The Scars Tell the Story: Sermon John 20:19-30

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

I love the movie Jaws. Most people don’t, especially those who like to swim in the ocean or any other large body of water, but I love the movie. My favorite scene in the movie is when the three guys are out on the boat hunting for the killer shark. They are below decks and they’re chatting and having a drink after supper. They have downed a few drinks and they begin to compare scars and war stories. One is trying to one up the next guy with a bigger scar and a scarier tale to go along with it, one has been bitten by a shark, the other cut his leg on a reef while SCUBA diving. Finally, one character o-ens his shirt and points to his chest. The other guys says, “What did you have a bypass or something.” The guys says “No, Mary Jane, 7^th grade, she broke my heart.”

We all have scars and our scars tell a story. If the scar is big enough I am sure that there is a story to go along with it. They remind us of a specific time in our lives. For example, I have a scar on my knee. I was about 10 or 11 and I was riding my bike when I slipped and fell cutting my knee wide open. It didn’t hurt and I didn’t cry until I heard the words “stitches”. That scar reminds me to watch where I am going. I also have a scar here on my elbow. This is from a car wreck when I was sixteen. I was coming home from a funeral of a classmate who had died in a car wreck and I lost control of the wheel and flipped my truck over to its side and skidded across the road. This scar reminds me not to jerk the wheel when running off the road and it reminds me that God is looking after me. The scars tell the story.

Our lesson this morning from John has to do with scars and what story they tell. Today’s reading is the second part of the same story. Last week we saw Resurrection Morning through the eyes of John and today we pick up the story later that same day. Jesus appears before the disciples miraculously despite the door being locked shut. The first thing that Jesus does after greeting them is show them his scars. He shows them the scars on his hands and the scar on his side from the soldiers spear. All of the disciples are there except for Thomas. For some reason Thomas is not present. After Thomas returns the disciples tell him that Jesus had appear before them, but he would not believe it until he saw the scars for himself.

The questions that have always bugged me are why are the scars important? Why does Jesus still have his scars? I mean couldn’t have God taken those ugly scars away. Why do the disciples want to see the scars? I want to explore these questions this morning and see what story the scars of Jesus and our own scars have to tell us.

First of all the scars served as proof. They were proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be. Jesus was really before them. He was not an imposter. He was not a ghost, or a phantom. He was not a spirit or a vision. He was real, flesh and blood and the scars were where they were supposed to be. The story that Mary had told them was true. Jesus really did come back from death. He is risen and there is the proof that was needed. Jesus gave them exactly what they needed to believe. Thomas did not receive any more evidence than the rest of the group. He was not special and yet he is the one who has been labeled the doubter. The all needed proof and the scars of Christ served as that proof.

Jesus’ scars tell us that what happened Friday is still a vital part of the story. There is no glory of Easter morning without the pain and agony of Good Friday. There is no Resurrection without a crucifixion. We hope and celebrate in the Resurrection, but our symbol remains the cross, because it is through the sacrifice of the cross that we brought into connection to God. It is the cross that remains the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us. The scars remain to show us what love is really about. It shows us that there is no glory without sacrifice and though our reward is promised there is work to be done first. The scars of Jesus show that he paid the price for us. Our sins are forgiven because of the wounds of Christ. Remember the words of Isaiah “by his wounds we are healed.” The scars remain as a reminder that the love of God is shown both on Easter morning and on Friday afternoon.

The scars of Jesus remain to show us that we serve a scarred God. To some this seems ludicrous. The idea that the God you serve was crucified like a common criminal is so unheard of that it seems like insanity. Paul said that the story of a crucified God was foolishness to those who don’t understand. It seems to some like a demonstration of God weakness instead of God’s strength. This is not the case. It is the strength of God which is love that gave him the scars. It was the strength of God that seemed like weakness to human eyes. Our God is scarred not because he is weak but because his love for us is stronger than anything in universe, even death itself. God was scarred because it was his will, because he was willing to die for us.

Jesus’ scars also show that he was human as well as divine. God became human in the form of Jesus. Jesus knew human frailty; he knew human weakness, pain and suffering. Jesus knew abandonment, betrayal, and forsakenness. The scars from the nails of the cross show God’s solidarity with humanity. God knows what it means to suffer so God can understand and be with us when we suffer. When someone is diagnosed with cancer one of the greatest comforts is to talk to someone who has been there and survived. Only a person who has felt the sickness of chemo and the weakness of radiation can fully understand what the cancer patient is going through. You can only know if you have been there. God has suffered in ways that we can never understand and so God knows our suffering and is there with us in the midst of our suffering. God can come to us in our pain because God has experience pain. God can come t us in our loneliness and abandonment because God has been lonely and abandoned. When we are weak God can be our strength and when we mourn God mourns with us. The scars of Jesus tell us that God has been there before us and so he will be there with us now in our own journeys.

