It Is Perplexing!

I like to start preparing for my Easter Sermons earlier than my other sermons.

Today is like the Super Bowl for preachers.

But it was hard this year.

It is hard to think about new life, about spring, about rebirth, while 14 inches of snow is falling.

I am sure this spring you all had a similar experience.

It is hard to imagine resurrection when death still hangs in the air.

So it is for the people who first experienced the resurrection.

In all of the Gospels the reaction to people hearing the news that Jesus has risen was not immediate joy.

They didn’t yell out, “He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”

People’s immediate reaction is confusion.

The women who first come to the tomb are perplexed.

That big heavy stone they put in front of the tomb was gone and so was the body.

This is not supposed to happen.

Big stones don’t disappear and dead people don’t come back to life.

It is all perplexing.

There is no wonder we still struggle with the resurrection.

This is not supposed to happen.

We all know that the only things certain in life are death and taxes.

I mean if we know one thing for absolute certain it is that everyone dies.

Scientific studies have proven it.

Let me suggest that it is ok to be perplexed by the resurrection.

There will be days and times when we doubt it, just like the disciples did when they were told by the women.

This is the way the resurrection is supposed to be.

It is suppose to surprise us.

It is suppose to be perplexing.

It is really unbelievable.

But then I think about all the ways our lives are dead.

All the ways we are stuck in winter and can’t get to spring.

The ways we are stuck in our old life and can’t get to the new.

All the ways we are shut in tombs with the stone still in front.

I think about the stone that keeps us in those tombs, or perhaps keeps others out.

Today I have given everyone a stone.

It is a reminder of all the things in our life that keep us from new life.

All the things that block our path.

All the obstacles that seem really hard to get over.

All of the sin that blocks our way from a truly rich and meaningful life.

And then remember that God has the unbelievable, remarkable power to remove that stone from your life.

God has the power to let light shine in, and to usher in spring and new life.

I have good friend who has had her world shattered this last year.

Her husband cheated on her, he stole all her money, she lost her job, her son got married and her new daughter in law doesn’t get along with her.

So she feels alone, and lost.

It really has been a horrible year.

My heart breaks for her, because someone who was once vibrant full life is no just defeated.

She of course is not the only one there are lots of us who are living in this way.

Lots of us hoping for a turnaround

Lots of us living in that tomb hoping that the stone will be rolled away.

This is why we need the resurrection.

This is why we need to have faith in unbelievable things that don’t make sense.

This is why we need to believe that huge stones can be rolled away.

We need to believe that God has the power to roll our stones away.

Open up the dark and dingy tomb and let the sunshine in.

We need a new day with new vision.

We need miracles to happen this Easter day.

The resurrection assures us that those miracles are possible.

This morning Ryan is being baptized and that is a miracle.

A miracle that another child of God has bee drowned in the waters and brought to new life.

In our baptism we are killed and brought to new life.

That new life is a life with Christ.

Baptism is what reminds us constantly of the Easter faith we have.

That we proclaim that out of nothing, out of tomb God brings life.

And it is a promise that last us from the time we are a baby until the day when we leave this world to go to live with God.

Lots of times people ask me how people receive faith, and how they maintain it.

The answer is I don’t know.

It is always perplexing to me.

Having faith in God’s ability to bring life from death is really beyond belief.

But I know plenty of people who have it.

I have seen how it makes a huge difference in their lives.

I have seen how it helps them to roll away stones that would want to keep them locked in their tombs.

I have seen how faith can be a great force in our lives.

This week I was reading a website that had people write in grace stories about the ways that God’s grace had changed their lives.

For example there was a woman named Sara Haggerty who wrote about how grace totally changed her marriage.

She used to pray that God would change her husband and make him the man she wanted.

But one day God put a different prayer in her heart.

She prayed to be able to see her husband through God’s eyes.

Her perception of their marriage, herself, her husband, and God changed.

This is what Sara ends her story with.

“My early-marriage prayers for change in him were not entirely unfounded, just skewed.

Jesus’ grace washed over me and finally gave hunger to remove the log and to finally see clearly.

This man, as God has made him, but ultimately God, as He really is.

A promise-keeper. Not only washing over sin, but promising redemption of every fallen place.

