Hammond Mission

Hagar: The God Who Sees Genesis 16:13

The God who sees and is seen. Hagar found God in the wilderness.

Miriam: The God Who Redeems - Numbers 12

Miriam was integral to God's plan for redeeming Israel, but somehow she managed to get in trouble. What does that mean for us?

Rahab - The God Who Transforms James 2:25-26

TRANSCRIPT

 

Pastor Jen:          This morning, we are going to learn about Rahab. Rahab is actually covered in Scripture in a number of different places. We will be looking at a few of them for the start. I actually give as my text James 2:25-26, but we're actually going to read about five verses this morning, and I'm going to let you know where we are in the process. I'm going to ask you to stand for the reading of the word this morning, and I'm going to start in James 2:25-26.

Pastor Jen:          In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Pastor Jen:          Hebrews 11:31. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Pastor Jen:          Matthew 1:5. Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.

Pastor Jen:          Joshua 6:25. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Pastor Jen:          Let us pray.

Pastor Jen:          Hide me behind the cross, Lord. Articulate your heart through my voice to your people. Let the transformation of our lives be wrought thoroughly by the Holy Spirit in response to your truth. In this Lenten season and always, let us faithfully remember the sacrifice you made on our behalf to draw us to you. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Speaker 2:           Amen.

Pastor Jen:          You may be seated.

Pastor Jen:          As I was thinking about Rahab, I thought it was really interesting the way that Rahab is described throughout Scripture. You will have noticed that she is often described specifically by what her occupation was. It reminded me of one of the tours I went on in Scotland. It was kind of a funny thing. In Scotland, there's all this history, literary history. Lots of literary people were from Scotland, especially Edinburgh, where we were for a period of time. There's Arthur Conan Doyle went to university to become a doctor there. There is Robert Burns, who was a big poet. All these people. As we went on this tour and the guide took us to all these little places, one of the things he said was, frequently, "You'll see there's nothing marked here. You'll see there's nothing marked here." As we went on the tour, it became pretty obvious that apparently nothing in Edinburgh was marked. In fact, he told the story. He said when his kids were little, one of the first things they learned to say was "there's nothing marked here."

Pastor Jen:          I tell you that story because sometimes when we're trying to figure out how things work, we get to places where there's nothing marked. One of the conversations that we had as a part of this tour was that names matter. The places that we go, the things that we do, those names and the things that happened in a particular place, they matter. So it is that we come to the story of Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute, and we see over and over in Scripture that that's how she's called. What that means in her time was that she served in the king's palace in a very particular function. She lived there for a period of time, until she got to an age where she was no longer able to and then she got moved. She was obviously wealthy because she lived in the place outside at the edge of town near the top near the gates, which meant that she had some means and was doing pretty well for herself at that point in time, which probably means that she was retired as well.

Pastor Jen:          She was there, and here come these spies. To set the stage for you, Joshua was at one time a spy into Canaan himself. He was sent with Caleb. Once upon a time, Moses sent him and 11 other people into Canaan to investigate. They came back, and Joshua and Caleb said, "Let's go," and everybody else said, "Eh, not so quick. Not so fast. Let's ... brakes. Stop." So this time, when Joshua sends, and everybody listened to the 10 and not Joshua and Caleb, and so God punished them by telling them that they had to wait 40 years. So now all of the people who were of age when Joshua and Caleb came back, except for Joshua and Caleb, have now gone on, and all that's left are the younger generations, who are now going in to take what was rightfully theirs, what was promised to them by God in the first place. Joshua sends a couple of spies just because he wants to know exactly what's happening, but he does it secretly. He does it quietly. He sends them in, and they get to town, and they probably are pretty obviously Hebrew spies because they don't wear the same clothes, and they don't talk the same way.

Pastor Jen:          Pretty quickly, they get picked out of the crowd. They happen to knock on Rahab's door, and she's like, "Get in here, you idiots. When you're spying, you're supposed to fit in." She brings them in and hides them up on her roof under some bags of flax. Not before too long, here come the counterterrorism unit from Jericho. That's probably not what they called it, but the guys who were looking for them, they come and knock on the door, and she's like, "Mmm. I don't know. Maybe they went that way. I'm not quite sure." She sends them on a wild goose chase that apparently takes them three days. Once they're gone, she calls the spies back and she says, "Hey, look. Let me tell you something. I've heard about you guys. I know who you are. I know who your god is. This is why I'm helping you because I know that your god is going to wipe us off the map if that's what He chooses to do, and I want to be on the side of right."

Pastor Jen:          They promise that they will protect her and her family as long as they're in the house when the time comes. Mind you, nobody here, nobody in this story knows exactly how God is going to accomplish the conquering of Jericho. We all know the little song, Joshua fights the battle of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down. They don't know that song because it hasn't happened yet. They're actually sitting there going I don't know how God is going to go through 20-foot wide walls to get us into this town, but God said he would. Even Rahab believes that somehow the God who walked the Israelites across the Red Sea is going to make it possible for them to defeat this walled city. So the spies tell her, okay, hang out a cord, a red cord. Throw it out the window. We'll know it's you. We'll come and get you, and we'll make sure that you guys aren't among those who get taken down.

Pastor Jen:          Some time goes by. They get out of town. They hide for a couple days. They figure out. They see the spies, trackers come back into Jericho, and they leave after they get back to town. Then there's some time that happens. It's several months before they actually get to the point where they come to Jericho. They go through this ... When they get there, I can only imagine what Rahab is thinking when she's sitting in her house, and for a week, these crazy Hebrews are walking around the wall because that's how God did it. God had them walk around the wall once a day for seven days, and then on the seventh day ... or for six days, they walked around it once, and then on the seventh day, they walked around it seven times, and at the end of that seventh time, they shouted and blew their trumpets, and the wall fell. What? Can you imagine? If you walked around this building — please don't do this, by the way — but if you walked around this building once a day for six days and then on the seventh day, you walked around it and you blew a trumpet and you shouted and it fell. That would be ridiculous. Sometimes, that's how our God is. He does the ridiculous to prove that He's God.

