Events That Shape Our LivesThree events remembered on this night of Holy Week focus our attention on Christ and all Christ has done for us. These are also events that shape our life as disciples of Jesus. In God We TrustSo here’s the deal. You leave everything — your home, your country, your kin and your claim to your families possessions here — and you go to new country. Are you ready to go? Maybe you have a few questions, like where is the place you’re going, and what will you do when you get there? Don’t worry about where this new place is located, right now. God will show you in God’s good time. As for what you will do in this new land, well here’s the real special part. You will be God’s people, and God will be your God. What’s more, God promises that you will be blessed, and through the new family God will bless you with, the whole world will be blessed by God. So, you will go where God leads and God will bless you and make you great in whatever you do. It’s a promise. Are you ready to go and get packed? A Lot Going OnJesus takes Peter, James and John and together they ascend a mountain. At the top, something miraculous happens: the veil that separates heaven and earth is rolled back just for a moment. They see with their own eyes, the glory of God's only Son and the embodied presence of God's law and prophetic witness. They hear God voice speak directly to them, testifying to Jesus' identity and authority. It's a rare moment of frightening clarity. The kind of revelation that we have come to expect to happen to saints ascending mountains. Perfect!Matthew 5:38-48 For the past two weeks, I've been watching the competition at the Olympics. Part of the storyline at the Olympics has to do with whether or not any athlete can handle the pressure and rise to the occasion. Often, the commentator will say, "If he's going to win the gold, he's going to have to be perfect." Or, "She needs a perfect run, if she has any hope of making it to the podium." Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't, and the athlete falls short of the goal. Quickly reports run to athlete to ask, “Do you feel like you’ve failed? As if all your work has been in vain?” Though they are the best in the world at what they do, I wonder if they do often feel like they have failed, fallen short of expectations, been less than perfect. I wonder if in our own lives, we don't sometimes feel that we have to be perfect, or else? When we fall short, are we failures? Light: Public and Visible WitnessOn February 5, the Church remembers the martyrs of Japan, particularly 26 martyrs, including 8 European missionaries, who were crucified in Nagasaki in on February 5, 1597. Siegfried Schneider tells a story from that day. "On the way up the hill a nobleman tempted the youngest boy, Louis Ibaragi, who was only twelve years old to renounce his faith, He would not yield but eagerly asked: 'Where is my cross?' When they pointed out the smallest one to him he immediately embraced it and held on to it as a child clings to his toy" (Sigfried Schneider, Ofm, The 26 Martyrs of Japan, Chuo Press, 1980, p. 16).1 That's usually the way we tell the stories of those who sacrifice their lives in witness to the Gospel. On the surface martyr's crisis is a choice between saving her or his live and remaining faithful to Jesus. Yet, the heart of the issue and reason for the persecution in the first place is often the church's public witness to Jesus Christ. Walking In The LightFrom time to time, I think we all have an argument within ourselves where we question the value of what we’re doing right now, worshiping. Week in and week out, we dutifully come into this sanctuary, participate in the prayers, hear God’s Word of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, receive the sacrament, share our money for the sake of God’s mission and a host of other actions that have become the way we express our faith in faithfulness to our God. But, let’s be honest, we’ve all had our moments of wondering if any of it matters. A New StartI left Arizona in the fall of 1989 to go to school in Bronxville, NY. I kissed my Mom good bye, picked up my two suitcases and my pillow, and I boarded a plane for a new life. I didn't know what was ahead of me. I didn't really even know how to get from the airport to the college, and no one was waiting to pick me up. I did know, however, that I would never go back to Arizona. Oh, I went back to visit, but I didn’t have a home there anymore. I had moved on to something new, and I knew, I trusted, that God was leading me, guiding me, making a way for me. Your Social NetworkBy the end of this Gospel, God has gathered to Jesus, the people who become the inner circle of Jesus' disciples, particularly Simon, whom Jesus calls Cephas, or Peter, or The Rock. There can be no doubt that God is at work here drawing people to Jesus. A New BeginningAbout the middle of January each year, people's new year resolve is starting to break down. Old habits and old ways die hard. The vows we make at baptism signal our promise to continue in the promises of God in Christ, and our resolve to change our old ways and old habits and to replace them with a new way of living. Peace In The MakingThis past week as a nation, we marked the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first event defined a new nation and called the war for independence a struggle for liberty and equality. The second event, marked a turning point in a bloody civil war to keep that same nation united. In honoring the place where so many Americans had been broken or killed, president Abraham Lincoln linked those two struggles along an arc of a common cause. Our nation, Lincoln said, is one “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all … are created equal.” The bloodbath of the Civil War was a test of whether a nation “so conceived can long endure.” Yet on that battlefield, Lincoln called on the people who were still living to resolve to bring about what was yet unfinished. I suppose he meant to win the war. Yet, what the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address imagined, dreamed and hoped, however, was a peaceable kingdom beyond the end of the conflict, a way for people to live together in liberty, equality and peace. |
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