Administrative Update

Update from the Office

We've cleaned; we've organized; we've tossed materials which were several years old. We now have processes in place for handling the mail, filing, supply management, copying the Sunday Bulletin and answering the phone. We have implemented programs to enhance, not only internal relationships, but also those within our community: Prayer Acknowledgment and Ongoing Concerns; Birthday Recognition, Visitor Welcome and timely distribution of the newsletter.

An electronic master calendar has been created which facilitates the establishment of a yearlong schedule of key meetings: the Elders, the Board and the Ministry Council, plus all other activities which utilize our facilities. Electronic reminders will be sent and this information has been transferred to a large, wall mounted calendar in the office for easy viewing by any member seeking to schedule church facilities for an event. This will also facilitate the timely posting of announcements in the weekly bulletin.

How you can help?

1. If you wish to schedule an event, contact Susan Krotz, to ensure the date(s) you request are available

2. If you hold a leadership position in the church, please check that mail slot in the office. The mail, which may include bank statements or bills, is piling up and needs your attention. These positions include, pastor, Chair, Co-Chair, Treasurer, Women's Group, Youth Director, Choir Director, Finance Committee, Memorial Fund, among others

3. Get ready to act: We have received requests to update our current Membership Directory and will be seeking information about any changes in your household. Stay tuned for how you can quickly ensure your contact information is up to date.

4. As a cost saving measure, because we so rarely have needed to make full color copies, that function on the copy machine has been password protected. If you need to make color copies for church events or programming, please contact David Bell or Susan Krotz .

5. Volunteer Opportunity: Office Staff. Duties include: phone answering, filing, supply management, some copying. Training provided. Benefits: Stewardship – giving of one’s time and talent for the strength of our church. Contact Susan Krotz for more information.

That I Might Know Him and the Power of His Resurrection

Sermon for Morning Worship, First Christian Church, Berryville

April 24, 2011

Job 19:23-27; Luke 24:1-12; Philippians 3:7-14

In writing to the Philippians, Paul said, 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Just a little enrichment of that text: back in verse 10, "may share his sufferings" could also be translated, "may know the sharing in his sufferings," "may know the participation in his sufferings," "may know the fellowship of his sufferings," or "may know the community of his sufferings." The key Greek root word is koinonia, and as Paul uses it, it has to do with what we do in solidarity with our fellow believers.

I have preached on this text several times in the past three years, sometimes emphasizing the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, sometimes emphasizing the righteousness that comes by faith. Today, I have a different emphasis. Why have I chosen this text again on Easter Sunday? Because it is one thing to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and it is another thing to experience the power of his resurrection. Paul wants to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. He wants his first readers to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. He wants us to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. Easter people should experience the power of Christ's resurrection. So today we are exploring what the power of Christ's resurrection is and how we might experience it.

Paul wants us to know in personal experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection. I wish to suggest that knowing in our personal experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection is a good goal for us to set for ourselves on Resurrection Sunday 2011.

Paul, having been called by Christ to be his own, is pressing on toward the fulfillment of this calling. He sees it as a two-step process, a dying and a rising.

In writing to the Romans, Paul had said that, when we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, dying with Christ to sin and coming alive with Christ to the living God. Now writing to the Philippians, he is talking about how he views the dying and rising in his own life.

Paul has accepted that his journey as a Christ-follower may not have an easy road in this world. Of the New Testament figures you would consider the greatest apostles, which of them would you say had an easy road of it? Peter? Andrew? James the fisherman? John? James the brother of Jesus? Paul? No, not one! In fact, Paul’s goal is to be so like Jesus as to “share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” This does not mean that Paul was seeking to become a martyr, but that he was seeking to devote himself so fully to Christ that he would not turn back no matter the cost. As he said earlier in his letter to the Philippians, he took the attitude that to live is Christ and to die is gain, and that he was ready to be faithful either way. At that time, he expected that he would live a little longer for the sake of the churches he was leading. A few years later, writing his Second Letter to Timothy, he expected correctly that his time on earth was drawing to a close, but he still sought to live every bit of it for Christ. His goal at the end, was to be able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He did not expect to stop living until he died, and, because of the power of the resurrection, he did not expect to stop living even then. It is only people who are prepared to experience the cross who experience the power of the resurrection.