Pastor Jen:          In any case, Rahab and her family are where they're supposed to be, and they're rescued. The rest of the town is defeated. But that's not the end of Rahab's story. Rahab is one of very few women from the Old Testament who is mentioned several times in the New Testament. She is always mentioned as Rahab the prostitute, which is like our hook for where we find her. It's the marker. In Edinburgh, nothing's marked. Rahab has a mark. Her mark is Rahab the prostitute. That's how she's known throughout all of Scripture. Do you know why she's known that way? Because God is saying, "Look. This is what she was, but here's where she wound up." Because let me tell you where she wound up because it's pretty cool. She wound up staying with the Israelites. She didn't have to. She could have gone anywhere she wanted. There was no requirement that she stay with the Israelites when she came out of Jericho. She could have gone anywhere she wanted to. She could have done anything she wanted to at that point, but she stayed with them. She stayed with them to the point that she married a man named Salmon. She gave birth then to ... Let me get the names right. Make sure I get this right.

Speaker 3:           Boaz.

Pastor Jen:          Boaz. Thank you. Boaz, who married Ruth, who was the great-grandmother of David. You might remember David. He was the king in Israel once upon a time. So she was not only rescued from this place where she could have died, but she became a part of the full story of redemption. She became a part of the story of Jesus. That's why we read the passage in Matthew because it tells us the lineage of Jesus, and there she is. Rahab. We hear about her in Hebrews, when they're giving a long list of the faithful in Hebrews. The cloud of witnesses includes Rahab the prostitute. It's all because Rahab heard the stories about what God had done and believed that God could do it again. She was rescued. She joined the Israelites. She became a part of the lineage of Jesus, and she becomes a representative to us of what it means for faith to be acted out.

Pastor Jen:          The best part of Rahab's story is that even though Rahab is always known as Rahab the prostitute, that is not who she wound up being. She started there. That's where God found her. That's where she was at the beginning, but that's not where God left her. That's the same for us. Wherever God finds us, that may be who we are at the beginning. Maybe I am Jennifer the angry. I don't know. That's not who I am anymore. But that's who I was when God found me. And then God flipped the script. Whatever we were, God rewrites our story so that the label everyone else gives us is not our ultimate truth. Instead, our truth is that God's faithfulness and mercy change us, transform us into the continuation of God's story in the here and now.

Pastor Jen:          Today, as we worship at the table, I ask you to remember the ways in which God has reclaimed you, the ways He has remade you, renamed you. Remember God's mercy and faithfulness as you receive today the gift of communion.

 

Palm Sunday 2018 - Hosanna to Hallelujah

Tim: 00:01 That sounded like the Pentecostal Church, right there

Jennifer: 00:08 No, no, no...I just started recording. You said that. Oh my goodness. We were not speaking in tongues. I just want to clarify that. Speak that out. Straight up. I'm about to be ordained. Seriously, dude. Be careful (laughter) There are some people that would have a very big problem with that. OK, let's stand up as we read from Mark Chapter Eleven verses one to 11.

Jennifer: 00:49 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you doing this? Say the Lord needs it and we'll send it back here. Shortly. They went and found a colt outside in the street tied at a doorway. As they untied it. Some people standing there asked, what are you doing untying That Colt? they answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the Colt to Jesus and through their coats over it and he sat on it, many people spread their cloaks on the road while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed, shouted Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest heaven. Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around and everything, but since it was already late, you went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Jennifer: 02:05 Let us pray. hide me behind your cross, Lord. Articulate your heart through my voice to your people. Let the transformation of our lives. be wrought thoroughly by the Holy Spirit's in response to your truth in this lenten season and always let us faithfully remember the sacrifice you made on our behalf to draw us to you. In your name we pray, Amen. You may be seated.

Jennifer: 02:36 If you've ever been to a wedding, you know what a procession looks like in modern times preceding, the person the day is all about are all the people who are part of the program but play smaller parts. The bridesmaids and the groomsmen, the flower girls, the ring bearer, they all walked down the aisle, but then the music changes and the congregation stands as the main attraction. The bride begins her march down toward her future, or maybe you've been to graduation. The professors enter first before the students who will graduate, and then the graduates come in behind. Again, the procession marks the beginning of the ceremony which will launch the forever changed status of the person or persons taking part. In two weeks. The Church of the Nazarene will hold an ordination ceremony and in much the same way, there will be a procession and a proclamation and a new future launched for those who will be newly ordained as elders and deacons in the Church of the Nazarene. and so as we look at this moment where Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he's participating in a procession. It actually launches an entire week of anticipation and actions that lead up to the cross, but all of those who are in the procession are expecting different things. Only Jesus knows that he is ushering in a new age of redemption. Only Jesus knows what it will cost him. Only Jesus accepts this. Praise as his due and yet anticipates that the same people in this crowd shouting, Hosanna, God, save us on Sunday will shout crucify him on Friday. You see the crowds. They're expecting a revolution that will launch a new leader, someone who will overthrow the Romans and set them free to be their own nation. Again, they're crowning him king over the nation. The disciples are part of that perception too: they're expecting the same kind of revolution.

