Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

John 16:20-22 Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.


Pain is a reality. Life is difficult. We could think of many common phrases about the nature of life. Obviously Jesus was speaking about their particular weeping and mourning that would be caused by his crucifixion. At the same time he was talking about their joy when he was to be resurrected. That is the context in history of his words, but his words are not just meant for the historical moment but can be applied to life in the future as well. I know in my life I had a great deal of pain and mourning that could not be comforted by God's internal joy until I met the resurrected Jesus. Now the world is still the world and painful circumstances are stil painful, but Jesus was right no one can take away my joy.

I wonder how many people have not met the resurrected Jesus. I find so many people that experience the world  as a place where their very being is controlled by external sources. That joy that no one can take away is repeatedly taken away. My prayer is for everyone to have the peace that passes all understanding and the joy of the lord that is our strength.

What Is To Come

John 16:12-15 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.


I've had discussions with people about this passage. Some people think that Jesus is saying that there will be new revelation given by the Spirit of truth. They think he was saying that it is spiritual information that they were not able to bear at that time. I have always thought that this passage represents what has happened ona number of occasions in my life. I have suddenly become aware that I had missed part of what God has desired of me. Sometimes is it is sin that I had not recognized. Sometimes it is character weaknesses, not sin but rather lacking blessing.

I don't think God changes his mind about truth, but I do think he knows when I'm ready for some more truth. He wants the best for me and he wants the best through me, and that is what the spirit reveals to my heart if I'm open and ready. As I've grown older God has especially shown me how to deal with the things yet to come. Life changes have proceeded day to day and year to year and God has prepared me to move with him through them all. I don't know all that is ahead but I do know the Spirit of truth will show me the way.

Do You Love Me?

John 15:12-15  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 


We are clearly being challenged to see that Jesus will know if we love him when he sees if we obey his commandments. What is it that he commanded? He tells them and us that he has shared with us all that the Father said to him. He is telling us to act according to what he has taught, for example in the sermon on the mount. He sent out the twelve and later the seventy two with instructions like, heal the sick, cast out demons and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. 


In the great commission Jesus said,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  I hear in those words a clear statement that Jesus will believe that we love him, when we obey everything that he commands. To how many people have I brought healing or helped to eliminate evil or proclaimed that the kingdom of God is near. I fact all we have to do is help them welcome the kingdom that is right in front of them in Jesus. Accept Christ as their savior and the kingdom id theirs. Well Jesus, do believe I love you?  

Character

John 15:4-5 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.


This passage is part of the pastoral prayer of Jesus in the upper room before leaving for the Garden of Gethsemane. If you were to read the whole prayer looking for links you would find most of the fruit of the spirit Paul lists in Galatians. I think often people interpret this passage to mean evangelism, but I think the fruit Jesus desires is our character. If we abide in him we will develop his character through his indwelling spirit. I think the presence of his character in a person will certainly bring others to want to know Christ.

I also think Jesus means it when he says we will bear much fruit. These desirable trait and characteristics will be hanging all over us. They won't be hard to find or difficult to notice. They will be abundant and plentiful to all we meet. They won't be obvious just in easy or good times but rather in every moment and circumstance. I've heard people say I'm a character. I hope at least sometimes it is for the right reasons.

Harmony

John 14:15-17 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,  to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.


Jesus has a sense of humor. At least he makes me chuckle when I see his hand at work in my life. Some weeks ago I met with the rector to plan for a series of sermons which will start this Sunday. As a result I will be preaching on this very passage on Sunday. We had no way of knowing this duplication was in the future, but I think God was putting the pieces together to have me thinking about this passage in a variety of circumstances. That's what it means to have the advocate on your side. Things seem to work in harmony with one another when we trust in God and abide with him. In all situation, both the pleasant and the unpleasant God brings harmony. I'm defining harmony in this sense as that ability to see circumstances through God's eyes. 


These days it is easiest for me to use the most significant event in my life. Most of you know about my wife Marsha's illness and death, and may have even read some of my blog entries about the months to follow. I would have to say that although I have experienced grieving up close and personal, I also have seen harmony in the midst of it. In Psalm 139 the author ask where he could go to escape God and he knows it is impossible. I ask why would anyone want to go anywhere to escape God. Yes I find God everywhere, and that leads to prayer and praise.

