May 19, 2019 5th Sunday of Easter

John 13:34-35  (The Message)

 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

These are private, intimate words spoken by Jesus to his disciples, and to us.  They cut through all the pretense and get to the heart of the matter - what really counts - love!
Love bears and endures all things.  It can live with and respect differences.  Love listens even when we don’t like what we are hearing.  Love hangs in there when there is little to be received in return.  Love has the unquenchable capacity to believe the best in the midst of the worst.  Love endures all things!

We are being encouraged to hate rather then love; in our politics and even in the church.  Yes, hate, fear, and stay clear of those who are different from us.
All of which is contrary to one of the clearest commandments our Lord gave us.

We are to model Jesus love by how we treat each other in all aspects of life.
For, as  Martin Luther King said,
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; loved illumines it.”
           



To love is not to demand ‘sameness’
 but to affirm ‘differentness’,
and to live together in harmony.










Prayer thought:  “Lord, help me to affirm ‘differentness’ in my thoughts and actions this week…and always.”

May 12, 2019 4th Sunday of Easter

John 10:22-30  (The Message)

22-24 They were celebrating Hanukkah just then in Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon’s Porch. The Jews, circling him, said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out.”
25-30 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”

Paul Scherer, one of the great preachers of the 20th Century, wrote:

“Before the Word of God can get itself lived, it needs to get itself believed - and what is believed is not always lived.  But before it cannot itself believed, it has to get itself heard - and what is heard is not always believed.  Farther back than that, however...before the Word of God cannot itself heard, it must get itself said - and what is said is not always heard.”     The Word God Sent p. 3

There are two reasons why what is said is not always heard.
Because of the way it is said; and because of the way it is heard.

Jesus had trouble being heard because of the way he was heard.
They did not want to hear what he was saying, so they did everything they could to not hear.  And believe. They would not listen!

Is this not the root of all unbelief?  The refusal to listen and give truth a chance in our lives.

The request  “tell us straight out” sounds legitimate, fair, reasonable, even honest.  But it isn’t.  It is loaded, bias, suspicious, deceptive.  A trap to catch Jesus and prove his blasphemy.

To look for the "plain truth" may well be a way to not have to face the truth.
The truth which is different than we want it to be!

And what is this truth?

 At it’s core it is that God loves you and me and everyone - “red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight.”

God includes those we exclude - and if God excludes anyone, it is not for me to say who that will be. It appears from Scripture that it will be those who reject the way of love which Jesus taught and choose to make God exclusive, judging who will make it and who won’t.  This I cannot do.  I am not God and I am not able to grasp how far God’s love goes to be inclusive




"Jesus loves the different people,
of the world.
Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew,
They are precious to him too.
Jesus loves the different people
of the world."










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to accept what I cannot change - that your love is inclusive.  Then help me be inclusive in my thinking and acting, daring to leave
judgement in your hands.”

May 5, 2019 3rd Sunday of Easter

John 21:1-19  (The Message)

21 1-3 After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.”
3-4 The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him.
5 Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”
They answered, “No.”
6 He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.
7-9 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”
When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.
10-11 Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.
12 Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.
13-14 Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead.

There is a knowing which is too deep for words; a knowing within which defies logic.

Such knowing comes from living with and discovering in the experiences of life that which is too deep for words.   Of such is faith, hope, love.  We don’t create them.  They create us, as we experience them both on a human level and beyond, on a mystical level, in the richness of God’s grace and the depth of God’s love.

“At its heart, I think, religion is mystical...Religions start, as Frost said poems do, with a lump in the throat, to put it mildly, or with the bush going up in flames, the rain of flowers, the dove coming down out of the sky.”  Frederick Buechner


We live as resurrection people not because we can understand the resurrection, but because the resurrection warms our heart and finds a home deep within our soul.  It rings true - there is “one more surprise” in store for us when our eyes close for the last time.







“The mystic in us is the one
moved to radical amazement
by the awe of things.”
Matthew Fox













Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, keep me surprised at life’s mystery, even to the better end.”

April 28, 2019 2nd Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31  (The Message)
19-20 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side.
20-21 The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.”
22-23 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”
24-25 But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.”
But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”
27 Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”
28 Thomas said, “My Master! My God!”
29 Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”
30-31 Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

We don’t get very far into the Easter season before we run into Thomas - doubting Thomas.

He is the one who grounds the resurrection in the physical appearance of Jesus.
He is, as one person put it, “...a pioneer of the faith through whose persistency we are given a message of grace and joy.”
He is also the one who reminds us that doubt is a part of faith.  It is often on the growing edge of faith.

As Luther said, “There is more faith in honest doubt then in all the creeds of Christendom.”

What we say we doubt may well be what we most want to believe.
When we continue to believe, even when we have our doubts,  we are open to believing more then we can believe.