We have seen the stories that Jesus’ scars tell us. Now what story do our own scars tell? First is shows us that we are fragile. We are human and that means that we are finite beings. We are mortal and only here for a little while. Despite this there is good news. Through our weakness, God’s strength becomes perfect. We have the power of the Rock of Ages to cling to when our weakness overcomes us. Our scars remind us that we need to be depended on God’s strength and not reliant on our own.

Our scars also tell us that we make mistakes. All our scars are accidental. We do not mean to get them they are a result of our mistakes, a slip of the hand, a wrong turn in our cars, a fall, something. Maybe they are the fault of someone else’s mistakes but it shows us that we are not perfect creatures. We mess up, we fall short of God’s glory, and we are in need of grace. It also reminds us that we should learn from the mistakes that we have made. It is ok to make mistakes but it is vital to learn from them and avoid making the same mistake twice.

Our scars tell our story, where we have been and how our past has shaped who we are. We are who we are because of our mistakes and our scars. Our journeys are filled with pitfalls and mistakes, with slipups and boo boos, but we must remember that we must learn from our mistakes we must learn from our scars and the stories they tell. We must also learn from the scars of Christ and the stories of love they tell.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness: Easter 2008 Sermon John 20:1-18

O Lord, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, and strength to follow on the path you set before us; through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Oh Hello. I didn’t expect to find anyone else on this pathway. Are you followers of our Lord Jesus also? Well I have great news for you. He is risen. Our hope is restored and our future is assured. I haven’t seen him with my own eyes yet, but I have seen the empty tomb. Let me introduce myself. My name is John Son of Zebedee. My brother and I were fishermen until the Lord Jesus came and told us to become fishers of people and so we have. We have seen and heard many wondrous things since we have been with Jesus but none as emotional and incredible as the last few days.

This is all new to us, we are still unsure of what to do or what to say. Jesus told us over and over again that he would be handed over, killed, and crucified, but to be honest with you, no matter how many times he said it, I never really believed it would happen. It seemed impossible. We had seen him perform so many miracles and we had seen him escape so many times from the clutches of the religious authorities in Jerusalem we could never imagine Jesus dying at least not in the foreseeable future. The Thursday night came…

We had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, but some of us thought it wasn’t a good idea. We had narrowly escaped so many times from the people and the authorities that some among us thought it was foolish to return there, but we always followed where the Master lead us. So we were sitting in an upper room here in the city and we were eating and drinking as usual and then Jesus said something so strange at the time. He said that one of us would betray him. We all looked at one another and wondered who could it be, surely none of us could betray Jesus. We all looked within ourselves and wondered could it be me. Then he did something very unusual he took off his outer garment and took a bowl and some water and began to wash our feet like a slave would. He told us that we might not understand it now but we would eventually understand what he was doing. He also told us that if we wanted to be like him and love like him that we had to be like servants and wash one another’s feet. I think I understand what he was saying now. We have to love each other like he loved us. Then Jesus took a cup and some bread. He broke the bread, gave it to us and said that this was his body. Then he took a cup with some wine and said that this was his blood and that we should remember him each time we broke bread and drink from the cup. It was strange at the time, but maybe it was Jesus’ way so showing us that he would always be with us wherever we would go.

Then he took us out of the city to the Mount of Olives and he prayed with us and for us. He took Peter, James, and I up on the hill and told us to stay awake, but I must confess to you that I couldn’t stay awake. When I woke up Jesus scolded us for sleeping and then said his time was at hand. Then we saw Judas with some soldiers from the Temple. We didn’t know what was going on and then Judas kissed Jesus and the soldiers grabbed him and arrested him. Peter grabbed his sword and began to fight for Jesus but Jesus stopped him and said that he must drink the cup that God had given him. I did not understand what he meant until now. What happened next is almost too difficult to talk about.

They took him away to the High Priest and they tried him on some false charges and found him guilty of blasphemy. Imagine the Son of God being accused of blasphemy. But they began to beat Jesus They could not put Jesus to death without permission of the Romans and so they took Jesus to Pilate. Surely, we thought, that Pilate would have sense enough to let Jesus go free. But the crowd was too much for him. They swayed his judgment and he pronounced it…crucifixion. We could not believe what was happening. They were going to execute this poor man who did so much good in the world, who never hurt anyone, they crucified him.

I was there; I saw it with my own eyes. They hammered the nails into his hands and feet and raised that hideous cross to the sky. I was there with Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother and a few others. Then soldiers mocked him and placed a plague above his head in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin that read “Here is Jesus, King of the Jews.” While he suffered on the cross I could not look at him. They had beaten and flogged him to where he was almost unrecognizable. The he called to me and he told me to take care of his mother and to my last breath I will do it. The Sun darkened and the earth began to shake and I know he was alone on that cross because I heard him cry for God. He seemed to think that God was not with him. I began to think the same thing too. How could God allow this to happen to his only Son? Then he cried in a loud voice and breathed his last. He was dead and it seemed our hope had died with him. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took his body and buried him in a stone tomb according to our custom.