Paul is not a masochist who enjoys suffering. He does not glorify suffering for its own sake. He is not seeking to suffer. Suffering is significant only as it comes in the course of sharing and living out Christ’s self-giving love, only as it involves dying to ourselves so that we might live for God. Wherever there is godly dying, we ought to expect to see the glory of the resurrection in some way coming on its heels.

Already in this life, by prioritizing faithfulness to Christ at all costs, Paul has died to his own achievements, and he has come alive to the spiritual journey into Christlikeness. Once Paul meets Christ, the question is no longer what Paul can make of himself, but what Paul will allow Christ through the Holy Spirit to make of him. Paul wants to be conformed to Christ in his dying and in his rising. For Paul, glory is no longer defined by what he has accomplished, but by the transformation he is experiencing through his faith in Jesus. He is moving on from one degree of glory to another as the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit works within him. This is the power of the resurrection at work in Paul. Paul wants the same for us. He wants us to know in personal experience the power of the resurrection.

What does it mean to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection? What is that power? Paul’s word for power is the Greek word dunamis from which comes the English word dynamite. Okay, dunamis does not mean dynamite. Dynamite had not been invented yet. Our subject is the power of the resurrection, the power of salvation, the power of miracles, the power that makes all things possible; the power that means that nothing that accords with the will and character of God will be impossible. The reason that most churches in our day do not have much impact is that they are simply not aware that they have power, dunamis. Too many of us Christians have been sleeping on spiritual dynamite without even knowing we have it. Say it with me: Dynamite! I am not sure that saying dynamite is very enlightening, but it is fun to say, and it keeps us on our toes, so we will keep saying it.

The power of Jesus’ resurrection is tied to the power that the risen and exalted Jesus exercises from his position of authority at the right hand of God. In his Letter to the Ephesians, written sometime near the time he wrote to the Philippians, Paul prayed that his readers might have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to know, among other things: … what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

That’s quite a mouthful, and it is only part of Paul’s long sentence. Let’s break it down: The power that is available in our experience is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the same power that exalted Jesus above all spiritual powers, and that means above all the forces of evil at work in our world. The power that raised Jesus from the dead put all things under his feet including the last enemy death. The same power made Jesus head over the ongoing mission and fellowship of the people of God, the church. Putting that another way, the power of the resurrection has given believers in Christ a friend in the very highest of places, and he will share his power and authority with his earthly body, the church. If we will let him, he will break the power of evil over us and free us to be filled with his power for good. Say it with me: Dynamite!

That’s extraordinary! To the degree that we are in Christ, we wield a mighty power for good in this world. A little later in his letter, Paul assures us that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we have yet dared ask or think or imagine, through the same power that is already at work within us, the power of the resurrection. Wow! Far more abundantly than we have dared dream! Say it with me: Dynamite!

How does the Lord fill us with this power? A few years earlier in his ministry, Paul had written to the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” God the Father, who by God the Holy Spirit raised God the Son from the dead, by that same Holy Spirit gives us our new birth as children of God. Paul continues, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” The power of the resurrection is the power of the Holy Spirit, which in turn is the power that transforms us into children of God in God’s image. Say it with me: Dynamite!

In the end of all history, God will bring about a new heaven and new earth, a perfected new creation where God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- will reign fully and perfectly and where believers will reign with him. But already, now, God’s reign is breaking into this world with signs and wonders, transformations, and new possibilities of godly living. Over time, even through intense difficulties, faithful people learn to see that God reigns even now. Nothing that happens can separate us from his love and promises. No illness, no natural disaster, no world war, no financial collapse, no spiritually and morally wayward cultural climate, no family breakdown, no illness or affliction can separate those who persevere in faith from God’s perfect plans for us. Even in human upheaval, God reigns through and for his faithful children. Say it with me: Dynamite!

And since God reigns, death does not have the final word, nor does evil. The power of death and evil was broken when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the tomb. However history appears, its true meaning since that first Resurrection Sunday, has been the conducting of a mopping up operation. The outcome is already decided. Only the details are still being worked out.

Long after World War 2 was over, an occasional story would appear about a Japanese soldier being found in an island jungle who did not yet know that the war was over. The majority of our world’s population is still in that unenviable position of not knowing that Jesus has already won the war by means of the power of the resurrection. They do not know it because the church has been sleeping on its dynamite, the power of the resurrection. It is high time for us to know the power of the resurrection, to know it in real life experience, and to get it out in the open where it can do some good. Let us study and pray and take actions toward that end. Say it with me: Dynamite!

