Faith Is A Lifelong Journey

At our last music and worship committee people were asking for me to more fully explain special days on the church calendar.
Days like today.
It has been forty days of the Easter season.
Jesus has been ascended, and his followers are praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus.
Pentecost is often referred to as the Birthday of the Church.
For on Pentecost the Church is born.
But this is by no means the end of the story.
It is the beginning of the story in many ways.
What started at Jesus birth what culminated in his resurrection is continued through the work of the church.
From the day of Pentecost the Church is born and from here the Church has much learning to do about what it means to be the Church.

It would appear on the surface that once Jesus is resurrected that everything would be settled.
But for the Church nothing is really settled.
The Church has to continue grow in faith in light of the resurrection, to fully comprehend and understand what it meant to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Think about it this way, it will take another 4 centuries before the great creeds are written.
Before that time the Church will carry on a great debate about what it means to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
In fact, we too are still learning about it.
The Church in our day is struggling with what it means to follow Jesus in the world that we find ourselves.

As individual members of the Church of Jesus Christ all of us are constantly on a journey to try and understand what it means to have Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
One of the problems that we are facing is that sometimes people believe that they can know everything about faith in only a short time in their life.
Often times we have about an eighth grade education in our faith life.
Let me tell you that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
For faith takes a lifetime to learn and understand.
Not only that but often times once we understand it we change.

In other words that faith we have at five years old is not the faith we will have at fifty-five.
And the faith we have at fifty-five is not the one we have at ninety-five.
I know many people of deep faith who have told me that only by growing in that faith do they fully understand God.

My friend Bob Sherman for example.
Bob is in his late eighties.
And Bob would tell me all the time that he wished that when he was younger he had known Jesus the way that he did now.
It was not that he did not know Jesus when he was younger, he just knows Jesus on a different level.
He had to grow in his faith over years of living with God.
And even in his eighties Bob would tell me he had only scratched the surface of what it meant to be a child of God.

What is true of individuals is true of the church.
2,000 years later we are still learning what it means to know this God in Jesus Christ.
We are still struggling with what it means to know Jesus as our Lord and savior.

If I could tell you anything this morning is that not to give up on your journey of faith.
Continue to seek and know God in your life.

Do not think that because Pentecost has come and gone that God is still not working to form us and his church.
Do not believe that all things are worked out.
I believe God is still working it out through us.

If we are still on our journey the question is how are we formed in our faith?
How do we grow in our faith?
This morning let us use the story of Acts as a guide.
The story that we read this morning from Acts is mysterious and strange.
It is one of the things that cannot be explained in any normal way.
How do you explain people understanding each other even though they are all speaking different languages?
This is why the crowd of Gentiles is so confused.
“All were amazed and perplexed.”
This is what I think God does for us.
God leaves us amazed and perplexed.

I am constantly amazed at what God can and will do.
I am amazed that Babies are born in the world,
that people who are supposed to die live,
that enemies become friends,
that hatred is overcome with love,
that people are married for sixty years,
that friends are so willing to lend an ear and word of comfort,
that people give so generously to those in need.
God is good and it is constantly amazing how much God loves and cares for us.

I am also perplexed.
I don’t know why some people starve to death in a world with plenty of food,
I don’t know why two countries have to kill one another,
I don’t know why we have so much fear of other people,
I don’t know why good people die,
I don’t know why there are people who are twisted enough to kill for no reason.
I am perplexed a lot.

And this is why the journey of faith must and does go on.
Because we don’t know why things happen the way they do.
We don’t know why the world runs the way it does.
And in being amazed and perplexed we discover the only way to live.
We discover a life of faith.

We find in the midst of both things a God who cares and loves us.
We find a God who brings dreams to the old and visions to the young.
We find a God who pours out his spirit upon the whole world.
We find a God who saves everyone who calls on his name

It is appropriate to talk about the day of Pentecost as the Birthday of the church because it is where we started from.
But like our individual lives it is not where we will end up.
The Church will continue to grow in faith, it will continue to be pushed by the Holy Spirit.
And it will forever ask the question, “What does this mean?”
And in the search it will find, as it always has, God there waiting for us.
The church in every age and in different ways rediscovers God’s abundant mercy.
We see again fresh that God through Jesus Christ desires for us to live and dream.