Our hope was gone. It was such a cold, empty feeling. Have you ever felt like that? Like the world was going to come to an end and you would be crushed in the blackness. Maybe you have watched a loved one suffer and died or maybe you have suffered in some way. You might know how we felt. It seemed like the world was going to crush us and we thought that we might be next on the hill of Calvary and so we hid back in the upper room where we meet last Thursday night. Those were the longest days of my life. None of us spoke to each other or ate anything. We just sat there and prayed and simply stared in disbelief at one another.

We were hopeless. We were in the midst of darkness. As King David put it in the psalm we were in the valley of the shadow of death. There was nothing that we could imagine that could bring light to our darkness or hope to our hopelessness. Have you ever been in a place like that? Do you know how we felt? It is almost funny now looking back. We forgot. We forgot what Jesus was telling us the whole time he was with us. With God there is always hope.

After the Sabbath was over Mary went down to the tomb. She wanted to weep and mourn there at the garden tomb. When she got there she saw that the stone covering the tomb had been rolled away. She immediately came back to us and reported what she had seen. Peter and I quickly got up and ran down to the tomb without any fear of the Roman soldiers. We wanted to see for ourselves. I was a little faster than Peter and so I got there first. I saw the tomb empty just as Mary had told us. Peter got there a few minutes later and went into the tomb and I followed in. In the place where they laid him there were only the linen wrappings and head covering folded neatly.

At first we didn’t know what to think or what to believe and then I remembered what Jesus had told us over and over again, on the third day I will be brought back to life. I remembered what happened at Lazarus’ tomb only a few days earlier. And it hit me for the first time; He is Risen and our hope is restored. Our Savior is resurrected. Oh I wish I could have been there with him to see it when it happened. I can just imagine a blinding light coming from the tomb. Then to see Jesus slowly rise from the grave and put off those grave clothes, renewed, restored, resurrected. Death no longer has a prize. Hell and Satan have not won the day. He Lives. He Lives. Our hope has returned in the midst of hopelessness.

Peter and I stunned at what we had seen went back to tell the others. Mary stayed behind. She was weeping for the Lord. She did not yet understand. Only a little while after Peter and I had returned to the upper room Mary came running in saying. “I have seen Him! I have seen the Lord!” She said that Jesus came to her not as a ghost or in a dream but as flesh and blood. She said that he told her to come back to us and to tell us that he is going back to his God and our God.

Our God, and then it hit me again. Through all that happened in the last three days, Jesus dying on the cross and then through the power and love of God resurrected from the grave, God who then could only be approached by the priests was now available to us all. God is now our God, my God and Your God. That is the true miracle of this day. God loves us so much that he sent his Son to us and demonstrated that love on the cross.

My head is still swimming right now and I have to get back to the others. I know that this is an incredible story and many will not believe it. I hope that you will believe it. When hope seems lost, when times seem the darkest, I want you to remember this story and believe. Remember that He lives and our sins are forgiven. Remember he lives and God and Heaven is open to all people. Remember he lives and that God’s love is stronger than death. If you ever feel hopelessness, remember that he lives and that our hope lives on.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Finding the Intersections: Sermon Matthew 27:11-54

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept you Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so that we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This morning I would like to talk about finding the intersections. I was driving through Athens, AL a few months ago really just minding my own business, when a car pulled out in front of me moving perpendicular to me. My first reaction was to get mad. “Hey dude, what’s your problem, what are you doing?” Then I looked in front of me or more to the side of me at that point and saw the stop sign that I had missed a few seconds before. I was in the middle of an intersection and I had almost missed it. So the man I had initially gotten angry with was in the right. He had right of way because I had a stop sign and he did not. So I through up my hands apologetically, the man nodded his head in acceptance and we went on our merry little way and I was much more careful to observe the signs of the road and to find the intersections.

Have you ever missed an intersection? Perhaps not while driving down the road, but do we sometimes miss the intersections of life. There is a book I have been reading for one of my classes called Resurrecting Excellence and it talks, in part, about understanding the intersections of life. Specifically, they talk about the intersection of God and human life, where our lives and God’s life come together. Have we ever missed one of these intersections? Sometimes we forget about God, don’t we? When things are going smoothly and everything in life is going great, we forget about God’s role in all that. However, when something goes wrong, when tragedy hits who is it that we turn to? When we stop thinking about God we fail to see the intersections between God and human life until it is too late.

What and where are these intersections? We know that these intersections exist because we read about them in the Bible. The Bible is filled with stories of God’s intersections with humanity, but they are not limited to biblical times. They occur all around us even today. Some of these intersections are constant; they are always there around us, like the stop sign on the street corner. Sometimes we purposely create these intersections. Prayer is an example of this. We create that intersection with purpose and reason. Sometimes the intersections occur unintentionally and even tragically. I want to talk about some of these intersections today and explore how we can react to these intersections when they occur.