It is no sin to doubt.  Our doubts not only keep us honest and humble, they also are openings for God’s spirit to touch our lives.  For through our doubts we are let to believe in mysteries far beyond human logic or comprehension.






“I believe in the sun,
even when it is not shining.
I believe in Love
even when I feel it not.
I believe in God,
even when He is silent.”
           Cellar in Cologne after WWII










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.  Help me see more then can be seen and believe more then can be grasped with the human mind.”

April 21, 2019 Easter Sunday

Luke 24:1-12   (The Message)

1-3 At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.
4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
9-11 They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.
12 But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.


We live in a world where almost anything can happen.  We travel to the moon and beyond.  We transplant kidneys and hearts.  We travel so fast we can arrive before we left.  We control rivers and remove mountains.  We can do most anything, sometimes to our good, sometimes to our detriment  Almost anything can happen.  Little seems to be impossible anymore.

We also live in a world where the impossible has happened. A world where the most incredible, unbelievable, fantastic, breath taking event has taken place which still causes us to gasp with amazement and say, “I don’t believe it.”  For it is in this our world that God chose to dwell and it is in this world that a resurrection happened!

Anything CAN happen now.  The tomb is empty, the future is open!
In this there is hope for our living and our dying.


“The resurrection does not fit    
into our ordinary perceptions
of human power, importance,
and value.  It tells us that at
the heart and center of the
universe love is reigning.”
Morton Kelsey







Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to live in hope with love.”

April 14,, 2019 Passion Sunday

Luke 22:14-23:56  (The full Passion story- read it this week>)
Luke 23:33-47(The Message )

33 When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.
34-35 Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, “He saved others. Let’s see him save himself! The Messiah of God—ha! The Chosen—ha!”
36-37 The soldiers also came up and poked fun at him, making a game of it. They toasted him with sour wine: “So you’re King of the Jews! Save yourself!”
38 Printed over him was a sign: this is the king of the jews.
39 One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”
40-41 But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”
43 He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”
44-46 By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours—a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly, “Father, I place my life in your hands!” Then he breathed his last.
47 When the captain there saw what happened, he honored God: “This man was innocent! A good man, and innocent!”

The road to Easter goes through Good Friday.
The joy of celebration has its roots deep within the agony of defeat.
There is no resurrection without a cross.

This is the beginning of the most horrible and the most glorious week in human history.
We hear the words “Crucify him, crucify him!” before we hear “Alleluia, He lives!”

“When the crucified Jesus is called ‘the image of the invisible God’, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this.  God is not greater than he is in this humiliation.  God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness.  God is not more divine than he is in this humanity.”
Douglas John Hall

"God is not more divine
than he is in this humanity.”
Douglas John Hall

 










Prayer thought for the week:  Read the full passion story and walk with it all week.

April 7, 2019 Fifth Sunday in Lent

Luke 20:9-19  (The Message)

9-12 Jesus told another story to the people: “A man planted a vineyard. He handed it over to farmhands and went off on a trip. He was gone a long time. In time he sent a servant back to the farmhands to collect the profits, but they beat him up and sent him off empty-handed. He decided to try again and sent another servant. That one they beat black-and-blue, and sent him off empty-handed. He tried a third time. They worked that servant over from head to foot and dumped him in the street.
13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘I know what I’ll do: I’ll send my beloved son. They’re bound to respect my son.’
14-15 “But when the farmhands saw him coming, they quickly put their heads together. ‘This is our chance—this is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all to ourselves.’ They killed him and threw him over the fence.
15-16 “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? Right. He’ll come and clean house. Then he’ll assign the care of the vineyard to others.”
Those who were listening said, “Oh, no! He’d never do that!”
17-18 But Jesus didn’t back down. “Why, then, do you think this was written:
That stone the masons threw out—
It’s now the cornerstone!?
“Anyone falling over that stone will break every bone in his body; if the stone falls on anyone, it will be a total smashup.”
19 The religion scholars and high priests wanted to lynch him on the spot, but they were intimidated by public opinion. They knew the story was about them.

The story was about them…and us!
It is a wake up call to all who would follow Jesus.

We can’t have it our way!
We can’t take and take and take, thinking we can have it all.
For when we do, we end up with nothing!

We are mortals with feet of clay, yet molded in the image of God.

We are to live as servants, not masters and seek to imitate Christ,
who “though he was in the form of God…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…
and became obedient to the point of death…”  Phil. 2:6
That is, we are to give life not take it and discover how good it is and how full life becomes.





“That which is
given away
is not wasted."
City of Joy









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, keep me mindful that I am not the ‘captain of my ship’;
that there is more to life then taking all I can get.  For to give
is a joy far greater.”