So on this Pentecost let us continue to grow in our faith.
Let us continue to ask the questions and let God amaze and perplex us.
Let us continue to know that God is good, and at the center of it all good and bad is a God who only wants to save us all.
Amen

Joining God's Work

Since yesterday was our pictures for the new Church directory,
and since I was going to Germany for the next fourteen days,
and since the Bishop was going to be here this morning, I decided this week that I needed a haircut.
So I went to get one.
I sat in the chair and this very nice young woman was cutting my hair.
We were talking about her life, her boyfriend, her ex-husband, her son.
When she found out that I was a pastor she said, “You know I have been meaning to go back to Church. I have been looking at different churches.”
I then asked her what kind of things she might be looking for in a Church.
She told me, “One where I am not judged”
That is why I stopped going to church, because after my divorce I was made to feel bad.
She told me that she could no longer receive communion at the church she was going to, and she was looking for a Church that would accept her current life circumstance.
Since she lived in Manchester I suggested she try out Gethsemane Lutheran Church.
I told her Lutheranism is perfect for you.
We believe in God’s love for us know matter what.
We believe in God’s grace, and that God forgives our sins.
You can imagine that as I pastor I have these kinds of exchanges all the time.
Here is what I think about them, God is very active in this world.
God is out in the world moving in people’s lives changing them, encouraging them, and loving them.
People have a sense that something is missing.
They have a sense that God is calling them.
The question is the Church willing to go where God is already at work?

This morning’s reading from the book of Acts is about God’s activity already going on in the Gentile household.
God was at work in Caesarea giving visions to a gentile man to send for a “Simon, who is called Peter; who will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.”
Notice God was moving in that community before Peter arrived.
It was before Peter had preached to them.
They knew through God that something was up they felt that they needed something.
The only question is was Peter going to go to them and tell them what he knew about Jesus.
Here is my point, God is working in people’s lives weather or not we as the church do anything at all, the only question is are we going to go out and join God’s work?

The problem is not that people don’t experience God in their lives.
People seem to know God is at work in their lives it is why they say things like, “I am spiritual, but not religious.”
“I don’t go to Church, but I do pray at home.”
“I feel that God is with me even though I never go to Church.”
What they are expressing when they say things like this is that God is already at work in their lives.
God is at work all the time in the world outside these walls.

But what we do in church hopefully is participate in the love of God.
We come together as a community to live out the new commandment of love that Jesus gave to us.
And we invite others to experience and know that love with us.
Even though God is at work in the world, it is in the Church were God’s love is lived out in a concrete way.
We come together so people like the young woman who cut my hair can know God’s love even more fully.

The question is if God is already at work in the world why then do we need to do anything?
Let me say why we don’t need to do it.
We don’t need to do it so that we can preserve or save our Church.
For some of us this might be a motivating factor in why you think the church needs to reach out.
That is fine.
But let me say that as far as God is concerned it is not about saving and preserving a building, or even a lot of great memories that might have happened in that building, or even saving a certain type of worship style that we might like.
No we go out into the world to tell others about Jesus Christ because we believe that in that telling we give something to people that they do not get anywhere else.
We do it because we believe that we have a saving message about Jesus Christ.
We do it because we believe that God is saving people all the time.

Saving people from having to pretend that they are something they are not.
God is saving people from having to feel judged by others.
Saving people from having to live up to the false standards of the world.
Saving people from themselves.
And God is setting them free, to love themselves, and to love others.

We believe that this congregation is here for a greater purpose then saving a building or preserving a legacy, however good those things might be.
We are here to share the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
To share with all searching hearts the repentance that leads to true life.
Because when we do, when share the message of God’s grace with only one person and they understand that they are forgiven through Jesus, we do what the people at the Church in Jerusalem did we give thanks and praise to God.
We praise God that his arms of mercy and acceptance are wide and deep.
We praise God that his love is wide like the forest, deep like the ocean, beautiful like the sunrise.

