Yes? No? What?

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Wednesday, November 7, 2018

As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.  And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once.  Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer.  And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going.  So now I am giving you a new commandment:  Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?”  And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”  “But why can’t I come now, Lord?” he asked.  “I’m ready to die for you.”  Jesus answered, “Die for me?  I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.  “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, and trust also in me.  There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.  And you know the way to where I am going.”  “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said.  “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me.  John 13:31 – 14:6(NLT)

To say the least, it was a little confusing at times following Jesus.  At this last supper (of course the disciples didn’t understand it would be the last) they heard the Lord say:  you can’t come, then, you will, then, not now.  Peter wanted to know why and where.  Thomas finally nailed it with:  Would you just tell us, Jesus?  The fact is we don’t have a clue!  And then Jesus said it plainly; He IS the answer … to everything! 

It’s like the old sermon illustration about the children’s sermon.  The pastor asks the little ones:  what’s grey, with a long fuzzy tail and runs up and down the trees saving up nuts for the winter?  5-year-old Tommy raises his hand and says:  Jesus! 

The crowd gasps; Tommy’s Grandmaw has a spell, and the pastor, hesitating, asks his little student:  Uh, why would you say that, Tommy? 

Says the budding theologian, Aw, preacher; I knowed you was talkin’ ‘bout a squirrel, but this here’s church; all the answers are ‘bout Jesus.

I believe Tommy may have been on-to something.  I have sat for hours and watched squirrels darting around, playing and fighting with other squirrels, gathering nuts and scampering up the tree to their nest.  It looks quite confusing to a human, although it’s quite natural for a squirrel, no matter what a human thinks!

With all the confusion DaVinci portrayed at that upper room table, many critics of Scripture can’t wait to get to this passage.  They love to point out the so-called contradictory nature of Jesus’ teachings; first he says “yes” then “no” then “wait”.

But, like life, leading a group of no-nonsense fishermen, former tax collectors, and generally uneducated young nobodies out of their all over the map squirrel-kind of thinking about God, into the God’s kind of love which will grow into an all-consuming passion for the kingdom requires a lot of course-correction.  Jesus was leading them on a complicated mission that has one, very UNCOMPLICATED conclusion, that Jesus is the Christ, God-in-flesh, come down to BE our answer.

And if you get THAT … you won’t get much else wrong.

For You Today

Advent is just around the corner; God makes His presence known in unexpected places like stables, crosses, and the face of your next-door neighbor.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

After Easter Series: #1. PEACE

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“Peace be with you,” he said.   John 20:19b^(NLT)

I‘m definitely a Thomas kind of guy.  Thomas didn’t want to believe what seemed too good to believe until he had seen Jesus like the other disciples had seen Jesus.  It’s not that he didn’t have faith; Thomas had stronger faith than the other disciples before Jesus was arrested.  The Pharisees had threatened to stone Jesus to death, and Jesus announced he was going to Jerusalem to confront them.  The other disciples protested loudly that it was too dangerous.  But Thomas just said, well, let’s go and die with him.^[2]  That’s faith!

Thomas was no doubter, but he also had no sense of timing.  When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the evening of resurrection day Thomas was the only one of the bunch to miss church. 

I’ve often wondered just why Thomas missed meeting with the group on that evening.  My best guess is that he was pretty resigned to the fact that it was game-over.  The Pharisees had won, Jesus was dead, and there was nothing left to do but start figuring-out a life beyond following Jesus, because there was no more Jesus to follow.

And then there’s the other wonderment – why did Thomas come back to the group a week later.  It had to be that some of the other disciples went and got Thomas…brought him back into the fold.  They had seen the resurrected Lord, and they shared the good news with him.  Thomas’ faith had flickered, and his friends brought him back. 

Somewhere in that there’s a sermon for any church with as many inactive members as active ones!

Today is the eighth-day – resurrection plus one week!  We are waiting like the disciples, door shut, Thomas, the backslider has been reclaimed, and we’re remembering the last time we saw Jesus enter the room.  We recall his first words, “Peace be with you”.  Jesus said those words three times in our text, and each time they brought a different kind of peace…

Saving Peace

There is a peace that rescues.  The disciples had shut the doors for fear that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them.  When suddenly Jesus was present with them, that fear vanished with the realization of victory. 

