Don’t be bored this summer … help us change the world! One person at a time
Sheridan, Norway, Harding, Serena, Marseilles, Seneca and Wedron
United Methodist Churches
Invite you to participate in
Cincinnati 2008 Summer Mission Trip
Saturday, July 12 – Saturday, July 19, 2008
• Travel to Cincinnati, Ohio
• Work with city kids at Wesley Chapel Mission Center
• Visit the Freedom Center, the national museum of the Underground Railroad
• Experience what God is doing to help people in need through ministries around the city
• Learn what it’s like to work with friends from our neighboring churches
• Have fun and make a difference at the same time!
Come get all the details
at our
Kick-off Rally and Informational Meeting
Next Sunday, April 6, 2008
at Sheridan United Methodist Church at 6:00 p.m.
Bring $3 for dinner and bring your favorite soft drink or beverage
Questions ?
Call or email your pastor:
Pastor Jonathan Crail –815-792-8263 jnrcrail@yahoo.com
Pastor Melissa Meyers – 815-496-2021 missy815@aol.com
Pastor Tom Bourke, Jr. – 815-795-5233 tombourkejr@gmail.com
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Un-expectation of Hope
Un-expectations of Hope
Over the past 6 weeks, we’ve been in the season of Lent in the church…The season when we are preparing for Easter…Lent is a time of prayer, meditation, and self-reflection…It’s a season where we are in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus…In that season of preparation, we look at ways that we can remove the things in our life that keep us from fully celebrating the resurrection of Jesus…Those things that are a stumbling block in our relationship with God—those places in our lives that have become too full, too busy, too overwhelmed with ourselves to spend quality time with God…Lent is an opportunity to examine those places and put the focus back on God.
During our season of Lent, our sermon series and Lenten study have been using the book by Rev. Paul Nixon, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. Through the series, Rev. Nixon has set forth 6 critical choices that need to be made…These 6 choices have been…Choosing life over death, choosing community over isolation, choosing fun over drudgery, choosing bold over mild, choosing frontier over fortress, choosing now over later…each of these choices are difficult on some level, but are important for each individual and each church to make…These choices have been ways for us as individuals, and as members of God’s church to examine those places where we have been too full, too busy, too overwhelmed with ourselves to focus on what it is that God is calling to us…
With all of this talk of self examination and reflection, it could be easy to think of Lent as something awful…But taking these times to examine is important…It’s when we can remember who we are and whose we are…Throughout these times of self-examination there are bound to be things that come up that no one could have ever thought of…Feelings, emotions, events that arise that no one could anticipate…
Over a year and a half ago, I told you about a word that I made up… Un-expectations…Those times when you have an idea of what is going to happen and it turns out opposite or something that you didn’t even think of, happens…It’s a moment of unexpected surprise or un-expectation…And these moments can turn out great or they can be a little nerve-wracking…They catch you off guard…
Jesus’ whole life was about un-expectations…Jesus constantly did thigns that were unexpected…He spoke out against injustices…He challenged the social norms of the day…He encouraged people in their faith…He taught that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbors as we love ourselves…He healed…He performed miracles…While Jesus’ messages were filled with hope and love, they were anything but expected…It was those messages that got Jesus attention from all people…There were people who were filled with hope because of his messages and there were people who were threatened by his messages. The un-expectations can be seen and heard throughout Jesus’ life, and especially during the last week of Jesus’ life, when we celebrate Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Mornign…
Our Holy Week journey started on Sunday with Palm Sunday—Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover festival to a celebration with people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Things would change dramatically for Jesus…As we remember Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is aware of what is going to happen as he washes his disciples’ feet to the un-expectation of the disciples and breaks bread and shares the cup with them…As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and is betrayed by Judas and arrested…As we remember on Good Friday Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion…A life full of un-expectations…One of the things that we learn quickly about Jesus is that with him, you have to learn to expect the unexpected! And although we can say that, we say that knowing the whole story…
The disciples and followers of Jesus didn’t have the luxury of knowing the whole story…Although Jesus had told them over and over what was going to happen—that he would die and rise again…He had shared with them that he was going to be betrayed and killed, but that he would come back again…It wasn’t something that Jesus mentioned in passing once or twice, he told the disciples many times what was going to happen…But they didn’t want to believe that was possible—how could this person that they had grown to love, respect, and follow—someone that they thought to be the Messiah really die?? Although it should have been expected, the disciples truly didn’t expect Jesus’ death to be real…Jesus’ death for them was an un-expectation…
Can you put yourself in the disciples’ shoes? Because we’re often so hard on the disciples because they should have “gotten it”…They should have understood what Jesus was talking about because they had spent so much time with him teaching them and talking with them…But think about yourself for a minute…In Jesus’ last moments—where would you have been? Would you have been standing by his side or would you have fled to avoid arrest like the disciples? Would you have remembered Jesus’ teachings or would you have gotten lost in your own emotions and fears? And not just in those last moments with Jesus…Do you remember Jesus’ teachings today or do you get lost in your own emotions and fears? The disciples aren’t the only ones who have a hard time with what Jesus was telling them to do…We still have that difficulty today…Do we live our life in un-expectation or do we try and make sure everything is all together?
The disciples scattered when Jesus was arrested…Some watched from a distance, some fled entirely…At some point they all must have gathered together to share in what had just happened…We know that they were together the morning after the Sabbath…As they gathered together, did they recount all the moments in their time with Jesus that they had experienced those moments of un-expectation…Where they had watched Jesus teach, preach, and share…How they had each experienced those thigns with Jesus…The last days and hours of Jesus’ life…Did they recount those times with tears, laughter, or another emotion?
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils. She wouldn’t have been able to do it earlier because Jesus died on a Friday just before sundown. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and is over on Saturday just after sundown. The Sabbath is a day of rest—there were and still are specific rules about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. There were rules about how many steps you could take and still be considered observing the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath was part of their religious observances and part of their law. Mary and the rest of Jesus’ followers being Jews themselves, would have observed the Sabbath strictly…
After the Sabbath, Mary goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body for burial…She knew what she should expect—she saw where Jesus’ body had been laid and had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb…She expects to see that stone, the guard, and the body of her Lord laying in the tomb…And as she approaches the place where she has seen her Lord’s body being laid, there have to be a number of emotions going, but all knowing what she is going to encounter at the tomb…
As she approaches the entry of the tombs, she receives a surprise as the stone is rolled away from the tomb. She ran to get the other disciples, thinking that someone has taken his body…As the disciples investigate and find that yes, Jesus’ body truly is gone, they have forgotten what Jesus said would happen and they simply return home. Mary stays outside of the tomb, weeping…Not only does she believe that her Lord is dead, but she thinks his body has been taken…
Mary sees two angels sitting in the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid…She speaks with them and wants to find Jesus’ body…As she turns around she runs into who she assumes to be the gardener…She asks him also where the body of Jesus is, not recognizing that he is in fact Jesus…As a matter of fact, she doesn’t recognize that he is her Lord until he speaks her name… “Mary”…
Jesus broke the silence…The silence that he had kept when he breathed his last to when he said Mary’s name…That silence can be deafening…That silence can overwhelm us at times…But that’s not all that there is…It’s not all just silence…Where are the moments in our life that Jesus calls our name? Those un-expected moments when we think we know what’s happening and Jesus calls our name? Where have you encountered Jesus? Where have you seen the resurrected Christ?
