Risen with Christ

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Focus: Easter Resurrection

Function: Celebration

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

We are Risen with Christ.

And in that, we are in Union with Christ.

Our union with Christ is a life giving force that is still changing the world for the good.

I read a caption to an article on my Facebook feed that I did not have a time to read, but the title intrigued me.

The title, from a minister acquaintance of mine said: “why I don't believe in the resurrection.”

I respect the person who posted it and who knows what it actually said? I understand that some Christians have a different understanding of resurrection than I do, or than what brother Paul seems to be talking about in this passage and I want you to know that I respect this. But I confess, I still believe in the resurrection. It fits for me.

When this passage speaks of how we are to be pitied if Christ Jesus didn't raise from the dead with the implication that all we get is some sort of good moral code to live by while alive on earth, this passage may have been misused to imply that all that matters is that in the end we get to heaven.

There is language in here that is also used in end times prophecy teaching.

And the language is highly symbolic. I spent a lot of time trying to work out when this “risen with Christ” is or will be and since its symbolic language is different than other passages, I am convinced that the focus of this passage is not the events at the end, but the very important concept that through the resurrection, death, and the fear of death is conquered.

This is Easter worship in its classic form. Christ Jesus is Alive and Christ Jesus will indeed bring victory over all the evil that plagues mankind and in the end will conquer all that which opposes the good that God represents.

Easter, Resurrection, the proof of our hope.

The promise is “First Christ will be raised.” That part has happened; and then those in union with Jesus will be raised

Now, that could be a future event, it could be speaking of those whose bodies have died and souls have gone on, or it could be a reference to the fact that no one will be raised until the end.

Because the symbolic language changes, we cannot be definitive on what this means about the end times.

And that is important, because what he is talking about is the power of the resurrection.

But what about those “not in union?” Although not specifically mentioned when, it is implied that they will also be raised because the passage says “everyone will be raised.”

Who is raised “To death or life” is up to God and the minute that I start deciding which it is based on my beliefs and experiences, that is the minute I limit the life giving resurrection that this passage celebrates.

Somehow, in my darkness, God broke through to me. God can do the same for others.

The passage is not about who is in and out, but about the victory the Resurrection won.

Even evil Spiritual rulers, Spiritual authorities, and Spiritual powers will also be brought back to God.

Somehow, through this death and resurrection, this is now all possible.

Resurrection follows death.

The ancients understood death differently than us. The Greek word for death is Thanatos. It means separation. When we die, we are cut off from the living.

To me, to be separated from God and love would be hell.

Death is to be permanently and eternally cut off from God, or from our community.

I don't want to focus on those who are not in union because the passage does not.

I am cautious about the use of Kingdom in reference to God's Kingdom and the judgment in proximity to one another.

I believe that a false understanding of hell has been perpetrated for to many years and it leaves people with a fear, or the fear, of death.

In the resurrection of Christ, we see the eventual defeat of death.

And He is first, as an example of the hope that everyone else has.

But I am cautious about the use of the place that could be alluded to in this passage as “not heaven.” I am cautious because the Kingdom of God does not consist of the saved who are in union with Christ as opposed to those who are not there yet.

John tells us that the fear of death is the fear of judgment. But Jesus took the judgment on the cross. More than that, if there was to be wrath from God against the evils that humanity have committed because of greed and most often that greed is fueled to some sort of justifiable homicide because it married with some sort of religious excuse to hate others.

No. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom without fear. That is what the bible says. It exists because the fear of wrath has been taken upon Jesus Christ on the cross.

By Adam death came to all, by Jesus, eternal life comes to all.

That is the focus of this passage.

So, when he ignores those not in union with Christ at the end, again, we ask ourselves, what does that mean?

I can tell you that Jesus' purpose is to save and restore the entire world to God.

And even though these powers, rulers and authorities are spiritual in nature, He will not stop until He brings the world entire back to Him.

I love the words “In Union with Christ.”

In Ephesians 2:6 we read that we are also already raised with Jesus Christ.

We are already part of the new Kingdom.

Our lives belong to God and we can rest in the fact that God knows how to love and protect both our lives the lives of those we love.

