How Big Is Your God?

Friday evening, we shared a thoughtful, reflective Good Friday service called Tenebrae. Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows” or “darkness.” As music and readings detailing the events at Calvary were shared, the candles were slowly extinguished. We remembered the price Jesus paid to redeem us from our sins. We remembered His last words, and shared in the solemnity of that experience. It was very special service. The sparseness of the sanctuary and somber mood stood in stark contrast to the color and excitement we encountered this morning upon entering.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Jesus is alive!

We shared an Easter breakfast downstairs at 9:00 a.m., followed by an Easter Egg Hunt for the younger ones. The service itself began with the customary greetings, a brief announcement about the building committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, and a time of worship.

Because Resurrection Sunday is a time of new beginnings, we received a batch of new members into the church family this morning. They were: Tony & Jeannette Ciaccio, Roschelle Landsverk, Brent & Ann Lee, Norm & Mae Livgard, Ed & Susie Newman, and Rob & Jen Strom.

The Scripture readings and a time of prayer followed.
Psalm 118:1-4, 14-24
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 28:1-10

Shylee Smith Lunde then shared a beautiful solo with us after which our pastor, Brad Shannon, began his message.

How Big Is Your God?

Brad began with how kids when their little love to spread their arms and say how big they are. Or how big their love is, or whatever. But the real question on the table this morning, Brad stated, is this. How big is Christ in your life?

Jesus claimed to be God in human form and He verified His claims by rising from the dead. Jesus is alive!

The apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 15, called the resurrection the hingepoint of history. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead affirms the faith, and certifies that all He said was true.

At this point Brad detoured to ask questions about our human limits. How long can we go without food? 30 days. How long without sleep? 10 days. How many hours can we dance? 100. How far can we walk? 500 to 600 miles. But how long can we go without water? Only three days.

Water is central to our lives. And in the especially arid Middle East, water is an even more pressing concern. This is in part behind the point Jesus was making when He encountered the woman at the well in John 4. The idea of an eternal well that would flow up without end captured her imagination. Jesus was speaking of the well of living water that flows from God, the only well that really satisfies our deepest thirst. The rest of the sermon focused on the thirsts most common to humankind.

First, our thirst for an answer to the meaning of life... Brad cited several songs from the 60’s which wrestled with life’s tough questions, including Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind, Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence, and the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

T.S.Eliot, who became a Christian after rejecting the futility of the modern world’s empty path once wrote about the condition of godless man in this manner.

And the wind shall say:
"Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls . . ."

A second thirst that is common amongst us is the thirst for community. We desire to be connected, to be part of a group, to have peers, friends, relationship. We all seek deeper connections. But what is it that we really seek?

The prophet Jeremiah wrote, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jer. 2:13)

Every heart is like a cistern. When we open the lid and allow God to fill it, indeed He fills it to the brim and overflowing. If we try to fill our hearts with something else, it leaves us empty.

Brad cited an amusing story about a relationship he had with a girl that he thought was special, but she pushed him away. At the time he thought she was his everything. But after the third rejection, God spoke to him and said, “She’s not your everything. I am your everything.”

A relationship with God is the deep connection we all seek.

The thirst to be clean is a third longing we all have. Brad shared how when he was mowing fields on a hot summer day, getting all sweaty and having the swirling dust stick to his skin… he had only one thought pre-eminent in his mind. “I’ve got to have a shower.” It feels good to be clean.

Likewise, our souls have an aversion to moral dirt. Some of us have lived large portions of our lives stained by our acts. Some of us wonder, “Would people still love me if they knew who I really was and what I’ve really done?”

In Psalm 51 David pleads, “Cleanse me… wash me… create in me a pure heart.” This is the deep thirst of every human heart. And when we look at the cross, what Jesus did for us, it satisfies this deep longing, for Jesus took on our sin, our uncleanness, to make us clean. Who needs a shower? Humble yourselves… He wants to wash you.

The final thirst we share is for a grander vision. Several of the disciples had been fisherman. It was a commercial activity that provided for their families. But Jesus offered them something more, to become fishers of men. To work with Him to restore a broken world. To the disciples, and to us, He puts forth this question: Are you about dollars or destinies?