Jennifer: 05:28 they just think they'll also be leaders. The PHarisees - They're not sure what to expect. What they know is they're very worried about what their Roman occupiers are thinking about this guy who's now coming into Jerusalem as though he's going to be crowned king The Pharisees, They're going to end this week believing that they have ended a revolt and knowing they have silenced a critic and are pretty sure, that they've eliminated a blasphemer. The disciples are going to end this week afraid and confused and shattered, unsure what's going to come next, not understanding yet what it is they've experienced, how all of the things that have transpired could have transpired. They're going to be at a loss and in pain and scared themselves for what will happen. Crowds, they're gonna end this week, the same as they have from every other possible messiah because trust me, there have been plenty that have come through these times that they're living in and they'll be disappointed that this wasn't the one, but they'll put on their pants and wait in hopeful expectation that the next one will be the one. Jesus. Jesus ends this week, dead not sort of dead, not kind of dead, actually, truly, completely dead. Knowing next Sunday is Easter. He will begin with a fresh hope, hope that we share a hope of redemption and abundant life transformation, freedom. Eternal life. but as he rides the donkey into the city of Jerusalem and his procession is one of victory and joy, Jesus knows that this is a launching. It's a starting point when in other texts when Jesus gets to the end of this procession, he looks out over Jerusalem and begins to weep. He says, if you only understood what I'm really here for, then we could be joyful. you're, you're not gonna. Get it. He says, if I could just gather you as chicks to a mother hen, he says, as he's weeping over the city, he accepts the praise and honor is due because he knows that he will be king and that's what this procession foreshadows is God's kingship. Jesus King kingship king of kings, but as he starts the week with a procession anticipating a coronation for Hosannas, he ends the week dead, crucified among jeers and insults. He was expecting the resurrection, the victory that will defy all expectations and change everything. The Hallelujah after the procession. As we get into this week of things that happen, I don't know about you, but if I knew I was going to die at the end of the week after being betrayed by a really close friend, I might not be so willing to spend a lot of time with that friend, I might not be so willing to spend time teaching the people who are going to abandon me. I might not be so willing to spend myself on their behalf.

Jennifer: 10:32 But every Gospel writer tells us that Jesus didn't like hanging out in a cave somewhere. He did a number of things in anticipation. He cursed the fig tree. He was doing miracles. He cleared the temple. He answered questions and challenges. He engages in debate. He teaches his disciples, in fact, spending extended amounts of time with them. He has a Passover meal with his disciples. He washes the feet of his betrayer. He spends time giving them final instruction. He prays in the garden of Gethsemane and he is betrayed, arrested, and tried moving from Jewish courts to Roman courts all night long, and then he is crucified. But by the time The next Sunday rolls around, he is also resurrected. The example that Jesus gives us in this week is one of living between the already the hose as of the procession that mark the arrival of the Messiah and the not yet the crucifixion that will redeem and the Hallelujahs of the resurrection that will end death forever. We too live in that space. We live between the already of Jesus's work and its result for us and the not yet of his return and the final judgement. We can learn four things from Jesus in that timeframe

Jennifer: 12:24 because in the already but not yet space. Jesus was very intentional about how he operated. He lived in community. Jesus was actively engaged in the events of the week. If anything, rather than spending less time with his disciples and those who followed him, he spent more time engaging them and teaching them, and that is the command that he leaves for us as well. We cannot do the work of the kingdom without the support and interaction of our community of believers, our a church family.

Jennifer: 13:03 the design and intention of the Kingdom of Heaven. The here and now, Kingdom of Heaven, the one we live and move and work in now is children of the king, is that it be lived and worked out as a fellowship. Jesus didn't hide. Neither can we. If we intend to follow Christ's example as believers, we must do so within the context of the body of Christ. The second thing Jesus did was he served others. He was still healing people. He was still performing miracles. He invested in the disciples, giving them final instructions, trying desperately to change how they thought about him, to prepare them for what was happening, going to happen,

Jennifer: 14:01 He was engaged and active in the lives of those. He was with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Were his hosts and Bethany, and that's where he spent his time outside the temple, gave them the great commandments to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. And his whole life was service, but these days between Hosanna and Hallelujah they were intentional and important things that he did that impacted those around him. The third thing he did, he prayed and spent time with God. Every single day he would spend some time alone on the Mount of olives. Luke tells us this, Chapter Twenty one of his book, each day Jesus was teaching and every night he went to the Mount of olives. In fact, there were two reasons why he did this. First, to spend an in-depth amount of time in prayer and petition to the Lord. second to establish a pattern for Judas, his betrayer, he set it up so Judas would know exactly where to find him. When they came to find him his final prayer on Thursday was a prayer of intercession. As much as it was a prayer of submission, we remember the, not my will, but thine and the sweating drops of blood. And that is an important part of it. But if you want to see who Jesus was, and understand how he was thinking. John's narrative of his prayer on Thursday and John Seventeen is an incredible testimony to the expectations Jesus has for us. The fact that he spent so much of that time praying for us as part of his final prayer is the key to helping us understand that his whole point of mission was us.

Jennifer: 16:17 he wasn't here for some lofty goal we can't understand and we can't see. He was here to redeem us, to set us up for saving relationship with him that would change us from the inside out. That was the mission that Jesus lived and died and lived again to complete, and that's the fourth thing. He totally surrendered himself to that mission. He gave himself over to those that would kill him. He set up the pattern so that they could find him. He stood silently before them. In keeping with the prophecy, he surrendered to the will of the father, to the plan that God had had from the moment of the fall. He gave himself willingly for the completion of the Kingdom work.

Jennifer: 17:27 So I ask you, are we participating in the kingdom efforts? The way Jesus laid out for us to do by virtue of our attendance this morning, we are participating in community.

Jennifer: 17:44 but are we engaged and active in that space? Are we serving others? Are we spending time in prayer? Are we surrendered to the kingdom? We live in the promise of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Are we living it out? Are we living it according to the example that he gave? I'm sure Jesus was tired and worn out, but he still practiced a kingdom life that was active and purposeful and we should be honored to do the same.

Jennifer: 18:23 As we prepare to worship at the table this week to receive our weekly grace deposit, I wonder how many of us I include myself in this are fully surrendered to Jesus. How many of us have given over our lives completely to him? It is my desperate prayer this morning and every morning that the answer is all of us that we know and love this Jesus who came for us to the fullest extent possible, that we spend time in community as a church celebrating in joyful remembrance of that gift that we serve others in light of his service, that we pray in intercession and as a way of spending time with him.

Jennifer: 19:19 we have given up all of ourselves that we can to all of Jesus that we understand,

Jennifer: 19:29 because that is the beauty of the season. We have the possibility of an abundant life, not one without care or hurt or pain or illness or all kinds of things, but one with peace and joy and hope that is given in spite of our hurts and care or pain because of the procession that celebrated Jesus crowning him king in Jerusalem when Sunday, 2000 years ago, and the knowledge that that procession wasn't the culmination of his work. It was the launching point of it. So today we celebrate the anticipation of the completed work in our lives as well. Just as Jesus did. And I pray that we know and experience that work as active participants in the kingdom. Jesus inaugurated.