We are in Union with Christ.

It is a life giving force.

The union with Christ is a life giving force.

It gives life both to us and to those around us.

It brings life in the midst of misery and despair.

We bring life to others.

And we can see the evidence of it in our lives.

The beauty of our faith is the partnership with God and others that we now get to have.

I read this phrase, “if your religion requires you to hate, then the problem is your religion.”

Even if there was no resurrection, unless humanity learns to solve its problems with love instead of violence, humanity cannot survive.

But there is a promise here.

Death is disarmed. Fear of death is defeated. And every other force of evil will also be brought to submission.

We are blessed with the life giving force that changed the story of violent retribution, submitted to the cross and then disarmed violence by raising from the dead.

We are blessed with the life giving force that raised Jesus from the dead and deliver us alive in faith to the one in whom we have entrusted our salvation.

Join us.

...To Them

Text: John 20:11-18

Focus: Resurrection

Function: Worship

Form: Story

Intro:

John 20:11-18 (GNT)

¹¹Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb ¹²and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³“Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her.

She answered, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

¹⁴Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵“Woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷“Do not hold on to me,” Jesus told her, “because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.”

¹⁸So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her.

As my faith grows into more and more community, I realize that the nature of salvation is much more than an individual salvation.

God wants to save a culture as well as save the individuals inside of it.

God rejoices when governments own the responsibility of making sure that the least of these has a fair chance.

But, this event between Mary and Jesus gives me great pause about all that.

I grew up believing only in a personal salvation that emphasized heaven and sort of neglected the reason why God left the church on the earth, which is to bring God's Kingdom of love and forgiveness which is already here, not merely one to come.

And I realize that this does not fulfill the three years that Jesus taught us how to live, it merely fulfills the three days where Jesus atones for our sins.

But at this point, the pause is that now is the time to focus on just that.

Jesus died and rose again to purchase our salvation.

I don't understand that mystery. I don't understand why it happened that way.

But in my Bible study, as I see the history of people in their recordings with God, I see that God loves symbolism.

And there is great symbolism in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Today, we focus on the resurrection.

Death no longer has power over us.

I love to say that phrase and let it sink in.

We no longer have anything to fear because Jesus has been beyond the grave and has came back to assure us of His final victory.

Finally, God will bring everything to right.

And those are our marching orders.

But again the beauty of this moment was not the big plans that God had for the Church.

The beauty of this moment was not the meaning of the resurrection.

The beauty of this moment was not especially the wonder of the atonement.

The beauty of this moment was the way Jesus said: “Mary.”

He knew her.

And the beauty of this moment is that although history is made and we have changed our marking of history from these events, the beauty of this moment is that it happened to Mary.

And Mary believed that although this salvation is huge, global and world changing, it was also intensely personal and at this moment Mary allowed herself to experience the fact that that was happening to her.

I think of Jesus dying for the world. And I think less of Jesus dying for me, personally.

But that is the beauty of this moment, Mary herself acknowledges that this happened to her.

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

¹Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good,
and his love is eternal.
²Let the people of Israel say,
“His love is eternal.”

¹⁹Open to me the gates of the Temple;
I will go in and give thanks to the Lord!

²⁰This is the gate of the Lord;
only the righteous can come in.

²¹I praise you, Lord, because you heard me,
because you have given me victory.

²²The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all.

²³This was done by the Lord;
what a wonderful sight it is!

²⁴This is the day of the Lord's victory;
let us be happy, let us celebrate!

²⁵Save us, Lord, save us!
Give us success, O Lord!

²⁶May God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
From the Temple of the Lord we bless you.

²⁷The Lord is God; he has been good to us.
With branches in your hands, start the festival
and march around the altar.

²⁸You are my God, and I give you thanks;
I will proclaim your greatness.

²⁹Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good,
and his love is eternal.

Sodzo

Text: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Focus: Salvation

Function: To help us worship and prepare holy week.

Form: Lecture

Intro: Sodzo

The sermon title is a Greek word that must have been on the mind of the crowd that day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.

The word is Sodzo, and it means “Salvation.”

In a sense, it is the Greek equivalent of Hosanna. It is the noun form of the verb, Hosanna.

