they choose to follow Christ.
• Does it matter eternally if your husband or wife gets the promotion at work? No, but it does matter if they are followers of Christ.
• Does it matter eternally if you see the latest ballgame or the newest movie or the next episode of a television show? Does it matter eternally who is elected in the next election? Does it make any difference eternally whether or not you die at age 40 or at age 90? It only matters for your ability and time to lead yourself and others to follow Christ, for the single most important thing a person can do for another is to lead them to follow Christ.

You’ve heard that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach him to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime? But if you can set God’s hook in him and pull him into Christ’s boat, if you lead him to follow Christ, he’ll live for eternity!

This body we have will gradually fail us or quickly be destroyed, and then it will turn to dust. But at our resurrection, we will gain a new, glorified body that will never fail us and will never be destroyed. It is a difficult thing for us to understand, but we are not spirit beings – our spirit is what gives life to our bodies. And our natural spirit cannot give life for long – a hundred years or so. But the Holy Spirit of God has existed since the beginning, and can give life to our bodies for eternity, endlessly repairing them, removing the problems of age, clearing the cobwebs that form in our minds, giving us the energy that will allow us to walk miles every day, to personally build mansions, to take the time to learn anything we want to learn, to spend a year binge-watching Bonanza if we want – and recognizing that we have not wasted any time, any time at all, for there is still just as much time to come as there ever was.

It is still Easter. Easter isn’t a day as the world thinks. Easter isn’t even an entire seven-week season as most of the church believes. Easter is something that started almost 2000 years ago and will continue until the end of time, for when Jesus was Resurrected, Easter began. And one day, even though pastors and people often move about, even though friends drift apart, even though death may temporarily come between us – we will walk together by the tree of life in New Jerusalem as if it were a warm summer’s evening, talking about old times, the people we’ve know, and the great sacrifice that Jesus made that allows us to be together once more. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!

Oh Happy Day!

He is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

Hallelujah! 

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Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18 (Audio Gospel Reading)

As the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians twenty years after that glorious morning:

If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the first fruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He abolishes all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death.

It began for us in Eden. When Adam disobeyed God, death became the common property of the human race. People began to die. First, Abel died at the hand of his brother Cain. Then more and more people died, each in his or her own time. We died of disease. We died from accidents. We died from murder. We even died simply because our bodies wore out. And throughout all history, the Bible traditions of the Jewish rabbis say that only two or three men did not die. Enoch, in Genesis 5 – Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. And Elijah, in 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. And in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses dies, but no one ever found his grave – and yet he appeared with Elijah to Jesus at the mountain of Transfiguration. Everyone else died.

And then, there was Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus had taught a different view of religion. He had appeared on the scene about three years earlier, a cousin of John the Baptist. His teaching was different:

• Jesus had taught that poor people had value - unlike the common view of that day (and this day) that our wealth determines are value. 
• Jesus taught that quiet strong people would inherit the earth - unlike the common view of that day (and this day) that loud people would take over.
• Jesus taught that peacemaking was a virtue - unlike the common view of that day (and this day) that standing strong and fighting was a virtue.
• And Jesus taught that forgiveness should be given to all – by people to other people – unlike the common view that revenge is sweet and something wonderful. 
• and most importantly, Jesus taught that God would forgive all things to the man or woman who turned from their old ways and sought to follow a path to God, to follow the ways that Jesus taught and walked. 

Unlike other teachers, Jesus ate and socialized most with the lowliest of men and women instead of the high and mighty. Jesus apparently didn’t care what you had done in your past – He was concerned that you change your ways and follow His example. 

He taught that all people could be forgiven of all things by God the Father, if they would simply recognize that God’s ways were better than what had got them into their troubles in the first place. After all, if you are digging yourself into a hole, the most important place to begin is to stop digging and look around for another way to get out the hole. Jesus' teachings are the way out of the hole. And so Jesus developed a strong following.

Jesus, who was arrested, tried, beaten, and executed for the crime of claiming to be God, was put to death by the authorities on the afternoon before the Passover, most likely in the spring of the year 33. His claims to be God were not in dispute – He had repeatedly claimed and shown god-like abilities and privileges, such as the right to forgive sins against God - who other than God can forgive sins against God? -  the ability to heal people from all sorts of diseases - who has this power? -  to chase demons out of people, even to raise people from death, including Lazarus, who had been dead in the tomb for four days. 

Jesus had even used the holy name to refer to Himself – "I AM", as in "I Am that I Am", the holy name of God that God gave to Moses. And whenever He did this, the people around Him understood He was claiming to be God and began to stone Him or throw Him off a cliff, or some other such immediate, direct punishment for blasphemy. But He had always slipped away from them. He said once He had lived at the time of Abraham, over 1600 years earlier - who can live so long? He even said once, very plainly: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30).

And so there was no doubt about His claim to be God walking upon the earth. The only question was whether the claim was true...

And since everyone knew this was clearly a claim that was the claim of a madman or a liar or a dangerous revolutionary, Jesus was arrested, tried, beaten, and executed on the cross for the crime of claiming to be God on that Thursday night and Friday. And He died around 3 pm that Friday afternoon – the Roman guards stabbing Him in the side to make sure He was dead and had not merely fainted.

The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, had wanted to let Jesus go simply with a heavy beating. But the crowd had demanded Jesus’ death. So, as a taunt at the people Pilate ruled over, he took care of any future possible trouble and put a sign over Jesus’ head on the cross which read in multiple languages, “King of the Jews”. The sign warned any other would-be revolutionaries of what would happen to anyone else who thought to rise up against Rome, for the “King of the Jews” was covered in blood, naked, defenseless, and spent the afternoon gasping for breath as He struggled to lift Himself on nails driven through His wrists and ankles to keep from suffocating on the cross. And so He died, as so many other criminals had died – at the hands of Roman justice. Efficiently, quickly, publicly, and permanently.

A kind man named Joseph of Arimathea gave His followers the use of Joseph’s own prepared tomb. His followers hurried to put Him in the tomb before night fell, where His body was temporarily mummy-wrapped in linen to keep the bugs off. A 2000 pound stone was dropped into a trench in front of the opening, Pilate’s seal was placed over the stone, wax sealing ropes, and a guard of 16 men were set to watch over the tomb, to ensure no funny business was tried. And everyone hastened home for the Sabbath and the Passover as darkness settled in on the world. 

John 20:1-18 

On Sunday morning early, a group of women went to the tomb, hoping to clean Jesus’ body and rewrap the body with spice-infused clean linen, as Jewish custom required of the women who were of the deceased’s family and close friends. It was a terrible task, but these women were bound together with each other and to Jesus by bonds of love, respect, and a mutual understanding that Jesus was special.

When they arrived at the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away. A young woman named Mary Magdalene, a woman from whom Jesus had removed demons, ran to tell his disciples Peter and John, and so those two disciples came to the tomb, looked inside and saw that the linen wrappings were lying there, but there was no body. The cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was rolled up neatly beside the wrappings, but where was the body?

And then, it dawned upon John that Jesus might have risen from the dead as He had said He would.