The Resurrection is Good News - I Corinthians 15:1-19

TRANSCRIPT:

 

I Corinthians 15:1-19

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas[Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

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Living Jesus, On this day, this resurrection Sunday morning, may every word of my mouth be a thought from your Spirit, Lord. May the empty tomb stand as a reminder of the ways in which you take us: dead and empty in our sins and transform us into living, breathing, masterpieces of your grace and mercy. In your precious, holy name – Amen

You may be seated.

He is risen.

He is risen, indeed

 

If it weren’t for the truth of the resurrection, I wouldn’t be here. Neither would you, for that matter, in all likelihood, considering that if it were not for the particular miracle of Easter morning, Paul would be remembered as Saul, a good Jewish rabbi who kicked those pesky Christ-following weirdos to the curb back in the day.

Because without the resurrection, Christ-followers are stupid.

Because without the resurrection, Christ-followers should be pitied.

Because without the resurrection, everything about what we do here: worship, offering, eating together, celebrating communion, EVERYTHING is foolishness.

Without a risen Christ, what do we celebrate? The death of another rebellious Jew in the age of the Roman empire? Probably not – I don’t know the names of too many other rabble-rousers from that period, do you? And anyway, why would it matter? Because he said nice things? Well, really, without the resurrection most of what he said is just…well…strange.

Many of his followers AT THE TIME thought so and quit following before the crucifixion because of it. He said to eat his body and drink his blood! What the..? That is simply NOT DONE.

He told us to be nice and to love our neighbors. But he also told us that he was doing his “father’s” work – meaning God. He also said that we should not worry, that we should live peaceably, and that the Holy Spirit – a comforter was going to come. He said he was going to die – but he also said he was going to be resurrected. So if he wasn’t – if he hadn’t been – everything else he said and did and was about becomes crazy talk from a guy who died a really horrible death.

James, Jesus’s very own brother, certainly seems to lend himself to the conclusion that the resurrection mattered. He didn’t believe Jesus while he was alive. In fact, he was kind of vocal about it. He went with his brothers and tired to get Jesus to slow his roll, to stop being ridiculous. What WOULD dad have thought? The crucifixion happens, and we know James was not among the disciples, because Paul specifically calls him out in our passage:  “…After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”

James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem. James writes one of the epistles in the New Testament, but without the resurrection, James is barely even a footnote in the historical record of mankind.

Paul calls the resurrection the gospel – the good news. And that is what it is! The resurrection of Christ portends all of OUR resurrection hopes. It is the hope of every Christian in the world today – the hope of eternal life. The hope of a perfect body, celebrating the God who made us forever.

 

The resurrection is what defeats death.

The resurrection is what destroys sin.

The resurrection is what redeems and rescues and restores us.

Without the resurrection there is no good news.

Without the resurrection we are fools.

Without the resurrection none of this matters.

But there were hundreds who saw him.

And when Paul originally wrote this letter, in addition to himself, those hundreds and many of the apostles were still alive to tell the story of their encounters with a risen Christ.

Paul’s story of encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus is one he tells often in his letters – a reminder that he was one thing and meeting Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, changed him from the inside out.

That is the good news of the resurrection. The resurrected Jesus, the one who met Paul that day, is still the living Jesus we can encounter today. We sang “I serve a living savior, he’s in the world today” as part of our service today, and we did so because that resurrection, that livingness of our Jesus, is the most vital and important part of our faith. Without that miracle, Jesus is just the Jesus of the cross, the Jesus in a famous tomb, perhaps. The Jesus long forgotten by a world that has moved on from silly men with weird ideas of faith and life. The Jesus of a broken promise, a faithless God.

BUT THANKS BE TO GOD – we do not serve an unresurrected King – but a living Jesus. A Jesus who remains both fully God and fully man, a Jesus who sits next to God and intercedes for us. A Jesus who sent His Holy Spirit to empower us to love both our God and our neighbor. A RESURRECTED Jesus who offers us not only the beauty of a grace-filled now life, but the hope of an eternal one spent in his presence, thanking him for that grace.

This morning as we receive communion, we do so to remember that the road to the resurrection was paved with suffering, that it necessarily leads through a cross on Golgotha’s hill, but one that could not have ended there or we would not be here.

He is risen

He is risen, indeed

 

Seeing Jesus in the Broken Bread Luke 24:13-35

Transcript:

 

Luke 24:13-35 New International Version (NIV)

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas,asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his
disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith,
that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.

I can practically see them: the travelers trying desperately to figure everything out. Wearily trudging to Emmaus, shoulders hunched, perhaps, feet shuffling, surely. It has been an odd day – Mary Magdalene and some of the others had gone early to the tomb where Jesus had been laid. Peter and John, summoned by their panic at the sight of its awful emptiness raced, too, to the place where he had been and where he was no longer. Angels said strange things – Why do you look for the living among the dead? Could Jesus REALLY be alive? Or were the Jewish leaders playing tricks? It was hard to think of them as having that kind of imagination, but the limits of their own imaginations were being reached – a living Jesus? But then Mary gave them more news later – Jesus had spoken to her! Was she to be believed? Even now, whispered interrogations were being held – Did he really say Peter’s name specifically? What did he look like? It seemed foolish to think her words and the bloody, bruised, dead Rabbi were compatible things. But the alternative explanations were just as strange, just as laden with unthinkable and unspeakable ideas. The two wondered as they walked, uncertainty and maybe a little fear coloring their voices and their demeanor. Another joins them.

It is Jesus. It is the very one they are discussing, but in their fear and confusion and sorrow and even longshot hope of a miracle, they are not seeing him for who he is. He asks them what they are discussing, and I love this moment: they not only tell Jesus everything that has happened, but essentially ask if he’s been living under a rock for the last few days! Perhaps Jesus would have been a little bemused by this, but his words take them to task for not already believing what they’ve been told and for not recognizing all the prophetic moments they have been a part of.