One such intersection is described in the book I mentioned earlier. It is the intersection between youth and age or one could also say between experience and inexperience. There are those of us here in this church this morning who have been Christians for many, many years and there might be those of us who have been Christians for only a short time or we have only taken our faith seriously for a short time. There are those with experience living as Christians and there are those who are new at this lifestyle. Too often these people never get the chance to interact, especially outside the church. Those who are new stick together and those who are mature in their faith stick together. This is unfortunate because there is much that these two groups can learn from one another. Those of us who have been Christians for many years are called to help those who are new to the faith. We do not simply bring them to the cross and leave them there. Instead, we should help our new brothers and sisters in their new walk with Christ. In the book Resurrecting Excellence the authors tell a story about a new program started at a particular church. This program matched young people, who were in the confirmation process, with older adults who had been active members for many years in a sort of mentor/mentee program. The older folks help the young people work through some beginning faith issues and the younger folks helped the older folks receive a renewed sense of vivaciousness in their faith. They helped one another, they learned from one another and they supported one another and we are called to do the same.

Another intersection that the often fail to see is the intersection of tradition and culture. This intersection is highlighted often by the question, “how do we make our doctrines, beliefs, and traditions relevant for today’s culture?” Some churches have embraced the culture of our time. The have contemporary church services with live music. There praise songs are backed with rock and roll music and sometimes hip hop music. They have cappuccino with Christ on Sunday mornings and their youth groups meet at the skate park. These churches have fully embrace popular culture and they believe by doing these they can fully reach the masses with the gospel.

Some disagree with this kind of ministry. They say that they compromise the gospel too much with popular culture and the true message gets diluted and even sugar-coated. Some say that they teachings of Christ and the life of a Christian replace any and all culture of our time. In other words we are above popular culture. We are better than the culture and the people caught in the midst of it and therefore we should separate ourselves from it. Those who do not see the light are just out of luck. The Church will not stoop to the level of the popular culture and we will not compromise. This sounds on the surface like the faithful way to deal with culture. The problem with this way of thinking is that it often alienates those people who are not part of the church and these are the exactly the people that we want to reach.

Instead we need to reach a compromise between the two. We should use the teachings of Christ to transform the popular culture. We need to understand where people are in their lives and take gospel principles and apply them to modern life while maintaining its potency. We have to understand this intersection not ignore it because, when used effectively, it can bring more people to Christ.

As I said before there are also those intersections that we do not expect. They happen unintentionally and sometimes tragically. There is the intersection between tragedy and hope and sometimes it is also the intersection between life and death. We cannot escape tragedy no matter how hard we try. We cannot escape those moments when that something hits us in the gut like a Louisville Slugger. You know the moments that I am talking about. We talked about them last week with Martha and Mary and those impossible situations. When tragedy hits, when stress and hardship build up to a breaking point we know that there is another side to this intersections…hope. What do we do when we find ourselves in midst of tragedy? We hope. We hope that things will get better. We talk with God because we hope in the truth that God is always with us. We hope in the truth that God is mourning with us when tragedy strikes. We hope in the truth that God always loves us no matter where we find ourselves. We hope in the truth that death does not have the final say and that life in Christ will conquer all.

God provides these intersections to further the Kingdom. They are they to teach us. They are there to move us and they are there to save us. This brings us to the greatest intersection of God and humanity that has ever occurred and that happened on the cross of Calvary. This is the ultimate moment between God and humanity, the greatest intersection of God’s life and human life. God not only intersected with humanity but became human. God came down and became human and did not live a privileged life but God understood suffering, understood forsakenness, understood loneliness and betrayal. He experienced it all on the cross of Calvary, the greatest intersection. Above all his suffering, the foundation of all these intersections of God and humanity, right there on the cross there was love. With every drop of blood that touched the stones of Golgotha there was love. When Jesus bore the sins of a broken world there was love. With every stroke of the hammer driving the nail there was lover. With every groan of pain and agony there was love. When Jesus cried his last there was love. But not just any love. Love so great that the sun refused to shine and darkness covered the earth. Love so great that the earth itself shook and quaked at the sight of such a love. Love so great that they veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom symbolizing the fact that they gulf of sin that separated God and humanity was now bridged by Christ. Love so great that the very foundations of Hell were broken. Love so great that a pagan Roman soldier, maybe even the one that drove the nails into Jesus’ flesh cried out in truth “Truly this man was God’s son!” Love so great that it still reverberates in the world today. Love so great that nothing can destroy it.