Two years ago, I was in seminary, getting ready to graduate and waiting for a phone call about where I would be appointed in the United Methodist Church…I took on more than I should have my last year at United Theological Seminary…I was working 3 jobs, organizing student activities for the campus, serving as an associate pastor, taking double the full time credits, serving the church on a national level, preparing to graduate and on top of that, I had volunteered to lead a Bible study on a college campus in Cincinnati…I know, I was crazy! About a month before the semester was going to end, I was getting very crabby…I had long past my breaking point and was working on about the third one! Thursdays were particularly difficult because I had a class that started at 8 am, which meant that I needed to leave my house by at least 7…Then, I was either working, studying, or in class from 8 am until 7 pm. After that, I would grab something quick for dinner and head down to the college to lead the Bible study. One Thursday I was just not in the mood to go, but it was too late to call anyone to cancel and it would have been irresponsible to just not show up…So, I grabbed something quick to eat and turned up my angry music in the car and drove the hour and a half down to Cincinnati—all the while whining and complaining and screaming my angry music! When I got to the college, I tried to put on a happy face, but it wasn’t my best attempt and quite frankly, I wanted everyone to know that I wasn’t happy…So, I sit down in the room where we have Bible study—cranky and crabby and in no position to lead a prayerful discussion on anything, let alone Scripture! When Erin walks in…Now, Erin and I were at odds a lot of the time—sometimes it was on theology, sometimes it was about nothing at all…Erin sometimes had a hard time communicating herself and often came out sounding judgemental, harsh, rude, or just awkward…In my crabby state, she was really the last person that I wanted to see come! I tried to make small talk and pretend like everything was okay, but I’m sure she could see right through everything…We made small talk for about 30 awkward minutes and we both came to the realization that it would just be she and I tonight…In my head, I’m screaming and so angry that I just drove an hour and a half and here I have to sit with a person that I really just don’t want to be in the room with…I tried to take a couple deep breaths and figure out what to do with our time when I continued to make small talk with Erin…Kind of half paying attention, I asked her how classes were going…. “Oh, okay…” she said… “Well, not really okay…I don’t think I’m going to pass this class and I have spent hours studying and preparing for it…I’m so tired of studying, but I can’t break away because I really need to pass…” With that, Erin started to cry…She looked at me with tears streaming down her face trying to hold back sobs… “Even if I wanted to break away from studying, I don’t really have any friends…No one wants to spend any time with me…All I want to do is get together with a group of friends and fly a kite or play a game…But, I can’t…” As Erin cried and apologized for her outburst, my heart broke…I met Jesus in an unexpected place…In my own emotions and stresses, I almost missed this opportunity to interact with the risen Christ…I heard Jesus say my name…I handed Erin a box of Kleenex and asked her, “How can I best minister to you today?” She wiped her eyes and sniffled, then a smile crossed her lips… “Do you want to play Scrabble?” Erin and I didn’t open the Bible that night, but it was one of the most spiritual experiences that I have had…I met the risen Christ in one of the most unexpected places…The most unexpected place to see Jesus was where I saw Jesus …In the un-expectation, I heard Jesus call my name…I saw the resurrected Christ…
In between Jesus’ death and resurrection, much had changed…Not just that Jesus had been resurrected…But the whole universe had been changed…The whole universe has changed and will never be the same…Through Jesus’ resurrection, the universe was turned upside-down… Resurrection is new life; the reality of a new creation. We can see glimpses of the power resurrection in creation as the plants that seemed to die in the winter show new life in the spring. The power of the resurrection makes us into a new creation as we die to ourselves and rise in Christ. Jesus’ death isn’t about the devesation…It’s about the hope…
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are no longer able to be defeated by death. Within the resurrection of Jesus, we have hope in eternal life. In John 3:16 it is written “God so loved the whole world that God sent Jesus Christ, God’s only son, so that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s the hope that we have in Jesus Christ! Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life. It begins when we live into our resurrection. Eternal life is a present and future reality as it is God’s future and not solely our own. It’s an un-expectation of hope!
Where Jesus’ life had been a series of reversals…On Easter morning the ultimate reversal happened. Jesus defeated death and rose again. What was once dead, was now and forevermore alive.
What was un-expected became the reality…The silence was shattered with shouts of joy, with cries of amazement…With shouts that Christ has risen! Christ has risen in deed!
Over the past 6 weeks, we’ve been in the season of Lent in the church…The season when we are preparing for Easter…Lent is a time of prayer, meditation, and self-reflection…It’s a season where we are in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus…In that season of preparation, we look at ways that we can remove the things in our life that keep us from fully celebrating the resurrection of Jesus…Those things that are a stumbling block in our relationship with God—those places in our lives that have become too full, too busy, too overwhelmed with ourselves to spend quality time with God…Lent is an opportunity to examine those places and put the focus back on God.
During our season of Lent, our sermon series and Lenten study have been using the book by Rev. Paul Nixon, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. Through the series, Rev. Nixon has set forth 6 critical choices that need to be made…These 6 choices have been…Choosing life over death, choosing community over isolation, choosing fun over drudgery, choosing bold over mild, choosing frontier over fortress, choosing now over later…each of these choices are difficult on some level, but are important for each individual and each church to make…These choices have been ways for us as individuals, and as members of God’s church to examine those places where we have been too full, too busy, too overwhelmed with ourselves to focus on what it is that God is calling to us…
With all of this talk of self examination and reflection, it could be easy to think of Lent as something awful…But taking these times to examine is important…It’s when we can remember who we are and whose we are…Throughout these times of self-examination there are bound to be things that come up that no one could have ever thought of…Feelings, emotions, events that arise that no one could anticipate…
Over a year and a half ago, I told you about a word that I made up… Un-expectations…Those times when you have an idea of what is going to happen and it turns out opposite or something that you didn’t even think of, happens…It’s a moment of unexpected surprise or un-expectation…And these moments can turn out great or they can be a little nerve-wracking…They catch you off guard…
Jesus’ whole life was about un-expectations…Jesus constantly did thigns that were unexpected…He spoke out against injustices…He challenged the social norms of the day…He encouraged people in their faith…He taught that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbors as we love ourselves…He healed…He performed miracles…While Jesus’ messages were filled with hope and love, they were anything but expected…It was those messages that got Jesus attention from all people…There were people who were filled with hope because of his messages and there were people who were threatened by his messages. The un-expectations can be seen and heard throughout Jesus’ life, and especially during the last week of Jesus’ life, when we celebrate Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Mornign…
Our Holy Week journey started on Sunday with Palm Sunday—Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover festival to a celebration with people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Things would change dramatically for Jesus…As we remember Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is aware of what is going to happen as he washes his disciples’ feet to the un-expectation of the disciples and breaks bread and shares the cup with them…As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and is betrayed by Judas and arrested…As we remember on Good Friday Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion…A life full of un-expectations…One of the things that we learn quickly about Jesus is that with him, you have to learn to expect the unexpected! And although we can say that, we say that knowing the whole story…
The disciples and followers of Jesus didn’t have the luxury of knowing the whole story…Although Jesus had told them over and over what was going to happen—that he would die and rise again…He had shared with them that he was going to be betrayed and killed, but that he would come back again…It wasn’t something that Jesus mentioned in passing once or twice, he told the disciples many times what was going to happen…But they didn’t want to believe that was possible—how could this person that they had grown to love, respect, and follow—someone that they thought to be the Messiah really die?? Although it should have been expected, the disciples truly didn’t expect Jesus’ death to be real…Jesus’ death for them was an un-expectation…
Can you put yourself in the disciples’ shoes? Because we’re often so hard on the disciples because they should have “gotten it”…They should have understood what Jesus was talking about because they had spent so much time with him teaching them and talking with them…But think about yourself for a minute…In Jesus’ last moments—where would you have been? Would you have been standing by his side or would you have fled to avoid arrest like the disciples? Would you have remembered Jesus’ teachings or would you have gotten lost in your own emotions and fears? And not just in those last moments with Jesus…Do you remember Jesus’ teachings today or do you get lost in your own emotions and fears? The disciples aren’t the only ones who have a hard time with what Jesus was telling them to do…We still have that difficulty today…Do we live our life in un-expectation or do we try and make sure everything is all together?
The disciples scattered when Jesus was arrested…Some watched from a distance, some fled entirely…At some point they all must have gathered together to share in what had just happened…We know that they were together the morning after the Sabbath…As they gathered together, did they recount all the moments in their time with Jesus that they had experienced those moments of un-expectation…Where they had watched Jesus teach, preach, and share…How they had each experienced those thigns with Jesus…The last days and hours of Jesus’ life…Did they recount those times with tears, laughter, or another emotion?
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils. She wouldn’t have been able to do it earlier because Jesus died on a Friday just before sundown. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and is over on Saturday just after sundown. The Sabbath is a day of rest—there were and still are specific rules about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. There were rules about how many steps you could take and still be considered observing the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath was part of their religious observances and part of their law. Mary and the rest of Jesus’ followers being Jews themselves, would have observed the Sabbath strictly…
After the Sabbath, Mary goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body for burial…She knew what she should expect—she saw where Jesus’ body had been laid and had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb…She expects to see that stone, the guard, and the body of her Lord laying in the tomb…And as she approaches the place where she has seen her Lord’s body being laid, there have to be a number of emotions going, but all knowing what she is going to encounter at the tomb…
As she approaches the entry of the tombs, she receives a surprise as the stone is rolled away from the tomb. She ran to get the other disciples, thinking that someone has taken his body…As the disciples investigate and find that yes, Jesus’ body truly is gone, they have forgotten what Jesus said would happen and they simply return home. Mary stays outside of the tomb, weeping…Not only does she believe that her Lord is dead, but she thinks his body has been taken…
Mary sees two angels sitting in the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid…She speaks with them and wants to find Jesus’ body…As she turns around she runs into who she assumes to be the gardener…She asks him also where the body of Jesus is, not recognizing that he is in fact Jesus…As a matter of fact, she doesn’t recognize that he is her Lord until he speaks her name… “Mary”…
Jesus broke the silence…The silence that he had kept when he breathed his last to when he said Mary’s name…That silence can be deafening…That silence can overwhelm us at times…But that’s not all that there is…It’s not all just silence…Where are the moments in our life that Jesus calls our name? Those un-expected moments when we think we know what’s happening and Jesus calls our name? Where have you encountered Jesus? Where have you seen the resurrected Christ?