My family watched the movie “The Passion” with its two grueling and graphic hours depicting the arrest, beating, trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  Afterwards, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, he had the marks of his suffering, but it was obvious those marks didn’t have him anymore. 

There is a peace that is surreal when the darkness of disaster and defeat are replaced by the morning light of victory.  When Jesus said “peace be with you” he was saying, “I am with you – your victory, your peace…I am here to save.”  Even the name “Jesus” means “God saves”.  Saving Peace, and…

Sending Peace

“Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 

This second kind of peace Jesus brought with him is sending peace.  The Father sent Jesus into the world to seek and to save that which was lost – us!^[3]  He told the disciples, and he also tells us, that in the same way the Father sent him to the mission of reconciling all people to him, Jesus sends us to that same mission. 

A story is told of a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated.  The world seemed to be falling apart.  She would read the papers and get depressed.

One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random.  She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter.  She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. 

She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?

I am.  Do you work here?  No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?

Just about everything, Jesus said.  Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles.  There was [for sale] peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources.  She wrote furiously.  By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.  Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled.  No problem.  And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. 

She asked:  What are these? 

Seed packets, Jesus said.  This is a catalog store.

She said:  You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams.  You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds.  You plant the seeds.  You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.

Oh, she said.  And she left the store without buying anything.^[4]

Sometimes it is easier to dwell on saving peace than on the peace which compels us to go into all the world with the good news. 

But he said “peace” to them once more…

Symbiotic Peace

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 

This was the eighth day…a whole week later than the first time Jesus said “peace” to them.  This time he came back when Thomas was there.  Thomas may have felt pretty second-class as a disciple.  But Jesus came back and spoke the same wonderful word to him…. “Peace”!

We all come to Jesus at different times and in different walks – but his peace is still his peace.  Symbiosis is:  a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between two people or groups.^[5]  To be “symbiotically-peaceful” is to get along with each other in the kind of love God planned for us.

Three times Jesus said “peace” to his followers –

·       Saving peace that covers our sins and saves us from hell

·       Sending peace that commissions us to go bring people to the fold

·       Symbiotic peace that conjoins us and holds us together in a bond of brotherhood and the selfless love of God.

Together this saving, sending and symbiosis-making peace is the whole point of Easter.  It is what Paul meant when he told us that God was in Christ to reconcile the whole world to himself^[6] – and has given us that very same mission. 

Peace is the work of reconciliation – first I am reconciled to God with his saving peace, having been rescued from my sins.  Then I take part in rescuing others because of his sending peace.  And I am taught to live in symbiotic God-love, the peace that passes all understanding.

It is a matter of living in peace.  This is the sum total of what saving, sending and symbiotic peace means in the human family.

So…Pass the Peace brothers and sisters….take a moment and pass the peace; take this lifetime and pass the peace!

Let the church say Amen in the Name of the Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!                                                   

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[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] John 11:16

[3] Luke 19:10

[4]Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.

[5] Encarta dictionary

[6] 2 Corinthians 5:19

Final Huddle

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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

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No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.  Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.  Since I live, you also will live.  When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.  And because they love me, my Father will love them.  And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”    John 14:19-21^(NLT)

In the years Jesus walked with and taught his disciples they’d learned so much, particularly during the “huddles”.  Huddle times were when they would gather together at the end of day, and Jesus would reveal to them understanding of what they’d seen and heard that day.  They would ask him questions while the evening fire crackled, and their minds were slowly being shaped and prepared for service in the kingdom.

Perhaps none of these evenings was more important than their final huddle.  Jesus was more than clear as he shared the Last Supper with his disciples; his death was not the end of things, but the beginning of a new life that would open the reality of God’s forgiveness for all people.

He said these few, cataclysmic statements:

1.     I am going to die, but I will live again – and that’s your future too.

2.     My resurrection will open your understanding.

3.     Throw your life in with mine and know the love of my Father…I won’t hold anything back from you.

For the “uninitiated,” those who have not placed their faith in Jesus, many of his statements and actions are difficult to understand.  But it was designed to be that way, because, in the final analysis, faith operates absent of empirical evidence.

