Great is Thy Faithfulness

 

Text: Luke 21:25-36

Focus: endurance

Function: to remind folks to have hope in God

²⁵“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. ²⁶People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. ²⁸Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. ³¹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ³²Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³⁴“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, ³⁵like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Amen and Good Morning to the beloved of God!

This week we celebrated Earth day. In order to clarify something later in the sermon, let me explain how my spirituality is tied to my love of nature. In God’s beauty, I see the hand of the Creator. When I regard a sunrise, or a sunset, it leads me to worship. Like the Pope we just buried, I find deep meaning in the spiritual practices of the Franciscan monks. Since we are created by Christ, and the trees, the plants, the sun, the moon and everything else is created by Christ, we are all one and connected. Everything and everyone is divine because everything and everyone is created by Christ.

It has been life long for me. Long before Climate change became a hot political topic, that first earth day in 1970, I, as the president of my Junior high ecology club got to lead a convocation for the student body where we explained the consequences of our actions if we didn’t care for creation like God commanded Adam and Eve, and the rest of the human race to do.

In my conservative Bible college, again, before it was a political issue, I learned again how God has entrusted their creation to us to manage and care for instead of exploit and ruin.

Sadly, caring for the environment became political long after it became one of my life long passions. It is deeply spiritual for me.

Now, on to the text: Let me put our morning text in context for you.

The OT Jewish religion revolved around the temple. As long as the temple of God was there, the people felt secure because apparently, God’s presence was indeed inside the temple.

In their history, for generations they rebelled against the Lord by permitting certain injustices to take place in their land. Not everyone was treated equal and God had a special place in their heart for those who are poor and oppressed. So they were building up for themselves displeasure from God for their actions until God finally allowed them to be overrun by their enemies and the land sat relatively vacant for 70 years.

The prophets kept coming to them and warning them to do justice, love mercy and humbly walk with God again but they ignored the prophets all the while believing that they were kep secure by the presence of God in their magnificent temple.

And sadly, their faith in the temple was misplaced and the temple was destroyed along with the rest of the city.

But God is faithful and they did come back and they got the chance to rebuild the temple and their sense of security and their worship practices resumed.

And then the Romans came and conquered them. But the Romans were smart and instead of crushing their religion, they co-opted it by building the Jewish people a new temple much more extravagant than they could afford or had the ability to construct.

However, in one corner of the temple, they built a garrison to remind them of who was actually in control of their land.

And the aristocracy of the Jewish population went along with it because they got wealthy off of the rents and other fees they exploited from the population.

That is a short history of the temple. The real question they are asking is how secure they are as a people since they have a new temple.

And they ask this while the population was suffering under this heavy load brought about by the Romans and the Aristocracy.

Jesus is ministering in this environment to the people who are suffering. And he is giving them some hope in a new way of living.

He gives hope to people who are in bondage to a regime that has combined religion with its oppression while being told that this it is the will of God for them to suffer.

Jesus disagrees and disarms the system by resiting. Jesus resists to the point of death.

And all of that sets the stage for today’s conversation with the disciples. They see the magnificence of the new temple and they believe it to be more permanent than the old one and they can’t see a way out of this system that keeps them down.

And at that moment Jesus prophecies the future.

And everything he predicts comes true during that generation. Because of a rebellion in 70 CE, The temple is destroyed by the Romans who built it but not until they spoil it by sacrificing a pig on its altar. They destroyed Israel with a vengeance. It is reported that they ran out of trees to make crosses for all the crucifixions they did. It was really bad.

In the last few centuries, some have interpreted this to speak about our own future and the end times that we see illustrated in the book of Revelations to Saint John.

And that comes from the first few verses where he speaks of cataclysmic signs occurring together in nature. And supposedly they get worse and worse until like the fig tree, they come together into fruition.

As a deeply spiritual teenager who loved to study about end times prophecy, I wondered if this referred to climate change.

So, at an early age, I linked the signs in heaven that Jesus predicted with the climate change that we are experiencing now.

Now, to be clear, this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 CE.

But there is an idea behind this passage reflects maybe an end times prophecy. There are other OT prophecies that had two meanings or fulfillments. The best example of this is from Isaiah when he prophecies that a young woman will be found with Child. About 10 months later, Isaiah became a father for the first time, but we believe it was also a prophecy about the miraculous birth of Jesus the Christ.

So, without being political and saying “man made,” I have often wondered if the climate change we are experiencing right now is the fulfillment of prophecy, the signs in the heavens that Jesus said would occur.