Randal E. Denny writes that then, “Jesus began an exposition of Scripture from each individual prophetic book, giving the first correct lesson on Messianic teachings of the Old Testament. He showed them the golden thread of grace running through the whole fabric of Scripture. It could not be separated from the scarlet thread of atonement. What a sermon that must have been! Jesus opened the Scriptures — developed, illustrated, and applied in himself. How I wish that lesson from the lips of Jesus had been preserved. Someday, in heaven, I hope Jesus will preach that sermon once again!”¹

When they arrive at their destination, Jesus feigns leaving them, and they convince him to join them for the evening. They knew something was different about their companion, or at least they enjoyed his company – but still, even after all this conversation and discussion and sermon, they don’t know him.

They sit down to dinner, and it is as Jesus breaks bread that they suddenly realize who he is. As soon as they do, he leaves them. They don’t even finish eating – but run back to Jerusalem. What a different pace they set on the return to Jerusalem! What a different conversation! Their best hope is affirmed, they have had an encounter with the living Christ and it has, as it must always, changed them.

So it is in the ritual of the broken bread that we most clearly see the Jesus we need to see in our doubt, in our uncertainty, in our confusion. The God who raises the dead, the God who walked among us, gave us the simplest tool, the simplest illustration for our thick heads to really see him as he is: two halves of a loaf of a basic food staple. Jesus is visible to us in the commonest and most mundane of moments. I suspect this is why we don’t have the details of that Emmaus road sermon – we don’t need to understand those details the way we need to understand that we can see the risen King most clearly when we shed our sermonizing, strip away our impressive explanations, and simply break bread together. It is in breaking the bread, time and time again, that we see Jesus, and when we do, when we see him clearly in the grace of that moment, Jesus always changes us.

Seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd John 10:11-18 &amp; Psalm 23

TRANSCRIPT:

 

John 10:11-18 New International Version (NIV)

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;
Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who
calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with
you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

Every week, I lead a Bible study at the nursing home here in town. It is not a very deep study, since most of the residents are not able to completely understand all of the ideas, and truthfully, most are looking for something to do during the day, but we read stories from scripture together and I pray for each of them. In the last few weeks, one of the residents has asked that I read Psalm 51 and Psalm 23 to them every week. I have started to do this – I open with Psalm 51 at prayer time and then I close our prayer time with Psalm 23. I do not know why those particular Psalms are important to the resident, but both of them talk much about the character of God and the ways in which God’s care for us is manifested in our own hearts and lives. Psalm 23, in particular, which we read to open the service today, gives us the perspective that God is our shepherd, that God pursues us, protects us, knows us, and walks with us. Shepherds are not as common in our day to day, but they are and were in Israel, where Jesus lived. They were and are common in other parts of the world, too, and in reading and learning about them and what they do this week, I have seen a lot of parallels. David’s poem in scripture is one of a Good Shepherd. It is one that tells us that God is our Shepherd.  Perhaps it was thinking of David’s imagery that compelled Jesus in this passage.  Jesus claims for himself the role of Good Shepherd for us, his sheep.

So how can we see Jesus in the Good Shepherd? There are a lot of ways in both this text and Psalm 23 where we can see parallels to how shepherds take care of their sheep and what it means to be a good shepherd, but there are three that we are going to focus on this morning. The Good Shepherd protects his flock. The Good Shepherd knows his flock and they know him, and the Good Shepherd is with his flock.

We can see Jesus in the Good Shepherd when we think of him as the protector of his sheep.  Sheep are very peculiar animals. They have little in the way of natural defense mechanisms and so they rely significantly on their owner for protection. King David, who wrote Psalm 23, would have had a very keen awareness and a certain understanding of sheep and shepherds, because, as we know, he was in charge of his father’s flocks before he was sent to live with Saul.

He tells stories of his protection of his flock: bears, lions, and wolves  would come and try to maul or kill and eat his animals. Jesus tells us that he will protect us from the wolves who are looking to break in and remove us from the flock. Those ‘wolves’ are not physical wolves, but they are the things that would keep us from following Jesus – sin and doubt and lies the enemy tells us to try and move us away from the one who has called us to him. We have rejected what the world tells us is right and good and instead, we cling to the One who is right and good. And when we do that, there are voices that would try to distract us from the truth – that we are valuable to God, that we are living more abundantly in God’s kingdom, that we are being transformed, that we are loved.

Jesus proclaimed himself the the way, the truth, and the life as well as the good shepherd. And so we answer the lies with the name of the Good Shepherd – Jesus. Jesus has proven our value, Jesus has promised and is giving us abundant life, Jesus is transforming us, Jesus loves us. This is how the Good Shepherd protects us from the enemy – the enemy that is sometimes just the words we say to ourselves in the dark. The whispered name of Jesus drives the enemy from us and draws us closer to the Good Shepherd who wants to keep us safe. You see, Jesus already laid down his life to protect us from sin and death. Jesus already willingly and obediently gave all of himself for us. When we call on his name, we are simply acknowledging the power of that gift – and claiming Jesus’s work on our behalf. Jesus can keep us safe.

The second way that we can see the Good Shepherd and know it is Jesus is this: Jesus knows us. He knows our name. We know his voice. We recognize him as the one who has laid down his life for us. In fact, I would say we are like the bummer lambs.

Sheila Walsh describes bummer lambs this way:

Every now and then, an ewe will give birth to a lamb and immediately reject it. Sometimes the lamb is rejected because they are one of twins and the mother doesn’t have enough milk or she is old and frankly quite tired of the whole business…

Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die. So the shepherd will take that little lost one into his home and hand feed it from a bottle and keep it warm by the fire. He will wrap it up warm and hold it close enough to hear a heartbeat. When the lamb is strong the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock.

“Off you go now, you can do this, I’m right here.”