In Christ

Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.


Many of you who know me, know how important I find the reality of being in a blood covenant relationship with Christ. We hear on Maundy Thursday about Jesus beginning a new covenant in his blood to be shed on the cross. Every time I read the words in Christ it reminds me that I am in this covenant with God because I am included in Christ my covenant head. He invited all who believe in him into this covenant and prays that the Father will love us the same way he loves his son. What more could I want in life than to be included in the love of God in the same fashion as Jesus.


In this famous passage we read that in Christ we will not find condemnation. He told his disciples that he must return to his Father in order that he may send the Spirit of Life to all of us who are in this covenant with Him. On this day between Good Friday and Easter we wait with the focus on Jesus choice of taking our sins upon himself to the cross. In Him I will not be condemned because he has fulfilled the just requirement of the law for me so I can receive and live with the Spirit of Life. Thank you Lord for this amazing gift that none of us could ever earn or deserve. 

What Would You Have You Heard?

John 12:27-29 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”


I find many people who want to try to explain what God has done with logic and natural answers. I have had discussions with priests who don't believe the supernatural events in Jesus life or His supernatural powers. On Sunday we had the last of a group of monologues that have been given each Sunday during Lent to represent people who were at the cross. The last monologue was done by a couple who were representing the community that sought Jesus crucifixion. They had explanations to discount everything special about Jesus and every reason why he should be crucified.  We have the ability to hear with any ears we want, and we have the ability to discern with any heart we want.


In the gospel account for today the same event was perceived very differently by different observers. I have said it before but I think I'll repeat myself, why do we limit what God could do when we have a whole unexplainable universe as evidence God can do some pretty amazing things? I'm all for science, but I still know that when we have done all we can do even if we have centuries more to speculate, we will still have theories that attempt to explain the unexplainable.   

Seeds

John 12:23-26 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.


Jesus says that a single grain can bear much fruit, but it must die first. The external seed has to die in order for the internal life to emerge. I kind of like that even if it is playing a little with scientific fact. St Paul would say that is the reality of the flesh and the spirit. The external flesh following it's own desires leads to death, while the spirit leads to life. You can put together the master plan. Jesus says he must go in order to send the spirit, and he says that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. 


For me I've known for a long time that this life, this physical material life, is not all it's cracked up to be. Oh, we can pretend that life is grand and the we have everything we want in life, but if that is only the external life we know we;re only fooling people and perhaps ourselves. When I discovered the spiritual life in Jesus Christ I found life worth living. It was like turning on the light switch and seeing a different world. It was like experiencing life for the first time and it was good. It wasn't as if I lost my life, it was still there, but it had less value to me than the new one. I shared that trip to a new life with Marsha, and that made it even better for sure. Everyone around us has not always understood that journey, and some even disbelieve it, but even now with a lot of fun in my worldly life, it is nothing without that internal spiritual life.

Eliminate The Opposition

John 12:9-11 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. 


The leaders in Jerusalem were threatened by the prospect of Jesus spreading fame. Lazarus was the most astounding evidence of the power of Jesus and therefor contributed to the threat. They knew that eliminating Jesus would be unpopular with many, and Lazarus was an apparent person of means, so they needed to be careful in dealing with the whole situation. Eliminating the opposition is a common way to solve problems or to win competitions.


It seems to be another rather unattractive part of human nature to remove those who might take what we want. As a teacher I watched young people destroy one another over a boyfriend or girlfriend. Reputations were attacked with rumors and lies to make the competition unappealing. Had a glance at politics these days. One candidate doing anything possible to assassinate the competition. Business is not much better, using any means to end up on top. 


Does this sound familiar to you? I have seen this so often that I think it is part of all of us given the right threat. Obviously we are not killing the opposition. Jesus really upset the wrong folks unless he was choosing the path to the cross, knowing what they would do.  

Robbers

Matthew 21:12-13 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”


I think human beings can find a way to take advantage of people in almost any situation. In this gospel account about Jesus clearing the temple court of the moneychangers, we see one of the most extreme. The leaders of the temple held positions of power and influence which made it possible for them to commit legal robbery. They exploited the people with a system that they devised as the only way to fulfill the law. It is no wonder that Jesus wanted this exploitation to end, but it us perhaps equally clear that he knew this would be the fuse to anger of the Sanhedrin. God can even use greed to achieve his purpose when necessary.