Two years ago, I was in seminary, getting ready to graduate and waiting for a phone call about where I would be appointed in the United Methodist Church…I took on more than I should have my last year at United Theological Seminary…I was working 3 jobs, organizing student activities for the campus, serving as an associate pastor, taking double the full time credits, serving the church on a national level, preparing to graduate and on top of that, I had volunteered to lead a Bible study on a college campus in Cincinnati…I know, I was crazy! About a month before the semester was going to end, I was getting very crabby…I had long past my breaking point and was working on about the third one! Thursdays were particularly difficult because I had a class that started at 8 am, which meant that I needed to leave my house by at least 7…Then, I was either working, studying, or in class from 8 am until 7 pm. After that, I would grab something quick for dinner and head down to the college to lead the Bible study. One Thursday I was just not in the mood to go, but it was too late to call anyone to cancel and it would have been irresponsible to just not show up…So, I grabbed something quick to eat and turned up my angry music in the car and drove the hour and a half down to Cincinnati—all the while whining and complaining and screaming my angry music! When I got to the college, I tried to put on a happy face, but it wasn’t my best attempt and quite frankly, I wanted everyone to know that I wasn’t happy…So, I sit down in the room where we have Bible study—cranky and crabby and in no position to lead a prayerful discussion on anything, let alone Scripture! When Erin walks in…Now, Erin and I were at odds a lot of the time—sometimes it was on theology, sometimes it was about nothing at all…Erin sometimes had a hard time communicating herself and often came out sounding judgemental, harsh, rude, or just awkward…In my crabby state, she was really the last person that I wanted to see come! I tried to make small talk and pretend like everything was okay, but I’m sure she could see right through everything…We made small talk for about 30 awkward minutes and we both came to the realization that it would just be she and I tonight…In my head, I’m screaming and so angry that I just drove an hour and a half and here I have to sit with a person that I really just don’t want to be in the room with…I tried to take a couple deep breaths and figure out what to do with our time when I continued to make small talk with Erin…Kind of half paying attention, I asked her how classes were going…. “Oh, okay…” she said… “Well, not really okay…I don’t think I’m going to pass this class and I have spent hours studying and preparing for it…I’m so tired of studying, but I can’t break away because I really need to pass…” With that, Erin started to cry…She looked at me with tears streaming down her face trying to hold back sobs… “Even if I wanted to break away from studying, I don’t really have any friends…No one wants to spend any time with me…All I want to do is get together with a group of friends and fly a kite or play a game…But, I can’t…” As Erin cried and apologized for her outburst, my heart broke…I met Jesus in an unexpected place…In my own emotions and stresses, I almost missed this opportunity to interact with the risen Christ…I heard Jesus say my name…I handed Erin a box of Kleenex and asked her, “How can I best minister to you today?” She wiped her eyes and sniffled, then a smile crossed her lips… “Do you want to play Scrabble?” Erin and I didn’t open the Bible that night, but it was one of the most spiritual experiences that I have had…I met the risen Christ in one of the most unexpected places…The most unexpected place to see Jesus was where I saw Jesus …In the un-expectation, I heard Jesus call my name…I saw the resurrected Christ…
In between Jesus’ death and resurrection, much had changed…Not just that Jesus had been resurrected…But the whole universe had been changed…The whole universe has changed and will never be the same…Through Jesus’ resurrection, the universe was turned upside-down… Resurrection is new life; the reality of a new creation. We can see glimpses of the power resurrection in creation as the plants that seemed to die in the winter show new life in the spring. The power of the resurrection makes us into a new creation as we die to ourselves and rise in Christ. Jesus’ death isn’t about the devesation…It’s about the hope…
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are no longer able to be defeated by death. Within the resurrection of Jesus, we have hope in eternal life. In John 3:16 it is written “God so loved the whole world that God sent Jesus Christ, God’s only son, so that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s the hope that we have in Jesus Christ! Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life. It begins when we live into our resurrection. Eternal life is a present and future reality as it is God’s future and not solely our own. It’s an un-expectation of hope!
Where Jesus’ life had been a series of reversals…On Easter morning the ultimate reversal happened. Jesus defeated death and rose again. What was once dead, was now and forevermore alive.
What was un-expected became the reality…The silence was shattered with shouts of joy, with cries of amazement…With shouts that Christ has risen! Christ has risen in deed!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
In the Quiet (sunrise Service)
In the Quiet
There’s something so serene about the early morning hours…After a night of slumber and it feels like the whole world is just waking up…Before the activities of the day start and everything starts to run and go…Before all the noise, there’s the stillness of the morning…Once the sun rises and light floods through, that stillness fades away…We begin this Easter morning in the stillness…In the quiet…
Jesus’ life was anything but quiet…He spoke out against injustices…He encouraged people in their faith…He taught that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbors as we love ourselves…He healed…He performed miracles…While Jesus’ messages were filled with hope and love, they were anything but quiet…It was those messages that got Jesus attention from all people…There were people who were filled with hope because of his messages and there were people who were threatened by his messages.
Our Holy Week journey started on Sunday with Palm Sunday—Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover festival to a celebration with people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Things would change dramatically for Jesus…As we remember Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is aware of what is going to happen as he washes his disciples’ feet and breaks bread and shares the cup with them…As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and is arrested…As we remember on Good Friday Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion…Then, there was silence…
Although there was silence, there were certainly many emotions felt by Jesus’ disciples and followers…Most of them had abandoned Jesus in his last hours—literally running away and hiding…As they recounted what had happened, did they feel shame for abandoning this man who had done so much for them? Or if they did stay, did they recount what they had seen with anguish and tears? Were there moments of laughter as they recounted Jesus’ life with them? Where there echoes of tears and sobs as they tried to make sense of what happened? And then there was the silence…
This silence had be deafening…Lost in their own thoughts and emotions…We don’t have an account of what they were thinking and feeling, we don’t have an account of those days and hours in between Jesus’ death on the cross…To the morning when the women went to the tomb in the silence…
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils. She wouldn’t have been able to do it earlier because Jesus died on a Friday just before sundown. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and is over on Saturday just after sundown. The Sabbath is a day of rest—there were and still are specific rules about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. There were rules about how many steps you could take and still be considered observing the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath was part of their religious observances and part of their law. Mary and the rest of Jesus’ followers being Jews themselves, would have observed the Sabbath strictly…
After the Sabbath, Mary goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body for burial…In the stillness of the morning…In the silences…And as she approaches the place where she has seen her Lord’s body being laid, there have to be a number of emotions going…She was approaching the tomb that she knew was being guarded and watched by Roman soldiers…And she’s going to this place in the silence…
As she approaches the entry of the tombs, she receives a surprise as the stone is rolled away from the tomb. She ran to get the other disciples, thinking that someone has taken his body…As the disciples investigate and find that yes, Jesus’ body truly is gone, they have forgotten what Jesus said would happen and they simply return home. Mary stays outside of the tomb, weeping…Not only does she believe that her Lord is dead, but she thinks his body has been taken…
Mary sees two angels sitting in the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid…She speaks with them and wants to find Jesus’ body…As she turns around she runs into who she assumes to be the gardener…She asks him also where the body of Jesus is, not recognizing that he is in fact Jesus…As a matter of fact, she doesn’t recognize that he is her Lord until he speaks her name… “Mary”…
Jesus broke the silence…The silence that he had kept when he breathed his last to when he said Mary’s name…In that silence, much had changed…Not just that Jesus had been resurrected…But the whole universe had been changed…The whole universe has changed and will never be the same…Through Jesus’ resurrection, the universe was turned upside-down…
Where Jesus’ life had been a series of reversals…On Easter morning the ultimate reversal happened. Jesus defeated death and rose again. What was once dead, was now and forevermore alive.
What happened in the silence is silent no longer…The silence was shattered with shouts of joy, with cries of amazement…With shouts that Christ has risen! Christ has risen in deed!
There’s something so serene about the early morning hours…After a night of slumber and it feels like the whole world is just waking up…Before the activities of the day start and everything starts to run and go…Before all the noise, there’s the stillness of the morning…Once the sun rises and light floods through, that stillness fades away…We begin this Easter morning in the stillness…In the quiet…
Jesus’ life was anything but quiet…He spoke out against injustices…He encouraged people in their faith…He taught that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbors as we love ourselves…He healed…He performed miracles…While Jesus’ messages were filled with hope and love, they were anything but quiet…It was those messages that got Jesus attention from all people…There were people who were filled with hope because of his messages and there were people who were threatened by his messages.
Our Holy Week journey started on Sunday with Palm Sunday—Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover festival to a celebration with people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Things would change dramatically for Jesus…As we remember Jesus’ last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is aware of what is going to happen as he washes his disciples’ feet and breaks bread and shares the cup with them…As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and is arrested…As we remember on Good Friday Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion…Then, there was silence…
Although there was silence, there were certainly many emotions felt by Jesus’ disciples and followers…Most of them had abandoned Jesus in his last hours—literally running away and hiding…As they recounted what had happened, did they feel shame for abandoning this man who had done so much for them? Or if they did stay, did they recount what they had seen with anguish and tears? Were there moments of laughter as they recounted Jesus’ life with them? Where there echoes of tears and sobs as they tried to make sense of what happened? And then there was the silence…
This silence had be deafening…Lost in their own thoughts and emotions…We don’t have an account of what they were thinking and feeling, we don’t have an account of those days and hours in between Jesus’ death on the cross…To the morning when the women went to the tomb in the silence…
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils. She wouldn’t have been able to do it earlier because Jesus died on a Friday just before sundown. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and is over on Saturday just after sundown. The Sabbath is a day of rest—there were and still are specific rules about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. There were rules about how many steps you could take and still be considered observing the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath was part of their religious observances and part of their law. Mary and the rest of Jesus’ followers being Jews themselves, would have observed the Sabbath strictly…
After the Sabbath, Mary goes to the tomb at dawn to anoint Jesus’ body for burial…In the stillness of the morning…In the silences…And as she approaches the place where she has seen her Lord’s body being laid, there have to be a number of emotions going…She was approaching the tomb that she knew was being guarded and watched by Roman soldiers…And she’s going to this place in the silence…
As she approaches the entry of the tombs, she receives a surprise as the stone is rolled away from the tomb. She ran to get the other disciples, thinking that someone has taken his body…As the disciples investigate and find that yes, Jesus’ body truly is gone, they have forgotten what Jesus said would happen and they simply return home. Mary stays outside of the tomb, weeping…Not only does she believe that her Lord is dead, but she thinks his body has been taken…
Mary sees two angels sitting in the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid…She speaks with them and wants to find Jesus’ body…As she turns around she runs into who she assumes to be the gardener…She asks him also where the body of Jesus is, not recognizing that he is in fact Jesus…As a matter of fact, she doesn’t recognize that he is her Lord until he speaks her name… “Mary”…
Jesus broke the silence…The silence that he had kept when he breathed his last to when he said Mary’s name…In that silence, much had changed…Not just that Jesus had been resurrected…But the whole universe had been changed…The whole universe has changed and will never be the same…Through Jesus’ resurrection, the universe was turned upside-down…
Where Jesus’ life had been a series of reversals…On Easter morning the ultimate reversal happened. Jesus defeated death and rose again. What was once dead, was now and forevermore alive.