The most beautiful sight to see is when the shepherd approaches his flock in the morning and calls them out, “Sheep, sheep, sheep!”

The first to run to him are the bummer lambs because they know his voice. It’s not that they are more loved — it’s just that they believe it. We haven’t necessarily been rejected by our parents, but we have rejected the world, we have moved into a Kingdom the world can’t understand, and we do that without knowing so well that Jesus, this Jesus who is our Good Shepherd, he knows us.

He knows that some of us struggle with addiction. He knows that some of us wrestle with past hurts. He knows that sin you hide from everyone else. He knows that greed or selfishness or pride or lust or anger or jealousy that you harbor. He knows that spirit of unforgiveness. He knows everything about you – past and present. And he loves you. He knit you together in your mother’s womb, Psalm 139 tells us. He knows the scars you have, the wounds that aren’t scars yet, and the pain that can defeat you in a moment – and in every place where you see deficiency or lack – he whispers your name. He knows you – you are fearfully and wonderfully made – and he cares about you.

He won’t leave you in those spaces. When sheep are in a place where all the grass has been munched, they will stay in the same place unless the shepherd leads them to a new pasture. Jesus takes you from the places where you have lost everything, used everything up, and he calls you to the place of abundance and transformation. And because he knows you – it is the best place for YOU.

Scripture tells us that God sings over us, that our names are tattooed on God’s hands. That our inmost being is known and loved and cherished by the God who made us. Jesus knows YOU.

Finally, we see the Good Shepherd in Jesus by virtue of his very presence in our lives. Whatever we are going through, whatever the circumstances: he is with us. He promised us two things toward the end of his ministry: we would have trouble and he would be with us. It is that presence of Jesus that carries us sometimes when all else seems lost. He protects us and knows us, but he is also WITH us.

I have a friend who runs a farm in Maine. The last few weeks have been lambing season, and this one for her, this year was a very tough one.  One of the first births this year was an ewe who had twins. Neither survived the labor. After the ewe went through all of that, my friend put her babies with her and the ewe was ‘talking’ to the lambs and to my friend, very quietly, very gently. My friend said “[the sheep] try to tell their shepherd”.

That is because they know their shepherd is there for them. The sheep try to tell their shepherd in the only language they have because they can sense the shepherd’s presence. The shepherd draws near in the places of deepest pain, darkest hurt. David says it in one of the most compelling ways – even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he writes, YOU ARE WITH ME. Jesus is with us. Every week, our benediction says “May the presence of Christ you have known today be with you through the rest of the week” and that is not a call for Christ to be with you – it is a call for you to recognize that he IS with you, that he has not left you. Jesus, the Good Shepherd is WITH you, is protecting you, is loving the you he knows so well. There are many more characteristics of Jesus that correlate with his being our Good Shepherd. But if we focus on these: He protects us, he knows us, and he is with us, we can rest in the knowledge that we can see the Good Shepherd when we see Jesus.

Before we go to communion today, it seems appropriate to read Psalm 23, from the most familiar translation, the King James Version:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

 

 

 

Seeing Jesus as the Vine John 15:1-8

Transcript:

 

John 15:1-8 New International Version (NIV)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

O God, whose Son Jesus is the vine that binds your people to himself,

Grant that we might bear much good fruit by remaining in him; who, with
you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

This is our 3^rd week of seeing Jesus in the common. The first week we learned about seeing Jesus in the broken bread, and how it is that we can understand Christ best in fellowship. Then we talked about seeing Jesus in the Good Shepherd and how he is with us in our deepest need and darkest moments. And today, we will think about seeing Jesus in the vine – and what that looks like for us.

I spent a lot of time thinking about vines this week. It is a little odd for me to think about vines and branches and pruning and fruit when I am definitely one of those people who has the amazing skill of killing any living plant in my care quickly and most efficiently. This is why I’m not in charge of our community garden and why I will do my best to never touch any of the plants put in there – I wouldn’t want to be responsible for what could happen!

As I learned about vines, specifically grape vines, as that is probably what Jesus’s hearers would have understood him to be referring to – the analogy of a gardener and Jesus as a vine and us as branches began to make a whole lot of sense to me. Jesus is so smart!

Jesus talks about remaining in him and he will remain in the branches – very important to the production of fruit from a vine is that the fruit only grows if the branch remains attached to the vine, if the branch is pruned of any excess leaves, and once it has grown for two years – the first year the branch can’t produce any fruit. Only the second year will the branch of any vine produce fruit.

The vine itself is dependent on the gardener – this is why Jesus points out that God, the Father, is the gardener. Everywhere in his ministry, Jesus consistently points out his reliance on the Father for his sustenance and work, and here is no different. Jesus reminds us that even he must trust the Father and be obedient to God in order to fulfill his mission.

We, too, must remain true to God and obedient to Jesus in order to fulfill our mission of making disciples. But our obedience doesn’t strictly turn into disciples FIRST, instead it creates fruit. What fruit are we to be known for? The fruit of the spirit - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – In Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, he says that the fruit is from the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’s ministry, he says we bear fruit by staying true to him, and that if we don’t bear fruit – if we don’t ultimately demonstrate our commitment by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control – then we aren’t really in the vine at all.

Once the fruit is produced, there is an offering to those who aren’t in the vine. There is a custom in the Mediterranean, that as you walk by a vine you are welcome to its fruit. So as others walk past us – they should be receiving fruit from us. They should see how it is we live according to the faith that we have.

Jesus tells us very plainly in this passage that he is not talking to people that are not already his – instead, he is talking to those who have already decided they will be part of his Kingdom. He makes an interesting promise here as well – that if you are in the vine, and you remain in the vine and his words remain in you, then you can ask what you will and it will be done. The key here is that the more deeply you are rooted in the vine – the more what you want is what God wants. This is not about asking for a brand new Cadillac in the driveway, but it is about asking for the things that are after God’s own heart. You can only know that heart by seeking God, by spending time in his word, by spending time in prayer and intimate conversation with him – but you also need to be in community.