This intersection, on the old rugged cross, is the foundation of all other intersections between God and humanity. The foundation of all the intersections we encounter as the church is love, the love that was shone on the cross. It is our duty as the church to recognize these intersections and use them to make disciples for Christ. But whatever we encounter, wherever we go, whatever intersection we find ourselves there should be love. Love for all God’s people.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Making the Impossible Possible: Sermon John 11:1-44

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

How many of you have heard the term foreshadowing before? Foreshadowing is a literary move in which the author or storyteller hints at later events within the telling of a story. For example in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar a soothsayer comes up to the emperor and says “Beware the Ides of March” and then on the Ides of March, March 15, Caesar is murdered. Foreshadowing is much easier to pick out of a story when you know the end, then you can look back and see how the author planted those seeds of foreshadowing earlier in the text.

Our story today is an example of foreshadowing. It is an example of something that will come later in the story, it hints to that later event. We can see hints to the resurrection of Jesus in this story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Each of these stories has similar themes and has similar outcomes. The death of Lazarus was a difficult blow for his family and for the community of Bethany. The death of Jesus was a tremendous blow for his followers. Each was truly and definitely dead, one through disease and the other on a cross. Each seemed like a hopeless, impossible situation. Each seemed like the end to something with no hope of recovery. Lazarus left behind two sisters with no man to care for them and Jesus left behind many disciples with no leader and teacher. However, in both stories Jesus demonstrates the awesome power of God and he shows the people gathered there near Lazarus’ grave that in God there are no impossible situations.

Let’s look back at our story from John. Jesus learns that Lazarus is sick and yet remains where he is another two days. Now Lazarus and Jesus were not just acquaintances, they were good friends. Look at the language that Martha uses “Lord, he whom you love is ill” and Jesus tells the disciples that “Our friend Lazarus is asleep.” Even though he was friends with the man, he knew that the outcome would not be permanent death. Jesus knew that this would be an opportunity for the glory of God to be shown and for a final lesson to be taught to the disciples. However, for the rest of the disciples this was an impossible situation. You see Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem and the last time Jesus went to Jerusalem he was almost stoned to death, barely escaping with their lives. The disciples were scared. In fact, in an act of desperation not faith Thomas says lets us go with Jesus so that we might die with him.

They travel to Bethany and they find that Lazarus has been dead for four days. There would be no healing today. Lazarus is already dead and buried. Martha and Mary greet Jesus before they reach the house. Martha makes a heartbreaking statement to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She is saying that “Jesus you healed all these people, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, you healed the lame and the broken. Why could you not get here to heal my brother?” She is upset with Jesus and naturally so. However, even if Jesus had left immediately there is little chance he would have made it before Lazarus died. He received the message, waited two days and then it would have been about a day’s trip down there so Lazarus would have already been dead. This is an impossible situation.

Jesus then goes to the grave of his friend. He sees the people there, including Mary and Martha, weeping and mourning and he is moved to tears. Why is Jesus mourning when he knows that he is going to raise Lazarus? Perhaps, he was moved at the scene, perhaps he is showing his human side. I think that the real reason is that he is experiencing the human pain and anguish of loss. He knows that this is not the only funeral occurring and that may other people are mourning the loss of loved ones. He knows that even though through him death will no longer be permanent, there is still pain when we lose those we love. Jesus is feeling the pain in the world and so he weeps. Jesus then makes a strange request. He asks for the stone to be rolled away. (That sounds familiar doesn’t it?) Martha tries to stop him. “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” This is an impossible situation.

Don’t we find ourselves in impossible situations? Millions of people are drowning in debt and poverty. In 2006, 36.5 million people were in poverty in the US. That does not count the 4 billion people around the world who live in constant poverty. We see them on TV, those faces with distended stomachs and flies buzzing on their faces. We see war and violence affecting so many people around the world. We hear about genocide in Darfur, Sudan and other places. On the other hand we see the wealth, with multiple cars and gold plated bathroom fixtures and we think this must be an impossible situation.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in the US living with HIV and AIDS, millions more around the world, especially in Africa. Children are orphaned at an alarming rate because both of their parents have died of AIDS. Millions of people are fighting the battle of cancer and other devastating illnesses. This seems like an impossible situation.

We look around our church this morning. We see empty pews that were once full of people seeking and learning from God’s word. We remember the laughter of children. Things are not like that anymore. Our church, our denomination continues to lose members and we do not seem to know how to get them back and bring new ones in. This seems like an impossible situation.

Most of us have been in Martha and Mary’s shoes. We have stood at the grave of our loved ones mourning and grieving. We have looked death right in the face and at least for the moment, death seems to have won the day. We know their frustration, crying out to Jesus, you have saved so many why not my brother, why not my loved one? We have been in that impossible situation.

What happens when we face those impossible situations? We turn to Christ. Jesus stands at the mouth of Lazarus’ grave, at the very presence of death. The stench of death fills his nostrils. The people are filled with doubt and distress. What is he doing? Then in the clearest voice and without hesitation Jesus cries “LAZARUS COME OUT!” The people cannot believe their ears. Did he really say that? Then they cannot believe their eyes because from the mouth of the grave from the mouth of death itself, a man comes walking for wrapped in grave clothes. Jesus says “Unbind him, and let him go.” The grave is empty. Death has no prize.