The word Hosanna means “Lord, Save us.”

Sodzo, is the fruit of the answer to that prayer. Salvation.

Restoration, healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance, being born from above, becoming a new creature, and I'll end the list with the root word for Restoration, Rest.

This is the promise of God.

We rejoice in God's salvation.

I preach a lot from Micah 6:8, Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with God.

I understand the Do justice. It is American in the sense that we are the “get `er done!” sort of people.

When I think of what it means to be an American, I think of the possibility that it means that I can do anything I set my mind to accomplish.

We are the people who can and who do not take no for an answer.

Of course, when I look at the pyramids in Central America, I realize that not taking no for an answer isn't American Exceptionalism, it is what happens when people have the strength and encouragement, or are desperate enough to force change, that causes this I can do it attitude.

But what is different to that when we are Christians is that the “I Can Do It” attitude is not about personal wealth and accomplishment for ourselves, but the thing we are commanded to do, is justice.

Justice. It is what we do.

In the Dentist's chair, the assistant and I were talking about gun violence and I merely said this: “I read somewhere that we are to love, bless and pray for our enemies, I don't see how killing them fulfills that scripture.”

To which another person who was passing by interjected herself into our conversation something about being afraid and living in fear.

To which I said. I said, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

She said, “well the serpent is wise enough to strike in defense of itself.”

To which I said, “but doesn't that scripture itself command us to use the wisdom God has given us to find a non-violent solution when it commands us to be wise and harmless?”

To which she got busy and went on with her task.

Do justice is a command that we can easily adapt because we do things. It is pro-active.

Love mercy is an heart issue.

It goes along with the doing justice. It is easier to do Justice when we Love mercy. And God's Holy Spirit is inside of us calling us to be this kind of people.

But I want to stop for a moment at walk humbly with God.

Because I hope you heard me just brag about how I won an argument. But what I should remind myself is this, no one changes their mind when they are humiliated.

That “walking humbly” part is really hard for me.

It starts with relationship.

To “walk with” means to be in fellowship, communion, agreement and support.

We walk with God. We walk before God. We live our lives in knowing that God is there with us in every step and since God is there, it changes how we respond to everything.

And God sees both the pride and vanity about ourselves, as well as the sincerity and genuine love we have for others.

What does this have to do with Sodzo? What does this have to do with Hosanna? What does this have to do with Salvation?

Let me re-read the scripture from this morning.

I don't know what the setting was for this song.

I don't know if it is a spontaneous dance to be sung at a celebration, or if they had a formal choir singing it in harmony before an huge crowd. I don't know.

But I do see the way they took the time to stop and celebrate God's salvation.

They took time to stop and acknowledge their need and dependence on God.

In Worship, we take the time to stop, acknowledge our source, our center and our strength.

In worship, we are re-connected with the divine and we remember where our center -where our source- truly is.

Why was the crowd out that day on Palm Sunday?

Were they out because they also were full of joy and praise at the power of the Holy Spirit in the full knowledge of salvation?

Or, were they there because they had an immediate need, which at the time was for a violent revolution to throw the yoke of slavery from the Romans off their backs and they were hoping for an human kingdom to set them free?

This convicts me. Did they focus on God on or a politician?

I don't think they understood that the actual Kingdom of God is formed in hearts instead of empire.

We spiritualize the entire event.

But they did not see it that way.

Only half of them even believed in heaven, hell and the afterlife.

I submit that this crowd that was crying out Hosanna was in a desperate state of mind.

But the beauty of this moment is the hope they had.

And Jesus did not disappoint them. But, Jesus did not give them an earthly kingdom. Jesus didn't overthrow this violent nation that in another 40 years will perpetrate genocide against the Jewish people.

And yet, His healing, His salvation, His restoration happened.

We know it happened when we sense the peace that God gives us inside of our hearts knowing that it is right and good to do justice, to love mercy and to walk this way before God.

Hope gives us the power and purpose to go on in the midst of a world where it seems like every one else is competing for a bigger piece of the pie and they don't care if they have to take it from you to get it.

We know better because of the Power of the Holy Spirit inside us. It gives us hope to make things better.