Jesus is alive. When you find God’s grander vision, you’ll see… this is it.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday Services

Our usual blog writer is on a trip, leaving me, his wife, to attempt the blog. I found the Good Friday service so powerful that I was completely immersed in the solemnness of the commemoration of Jesus death, and only remembered two-thirds of the way through it that I should be trying to take notes for a blog. There were a series of Scripture readings by various people in the congregation about the death of Christ, followed by reflections by Pastor Brad. Each time a reading was finished another candle was blown out and the lights dimmed until we were in darkness. We departed in silence, with none of the usual cheerful greetings and chatter. Darkness had fallen outside as well. Walking to our cars I truly felt that I had just been present at someones death.

Easter morning began with a generously supplied breakfast of various egg bake dishes, muffins, and fruit. The basement was so crowded a table was set up upstairs to accommodate everyone. Brooke had organized an Easter egg hunt for the children.

The service began with a question from Pastor Brad, "Do you feel it?... Do you feel the power of the resurrection in your life?" We often minimize the Gospel to be the "minimal entrance requirements" to get into heaven. Jesus had one message, one Gospel, The Kingdom of Heaven, which was to make "up there" come "down here."

We sang a series of joyful Easter hymns, then welcomed into membership thirteen new members. Paula Saxin gave a children's message, for which it seemed like dozens of children streamed forward. She told a well known story about Jesus' life, throwing in some not so true aspects, to see if the children were listening and would notice and correct the fallacies. They did a good job. Then just before the message Dana sang a stirring and lively Amy Grant song, Sing Your Praise to the Lord.

We Are Risen
Brad began the message by stating that there are plenty of explanations that make the empty tomb believable, but that would not be the focus of the message today. Rather, what difference does the resurrection make for you or for me?

In 1943 there was a man named Gerkner Joerg, a German soldier who served under Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, The Desert Fox. A British man captured Rommel's crew and Joerg was put in a prison camp in the U.S. In 1945 he slipped past a guard and ran. For years afterward he continuously was on the run to avoid being found out. He became a tennis instructor, then a ski instructor who helped to save many when there was a train wreck in the Donner Pass. After 20 years of running and moving from place to place one day his wife said, "Why?" and he finally told her the true story about his escape from the prison camp. She said, "You need to go to the department of immigration and naturalization now. THE WAR IS OVER!" He did go, and they made him a U.S. citizen. How many of us live under pressure and condemnation and don't even realize that through Jesus' death and resurrection we have been given life and redemption.

For the disciples, the dream of the kingdom being near that Jesus had incited in them was crushed when He died. At that point they had no hope. They needed something to hang onto.

What difference does the resurrection make? Where do you find hope in the failed situations of life? We have the hope of resurrection. That hope is not only life beyond the grave. Hope overturns a variety of disasters in our lives...
disasters of faith,
abandonment,
doubt,
confusion.

Peter failed by denying Jesus. His disaster was one of faith, but later (as told in John 21) Jesus reinstates Peter to his new vocation. Maybe you have fallen short. Because of the resurrection there is hope and forgiveness.

Mary Magdalene saw Jesus, who had accepted and loved her, die and be placed in the tomb. She had nowhere to go, she faced the disaster of abandonment, but finds that in the resurrection is the promise of God's presence.

Thomas' "disaster" was that of doubt. He stated that unless he sees the marks in Jesus' hands he will not believe. But Thomas was not only a doubter but a confessor. When Jesus shows him his hands he says, "My Lord and my God!" If you have doubts keep asking questions because beyond the doubts is a serious faith.

The disciples were all experiencing the disaster of confusion. In Matt. 28 Jesus appeared to them and they worshipped Him but some doubted. Directly thereafter Jesus commissioned them to go make disciple of all nations. Beyond the disaster of confusion is a mission.

Why did Jesus do it? Why did He die for us?

In 1878, Victoria was Queen of England. Her third child, Princess Alice had a 4 year old son who contracted black diphtheria and was quarantined by the doctors. His mother was strictly warned not to go near her son. One day she overheard her son ask the nurse "why doesn't my mommy kiss me anymore?" It broke her heart, and she ran in and smothered him in kisses. Within a week they were both buried. Romans 8 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus smothers us with his love, like Princess Alice did her son, even though it cost Him His life .