The Meaning of All History Rests on This

Sermon for the Berryville Alliance of Churches Sunrise Service

8:00 A.M., April 24, 2011

Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 118:1, 10-29;

John 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-19

I am going to tell you about Abram Jones. If you happen to know an Abram Jones, this is not the same one. The reason I know that he is not the same one is that this Abram exists only in my own mind. Abram had gone to Sunday school as a child, but along the way through adolescence and young adulthood he had gradually assembled a case from the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the leading news magazines, some Internet surfing, plus a New Testament survey course in college that was taught by an atheist, that the death and resurrection of Jesus was simply a variant on common ancient myth about spring rebirth with no connection to historical reality. Based on this rather flimsy and easily discredited theory, Abram announced that he was no longer a Christian, but an existentialist. Now for some people the existentialist philosophy has specific content, but for Abram, it was just his way of saying that he would make up whatever meanings he wanted for his life as he went along, and it would save him a lot of time and trouble and money on church activities, and a lot of fretting about whether he was sinning or not.

But here are some well-supported historical facts that Abram did not consider:

1. Jesus was unmistakably dead when he was taken down from the cross on Friday afternoon. Abram could have read a pretty convincing case for that, in full medical detail, in an old Journal of the American Medical Association article posted all over the Internet. Jesus really died on the cross.

2. According to the Scriptures, when the reign of God broke through early on Sunday morning, with a great earthquake and shining angels, an angel of the Lord rolled back the stone that had been sealed over the entrance to the tomb and then sat upon the stone. The guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb trembled and became as dead men, presumably passing out from fear. The women, a considerable collection of them who had followed Jesus from Galilee and of whom only a few are named, came to the tomb to complete the anointing of the body of Jesus, an anointing that had been begun by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus before the arrival of the Sabbath at sundown Friday. The women as they arrived at the tomb found an extraordinary scene and a message from the leading angel which first terrified them into silence, but then, apparently gathering their courage, they carried the message to the inner core of eleven disciples who did not believe them. Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it as the women had said. This caused them to believe something, although we are not told what they believed at that point, perhaps only that the tomb was empty. But that is a significant piece of evidence in itself. The account does not appear to be contrived because a contrived story in that culture would not have started with women witnesses and scared and skeptical disciples.

3. The Scriptures give more attention to the appearances of the risen Jesus: first to Mary Magdalene, then to Cleopas and another unnamed follower, then to the eleven, repeated times, both in Jerusalem and back in Galilee, then to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still alive 20—25 years later when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, then to Jesus’ brother James and presumably to his other brothers who had not been believers during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and finally in a different manner, years after his ascension, to Paul on the Damascus Road. The resurrection appearances taken together affirm that Jesus’ resurrection body is at once physical and yet not limited by the laws of physics. It is a new kind of body. He can walk, talk, eat, even cook breakfast, allow himself to be touched in his wounds from the cross, but he can also walk through walls and appear and disappear at will. This is a new kind of existence.

4. If that is not yet enough evidence, then consider this: these formerly fearful disciples who ran away when Jesus was arrested, who were still hiding behind locked doors at the time of his first resurrection appearances, began, within 50 days of the resurrection, to publicly proclaim that Jesus who had been crucified, was now the risen and exalted Christ, the Son of God, the Savior and Lord for all the world. These disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who came to those who believed, carried the gospel to the entire Mediterranean world and beyond, many becoming martyrs of the faith in the process. Tradition says that all the original eleven were martyred, with John being the last to die in exile on Patmos, perhaps the only one to die in old age. The message of the risen Jesus was not for them the path to political power or worldly wealth. There was no earthly reason for them to risk their lives repeatedly over the years unless they were utterly convinced that Jesus was risen from the dead.

It has been claimed with some justification that we have better evidence for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other ancient event. That is as it must be, for no other event in history so challenges ordinary human reasoning. What would be different for Abram Jones if he knew evidence for the resurrection?

If Abram was convinced by the evidence that Jesus was indeed crucified to death and then raised from the dead in a new kind of physical body, then the following things are also true:

1. God is absolute sovereign of the universe, reigning even over death. Abram would acknowledge God’s rule over his life.

2. God has placed the divine stamp of certification on Jesus as the one-of-a-kind Son of God, Messiah, Lord, and Savior. Abram would deal with the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ by becoming his disciple.