I suppose that those who are living merely for themselves, for selfish purposes, would never understand the true nature of the Kingdom that this King established that day.

But Jesus did not disappoint that crowd.

These people were desperate, and they had a right to be. And in 40 years, all their fears about their nationhood will come true and for 1900 years, they will cease to have a place to call home.

But tragedy came. Israel means “the one who fights with God.”

Perhaps living as the “example nation state” in God's politics was not a blessing because God was pretty severe.

God did not dash their hopes, but in a severe way, very severe, God showed them that our salvation is not in political structures.

God gave them the power to do justice, love mercy and to walk with Him.

God saved them that day.

God saved us that day.

God saved us from living for ourselves into the purpose of living for God.

So where is the healing, the salvation, the reconciliation, the restoration?

It comes in surrender.

To do justice is a way to live nobly. To love mercy is a way to see joy in the success of others, even our enemies and to walk humbly with God is to surrender to God.

Perhaps it was the same crowd that rejected Jesus later that week when they cried out “Crucify Him.”

I suppose it is within all of us to turn our backs on Jesus.

But, I tend to think that the crowd that cried out crucify him, and the crowd that shouted Hosanna were to different crowds.

But this is Holy week. It starts with this party, goes through severe tragedy and ends with Hope restored again as Jesus raises from the dead.

God didn't answer Jesus' prayer the way Jesus wanted in the Garden, instead, God allowed Jesus to go to the cross.

Jesus didn't send a military conquerer to deliver Jerusalem from the Romans. Instead, the opposite happened.

But, God changed the hearts of 12 who changed the hearts of 120, who changed the hearts of thousands who changed the world with the idea that loving our enemies is better than violent earthly kingdoms.

God saves.

The Power to Be

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Focus: regeneration

Function: To help people be free to obey instead of bound by overcoming sin.

Form: Study

Intro: Here is an Idea for us to help see this passage of scripture. God is a verb.

In the 4^th full paragraph, page 209 of the first printing of The Shack by William P. Young, God is speaking, and in the book, God is represented by a wise older Black Woman, kind of like The Oracle on the first Matrix Movie. And God says something like this paraphrase by Phil to the protagonist: “I am a verb. What that means is that I am the power inside of you to succeed. When I am a noun, then I am the ideal of perfection by which, in comparison, you always fail. But, when I am your noun, then I am the power inside of you to fulfill what I have called you to do.”

The idea did not originate with William Young. He is quoting a Jewish Rabbi David Cooper. But the concept holds.

God is not the wrathful God to be feared because we can never measure up. God is the loving parent who also dwells inside of us and gives us the power to be who God has called us to be. God gives us the power to be new creatures. God gives us the power to be born again. God gives us the power to overcome the evil and sin that is in our life.

And the Church is the place where we come and get re-fueled.

Let me re-read verse 17 to focus on it: ¹⁷Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

“Joined to Christ.” I like that. I like as a term for what is coming. You know that the next verse, “God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation” is one of the more salient verses when it comes to what I should be preaching and what we should be doing as the body of Christ.

And the translators pick up brother Paul's reconciliation back into the family of God.

It emphasizes the communal nature of our salvation. It isn't something done in a vacuum. It is done with and through the participation that we share with one another.

This is how we become more and more like Christ Jesus.

When the Bible says that wherever people are gathering in the name of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit is there in a special way to encourage the nurture of fellowship and Christian discipleship.

When I was newly restored back into God's family, I was pretty sure that once I overcame smoking, cussing and drinking, God would be ready to have me prepared as a complete and mature Christian.

I soon found out that those outside things, those external “sins” were easy compared to having to forgo my ego and forgive when I did not want to. They were easy compared to forcing the kind of humility that lets another person do what I can do, maybe even better, (maybe not), just so that we can share as partners.

When in Tijuana, and we are building an house for a desperate family. On Thursday, that family prepares the best possible meal they can for the team. And, for the most part, seeing the conditions that the food is cooked in, and the type of food, it takes a lot of prayer for me to eat. But if I do not let them serve me, then I set myself up as better and God wants me to place in high value everyone else, even those who are completely different from me.