Jesus looks at this impossible situation and knows without a shadow of a doubt that through God all things are possible. There is no impossible situation with God. He knows that in a few days it will be him in the grave, with the stone rolled over to seal the deal. Jesus knew then, just as we know now, that the outcome will be the same. He knows that he will die on the old rugged cross, but the love of God, the power of God cannot be stopped by the impossible, even by Death itself.

Through Christ the impossible becomes possible. Nothing can stand in our way because Christ has broken every barrier. Through Christ Death does not hold the final say, it is not the end but the beginning. Though we mourn today we will rejoice tomorrow because we will see our loved ones again. Through Christ nothing in this world can separate us from the love of God. Nothing in this world, in the cosmos, no angel, no demon, not even Satan himself can separate us from God.

Jesus stands at the mouth of the grave and cries “LAZARUS COME OUT!” In that moment he is saying DEATH YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. - DISEASE YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. - AIDS YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. CANCER YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. - POVERTY YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. - HUNGER YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. – WAR, VIOLENCE, AND INJUSTICE YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER HERE. – BECAUSE I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. – I AM THE EVERY EMBODIMENT OF THE LOVE OF GOD. – I AM THE GREAT I AM.

Jesus is putting the universe on notice here in this moment. Jesus is putting Death on notice and Jesus is putting Satan on notice. The game is up, you’re gonna lose. Christ is the victory and through him we will have the final victory. These are the words of hope that we cling to. This makes the impossible, possible.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Blame Game

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

In case you have been living in a cave for the last few months, we are in the middle of a hotly contested presidential race. Right now the Democrats are fighting with other Democrats and the Republicans are fighting with other Republicans, but soon it will be time for these two parties to fight against one another. It seems every election year we see the same ol’ song and dance. Instead of looking at the problems we are facing in this country they just bicker back and forth against each other and they strut and snort like two bulls across a fence. Politicians love to play the blame game. Every time something happens in this country the leaders and the would-be leaders seem to work really hard to find someone to blame instead of working to find a solution to the problem. There are those still trying to blame the other for 9/11 instead of working together to rebuild Ground Zero. That is the problem with the blame game; it solves nothing, it rebuilds nothing, it does not bring people together it only drives people apart. We are all guilty of playing that game, aren’t we? When we are kids and run through the house and knock over our mother’s favorite vase, we play the blame game. When we put a dent in our father’s truck when we just get our license, we play the blame game. When the police officer pulls us over for going to fast, we definitely play the blame game.

We see the blame game here in our story from John this morning. We have all heard this story before. Jesus is walking with his disciples and they encounter a man who was born blind. The disciples begin to play the blame game. They ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They want to know why this man was born blind. The conception in those days was that the deformities and diseases that afflicted people were caused by either their sins or the sins of their ancestors. Since this man was born blind it must have been his parents that caused his blindness. This was punishment for something that they did in the past. The disciples want to know. Jesus reveals a surprising answer, he says it was neither his parents nor him, but he will be used to demonstrate God’s glory. Jesus does not fall into the trap of the blame game.

It is hard not to get caught up in this dangerous game. It is human nature to find a reason that things happen, especially when those things are tragic. We want find the person or party responsible so that we have a focus for our anger, frustration, and grief. We want to do to them what they did to us. We demonize those responsible, we hate those responsible. What happens when we get it wrong? What happens when those we know are guilty turn out to be innocent? How many times have you been watching a cop show on TV and about middle way through you know who done it? You’ve know it and your sure of it, take them out and shoot them, they’re guilty. Then it turns out to be butler that no one suspected. That is entertaining when it is on our TV shows, but what happens when it is in real life? Our legal system is based on the premise of innocence before guilt, but how many times does it happen the other way around. This is just some of the dangers of the blame game.

I want to give you two examples of recent events and how some of us reacted to them. One is on a national scale and the other on a more personal level. In 2005, we all saw the horror of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Millions of people lost everything; thousands were stranded in the Superdome and the Convention Center without food or water. Today if you were to travel down to the Gulf Coast in a lot of places it would look just the same as it did in September of 2005. Now the politicians and even some of us decided to play the blame game. We want to know why this storm hit this particular place. There are some who blamed God and wondered how could a loving God do this? Others said that it was the people of New Orleans who were to blame. New Orleans was not the most Christian of cities. It is known for partying, sexual promiscuity, drugs, and even black magic and voodoo. These were the reasons why God punished New Orleans by sending a destructive hurricane. Others blamed humans and the effects that we have caused to the earth. People blamed global warming, pollution, coastal erosion, overpopulation, and other human-made problems. We failed to be good stewards of God’s creation. The reaction of the government was also to blame for the aftermath. People blamed the local government, the state government, and the federal government for the lack of rapid reaction. These were just some of the players in that blame game.

