Tag: Yeshua

BORN TO ETERNAL LIFE

On the Fourth Sunday of Eastertime a few weeks ago, which also was Mother’s Day, I shared a story in my sermon that many people asked me for a copy. So, I thought I’d include it in my article for the June issue of our Olive Branch newsletter.

This wonderfully imaginative story is about fraternal twin babies in their mother’s womb discussing life after delivery, and while it’s originally attributed to the great Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen, there are many different variations of it. The following is the version I used for my sermon…

One of the twin babies asked the other, “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Of course. There has to be something after delivery. And maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know exactly, but I feel there will be more light there than here. Not that faint red glow we sometimes have here. Maybe we will be able to move around more freely and journey to places we just can’t understand right now. And maybe we will have other senses that we can’t yet understand.” The first replied, “That’s absurd! Ridiculous! This umbilical cord supplies everything we need. But the umbilical cord is too short, so life after delivery is to be logically excluded.” The second insisted, “Well I think there is something, and maybe it’s just different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this umbilical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Absolute nonsense, and furthermore, delivery is the end, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but oblivion. It takes us nowhere.” “Well” said the second, “I trust in Mother, and when we get to meet her in the after-delivery, she will show us all these amazing things.” The first replied, “A Mother? You actually believe in a Mother?! That’s laughable. If a Mother exists, then where is She right now?” The second said, “She’s all around us. We are surrounded by Her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live and move and have our being. Without Her this small confined existence of ours would not, and could not, exist.” And the first said, “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.” To which the second replied, “Well sometimes, when you’re in silence, and you focus and really listen, you can feel Her Presence.”

This ‘embryonic’ mortal existence we are journeying through is temporary, and one of my preferred terms for our physical death from this world is “Born to eternal life.” And you know it’s been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience — an experience that is so very brief in the grand scheme of things.

However, the good news of the gospel of Christ our Good Shepherd leads us to the supreme joy and hope of heaven. Therefore, the reality of heaven (an eternal existence of true and never-ending happiness) is a central part of the honest-to-goodness gospel of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So simply because we live in a cynical and jaded time, we as Christians should not shy away from or downplay this great Easter truth and grace of eternal resurrection life. Rather we should embrace this heavenly faith, and then live lives of compassion and service in the name of Jesus. Because Christ is risen and because we too shall arise through him, we must live our lives right now according to the Word of the Lord in Micah chapter 6…

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Jesus is risen beyond this impermanent existence, and we are his sheep who are to hear him and follow him for the sake of a better world for all people and for an eternal heavenly future by his grace.

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

SO MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP

We should not feel bad about feeling bad.  Within our society that idealizes feeling “happy, happy, happy” all the time, we can sometimes be shamed into feeling bad about feeling bad.  However, this is not right, because it is an unrealistic societal pressure placed upon us that only makes us feel worse.

Of course, there are those who suffer from chronic neuro-chemical imbalances that cause prolonged mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, etc.), and our culture is slowly coming to a better place where mental illness is not stigmatized as much as it once was.  But aside from this, everyone can understand feeling mentally and emotionally down from time to time, especially if they have experienced a great loss of some kind.  So we are all in need of healing and wholeness in life, and I would especially say this regarding spiritual concerns.

At the time of the Prophet Mosheh (Moses), the ancient Israelites were being attacked and killed by poisonous serpents, so Moses prayed for them and God gave them something as a means through which they would receive grace for their healing:

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonousserpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’  So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”

NUMBERS 21: 8-9

And later, at the time our Lord Yeshua (Jesus) walked on earth, he declared the following before his crucifixion and resurrection:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

JOHN 3: 14-16

Therefore, when we are being vexed by the poisonous spiritual bites of sin, death and the devil, we can look to the One who was “lifted up” for our spiritual healing.  The good news is that Jesus (the Son of Man and Son of God) was lifted up on a cross for our atonement, was lifted up from death for our redemption, and was lifted up into the higher dimensions of reality (what we call “heaven”) for our everlasting salvation.  Even in the midst of the poisonous serpents of loss, grief, failure, guilt and regret, we can look to the Savior who was lifted up, and we can find in him forgiveness, renewal and wholeness.