And I live healing.

And breathe believing for every single one of my broken places.”

God through his grace had rolled away the stone that kept Sara in her tomb.

God let the light shine into her life.

The resurrection opens us up to new understanding about ourselves and others.

It makes us new and let’s in the light.

I loved Sara’s story because it was about her everyday life, and how her sin got in her way.

What will be the ways that God’s grace will help you to roll away your stones?

What will be the ways that God empty the tombs so we might live again?

We live in the tomb because we are in the way.

We won’t let God in, and so most of what we have to do is get out of the way and let God have control.

That is a resurrection faith that trusts in God’s amazing grace to bring life from death, and bring new life to us, to make a way out of no way.

This Easter faith is perplexing, but I hope that God rolls the stone away from your tombs so that you might experience new life.

I hope that your tomb is open to let the sunshine in.

I hope that we all get to experience a wonderful spring.

And that even through the confusion, doubt, and perplexing we can say Christ has risen indeed. Alleluia!

Amen

Your Grace Covers Me?

Can your grace really cover me?

You see through me, into me.

You see all the parts I hide from everyone else.

You see through my defenses, protections, pretensions, and pronouncements of grandeur.

You see through my cover-up.

Even when I don’t want you to see me you are there.

Just as you saw through Peter’s Pronouncements of loyalty.

Just as you saw through Judas to his true heart.

Just as you saw through John, James, Bartholomew, Andrew, Philip, Matthew, Thomas and knew they were not strong enough.

You saw through Pilate and Herod’s titles and power.

You saw through the Chief Priest and scribes to see their hypocrisy.

Just like all of them you see through me too.

Can your grace really cover all of those ugly parts of me?

Can your grace really cover my sins?

Surely there are limits to your love?

Surely you can’t forgive all of us.

Surely we have gone too far.

Your grace must be for someone else.

Some one better.

More righteous.

More loyal

More faithful

More trustworthy

More hard working

More contrite

More honest

Just more

But not me!

Can’t be

But on that cross

With hands and feet nailed

With a crown of thorns on your head

With mocking and ridicule

You say, “Forgive them father”

Forgive your persecutors, betrayers, deniers, deserters, mockers.

Forgive those who drove the nails into your hands and feet.

Those who hit you, and spat on you.

Those who lied to have you convicted.

Those who now celebrate your death.

Those people you forgive.

Your grace is amazing.

It really does cover all sins.

Without condition or pronouncements

Yes your grace even flows down to me.

It really does cover all those ugly places only you know about.

As I sit in this dark space.

As I think what happened to you.

I am laid bare with all my sin.

I have no more pronouncements of innocence.

I have no more pretensions about my greatness.

I have no more defenses at being a good person.

I simply want your grace to cover me.

As we read the story of your suffering

We remember your amazing love

Let it flow down and cover me with your amazing grace.

I Desire To Eat With You!

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Tonight we are reminded that Jesus is eager to eat and share this special meal with us.

In fact, not just tonight but every time we gather together Jesus desires to eat this meal with us.

On the surface it seems like a simple meal.

There is bread and wine.

But this meal has so much meaning for our lives of faith.

We know this because almost since the beginning of Christianity there have been disagreements over what it means to eat this meal together.

Different Christian groups have excluded others because they did not hold the same ideal of what it meant.

First of all it is a meal.

Jesus ministry is filled with meals.

He is always eating.

No wonder his opponents called him a “drunkard and a glutton”.

What is important about those meals is who Jesus eats with.

He eats with sinners, with religious figures, with friends, with enemies, with women, with men, with Jews, with non-Jews, with prostitutes, with jerks.

All of these meals are more than what we think.

To share a meal with someone in Jesus day was to call them friend.

It was a statement of status.

In our own day who we eat with matters if you think about all the people you share meals with.

I would bet that those are the people who are closest to you.

Those are the people you love and care about.

When Jesus ate with people that is what he said to them, “I love and care about you.”

Second, this meal that Jesus shares on his last night is more than the other meals.

It is Passover meal.

It is a meal that was celebrated because people wanted to remember God’s liberating act done for their ancestors.

It was a meal that reminded people of God’s activity in the world.