Why do I mention all this? It is not to be political but to try to do what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus is preparing them for tribulation. We will always have tribulation. I get depressed when I read the news and I wonder how much worse things can get. I hope not, but if bad times are coming, we need to remember this passage and see that God doesn’t promise that we will not face trials and that everything will be perfect in our lives if we have faith. No, Jesus sees the future and tells them to not lose hope during trials. He tells them that God is aware of the future and that God has God’s own plans in mind. We can rest in that.

So let me focus on the power of God to take us through trials and tribulation. Jesus gives them this prophecy to remind them that God is sovereign and we can rest in their power if not in this life, then in the next. God is in control.

The Last Enemy

 

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Focus: Easter

Function: rejoicing at salvation

¹⁹If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. ²¹For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, ²²for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

He is Risen!

He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

Happy Easter to the beloved of God!

This is a highly symbolic passage of scripture and although we didn’t read it, it starts out with the phrase: “Behold, I show you a mystery.…” And then he goes on to defend the doctrine of the resurrection.

This passage of scripture is Paul’s defense of the resurrection. It is his logical proof of the fact of the resurrection even though he was not among that initial small group of terrified believers who were the first witnesses to the resurrection starting with Mary, moving on to Peter and John and then the rest of the twelve and according to Peter, over 500 people who saw him before he ascended into heaven.

And Paul, who wrote our text for today, only saw the resurrected Jesus later in a vision when God called him to be an apostle. But that was after Jesus ascended into heaven.

I have often pondered the fact of the resurrection and the circumstances surrounding it since Jesus had a different physical form. We know that because Mary, while looking at him thought him to be the gardener. That same day on the way to Emmaus Jesus appeared to two other disciples and they didn’t recognize him until he broke bread with them and then disappeared. It was clearly a miraculous visitation because of the way Jesus disappeared, but his resurrected form was different. Scripture doesn’t tell us know why except that Jesus was in his new body, the one he says will be like the angels in heaven and not male and female.

Our resurrection will bring about a glorious change and it is something to look forward to.

But since Jesus looked different, skeptics continued to doubt.

I have often wondered about whether or not I would continue to live the way I live if there was no resurrection.

And I can conclude that the path of caring for each other as much as we care for our individual selves is the only real way the human race can survive.

And all of that comes to me from the example of the way Jesus, the Lord of Glory and the commander of tens of thousands of angels, allowed himself to be crucified and forgave the ones who did it.

I believe, like Martin Luther King Jr. that passive resistance is a real path to peace.

It makes a spiritual statement about where our faith lies and it exposes the evil of the oppressor.

It witnesses to the same power of the resurrection that Jesus embraced.

For me, the fact is, I believe in the resurrection because of the Spirit’s leading in my heart.

On Good Friday, when Jesus died, the veil in the temple was split by divine providence from top to bottom.

The veil represented the separation from mankind that our failures have brought upon us. We can call that sin.

And Jesus’ death took upon him the sin of us all.

I picture the cross, and Jesus crying out; “Eli! Eli! Lama Sabachtini!” translated as “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

It wasn’t a statement that God abandons his own, but the statement that at that point the weight of the evil of humanity was born by him as Kathy read Thursday night from Isaiah 53.

God showed us through the prophet Isaiah that Jesus would bear our sins before God. Through that, we are forgiven and the Holy Spirit now dwells in the hearts of people, leading them to love one another.

The resurrection brought about the freedom to follow Christ through the Spirit of God.

Jesus death and resurrection proves to us that God has power over our own death.

And Jesus did it, I believe, to empower us to live for him.

He did it by defeating the last enemy, death. And that comes from the last verse.

It is fear of death, or loss, that can keep us from our bold witness to the love of Jesus as the way to continue the healing of humanity that Jesus started.

But we don’t live in fear, we live in faith.

The good news us that Jesus came to liberate all of us instead of a select few.

The last enemy to be conquered for us is death and the good news is that death is already conquered!

Jesus rose again and has promised that we will as well so that we can live our lives to love God by loving others.

The Power of the King

 

Text: Philippians 2:5-11

Focus: Lent 6

Function:

⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, though he existed in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be grasped,
⁷but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
⁸    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

⁹Therefore God exalted him even more highly
    and gave him the name
    that is above every other name,
¹⁰so that at the name given to Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Good morning to God’s beloved!

Again, for me, we are looking at a transformational passage of scripture. What I mean is that the lessons in this passage have played a large part in forming my spiritual journey.

My nephew, an Orthodox priest calls it the great kenoptic passage. It means that Jesus emptied himself of his heavenly glory.

It is a passage that looks into the heart of Jesus and what appears to be the onus behind his motivations, He emptied himself of his glory, authority and power to show us how to love one another and to prove to us that God and faith in God is greater than anything, even death.