The Day Jesus Cried

In his opening welcome, Pastor Brad Shannon said, “I’m delighted you are here today to worship with us. We have a God who meets needs and who meets people where they are at.” This introduction set the tone for today’s message.

Announcements of importance this morning included notification that we will be celebrating a Good Friday Service at 7:00 p.m. on March 21, and that Easter morning we will be having a breakfast here are the church 9:00 a.m. instead of Sunday School.

Today’s Scripture readings were from Psalm 130 and Romans 8:6-11.

Today’s sermon was titled The Day Jesus Cried from the well known account of Lazarus in chapter eleven from the Gospel of John.

My favorite verse as a child, Pastor Brad said, was John 11:35. “Jesus wept.” The reason was not noble, he noted. It was the shortest verse in the Bible. “It only took me two days to memorize,” he said, tongue planted in cheek.

He recalled for us instances in Jesus’ life demonstrating our Lord’s strength and authority. It was a powerful man who challenged the moneychangers in the temple, turning over their tables, driving them out with a whip. He was a man not afraid to confront demons, casting them away wherever He encountered them. He essentially told the disciples to follow him, men who were rugged themselves and accustomed to hardship. He said, “Follow me,” and they followed.

So, why would the God of the universe cry? It is a question Brad asked at Bible Camp as a youth and the reply was not unlike what many people might have said. “Jesus is human, just like you, so when His friend died He was saddened by this.” Which sounds like a good enough answer, until you actually read what the Bible really says.

There are a number of clues that point to the real reason Jesus wept. But before we go there, Pastor Brad said, he asked us to close our eyes and think about the things that trouble us today, the burdens we are carrying. After this brief moment of reflection, we returned to the sermon.

Clue #1
The first clue can be found in verses 3 and 4. Jesus’ friend Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, was sick. The sister sent word to the Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death.”

Jesus planned from moment one to raise Lazarus from death. Death is a period, not a comma. Dead is dead. But Jesus knew He had come to change this all around.

One day there will be a funeral here (at New Life Covenant) and it will not be the end. Instead, we shall proclaim, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Clue #2
In verses five and six we read that even though He loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, “when he heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days.” A better translated shed light on verse five that it was because He loved them that He waited two more days. Jesus is excited about what He is going to do. There is no sadness in the text at this point.

And so, at verse seven He says they should go back to Judea. One of the disciples, speaking up on behalf of all, said, “But Rabbi,a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

The Lord’s response is a curious one here. "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." Essentially He is saying, “If you are with Me, it doesn’t matter.”

Clue #3
As if to sum up what is really going on, Jesus spells it out: “Lazarus has fallen asleep.” It’s a temporary state of affairs.

Clue #4
When the disciples fail to “get it” Jesus spells it out. “Lazarus is dead.”

How did the disciples respond to this news? Thomas showed his confidence (or lack thereof) by saying, “Let us also go that we may die with him.”

Was Jesus, who knew everything that was going on here, sad going into this? No. He had the gift of life and was about to deliver it.

Clue #5
Verse 23 is clue five. “Your brother will rise again,” He said. But Martha responds in a dismissive way. She still doesn’t get it.

This is the context for that wonderful affirmation of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Pastor Brad made several powerful statements here that our blog writer is inadequate to convey. First, that it is no good to sing songs and feel good unless we really believe what we’re doing. “And the only proof that we really believe what we’re singing is when we act on what we believe.”

Then the other sister came out and said, “If only you’d been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus saw her weeping and the other Jews who had come along weeping and He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. It does not say that when He saw the grave where Lazarus had been placed he wept, but rather when He saw His people suffering needlessly, carrying on their own shoulders a burden He didn’t want them to carry, oblivious to the promise and hope He had just offered, burdened and buried in the sin of disbelief...

It was here that Jesus wept.

When I got up the day before yesterday, God almighty Himself was standing beside my bed, like He stood by yours this morning and mine this morning. And He says to each of us, “You’re going to face some things today that you have no idea what’s coming.” Perhaps it will be a relational conflict that will break your heart. Or some other kind of pain or crisis. Jesus says, “I have what you need. Trust Me. I can feel the pain in your heart. Give it to me.” Jesus has promised to make your yoke lighter.

When we wallow in our sorrow, the Lord weeps. What gives the Lord great joy is when we put our trust in Him.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.