It was a meal that gave hope.

When the people of Israel experienced hard times they looked back to God’s saving act of delivering them from slavery and they were given hope that God would continue to act in their present circumstances.

If you have ever gone to a Passover cedar you know that it is all about what God has done and what God will do.

This last meal that Jesus celebrates looks forward to the next great thing that God is going to do in Jesus Christ.

And we need that too.

We need to remember the things that God has done.

In our own times we need to have hope that God will act again.

This meal helps us to remember that God is always forward looking.

In fact, Jesus tells his disciples that they will eat this meal again one day in the kingdom of God.

And now when we share this Jesus meal together we have a glimpse of that heavenly future.

When we share this meal it is a foretaste of the feast to come.

Thirdly, this meal is about a new covenant that God makes with us through Jesus Christ.

The prophet Jeremiah talked of a new covenant that God would make.

“You will be my people and I will be your God.”

It is actually really a continuation of the old covenant.

Because this is what God always desires is for us to be one with him and each other.

Jesus brings us into that relationship.

Through his body and blood Jesus keeps us ever connected to God.

That is the thing about Jesus special meal that it is the place we can go and know that he will be there waiting for us.

It is the place that even when we are lost, or sinful, or regretful, or guilty.

It is the place that we can let go of all the things in our life and regain strength from Jesus.

In the Old Testament it was blood that established community between God and human beings.

After Moses had read the law to the people and they agreed to follow the law he took blood and threw it on the altar and then the people to seal the covenant.

For us what seals our covenant with God is the blood of Jesus.

It is Jesus’ blood that established community between God and human beings.

Finally, it is Jesus way to say good bye to his disciples.

Good byes are hard.

It must have been hard for them to hear and hard for him to say.

But he also wants to leave them knowing that they now are part of this community that includes God.

So Jesus in this last supper encourages them, warns them, and instructs them.

Jesus knows that the days ahead will be hard.

They all will desert him, one will deny him, and another will betray him.

But he wants them to know that this is not the end.

That through all those things he will be there with them.

And even after the good bye he will be there for and with them.

When we come to this table when we eat this Jesus meal we are encouraged, warned, and instructed.

We are encouraged that we are not alone, that Jesus is with us.

We are warned that sin is always with us.

We are warned about difficulties that we all face in life.

And we are instructed to remember Jesus.

Remember the things he teaches us.

Remember the way he ate with sinners.

Remember the way he forgave and loved others.

This table is where we meet Jesus and are brought into community with him.

We also remember that none of us are greater than any others.

It seems that the disciples couldn’t figure that out at this meal.

Even though Jesus had been teaching about giving of your life all along,

Even though he was acting as the ultimate servant to them,

Even though his own life taught them that life is not about conquest but about service to each other they still didn’t get it.

So he gives them this meal.
This Jesus meal is Jesus way of reminding us of what he did for us, and what it does to us.

We are reminded of the blood that was poured out so that we might live in a community with God.

I don’t know if we think about all these things when we come to Jesus special meal.

I know that for myself sometimes I am overwhelmed at Jesus’ special meal.

I am overwhelmed by what Jesus did for me.

I am overwhelmed by the love that we share in our congregation with each other, and with others.

I am overwhelmed by the moment.

Other times well…I am thinking about an announcement I forgot to make at the start of the service.

Or I am distracted watching some kid do something funny.

Or I am just not in the moment.

What I always take solace in is that the first time Jesus celebrated this meal with his disciples none of them understood what was happening.

At that table there was nothing but imperfect flawed people.

People who were going to betray, deny, and abandon Jesus.

In other words, there never was some glorious perfect moment of spiritual understanding about this meal.

Instead, from the beginning it was a meal that Jesus desired to eat with us, because Jesus wanted to give us something very important.

Jesus wanted to give us hope for a better future.

Jesus wanted to encourage us to keep together and have faith in him.

Jesus wanted to warn us that having faith wasn’t always easy.

Jesus wanted to teach us to give of ourselves for the sake of others.

And finally Jesus wanted us to know that he has sealed our relationship with God forever through his body and blood.

So tonight come to Jesus’ special meal because he eagerly desires to share it with you.

Amen