One of the great questions throughout the Bible and especially in the book of Acts is how big and wide is God’s acceptance of other people.
Meaning people different then us.
And the answer over and over is that God’s love and his mercy knows no bounds.
That every person, every creature, every rock, hill, and blade of grass belongs to our God.
As Peter said this morning’s reading form Acts who are we to hinder God?
Who are we to hinder God to not share with all searching hearts the message of salvation in Jesus Christ?
That is our job to love others and to tell them about Jesus.

Now some of you might be thinking that it is easy for me to talk to strangers about God because I am a pastor.
It is true that because of that it sometimes opens up conversation like in the case of this woman cutting my hair.
But in some cases it is also a barrier.
People don’t want to be judged and they believe that pastors are judging them and so I have had cases where being a pastor has closed dialogue.
Not only that but people sometimes think that as a pastor my motives are not always pure.
In other words, I don’t care about them only getting them to come to church so I can have another person to put money in the offering plate.

I think the most powerful witness can come from those of you who are not pastors.
People can see in your lives the power of God to save.
They will hear in your stories how God is good and merciful.
I know that many of you share your faith with friends, co-workers, and your own family.
You do it in a way that shows God’s deep and rich mercy.

Not in a get to church or burn in hell kind of way.
But in a my faith is so important to me because God has saved my life kind of way.
That is all it takes from us to share our faith God does the rest.
All Peter had to do when he showed up was tell them about Jesus.
We are not out to win an argument about God, but to tell others about what God has done for us and our lives.
And then we let the Holy Spirit work.

That is really were the work is being done.
The Holy Spirit is working on people all the time, and the Holy Spirit is working on us too.
It is the Holy Spirit that put me in that chair to get my haircut, it is the Holy Spirit that helped me talk about my faith, and show care and concern for the young woman cutting my hair.
It will be the Holy Spirit molding and growing you that will lead you to share your faith in unsuspecting moments.
Just as the Holy Spirit led Peter to see no distinction between himself and the Gentiles.
Just as the Holy Spirit led the people at Caesarea to call on Peter to preach to them.
Just as the Holy Spirit gave Peter the words to say to the Gentiles so they would know they are saved.

Let us be led by the Holy Spirit to go out into the world, to share with others that they are saved through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.
Amen

God's Plan

This week at Bible study we were talking about God’s plan.
What is God’s plan?
How do we know what it is?
In the Bible God’s plan is odd it takes twist and turns.
Just when you think it is all settled something happens and the whole things goes in a different direction.
For example, just after Joseph is reunited with his brothers, after they have forgiven one another, after they became successful in the land of Egypt, then the Israelites become slaves to Pharaoh.
God rescues the Israelites from slavery, drowns Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.
All is well, and then they have to wonder in the dessert.
Just when they get to the promised land.
No sooner had they settled in when they are then attacked again and again until they are taken into captivity.
And on and on it goes like this one thing after another.
Even in the New Testament, finally the messiah comes, the word becomes flesh and walks among us.
And then he dies on a cross, only to be raised again, and then leave behind his followers the Church.
If you have any involvement with any church you know this was not a good idea.
This is a crazy plan.

Which leads me to this morning’s Gospel.
Because this morning’s Gospel in John to me explains God’s plan perfectly and clearly.
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
This is God’s plan.
That we will be the sheep, and he will care for us, and nothing will be able to snatch us away from God.
That is God’s plan.
It is a brilliant plan.
Because it depends not on us but on God.
It depends on God to keep us near to him, and to stop us following other things that might lead us away from God.

There is a problem with this plan of course.
We all know how hard it is to believe this plan.
When things in our life go off track.
When we go off track then it is hard to believe that God has not let us go.
We need to have faith in this plan.
We need to believe in Jesus for this plan to make sense.
Not that believing in Jesus is even really something we do.
It is God who gives us to Jesus.
The plan is that we, those of us hear this morning, are the ones God has chosen.
We have been given to Jesus.
Because God gave us to Jesus we know his voice and we follow him.