So they went back home, while Mary stood outside, weeping, for she did not believe He was alive – nobody comes back from death, especially a death as horrible, as permanent as a Roman crucifixion. But she peeked into the tomb and there were two angels in white, sitting where the body had been placed on Friday afternoon. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

And Mary, in her grief responded, “They have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have put him.” And she turned around and there was a gardener.

The gardener asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

And still crying, she wailed, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” She still believed Jesus was dead - where and why had someone taken away the body?

And the gardener said to her one very important word. “Mary.”

“Why would the gardener know my name?” Mary thought. “And that voice sounds so familiar…” She turned around, saw His face and cried out “TEACHER!”, for the man she thought was the gardener was Jesus standing there, healthy, strong, smiling, happy.

She must have grabbed at Him, for Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

And now she has told us the news and what He said to her that morning!

Over the next 40 days, Jesus appeared at least eleven times to different groups of people in different places in different circumstances. He walked with people, he talked with them, he ate food with them, they saw him, they touched him, they inspected his wounds where the nails and the spear had made holes in his body, he even cooked some fish for their breakfast. All together, Paul tells us that over 500 people saw him alive after his execution. Of those hundreds of people, four wrote down detailed accounts of his ministry, death, and resurrection - what we call the Four Gospels - and three others referred to the Resurrection in their writings. Other ancient Jewish and Roman writers point to this time in the early 30's as the beginning of the Christian religion – one even corroborates the great darkness that covered the earth at the time of His death. Every bit of evidence that’s been found by archaeologists backs up the accounts written in the Bible for those people and places and events that can be backup that way. The book The Case for Easter tells the story of a reporter’s search through the evidence.

And countless millions of people since that time have found that following the teachings of Jesus is the way to living an abundant life, a much more joyful life, a life that has purpose, meaning, and joy.

Much has been written about the meaning of the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Here’s my take:

Jesus claimed to be God walking on the earth. Many thought He was crazy. Some thought Him to be a liar. Others thought He was just plain dangerous. But the Resurrection of Jesus proved His claims to be correct, for a good God would not resurrect a lunatic, a good God would not bring back a liar, a good God would not bring to life a dangerous man with misguided ideas. God would, however, resurrect His Son, God the Son walking on the earth.

The ancient Law of Moses given to Moses by God at Mt Sinai prescribed sacrifices to be made for every sort of crime. For this crime, a pigeon must be killed, for that crime a sheep, for a great crime by a wealthy man, a bull. In a world without much cash, livestock seemed the best way to measure wealth – and sacrificing a sheep or a goat or bull could be painful for the owner.

Yet there were always crimes and sins for which people did not sacrifice, there were always offences which were not paid for. It still happens today…How many times have you broken the speed limit and not been caught? How much would you owe if somehow the local police were able to get video evidence of all the times you’ve sped, eased on through stop signs, ran red lights, and generally broken the law? How much would you owe?

How many crimes have you committed and not been caught? Jesus told us that crimes and sins committed in your own mind are just as bad as actions – that hating someone is like murder, that lusting in your mind is the same as committing adultery. How many mental crimes have you committed? How many years of prison do you deserve if everything you've even thought of doing was known?

If you are like everyone else, if you are like your neighbor beside you, if you are like me, you’ve committed many, many things you shouldn’t have done. And you’ve avoided doing many good deeds that you should have done.

And God is not pleased.

But the death of Jesus, it is clear from the New Testament, came about because we needed someone who could pay the price for all the crimes and sins and bad deeds that all people had committed for all time. Jesus chose to die on the cross that we deserved to die upon, because He was God walking on the earth and thus the only person or thing valuable enough to pay for all those crimes and sins and bad deeds. Jesus became the sacrifice for all humanity, paying the price for everything we’ve done wrong.

And thus, God the Father, who has perfect integrity, could be reconciled to us because the fines, the debts, the sacrifices had been paid.

We have each received a gift with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have received words from God Himself. Promises from the Creator of the Universe. A gift of life for each of us:

Jesus promised that those who follow Him, who turn away from their old ways and turn to follow Him would receive the gift of eternal life. This is a gift God has given us, we did not earn it, it wasn’t because of how good we are, but it was despite how bad we are. It wasn’t because of something we did – it was because of what Jesus did for us.

• You may be at a low point in your life. Accept the gift. 
• You may be climbing up out of the darkness. Accept the gift. 
• You may be having great success in your life. Accept the gift – turn your life over to Jesus and follow Him the rest of your life.

That gift is awaiting you right up here at the altar rail. Walk up, stumble up, crawl up and ask God to forgive you of whatever you’ve done wrong, and God has promised He will do this. God will accept you back; God will forgive everything you’ve done wrong; God will forget the wrong things you’ve done. If you are reading this bow down right now and ask God to forgive you. And God will.

The gift is waiting for you. You don’t have to be good, you can be at the worst point of your life, God has offered the gift for everyone. All you have to do is ask to be forgiven in prayer, to turn your life over to the leadership of Jesus. And the gift is yours. Come and pick up the gift.

And if you’ve already received the gift, Jesus gave us all a command just before He returned to Heaven. “Go, therefore, to all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them everything I have commanded.” If you have already accepted Jesus as your Lord, learn how to follow this final command of His. And it begins with asking Jesus to send you people to talk with about His love. Follow Him. Learn about Him. Do God's will.

The Arrival

Folks, we’ve come to Palm Sunday, that delightful day when the children wave palm branches in the sanctuary, maybe you do too, and we celebrate the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem for Holy Week.

Let me bring you up to date with the story of Jesus to this point. 

Gospel Reading Luke 19:28-40 (audio)    Audio Sermon

Jesus was descended from King David, the greatest king of Israel and Jordan, both on his mother Mary’s side of the family and his stepfather Joseph’s side. As such, He fulfilled a prophecy that the rightful descendant of the House of David would become the King of Israel and Judah, restoring the country to glory after centuries of foreign rule, most recently by the Romans.

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40 

Approximately three years ago in our story, probably in the year 30 AD, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. At that time, several of John’s followers, young men named John, Andrew, and Simon, met with Jesus and talked with Him for several hours. Jesus then walked off into the wilderness where He fasted and was tested by the devil.

Jesus’ mother Mary was catering a wedding in Cana near the Sea of Galilee, a large freshwater lake in what is today northern Israel. The wedding was running out of wine – Mary had Jesus fix the problem, which Jesus did by turning several 40 gallon containers of water into wine, very good wine.

Jesus then walked down to the lake shore and called John, his brother James, and the two brothers Andrew and Simon to follow Him as disciples. They were all commercial lake fishermen. Soon, Jesus had called an additional eight men to follow Him, including a tax collector, a would-be revolutionary, a possible assassin, a Greek-speaking Jew and several others.

They began traveling together and picked up an entourage of over a hundred people. Jesus healed people, drove out demons, and scandalously ate and drank with all sorts of people of rough and low-class nature. He taught a different sort of Jewishness, He taught differently about God, stating that God was not waiting to destroy the people who broke His Law, but instead wanted followers who would try their best to follow His Son – Jesus. Yes, Jesus repeatedly claimed and showed god-like powers and claimed to be God walking upon the earth, as in “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

[See particularly the "I am" constructions in the Gospel of John. These refer back to YHWH, "I am that I am", the name of God that God supplied to Moses at the burning bush. Each usage of "I am" was in implicit claim to be God in the flesh in that culture at that time.]