Just ask Thomas!

After the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas wasn’t there.  When he was told Jesus was alive, Thomas said: 

I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.  John 20:25b^(NLT)

And that’s how most of us are deep inside; how can you take such an important thing on faith alone?  The answer, of course, even for those of us who have hung around church for a long time and been privy to the huddles, is:

You say you won’t believe until you see;

But you won’t see until you believe!

And so it is with everything Jesus taught in the final huddle with his disciples; when you begin to believe, by choosing to believe, you also begin to see and experience the love of the Father – firsthand.  It is then – and only then – you begin to understand enough to know deep inside that it’s all true.  And then, you don’t need anything else, or anyone else to convince you – your empirical evidence is beating and breathing from within.

A step of faith in Christ leads to deeper faith in Christ, which leads to a closer walk with Christ, and the revelation deep inside your soul, of just how much the Father loves you.

For You Today

Like Jesus said to Thomas on that day, don’t be faithless anymore…believe.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] By Onofrio bramante (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

When Faith Fails

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Friday, February 12, 2016

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One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came.  They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”  Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them.  The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them.  “Peace be with you,” he said.  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands.  Put your hand into the wound in my side.  Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”  “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.   Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me.  Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”  John 20:24-29^(NLT)

Barna Research is a company that seeks to keep church leaders in particular, and Christians in general, informed about matters of faith.  In a study published just this week on the state of Christian faith in the United Kingdom they reported results of questions asked a random population about Jesus being an actual historical person, and His divinity.  Here is brief quote from the study:

But even though most UK adults believe Jesus was a historical person, they are much less convinced of his divinity. In fact, belief in Jesus’ divinity is not common at all. Only about one in five adults among the general population holds the orthodox belief that Jesus was “God in human form who lived among people in the 1st Century” (22%). The most common belief about Jesus is that he was “a prophet or spiritual leader, not God” (29%).[2]

It seems the long and short of it (for most people in the UK) comes down to allowing the humanity of Jesus, but not the divinity.  He can be a holy man, but not God.

Of all the things we Christians know about Jesus’ disciples, we remember Thomas as being the one who lacked faith; we call him doubting Thomas! 

We sometimes forget that Thomas followed Jesus along with the rest, and when Jesus wanted to go back to Judea because Lazarus had died all the other disciples were fearful of the rulers who wanted to stone him.  But it was Thomas alone who had faith:

Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.’  John 11:16^(NLT)

Yet, after the resurrection Thomas’ faith faltered, and when Jesus looked him in the eye he said the wavering disciple should not be faithless anymore.  Perhaps, in a sense, Jesus was re-extending the call to Thomas, as he did with Peter and the others, to re-examine the depth of his faith – to see if he was still ready to go and die with Jesus.  Thomas stepped it up a notch; he bowed before Jesus and called him my GOD!

According to Barna, if this scene had taken place in the UK (or perhaps the US) today, we would probably teach our children the song that helped them remember the names of Jesus’ TWO-and-a-HALF disciples – not TWELVE.  The other nine-and-a-half vouch for prophet and priest, but won’t have anything to do with “king”.

We have come a long, long way!

I find myself sadly out of step with most of today’s culture.  I’m certain growing older has something to do with that, perhaps longing for the good old days, and/or lamenting the current days of arthritis and hearing aids.  But that’s not the out-of-step I have in mind.  I find the state of faith in our culture reduced to whether we have managed to hit the high points of ritual, baptism, attending church and giving to the church budget. 

While those are not bad (obviously), would anyone truly imagine that a person who denies the divinity of Christ is really a Christ-follower? 

Why would you worship a non-God?

For You Today

I have no trouble reciting the Apostle’s Creed, offering mental and verbal ascent to the divine nature of Jesus, who died for me.  I believe every word.  The question becomes, am I willing to cast my faith lot with Thomas and die with Jesus?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title image: By Laura e Fulvio (Flickr: Little country church), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Perceptions of Jesus, Christians & Evangelism in the UK, (Barna Research, 2-10-16)