3. God has planned a future new heaven and new earth where those whom Jesus recognizes as living in him will share resurrection bodies like his and share his reign over a perfected creation in which death and grief and strife will be no more. Abram would know that death is not the last word on our lives, that there is solid reason to hope for more and better.

4. Our goal for life beyond death is not to slip away from the material realm into an ethereal realm where we float on the clouds and play harps, but to be transformed for a realm that is at once material and spiritual, that is as material and spiritual as God planned life to be before there were sin and death, purified and durable material existence infused with the life of God. Abram would have a solid goal for his life both now and beyond death.

5. The meaning of our present lives is to live even now as reborn children of God in God’s inbreaking kingdom. Our lives are given over to proclaiming, demonstrating, and celebrating the reign of God as we represent his mercy, grace, compassion, longsuffering, and his abundant steadfast love and faithfulness, cooperating with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit produces in ever greater degrees the fruitof Christ-like living in us. In this way, our character and preferences are being pre-shaped for the future new heaven and new earth, and they are helping others believe our message about our good and sovereign Creator, our loving Lord and Savior. Abram would have guidelines that would help him live now in a way that is fitting to the future that has been promised.

In short, Abram would have resources of hope, faith, love, purpose, courage, and deep joy that he has not even imagined as possible.

Although Abram Jones had never given the matter much thought, he bears the name of a major Bible character. The biblical Abram was, late in life, called by God to a journey of faith. As he neared the fulfillment of his journey and was about to pass the milestone that would bring all the promises of God for him into place, God changed his name to Abraham, meaning “father of multitudes,” starting from one embryonic Isaac. Eventually from one man, and him as good as dead, came not only all the physical offspring of Isaac and his son Jacob/Israel, but also the spiritual offspring who came through the much later offspring Jesus. As Paul writes, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

If Abram jones believes that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, he might need to change his name and become Abraham Jones to point to the bigger destiny of which he is now a part. For the promises to the original Abram/Abraham lives on. In Christ believers may have many spiritual offspring. May it be so.

All that, the meaning of all history and of your life and mine, rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Don’t let anyone take the bigness of that meaning away from you.

Since God Had Provided Something Better: The Faith of the Cloud of Witnesses

Sermon from April 10, 2011

Matthew 10:16-25; Hebrews 11:32-40: 12:1-2; Acts 7:54-60

Jesus understood that his kingdom ministry, his death on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and his sending of the Holy Spirit to his followers would spell the end of the Jerusalem temple. In the deepest sense, he himself was the new temple. Wherever Jesus was present, there people could connect to God, receive assurance of atonement and find answers to their deepest prayers. In a broader sense, Jesus was present wherever two or three of his followers gathered in his name, and so it was those followers who visibly embodied the portable living temple wherever they went. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, it is your job in cooperation with your fellow disciples to be the temple in your interactions with people every day. Think about it. The temple is not a place you go. The temple of the living God is who you are as part of the missionary fellowship we call the church.

Jesus’ original twelve disciples were slow to expand very far upon this concept. And that was as it should have been. Their first job was to be the living temple within and near the physical confines of the original Jerusalem temple, ministering to visitors to the temple with the good news of Jesus Messiah, Son of God, Savior, and Lord, the ultimate fulfillment of Judaism’s hopes for the ages. Jesus had declared that the Jerusalem temple would soon disappear, not one stone left upon another, but it was not the job of the disciples to press for that destruction.

For Stephen, it was a different matter. He was not one of the original twelve. Like the twelve, he was Jewish. Unlike the twelve, his first language was not Aramaic, but Greek. He was part of the group of Messianic Jews known as the Hellenists, meaning “of the Greek language and culture.” They originated not from Judea or Galilee, but from further away, from southern Europe, western Asia, northern Africa, or a Mediterranean island. Unless they had sacrificed greatly to move back to Jerusalem, they normally came to Jerusalem only occasionally for one of the great Jewish festivals such as Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles. We could guess that Stephen was present for Pentecost and was brought to Christ on the first day that the church went public with its message about Jesus, or very soon thereafter.

When the twelve Aramaic-speaking apostles appointed seven Greek-speaking ministers (alternate translation: deacons, servants), who were Spirit-filled and with a reputation for wisdom and good character, to handle the distribution of food to widows and other needy church members, Stephen was one of the seven. In addition to distributing food, he was soon preaching and teaching in public, and making some enemies. The enemies went to some high-powered Jerusalem religious leaders and, with false testimony convinced them to seize Stephen and put him on trial. Stephen used the occasion of his trial to preach a bold and powerful sermon.