What happened in the silence is silent no longer…The silence was shattered with shouts of joy, with cries of amazement…With shouts that Christ has risen! Christ has risen in deed!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Food For the Journey
Food for the Journey
Much to the disciples’ dismay, Jesus washed their feet. Now, there are certainly some who would be uncomfortable with that now, not just Jesus washing our feet, but foot washing in general. I mean we usually keep our feet covered with shoes and socks of some kind…And many people have ticklish feet…Some people have smelly feet…Some people go to great lengths so that their feet look good—pedicures, lotions, polishes…
In Jesus’ time they didn’t really have spas or salons where people could get pedicures, but they did have people who washed feet. It was the servant’s responsibility to wash the feet of the guests and the master. This wasn’t as easy as it may be for us today…If you go to a spa or a salon for a pedicure, you’ve had shoes & socks on and your feet have been somewhat protected…Well, in Jesus’ time they wore sandals. And they didn’t have cars, they walked…And they didn’t have nice sidewalks or pathways…They had dirt…So, feet in Jesus’ time would have been stinky, sweaty, very dirty, and just not taken care of very well.
So imagine the disciples’ surprise as Jesus gets down to wash his disciples’ feet. He was literally lowering himself because he was on his hands and knees at the feet of the disciples…He was becoming the servant of the disciples…He was placing his hands on his disciples’ stinky, sweaty, very dirty feet and washing them…
Peter, always wanting to do the right thing, argues with Jesus and doesn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. Then he wants Jesus to wash his whole body…But, Jesus tells him that’s not necessary.
After Jesus washes the feet of the disciples he tells them that just as he washed their feet, they should also wash one another’s feet. They should humble themselves as servants as well. Jesus wasn’t just washing their feet so that they would feel humbled or to do a grand gesture, he was also teaching the disciples and showing them what it means to be a servant. Sometimes it means sticking your hands in dirty water or washing someone’s stinky, sweaty, very dirty feet.
There’s a quote that says, “Sometimes in order to be a leader, you must first be a servant.” Jesus was a servant to his disciples, but he was also their leader…
As we began Holy Week on Sunday with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and with shouts of Hosanna and Glory to God…This is a much different scene and much different attitude…It’s not a jubilant party with the disciples, but what will be the last supper of Jesus and his disciples. It is this night that Jesus will be betrayed and arrested…Not the jubilant party from earlier…And one of Jesus’ last acts is to wash the disciples’ feet…One of Jesus’ last acts was that of a servant, not just to the disciples, but to all…
After the disciples feet were washed, it was time for dinner…Little did the disciples understand that this was the last meal that they would be spending with their friend and teacher, Jesus. It was the last time that they would break bread together…The last time that they would share the Passover meal together…
The Passover meal was traditional for the Jewish people…It was their festival remembering when they were slaves in Egypt and Moses was telling Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The Passover feast remembers when the angel of death passed over those homes with lambs blood on the door. In their feast, they recalled the stories with food, song, and prayer…
Jesus’ connection to the Passover feast is not only as the participant and one who remembers, but also…As the connection between Jesus being the Lamb of God. The lambs blood who was a sacrifice…Jesus needed food for his journey which would end in his death…As we continue on our journey to the cross with Jesus, may we be filled with food for the journey…As we come to the table tonight, may we be filled with the physical bread and juice and filled with the grace of God to sustain us through our journey…
Much to the disciples’ dismay, Jesus washed their feet. Now, there are certainly some who would be uncomfortable with that now, not just Jesus washing our feet, but foot washing in general. I mean we usually keep our feet covered with shoes and socks of some kind…And many people have ticklish feet…Some people have smelly feet…Some people go to great lengths so that their feet look good—pedicures, lotions, polishes…
In Jesus’ time they didn’t really have spas or salons where people could get pedicures, but they did have people who washed feet. It was the servant’s responsibility to wash the feet of the guests and the master. This wasn’t as easy as it may be for us today…If you go to a spa or a salon for a pedicure, you’ve had shoes & socks on and your feet have been somewhat protected…Well, in Jesus’ time they wore sandals. And they didn’t have cars, they walked…And they didn’t have nice sidewalks or pathways…They had dirt…So, feet in Jesus’ time would have been stinky, sweaty, very dirty, and just not taken care of very well.
So imagine the disciples’ surprise as Jesus gets down to wash his disciples’ feet. He was literally lowering himself because he was on his hands and knees at the feet of the disciples…He was becoming the servant of the disciples…He was placing his hands on his disciples’ stinky, sweaty, very dirty feet and washing them…
Peter, always wanting to do the right thing, argues with Jesus and doesn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. Then he wants Jesus to wash his whole body…But, Jesus tells him that’s not necessary.
After Jesus washes the feet of the disciples he tells them that just as he washed their feet, they should also wash one another’s feet. They should humble themselves as servants as well. Jesus wasn’t just washing their feet so that they would feel humbled or to do a grand gesture, he was also teaching the disciples and showing them what it means to be a servant. Sometimes it means sticking your hands in dirty water or washing someone’s stinky, sweaty, very dirty feet.
There’s a quote that says, “Sometimes in order to be a leader, you must first be a servant.” Jesus was a servant to his disciples, but he was also their leader…
As we began Holy Week on Sunday with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and with shouts of Hosanna and Glory to God…This is a much different scene and much different attitude…It’s not a jubilant party with the disciples, but what will be the last supper of Jesus and his disciples. It is this night that Jesus will be betrayed and arrested…Not the jubilant party from earlier…And one of Jesus’ last acts is to wash the disciples’ feet…One of Jesus’ last acts was that of a servant, not just to the disciples, but to all…
After the disciples feet were washed, it was time for dinner…Little did the disciples understand that this was the last meal that they would be spending with their friend and teacher, Jesus. It was the last time that they would break bread together…The last time that they would share the Passover meal together…
The Passover meal was traditional for the Jewish people…It was their festival remembering when they were slaves in Egypt and Moses was telling Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The Passover feast remembers when the angel of death passed over those homes with lambs blood on the door. In their feast, they recalled the stories with food, song, and prayer…
Jesus’ connection to the Passover feast is not only as the participant and one who remembers, but also…As the connection between Jesus being the Lamb of God. The lambs blood who was a sacrifice…Jesus needed food for his journey which would end in his death…As we continue on our journey to the cross with Jesus, may we be filled with food for the journey…As we come to the table tonight, may we be filled with the physical bread and juice and filled with the grace of God to sustain us through our journey…
Monday, March 17, 2008
Prayer of St. Patrick
"I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.
...
I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.
...
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe."
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.
...
I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.
...
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe."
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Choosing Now Over Later
Choosing Now Over Later
This is our last Sunday in Lent…It’s also the beginning of Holy Week…Our attention turns slightly from the prayer and meditation and inner searching to celebration and shouts of Hosanna! But…it’s still Lent…Still a time for prayer and meditation and inner searching…Because just as quickly as those shouts of “Hosanna” reigned for Jesus, they were just as quickly turned into cries of “Crucify Him!”
In our time together in prayer and inner searching, our Lenten series has been using Rev. Paul Nixon’s book I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. As we’ve asked the 6 critical choices, we’ve looked at what the mean for us as individuals and what they mean for us as a church…We’ve looked at the choices of life over death, community over isolation, fun over drudgery, bold over mild, frontier over fortress and today we examine the choice choosing now over later…
A couple years ago, I organized a trip to Italy that included our faculty advisor, Dr. Richard Eslinger and my friend Richie…Our first day in Rome, we spent walking a lot…and all day Richie complained about all the walking that we were doing…Now, I suppose it’s pretty understandable because we did walk at least 7 miles everyday…But, it was only our first day! As we were walking back from dinner back to our host families’ home, I heard a voice behind me complaining about having to walk the ½ mile to the house…I finally had enough of it so I turned around quickly and said, “Suck it up, cupcake!” and turned back around to keep walking…When I heard the same voice say, “Excuse me?” and I realized that I had not said it to Richie…But instead, I had said “Suck it up cupcake” to my professor Dr. Richard Eslinger…Now, we all had a good laugh about it and Dick accepted the “cupcake” nickname for our time together…And really the phrase picked up momentum and really I still use the phrase quite a bit!