The Holy Spirit of God is actually dwelling inside of believers. Not only do we have the standard conscience, the standard piece of God inside all of us that Romans 1 and 2 refer to, but we also have a divine relationship with Living God.

And, there is a promise that when in community, the power of God is even greater. Now, I don't really know what that means when faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain. But it must mean something.

And it does.

As brother Scot shared, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to love, accept and forgive others.

But that still leaves us with the question of sin.

Is it okay to sin without regard to the consequences?

Sin is committing acts of evil.

Sin is broken relationship with God and others.

Where 2 or 3 are gathered, in my name, doing God's work, we can expect God to be present.

Let me give you an example.

Scot and I took Ishmael on a bus ride.

I was sitting next to Ishmael when a gang-member came on to the bus and sat across from us. We were at the front of the bus facing the other passengers.

He was white with his gang colors and flag flying proud and pristine. He was sharp looking, and scary.

He saw me talking with Ishmael and gave me a look of disgust and shook his head, right at me in disapproval. It was scary and I was tempted to be afraid.

I was wondering how I can explain to Ishmael to look for gang signs and avoid them.

But the Spirit of God is in us even more when we are gathered, even 2 or 3.

And instead of fear, faith came over me and I the scripture verse “Love covers a multitude of evil” came to my mind.

I decided that I was going to engage this gang banger with me and Ishmael. I wanted the gang member to see the humanity, instead of the Muslim-ness of Ishmael.

And, by the time we got off the bus, the gang-banger got off with us, we stood and exchanged pleasantries an the curb before we left.

I promised you that I would talk a little bit about sin and I am.

Can we sin and get away with it? Yes, technically we can.

Should we?

No!

To continue to sin is an affront to the cross of Christ.

Jesus died on the cross to forgive the evil of humanity.

I don't understand the mystery of atonement and why it was necessary. God didn't need to go that far to do it, but God did and God is God and I am not.

So, I trust it.

And since it happened, I and we have been given the power by God to be forgiven and to forgive.

But, if we were to force the bible into its technicalities, which is not genuine and it insincere and in one sense a sin in it self, then yes, technically we can sin and get away with it.

Twice in 1 Corinthians, Paul says “all things are lawful....” And he is talking about sin. But he goes on to say that even if I can get away with it, they will not benefit me. As Scot said last week, we need to repent from sin. And the second time Paul mentions it, he tells them to think always about the impact of others on people before we sin.

Yes, technically we can. But that does not mean that God, who loves us, will not discipline our sin away from us.

But it is the Church that provides the space and power to overcome the evil and brokenness that can dominate our lives.

What we choose to define as sin is going to vary among every one of us. That is part of our diversity and our commitment to diversity.

But remember, in the community of faith, there is real power.

Sometimes, God leads the leader, sometimes, God leads the pilgrim.

In Acts 10, when Peter changed the entire OT law and was given authority by the Spirit to change the law through a vision that he received, the Holy Spirit lead the leader to make the change and they trusted him.

But at the same time, the pilgrim was lead by God to seek out the change.

God does it.

God's spirit is reconciling the world to God and to each other.

Anything that gets in the way of the reconciliation could be considered to be sin as well.

So what happens when the community gathers?

The community empowers each other to live as Christ wants them to live.

Let me give another example of what and how the Church does this.

I preached the Community Thanksgiving service this year in Hastings.

I sort of preached a fireball message, the kind I generally don't preach here because this audience is a little bit more sophisticated and I appreciate that.

But I had a clear leading from God about preaching what I preached.

If you remember, a political marginalized every Muslim by spreading fear rhetoric about letting refugees come into the US.

Several governors, in order to garner the political capital created by that statement jumped on the band wagon and declared their states Refugee free zones.

And all of a sudden, my evangelical Christian pastor friends in the COB were alarmed that this kind of fear rhetoric was also being spread in the Churches.

Pulpits were spreading the fear message about others, even though this scripture calls us to be agents of God's reconciliation.

From pulpits the message of fear was being preached and that is not from God.

So, I used the power of the Holy Spirit to preach faith to the crowd and the message was well received.

The Church is the place where we find our faith and invite others to this place of grace.