In the passage, we see God’s own aversion to pride in this highly symbolic gesture of humility. And we tie that in with Palm Sunday and Jesus subverting the culture by riding into the city on the offspring of a service animal.

The Jewish people were looking for a kind of Messiah like King David who was a great military leader that delivered the people of God by faith from the power of an enemy stronger and mightier than them.

And the military leader would ride a war horse in a triumphant parade.

Jesus, on the other hand, enters Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. It is a lowly beast of burden, much like the picture we have of Joseph and Mary coming into the stable Christmas night with Mary on a donkey instead of a horse.

Jesus is trying to show them that he is indeed the coming King and Messiah, but he isn’t a military hero. What the people didn’t know was that the kingdom of God is not political, but spiritual and it resides in the hearts of those who have decided to walk in Jesus’ way of humility and love for others.

As Carol wrote for us in the liturgy, we live in a tension Holy week between the rejoicing that we see on Palm Sunday when the crowd welcomed Jesus as the Messiah to the crowd calling out for his death at the end of the week.

I don’t believe it was entirely the same crowd. But, it is true that people are fickle and easily manipulated.

So the first lesson we have learned from this symbolic act of riding into the city is humility. And that goes to our text today how Jesus humbled himself.

The second lesson from the text today is that Jesus came to serve and we should be here with a passion to serve God like Jesus did by serving others.

By riding on the foal of a service animal instead of a war steed, I believe he shows that the new kingdom is about us learning to serve and aid others so that we all can prosper. And that aspect of living to serve the other is brought out in our text this morning when we read that Jesus didn’t act as if his equal nature with the creator was something to lord over people, but instead, he does what we do on Maundy Thursday, as leader, he washes their feet. Then he commands them to follow suit and live their lives as servants for others.

I believe that applies to us as well. It is a worldly idea to think of ourselves first over others. God wants us to think of a good that brings prosperity for both parties, not one party taking advantage over the other or capitalizing on their misfortune.

There is a third lesson from our text, and that is obedience. Jesus was obedient to God.

He had faith in the promise of God. In the garden when Jesus is wrestling with the temptation to quit and he prays fervently to God he surrenders and says to God: “Nevertheless, not my will by yours be done.”

It takes faith to believe in the power of the resurrection that even if when we suffer, God is here and God has our life held in Their hand.

The power of the king of kings is in humble, obedient, service to God.

So, as I mentioned, I believe this passage gets into the heart of Jesus and his willingness to undergo the ordeal of Holy Week and Good Friday so that we can all experience the power of the resurrection of Easter morning.

At his heart was humility and a desire to serve others first, and as our text says, serving even to the point of death.

And that sums up the first stanza of the, actually a hymn sung by the early church.

The second stanza is the consequence of the passion of the Christ. The consequence for us from Holy Week.

This is the real reason why we celebrate.

He first shows us how God is true to the promise to exalt the humble by stating that Jesus, because of his humble obedience has now been exalted to the highest name among the people of the earth.

The name of Jesus is a powerful name for us to use in prayer. When we pray in Jesus name, we are praying in that same spirit of faith that trusts that God is in control in spite of the apparent circumstances.

We rest in God.

But there is a lot more to this second stanza:

There is the promise here about the future restoration of all of humanity.

He is saying that in the end, everyone will eventually come to a place where they trust in Christ. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is lord.

And I love the fact that he says everyone.

I am not sure how to preach the book of the Revelations of St. John at the end of the scripture since there is a warning to to add or take anything away from the book.

But in the revelation, John has a vision of heaven in the 20^th chapter. There is a Great throne and God is sitting on it. There is an Emerald colored rainbow around the throne and there are wonderful angelic creatures flying around it.

In front of the throne is a sea made of crystal and every soul of humanity is standing on the sea.

The old earth is passing away and the new heavens and earth is coming. And in that scene God opens the books and the deeds of people are exposed before God.

I don’t know if there is terror because God is perfect and we are seen to be less than perfect. The theology I was raised with had an angry God at this point ready to condemn.

But the God of the New Testament is the God of love, the father of humanity.

And it seems to me that at this point, given the nature and glory of God and the revelation of Jesus as the Anointed Messiah, that everyone who didn’t get a chance on earth to confess Christ will confess Christ then in faith.

There are theologians who point out the word for their confession means a willing or glad acknowledgment of who Jesus is. I point that out because the Apostle penning these words sees the wonder of this acknowledgment.

God saved humanity through Jesus during Holy Week and that is why we take the time to reflect and worship this week.