He skillfully debated representatives from the Pharisee group of Jews who focused upon following the Law of Moses and debated representatives from the Sadducee group who controlled the Temple about the importance of the Temple. And the crowds loved Him for His comments and answers.

Early that year, Jesus had taken James, John, and Simon up to the top of tall mountain. Jesus had given Simon the nickname "Cephas", which means "Rock", which in Greek is translated as Petros, and in English Peter. Peter the Rock watched that day when Jesus suddenly transformed into a brilliant white Being and spoke with Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament, about his coming departure from Jerusalem. And it shook Peter deeply.

A few weeks after this, a messenger came from two sisters, Mary and Martha, who managed an inn with their brother Lazarus in Bethany, only three miles from Jerusalem where Jesus and His disciples usually stayed for the festivals. Lazarus was deathly ill – could Jesus come quickly to heal him? But Jesus delayed, finally arriving after Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days.

The sisters were upset and told Him, “If you’d only been here, our brother would have lived!” They understood His power to heal; they didn’t realize how deep was His control over life and death. For Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead in front of dozens of mourners.

Jesus and his disciples then withdrew to a small village in the hill country for a week or so, only returning on Saturday evening, yesterday, to be the guest of honor at a banquet catered by Martha at Simon the Leper's house. They ate in a leper's house! Lazarus was sitting the beside Jesus during the dinner, very much alive again. During the banquet, Mary poured a pint of very expensive perfume, worth the equivalent of twenty or thirty thousand dollars over Jesus’ feet, anointing Him as the ancient Kings of Israel had been anointed to indicate that He would be king.

And many people came out from Jerusalem that night to see Lazarus and Jesus. And the rumors flew – was Jesus the Messiah, the long-predicted savior of Israel? Was He ready to take over the city from the Romans and become the rightful King of Israel?

Early this morning, Jesus and His disciples awoke and began the three-mile walk from Bethany to Jerusalem, followed by several hundred people. The walk takes you up the east side of the Mount of Olives, named for the olive trees that grow on it. Near the top is the tiny village of Bethphage, the “House of un-ripe figs”.

Luke 19:28-40

Jesus called for two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the young donkey, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the donkey?”

“The Lord needs it,” they said. 

And just like that, the owners let them have the donkey!

Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on it.

As He was going along, they were spreading their robes on the road. Now He came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:

The King who comes
in the name of the Lord
is the blessed One.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven!

Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”
And once again, it may help us understand a few things about this.

Over 500 years earlier, in 518 BC, the prophet Zechariah had written a prophecy which looked to the destruction of Israel’s neighbors and rivals, from the Phoenicians of Lebanon to the Philistines of Gaza. Zechariah 9:6 even mentions a mixed people who live in the Philistine city of Ashdod, which by the time of Christ had changed its name to Azotus and become occupied by Romans and Greeks, as well as Jews and a few remaining Philistines. There had been so much intermarriage that the city spoke its own dialect.

But the most important part of the prophecy of Zechariah begins in verse 9.

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
He is righteous and victorious,[c]
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the horse from Jerusalem.
The bow of war will be removed,
and He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will extend from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates River
to the ends of the earth.

And that morning, this morning on the Mount of Olives, the King of Jerusalem was returning to her, “Righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

And so the people of Jerusalem gathered together that morning to welcome “The King who comes in the name of the Lord, who is the blessed One.” And they gave thanks, for the chariot and the horse and the bow – all those articles of warfare – would be removed from Jerusalem and the surrounding territories, for the King riding down the hill would both proclaim peace to all the peoples and expand Israel’s territory to where it was when King David, Jesus’ ancestor ruled – from the Euphrates River in Syria to the coast. And the LORD, Yahwah Himself, would defend Israel as in the olden days when God fought for Israel with Moses and Joshua and Gideon and Deborah and Samson and David and Solomon.

No more worries. Peace. Prosperity. The end of the hated Roman occupiers. And so the people loudly chanted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!” The fans of the new King were ready for the game, they were ready to cheer and fight, they were ready to face the evil Romans who were on the other side!

What would you have been doing that Sunday morning? Would you have been yelling and celebrating and chanting with the fans as your savior came riding down the hill on the donkey? If you could go back in time, would you put your cloak in the mud for Jesus’ donkey to walk over? Would you have tried to shake His hand? Would you look with joy at His arrival?

Or, knowing the whole story, would you have urged Him to get out of town before He was betrayed? Or would you have looked on in tears, knowing that what He was doing had to be done, but knowing the pain that He had to face on Thursday night and Friday, trying not to think about the terrible task that He had to accomplish so that you and I and all of us could live once more, reconciled to God not by our actions, but by His choice of action? 

Do you want to yell from the sidelines “Run! Leave town! Save yourself!”? And you see Him look towards you and mouth the words, “I must do this for you!” And then you turn your face from Him, tears welling up, as you realize that it is because of what you have done that He will be beaten, hung on the cross, and die?

There were some in the crowd who were not happy, some Pharisees. It is easy to look at the Pharisees and look at them as out of touch, but this is unfair. There were some of the wiser Pharisees in the crowd who understood how nervous the festivals always made the Romans. There were some cautious Pharisees who felt that this loud procession proclaiming a new King might get out of hand – remember that this was in a time when the Romans had swords, yes, but a man with a sword could be handled by twenty men throwing rocks and swinging clubs and each Roman soldier knew this. The Roman garrison might get nervous and then there would be bloodshed. And although a rioting crowd might successfully kill the Roman garrison, the Romans would return with legions of soldiers, three or four legions, each legion having five thousand swordsmen, the most highly trained soldiers in the world. And they would not leave Jerusalem free to flaunt their freedom in front of the world, for the Roman Empire depended upon the single idea that the Romans always conquered, the Romans always won. The Romans could not afford a successful rebellion, even in the remote corner of the Empire that was Jerusalem.

Those Pharisees also saw the joy in the celebration, but they understood the evil that could be unleashed if the celebration got out of hand, if the Romans became too nervous about this new King and reacted. Jerusalem could lose everything. (As the town did in when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD - and the Jews were exiled in 136 AD after the Bar Kokba revolt.)

No, these Pharisees did not want the celebration to get out of hand. And so they said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your disciples to calm down! Rebuke them!” But Jesus, probably referring to Isaiah 55:12 – which says

“You will indeed go out with joy
and be peacefully guided;
the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Jesus responded, “If they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!” 

And you know, I find it amazing that one or more of the disciples was listening closely enough to Jesus that that disciple heard the exchange in the noise of the crowd. But, then again, that’s the difference between a fan of Christ – and a disciple of Christ. Disciples are always listening to Christ, not to the crowd.

And so the grand procession entered into the city, into Jerusalem, the “city of peace”, as Jesus rode into the city that never has known peace, the gentle man on the little donkey who would be violently killed that week to bring us peace with God. And the celebrations continued throughout the day all over the city.