The phrase, “suck it up cupcake” really means a lot of the same thing as Nike’s “Just do it!” campaign…Do what needs to be done…Or to use our choice for today…Choose now over later…And as easy as it may sound to make that choice…It’s just as easy to say, maybe later…
If there’s something that you really don’t want to do or just aren’t happy about doing…What do you say? “Maybe later…” Because it’s so easy to just say, “maybe later” than to tackle things head on and just do it!
In our story of Jesus calling the disciples…they obviously choose now over later…Those that Jesus called and said, “maybe later” were left behind and they didn’t become one of Jesus’ 12 disciples…But those 12 that said Yes, I will follow you now spent intimate time with Jesus, hearing his message, learning about God’s love, and being sent out into the world to share the message of the Gospel…Sure, they weren’t the only ones who heard Jesus preach or who were called and sent, but there was certainly something different about these 12…These 12 were called and they immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus…
They didn’t always understand what Jesus was talking about when he would teach and preach…And there were times that they disagreed with what he said…But, they always followed…Some of them even stayed until the very end…And some of them deserted Jesus…But throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, they followed, listened, and chose now…
Can you imagine what would have happened if they didn’t? Well, we know that those who were called by Jesus and said, “maybe later” were left behind…Maybe the did choose to follow Jesus later, but we don’t know…And I think that’s important to point out…The ones who said, “maybe later” were left behind…Or when Jesus gave the disciples the instructions of what to get before he entered Jerusalem…If the disciples had said, “yeah, maybe we’ll get that donkey later, Jesus.” Would the prophecy have been fulfilled? Would Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem have been such a scene with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna? It would take someone to say, “I’ll do it now!” It took someone to choose now over later…
The choice between now and later can be a scary one because there are times when we just don’t feel ready to make a decision or to do something new or different…Out of that fear, we may say, “someday we’ll think about that.” But that’s not where Jesus calls us…Jesus doesn’t call us to think about doing ministry…Jesus calls us to do ministry…We have to choose now over later…
Now, let’s be clear and say that there should always be sufficient time in prayer and discernment or listening to what God is calling and where God is leading…That is very important to spend time…But, a friend of mine said that sometimes discernment is just a “church word” for procrastination…That we can spend too much time in discernment and that makes us choose later instead of now.
Rev. Nixon gives examples of how churches can choose later…He says that churches choose later by saying among these, “We need to work first on doing a better job at pastoral care of our current members.” (p.98) or “We don’t have enough workers for the things we are trying to do currently.” (p.98) “We should just wait until we get a different pastor.” “There’s a new condo development in the mix. When that is built in a couple of years, we will have the people we need to do this.” (p.99) There are several other ways which are by no means an exhaustive list…Have you heard these things said before? All of these ways are choosing later instead of now…
When we choose later, it gives the space for something or someone else…If we don’t share the message of the Gospel now with people who need to hear it, someone else will share a message with them and it may not be the Gospel…If we don’t share the Good News of Jesus now, someone else will share their message of “good news” that may have nothing to do with Jesus…When that happens, we’ve just said “maybe later” not just to Jesus and Jesus’ call, but we’ve also said “maybe later” to the people who need to hear the Gospel…
Jesus knew that he had a limited time on earth to share the message of God’s love and God’s grace…He knew that he had a limited time to spend with the disciples, teaching and sharing with them…Jesus chose now at every turn…And you may be thinking, “well, duh…He’s Jesus!” But as Christians, we are called to imitate Christ…That’s what being a Christian means…Literally… “Christian” means “little Christ”…So how are you choosing to be a little Christ now? As the church, we are the body of Christ at work in the world today…How are we choosing to be the body of Christ now?
We have to choose now…Because if we say, “maybe later”…It might be too late…Let’s choose now together because God is calling to us still and God is calling to us now…There are people who need to hear the message of the Gospel…There are people who need to know the love of God…We have to show them now…We need to be “little Christs”…We need to be the body of Christ at work in the world…And we need to do it now…
This is our last Sunday in Lent…It’s also the beginning of Holy Week…Our attention turns slightly from the prayer and meditation and inner searching to celebration and shouts of Hosanna! But…it’s still Lent…Still a time for prayer and meditation and inner searching…Because just as quickly as those shouts of “Hosanna” reigned for Jesus, they were just as quickly turned into cries of “Crucify Him!”
In our time together in prayer and inner searching, our Lenten series has been using Rev. Paul Nixon’s book I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. As we’ve asked the 6 critical choices, we’ve looked at what the mean for us as individuals and what they mean for us as a church…We’ve looked at the choices of life over death, community over isolation, fun over drudgery, bold over mild, frontier over fortress and today we examine the choice choosing now over later…
A couple years ago, I organized a trip to Italy that included our faculty advisor, Dr. Richard Eslinger and my friend Richie…Our first day in Rome, we spent walking a lot…and all day Richie complained about all the walking that we were doing…Now, I suppose it’s pretty understandable because we did walk at least 7 miles everyday…But, it was only our first day! As we were walking back from dinner back to our host families’ home, I heard a voice behind me complaining about having to walk the ½ mile to the house…I finally had enough of it so I turned around quickly and said, “Suck it up, cupcake!” and turned back around to keep walking…When I heard the same voice say, “Excuse me?” and I realized that I had not said it to Richie…But instead, I had said “Suck it up cupcake” to my professor Dr. Richard Eslinger…Now, we all had a good laugh about it and Dick accepted the “cupcake” nickname for our time together…And really the phrase picked up momentum and really I still use the phrase quite a bit!
The phrase, “suck it up cupcake” really means a lot of the same thing as Nike’s “Just do it!” campaign…Do what needs to be done…Or to use our choice for today…Choose now over later…And as easy as it may sound to make that choice…It’s just as easy to say, maybe later…
If there’s something that you really don’t want to do or just aren’t happy about doing…What do you say? “Maybe later…” Because it’s so easy to just say, “maybe later” than to tackle things head on and just do it!
In our story of Jesus calling the disciples…they obviously choose now over later…Those that Jesus called and said, “maybe later” were left behind and they didn’t become one of Jesus’ 12 disciples…But those 12 that said Yes, I will follow you now spent intimate time with Jesus, hearing his message, learning about God’s love, and being sent out into the world to share the message of the Gospel…Sure, they weren’t the only ones who heard Jesus preach or who were called and sent, but there was certainly something different about these 12…These 12 were called and they immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus…
They didn’t always understand what Jesus was talking about when he would teach and preach…And there were times that they disagreed with what he said…But, they always followed…Some of them even stayed until the very end…And some of them deserted Jesus…But throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, they followed, listened, and chose now…
Can you imagine what would have happened if they didn’t? Well, we know that those who were called by Jesus and said, “maybe later” were left behind…Maybe the did choose to follow Jesus later, but we don’t know…And I think that’s important to point out…The ones who said, “maybe later” were left behind…Or when Jesus gave the disciples the instructions of what to get before he entered Jerusalem…If the disciples had said, “yeah, maybe we’ll get that donkey later, Jesus.” Would the prophecy have been fulfilled? Would Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem have been such a scene with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna? It would take someone to say, “I’ll do it now!” It took someone to choose now over later…
The choice between now and later can be a scary one because there are times when we just don’t feel ready to make a decision or to do something new or different…Out of that fear, we may say, “someday we’ll think about that.” But that’s not where Jesus calls us…Jesus doesn’t call us to think about doing ministry…Jesus calls us to do ministry…We have to choose now over later…
Now, let’s be clear and say that there should always be sufficient time in prayer and discernment or listening to what God is calling and where God is leading…That is very important to spend time…But, a friend of mine said that sometimes discernment is just a “church word” for procrastination…That we can spend too much time in discernment and that makes us choose later instead of now.
Rev. Nixon gives examples of how churches can choose later…He says that churches choose later by saying among these, “We need to work first on doing a better job at pastoral care of our current members.” (p.98) or “We don’t have enough workers for the things we are trying to do currently.” (p.98) “We should just wait until we get a different pastor.” “There’s a new condo development in the mix. When that is built in a couple of years, we will have the people we need to do this.” (p.99) There are several other ways which are by no means an exhaustive list…Have you heard these things said before? All of these ways are choosing later instead of now…
When we choose later, it gives the space for something or someone else…If we don’t share the message of the Gospel now with people who need to hear it, someone else will share a message with them and it may not be the Gospel…If we don’t share the Good News of Jesus now, someone else will share their message of “good news” that may have nothing to do with Jesus…When that happens, we’ve just said “maybe later” not just to Jesus and Jesus’ call, but we’ve also said “maybe later” to the people who need to hear the Gospel…
Jesus knew that he had a limited time on earth to share the message of God’s love and God’s grace…He knew that he had a limited time to spend with the disciples, teaching and sharing with them…Jesus chose now at every turn…And you may be thinking, “well, duh…He’s Jesus!” But as Christians, we are called to imitate Christ…That’s what being a Christian means…Literally… “Christian” means “little Christ”…So how are you choosing to be a little Christ now? As the church, we are the body of Christ at work in the world today…How are we choosing to be the body of Christ now?