In this world we live in robbers are everywhere, if we look at the world through God's eyes. It was no coincidence that the early church from the first century shared things in common and made sure that people did not go without. It is no coincidence that the thriving eras of church growth in recent centuries had to do with the founding of huge Christian charitable foundations. 


We have experienced a change in values that echoes few other times in American history. You have heard the shift loudly growing since the 1980s. It reverberates under the catch phrase "The me first generation". Self- fulfillment, self-actualization, and other descriptions of the phenomena are not consistent with a Christian life. Jesus would have trouble with modern robbers as well as those in the past. 

When He Saw Her Weeping

John 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.


When Jesus walked the earth in his human body, He showed again and again that he had compassion on those he met. He looked with compassion upon the sic, the poor, and the outcast. He felt compassion on many of the people for they were like sheep without  shepherd. He had compassion on the woman caught in adultery. It seems as though compassion is God's business and God's nature. 


God continues to look on our lives with compassion, nothing has changed. It is still God's nature to have compassion on us. Jesus did not always impose his compassion on those who caused his emotions. At one point he wept over Jerusalem even though without their seeking Him he would not and could not change. 


I know God's compassion first hand. In my own life at many turns I found the comfort of God always and direct intervention often. I think you all know I lost Marsha, my best friend, my helpmate and lover, two years ago. I could write numerous scenes with a variety of  different events and results that could have happened with Marsha's illness. I'll never know how many different scenes God saw for the circumstances with my life and Marsha's illness, but I do trust that God cared about both of us, and his compassion was involved in everything that has happened. I do take comfort that when I weep, my friend Jesus weeps with me.

Extravagance

John 12:1- Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.


Mary had been complimented by Jesus before when she sat at his feet to listen and learn while sister Martha ran around frantically trying to prepare everything for her guests. This time she used costly oils to annoint the feet of Jesus. Mary's response to Jesus was always extravagant, especially for a woman in those times. She was criticized in both situations by someone, but in both circumstances jesus praised her. It appears extravagant care and attention to Jesus are not to be discouraged. 


I don't think it is hard even in this day and age to be criticized for being to extravagant. Raise your hands to God, extravagant, say praise the Lord, extravagant, a fanatic is always in the eyes of the beholder. I would not call those who judge the extravagance of other in worship and belief Judas, but I wonder which of the individuals Jesus would be defending. I'd rather be Mary like than Judas like any day, how about you? 

He Wants Action

John 10:31-33 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied,“I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” 


In this passage Jesus earlier told the questioners that he showed that he was the Christ by his actions. I think this is the source of the common phrase "Actions speak louder than words." Jesus clearly believed that the works he was performing showed his identity to everyone. Some recognized him and others denied him, but everyone saw his actions. Some wanted to throw stones others wanted to crown him king, but none really understood that he was the lamb of god that will take away the sins of the world. We must not however forget that he did teach about what he was doing and who he did it for. 


Our lives are meant to be the same. Our actions will speak louder than words, but like Jesus only if our words and actions agree. We need to name what we do and why we do it , and who we do it for. You see if Jesu just acted they would never have known he was the Son of God serving God the Father. They would have simple thought Jesus was spectacular. Our actions are meant to speak louder than our words but that implies that our words have volume just a lower volume. My I speak with my entire being.

The Shepherd

John 10:7-9 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.


People often called my congregations, my flock. In fact I think that has become a kind of common idea in the church. They speak as though I am the shepherd of the flock, but all except the one true shepherd are imposters, if they pretend to be the shepherd. I loved being the rector of a church and I know God used me to help people, but I never forgot that only God had the real power to save and change peoples lives. He would have let me take the credit if I made that choice, but it would have made me a fraud.

I had lived a good many years wandering without the shepherd. I think others would have seen me as moderately successful during those years. They might even have thought the grass was greener in my pasture than in theirs. You know a lost sheep doesn't really think it's lost, it is just wandering around nibbling at whatever it finds. It may and often is in grave danger as an isolated sheep without protection, but the sheep is unaware of the difficulty. Until I was found by the shepherd or I opened my eyes and found the shepherd, I was like that. I didn't understand that I was missing out on so much in life until the shepherd showed me really green pastures. Thank God for the good shepherd I've found my way.