Let’s look at the other scenario. Most of us have seen a homeless person on the city street. We have seen this person asking for money in Nashville or some other large city, maybe even in Pulaski. What is our initial reaction? We wonder how someone allows themselves to get caught up in such a state. We blame the person. We think that this person must be a drug or alcohol addict and waste all his money. Maybe he gambled all his money away or maybe he is just too lazy to get up and work. He just wants a handout. There are others of us who blame the social systems. Maybe this guy lost his job, he was laid off and could find another job and was forced to the streets. We blame corporate greed and the selfishness of the businesses in this country. We blame the cycle of poverty that runs rampant in this country. However, what does blaming solve? Does blaming put a roof over the head of a homeless person or rebuild a community devastated by a natural disaster? No, it does none of these things.

Let’s look back at our story from John. What does Jesus do? He does not follow in the blame game that the disciples have started so what does he do? He heals the blind man. Jesus sees a problem and works to solve the problem. He saw that a man was blind and gave him sight, he saw that people were hungry and provided them bread and fish, he saw the world was full of darkness and he came to be the light, he saw the world was full of sin and separation from God and he gave himself on the cross of Calvary. He does not blame people for what happens to them, instead he does what is necessary to give them hope and rebuild their lives.

We see the initials all the time don’t we, WWJD? What would Jesus do? Instead, let us look at WDJD, what DID Jesus do? If we are to follow the actions of Jesus then we must take action to fix what is broken. We must stop the blame game and do something to solve the problem. We have to DO something to help those who are hurting and feed those who are hungry, and shelter those who are homeless. We have to continue to support those who are helping to rebuild the Gulf Coast, there are more and more volunteers that are helping and they need our support. Perhaps we could be volunteers. We have to call our representatives and ask for more federal funding to help rebuild this area. We have to tell our leaders to stop playing the blame game and start doing something constructive.

We have to help the homeless person. Not only by giving them our spare change but by talking with them. We need to help them find permanent shelter. If they are indeed drug or alcohol addicts then we need to get them into recovery. We need to treat what is ailing them and help them get back on their feet.

These are not the only problems we are facing in the Church. When we see a problem we need to do something to fix the problem, working together ecumenically, hand in hand because that is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus would do. We should only work on the surface but look deeper to the root of the problem and with discussion, prayer, and love work to solve the problem.

When we play the blame game we become blind like the man in our story. We cannot see what needs to be done and how it needs to be fixed. We divide ourselves further and further which only causes more and more problems. We must unite under the banner of Christ to help solve the problems in the world, to help further the Kingdom of God in the world. This is our calling, this is our mission.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Breaking Boundaries: Sermon John 4:5-42

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

One thing that we take for granted in this country is our access to clean drinking water. We are lucky in that regard. Although the earth is covered almost 70-75% by water there are limited supplies of drinking water. Those of you who keep up with local news might have heard about a border dispute between Georgia and Tennessee. Some in Georgia contend that the border was not correctly surveyed in 1818. The real debate is whether or not Georgia should have access to a source of water. North Georgia, including Atlanta has been dealing with a severe drought for over a year now, a lot worse than ours. This might seem comical to some who claim that TN should send National Guard troops to the border to defend from the invaders. Lack of water access however is a serious matter. Around 1.1 billion people, that is about 1 out of 6 people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water and every 15 seconds a child dies from a water bourn illness.

Our bodies need water. We are made of almost 70% water and we need around 3 gallons of water a day. Now of course we don’t drink that much a day a lot of what we get is from food, but we should drink 8- 8oz glasses of water a day. Most of us do not though. There is not doubt about it we, and every other living thing on earth needs water. Communities in the past were started around a common source of water, a river, a lake, or a well. Access to water is vital to life on earth.

We find Jesus near a source of water in today’s story and his conversation with the woman he finds there has to do with water. However, this is a different type of water that Jesus is offering to her. He is offering her living water. Jesus knew that our need is not only physical water, H²0, but also for living water or spiritual water. This is that kind of water that, once found, gushes up from within each of us like a spring. Jesus saw this encounter with the woman at the well as not only an opportunity to receive physical water, but to proclaim the gospel which he knew is the source of living water.

There is a problem however. This is no ordinary encounter. There is scandal a foot in this story. It is not obvious to us today because we are not members of 1^st century Jewish society, but what Jesus is doing is strictly taboo. By speaking to this woman and offering her the gospel he is breaking down barriers and boundaries that were long part of the status quo of the time.

