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This business of resurrection, that we celebrate today is the most important holiday for the Christian church. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrection; our faith is in vain. The scripture tells us that the reason this is true is because the greatest miracle God ever did was raising Christ from the dead.
Palm Sunday -- When the nation of Israel was jacked-up with hope, the hope was soon disappointed. Not because God didn’t act for them, He did. Rather, because He didn’t act for them the way they had expected Him to act for them. (Jesus came to bring peace. They wanted a conqueror to free them from Roman impressment). One of the messy things about faith is, that is true for us as well. God promises to act, but often the way He acts is not exactly what we wanted….
The whole idea of God’s motive and love for us, is best characterized in the Greek word “agape.” This is a love that is reckless. It is a love that isn’t based upon merit; nor on conditions. It’s a kind of love that’s based upon the person loving rather than that person being loved.
The two sides of spirituality
Spirituality has a very intellectual side to it, which is wonderful for people who like to think. But, there’s also a really deeply felt aspect of spirituality. This is the part where you need to use not just the part of the brain that’s logical, but the part that’s creative, aesthetic, and is rich with feeling – there’s emotion to it. The part of the brain that is more experiential than it is analytical. ….faith is the stuff of mystery.
God loves us and is for us. On some level, there should be a gesture in our souls that we want to say, as Paul said, we want to live pleasing to the Lord – we want to respond back. The Bible says we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and strength. In other words, there’s a place for us to be intentional about our response to God – that we can love Him back.
I wish spirituality was really simple, real easy, but it’s not. When you’re honest about it, much of life is jacked-up with complexity .
This thng we’re in is an issue of faith. I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was just an issue of knowing, solid, with no uncertainty. The fact is, God is invisible. I wish He wasn’t. I wish it wasn’t the Goldilocks deal it is. The three bears get home and discover someone has been messing with their porridge, chairs, and beds. It isn’t until the end of the story that they run into that “someone” – Goldilocks. The reality is, it isn’t until the end of this journey that we run into Jesus Christ. The only thing we have are these little evidences, little nudgings of the soul, little things that change. When they change, you think, somebody’s been messing with this. I think it’s God….
An epiphany is when you see something that you didn’t previously see. What’s interesting about faith is that a huge part of faith is about seeing what you couldn’t see before. In fact, the whole idea about faith is you begin to perceive things which are unseen, and you become confident in what you can not see with your eyes because you’re seeing with eyes of faith. Scripture calls this the eyes of your heart; and you begin to see what you previously couldn’t see. Somehow, this journey of being apprentices of Christ is full of that idea. We need to understand that Christianity isn’t so much a religion where we run at God. Rather, it’s an experience where God shows stuff about himself, and we go “whoa, I never saw that!” And because you see it – it changes you.
God isn’t trying to be involved in our lives just to make us feel better, and us try to find our own way and use God as currency to get what we want. God will help you. Even if you’re a selfish moron, God will still be there to help you. But life is fairly flat when it’s about things…. Jesus said, if you gain the whole world, you end up paling your soul. And when your soul becomes pale, you won’t even be happy when you gain it! You’re only supposed to have success and prosperity in your life to the degree that your soul is prospering. Don’t get out of sync, don’t try to drive your own life. Joy is in finding the sync with why you have been created to be in this place.
The message of scripture is not just that God created, nor that creation was sullied. The message of scripture is that God figured out a way to newly create what was lost. And to ultimately bring, by renewing creation, back on track to the original dream that He had. Where He would not only be in human life, but He would actually be with us. ….His rescue plan had a name – Jesus!
Advent is the time when we stop and reflect and think about the reality that God found a way to break into a world that was broken – broken by our own devices. Instead of abandoning us, He chose to reconnect with us. The celebration of Advent not only thinks about the fact that Jesus came. It has a view to the fact that He is coming back. We are in some way in-between what He has already done, what He is going to do, what is, and what will be.
In Matthew 16, Jesus is talking to his disciples and He asks “ who do folks say that the son of man is?” Later He asks them, “who do you say that I am?” This question, “who is Jesus,” has been wrestled with for two thousand years During this season of Advent it’s appropriate to ask – who is Jesus Christ? Who do you say that He is?
The reason Christmas was celebrated Church-historical was because it was designed to help us remember the events that took place 2,000 years ago. When we moderns think about “remembering,” we usually think about it in terms of a momentary flash. We think that by reaching back and looking at it and looking ahead – we’ve remembered it. That isn’t how folks in Biblical times looked at it. They were talking about making a plan so that they would make the thing that happened become present. And to bring a past event into the present as though it were happening right now. And to somehow look at it and let it hit them as though they were experiencing it as it unfolded….
One of the principle marks of a Christ-follower is thanksgiving. Paul suggests in 1 Thesselonians 5, that it actually is Gods will for us! Sometimes when we think of God’s will we think of “what.” We think of the specifics of the situation we’re in - God what is your will? Instead of understanding that God’s will is a whole lot more about “how” than than it is about “what.” How you work or live is more important than where you work or live.
You don’t have to look very deep into the scriptures to discover that God loves to lavishly provide for His creation…. On some level we have to get into our minds that God isn’t thinking, “oh my goodness I’m going to run out of stuff.” The world is a place of abundance. It’s obvious though that God never intended abundance to corrupt the human soul. ….it’s ok for us to have money, but not for money to have us.
There’s something very important about breaking through our differences. Whether they’re nationalistic, racial, socio-political, economic… That we actually push through our differences to connect with each other – to set those things as secondary because we believe in something deeper; that we’re part of God’s family. God honors that priority."
The worst thing about the whole concept of community is that other people are involved… It’s been said, “the more I get to know some people – the more I like my dog!” That is precisely the point. I think God wants us to come together because he loves the messiness of community. I think it’s very provocative how that the twelve disciples Jesus called all came from various backgrounds. E.g. Simon – a Zealot, and Matthew – a tax collector assisting the Romans.
" What if God designed faith to be more than an intensely personal experience? It is that. But, what if God designed us to need other people?”
"Believers are called to love everyone. Fellow believers should be treated with extra care. Ed continues his thoughts on how Christians are to live and grow in faith in community with fellow believers. "