We had a pretty amazing thing happen here this morning – a church from a completely different background and theological underpinning has come and been a part of our service today. It almost couldn’t have been a better picture of what the branches of the vine do – since we are all joined to the same vine, we are part of the same Jesus, we are able to share our fruit not only with those not yet part of our community, but those who are also remaining in the vine. Pastor Justin and New Life’s worship team are just serving us because they serve Jesus, but it is that kind of community and fruitfulness that is necessary for all of us to grow. We cannot do it alone – Jesus says you can’t do it apart from the vine, and since the vine is a central connecting point for each of us, we can’t do it apart from each other either. None of the fruit is something you can do without being connected to others: how can you love if there is no one to love? I can be patient all day if I’m by myself, but what good is that? How can I be gentle alone? Everything we do as we remain in the vine that is fruitful has to be done in community – not just with non-believers, with those who yet need to be grafted in, but with those who are already grafted in. What would a vine look like if only one branch stuck out from it with fruit – pretty pathetic, I think!

One of the things I read this week was about how the wildfires in Northern California stripped the land clean and destroyed acres and acres of vineyards. Where once beautiful and incredibly fruitful vines had been visible for miles, now scorched earth and fruitless land scarred the geography.

But in places now you can see the beginnings of new plants growing. You can see the spots where life blossoms in the spaces where only death had been. And that is the picture of the gospel as well – where there is nothing, where only death had once been, it is there that the vine gets rooted and covers the space with new life. I believe in transformed people, because I know that we have been called to live differently because of our faith – but before there is any change in us, we are first brought from death to life – we are first set free from the chains of darkness and sin and hurt and heartache that bound us and we peek up from the ground as new creation where before there was only desolation and scorched earth.

The vine brings us the power to love and have joy and be at peace because the vine has infused us with life – that is the power of the resurrection power of our King – the vine of life that empowers us to be fruitful for the kingdom. We do this by remaining in him, by being pruned and worked by the Gardener, by living in community with others in the vine, and by being renewed and reborn in the life of the spirit that embues with a lasting abundant life.

As we receive communion this morning, let us remember that the bread and the cup are reminders, over and over, of the new life we have by virtue of the death and resurrection of our Jesus – the true vine that ties us to himself and each other.

 

Seeing Jesus as a Friend John 15:9-17

TRANSCRIPT:

John 15:9-17 New International Version (NIV)

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good

things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such

love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above

all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we

can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This is our 4^th and last week of seeing Jesus in the common. The first week we learned about seeing Jesus in the broken bread, and how it is that we can understand Christ best in fellowship. Then we talked about seeing Jesus in the Good Shepherd and how he is with us in our deepest need and darkest moments. Last week we thought about seeing Jesus in the vine – and how that looks like sustenance and provision so that we can bear fruit.

This week as we close out this short series, we will talk about Jesus as a friend.

Did you know that Facebook limits the number of friends you can have? Yes, they have capped you to just 5000 people in your circle of influence.

It’s ridiculous of course to think you can have 5000 people that you are actually friends with. In fact, Oxford University has said that our brains actually limit us to 150 friends that we can keep actual tabs on, know things about, and the Dunbar number (that’s what that 150 is) is based on the idea that there are only so many people you can care about and contact (not just like a status) at least once a year.

If you actually tried to keep in touch with 5000 people in real life, you would not be able to do pretty much anything else. Facebook allows us to have more people we are loosely affiliated with in a specific way, without necessarily having to be deeply connected or actively engaged with on a regular basis – they give you a shout out for your birthday, you reciprocate – and unless you engage and talk with them on a regular basis, you can in this way “know” people you went to high school with, work with, and even sometimes go to church with.

When Jesus tells us he is our friend in this passage, he’s not talking about a Facebook friendship at all – he is talking about the kind of friend who is there for you, but who calls you out when you mess up, who supports you when things are dreary or wrong, but who also keeps you from drowning in self-pity. Scripture gives us pictures of what it means to be friends with God – from the Garden before the fall, when God would find Adam and Eve and walk with them in the cool of the evening. In Abraham’s wanderings, when God visited and told him of plans to eradicate Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as promising a son in his old age. In the story of David and Jonathan, we find a friendship deep and compelling – as one man’s father hunts to kill the other man, they sacrifice much and love each other like brothers. We see friendship even more clearly in the Gospels – in fact part of the Good News of the scripture is that our friendship with Jesus is rooted in the deep and powerful love he has for us. The love that brought him from heaven to earth to a cross and showed for us the victory over death that is represented by an empty grave in a garden.

One of the keys to real friendship is love – and unconditional love – but love that is reciprocal. So as we discuss our friendship with Jesus, the key question we will be working from is this: Is our friendship with Jesus a real one or a Facebook one?

I am using facebook as a picture of superficial friends – I’m sure you have REAL friends who are also facebook friends – but the fundamental difference between what I am calling real friends and facebook friends is the depth of the connection – the weight of that friendship.

Facebook friends will post pictures and you will like them, but you don’t know the truth of the story. You won’t see that three seconds before the selfie the toddler was biting his sister who was pulling mom’s hair who was screaming at dad who was looking at the cute blonde walking by – all you see is the snapshot of a family. From that you think you know them…but a REAL friend knows that they are struggling. A real friend is invited into that moment and soothes the baby, reminds the couple of their love for each other, and scolds the toddler. That kind of friend is engaged and the family is not afraid to show that friend who they are – because they are friends. That is the kind of friend Jesus is – one who knows our struggles, but not only that, one who wants us to show him our struggles. We can be vulnerable with Jesus, we can be transparent with him – and he will walk with us in that moment.

Facebook friends have a lot of opinions, hopefully some that our different than ours, hopefully some that make us think about our own positions. Facebook friends share fake news. Facebook friends give us information based on their experiences, but don’t necessarily care if that experience matches what we need or want or can use at that moment.

