Ambivalence
As we saw at the beginning of Lent, when the devil was tempting Jesus, everything that Jesus was being tempted by, He could have without a bit of help from the devil. And it's the same thing as He stays crucified on the cross. He could get out… But Jesus doesn't take the easy way out.
The Whole Point
Pain before joy; death before glory. What we see that day at Lazarus’ tomb is not a Jesus who stands aloof from our pain and our grief, but experiences it Himself, not merely for His own glory, but so that you and I can enter into joy and glory. And friends, that is the whole point!
Seeing Through God’s Eyes
In healing the man blind from birth––the lesson for all of us in this is that that is all of us! All of us are blind from birth. We’re born into a world separated from God, into a reality separated from God, we’re blind to our fallen nature, our sinful nature, and it takes God coming into us and healing our blindness for us to do this.
Beyond Snap Judgements
In this story Jesus demonstrates for us how we can move beyond our snap judgments and do the work of seeing and connecting with the person in front of us, even if that means crossing traditional boundary markers, to lead with love, to give others the benefit of the doubt, to meet people with curiosity, to be truth-seekers with others instead of assuming that we’re the expert in the room.
Following God’s Plan
Even when we break that relationship in our sin and disobedience, God’s plan has always been the same. At its core it’s about the restoration of that relationship. God’s plan is the reclaiming and remaking of his family.
Permitted Fruit
“...our tendency is to focus on all the rules and commandments we’ve broken, all the bad fruit we’ve produced. Yes, that is vital for our discipleship…But we make a mistake when we see this as the goal of our discipleship. What I invite you to imagine is what it looks like to produce good fruit.”
The End of the Story
The end of the story is that God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love; He doesn’t desire any sinner to perish, but to have eternal life.
Just Who are We Dealing With?
In our secular society, it is taboo to share the gospel with others because our faith is personal and private; what right do we have to impose our belief on others? We can become so familiar with the grace and mercy of our friend Jesus that we forget that He will come again to judge the quick and the dead.
World Missions Sunday
Getting out of your comfort zone and into a situation where life is very different from what you’re accustomed to, that is still doable because God is the one who calls you there and God is the one who enables you to live like that.
A Divine Introduction
Only God can draw a confession from the hearts of the lost! Only Christ can convince the pluralist, the atheist, the agnostic, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It isn’t all on you and me. We do have work to do, but He does the heavy lifting.
Getting Into Jesus
We aren’t just spectators watching the Jesus Network, looking for a good recipe for biblical ethics. No! We are IN Him just as He is IN us! We participate in the actual events of His life by virtue of our union with Him. This is our “quantum leap” into Jesus! This is how we get into Jesus! What a privilege! What a joy!
Those Who are Far Off
God is still at work! He is still drawing men, women, and children to himself! He is in all the far off places, lighting the hearts of Magi who may live next door, work in the next cubicle, or on the next treadmill over.
Living Where You Belong
We must expose our own darkness to the light so that we can live the reality that we are always in God’s presence. We can live in such a way as to deny this reality, but that does nothing to change it.
Clothed in Christ
“Like Adam and Eve, we reach for fig leaves that cost us nothing when what we need are the covering of skins that cost the blood of another.”
The Scandal of the Incarnation
And more than that, let us as a church think: Who are we here to serve? We are a high church, liturgical church, in downtown Jackson. Who has God put us here to serve? Is it the intact marriages, the intact families, with 2.5 kids and a dog? Is it the picket fences on the 3 story homes? Or is it regular people with regular lives? Messy, scandalous, difficult, confusing? Yes. This is where God wants us to work.
From Belief to Doubt to Belief
The human condition tells us, and Jesus highlights it in the scriptures, that we are going to have belief and we're going to have doubt. But He says if you will cling to me and to my works and to my words, you will have a belief that can be unshaken.
I Heard the Bells
And I think of all the bells everywhere this time of year––on doors, on trees, on cars, on everything…and when I feel despair, I close my eyes and I listen for the bells, and I reaffirm God’s declaration of peace. The bells remind me that the table is open. I open my eyes and I get back to work.
Something to Hope For
When Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 to “always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have inside us,” the way people see that we have that hope is through that participatory hope, when we roll up our sleeves and when we get engaged in the community around us, sharing the gospel in both word and deed. Then people will start to ask us questions and we can give an answer for the hope.
The Scepter of Life
…and this is the mystery of the crucifixion. By subjecting himself to the pinnacle of earthly power, the scepter of death, Jesus sets himself up to display the power of life. No one has this power but him.
The Lens of Faith
All of our safety measures, all of our checks and balances, all of our laws and rights, at best, are impressive Temple stones. Before long, they will crumble and fail us.