Powerful People

John 9:35-41 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”; and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.


 It seems so clear that those with power did not want to give up power. They kept trying at every turn to trap him with his words, or to enflame a crowd with claims that he was blasphemous. He was not violent enough for the zealots, or showy enough for the pharisees, and theologically offensive to the sadducees. The real issue however was how to hold or get power. The need was to minimize the good that Jesus did and maximize anything that might be seen as a problem.


As I read history and watch it being made today I don't find humanity acting any different or any better. I taught middle school for 26 years and it doesn't just start when people become adults. People seem to be looking for an edge to at least see themselves having power over something or someone else. 


Jesus said over and over again the first shall be last and the last shall be first. He said you call me master and so I am, but I your master came to serve not to be served. He said i give you an example so that you may do likewise. How can we get it so wrong?

Health Wealth and Blessing

John 9:1-2  As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 


One common thread that follows a belief in God that for me has always been a clear distortion of truth is the notion that faith means health, wealth and material blessings. The presumption of the disciples seeing this man born blind was that it was the natural result of someones sin. It was as if they thought of God as punishing one person for the sin of another. With Jesus the blessing is an internal blessing. We can endure many hardships in our lives but we always have the internal blessing if Jesus is our focus, our center. 


I think of the song, by someone that I don't know, that my grandchildren used to sing with the line "I'm a material girl in a material world."  I think that is the basic attitude of American society. We are just material people in a material world and the more material we have the more important we are. Our value is external when the greatest treasure the world has ever known is internal in our spirit. Jesus did heal human bodies and provide material needs at times, but always he focused on being right with God. I'm not one to deny my physical needs, but if I had to eliminate one or the other my physical needs would be the first to go.


To me I was born blind, not physically, but i was blind to my spiritual need. I understand the line from Amazing Grace, "was blind but now I see". I know I don't want to be physically blind, but the world became so much more beautiful when my spiritual blindness was healed taht I think I would choose physical blindness before a return to my spiritual blindness. 

Sacred Mystery

John 6:53 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."


Just imagine how shocked the original listeners must have felt when Jesus spoke these words. We have the benefit of the resurrection between his words and our understanding of these words and yet they create difficulties for many modern people as well. Jesus later while celebrating the passover with his disciples gave an example of how this was to be lived out. It became clear the he was not talking about his physical flesh, but rather a spiritual meal that would give us spiritual life. Jesus was establishing a new blood covenant relationship with us in the sacrament of his body and blood found for us in the Eucharist. We find God's presence in this mystery. 


I have the great blessing of participating in this mystery. So often I am in awe in the moments I am allowed to stand at the altar and ask God to bless bread and wine to be the very presence of Christ. Even before I was ordained the sacrament had a powerful effect on my life and faith. I found this mystery even more compelling when I came to understand the covenant language Jesus used in his teaching and the institution of this sacred meal. 


Grace everywhere all the time, but particular and powerfully available in the mystery of the sacraments.

The Words Of Life

John 6:66-69 After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”


Jesus did not hold back from expressing the essence of God's truth. If you have read the gospels you know that Jesus teaching is not easy. His words are challenging and his claims about himself difficult to comprehend at times. Some of those who followed him left at those moments. It's kind of like the last best super recommended absolutely guaranteed weight loss plan. It seems so good that it is easy to jump in both feet, but when we really look at the requirements we abandon the plan in a hurry. I've found that many weight loss plans work when people follow the requirements, but they fail when people fail to follow the plan. Usually they quit with excuses that it is too hard or maybe even impossible with their life. It was the same with the loose followers of Jesus. They went their own way when the teaching got tough.


Those who stayed knew there was no place else for them to go. They had seen to much, experienced too much. felt too much to leave now. The same is true for those of us who have had a close encounter with Jesus. Where would we go? What could possibly compare to what we've already found. Even as the teaching and sayings make hard challenges for our lives, the love and grace abundantly carry us. You see some of us really know that he is the Holy One of God, the one with the words of life.