A real friend tells us what we need to know. A real friend is invested in truth – truth that instructs and builds and helps. Jesus IS truth – his truth is that his love and grace and mercy are bigger than our hates and sins and doubts and fears. His truth is available to us – but if we are truly friends – how often do we give our truth to him and let him transform it. How often do we recognize our limits and weaknesses and sins and give them to him? How often do we really let his truth become ours, how often do we allow his truth to invade our hearts and minds in such a way that it becomes embodied in us.

Facebook friends are those who we may know in real life, but most are not the ones that we are intentional about spending time with. Facebook friendships are built on clicking reacts or posting a gif: they have no substance, no depth, no relationship.

A real friend comes over for dinner. They are part of our lives in real ways – they eat with us, live their lives with us. Real friends are active and vital parts of our actual reality on a regular basis.

Jesus, too, invites us to his table – it’s why we celebrate it every week – but we have to also invite him to ours. Being a friend of Jesus requires us to allow him to be a part of what we are doing all week, not just on Sunday. In Acts, Paul says of God as he speaks to a group of philosophers: “In him we move and breathe and find our being, we are his offspring” This is very different than a casual interaction. This is more than a Sunday morning go-to-meeting relationship – it is instead a deep and full relationship that requires our daily interaction with each other. There is a reason God uses marriage and parent/child relationships as metaphors for our relationship with Jesus – because we are to be the best kind of friends, the kind of friends who talk every day, who whisper I love you in the dark and know that our friend has heard. The kind who walk together in the joys and sorrows and who forgive and who lean in. The kind where Jesus gave his life for ours. The kind where abundance is found in trusting and loving and seeing Jesus closely and beautifully and wonderfully.

As we come to the table today, we come in celebration of this friendship. We come recognizing how magnificent and wonderful it is that this friendship is not just Jesus loving us, but us loving Jesus enough to live in relationship with him, too.

We come to the table knowing there is room for us to love deeper and to live more fully as friends of Jesus – this Jesus who gave us his very body and blood in exchange for our abundant lives.

King Jesus Acts 1:1-11, Hebrews 1:1-4, Revelation 19:16, Revelation 22:20

Transcript:

 

Acts 1:1-11 New International Version (NIV)

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Hebrews 1:1-4 New International Version (NIV)

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

Revelation 19:16 New International Version (NIV)

On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords.

Revelation 22:20 New International Version (NIV)

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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Hide me behind your cross, Lord. Let the words I say be the thoughts of your heart articulated by my voice to your people. May they with the power of the Holy Spirit guide us into greater understanding, deeper faith, and abundant, fruitful lives that point only to you. To the glory of the father, the majesty of the son, and the power of the Holy Spirit be given all we offer. Amen

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The Royal Wedding. Who is invited, who is not, who is wearing what…all of these things have captivated imaginations around the world through the centuries. Truthfully, while England/the United Kingdom has the most well-known royal family in the modern era, there have been kings and rulers and people in charge of countries and groups for thousands and thousands of years.

But the King we discuss today, King Jesus – is the King of Kings.

He rules all, he was and is and is to come. He is the Alpha and Omega.

He is the King who walked among us. And he is the King who sent us to keep doing his work.

The first text we read this morning tells us about the ascension of Jesus. We read in Luke’s words the message Jesus gave – it is the primary direction for the church and it is part of our mission here:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

You may have heard me talk about this verse before – because this is the core of what we are here at Momence First:  Just as Jesus told the disciples to be witnesses in Jerusalem, the place where they already were – we carry that forward in our mission here, by knowing that Jesus has called us to be his witnesses HERE – in Momence, in Bourbonnais, in Bradley, in Manteno – the “heres” where we live and work and are actively invested in the people around us.

It is why we continue to call our church Momence FIRST – because even though some would call that archaic (why not Life or Compass or something along those lines?) or optimistic (are you planning a Momence SECOND Church of the Nazarene?) It is our intentional mission to think about our congregation in terms of a launching point of witnesses to tell about Jesus – who he is, what he’s about, what he’s done for us and what it looks like to live out his mission.

So – as King, Jesus has given us a command: Go and Tell and Live lives that are fruitful with my fruit, by the power of the Holy Spirit

In the next text, we read that Jesus has always been and will always be, and that after he came and did the work of God among us – he sat down at God’s right hand.

That phrasing brought to mind images of TV sitcom dads…you know the ones? The caricature from Married with Children, All in the Family, and even recently the Goldbergs – where the ‘man of the house’ comes in from a long day of hard work somewhere and plops down on the recliner, unbuttons his pants, and pops open a cold one…usually before he says anything to anyone – except maybe to holler “Hey honey, I’m home”.  This is not the reality of what happens when Jesus gets home to the throne. We know he is interceding for us, that he speaks to the Father on our behalf, that he walks with us, that he speaks to us, and that he continues to work through us in the here and now. It is, in fact, a picture that reminds us that Jesus, who ascended into heaven, sat down only to show us that he has conquered sin and death. We don’t have to live in fear of those because he has defeated them – as much as the King commands, the King remains with us and reminds us that he is victorious. He lives and reigns. We serve a risen King, a King who lives, a King who

King Jesus is alive and reigning right now.

The final part of our text today is the reminder that King Jesus is coming again. One day we know that King Jesus will return. It is promised. We don’t know what that will look like exactly, but we do know he will come as King – as resurrected and living and victorious King. We know he will serve as judge, we know we, the Church universal, will be presented as his bride, and we will join together in a celebration supper. Just as we know Jesus lives now, just as we commemorate the death of Jesus with our communion supper – we also look forward to the coming King, the coming wedding supper of the Lamb – the King will come and reign victorious. All things will be made right. There will be no more war, no more tears, no more death. There will be no more hate, no more poverty, no more starvation. No more illness. This is why the prayer at the very end of scripture – the very last words are Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

We expect his coming. While we do, we live into the command he gives for us to be witnesses to his truth, to the lives he’s called us to live. We know he lives because his Kingdom – you and me and all Christians throughout time  - continues to be. We are the Kingdom, the witnesses to it, the ones who live out its principles, and the ones who cry out Come Lord Jesus, we await the return of our King.