But here today, 2000 years later, what is the meaning of this day for us? Is it just a fun day, a day to begin the celebration that leads up to Easter Sunday? Is it a day for remembering joy?

I have a few thoughts for you. Please bear with me.

Everybody loves a winner. On this day, almost everybody was joyful and celebrating the arrival of Jesus and his followers into the city. Everybody pinned their hopes on him, that perhaps even this week there would be a great movement of freedom, that the Romans would be overthrown, that the burden that the Romans brought, the feeling of impending doom that was always there when ordinary people thought of the Romans would be lifted. We want to feel happy, don’t we? But when we look at the world around us, we cannot help but feel impending doom, don’t we?

I probably read the news more than most people. I try to balance my sources – I get a liberal view from NPR and I get a conservative view from the Drudge Report. And I see things happening in the world which, in a vacuum, would lead me to assume the next few years will be terrible. Our competition with the Russians is back, the Chinese are beginning to push at us around the world, the North Korean and Iranian rulers are a threat. Here at home, politicians that years ago behaved more like professional wrestlers – enemies as long as the cameras were on and then they’d go out to eat dinner together – today’s politicians seem almost mortal enemies of each other – and I’m talking on both sides. Even here in this state, there is a loss of the civility in Charleston that used to be there twenty years ago. We have mostly chosen to join sides as fans in the ballgame of politics.

It is all well and good to be excited when “our side” is winning the political battles, whichever side “our side” is. But when everyone chooses up sides and no one stands in the center helping arrange compromises, the history of the world shows that riots happen and people die. Sometimes it goes beyond riots and more people die. We need more people in the center looking for compromises, for moderation in change, for civility in conversation. With politics, there is much more at stake than in football or basketball games. Remember this before you post on Facebook.

Additionally, our technology is advancing very quickly, and, as always, technology can and will be a double-edged sword. Technology has become seen as our modern day savior and is entering our lives like that Palm Sunday procession entered the city. Robots can allow people to be removed from dirty, dangerous, repetitive jobs. But like the Pharisees, a few people stand by and look at the evil that could be unleashed if there is too much, too soon. Those same robots and artificial intelligence software can completely eliminate jobs, putting millions out of work.

We’ve already seen it happen – we just didn’t call vending machines “robots” as they helped eliminate the corner groceries. We didn’t worry about the pay-at-the-pump technology that eliminated a million jobs at gas stations across the country. We walk into Kroger or Walmart or Sam’s and can check out without an employee. Or pick out our groceries online and when we get to Kroger, someone puts them in the car while we wait. Amazon has even developed a physical store which doesn’t even have a check-out counter – just cameras that see what you pick up and take with you. How much longer will we have retail check-out clerks?

We didn’t complain when personal computers and printers and copiers replaced millions of typists who used to use carbon paper – Do you realize that the Pentagon was built mainly to accommodate the number of typists that were necessary to type the form letters and form orders for the army in World War II? Do you realize that typist was the most common job title for women in 1960?

We can order a pizza from Little Caesar’s on our cell phone and pick it up, not even talking to a person. With the push of a couple buttons, a machine fills our drink order at McDonald's, even accounting for whether or not we want regular ice or “light ice”.

Today’s technology is even rapidly replacing jobs we used to think of as highly skilled.

Last spring, from my home, I wrote a book, designed the cover, laid out the text, and had printed 60 copies of my book without ever talking to anyone. The books arrived ten days later. They could have arrived in two if I’d paid for the express shipping. I can do this with a book of sermons that brings life – or the next generation’s Hitler or Marx can do this with a book that brings death.

It used to be that lawyers and legal secretaries were needed for every will – now you can answer a few questions online and a will is automatically generated for you.

I have seen missiles made in a factory in Texas where humans never touch the parts, with the materials being put automatically into a warehouse, taken out of the warehouse automatically, machined completely without a human present, assembled, and just await a single fork truck driver to load them on the truck. I know of a hydroelectric generating plant in Georgia that has no one on site, it is controlled from the desk of a man in Cincinnati and only visited when there are problems.

In the same way, I have been in an industrial egg farm in Georgia where the eggs roll down padded chutes from the cages which hold the one million hens. The eggs move along a padded conveyor, are individually washed, inspected by a machine vision system for embryos or cracks, automatically put in a carton, the cartons are put into boxes, the boxes on a pallet and then, finally, a single fork truck driver loads them on the truck. There are a couple of maintenance men, an FDA inspector, an accountant, a shift supervisor, and in each of the ten hen houses are two women per shift, 60 altogether, who do nothing except check all the hundred thousand hens in their houses for dead chickens and throw them away. They haven’t been able to automate that part. Yet.

Self-driving trucks are being tested – no need for a truck driver, which cuts the costs and probably improves safety. But truck driver is the most common job for American men today. Ninety percent could be replaced in fifteen years. Self-driving taxi’s, delivery drones, even smart computer-controlled submarines that lie in wait for the enemy, just waiting for a signal from the fleet command to become active – they are all in development. And we remember that coal mining used to be done with pick and shovel – now one man can mine in a day what used to take 20 men to do.

On the medical front, everyone has a friend that has a new knee. This year, they’ll be introducing a new technique where they scan your old bones and 3-D print a new titanium knee that exactly fits where the old one was removed, an exact match in size to better than a millimeter fit, reducing the pockets that lead to infection. There are new cancer treatment techniques which have the ability to hunt down and kill every single cancer cell in your body by training your own immune system to work better, much better. And yet using much the same basic science, known as CRISPR, people have the ability to change children’s genes before birth to automatically immunize infants to the measles, to HIV, to small pox, to give children extra intelligence at birth – or less intelligence and strong muscles at birth. Or that same science can use a modified cold virus spread a disease so that it only affects people of certain ethnic backgrounds. The same technology that promises so much good could be used for so much evil.

So what is the answer to the sense of impending disaster that is coming, as people celebrate the great achievements of our modern day savior which is technology – and others look at the evil that may be unleashed if the disciples of that modern day savior get too far ahead of themselves? Who knows which technology will be the savior and which will cause the downfall of our civilization? We don't know, but Christ knows.

Folks, we would do well to remember that we are inclined to go with the crowd. And the crowd can be fickle and stupid. The very same people who were celebrating Jesus’ arrival on that Palm Sunday morning in Jerusalem were chanting “Crucify Him” on Friday morning, less than a week later.

As Christians, with the Holy Spirit, we daily make decisions that seem like simple economic decisions. This is cheaper, faster, takes less time – and that takes longer, costs more, or requires more effort. Our technology savior can be worshiped in this case – or we can question whether or not this is idol worship, which will always get us in trouble. But when we make our decisions about which store to shop at, which phone to buy, what job to train for, do we listen for the voice of our Lord – or the voice of the Pharisees who proclaim doom – or the voice of the crowd who has no idea of what will be happening next Friday?