But let us go back to our problem.
When things go off track, or off script, or not according to plan what do we do then?
Do we still have faith, do we still believe, that Jesus Christ is there to make sure that we are not snatched away?

I was thinking this week about all the times in my life when I could have died.
There was this one time when I was about 11.
I was riding my bike around my neighborhood with my mom.
There was this really steep hill that I would go very fast down.
As I was going down this person was backing out of their drive way.
I saw it happening but could not stop in time.
I closed my eyes waiting for the impact.
Somehow, the person pulling out of the drive way stopped right before he backed into me.
I could tell you a million stories like this one.
I bet you could tell me a million stories like this one too.
I see these stories as signs from God that I am suppose to be here right now.
Because there are a lot of people out there who have stories like these that don’t end in them surviving.
They are people of faith too.
My point is this all of life is about inches.
The wall between living and dying is thin, and it is always in God’s hand.
What gives me confidence is that whether I live or die I am in God’s hands.
Jesus promises us eternal life and so dying in this world is not as bad as it would seem at first.
That is my faith in the plan.
It is in God’s plan for my life, and for yours.

But this still does not answer the most difficult questions.
The first funeral I did as an ordained pastor was for a five year old girl.
One day she was healthy and happy.
The next day she was dead.
It was tragic.
This was a good family.
They loved God deeply, they served God in their lives.
They were not perfect, but they were really good people.
How could this happen to them?
When I sat with the family I had no answers.
What was the point of this?
Was this God’s plan?
Could this be God’s plan?
We all have things like this in our lives.
We have things that rock our core beliefs, challenge our thinking about God.
We all have things that have happened to us that we want answer for, that we don’t fully understand.

For the family of the five year old girl all I had to give them was God’s plan.
All I know in faith is what is promised through Jesus Christ.
What I believe to my inner core is that Jesus gives us eternal life, and we are never snatched away from God.
Even when we don’t understand the details.
Even when we don’t know why this or that happens to us in our lives.
What we can be sure of is that God is there for us.
God is holding us in his hand, and God will not allow us to be snatched away.

Perhaps even in our darker times God finds us there too.
The crucifixion of Jesus for example allows us to have a deeper understanding of God.
For in the crucifixion we see the lengths of God’s love for us.
Here in Christ we see the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
In the crucifixion we see that God’s love is poured out into us.
That is a relentless God we have.
God will not allow us to get off the track of the plan, even when we want to.

You see all the things that happen in the Biblical witness are just life.
They are things that happen all around us.
Life, death, war, oppression, injustice, militaristic arrogance, sin, redemption, sibling rivalry, love, hate, rejection, acceptance, disbelief, faith.
All of these things are human, and through it all God is working out the plan.
To have all the sheep come home, to call everyone to God self.
To give eternal life and have no one snatched away to death or evil.

Like it says in the beloved psalm 23, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I shall fear no evil; for you are with me.”
All the time we are walking in the shadow of death, but because we have faith in the good shepherd we have faith that God is working all things out for good.

I have no answers for you about your particular situation.
Why did I lose my job?
Why are my kids not going to church?
Why were my parents crazy?
Why did my best friend die?
All I know is that whatever situation you are in right now.
Whatever situation you are facing in your life I know that God is with you.
I know that Jesus the good shepherd will not let anyone snatch you away from his hand.
I know and believe in God’s plan that goodness and mercy shall follow us all our days, and that we shall have eternal life.

So, today as we leave here as our lives continue to twist and turn let us have faith and believe in Jesus Christ who cares for us, and will not let anything snatch us away.
Amen

Let's Try the Other Side of the Boat!