First of all this woman was a Samaritan. In fact Jesus had already broken a social taboo by traveling in Samaria. Most good Jews would simple go around Samaria much less stop and talk to a Samaritan. I want to look, just for few moments, at the history between these two peoples. Now we know that that Samaritans and the Jews did not like one another. This comes down to the Jews believe they were God’s chosen people and that the Samaritans were rejected by God. First, they disagreed on the place in which God should be worshiped. The Samaritans believed that God’s holy place on earth was Mount Gerizim, whereas the Jew believed that it was the Temple Mount. Secondly, the Jews saw the Samaritans as traitors because they had assimilated with the Assyrians during the first Jewish exile. The Samaritan response was that many of the so-called pure Jews had also assimilated with the cultures that had conquered them. There are many other reasons and the rift between these two peoples runs much deeper than these things, but I want us to have a running understanding of the taboo that Jesus was crossing.

This was not the only boundary pushed by Jesus. There was also a gender boundary pushed. Jesus, who was alone, was speaking with a woman, who was alone. This might not seem like a bug deal in today’s day and time, but then this was a big no-no. In those days woman were considered very inferior to men, they were to low end of the social ladder. Not only this, but a single man speaking to a single woman without family supervision was simply not done in those days.

Jesus’ actions were shocking by 1^st century standards and we can see that in the reaction of the disciples. John writes, “They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” They could not understand why Jesus would ignore this boundary. Here is the thing that they don’t understand. Jesus not only ignores the boundary, but destroys it. He breaks down all the boundaries that were between him and the woman at the well. Why does Jesus do this? He does it because he knows that every person deserves the living water provide in the gospel. The gospel of Christ supersedes any and all human made boundaries. All people all children of God.

This is good news. However, we, in the Church, seemed to be bound by similar cultural margins. The question before us this morning is this: what boundaries prevent us from spreading the gospel today? Despite vast improvements in the last century, race is still an extremely volatile and divisive issue in this country. It is unfortunate to say, but the church still is the most segregate place in the nation. This is not an indictment on this church or even of the South. This is something that is prevalent in every community no matter what the geographical location. This is not just a black or white thing. One of the greatest challenges the church is going to face in the next century is the great influx of Hispanic/Spanish speaking people. This is a hotbed political topic, but it doesn’t change the reality of the situation. If we do not begin to address the real issue of racism in the church and in our nation then we will see no progress in the future. It is true that the church as led the way in abolition in the 19^th century and the Church as led the way in the fight for civil equality in the 20^th century, but the Church has also ignored racial injustice in communities all over the country. We have travelled miles and we have yet miles to go.

We also have the boundary of gender. There are still barriers between men and women and despite over 100 years of struggle women do not have equality. A white woman makes on average $.78 to every $1.00 a white man makes. An African-American woman makes $.67 to a white man’s dollar. This is a major justice issue in this country and it prevents the gospel from being proclaimed. Women pastors have faced severe adversity even in the more mainline churches like the UMC. One pressing issue that the Church is involved in today is women’s reproductive rights. Many women do not want men making decisions about their bodies. I don’t bring that up to discuss it in detail that is a whole sermon and Bible study in and of itself, but I mention it as a demonstration of these gender boundaries prevalent in our nation.

The final boundary I want to discuss today is class. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing. The rich seem to get richer and to poor get poorer and those stuck in the middle seem to be dwindling. The battle of poverty has been raging for thousands of years and will continue for the foreseeable future. We have a tendency to look at the poor in this country with disdain or pity. We look through them without looking at them. We make judgments about them without getting to know them. We see their poverty without seeing the person. This is a boundary that prevents the spread of the gospel. How would we react if a person came into church who wasn’t dressed very nice? What if he smelled bad and tracked dirt into the building? Would we treat him as well as we would a person who was dressed to the nines? These are questions that the Church must answer.

These are not the only boundaries the Church faces. In fact, it seems that we are dividing ourselves more and more in to smaller and smaller pigeonholes. Jesus breaks through all of that. Jesus knows that through him all boundaries are broken. Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28 “²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. “ Paul knows the truth that all boundaries are dissolved in Christ. That is why Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman without fear or hesitation. That is why Jesus eats with the tax collector and sinners. That is why he helps the adulteress and forgives those who ask for forgiveness. That is why God’s grace demonstrated on the cross of Calvary is for all people throughout the entire world. I want to close with a story. I don’t know how many of you watch Extreme Home Makeover on ABC. It is one of my favorite shows. Last week they helped a family who had a son who was born without eyes due to a birth defect. However, this extraordinary young man was an accomplished musician and even was a part of the University of Louisville marching band. They were interviewing him for the show and he said the most incredible thing. He said most people see his blindness as a disability, but he said that he see sight as the disability. This is because sight allows us to judge others before we know them. He said that race, gender, class, all of these boundaries that we place around others meant nothing to him because of his blindness.

That is the way the grace of God works. It is blind to the boundaries of the world. God’s grace does not know race or gender or class or size or shape. Let us look at one another and the others we encounter let us look at them without eyes, but with our hearts.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.