Consider this. When my grandmothers were first married, they lived in homes without indoor plumbing, with washboards and clotheslines for laundry, with brooms for the floor, wood stoves for cooking on, and a sink for washing dishes. My grandfathers walked to work or road a horse. They had an icebox – no refrigerator or freezer, no air conditioner. They had no electricity – even that came later.

Most people today have vacuums, electric or gas stoves, microwaves, laundry machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and plenty of electricity. Most people drive to work. The amount of free time we have compared to the people of a hundred years ago is tremendous.

Yet, with what have we filled this time that we've been given?

Do we read our Bibles daily? Do we have an hour of prayer - or struggle for five minutes of prayer? Do we teach our sons and daughters, our grandchildren about Christ?

I suspect we waste our time. Instead of focusing on the true God, we spend our extra time worshiping at the altar of our technology god, a god we carry in our hands and pockets and purses.

We make our decisions daily about what is important, what we will worship. Do you follow the King that rode down the hill on the donkey? Or do you spend your time worshiping the false god in your hand...the phone, the Facebook, the technology.

Or can you truly say that you have been using this device in your hand as a way to spread the Gospel, a way to teach yourself more about the man who rode the donkey, a way to learn more about how much He loves you? You see, technology can be good – or bad. It depends upon what Christ wants of it – and you. Today. In this hour. In this instance!

If Jesus had listened to the Pharisees, the doomsayers, quieting the crowd, if Jesus had turned around and left town with His disciples, He would not have been killed on the cross. But our lives would be hopeless, for Jesus’ death is what made salvation possible for us. No human could have worked this out. Only God had the wisdom, and God’s Son the love for us to go into Jerusalem that day.

The wise person, the person who truly is following Christ, understands when to follow the crowd, and when to walk against the crowd and leave town. Not of his own understanding. But instead, the wise Christian is always asking, “Lord, what shall I do today?” and listening for the Lord’s voice. Will He ask me today to find a donkey’s colt? Will He ask me to sing "Hosanna!" so the stones don’t have to? Or will He ask me to help Him climb on that donkey’s colt, so I can see Him beaten and whipped and killed by those He loved?

The wise Christian disciple, you see, is always listening for His Lord’s voice in the crowd. The wise Christian disciple is asking the Lord for guidance. The wise disciple of Christ is more concerned with what our Lord wants … than with what the crowd says. And when that happens to you, my friend, when you are steadily more concerned with what our Lord wants than with what the crowd or the Pharisees say…you have arrived!

The Anointing

Back in the days when I taught mathematics at a Catholic high school, every once in a while some of the students would complain, as students always do. They’d complain about the food, they’d complain about the town, they’d complain about the monthly worship service. And their root complaint was always the same about each of these things – “It’s always the same.” 

Audio Sermon, Part I, Part II

They complained that the food was always the same – which it wasn’t, but every four weeks it did repeat. They complained that there was nothing new in town – which was not totally true, but it was true that the town did not offer something new and exciting every week. And they complained about the monthly worship service being the same, which, to them, was the fact that the order of service was always the same, even though the songs, the scripture, and the sermons varied every month. Seen through the eyes of a young person, much of the world seems to be the same day after day, week after week, month after month.

Of course, they were looking at the big picture, the routine of the school cafeteria, the town shopping area, the worship service. Those of us who were a bit older looked at the fine texture and saw the subtle changes in the menu – green beans instead of corn on chili day, sliced peaches instead of sliced pears on hot dog day – after all, there’s only so much you can do and be assured that 90 percent of the students will eat your food. Sushi or curried chicken might be different, but it never would be as popular with the students as pepperoni pizza is.

The town slowly changed, with a couple of new restaurants every year, a couple old ones dying, a couple of new stores, a couple old ones dying. And the worship service did not change because that was something that was commanded by Rome and the bishop. And the day in 2011 it DID change – when new words were sent out to the English speaking world for the responses to the priest’s calls – the students didn’t like that either. For it had become different – and even those high school students found that they had nostalgia, a love of the old and established, a love for memory, a love for the past.

We all have nostalgia, don’t we? We look back and remember that golden age when our town and county was filled with good paying jobs, when our churches were full of children, when our neighborhood was a fun, joyful place to play in. We remember a time when our town was safe.

Or was it?

Clarksburg in the 1960’s and 1970’s was a rough place. The town had gained a reputation for murder beginning in the 1930’s with the Quiet Dell serial killer. Illegal gambling led to murders. The coal strikes around the state got people shot, the glass plants began downsizing. Smart people began to pack up their families and move to North Carolina and Georgia – or across the hill to what they saw as a safer, quieter town - Bridgeport. Yes, the churches were full of children because people were having 3 and 4 children and more per family, and the kids had fun. But our parents didn’t let us hear about the shootings that happened downtown. And the mines were closing as the companies opened up cheaper, cleaner mines in Wyoming. And our parents? They remembered the wonderful times back in the 1940’s and 1950’s while complaining about how bad things were in the 1960's and 1970's...

For some reason in America – and particularly here in the mountains, we always have a tendency to look at the past as golden and the future as dark. So many people I run into look at their childhood as grand and look at a future return of Christ, as Revelation speaks of it – as a scary, dark future.

Some of us even look at change in the church as a scary, dark thing. Why is this? Is it because pastors in our youth who were comfortable with a nostalgic world taught us to be suspicious of all changes? Were they – and then us – so focused upon a dark reading of Revelation that we forgot to look at the joy of Christ’s return? 

Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4-14; John 12:1-8  John 12:1-8 Audio Version

But that is not the way to look at things. That is not how God wants us to look at things.

2800 years ago, Isaiah, who was awaiting the destruction of Jerusalem, listened to God and wrote for us what God had to say:

“Do not remember the past events,
pay no attention to things of old.
Look, I am about to do something new;
even now it is coming. Do you not see it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.

(Isaiah 43:18-19)

God assured Isaiah and the people who listened to him that the future would be better than the past. God even told us to not remember the past events, to pay no attention to things of old because God is about to do something new. God was to make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert!

Does it seem sometimes like your life has been a struggle in the wilderness, a dry, parched journey through the desert without water?

The people of Israel had every reason to feel that way, the way you might feel. They lived in a land where outside bandits and armies might show up any day and burn down their farms. They lived in a land where they never could count on rain to come. They lived in a land where the dry wind from the desert would blow sand on them, where lions might walk into the sheep pen one night and take a sheep or two, a land where they paid all their extra money to the ruler of the year who promised to protect them from his rival next door.

All of life was a struggle, all of life was difficult, all of life was a constant battle – and then…you could expect to die and face your God with a guilty conscience because that God had given your people the Law, telling you 613 specific things to do and not to do, and yet you had broken so many of those commands you couldn’t count them. God had specified the fines for each one of those broken commands, but you had no spare sheep, cattle or even pigeons to pay those fines. And so you were doomed. In fact, it appeared that all of Israel was doomed to be destroyed by the God that claimed them as His own.

Have you ever felt that way, doomed because of your sins?

“Do not remember the past events,
pay no attention to things of old.
Look, I am about to do something new;
even now it is coming. Do you not see it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.