Luke reports Stephen’s sermon in which he weaves together two major themes: (1) that Israel has always resisted the Holy Spirit, and (2) that the temple was never meant to box God in. When his audience was sufficiently enraged, about to attack, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Of course, Jesus was that exalted Son of Man, who now exercised the authority of God in judging the world. Stephen was claiming to see the man that the Sanhedrin had managed to get the Roman government to crucify, now standing in the place of authority to judge the religious leaders who were about to kill Stephen. Stephen’s audience cried out loudly, stopped their ears, and rushed at him. They cast him outside the city and stoned him to death. So far as we know, Stephen was the very first martyr for Jesus, the first to follow Jesus all the way to the end on the Way of Suffering. I mean all the way to the end. His last words, with the pain of stoning already upon him, were, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Sounds a lot like, “Father, forgive them,” doesn’t it?

And the Lord honored Stephen’s prayer, at least insofar as not writing off forever those who had executed Stephen. In the crowd, one of the leaders of the opposition, who held the cloaks of those who threw the stones, was a man whose Jewish name was Saul and whose Roman name was Paul. The Lord Jesus later went way beyond the ways of human justice by revealing himself to this man and calling him to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

Later, Paul summed it up, “Last of all, as to one untimely born he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not in vain.” Indeed the Lord’s grace was not in vain, for no other human being in history has been more important to the mission of Christ than this forgiven and redeemed accomplice to the murder of the first Christian martyr. Paul, who had begun as a violent enemy of the early church, did more than any other apostle to spread the faith of the church and to plant new churches around the Mediterranean world. He who had been so enraged by Stephen’s sermon about the end of the old temple, is the one who put legs on the idea of the church as a portable living temple proclaiming the gospel in all the world.

The ways of God are indeed strange and wonderful! It never would have occurred to me to call Paul, one of the leading persecutors of the church, to become a leading Christian apostle. It’s a good thing I am not God!

And making Paul an apostle is not the strangest thing God has done either! I am flatly puzzled by some of the inclusions of heroes of the faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. None puzzle me more than four of the names from the book of Judges.

Barak was not actually a judge, but the general of Judge Deborah; and he was not awful, just a bit more dependent on Deborah than she thought he should be. If he were a professional basketball player, the sports writers would say that he was a good enough role player, but not an all-star, let alone hall of fame material.

Gideon came out of a family background of faithless idolatry, was compelled by God into leadership, tested God repeatedly, but at last acted bravely and faithfully and even heroically enough to win the day, but then, while declining formal kingship, began to act in the manner of a pagan monarch, with multiple wives and concubines, and making for himself a golden priestly garment although he was not a priest. The garment was worshiped and became a spiritual snare for Gideon’s family and for all Israel. Fulfilling Gideon’s move toward unauthorized monarchy, one of Gideon’s illegitimate sons Abimelech killed the seventy legitimate sons of Gideon and had himself proclaimed king. His reign lasted only three years. Gideon’s legacy is not that good, but here he is in faith’s hall of fame.

It gets worse: Gilead was a wealthy man who had several sons by his wife and another by a prostitute. The latter son was named Jephthah, and his half brothers denied him a share in the family inheritance. Jephthah became a leader of a band of guerilla robbers. But when the Ammonites threatened, his half-brothers came to Jephthah and asked him to lead the battle against the Ammonites. He accepted on the grounds that they make him their ruler. The Spirit of the LORD empowered Jephthah, but Jephthah had little understanding of the ways of the LORD. He made a rash vow that, if the LORD would give him victory, he would upon returning home sacrifice whatever came out the door of his home to greet him. How grieved he was, when returning victorious, his daughter, his only child, was first out the door to greet him. Not only did he not know that human sacrifice was completely against the will of the LORD, but also he did not know that the law of Moses provided a way out for people who made rash vows, and, apparently, no one around him knew either. Essentially, Jephthah was a spiritually ignorant man in a spiritually ignorant culture. Jephthah’s folly reached its culmination in his slaughter of 42,000 Israelites of the tribe of Ephraim at the fording place of the Jordan River. Granted, the Ephraimites were somewhat at fault, but surely inspired wisdom could have found a better way. Yet, here we find Jephthah in faith’s hall of fame.