We live in cynical times.
Many people don’t trust the government.
Something like 70% of people disapprove of the job congress is doing.
Many people don’t trust religious institutions.
A recent Harris poll found that only 28% of people trusted religious institutions.
In the same poll only 4% of people trusted Wall Street.
We don’t trust our sports stars, or movie stars.
We are fed a daily dose of scandal, of bad behavior by even those we think might be our heroes.
This leads us to be cynical about what is possible in the world.
But this morning we come to worship the Risen Lord.
We come to see again that in this world, in our lives there are great possibilities.
That a resurrection faith calls us to reorder our lives and look again at what is really possible.

In this morning’s Gospel the disciples have seen the empty tomb.
They have heard Jesus bring them peace and send them out into the world.
And now they are back at work.
They are back to what they know best fishing.
And into their fishing comes Jesus the risen Lord.
They had been fishing all night and caught nothing, until Jesus appears and tells them to fish on the other side.
“Oh the others side”
I wonder why they never thought of that before.
It would have seemed more obvious.
Anyway, they do what Jesus says and then well then they catch a bunch of fish.
You see it is time to return to our work, but since we live in light of the resurrection it is time to do it a different way.

We are sent by Christ not as people that see the bad only.
But as people who see through the bad to a different time and place.
We see that this world is not as bad as some would have us believe.
We see that God can and will do great things through ordinary sinful people.

Let us this morning consider the case of Peter.
Here is the disciple that denied Jesus three different times.
And yet here is the disciple who Jesus sends to be the shepherd.
Jesus sends Peter to feed and tend his sheep.
Jesus is the good shepherd, but he asks Peter this flawed sinful person to do his work.
Feed my sheep.

This is Good News for us.
Because as flawed as we are, we too are called to something greater.
Not because we are great, but because we worship Jesus who is greater than our sin.
Think about it.
Our lives are not useless or meaningless they are filled with value and meaning.
We are called to be Shepherd’s to feed and tend the cares and needs of our neighbors.

What does it look like for us to serve God in this way?
Well, I think it can look different for all of us.
That what God calls each of us to do is different even if the end result is the same.
For some being a good Shepherd might be being a good mother.
It might mean giving up some of what we want in the world to make sure that our children are cared and fed for.

For some it might mean that they serve the world through their work.
A mechanic for example is a great shepherd.
I am always thankful to them for fixing my car so that I can get to work or visit people.
They provide something that no one else can.

I think for the church it means caring about all people in whatever part of their life journey they happen to be at.
I think it means being there for people when they are born, and when they die.
It means caring for the poor and lost.
It means taking in those who have no other way.
It means teaching and preaching about the abundant grace of God.
A Sunday school teacher serves as a shepherd for the kids in her class.

Here is the key that whatever we do we ask what God is calling me to.
That is the key question because otherwise it might just be what we want to do.
As Jesus tells Peter someday he will be led to places he does not want to go all for the sake of the Gospel.
We are led not to where we want but to where God forces us to go.
And that place will look different in the light of resurrection.

I was reading this week about woman named Heather Chester who was homeless.
She was a mother with two kids.
She got into a program called Family promise.
This is faith based program that helps homeless families.
Heather just bought her first home, because of the help she got from Family Promise.
This article got my attention because we are trying to get a family promise program started here in Concord.
But it also caught my attention because it is a good example of faith communities doing what Jesus told Peter to do.
It is a good example of people of faith feeding the sheep of God.

And there are millions of stories out there in the world that are like this.
There are stories of people feeding others people helping others and people doing good for God.
We don’t hear them enough.
We live in cynical times, but my plea is for us not to be cynical.
Instead let us to see our risen Lord standing on the shore telling us to try again from a different angle to cast our nets on the other side.

I once got a fortune cookie that said, “If the world seems cold then light a fire.”
I thought it was excellent advice because that is the only answer of faith is to try and try again until we find what does work.
If we cannot catch fish on this side of the boat perhaps there are more fish on the other side.
If we are discouraged the best answer is simply to go out and feed God’s sheep.
It is to continue to search until we find the right answer.
But the answer can never be cynicism.
It can never be defeatism.
For Jesus is alive.
Jesus is on the beach telling us to throw our nets in a different way.
Jesus is there telling us to feed his sheep even as he prepares breakfast for us.