For many people Easter is over, with all the Easter eggs and bunnies now in the rearview mirror.  However, for us Christians, Eastertime is a season of seven Sundays during which we celebrate the Lifted Up One, our risen Lord and Savior.  For he alone has fully shown, affirmed, confirmed and proved to us the love and grace of God through his life, teachings, sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension.  Through Jesus Christ, we have seen and now know that God indeed loves us and the entire world so very much, because he laid down his life for us and is now raised forever.

Christ Is Risen!!!

Grace & Peace,  Pastor Tim

THE ISRAEL OF GOD

After our Lenten journey of penitential contemplation and intensified spiritual devotion, we come to the pinnacle of the Church Year known as Holy Week.  It is the time of year we focus on the events of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his last supper, his torture, his crucifixion, his sacrificial death and his glorious resurrection.  So as I reflect on the sacred events of Holy Week, I find myself drawn to the following words of the Apostle Paul from the Book of Galatians:

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith made effective through love.” 

The Holy Bible, Galatians 5:6

“For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!  As for those who follow this rule – peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

The Holy Bible, Galatians 6:15-16

The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Galatia in order to remind them of the New Covenant of God through Christ, based on God’s universal grace, not on religious works prescribed by the laws and ordinances of the Old Testament (as it says in Galatians).  He reminded them (and us) that the New Testament of Christ fulfills all the promises and covenants of the Old Testament for all people everywhere, not just for Jesus’ fellow Jewish people. 

As a result of this, God’s promises and covenants to the Hebrew People (which are still in effect for them) are now also universally extended to all people by God’s grace in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  So, while there is still the literal People of Israel (the Jewish People), there is also an expanded spiritual “Israel of God” (the universal Israel in Christ Jesus) which is everyone who trusts in the Lord: including Jew and Gentile, male and female, black and white, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, and so on (see Galatians 3 and 6). 

In both Galatians and Romans, the Apostle Paul writes that all people are “heirs” of God’s covenant promises to Abraham by God’s grace through faith in Christ.   From Galatians 3 and Romans 3, we hear that all people are “descendants of Abraham” and “heirs according to the promise” by “the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe.” 

Therefore, even the promised blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant are now extended to everyone everywhere by the Christ/Messiah of God, Jesus (or Yeshua in Hebrew for Joshua, meaning “God Saves”), and not by our own religious works prescribed by the law.  In other words, the Abrahamic inheritance given to the Hebrews is now renewed and broadened to include every single one of us by faith in Christ!  Thanks be to God!  Consequently, the Apostle Paul declares that all distinctions (circumcision and uncircumcision, Jew and Gentile, etc.) are nothing, and they count for nothing.  All that matters now, he says, is the “new creation” coming into being by the unconditional love and all-encompassing grace of God revealed to the whole world in and through our Lord Yeshua (Jesus), the only begotten Son of God.  And St. Paul adds that the only thing that now counts is our loving response to this free grace of God in the form of charitable service — or as he calls it, “faith made effective through love.”

Like Joshua in the Old Testament who led the ancient Israelites into the land of Canaan through the waters of the Jordan River, our Lord Jesus is the New Joshua who leads us into the universal promised land of salvation and the Kingdom of God through the waters of Holy Baptism where we are born again from above by his Holy Spirit within us. 

Yes, as Christians, our faith is all about the New Inclusive Covenant, heralded and set in motion by the New Universal Joshua (Jesus).   And just as God empowered the People of Israel with the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, God has given us the Word and Sacrament of Christ to empower us in Christian faith and life.  Just as God’s Shekinah Presence (Glorious Presence) mysteriously and uniquely dwelled between the wings of the cherubim on the Ark, so also God’s Holy Shekinah Presence is uniquely and powerfully made available to us and for us through the Sacrament of Holy Communion so that we may abide in the faith, hope and love of our Lord and Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).

Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will return!  Almighty God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — bless us (the members of the expanded “Israel of God”) now and forever!  Amen!

Blessed Holy Week & Happy Easter!!!

Pastor Tim