(Isaiah 43:18-19)

God Does Something New

So eight hundred years after Isaiah, God sent part of Himself to earth as the man Jesus, who became known as the Christ, a Greek word that means “the Savior”. God did something new. And Jesus began to preach that people had got things wrong, that God did not want to destroy everyone, but rather, God loved everyone, but wanted them to also love each other. And Jesus also mentioned repeatedly that God was His Father, that Jesus and God were one and the same, and even called Himself the “Son of Man”, which prophets had used to talk of a divine leader who would rescue Israel from its enemies. Jesus claimed to be God on the earth.

And the people around Him understood this claim, but did not see that this was God doing something new, and so the people often began to stone Him for this claim to be God, which they saw as blasphemous, despite the signs and wonders Jesus did – healing the blind, deaf, and lame, chasing out demons, turning water into wine. The people preferred what they knew over what was new. And so, since these signs and wonders were not getting people’s attention, when his friend Lazarus fell deathly ill and Lazarus’ sisters sent a message to Jesus to “come quickly”, He delayed. And Lazarus died. 

Audio Sermon Part II

The sisters were upset when he finally arrived to find Lazarus dead and in the tomb four days. They said, “If you had only been here, our brother would not have died!” They saw the new, hopeful future in Jesus, but they were still living in the past, a time when people died and stayed dead, like plants lying dead in the desert without water.

And then Jesus did something new. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, in Bethany, just three miles from Jerusalem. And then Jesus took his disciples and went off to a small village nearby for a week or so of rest and teaching.

Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha, and Mary apparently owned an inn in Bethany, were long-time friends of Jesus, and had made good money over the years with their business, in the “good ole days” of the past. But that money, that “thing of old” had proven worthless when Lazarus died – the friendship with Jesus was priceless. Jesus was the new thing God had done. He was the river in the desert of life. 

John 12:1-8  John 12:1-8 Audio Version 

The Passover was coming, a festival which was as important in Jerusalem at the time as Christmas is to us today. Six days before the Passover, on Saturday evening after the Sabbath had ended, Lazarus’ sister Martha catered a party at her neighbor Simon’s house. It was something new - Simon the Leper threw the party, a party held at a home where an untouchable leper lived. Jesus was the guest of honor and Lazarus was sitting at the main table with Him. A resurrected man, a new man, was sitting at the table with beside one of the three oldest Persons in existence, Jesus who was God the Son.

And so they’re eating when Mary walks into the room, Lazarus’ younger sister Mary, and talks a pint bottle of pure oil of spikenard, an expensive perfume made from the resin of a plant that grew near present-day Punjab in the Himalaya Mountains (corrected from audio sermon). She pours it on his feet and wipes his feet with her hair. It was something new, no one did this, but God had started something new, so Mary continued with it.

In ancient Israel, a land short of water, but heavy in olives and olive oil, there had developed a custom. That custom was to pour oil on the head of someone as a gift – or more particularly, to pour oil onto someone who would be the next King of Israel and/or Judah. This custom, this old thing, dated back a thousand years to the first kings of Israel, Saul and David. The oil acted as perfume, but it also acted to heal any wounds, and to cleanse the hair of the person on whom it was poured. Spikenard oil was also often used to anoint dead bodies. They were old customs, but Mary mixed them together that night in something new.

Many did not take ordinary olive oil like had been done of old. She took the most valuable thing she owned, the most expensive oil in existence and poured it, not on Jesus’ head, but on His feet, which both signified that she was acting as a lowly slave, cleaning His feet which had walked behind camels and donkeys and sheep for many miles – and also bringing to mind the homage that Ruth had paid Boaz for his kindness to her and her stepmother. An old story, but told in a new way.

Judas, the moneybag holder – which is what “Iscariot” may have meant – was outraged. The oil should have been sold for 300 days wages and the money given to the poor! That is what would have been done in the old days. And there is nothing wrong with selling valuable objects and giving the money to the poor – if your heart is generous. But John, the other disciple who wrote this account, tells us that Judas was a thief who used to embezzle the money in the bag. He wanted to sell the perfumed oil and put 10 percent of the money in his pocket. He wanted to sell the perfumed oil for 300 silver pieces – and put 30 pieces of silver in his pocket. The old ways of Judas were threatened by the new things God and Jesus and Mary had done. For those of you who know the complete story, did you notice that later that week Judas got his 30 pieces of silver? For a few hours. Then God did something new.

O Judas! If only Judas had stopped being so selfish, he would have gained so much more! Instead, his selfishness cost him everything, his friends, his life, even his eternal soul!

Archaeologists and historians have confirmed that Judas was a good judge of the value of the oil. It did indeed sell for about 300 day’s wages – 300 denarii or 300 pieces of silver – that pint or pound was worth the equivalent of 20,000 to 30,000 dollars in today’s money.

And Jesus essentially told Judas to shut up and leave Mary alone. For “she has kept it for the day of My burial” Jesus said. “You always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have Me.” It was a new idea.

It is clear from reading the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament that Jesus was strongly behind doing practical things for the poor, giving them money and food and clothing and shoes (see Matthew 25). And yes, we still have the poor with us – and we still need to give practical help for the poor. But in this case, Jesus recognized the gift of oil from Mary for what it was. It was God doing something new.

Jesus had done something no one else could do for Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. And so, Mary had taken the most valuable thing she owned, and given it to Jesus. Not in hopes that He would do more for her – but in simple gratitude, for Jesus had done something new for her and her brother, bringing him back to life, so she had symbolically given everything to Jesus, made Him her King, given up her most valued possession and stooped down to become His lowliest slave of her own choice. People did not do this in the old ways. This was something very new.

What do you offer Jesus out of gratitude for what He has done for you? How will you change from your old ways and do something new?

Just six days later, Jesus voluntarily remained to be beaten and executed on the cross – supposedly for the crime of claiming to be God – but actually because we needed someone willing to pay the fines for all the crimes we’ve all committed against God, the sins, the wrongs, the hurts we’ve done against others. And Jesus’s execution became God’s new sacrifice to God from God on behalf of us. No one else, nothing else was valuable enough except the Son of God, the Son of Man, the perfect man, the new man who was Jesus.

What do you offer Jesus out of gratitude for what He has done for you? How will you change from your old ways and do something new?

Your consistent presence? Your special talents devoted as a slave to Christ? Something that you would consider a treasure? Your consistent praise to everyone you meet telling them what Jesus has done for you? Your life devoted to Christ?

After your normal offering today, I ask you to go home and consider what sacrifice you might make for the poorest people in this state to show them love. Can you choose not to have some coffee this week and give $10 or $20? Can you choose to eat some hot dogs at home instead of a fine meal at a restaurant and give $20 or $30. Do you have some money saved that you were planning to give yourself a gift, maybe some flowers, maybe some clothing, maybe a new tool?

Perhaps you are one of those people who could give $50 or $100, or even $500 to the poor, to the Celebration of Mission Event box on the table back there. This money does not go to this church, but goes to support mission projects throughout WV. As always, whatever you give, write your check out to the church and put in the memo field COME. I know you may not have done this in the past. It may be something new for you, giving above and beyond what you have done in the past. But what did Isaiah say?