I have to tell you that all my sermons are meant for me just as much as they are meant for you.
This week I needed to hear this sermon again because well sometimes I fall into the cynical category.
I too despair at times that things are not better in our world.
Twice this week I had to turn away people that came to me looking for help.
In both cases I did what was necessary.
I simply could not help, but it makes you feel powerless.
It made me feel sad that we live in a world where people are homeless because of medical expenses, or losing a job.
It might lead to the attitude that we can do nothing.
But I needed this morning to hear Jesus tell me to throw out my nets again.
I needed to hear Jesus say, “Feed my sheep”.
Because I know that it will not always be so.
I know that someday God will make this right.
I know that there are people in the world trying to do good and solve problems.
I know that God has called this community together to feed and tend his sheep.
I have faith in God and in you.
That together we can and will do what God has called us to do.
And that is why this morning I am not cynical but hopeful, why I am not despairing but believing in God’s good work in all of us.

May we not grow cynical but continue to try again, may we continue to cast out our nets, and feed the other sheep.
Amen

Get Out of the Locked Room

Every Year the same thing happens to me after Easter.
I get the post Easter blahs.
Easter is such a wonderful day in the church year.
It is my favorite time all year.
This year was especially satisfying.
The weather was beautiful, the church was full, the breakfast tasted great, the music was awesome.
When I went to bed at night I could hardly sleep thinking about what a great day it had been.
And well Monday morning is always a letdown.
I always get the post Easter blues.
I wonder if this is what it is like for anyone else?
Or is this just a pastor thing?
But I was thinking that perhaps every Monday is like that for all of us.
You have a great weekend.
You go to visit people, you spend time with your family and friends, you unwind and share good time.
And then on Monday you return to the grind.
You go back to work, the kids go back to school and practices.
The pace increases and you have to run around again.
I think we would all agree that it would be nice to remain on the high of Easter, the high of a great weekend.

But this morning’s Gospel is after that first Easter morning.
After the disciples have discovered the empty tomb.
It is Easter night.
There is fear and confusion.
The disciples are locked away in a room out of fear.
And in Comes Jesus.
Jesus offers them peace.
But he will not let them stay in that room.
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
In other words tomorrow is Monday and on Monday there is work to be done you cannot sit in this room forever.
Jesus breaths the Holy Spirit into them and then tells them to get out, because tomorrow is Monday and on Monday the Gospel must be preached, sins must be forgiven, people must know that Jesus is alive.

This week was for me one of the busiest I have had since becoming your pastor.
It was as if Jesus was telling me, “no time to sit around and celebrate. It is Monday and there is work to be done.”
Every night this week we had some meeting or other at church.
This week we met with LSS about starting a community circle to help a refugee family.
This weekend was the youth lock-in in Milford, yesterday was the Northern area mission assembly, and today is the Holocaust remembrance service at the synagogue where I signed up to be a part of the service.
I was wondering why my week was so busy and I think it was Jesus sending me out and not allowing me to rest on the high of Easter.

Because what we know is this.
That Easter the church was filled, but Monday it is not.
Monday people return to their lives and that is where the Gospel is most important.
There is work to be done.
There is many people out in the world who still do not have a consistent relationship with Jesus.
We my friends are sent to tell them about Jesus so that they may have life in his name.
Jesus will not allow us to stay here in this place.

No the work has to be done on Monday morning.
We have to go out and tell others about the risen Lord, so that they will experience Jesus for themselves.

Let me tell you what I think we are not called to do.
That is bring people to church.
I know that it sounds crazy.
But our goal is not to get people into our church.
No our goal is to go out and build real relationships with real people and help them know Jesus.

Notice Jesus does not say to the disciples, “Go out and get some people and then bring them back into this locked room. So they can see me.”
He says go out there and tell others that their sins are forgiven.
Tell others that they have life in my name.
Our evangelism strategies for too long have been focused on keeping our church alive.
Instead of focused on helping other know that Jesus is alive.