We have to choose now…Because if we say, “maybe later”…It might be too late…Let’s choose now together because God is calling to us still and God is calling to us now…There are people who need to hear the message of the Gospel…There are people who need to know the love of God…We have to show them now…We need to be “little Christs”…We need to be the body of Christ at work in the world…And we need to do it now…
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Palm Sunday Breakfast
Sunday morning will be our traditional Palm Sunday Breakfast. Pancakes will be served from 7am-9am. Tickets are available now or will also be available at the door.
For more information, contact the church office 815-496-2021
For more information, contact the church office 815-496-2021
Monday, March 10, 2008
Hot Dog Lunch
After the Sheridan Community Easter Egg Hunt, there will be a FREE hot dog lunch at the Sheridan UMC. The lunch will last from 11:30-1:00 and there will also be an Easter craft for all ages.
For more information, contact the Church office at 815-496-2021
For more information, contact the Church office at 815-496-2021
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Choosing Frontier Over Fortress
Choosing Frontier Over Fortress
Well, here we are again…It’s now our 5th of 6 weeks of Lent…Lent is a time of reflection and questioning as we look forward to the celebration of Easter…As part of our reflection, our Lenten series has been working through Rev. Paul Nixon’s book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church…Throughout these past weeks, we’ve looked at the six critical choices that every church and every individual need to make…These choices have been choosing life over death, choosing community over isolation, choosing fun over drudgery, and choosing bold over mild. Last week, I had said that the first three weeks, although the choices had some difficulty to them, they were relatively easier choices to make…Last week began the first of the final three choices which are a little bit more difficult to make…They’re not difficult in that we don’t know what the choice should be, but they’re difficult in that they’re harder to make and they might push us a little bit more out of our comfort zone than what we like…This week is one of those choices as we examine our choice “choosing frontier over fortress.”
What does the choice frontier over fortress really mean? What do you think of when you hear the word “frontier”? wild west, untamed, scary, unknown etc… What do you think of when you hear the word “fortress” safety, secure, imposing, etc… Well, the choice between frontier and fortress is about choosing out verses in…The unknown verses the known…
There was a computer game that was played in the 80’s called “Oregon Trail”…Has anyone ever heard of it or played it? There’s been a recent resurgence of the game on other Internet sites like facebook…In the game, you played a pioneer on the trail heading west…Leaving home and venturing into the great unknown…Along the way you encountered a lot if different and sometimes difficult situations…Foraging rivers, hunting, gathering, and even illnesses…It was an adventure to try and get through! The game itself was choice of choosing frontier over fortress…
The whole idea of choosing frontier can be very scary for some people…It’s venturing into new territory…Into something that’s unknown…It’s outside of comfort zones…In many cases, it’s just outside! Many of you may be thinking, “Yeah! That is scary!” And for those who think that way, the idea of a fortress seems like a good idea, it’s safe…It’s secure…It’s not dangerous…And yet…
Choosing fortress really takes all of the previous choices at their word…Because if we say that we choose life, community, fun, and boldness…Well, in those decisions we really have to choose frontier…Because if we choose life, that means that we really have to live and can you live when you’re stuck behind walls? And if we choose community, well…can you be in community when you’ve sequestered yourself in a fortress? And how fun can it really be to be cooped up in some imposing structure…And can you be that bold with the same people over and over again? I mean it’s important to encourage others in their faith journey, but if that’s all the folks that we interact with…isn’t that kind of a problem?
As Jesus talks with his disciples on the top of the mountain and he’s telling the disciples what their responsibilities are in what is referred to as the great commission…Jesus tells the disciples “All authority has been given to me.” And in that statement is a boldness from Jesus…That he has all the authority on earth and in heaven…Not only does he have that, but he’s passing the torch to the disciples…Now, he’s not giving up any of his authority, because certainly Jesus is Lord! But, he’s giving the disciples an authority to continue to share the message of the Gospel and to continue to share his teachings with the world!
The first thing that Jesus gives the disciples to do is in that very first word in the great commission… “Go.” Jesus doesn’t say “Wait for people to come to you.” Jesus says, “Go.”
Chuck & Krissie Cilano are missionaries currently serving in Thailand…One of the pieces of advice that they give the teams they work with is to first and foremost pray…Prayer is not something that’s that unusual or something that would be that out of the ordinary really…But what they also say is to pray for opportunities to be able to minister and not just for the opportunities, but also to recognize when those opportunities arise…In almost every one of those opportunities, it takes us to get outside of ourselves to be able to minister…To get outside of the fortress of our own comfort zone…
And at the same it’s not just a figurative getting outside of the fortress…But it’s also a literal getting outside of the fortress…In the chapter in I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, Rev. Nixon shares some of the history of the United Methodist Church….From 1790 to 1830 the members of the Methodist movement grew from 58,000 to 501,000 in 40 years which is a 900% growth…That’s pretty amazing! Of those 501,000 people who made up congregations of the Methodist Episcopal church…about a third of them had no building whatsoever…In just 10 years in the 1840’s the number of new members joining had stopped and in those same 10 years, more church buildings were built…Is there a correlation?
The Methodist movement was founded on people who were willing to get outside of both themselves and out of the church buildings to meet people where they were…John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement spent just as much time, if not more outside of the sanctuary preaching in fields as he did in the sanctuaries and churches…What are we doing as a church to encourage people to meet Jesus? What are we doing to tell them that Jesus meets them right where they are…that Jesus is present in their very lives? That Jesus is calling to them…That Jesus is calling to us? How do they know? Do we give people the impression that they need to come to us to know about Jesus or do we give people the impression that they need to make the first move?
Now, please don’t get the impression that having a building is a bad thing…But, how is it that we use the building as a tool for ministry rather than the entire ministry itself? Meaning that if we woke up tomorrow and the building just vanished, would the ministries of the church still happen? How do we ensure that happens?
After Jesus told the disciples to “Go,” he game them the rest of the instruction… “Go and make disciples of all nations”…Go and make disciples of all people….ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOME! We are to invite all people into a relationship with Jesus…Baptizing them in the name of God three-in-one…The triune God…The Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost…And teaching to obey the commandments of Jesus…The commandments where Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And all of the teachings that Jesus shared with his disciples that helped to give examples of those commandments and those that challenged the society of the day…And those are things that we all should be diving into to work at understanding our faith…Jesus asks us to enter the frontier…
The frontier can be an intimidating place, but the last part of the passage from Matthew says a lot…Jesus gives this commission and then he says…And I will be with you always…Remember that I am with you always…We’re not left alone in the frontier to flounder or to be alone…We’re in the frontier with Jesus…With the One who has sent us…we are not alone…We have heard the commission to Go and make and create disciples of Jesus Christ…And we go in the strength of Jesus Christ…The same Jesus Christ who is God made flesh…The same Jesus Christ who entered the frontier to live among us…The same Jesus Christ who lived and died for us…The same Jesus Christ who rose again and calls to us still…As we go into the frontier, we know that we are entering with Jesus…As we go with Jesus, let us also go together!
Well, here we are again…It’s now our 5th of 6 weeks of Lent…Lent is a time of reflection and questioning as we look forward to the celebration of Easter…As part of our reflection, our Lenten series has been working through Rev. Paul Nixon’s book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church…Throughout these past weeks, we’ve looked at the six critical choices that every church and every individual need to make…These choices have been choosing life over death, choosing community over isolation, choosing fun over drudgery, and choosing bold over mild. Last week, I had said that the first three weeks, although the choices had some difficulty to them, they were relatively easier choices to make…Last week began the first of the final three choices which are a little bit more difficult to make…They’re not difficult in that we don’t know what the choice should be, but they’re difficult in that they’re harder to make and they might push us a little bit more out of our comfort zone than what we like…This week is one of those choices as we examine our choice “choosing frontier over fortress.”
What does the choice frontier over fortress really mean? What do you think of when you hear the word “frontier”? wild west, untamed, scary, unknown etc… What do you think of when you hear the word “fortress” safety, secure, imposing, etc… Well, the choice between frontier and fortress is about choosing out verses in…The unknown verses the known…
There was a computer game that was played in the 80’s called “Oregon Trail”…Has anyone ever heard of it or played it? There’s been a recent resurgence of the game on other Internet sites like facebook…In the game, you played a pioneer on the trail heading west…Leaving home and venturing into the great unknown…Along the way you encountered a lot if different and sometimes difficult situations…Foraging rivers, hunting, gathering, and even illnesses…It was an adventure to try and get through! The game itself was choice of choosing frontier over fortress…
The whole idea of choosing frontier can be very scary for some people…It’s venturing into new territory…Into something that’s unknown…It’s outside of comfort zones…In many cases, it’s just outside! Many of you may be thinking, “Yeah! That is scary!” And for those who think that way, the idea of a fortress seems like a good idea, it’s safe…It’s secure…It’s not dangerous…And yet…
Choosing fortress really takes all of the previous choices at their word…Because if we say that we choose life, community, fun, and boldness…Well, in those decisions we really have to choose frontier…Because if we choose life, that means that we really have to live and can you live when you’re stuck behind walls? And if we choose community, well…can you be in community when you’ve sequestered yourself in a fortress? And how fun can it really be to be cooped up in some imposing structure…And can you be that bold with the same people over and over again? I mean it’s important to encourage others in their faith journey, but if that’s all the folks that we interact with…isn’t that kind of a problem?