“Do not remember the past events,
pay no attention to things of old.
Look, I am about to do something new;
even now it is coming. Do you not see it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.

(Isaiah 43:18-19)

Jesus was the something new. But Jesus is not finished making things new.

On the night before He was arrested, Jesus took a very old custom – the Passover Meal – and made it new. He changed the meaning of those symbols into something very new.

Jesus did something new. But Jesus is not finished making things new. He is making you new even now. Will you let Him? Or will you cling to your things of old?

Going to See Dad

Today, I want to make sure everyone here is sitting by a friend. So, turn to your neighbor and ask, “Neighbor! Are you my friend?”

And now, turn back to your neighbor, and answer, “Neighbor! Of course I’m your friend!”

Audio sermon

I have a friend from my days in another town, a friend who is a very devout Christian. But my friend is also a modern day Pharisee – he is very, very concerned that we follow the rules. Just this week, I read one of his posts which is very upset with Francis Chan, a California pastor who walked away from his megachurch in Los Angeles to start up multiple house churches in the San Francisco area because he felt the focus had become more on the entertainment aspects of the church than on Christ. Chan now feels that the ideal size for a church is very small, about 12 to 30 people, because he feels that this forces more people to become true disciples rather than spectators of religion.

Any way, my friend was upset at Chan, not because of Chan’s views or teachings or lifestyle – but because Chan had appeared at a big conference with several other pastors my friend doesn’t like and said nice, polite things about the other pastors instead of condemning them. It was like someone who had loved ribeye steaks suddenly getting mad because he had found ribeyes at a meal with okra, grits, and tofu – all things he hated. Rather than celebrating that at least ribeyes were being served, he focused his fire on complaining that the ribeye was associating with okra, grits, and tofu.

Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32  Audio Gospel Reading

But, you know? Francis Chan is a mature Christian and he can take it. After all, much the same thing happened to Jesus. One day, a bunch of tax collectors and sinners were coming close to hear Jesus speak – and a group of Pharisees, the holy bunch of the day, were upset because, as they complained, “Jesus welcomes sinners and even eats with them!”

And we might be tempted to immediately condemn those Pharisees, but then again, it is always wise to ask ourselves what we would have honestly done in their place. I want you to think – who would you rather I had lunch with tomorrow – a group of pastors, a group of ya’ll from this church, or a house full of people a couple streets down the road from me who I know are regular users and possibly even sellers of pot and meth? Who would you rather I have lunch with tomorrow?

If you are honest, you’ll say, “Well, my first thought was I’d rather you were with us, but then I thought it would be better if you were learning from other pastors, but then I realized the right answer is for you to be with the drug users.”

And so it is. For they are the people who need to hear the message most.

At the time of Jesus – and still to a large extent today – we considered someone holy if they only hung around holy people and holy things. And how do things become holy? It is almost like magic – people and things become holy by hanging around with holy people and holy things. It is like the holiness rubs off on them. Let me give you an example. Do you see this candleholder? Do you treat it better than you treat your own candleholders? It has become holy over the years. Try to remove or change anything in this sanctuary, and you will find out that it has become holy to someone in this church. A picture, a candleholder, an oil lamp, a pitcher – let it stay in a church sanctuary for ten years and it will become holy.

One day, a few years ago when I was teaching math at Parkersburg Catholic High School, the regular monthly Mass was held. Because of necessity, a girl took the missal – that’s a big book, like a Bible, that contains the daily readings and prayers for Catholic services – she took the missal and placed it gently on the floor because she needed the space on the lectern for something else going on. From the crowd there was an audible gasp! How dare she put a holy book on the floor! The priest was cool with it, but to the people, it had become holy. 

Our idea that holiness somehow rubs off on objects also transfers to people. We somehow think that pastor’s holiness may get dirtied by association with the wrong people, the wrong places, the wrong things, even the wrong words. (It is amazing how people speak around me until they find out I’m a pastor – and then their language suddenly changes, and their stories change, too. )

Now we know that Jesus taught us that the right place for a pastor is to be with sinners, teaching them about God and Jesus. We’ve all got that up here in our heads, even if down in our hearts we are concerned that somehow those drug users, those alcoholics, those felons, those, those… “bad” people will contaminate our pastor.

But how come we didn’t get the same lesson for ourselves? Why don't we understand that we should also spend our time with "sinners"? Why is it that when we invite the neighborhood into the church, many of us kind of back up against the far wall rather than mingle? Why do we even avoid coming to special events like a clothing giveaway or a community dinner?

I’ll tell you. It is because when you were a child, your parents taught you not to hang around with “those kinds of people.” We even developed the idea watching television that there are “good guys” and “bad guys”, “good girls” and “bad girls”. And we still teach our children and grandchildren not to associate with people who are “bad”, don’t we?

Folks, that is a good way to keep our children out of trouble. Children don’t know when they are being led down the primrose path to the pile of manure. Children don’t understand that what sounds very good can be very evil. Children don’t understand that much of what the devil brings us is dressed up with fun and excitement. But we know…and we help our children to know where and with whom trouble lurks. 

Yet when we mature as Christians, we also need to mature in our understanding of people and who we should spend time with. For what was an appropriate instruction for children - avoid certain types of people - is not an appropriate instruction for a mature Christian who understands right and wrong, who is capable of recognizing evil in the world, and who has faith in God's protection. Instead, mature Christians need to step out from the safety of our fellow church-goers - and eat and drink with "sinners", just as Jesus did.

There is a point we have to make. And it is the point that Jesus made that day with the Pharisees. It is the point that God loves even the “bad guys” and the “bad girls”. God and Christ know that all of us are sinners, even those who have attended church faithfully for decades. The value of an individual is not in his or her behavior, but everyone is valuable simply because we are all images of God, made in God's image. When the Pharisees complained about His dinner partners, Jesus quickly told three parables that day – one about a man’s lost sheep, another about a woman’s lost coin, and a third one about two sons. I'll update that last one so we can better understand it...

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

A man had two sons. The younger one, the more foolish one, probably after some anger and a fight, asked Dad to distribute his share of the farm to him now. So Dad did that. And the young man took his $100,000 or so and traveled to Myrtle Beach, where he spent his money on booze and loose women, on seafood and souvenirs. After he had spent his money, a hurricane came through up country, caused a flood which meant no food could get in to Myrtle, so he hiked up to North Carolina where an industrial pig farmer offered him a job feeding okra to his hogs while standing in pig manure. Do you like okra? A lot of people can’t stand it.

Finally, the younger son came to his senses, and thought, "You know, back in West Virginia, my dad has 400 acres of beef, even his hired hands have plenty of pepperoni rolls to eat, and here I am with a choice of eating nothing or okra covered in pig manure." So he decides to go back to Dad, humble himself, tell him he’ll work at minimum wage on the farm like a hired hand. So he hitch-hiked up the interstate.

Dad saw him walking up the road to the house and ran down the driveway to him, grabbed him in a big ole hug and even kissed him on the cheek. The son said “Dad, I’ve messed up big time – I’m not worthy to be your son.”