Let me give you two examples based on my own experience of what I am taking about.
The first one is what we might think is what we should be doing.
Pat who is thirty-five, is married, and has two kids comes to church one Sunday.
I being a good pastor introduce myself.
I talk to him about the church, and the entire ministry happening there.
I try really hard to convince him that this church is the best Church ever.
He tells me that he lives nearby and is looking for a faith community.
We talk and I believe that he is coming back.
I never see Pat again in church.
In this case I was selling the church not Jesus.
It was a lesson to me about what it really means to do ministry with people.
I did not go into that conversation concerned with Pat as a person to me he was a number.

Second example, I was on the church steps one day and I saw one of the neighbors of the church in there yard.
She waves to me.
I go over and we start talking about life and what not.
She tells me about some of her struggles with her job and boyfriend.
I listen and am genuinely concerned about her life.
Not once in the conversation do I invite her to church.
I tell her that I am praying for her.
The next time I see her I ask how things are going, we talk some more.
Again I tell her I am praying for her.
The next Sunday she sends her two kids to Sunday School.
We start to talk about faith in those meetings we have over the fence.
She tells me how her kids love Sunday school.
She tells me that she would come to church, but she is divorced and living with her boyfriend.
I tell her no problem, we preach grace in our church.
I tell her that Jesus preached love, acceptance, and forgiveness.
She starts coming to church.
I never thought she would come.
In this case I was concerned about the person.
I really never thought about her coming to church.
I have learned this lesson in my time as a pastor.
When I want someone to come to church, and I work really hard at it, then it does not happen.
When I want to build relationships with people, when I desire to know them and their lives, when I allow the Holy Spirit to work then everything exceeds my expectations.

On Monday this is what we are called to do go out and love others.
Listen to their stories offer forgiveness and life.
Allow Jesus to become part of their life struggles their stories.
Let me be clear we should invite people to church.
But we should do it because that is what is best for the person and their faith journey.
Not because we want our church to grow.

Let me make a promise to all of you.
If we build authentic relationships with people.
If we connect their real lives to the risen Lord.
If they can feel his hands and touch his side, and see that he is risen.
If we offer ourselves to be sent out into the world to reach others then I do believe the unintentional consequence will be that our church will grow.

So on this Monday as you return to the work you are called to.
As you go back to your busy schedule, remember that Jesus is sending you out into that real world to listen to people and their stories,
To connect them to Jesus.
to tell them about the forgiveness of sins.
To tell that about the risen Jesus Christ so that they may have life in his name.
Amen

No Idle Tale: Jesus is Alive!!

Jesus is alive!!!
That is no idle tale.
It is the truth and the story that we proclaim this morning.
It is the why we celebrate, why we sing alleluia.
The story we tell means as much today as it did those many years ago when the women heard it from the angels.
But it does to us at times seem like an idle tale.
How can someone really raise from the dead?
We like the apostles are sometimes confused by the story and the announcement.

Jesus is alive!!!

Unless like the women we “remember his words”.
Remember the words that Jesus speaks to us.
They are words that tells us that death will not defeat life, that hatred and evil will not defeat love, that despair will not win over hope.
The words of Jesus are the words that generations of Christians have passed on to the next.
Mothers and fathers, grandparents sharing with their children the eternal message of Easter.

Jesus is alive!!!

What does this mean for us today?
It means that we too can share our stories of being alive, of coming out of despair into hope, of knowing the eternal truth of Jesus promise to life everlasting.
This is why we pass on to others the story that

Jesus is alive!!!

We mean that we have experienced in our own lives the power and glory of the Easter story.
That it is not an idle tale to us, but a very real tale of what it means to be a human being and experience God in our lives.
Just this week I have heard and experienced many stories of resurrection.
That help me to tell you this morning that

Jesus is alive!!!