Then there is Samson. His parents tried to raise him to keep the ways of a lifelong Nazirite vow, with strict purity of devotion to the Lord. A Nazirite refrains from any product of a vineyard, presumably the point being to avoid wine and other strong drink. A Nazirite also did not cut or shave his hair or beard during the time of the vow. Finally, a Nazirite did not touch or even go near dead bodies. Surely, these strange rules were designed to impress upon the vow-maker that he was under total obligation to the holy standards of the LORD. But Samson did not keep the rules and certainly did not keep the holy intent behind them. True, he did kill many of the Philistine enemies of Israel, the greatest number in his last act when he pulled a Philistine temple down upon himself and many Philistines. Perhaps a certain heroism can be found in Samson, but he doesn’t seem like material for faith’s hall of fame.

But Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and more are to be found on the list. And the divinely inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says of those on the list, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Apart from the later work of Christ and the salvation offered to the later faithful, the Old Testament figures on this list could not have been saved for eternal life, but it is clearly implied that alongside those of us who are saved through Jesus Christ, these four men and many more come to the blessings of eternal life in the presence of God. How extraordinary!

What does God know about these four that we do not know? He sees them not just for the sorry things they did, but also for what they might have done with better upbringing, with a more spiritual cultural environment, with more models of faithful living, with more acquaintance with the Scriptures, with the advantage of knowing about Jesus. He counts such faith as they had for what it might have become with opportunity. Most of all, he knows their hearts.

Please do not think that God abandoned his holy standards out of weak sentimentality or foolish idealism. Not so. God did not give up one characteristic of the perfect future that he has planned for the faithful. He just sees that, even in these incredibly flawed figures, there is yet the basis for far more than they even dared dream within their earthly lives. What they have, I would venture to guess, is the readiness to let God reign. With that readiness to let God reign, they can enter God’s future. Without that readiness to let God reign, even the most pious churchgoer, with every doctrine nailed down, cannot enter God’s future.

Stephen is an example of a faithful person who was ready to let God reign, even at the cost of his life, even if it meant that those who stoned him to death, would also be brought around to enter the future realm with him.

People of saving faith know that there is something better ahead, and they are willing to lay everything on the line, in order to keep moving toward that better future. It is not how far we have come that counts. It is the direction that we are moving.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

My Experience Fasting

Isaiah, Chapter 58: 3-7

I had read about and spoken with people who would fast as a spiritual exercise – a way to get closer to God. I do not consider myself to be a big eater, nor do I snack as much as some, so I did not decide to fast, for Lent, in order to fulfill the oft stated requirement ‘to give up something.’

For five Mondays, beginning at the conclusion of dinner on Sunday evening and until I arose on Tuesday morning, approximately 36 hours, I fasted. I had my morning coffee, water and a glass of juice in the late afternoon or evening.

I do not feel I made much spiritual headway; I’m ashamed to report that most of my talking with God was me whining about the exercise I had chosen to undertake. But I have learned some things about food and hunger and myself and my way of life.

While having explained that I don’t eat or snack much, for 36 hours, I was totally preoccupied with food. I wanted to eat; I prowled the kitchen; I repeatedly looked in the refrigerator. I even chose an earlier bedtime on Monday night so that Tuesday morning, and food, would seemingly arrive sooner. Ah ha! A character flaw, I knew I possessed was reinforced: I want what I want, when I want it. However, after a few Mondays, I made a shift, from sympathy to empathy for those who must begin each and every day without food. Whether it is a child in school, one seeking work, or a parent caring for a child, one’s ability to focus on the work of the day is superseded by the desire to eat.

I learned that I and, I believe most Americans will, blessedly, never know true, deep and lasting hunger – certainly not the bloated belly, emaciated frame-type of hunger those in third world countries experience each and every day. While 36 hours seemed like an eternity, my stomach never really got to the point of hungry. My mind was sending the message, “You want to eat,” and my controlling nature kept pushing God aside, except to ask for the selfish desire to have the compulsion to eat taken from me. Was it providential that on one Monday evening, I turned on PBS and the programming that evening was a very graphic documentary of the Russian Famine of the 1920s – a famine during which millions of men, women and children starved to death? While I was tempted so many times to change the channel, I continued to watch – and cry. I was crying for that terrible assault on humanity and for another “Ah ha!” Whether I like to acknowledge it or not, I take my way of life for granted.

By the 4^th and 5^th Mondays, I, while still craving food, did spend more time reflecting on the plight of others. I wondered whether their desire to eat was overpowered by the need to get food. And I found myself praying more for others than for my own selfish wants.