But Dad yelled at the farm hands and his mom – "Quick! Get him a new set of jeans and a new flannel shirt, get him some size 11 cowboy boots and a new cell phone! Get a yearling steer, butcher it and turn on the grill! We’re gonna have a party since we thought this son of mine was dead in the hurricane, but he’s alive and found!"

Now the older son was out in the field on the John Deere, and when he pulled up to the barn he heard Lynard Skynard playing, saw a bunch of them dancing and smelled the steaks a grillin’. So he called over one of the farm hands and asked him "What is goin’ on?"

“Your brother is here”, he told him, “and your dad has butchered the year-old steer because he’s home safe and sound.

That made the older brother hopping mad. So Dad came over and pleaded with him. The brother replied, “I’ve been working on this farm for years and always done what you asked, but you never even gave me a turkey for my friends. But when this no-good son of yours came back from his time with the beach hookers, you butchered a steer for him!”
So Dad looked at him and said, “You and I are always together. We work together and play together. We’re the best of friends. We go to the Mountaineer games together! Everything I have is yours, you know that, from the John Deere to the Ford King Cab. But we had to celebrate, because your brother was dead – and is alive again. He was lost and is found.”

And this sort of love is why Jesus spent time with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the drunks, the Roman collaborators, the trouble-makers, the thieves, the drug users, the drug dealers, the immigrants, the zealots, the blind, the lame, the Deaf, the mentally ill, the lazy, the godless. He knew that any one of them who simply recognized his or her need for God’s guidance, who just asked for the help of their heavenly Father would be welcomed back into the family with honor and celebration.

But did you notice the story doesn’t end with the return of the younger son? It continues with the recognition that those people who are consistent followers of God’s will often become jealous of the attention paid to the lost souls, the people who have gone far from home. And so the Father reassures the elder son of God’s continued love and support. Jesus assures the regular church goer that God still loves them too!

Folks, as we grow this church, there will be times when there will be stress in our family. There will be people who come into the church who will have a history, a history that you will remember and I and any other pastor you have will not know. You will remember what a deadbeat they were, what a drunk they were, how you couldn’t trust a word they said – and yet God and the pastor will welcome them with open arms, with a celebration, with a party.

when you hear them take vows to follow Jesus, it will be tempting for someone to say, “I wonder how long that will last”. Don’t do that, for there may have been people who wondered the same when you took your baptismal vows – or your father or mother took their vows. Don’t be like the older brother, upset because someone has come back to the Father.

Instead, become like the Father, always looking to spot someone coming back from the pig manure of the world. Be like the man who leaves 99 good sheep and goes to search for the lost sheep. Be like the woman who has 9 silver coins and spends all day and all night searching by candlelight for the one missing coin.

As Paul wrote: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

In other words, look at people who come to Christ as butterflies instead of the caterpillars they used to be – the old died – the new is here.

Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

We have a ministry – a ministry to go into this community and bring people back to a good and proper relationship with God and Christ. Will you join into this ministry?

... in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

Christ’s death on the cross was to pay for all the sacrifices that the Old Testament Law had demanded be paid. The one-and-only Son of God was the only thing valuable enough in the whole Universe to be sacrificed that could pay for all of our sins, our trespasses, our crimes against God. And it was through that crucifixion of Christ that we have been reconciled to God, that we’ve been restored to a right and proper relationship with our Creator. And He has trusted US with that message of reconciliation to go into the world around us. Investigate this and tell others!

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

Think of what God did…

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us,

He took the sinless Jesus to become the scapegoat, put all of the sin of the world on Him just so we could become right with God. And Jesus did not do this for everyone, but did this for each one of us, and would have done it if it had only been you...or me.

“so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Just so we could walk with our heads up right, standing tall, knowing that our life stories show Creation how righteous God is, how righteous Christ is, how GOOD they are. Have you ever thought about how your life story, from your time before you knew Christ to today shows just how good God is? Tell that story to someone this week.

David wrote: Psalm 32

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
you righteous ones;
shout for joy,
all you upright in heart.

You know the story of the prodigal son. Almost everybody here has heard that story before. Most of the people in America know that story. Yet there are still people who do not feel that they are good enough to come to God. There are multiple people reading this who feel that they are not good enough to even be baptized, who feel like they must be more holy, more pure, more perfect before they can come to God.

The story of the prodigal son is the story that shows us how imperfect we can be and still receive God’s love.

You know, we all dig pits and graves into which we then fall. And we often take the shovel with us into the pit and dig deeper down still, as if that would get us out of the pit.

And then we think that the only way that we can stand tall again is to climb out of the pit by ourselves. But that is not true.

The younger son had not climbed out of his pit – he was at the very bottom of his pit. He simply decided to stop digging and go home, to throw himself on his Father’s mercy. He admitted that he was not worthy – and that was what allowed him to go home, wasn’t it? He admitted he wasn’t able to handle it himself.

That’s the point. God simply wants us to recognize that there are things we cannot do ourselves, things we are not strong enough to do, smart enough to fix, good enough to handle by ourselves. God wants us to admit that we need God. We need God. That’s all!

For when we admit that, we can be taught...

Little Timmy was four years old and was trying to teach himself to read books. He’d look at the book and try to remember the words Mommy had said. But he had trouble remembering the whole book. And even when he remembered all the words of the one book, he couldn’t remember the words of the next book, but Mommy knew the words of all the books. And it was very frustrating. But he was going to read the books, so he had Mommy to read the books to him over and over again so he could remember the stories.

Finally, one day, he said to Mommy, “I’m not as smart as you, Mommy.”

“Why not, Timmy?”

"Because you can read all the books and I can’t remember the words to them.”

And Mommy said, “I don’t remember all the words. I figure them out. Do you see this letter, it looks like a house? We call it the letter A” And Mommy taught Timmy about letters and how to read that afternoon. She gave him the key and he became a great reader and writer after that.

Sometimes, you see, we are trying to learn the wrong way.

Like Timmy thought he had to memorize all the words, we think we have to memorize all the rules and be perfect. 

Actually, the key is we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, which God can give us. If we will turn to God and stop trying to memorize all the rules and be perfect, God will give us the key to becoming holy, which is listening to the Holy Spirit.

Will you turn to God and say, “I’m not good enough. I need You!”

Will you turn to God and say, “I can’t do it on my own. I need You!”Will you turn to your godly neighbor and say, “I need God. Will you pray for my soul?”

And when you are ready, one of you lead the other to say something like this, repeating the words after one another:

“Father God,

I’ve messed up. I can’t handle it alone. 

I need you. 

I’m sorry for what I’ve done. 

Will you take control of my life? 

Amen.”

And you can do this for yourself, or with another person at work or at home. It doesn’t matter. 

Our heavenly Father is waiting, watching, looking down His driveway for you to come home. Come home!

If this sermon or another one has changed your life or touched your heart, we'd like to know. You can leave a comment below, or visit us some Sunday morning at Calvary United Methodist Church (in Clarksburg's Adamston neighborhood, 390 S 22nd St, Clarksburg, WV 26301. Services are at 9:30 am and 7 pm Sundays.)  or at Mt Clare United Methodist Church in Mt Clare, WV at 11 am.