How Beautiful the Feet

 

Text: John 12:1-8

Focus: Jesus death

Function: to be drawn into the mystery of Mary’s nurture

12:¹Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. ³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵ “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Good morning to the beloved of God!

This is the fifth Sunday in Lent and today we are looking at the preparation the God provided for Jesus before his death and resurrection.

Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus appear to be three people outside of the group of apostles whose function is to perform as Jesus’ friends.

At least, this was a home that he came to hang out in, perhaps to find respite and community.

And this anointing of Jesus’ feet is one of two,or three accounts in the gospels.

It is a little bit confusing.

In the first instance, the emphasis is on the fact that there is this sinful woman who is touching Jesus and the purity crowd was indignant that he would have a relationship with a sinner.

In the second account of anointing, our text for today, it is Mary, Jesus friend, and perhaps a prophetess, who does this highly symbolic act to prepare Jesus for what lies ahead of him.

There are a lot of Mary’s in the NT. There is Mary of Magdalene who was probably this sinful woman who anointed Jesus. All we know is that the text says Jesus cast seven demons out of her. She is a very devoted disciple.

And there of course is Mary the mother of Jesus, but she isn’t in this story.

And there is this Mary the sister of Martha.

We know a little bit more about her from an earlier account in Luke 10. As I mentioned, it was Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ house that Jesus hung out in. And one day Jesus was there doing his teaching as usual while Martha is busy serving all the guests.

And serving the guests is a Spiritual practice in Mideastern cultures, it always has been. Even Lot in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah proved his righteousness by offering hospitality. The proof of the sin of Sodom was them denying hospitality to strangers and God condemned them with fire and brimstone.

So here is Martha, doing what a righteous person would do and suddenly she complains to Jesus that Mary is doing nothing but listening to and interacting with Jesus’ teaching. I love the fact that Jesus didn’t exclude the women.

And Jesus lovingly answers Martha that Mary has chosen the greater portion to sit at Jesus feet.

That was an earlier account about them that frames the story of who they were and what they meant to Jesus.

I believe that Mary was a prophetess, because she was deeply spiritual.

Jesus is getting ready for his ordeal at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and all of this is just a few days after Lazarus has been risen from the dead.

There is some excitement in the air.

Jesus is nearing Jerusalem where there is a plot to have him killed well underway and he knows it.

When you read about those last days and that last week, you hear Jesus telling them plainly that he is going to die and they simply cannot grasp how the Messiah can possibly die when he is coming to make everything right.

Everyone misses what Jesus says except Mary.

And Mary, knowing what is about to happen interrupts the dinner proceeding and breaks open an extravagant gift worth a years wages and anoints Jesus feet with the perfume.

I believe she anoints his feet in accordance with the Isaiah 52:6 prophecy “How beautiful the feet of the one who brings us good news.”

And people are offended.

Some wonder how Jesus can preach about the poor so much and then allow such a waste.

And Jesus reminds them of the scripture that states: “The poor you will always have with you…” But Jesus leaves out the rest of that scripture that states that since we will always have the poor, they are our responsibility to take care of.

Sadly, some people have taken that to mean that we can forget about the poor, but that just doesn’t sit square with all the rest of Jesus’ teaching.

We are indeed commanded to care for the poor, that is why a significant Christian movement enacted the Social Safety net in the 30’s that became our Social Security and welfare system.

So, here is Jesus with this passion for the poor allowing this extravagance while obviously knowing the value of the symbolism accorded him by Mary.

I believe it is because she got it. Not only did she get it. She got Jesus purpose to be an offering that will show us the way to overcome evil by faith in God.

It was God through the Holy Spirit leading her that lead her to that point.

She was listening to God speak to her heart and she responded with a great risk as to whether or not he gift would be appreciated.

She was a prophetess.

And God sent this prophet to Jesus to prepare Jesus for his ordeal.

God nurtured Jesus through this ordeal.

We believe that Jesus was divine. And yet, Jesus went away time after time again to be alone to pray.

Some have questioned why Jesus would need to pray.

I see it as the human side of Jesus taking the time to center himself in God.

In prayer, we can center ourselves in love.

I say in love the because love seems more real to me that God.

I feel like I can reach out in prayer and touch love, or at least touch the idea of love: the power that love has to transform a heart.

So, Jesus has a regular practice of prayer to strengthen him, and God does just a little bit more with this symbolic gesture from his friend.

God takes the time to comfort Jesus and I believe that Jesus is emboldened by this act.

And it is necessary when we examine Jesus last prayer time in the Garden where he wrestles with the ordeal that he is about to face.

I believe that God gave him the strength to endure.

And I see that as the promise for God to give us strength to endure as well because God is love.