As Jesus talks with his disciples on the top of the mountain and he’s telling the disciples what their responsibilities are in what is referred to as the great commission…Jesus tells the disciples “All authority has been given to me.” And in that statement is a boldness from Jesus…That he has all the authority on earth and in heaven…Not only does he have that, but he’s passing the torch to the disciples…Now, he’s not giving up any of his authority, because certainly Jesus is Lord! But, he’s giving the disciples an authority to continue to share the message of the Gospel and to continue to share his teachings with the world!
The first thing that Jesus gives the disciples to do is in that very first word in the great commission… “Go.” Jesus doesn’t say “Wait for people to come to you.” Jesus says, “Go.”
Chuck & Krissie Cilano are missionaries currently serving in Thailand…One of the pieces of advice that they give the teams they work with is to first and foremost pray…Prayer is not something that’s that unusual or something that would be that out of the ordinary really…But what they also say is to pray for opportunities to be able to minister and not just for the opportunities, but also to recognize when those opportunities arise…In almost every one of those opportunities, it takes us to get outside of ourselves to be able to minister…To get outside of the fortress of our own comfort zone…
And at the same it’s not just a figurative getting outside of the fortress…But it’s also a literal getting outside of the fortress…In the chapter in I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, Rev. Nixon shares some of the history of the United Methodist Church….From 1790 to 1830 the members of the Methodist movement grew from 58,000 to 501,000 in 40 years which is a 900% growth…That’s pretty amazing! Of those 501,000 people who made up congregations of the Methodist Episcopal church…about a third of them had no building whatsoever…In just 10 years in the 1840’s the number of new members joining had stopped and in those same 10 years, more church buildings were built…Is there a correlation?
The Methodist movement was founded on people who were willing to get outside of both themselves and out of the church buildings to meet people where they were…John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement spent just as much time, if not more outside of the sanctuary preaching in fields as he did in the sanctuaries and churches…What are we doing as a church to encourage people to meet Jesus? What are we doing to tell them that Jesus meets them right where they are…that Jesus is present in their very lives? That Jesus is calling to them…That Jesus is calling to us? How do they know? Do we give people the impression that they need to come to us to know about Jesus or do we give people the impression that they need to make the first move?
Now, please don’t get the impression that having a building is a bad thing…But, how is it that we use the building as a tool for ministry rather than the entire ministry itself? Meaning that if we woke up tomorrow and the building just vanished, would the ministries of the church still happen? How do we ensure that happens?
After Jesus told the disciples to “Go,” he game them the rest of the instruction… “Go and make disciples of all nations”…Go and make disciples of all people….ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOME! We are to invite all people into a relationship with Jesus…Baptizing them in the name of God three-in-one…The triune God…The Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost…And teaching to obey the commandments of Jesus…The commandments where Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And all of the teachings that Jesus shared with his disciples that helped to give examples of those commandments and those that challenged the society of the day…And those are things that we all should be diving into to work at understanding our faith…Jesus asks us to enter the frontier…
The frontier can be an intimidating place, but the last part of the passage from Matthew says a lot…Jesus gives this commission and then he says…And I will be with you always…Remember that I am with you always…We’re not left alone in the frontier to flounder or to be alone…We’re in the frontier with Jesus…With the One who has sent us…we are not alone…We have heard the commission to Go and make and create disciples of Jesus Christ…And we go in the strength of Jesus Christ…The same Jesus Christ who is God made flesh…The same Jesus Christ who entered the frontier to live among us…The same Jesus Christ who lived and died for us…The same Jesus Christ who rose again and calls to us still…As we go into the frontier, we know that we are entering with Jesus…As we go with Jesus, let us also go together!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Choosing Bold Over Mild
Choosing Bold Over Mild
We’re in the fourth week of our Lenten series, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church and in the 4th of 6 critical choices that need to be made…Each choice is vital and critical not only for individuals, but also for churches…Rev. Paul Nixon poses these choices to the Church universal, but also to every congregation…Our first choice is Choosing Life over Death, the second choice is choosing community over isolation, and the third choice is choosing fun over drudgery…The first 3 choices have seemed like they would be easy choices to make…Life obviously wins over death and community clearly trumps isolation and drudgery doesn’t even stand a chance against fun! But the next three choices, while it’s clear what the choice should be, the decision gets harder…Because the choices become more challenging…Which brings us to today where our choice is choosing bold over mild…
When you’re at the store and you have the option of choosing the product that’s “original” or the product that’s “new and improved”…Which one do you choose? More often than not, the product that’s new and improved wins out…There are the rare cases when it doesn’t…Like when Coca-Cola changed their name to “new Coke”—that one didn’t go over so well, but instead they went from “new Coke” to “Classic Coca-Cola” which was a bold change in and of itself as well!
Choosing Bold over Mild…Now, the choice is pretty clear which to make…We should choose Bold! But like I said the next 3 choices are more challenging…When we call something bold, it’s usually because it’s sharp or biting or harsh…Bold hasn’t been associated with many “good” ideas in more recent times…So, wouldn’t we want to choose mild? Because mild surely doesn’t offend anyone…
And therein lies the problem…Mild doesn’t offend anyone…And Jesus’ message was anything but mild…Now don’t misunderstand…Jesus’ message was about love and grace, but Jesus’ teachings weren’t easy to swallow for many people when they were first heard or when they’re heard today…Jesus’ teachings are very challenging and if you aren’t sure about that, the next time you read one of Jesus’ teachings, imagine that Jesus is talking directly to you…While Jesus’ message is one of love and grace, it is also very challenging…Jesus’ message…The message of the Gospel is very bold.
The story from this morning about the man born blind is a story filled with boldness and even within the story, there’s some mildness to be found…
Jesus & his disciples encounter this man born blind from birth and after some conversation about his condition, Jesus makes a bold statement about himself…He tells his disciples that he is the light of the world…Even more than that, Jesus says I AM the light of the world…In this short sentence, Jesus refers to himself as God simply by saying the words I AM…When Moses asked God for God’s name in the burning bush, God told Moses, “My name is I AM.” Jesus just made the bold statement, I AM the light of the world…
After Jesus makes the bold claim about himself, he then moves toward healing this man…This is another bold move…Not just because Jesus is going to heal this man, but because he’s going to heal this man on the Sabbath…According to law, no work must be done on the Sabbath—absolutely none! Jews were given specific instructions on how to observe the Sabbath and still continue the practice to this day…No cooking is to be done on the Sabbath, only a certain number of steps are allowed…Absolutely no work is to be done…So, if absolutely no work is to be done and Jesus is healing this man on the Sabbath…Jesus is doing something bold! He’s healing on the Sabbath and he knows that the Scribes & the Pharisees are not going to take kindly to this…But Jesus still spits on the ground and makes mud…then he takes that mud and puts it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam…Now this man could have ignored Jesus, but instead he did what Jesus told him to do and he came back able to see…
The townsfolk didn’t believe that this could possibly be the same man that they knew who would beg…and after some questioning, they find out how this man could see again. And when word gets to the Pharisees, they are not happy…They refuse to believe that Jesus is doing this healing in the name of God because surely God of all would honor the Sabbath!
So the Pharisees started to make excuses because they didn’t want to believe many parts of this story…They didn’t want to believe that anyone from God would heal on the Sabbath, but they also didn’t want to believe that anyone but God would heal this man born blind…It’s a tough situation to be in!
The Pharisees call in the blind man’s parents and want to make sure that this man was really born blind and if it is their son, how was it that he could see…And what do his parents do? Well, they acknowledge that this man is their son, but they give no answers as to who healed their son…Instead they say, “Ask him! He’s of age!” They don’t want to get involved with the situation, because they don’t want to be caught up in anything if there’s trouble…They’ve heard their son’s stories and they could certainly share what their son has shared, but instead they take the mild approach… “Ask him yourself.”
Now to some, their mild approach may make sense…Why would they put themselves in a position of getting in trouble? I mean seriously, they weren’t there for the actual healing…So, why would they want to put themselves in a position to get into trouble or offend anyone? So, in today’s times…When someone asks you “Why do you go to church?” Of course you say, “Figure it out for yourself.” Or “Why are you so joyful all the time?” “Figure it out for yourself.” Or “Who is this Jesus I keep hearing about.” “Figure it out for yourself.” It’s a nice, mild response…
Well, the Pharisees then go to the man born blind and he has no problem telling the Pharisees what has happened…Now this man has never seen Jesus, so he answers honestly that he doesn’t really know who it was that healed him, but instead he starts teaching the Pharisees about God! The Pharisees who are the experts—the ones who claim to know everything that can possibly known about God and this man, this formerly blind man who they consider to be a sinner starts to tell them about God…Oh this formerly blind man is bold!
The Pharisees tell this man that they don’t know where Jesus came from…And the man says to them…You say that only one from God can heal…I once was blind and now I see…I’ve been healed and you’re still asking where this man came from? If only one from God can heal and he healed me…Don’t you see the connection here…So many bold statements in that man…He was standing up to the Pharisees and teaching them! And he was making the statement that Jesus came from God…A statement that was blasphemous…he could be put to death for it…And he makes it unabashedly! Much different from the mild response from his parents!
When Jesus encounters this man again he asks him, do you believe in the Son of Man? Now, remember that this formerly blind man has never actually seen Jesus, so he doesn’t know to recognize him by sight…But Jesus tells him that he is looking at the Son of Man…And he worships him!