My exercise is over and I am happy to report that I did not cheat on my commitment. I am also grateful to report that, for today, I am more aware. I am aware that I am very fortunate and do pray that I not fall back into the complacency of plenty. I am aware of the fragility of our world food system and pray that our leaders look, listen and learn – and take action. I am aware that I have more to give to others than I currently give and will still have all that I need. I am aware that to fast when one’s cupboard is full is sacrifice, but to fast when one’s cupboard is bare is hunger. I thank God for these lessons.

~ Susan

Youth Take US Over the Finish Line!

Kaleb the Magnificent! setting out drip lines.

Our Youth planting bush beans and squash!

Jill Stice planting flower boxes at the entrance to our "Little Sprout's Garden"
with able assistance from a Little Sprout.

A thousand thanks to our wonderful Youth and Children's Ministry teams for supervising their charges on two occasions. Their contribution of youthful time and energy pushed us across the finish! Thank you so much!

That the Lord Might Get Glory: The Faith of Moses

John 11:1-6, 17-26, 38-44; Hebrews 11:24-29; Exodus 14:9-31; 15:1-18 (abridged); Revelation 7: 10-12; 15:2-4; 21:1-5

After checking my study Bibles, Bible atlases, Bible dictionaries, Bible commentaries, and some Internet sites, I concluded that Moses could have saved a lot of time for modern scholars if he had included with his draft of the First Five Books an authentic map identifying the places that the Israelites stopped on their journey from Egyptian slavery across the Sea through the Sinai wilderness to the Promised Land. In short, the routes marked on your Bible maps are highly debated guesses.

Today, we will leave aside the geographical speculations about whether they crossed the marshes and that day’s equivalent of the Suez Canal north of what we would today call the Red Sea, or toward the north end proper of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Suez or much farther east near the south end of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. Instead, we will seek to understand the theology of our text, which is interesting, perhaps a bit surprising, and certainly instructive.

God does not always take the shortest, the quickest, the most comfortable, or the most obvious path through history, but often upends human expectations with what only God can do. Whenever we see God engaged in wondrous deeds of love, grace, justice, and power, our faith, strength, and gratitude grow so that we can live for the praise of his saving and transforming glory.

Israel’s shortest route from Egypt to Canaan would have been along the Mediterranean coast, but Egyptian forts lined the early part of this route, and the oversized Philistines were beginning to take over the latter part of this route. God explained to Moses, that he was not sending them this way, “lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” So the people were sent on a longer, more round-about path through inhospitable wilderness where they could be sustained by God alone.

Perhaps Israel could have escaped speedily away into that bleak wilderness, but that did not fit God’s plans. Despite ten plagues in which every one of the gods of Egypt had been revealed as defeated by the Lord, Egypt’s pharaoh did not yet grasp how utterly powerless he was against the Lord. The Lord wanted one more chance to make it clear to that hard-headed, hard-hearted tyrant.

Wherever we imagine their crossing point to be, Israel apparently had a clear shot of getting away, but the Lord had them turn back and place themselves in a narrow place with the Sea between them and their escape path, where they could be trapped by Pharaoh’s army. The Lord explained, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

When else has something like this happened? Jesus’ good friends Mary and Martha of Bethany sent word to Jesus that his dear friend and their beloved brother Lazarus was deathly ill and that he should come quickly and save Lazarus. Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus’ illness was for the glory of God, so that the Son of God could be glorified through it. Jesus then delayed his departure to Bethany (sort of like God parking Israel in a trap for Pharaoh), and by the time Jesus had arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had died and been in the tomb four days, by which time it was assumed that Lazarus’ spirit had left his body, and it was too late to resuscitate him even if Jesus had been able to do so.

This presented Jesus with the opportunity to say to Martha, “Did I not tell you that, if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” to say for the sake of the bystanders, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me,” and to call out, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus’ bound body came hopping out of the opened tomb, and glory exploded all over the place.

Mary and Martha of Bethany, not to mention Jesus’ disciples, and certainly not to mention Lazarus, now knew without question that Jesus was the resurrection and the life, and that he held the word that could overturn the one hard fact we commonly think most inevitable and irreversible, the fact of death. Had he come four days earlier or even two days earlier, they would not have--and we would not have--known quite so certainly the glory of God.