The first story I read in the Boston Globe.
It was about Bernie Carbo.
For those of you who are not baseball fans, or worse those of you who are Yankee fans let me remind you of who Bernie Carbo is.
Bernie Carbo was the pitch hitter who hit the game tying 3 run home run in the eighth inning of game 6 of the 1975 world series.
The famous game when Carlton Fisk won the game in the 11th inning with a dramatic home run just fair.
The story was about how Bernie Carbo was a drug addict.
In fact, when he hit that home run he was on a lot of drugs.
But now Bernie Carbo is a Christian.
He is a man who knows the power of the risen Christ.
Bernie said, “I threw away my career, If I knew Jesus Christ was my savior at 17, I would have been one heck of a ballplayer, a near Hall of Famer. Instead, I wanted to die.”

Because Bernie Carbo knows Jesus as his savior he chose life.
Today he runs baseball camps that teach kids about baseball and faith.
“To watch people come back to the Lord, it’s better than hitting that World Series home run in 1975. Guaranteed. Ten times. Hundreds of times better,’’ Carbo said.
Bernie Carbo knows that the story of the resurrection is no idle tale, and he knows for sure that

Jesus is alive!!!!

This week I went to visit one of our members Maude-Esther Hibbard.
Not too long ago she was diagnosed with cancer.
It was in most of her body.
Last week she went for her test, and today she is living almost cancer free.
Maude told me “I did not do this alone. God was with me.”
Through the prayers of people at our church, and her family Maude Esther felt the strength that comes with knowing Jesus.
The story of the resurrection is no idle tale to Maude Esther she knows that

Jesus is alive!!!

This year I have sat with members of our congregation who were dying.
They knew they were dying.
And in each case they witnessed to us about resurrection faith.
In each case they told me they were not afraid to die that they knew that Jesus words were true and that they were going to be with their savior.
They knew that the story of the resurrection was no idle tale.
They knew that

Jesus is alive!!!

Finally, yesterday our Sunday School went to two nursing homes to sing Easter songs and bring joy to others.
In each case we saw the joy in the eyes of people as the children sang songs about Jesus and rejoiced in the resurrection.
Yesterday, in places were people are living closer to death there was life and it was in abundance.
The residence brought just as much joy to us as we did to them.
When we help one another and love one another we feel the presence of the risen Christ.
To us who were there yesterday the resurrection is no idle tale.
We know that

Jesus is alive!!!

Indeed Jesus is alive!!!
The angels proclaim it, the women tell the story, and we repeat over and over.
We should no longer look for him in the places of death, but we should see Jesus in the stories that we tell about how we live.
We should see Jesus in our second chances, in the power to endure, in the promise of eternal life, and in the way we care and love for one another.

This story is important and we must continue to share it.
Even if people think we are telling idle tales, because someday they may need it.
They may need to know when they are going through a hard time that Jesus is alive.
And when they remember that story their hope, love, and faith will be restored just as ours is every time we tell the story and proclaim with a loud and clear voice that

Jesus is alive!!!!

Amen

Lead Us to the Cross

A Good Friday meditation based on the song, Lead Me to the Cross.


I don’t want to look.
I don’t want to see.
My savior is betrayed
Denied
Alone
Mocked shouted at.
I can’t watch
Because when I look I see that it is me who has done these things to you
I am the one who betrays you.
I am the one who denies you.
I am the one who leaves you.
I am the one who mocks you.

You spoke forgiveness
You shared love
You preached good news
You helped the poor, lame, and blind.
You send the kingdom of God was at hand.
This is not how it is suppose to end.
Where is the glory?
Where is the kingdom?

But when I look deeper I am lead to see something else.
When I look deeper I see you give yourself up freely.
I see you give yourself over to the Father’s will.
I see you heal those who came to arrest you.
I see you offer the kingdom even to a criminal.
I see you concerned about women and children who weep for you.
I see you ask for our forgiveness.
I see you give your spirit into the hands of God.

Even there at the cross you lead us.
You lead us to see forgiveness, mercy, and love
Lead us again and again to the cross to see you offer yourself for us.
Lead us to the cross to see our sin and your forgiveness.
Lead us to the cross to quiet our souls.
Lead us to the cross to your heart.
Lead us to the cross to see through our sin and death to your forgiveness and love.