Did you catch that? This man never physically saw Jesus and yet, he believed! He didn’t know how to recognize the one that healed him, but he believed that Jesus was from God…He made an incredibly bold decision…And when he finally did come face to face with Jesus, he told him that he believed and he worshiped him!
Are we that bold? Are you that bold? To unabashedly believe in Jesus that we don’t have to physically see him in order to believe? To not need proof in order to say that Jesus is Lord!?!?
That’s boldness there…Jesus doesn’t call us to be mild…Jesus doesn’t ask if we believe and then say, “Oh good, keep it a secret now!” Did Jesus die and rise again to keep that news a secret?? That’s bold news…That’s the Good News of the Gospel! That Jesus died and rose again…That Jesus is Lord! It’s bold news! So, what do we do with that bold news?? Think it’s great on Sunday morning, but on Monday morning in line at the grocery store forget about it?? Are we choosing bold over mild?
Now to be sure, there is a time when boldness can cross the line into pushy or rude…And there are probably times when there will be someone who is offended when I say that Jesus is my Lord…But I’m not going to hide that and I’m not going to keep it a secret…Because I am excited and impassioned that Jesus is my Lord…That God made the bold move to send Jesus Christ because God so loved the whole world! That Jesus was so bold to die for me, for us and that the whole world was changed when Jesus rose from the dead…That there was all this boldness and all this amazing activity that happened for me and on my behalf…For us and on our behalf…How can we not be bold in proclaiming that??
And it’s still a choice that we have to make…Are we going to be bold in our belief? Or are we going to be mild? And let me say that if we choose to be mild, there will be another bold statement to come along that people will listen to more…And that bold statement may not have anything to with Jesus or with God’s love…But we have the bolder statement…We have it…Are we going to share it? Choosing Bold Over Mild…It’s not always easy, but it’s what we’re called to do. Let’s choose bold over mild together.
We’re in the fourth week of our Lenten series, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church and in the 4th of 6 critical choices that need to be made…Each choice is vital and critical not only for individuals, but also for churches…Rev. Paul Nixon poses these choices to the Church universal, but also to every congregation…Our first choice is Choosing Life over Death, the second choice is choosing community over isolation, and the third choice is choosing fun over drudgery…The first 3 choices have seemed like they would be easy choices to make…Life obviously wins over death and community clearly trumps isolation and drudgery doesn’t even stand a chance against fun! But the next three choices, while it’s clear what the choice should be, the decision gets harder…Because the choices become more challenging…Which brings us to today where our choice is choosing bold over mild…
When you’re at the store and you have the option of choosing the product that’s “original” or the product that’s “new and improved”…Which one do you choose? More often than not, the product that’s new and improved wins out…There are the rare cases when it doesn’t…Like when Coca-Cola changed their name to “new Coke”—that one didn’t go over so well, but instead they went from “new Coke” to “Classic Coca-Cola” which was a bold change in and of itself as well!
Choosing Bold over Mild…Now, the choice is pretty clear which to make…We should choose Bold! But like I said the next 3 choices are more challenging…When we call something bold, it’s usually because it’s sharp or biting or harsh…Bold hasn’t been associated with many “good” ideas in more recent times…So, wouldn’t we want to choose mild? Because mild surely doesn’t offend anyone…
And therein lies the problem…Mild doesn’t offend anyone…And Jesus’ message was anything but mild…Now don’t misunderstand…Jesus’ message was about love and grace, but Jesus’ teachings weren’t easy to swallow for many people when they were first heard or when they’re heard today…Jesus’ teachings are very challenging and if you aren’t sure about that, the next time you read one of Jesus’ teachings, imagine that Jesus is talking directly to you…While Jesus’ message is one of love and grace, it is also very challenging…Jesus’ message…The message of the Gospel is very bold.
The story from this morning about the man born blind is a story filled with boldness and even within the story, there’s some mildness to be found…
Jesus & his disciples encounter this man born blind from birth and after some conversation about his condition, Jesus makes a bold statement about himself…He tells his disciples that he is the light of the world…Even more than that, Jesus says I AM the light of the world…In this short sentence, Jesus refers to himself as God simply by saying the words I AM…When Moses asked God for God’s name in the burning bush, God told Moses, “My name is I AM.” Jesus just made the bold statement, I AM the light of the world…
After Jesus makes the bold claim about himself, he then moves toward healing this man…This is another bold move…Not just because Jesus is going to heal this man, but because he’s going to heal this man on the Sabbath…According to law, no work must be done on the Sabbath—absolutely none! Jews were given specific instructions on how to observe the Sabbath and still continue the practice to this day…No cooking is to be done on the Sabbath, only a certain number of steps are allowed…Absolutely no work is to be done…So, if absolutely no work is to be done and Jesus is healing this man on the Sabbath…Jesus is doing something bold! He’s healing on the Sabbath and he knows that the Scribes & the Pharisees are not going to take kindly to this…But Jesus still spits on the ground and makes mud…then he takes that mud and puts it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam…Now this man could have ignored Jesus, but instead he did what Jesus told him to do and he came back able to see…
The townsfolk didn’t believe that this could possibly be the same man that they knew who would beg…and after some questioning, they find out how this man could see again. And when word gets to the Pharisees, they are not happy…They refuse to believe that Jesus is doing this healing in the name of God because surely God of all would honor the Sabbath!
So the Pharisees started to make excuses because they didn’t want to believe many parts of this story…They didn’t want to believe that anyone from God would heal on the Sabbath, but they also didn’t want to believe that anyone but God would heal this man born blind…It’s a tough situation to be in!
The Pharisees call in the blind man’s parents and want to make sure that this man was really born blind and if it is their son, how was it that he could see…And what do his parents do? Well, they acknowledge that this man is their son, but they give no answers as to who healed their son…Instead they say, “Ask him! He’s of age!” They don’t want to get involved with the situation, because they don’t want to be caught up in anything if there’s trouble…They’ve heard their son’s stories and they could certainly share what their son has shared, but instead they take the mild approach… “Ask him yourself.”
Now to some, their mild approach may make sense…Why would they put themselves in a position of getting in trouble? I mean seriously, they weren’t there for the actual healing…So, why would they want to put themselves in a position to get into trouble or offend anyone? So, in today’s times…When someone asks you “Why do you go to church?” Of course you say, “Figure it out for yourself.” Or “Why are you so joyful all the time?” “Figure it out for yourself.” Or “Who is this Jesus I keep hearing about.” “Figure it out for yourself.” It’s a nice, mild response…
Well, the Pharisees then go to the man born blind and he has no problem telling the Pharisees what has happened…Now this man has never seen Jesus, so he answers honestly that he doesn’t really know who it was that healed him, but instead he starts teaching the Pharisees about God! The Pharisees who are the experts—the ones who claim to know everything that can possibly known about God and this man, this formerly blind man who they consider to be a sinner starts to tell them about God…Oh this formerly blind man is bold!
The Pharisees tell this man that they don’t know where Jesus came from…And the man says to them…You say that only one from God can heal…I once was blind and now I see…I’ve been healed and you’re still asking where this man came from? If only one from God can heal and he healed me…Don’t you see the connection here…So many bold statements in that man…He was standing up to the Pharisees and teaching them! And he was making the statement that Jesus came from God…A statement that was blasphemous…he could be put to death for it…And he makes it unabashedly! Much different from the mild response from his parents!
When Jesus encounters this man again he asks him, do you believe in the Son of Man? Now, remember that this formerly blind man has never actually seen Jesus, so he doesn’t know to recognize him by sight…But Jesus tells him that he is looking at the Son of Man…And he worships him!
Did you catch that? This man never physically saw Jesus and yet, he believed! He didn’t know how to recognize the one that healed him, but he believed that Jesus was from God…He made an incredibly bold decision…And when he finally did come face to face with Jesus, he told him that he believed and he worshiped him!
Are we that bold? Are you that bold? To unabashedly believe in Jesus that we don’t have to physically see him in order to believe? To not need proof in order to say that Jesus is Lord!?!?
That’s boldness there…Jesus doesn’t call us to be mild…Jesus doesn’t ask if we believe and then say, “Oh good, keep it a secret now!” Did Jesus die and rise again to keep that news a secret?? That’s bold news…That’s the Good News of the Gospel! That Jesus died and rose again…That Jesus is Lord! It’s bold news! So, what do we do with that bold news?? Think it’s great on Sunday morning, but on Monday morning in line at the grocery store forget about it?? Are we choosing bold over mild?
Now to be sure, there is a time when boldness can cross the line into pushy or rude…And there are probably times when there will be someone who is offended when I say that Jesus is my Lord…But I’m not going to hide that and I’m not going to keep it a secret…Because I am excited and impassioned that Jesus is my Lord…That God made the bold move to send Jesus Christ because God so loved the whole world! That Jesus was so bold to die for me, for us and that the whole world was changed when Jesus rose from the dead…That there was all this boldness and all this amazing activity that happened for me and on my behalf…For us and on our behalf…How can we not be bold in proclaiming that??
And it’s still a choice that we have to make…Are we going to be bold in our belief? Or are we going to be mild? And let me say that if we choose to be mild, there will be another bold statement to come along that people will listen to more…And that bold statement may not have anything to with Jesus or with God’s love…But we have the bolder statement…We have it…Are we going to share it? Choosing Bold Over Mild…It’s not always easy, but it’s what we’re called to do. Let’s choose bold over mild together.
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