When else has something like this happened? When Jesus said to Peter, in effect, “You may already think that I am the Messiah and that you are ready to stand in your own strength as my disciple, but after my arrest, trial, beating, and crucifixion—during which time you will deny me and run away—and after my resurrection, ascension, and your filling with the Holy Spirit, you will no longer merely think that I am the Messiah, but you will know that you know that you know that I am your Savior and your Lord, whom you will serve no matter what the cost.

Had the script gone the way Peter thought it should, Peter and his fellow disciples would not have—and we would not have--known so certainly who Jesus was.

God in his sovereignty over history is a great storyteller; history is His Story, and God knows that a good story must have obstacles and tensions to be overcome so that we can see clearly the joy of redemption. Indeed, I have heard the claim that every truly good story is simply either a pre-telling or a re-telling in disguise of the story of the crucifixion, resurrection, and redeeming work of Jesus Christ. I tend to believe that claim, and I don’t much enjoy other sorts of stories.

The crossing of the Red Sea and the raising of Lazarus are pre-tellings. Our rescues from sin and unbelief are re-tellings. All truly good stories have dramatic tension--or perhaps comedic tension, which amounts to the same thing--and lead to the glory of God.

Back to the Red Sea. So God set up over 600,000 Israelite men of fighting age--along with their wives, their children, their elderly, their fellow travelers, at minimum totaling 2 ½ million—set them up like bait in a trap to lure Pharaoh into an educative defeat. It would turn out for Israel’s good, but, with Pharaoh’s chariots descending on them, it certainly did not look like it. There were the Pharaoh’s select six hundred chariots, but all the multitudinous chariots of Egypt were also there, all under command of Pharaoh’s officers.

The Israelites began to complain to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die?”

Moses answered, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

The Lord told Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the Sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will get the glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.”

The angel of God moved behind Israel, and the pillar of cloud with him so that there was darkness with much lightning separating the Egyptians from Israel. When Moses stretched out his hand a supernatural wind separated the waters and dried the ground beneath so that by morning, when the angel and the cloud moved around ahead of them to lead them, Israel could walk on the sea floor.

Egypt pursued, but their chariot wheels clogged, and they panicked. When Israel reached the opposite side, Moses stretched out his hand again, and the waters came back over the mired Egyptian army, destroying it totally.

Moses and the people of Israel sang of the Lord’s triumph. Here are some excerpts from the Song of Moses: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him…. 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode…. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

That song is but a pre-telling of another song, sung along another Sea, the figurative Sea, separating earth and heaven. Skipping from Exodus 15 to Revelation 15, we will read from John’s vision, but first an anticipation from Revelation 7, in which a great and countless multitude from every language and tongue and nation, those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, which is to say that they have repented of their sins and received Christ’s gracious gift of righteousness, who have come through the great tribulation, are shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Notice that there were shouting that. And some of you were hoping that heaven was going to be quiet and dignified.

Now on to Revelation 15, where they move from shouting to singing: 2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

At this point, with the saints having crossed the sea separating heaven and earth, there is still one more transformation to be celebrated. Our ultimate goal is not merely heaven, but a new heaven and a new earth, where God’s purposes for all creation will be fully realized. By Revelation 21, John has envisioned that future, when the separating sea is no more. That does not mean that there will not be oceans, for God created them for good. It means that there will be no more separation between the spiritual realm and the material realm, for evil will have been destroyed, and God will have taken up permanent residence among his perfected people. There ought to be some pretty good shouting and singing then and there.

Today, we are not yet at that future, but there is still good news to be recognized, and shared, and celebrated. In this season, our minds are on our faith in the Lord of resurrection, a faith that enables us to claim the good news of the cross, indeed, that enables us to pick up the cross and to follow Jesus, letting the glory of the cross shine from our redeemed lives. Moses did not know the details of that still coming story, but he anticipated it. He was not perfect. He made mistakes. But he kept orienting toward the promises of God in all their fullness.

Even though his wavering obedience caused him to be excluded from the Promised Land, he gave his last words in Deuteronomy toward preparing the people he had guided to enter into that land, and when, centuries later, Jesus wanted to assure Peter, James, and John that the way of the cross was the way to redeeming glory, Moses joined Elijah in returning to offer such assurance. Understood within the flow of the whole Bible, Moses’ life--first on earth and then in eternal life--pointed to the glory of the cross, and of the resurrection, and of the new heaven and new earth. May our lives do the same.

But, if we want to glorify God, we will when asked have to obediently place ourselves in risky positions where what only God can do is our only hope.